Blogger #5

Part 1:
Title of the song: (41 Shots) https://youtu.be/aQMqWAiWPMs
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Genre: Rock

Summary: This song was written and inspired after the police shooting of Amadou Diallo. Bruce expresses his feelings and emotions towards police brutality. In his lyrics he explains how you can get killed  for simply having "American Skin".
What the lyrics are trying to explain to us are that we can lose our lives simply by the misjudgment of a police officer. He also explains how a police officer will shoot you with them having no feeling or emotion. In the lyrics he also brings up the point that we should not run from police because it can cause our lives.

Part 2: Bruce Springsteen created this song after Amadou Diallo was gunned down by policemen in New York. Amadou was a Guinean immagrant who was shot after mistaking his wallet for a gun. Springsteen felt that the shooting was a bad shooting and a unreasonable raction by the police who shot down an innocent man.

I personally believe that Bruce Springsteen is a credible source towards Police Brutality. We should take him seriously because after the death of Trayvon Martin, Bruce paid a tribute to him and asked for justice for Trayvon.
Bruce personally created this song and gave all his respect towards the death of Amadou Diallo.

Blogger #6 Police Brutality Exhibition

Police Brutality Exhibition

The exhibits in this presentation show a pattern of abuse and the same narrative repeatedly and successfully used by police officers to continue their violence against people of color. —Police brutality is the excessive and/or unnecessary use of for against civilians. In modern day times, police brutality is still a constant issue for people of color. The effect of police brutality can have a devastating impact on the existence of people of color. Police brutality is just one symptom of this country’s larger structural racism, which segregates our schools and cities, increases the poverty and unemployment rates for people of color, has psychological consequences for families and young people, and decreases our life expectancy. African-Americans disproportionately bear the brunt of this structural racism.

This graffiti art depicts an angry Elmer Fudd, holding a shotgun, standing next to a sign that reads “NEGRO SEASON.” Elmer Fudd and the sign is outlined in black spray paint, over a beige brick wall. Elmer Fudd is wearing a police uniform which includes a police hat.

African-Americans are the primary targets of law-enforcement profiling and violence. To me, this art represents how people of color feel regarding police brutality. Police brutality towards people of color have become as common as a hunter, hunting to kill his prey. Hunting is the practice of killing or trapping any animal, or pursuing it with the intent of doing so.  People of color are being sought out and killed by the police for little to no reason at all. Hunting to kill a generation of people who is looked upon as inhuman. People of color and equality.  

Protesters gather to demand an end to police brutality and mass incarceration of people of color. The people protesting are from different ethnic backgrounds. Some protesters are holding a orange rectangular sign which has a red stop sign on it that reads “Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a generation must be STOPPED!”

October 22nd is National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. October 22 is a day when those who have suffered police brutality have a platform to speak about the devastation of this issue. Protesters have gathered from Oakland to Washington D.C. for the last 20 years to bring awareness to this form of institutional racism. Some of the most high-profile cases of institutional racism and brutality have come from the New York Police Department. Those cases have resulted in massive lawsuits against the city.

 

Bullying Exhibition

Taylor Swift - Mean is a song by the popular country-pop artist with an upbeat tone and a tone that makes the song seem very positive. In the music video Taylor sticks to the country-like situations she has used previously and begins the video with her playing the banjo on a farm. The rest of the video continues along with examples of someone being bullied such as a young man in a purple sweater vest, slacks, and a bow tie being harassed by a group of football players, or a young woman having trash thrown at her and cups being put on her star costume as she stands outside the front of a restaurant. The song concludes with the same upbeat tone it began with but this time it shows the same people who were being harassed as becoming very successful, such as the young man who was being harassed by the football team walking down a runway at a fashion show accepting a bouquet of flowers and taking a bow and the young woman who was being made fun of at her job is scene in an office with skyscrapers in the background and her college degree on the wall hanging up as she signs for something.


Taylor Swift has been an advocate for bullying for as long as she has been in the spotlight and this song is no exception to that as Taylor still adopts the same tone and uplifting beat she uses regularly but within this song is a subliminal message that although you may be bullied by someone who may seem bigger than you in whatever aspect as long as you aspire and continue to be yourself you will rise above the people who are your bullies.










In the image depicted a young woman is drawn in pencil and is seen sitting down on on a box with her head slightly tilted down. Most of the woman's face is covered except for her obvious frown. She is slouched over and there are words written in blood, drawn in a red pen/paint, and that are penetrating her back. The words that are written in blood seemingly have handles on them and say malicious things such as "Waste of Flesh", "Fat", "Stupid" and many more. The words that are drawn in blood penetrating the woman's back are also drawing blood which is pouring down her backside and onto the box she is sitting on.

Something as simple as words can effect the way someone may think of themselves. Words may not only have a psychological effect but also a physical one as a person being harassed/bullied may lead someone to self harm. The old saying "Words cut deeper than knives" really has a powerful meaning here as the picture depicts words cutting deep into the woman who is seemingly depressed or sad. Finally, we never really think of how our words may affect the way someone may feel and some words may make someone feel like the words are cutting deep into them, or making them feel like they are those things when in reality they are not.

A woman depicted in a gray scale-esque picture is seen with just her face and hands showing. The woman's hands are clawing at her face leaving deep wounds in her cheek area. One eye on the woman is a darker shade of gray leading and she is seemingly crying blood. Her eyes are aimed up towards the top of the picture where the caption reads "Bullying: A Legal Form of Torture" The rest of the image is mostly gray and black and the few parts that are colored are her lips, tongue, and the blood from her eyes along with the captions having a red background. The image is computer generated but well done in the message it conveys.

"Bullying: A Legal Form of Torture" reads the caption, and nothing more true has ever been said. People day in and day out are forced to endure their bully's wrath with little to no repercussions coming towards their attacker. The suffering a person who is bullied has to endure is enough to make someone cry and tear at their face much like this woman is here. Bullying makes someone not want to do something as simple as go to school or a workplace because they are afraid of their bully. It is sad reality we deal with where a bully may harass their victim freely and when they are caught they are simply told to apologize and both parties are told to go on their own ways. Often people forget about the psychological effect it may have on someone who is being bullied and the things they had to deal with. Pushing the issue to end the suffering of people who have been bullied by giving them the support they need is what this image is trying to convey.

Homeless Veteran Exhibition (Blogger #6)

Inside of an abandoned warehouse there is a ceiling with exposed wooden beams that meet very old brick walls.  A quarter of the ways down on each of the walls lays a beautiful pink with gold floral patterned wallpaper that really draws attention to the place. On those bright walls hang other no so colorful photos to include a spaceship that looks like Saturn and a surfer catching some waves. The room is made to be a makeshift living room actually, a vintage floral sofa, a burgundy floor rug, a couple of lamps, and some end tables to be exact. There’s something even more attention grabbing though and she stands off to the side of the sofa. She is clothed solely in pink children’s paint that is accented with a gold floral pattern. Exactly like the wall. At thirty-seven years of age, and 8,000 pounds she is the center of attention in this room. Although she is painted to blend with the wall she stands out because she is supposed to. She is an elephant. A pink and gold floral patterned elephant in the middle of a pink and gold floral patterned room for the world to see.

The world has become complacent. Unconcerned about the way society and overall life functions these days. The urbanized idiomatic expression, “there’s an elephant in the room” perfectly depicts what it means to become complacent. Most of us go through the motions of life in attempt to keep up with the ever-rising costs just to live. We work to pay rent, for food, for clothing, for childcare, for transportation and sometimes, after those basic necessities are met, there’s no spending room left. Even more often, some don’t have the luxury to even pay rent and those are the people that us complacent jobholders pass every day on the streets. The elephant in this case is the homeless population. A common occurrence that many consider natural these days therefore no one addresses or attempts to figure out a solution for the rising epidemic. Yet if we painted all the homeless people’s skin pink with a gold floral pattern would it raise attention? Imagine a world with such colorful people in the black and white complacency of society. An elephant in the room will never go unnoticed and it has to be addressed in order to remove it from its unnatural setting.

Sitting Indian style in front of a paint-splattered wall is a stenciled piece of art; a black and white man, capped in a black beanie and clothed in what appears to be a hooded sweatshirt. This black and white image so plain among the burgundy wall with gray and white paint splatter as if it’s ran down from something else above him. He sits in the cold with his full beard, hooded sweatshirt and over-sized pants being the only things keeping him warm. In his gloved hands that expose his knuckles, he holds a white paper sign that reads in in bright red ink, “Keep Your Coins, I Want Change.” In front of him, sits a plain white Styrofoam cup to catch the coins his passerby’s might drop in. As I look at this burgundy wall with paint splatter I see a simple piece of art with a straightforward purpose. I see a homeless man on a cold winters day asking me to question how he has become the elephant in the room that we call society. Will I continue to assist in limiting his agency?

Anyone has the ability to take control of and influence his or her life and this is something that psychologists consider our agency. In clearer words, this is the conscious effort we make to adapt to all things it means to be human whether it’s the need for intimate connections, power or success, or even the ability to just achieve independence. Theoretically, we are supposed to have complete power in controlling how our lives turn out. Success driven by hard work is what America was founded on and in theory, the harder you work the more you achieve but that is not always the case. Take for example our Veterans, the men and women that put their lives on the line, give up part of their agency in order to give you full control of yours. This man in the painting gave his life in order to protect yours and the message on his sign written in blood red coloring to signify his pain of our ignorance toward who he was, is, or could be for that matter.  He asks us not to contribute to the weakness society has already given him but to validate his existence and give what has not been given. “Perhaps the first step to really addressing poverty is to examine ourselves as well as our reactions to poverty … Panhandling is the manifestation of racism, classism, lack of housing. So let’s not just give them money and say, ‘Oh I feel fine now’ Giving people money when they’re panhandling isn’t addressing poverty. It’s helping out a fellow human being and that’s a cool thing to do. And perhaps a good place to start, though certainly just a beginning.” (Figueroa) Agency can be a powerful thing and this man is asking to put all of ours together to liberate his from the social, economical and political restraints. Together, we can change the world.

Blogger Entry #6: Exhibition Rough Draft

Due Friday, Nov. 20th

Rough Draft Exhibition 

Directions:

• rough draft of your introduction piece
• rough draft of 2 of your pieces 
• include: image/song/video, summary, & analysis 

Blogger #5

Song: I Drive Your Truck by Lee Brice
Genre: Country

This song was created from a story that was told on Memorial Day via radio show by a couple who had lost one of their sons in Afghanistan.

The song doesn't touch on Veteran homelessness specifically but I believe it connects people emotionally and reminds us what military members risk and may leave behind. Their importance to not only our country but their families. After all, the song was based on a true story and how a family coped with the loss of their son. "Momma asked me this morning if I'd been by your grave but that flag and stone ain't where I feel you anyway.. I drive your truck"

I don't know much about Lee Brice except that he's an upcoming country artist and many, many people listen to him as he has quite a few songs that relate personally to many others lives especially on the romantic/emotional side.

Three other song writers put the song together for him but the song was initially heard and started by Connie Harrington. The story she heard moved her so much that she felt it deserved to be put into a song and because it was a male who passed she also brought in a male songwriter to bring all perspectives into the song.

The video also adds a heaviness to the song giving a visual of descriptive lyrics like the opening lines for example, "89 cents in the ashtray, half empty bottle of Gatorade rolling on the floorboards" this makes the event of loss very real in the sense that who knows how long it's been since who he is singing about has been gone yet his truck is exactly how he left it on the inside. Very emotional and connecting it directly to a military member with the dog tags and army shirt lyrics remind me that we lose military members every day for whatever reason. That then brings an open mind or an open heart for that matter to dilemmas that they and their families face even outside of the service.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBEBbgQEJy4
Article: http://www.countryweekly.com/music/behind-song-i-drive-your-truck-lee-brice