"American History X". Overcoming Racism in Prison

Author: Sarah Gahler
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668271895
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, University of Rostock (Institut für Anglistik/ Amerikanistik), course: Prisoners and Prisons in the U.S., language: English, abstract: The theme of racism outside and inside a prison and how to personally overcome this racism as a victim as well as a perpetrator are major themes of the anti-racist movie "American History X". The life of incarcerated people and how it influenced them is often portrayed in TV series or films which are mostly made to entertain the populace rather than to educate or raise awareness about the problems that arise within the displayed topics, and for that stereotypes and juxtapositions are used as well as certain methods and means of film making. This paper looks at exemplary scenes of "American History X" with emphasis on how some means of film making are used to display the life-changing experiences that main protagonist Derek Vinyard encounters while being incarcerated. Today more than two million people of the United States of America are incarcerated in prisons; serving a sentence for a crime they have committed. The experience each inmate makes individually can have an immense impact on their behaviour and mind-set in and outside prison walls. Prisons in general function as public institutions which should, at the very best, try to help the inmates to “find a lawful, economically stable place” in a community and in society after their time spent in prison (Fleisher and Decker 1-2). Incarcerated people not only have to deal with the limitations of their freedom and privacy, often they also encounter racism and racial segregation by officers and other inmates. According to Philip Goodman, "it is the interaction between the inmate and officer in which categorization is born, and that makes racial categorization and segregation possible" (762).

"American History X". Overcoming Racism in Prison

Author: Sarah Gahler
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668271895
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 20

Get Book Here

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, University of Rostock (Institut für Anglistik/ Amerikanistik), course: Prisoners and Prisons in the U.S., language: English, abstract: The theme of racism outside and inside a prison and how to personally overcome this racism as a victim as well as a perpetrator are major themes of the anti-racist movie "American History X". The life of incarcerated people and how it influenced them is often portrayed in TV series or films which are mostly made to entertain the populace rather than to educate or raise awareness about the problems that arise within the displayed topics, and for that stereotypes and juxtapositions are used as well as certain methods and means of film making. This paper looks at exemplary scenes of "American History X" with emphasis on how some means of film making are used to display the life-changing experiences that main protagonist Derek Vinyard encounters while being incarcerated. Today more than two million people of the United States of America are incarcerated in prisons; serving a sentence for a crime they have committed. The experience each inmate makes individually can have an immense impact on their behaviour and mind-set in and outside prison walls. Prisons in general function as public institutions which should, at the very best, try to help the inmates to “find a lawful, economically stable place” in a community and in society after their time spent in prison (Fleisher and Decker 1-2). Incarcerated people not only have to deal with the limitations of their freedom and privacy, often they also encounter racism and racial segregation by officers and other inmates. According to Philip Goodman, "it is the interaction between the inmate and officer in which categorization is born, and that makes racial categorization and segregation possible" (762).

Prisons, Race, and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century U.S. Literature and Film

Prisons, Race, and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century U.S. Literature and Film PDF Author: Peter Caster
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780814271902
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
In Prisons, Race, and Masculinity, Peter Caster demonstrates the centrality of imprisonment in American culture, illustrating how incarceration, an institution inseparable from race, has shaped and continues to shape U.S. history and literature in the starkest expression of what W.E.B. DuBois famously termed "the problem of the color line." A prison official in 1888 declared that it was the freeing of slaves that actually created prisons: "we had to establish means for their control. Hence came the penitentiary." Such rampant racism contributed to the criminalization of black masculinity in the cultural imagination, shaping not only the identity of prisoners (collectively and individually) but also America's national character. Caster analyzes the representations of imprisonment in books, films, and performances, alternating between history and fiction to describe how racism influenced imprisonment during the decline of lynching in the 1930s, the political radicalism in the late 1960s, and the unprecedented prison expansion through the 1980s and 1990s. Offering new interpretations of familiar works by William Faulkner, Eldridge Cleaver, and Norman Mailer, Caster also engages recent films such as American History X, The Hurricane, and The Farm: Life Inside Angola Prison alongside prison history chronicled in the transcripts of the American Correctional Association. This book offers a compelling account of how imprisonment has functioned as racial containment, a matter critical to U.S. history and literary study.

When the Stars Begin to Fall

When the Stars Begin to Fall PDF Author: Theodore R. Johnson
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN: 0802157874
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
A “persuasive . . . heartfelt and vividly written” call to counter systemic racism and build national solidarity in America (Publishers Weekly). The American Promise enshrined in our Constitution states that all men and women are inherently equal. And yet racism continues to corrode our society. If we cannot overcome it, Theodore Johnson argues, the promise that made America unique on Earth will have died. In When the Stars Begin to Fall, Johnson presents a compelling blueprint for the kind of national solidarity necessary to mitigate racism. Weaving together history, personal memories, and his family’s multi-generational experiences with racism, Johnson posits that solutions can be found in the exceptional citizenship long practiced in Black America. Understanding that racism is a structural crime of the state, he argues that overcoming it requires us to recognize that a color-conscious society—not a color-blind one—is the true fulfillment of the American Promise. Fueled by Johnson’s ultimate faith in the American project, grounded in his family’s longstanding optimism and his own military service, When the Stars Begin to Fall is an urgent call to undertake the process of overcoming what has long seemed intractable.

How to Be a (Young) Antiracist

How to Be a (Young) Antiracist PDF Author: Ibram X. Kendi
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593461614
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
The #1 New York Times bestseller that sparked international dialogue is now a book for young adults! Based on the adult bestseller by Ibram X. Kendi, and co-authored by bestselling author Nic Stone, How to be a (Young) Antiracist will serve as a guide for teens seeking a way forward in acknowledging, identifying, and dismantling racism and injustice. The New York Times bestseller How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi is shaping the way a generation thinks about race and racism. How to be a (Young) Antiracist is a dynamic reframing of the concepts shared in the adult book, with young adulthood front and center. Aimed at readers 12 and up, and co-authored by award-winning children's book author Nic Stone, How to be a (Young) Antiracist empowers teen readers to help create a more just society. Antiracism is a journey--and now young adults will have a map to carve their own path. Kendi and Stone have revised this work to provide anecdotes and data that speaks directly to the experiences and concerns of younger readers, encouraging them to think critically and build a more equitable world in doing so.

White Fragility

White Fragility PDF Author: Dr. Robin DiAngelo
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807047422
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me PDF Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Publisher: One World
ISBN: 0679645985
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Halfway Home

Halfway Home PDF Author: Reuben Jonathan Miller
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316451495
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
A "persuasive and essential" (Matthew Desmond) work that will forever change how we look at life after prison in America through Miller's "stunning, and deeply painful reckoning with our nation's carceral system" (Heather Ann Thompson). Each year, more than half a million Americans are released from prison and join a population of twenty million people who live with a felony record. Reuben Miller, a chaplain at the Cook County Jail in Chicago and now a sociologist studying mass incarceration, spent years alongside prisoners, ex-prisoners, their friends, and their families to understand the lifelong burden that even a single arrest can entail. What his work revealed is a simple, if overlooked truth: life after incarceration is its own form of prison. The idea that one can serve their debt and return to life as a full-fledge member of society is one of America's most nefarious myths. Recently released individuals are faced with jobs that are off-limits, apartments that cannot be occupied and votes that cannot be cast. As The Color of Law exposed about our understanding of housing segregation, Halfway Home shows that the American justice system was not created to rehabilitate. Parole is structured to keep classes of Americans impoverished, unstable, and disenfranchised long after they've paid their debt to society. Informed by Miller's experience as the son and brother of incarcerated men, captures the stories of the men, women, and communities fighting against a system that is designed for them to fail. It is a poignant and eye-opening call to arms that reveals how laws, rules, and regulations extract a tangible cost not only from those working to rebuild their lives, but also our democracy. As Miller searchingly explores, America must acknowledge and value the lives of its formerly imprisoned citizens. PEN America 2022 John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist Winner of the 2022 PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences 2022 PROSE Awards Finalist 2022 PROSE Awards Category Winner for Cultural Anthropology and Sociology An NPR Selected 2021 Books We Love As heard on NPR’s Fresh Air

So You Want to Be a Producer

So You Want to Be a Producer PDF Author: Lawrence Turman
Publisher: Crown Archetype
ISBN: 030754690X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Few jobs in Hollywood are as shrouded in mystery as the role of the producer. What does it take to be a producer, how does one get started, and what on earth does one actually do? In So You Want to Be a Producer Lawrence Turman, the producer of more than forty films, including The Graduate, The River Wild, Short Circuit, and American History X, and Endowed Chair of the famed Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California, answers these questions and many more. Examining all the nuts and bolts of production, such as raising money and securing permissions, finding a story and developing a script, choosing a director, hiring actors, and marketing your project, So You Want to Be a Producer is a must-have resource packed with insider information and first-hand advice from top Hollywood producers, writers, and directors, offering invaluable help for beginners and professionals alike. Including a comprehensive case study of Turman’s film The Graduate, this complete guide to the movie industry’s most influential movers and shakers brims with useful tips and contains all the information you need to take your project from idea to the big screen.

Constructing Mark Twain

Constructing Mark Twain PDF Author: Laura E. Skandera Trombley
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826219683
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
The thirteen essays in this collection combine to offer a complex and deeply nuanced picture of Samuel Clemens. With the purpose of straying from the usual notions of Clemens (most notably the Clemens/Twain split that has ruled Twain scholarship for over thirty years), the editors have assembled contributions from a wide range of Twain scholars. As a whole, the collection argues that it is time we approach Clemens not as a shadow behind the literary persona but as a complex and intricate creator of stories, a creator who is deeply embedded in the political events of his time and who used a mix of literary, social, and personal experience to fuel the movements of his pen. The essays illuminate Clemens's connections with people and events not usually given the spotlight and introduce us to Clemens as a man deeply embroiled in the process of making literary gold out of everyday experiences. From Clemens's wonderings on race and identity to his looking to family and domesticity as defining experiences, from musings on the language that Clemens used so effectively to consideration of the images and processes of composition, these essays challenge long-held notions of why Clemens was so successful and so influential a writer. While that search itself is not new, the varied approaches within this collection highlight markedly inventive ways of reading the life and work of Samuel Clemens.

Our Class

Our Class PDF Author: Chris Hedges
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982154446
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
"Chris Hedges's powerful memoir of his year of teaching inmates in a maximum-security New Jersey prison takes readers into the lives of men who were all but destined to become incarcerated because of their impoverished and dangerous childhoods and shows why criminal justice reform is so essential"--