Author: hirakhan

Final Draft with Artist Statement

Reading the comic Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson, has brought me memories of my past when I was struggling to transform to this new world (America), and where I wanted to experience everything that I could not in my home country. There is gender inequality where boys can do anything and girls cannot. My brothers could do anything and I had restrictions and limitations in my life. I was stuck between my desires and my parents’ expectations and believes. My life changing experience was coming to America. The bridge between my past life and my new life was insecure because I struggled to cross and embrace a whole new life which changed everything.

I was so excited, but somewhat nervous at the same time. I was nervous of how I’ll stick to my own culture and religion when I was scared of losing it. Because people used to gossip that America is a country of freedom and where young get spoiled and leave their culture and religion. Departing from my old life was the hardest challenge but the minute me and my family stepped out of the airplane into the ‘land of opportunity’ we looked ahead at the bright future we had lying in front of us. I was looking towards my freedom because I was told by my friends that girls are free like a bird and they could do whatever they want and that there are no restrictions on anything. I was happy.

Similarly, in the comic Ms. Marvel, Kamala a young Pakistani teenager, wanted freedom from everything she was stuck in such as culture, dos and don’ts. She just wanted to be free like her friends. Kamala’s parents were strict and conservative. They wanted her to be good, obedient, and a polite girl. Yet, she wanted to be wild and try things that were forbidden. In the below scene 1, she asked for permission to go to a party with her friends’ late night. And there is this gender ideology in our culture that boys are allowed to go out late night but girls can’t. Girls are known as family izzat meaning honor, prestige and reputation. If girls do something wrong then everyone will gossip about that family yet if boys do something wrong, the people won’t give attention. This makes us girls wanting more freedom and experience of everything that boys do.

Scene 1:

Kamala: “Abu?… can I go to a party tonight?”

Kamala’s Dad: “but it’s not safe for a young girl to be out late at night with strange boys, drinking God knows what…”

Kamala: “… if I was a boy. You’d let me go to the party. May I be excused.”

The conversation between Kamala and her Dad in this scene shows a lot of overprotection from her Dad. She was not allowed to attend the party because she is a girl and especially late night with her friends was totally forbidden. Her parents did not want her to be in any trouble. They also did not want other families to gossip about them If something went wrong with Kamala.

Likewise, something similar happened to me too. When I came here to America, I remember me and my twin brother were graduating from our high school and we had prom. I was desperate to go and attend it with all my friends as this was my first party ever. I asked for permission from my parents. My mother started conversation with me about other girls in my family and the girl I used to be in my country. She told me that “Hira you never attended any parties back then” I was silent and told her okay I am not going to any prom. I then asked my father if I could go to prom with my girlfriends, he said when and where and how is it going to be a party and all. I even told him that I won’t eat and drink anything. I explained him everything. He said no at last. I was not shocked or upset because I knew I was not allowed to attend prom. And so my brother went to prom and I did not. I sometimes did get depressed and sad for a while because I did not have anything to do, all I was supposed to do was obey my parents.

Scene 2:

Kamala (to herself): IT’S JUST A ONE PARTY. IT’S NOT LIKE I’M ASKING THEIR PERMISSION TO SNORT COCAINE. I’VE ALWAYS DONE WHAT THEY ASK ME TO DO…AREN’T I ALLOWED TO DO ANYHING MY WAY? JUST ONCE? … EVERYBODY ELSE GETS TO BE NORMAL. WHY CAN’T I?

In the above scene two, Kamala is very disturbed. She wanted to do things that she like, going out to parties and having fun with friends was all she wanted. Yet, her parents did no let her go out to party late night because she is a girl. Her parents were also scared and were being protective.

Back then in my country I never went out to any trips, proms, parties, or graduation except school and home. That was all I did in my teenage life. I had this thinking that I am in America and I can do anything I want and nothing can stop me. But I did not know that my culture will stop me from what I wanted to do. I stayed silent the whole time and I was used to hearing no from my parents. Even now that I am married my parents still say no to me if I want to go alone to malls or any other things.

 

 

Expectation: emailed

Pre-Draft:  http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/24/pre-draft-assignment-3-2/

Rough Draft:  http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/31/rough-draft-assignment-3-3/

 

Artist Statement:

I did a personal essay. There are a lot of things from the comic Ms. Marvel that had inspired me throughout the comic. I see myself in Kamala the main character in the comic in some ways. The way her parents treat her, she is from Pakistani like me, she had so many restriction and over protection from her parents as me. So I thought I would like to do personal essay. My audience is everyone. Especially people from other cultures so they would have ideas about my culture and my personal life. They should know that every culture hold different aspects we should all respect our culture and obeying our parents is not something bad but it is good for our future I believe. I think my audience will able to learn my writing and understand it well because reading Ms. Marvel made us all understand that she was at first very innocent girl and she wanted to try and experience new stuff and things that she was forbidden from but then she got superpowers and she struggle to hide them. There were a lot of emotional impact. I chose a scene where kamala asked her parents if she could go out to a party late night with her friends but they say no. similarly I was not allowed to attend my prom. My parents did not let me go to prom and I did go deep in this conversation. Since Ms. Marvel character Kamala Khan is Pakistani and came here when she was young and then she struggled with her parents obeying. She was frustrating and tired of the culture she was following because she could not do anything like her American friends could. I had the same story in life. I know that it gets hard to follow culture once young girls comes here because they want to be free like the others. I think I did learn something but I have to work on my writings I feel like I still have some empty spaces that I need to fill in my writing skills. I think there are slot of things that I learned throughout the projects we did in this class. Every assignment I learned something new and in this I had learned slot. I had never read a comic and wrote a personal essay on it. It was fantastic to read a comic and then write deep essay on it. It was pleasure to read Ms. Marvel. I really appreciate it.

Rough Draft assignment 3

Life is full of adventures we are never known of what’s going to happened next but each and every moment of life brings change and lesson. Reading the comic Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson, has bought me back to my old life where I struggled transforming to this new world (America), and where I wanted to experience everything that I did not back in my country. There is division in gender. Boys could do anything and girl could not. My siblings could do anything except me because I was a girl. I had restrictions and limitations in my life. I was stuck between my desires and my parents’ expectations and believes on me. My personal life changing experience was coming to America. The bridge between my old life and my new life was an insecure bridge that I struggled to cross and enter in a whole new life which changed everything.

I was so excited, but was somewhat nervous at the same time. It was not only a fun, but it also brought anxiety to my heart about how we would get adjusted to the new environment and culture. I was nervous of how I’ll stick to my own culture and religion and somewhat I was scared of losing it. Because people used to gossip that America is a country of freedom and where young get spoiled and transform their culture and religion. Departing from my old life was the hardest challenge but the minute we stepped out of that airplane into the land of opportunity we looked ahead to the bright future we had lying in front of us that we did not saw in our country. And I was looking towards my freedom because I was told by my friends that girls are free there like bird they could do whatever they want and that there are no restrictions on anything. I was happy then.

Scene 1:

Kamala: “Abu?… can I go to a party tonight?”

Kamala’s Dad: “but it’s not safe for a young girl to be out late at night with strange boys, drinking God knows what…”

Kamala: “… if I was a boy. You’d let me go to the party. My I be excused.

The conversation between Kamala and Kamala’s Dad in scene one shows a lot of overprotection for kamala from her Dad. There is this gender ideology in our culture back in Pakistan that boys are allowed to go out late in nights but girls can’t. Girls are known as family izzat meaning Honor, prestige and reputation. If girls do something wrong the whole society will gossip after that family yet if boys do something wrong, the people won’t give their mistake attention. This is what girls get sad about and wanted to be free. This makes us girls wanting more freedom, wanting and experience of everything that boys do, want to be free like boys.

Scene 2:

Kamala (to herself): IT’S JUST A ONE PARTY. IT’S NOT LIKE I’M ASKING THEIR PERMISSION TO SNORT COCAINE. I’VE ALWAYS DONE WHAT THEY ASK ME TO DO…AREN’T I ALLOWED TO DO ANYHING MY WAY? JUST ONCE? … EVERYBODY ELSE GETS TO BE NORMAL. WHY CAN’T I?

In the above scene two kamala’s very disturb. She wanted to do things that she like, going out to parties and having fun with friends was all she wants to. Yet, her parents did no let her go out to parties’ late night because she is a girl. Her parents were also scared and were being protective. The transition of my old life to my new life has changed in many ways. The way I think about myself, what I want, and understanding of what I want in life from me and what I like to do despite my parents wanting. Back then I my country we never went out to any trips, proms, parties, or graduation except school and home that was all I did in my teenage life. When I came here to America, I remember me and my brother were graduating from my high school and we had prom. I was desperate to go and attend it with all my friends. This was going to be the first party ever I was going to attend. I asked for permission from my parents. My mother started to start conversation with me about other girls and the girl I used to be in my country. She told me that “hira you never attend any parties back then” I was paused and told her okay I am not going to any prom. I then asked my father if I could go to prom with my “girls’ friends” he said when and where and how is it going to be a party and all. I even told him that I won’t eat and drink anything. I explained him everything. He said no at last. I was not shocked nor upset because I knew I was not allowed to attend prom. And so my brother went to prom and I did not. I sometime did get depressed and sad for a while because I did not have anything to do, all I was supposed to do was obeying my parents’ sayings. I did not have any phone when I came here. Once I asked my parents that I want laptop they were upset because I asked for laptop. My father said that this is not the right time for you to keep a laptop. And because I had this thinking that we are in America and we can do anything we want nothing can stop us from what we want to do but I did not know that my culture will come in the middle of my dreams and stopped me from what I want to do. I stayed silent the whole time and I was used to hear no from my parents. Sometimes when my father got mad he would regret bringing us here because he thought we will get spoiled here and forget all the things we had learnt in our country. Even now that I am married my parents still say no to me if I want to go alone to malls or any other things.

  1. Can you understand the purpose of this paper? Is it enough understandable?
  2. What makes you understand the main message of this assignment?
  3. Did I support the argument well enough? yes/no and why?
  4. Does any of my writing/ideas/arguments seems unclear? What should I fix?
  5. Does the paper go flowing? Are my ideas/examples organize?
  6. Did my points/ideas meet the purpose of this paper? Why or why not?

 

Pre-Draft Assignment #3

What did you learn in class on Monday that impacted how you approach reading comics and/or understanding Ms. Marvel?

In class on Monday I learned a lot since I love reading comics. Even though I am not good at drawing and neither coming up with ideas or stories but I love reading comics I just enjoy reading it. On Monday I learned something very different that I had never learned before. I mean it was the first time I learned how difficult and challenging it is to write comics and that author of the comics is not one person. Comics cannot be done without writing and drawing and some of us might agree with me that not all of us are good at both. I learned how difficult it is to come up with idea and images to draw the story.

Did it impact your choice of format for this assignment? What format are you thinking of using?

The activity we did in the class drawing what we were asked for based on the 2 sentences, it was fun but it was so difficult to come up with the drawing. I was blank. It taught me that an artist has to focus on the story and then draw the story or wither draw the story and it will be easier to write the story. What I mean is one cannot be done without other. There has to be either writing or drawing. For this assignment #3 I might focus on my own little comic by choosing one part from Ms. Marvel. I know I am worst at drawing but I want to try something new by my own.

What is unique about this format that will allow you to learn more about the comic than what is expressed on the surface? What questions or concerns or excitements do you have about creating a project in this format?

Like I said before drawing and texting, both are so important for the comic but also the characters matter and their face reaction/emotion and their surroundings matter in the comic because reader have to have some idea of what’s the situation in the time.The question I have is that if I am writing and drawing for this assignment, I will understand and know what’s going on but how will the viewers understand what I am trying to deliver. So am a bit confuse and lost.

What is Ms. Marvel teaching you about writing so far?

Ms. Marvel is teaching me a lot. In my first assignment I used and online web to draw and write a story and I thought that is a type of like comic but now I realize I was wrong. It doesn’t go like that. Reading Ms. Marvel taught me that one situation have to go through very clearly like you cannot skip what is in between. And it also taught me that everything is important in the drawing every subject matters in the writing and drawing.

FINAL DRAFT ASSIGNMENT 2

Racism is not about bad manners, but a system of treatment, discrimination and brutality in American society. Diversity groups face Racism everywhere their surroundings. In New York City there has been a lot of cases where unarmed individuals are being killed and stopped. After reading the “Intersections” play written by students of LaGuardia community college, gives students knowledge about others situation in terms of financially stability, family matters, education importance, stress they go through and how they resolve it.  In the play there was a situation occurred at the end, where an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by the police without any warrant and justify evidence. In America we have been educated that we have our rights that are freedom of religion, speech, equal justice, and so on. We have the right to not cooperate with police without any warrant. Yet, there are still individuals mostly black people are more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, convicted and executed than any other group. How police force overwhelmingly attacks unarmed black individual increasingly in the New York City?

The use of force is actually unavoidable in police work/system. I think there might be many situations in which the lives of officer or the civilians can be taken using the amount of force when necessary or using it improperly. Obliviously the police officer has to be trained properly how to use force. For instance, the officer must be trained how to conduct a threat and what methods will be used. To me it looks like the practical training has been completed so that it allows officers to become comfortable with the use of force technique.  One of the scene in the play “intersections” written by students of LaGuardia Community College, we meet Alex and Mike, who are under police training and becoming officially police officers. Alex undergoes harsh and tough training to become police officer. Being in the training Alex experience physically tortured and been pepper sprayed in his eyes. This was part of the police system training. In police system training, “Alex has to do drills as his eyes are totally burning in pepper spray” (Intersections 15). and, “for the police officers, force sir. (he’s confused and in pain. Spitting, leaning over … etc.) (intersections 16). From this scene we can conclude we can conclude that Alex as an individual goes under emotional and physical intense pain. Alex totally having struggle to say the definition of force. He seems nervous and frustrated about all these training has going through. He sounds like he can’t absorb altogether. I mean can you really get this, did Alex really learned something besides harsh training and hurt feelings and intense pain? Or did he just do what the officers told him to do? In my perspective Police officers should be well trained without any force or emotionally frustration because these trainers will become officers and will be protecting us. Yet, if they fail to use that training properly in time of problem then they might end up targeting innocent individuals.  And Alex did experience this situation. When he officially became police officers this is what happened as a result of his training.

Janelle, black teenager who does not give up on her grandmother health as she was on the last stage of cancer. Janelle wanted to bring her grandmother home and won’t let her stay in hospice or nurse care. She is a hard working student and tries to battle school and caring for her ill grandma. Janelle couldn’t tolerate her grandma’s health and said, “this shit I can buy on the street is better than those fucking pills. At least with this, she will be at ease” (Intersection 23). When Janelle went to buy drugs and was on her way back home she was stopped by the police named Alex. Alex, the police officer who was chasing a white suspect wearing a hoodie unfortunately Janelle got suspected.

Alex: HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM

Janelle: What I haven’t done anything

Alex: I NEED TO SEE YOUR ID

(she goes for her pockets)

DO NOT REACH YOUR PCKETS

Janelle: But you just said you want to see my ID

Alex: … TURN AROUND. TURN AROUND.

(we hear a gunshot) Phones have begun to appear, flashes of light pointing at the floor.

Alex: REASONABLE AND EFFECTIVE, THE AMOUNT OF FORNCE WAS REASONABLE AND EFFECTIVE….

The above scene shows that Janelle was on her way home and she was stopped by the police with the doubt that she is the suspect because she was black and wearing a hoodie. This fact made the police shot and killed Janelle without any reasonable cause, without any warrant and with no justify evidence that she is the suspected. Janelle was considered a danger to them. I think police should get more practiced with how to get their real suspect because if these types of cases continue in our society we would end up with genocide. An officer of the law can be properly trained to run the law in neutral way that will not violate a citizen’s rights. The reason of the use of force is the most important purpose an officer must make before deciding to use force on a suspect. Janelle was innocent she was worried for her grandmother health, she got her something to cure her cancer but she was shot to the ground.

Some might believe that police officers are the only source of protection for the public’s rights from the powers of the state yet allowing them to stop you is essentially giving up our protection. Reading the article “Police Terror in Big Apple” by George Scott, concluded that police brutality has been increased in the New York City. “Stop and Frisk” is all about people experienced with cops. “Stop and Frisk” is when police temporarily detain a person and check that person. As George Scott said “Getting stopped and possibly beaten by NYPD is the experience… for blacks’ folks, yet … VERY few white folks share” (Scott 21). White people are on the sideline in these type of accidents while black people experience “stop and frisk” very often by the police. White race doesn’t face struggles as a minority does. Scott also discus that 53% black people were stopped by the NYPD in 2011 compare to white people were stopped only 9%. We see the number difference is increasingly different between black and white folks that were stopped.  To me which obviously seems racism in police system. The stop and frisk law was changed after “Scheindlin ruled in an American civil liberties Uman-initiated case, that the NYPD must have probable cause in order to stop people” (Scott 21). This was a new rule added to the NYC state law by federal Judge Scheindln because of the fact that New York City police officers have blind eye to the evidence and are conducting stops in a “racially discriminatory manner” (Scott 21). Racism should not be existed in this modern world, in the United State of America. America has the new view of being land of the free but still are facing discrimination and racism. A land where innocent teenagers are being killed unarmed. And all this happened in the case of Ramarley Graham in 2012. Graham was 18, an unarmed teenager who was shot and killed by the NYPD in his grandmother house in the Bronx. Graham was shot with “no warrant” (Scott 22). He was killed because he was caught with marijuana by the police. However, Graham was not given justice. “In 2013 a grand jury refused to indict the officer” (Scott 22). This case is full of brutally behavior and so prejudice to Graham family. Police did not have any evidence to prove he was the suspect, without any witness he was overwhelmingly shot. By not getting a warrant, a law enforcement officer is going off of his own personal notion that someone may be guilty. Going back to Janelle situation she was having drugs but did not gave any harm to Alex, and he killed her. Janelle wasn’t showing any offense to get out of the situation she was doing what Alex was asking her to do so. Yet, Alex ended up shooting her because she seemed suspicious to him. With racial profiling, police are using skin color to not only justify their suspicion, but to define it. They have no valid reason to pull over African-Americans more often than whites but for the fact that they are black. Yet, prejudice still exists in America. Why would a police kill a teenager having marijuana with him? This was inhumane aspect of the NYPD system.

Another article “The Rise Black-aimed death squads among the police” by Amiri Baraka. Amiri Baraka discussed the case of Amadou Diallo’s, 23 years old immigrant from Guinea, was shot and killed by four NYPD in 1999. This case was such a heartbreaking and brutal. Diallo was immigrant, came for education, expect for better life and was killed violently. Baraka said, “These cops were shooting at Diallo’s Blackness” (Baraka np).  Police officer did not go for investigation to find the cause why to target this black man, what is wrong with him. But they liked to use their guns rather their sense of humor and understanding the reason why killing an innocence person. The 4 officers who killed Diallo motto was “we own the night” (Baraka np). This shows that the officers were openly terrorizing racial-fascist. This motto fact was resisted by the people and the officers were freed without any guilt. It seems fully racist to me that they were killing him because of his color. Police prejudice and racial profiling is responsible for many false arrests, beliefs, and death of African Americans. It is a difficult and unfortunate part of life that certain groups of human being faces these upset obstacles in their life because they belong to minority group or because of their skin color.

To police officers, use of force is a necessary part of their job. No officers will know if when should the use of force must be applied because of their training. Moreover, we all know that Racial terrorism hasn’t finished, every individual face it in different way from other individuals. The stop and frisk law is experienced by every individual from differed backgrounds. I think the idea of stop and risk is install fear in us to be ready to get checked by the police but why is police forgetting that we still have the right to say no if we don’t want to get stopped and frisked. Black people are incarcerated at a rate six times that of whites. Again racist still have not finished even after the civil right movement. There hasn’t any change in our societies. The police are not only being trained to brutalize, hate, fear, disrespect and murder any black, yet they have been taught that they can get away with it.

Work Cite:

Baraka, Amina. “The Rise of U.S. Black-Aimed Death Squads among the Police.” New York Amsterdam News, vol. 90, no. 11, 11 Mar. 1999, p. 12.

Scott, George. “Police Terror in the Big Apple.” Against the Current, vol. 38, no. 6, Jan/Feb2014, pp. 21-33.

 

 

I emailed you my expectations for assignment #2.

Pre-draft

http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/04/15/pre-draft-for-assignment-2/

Rough-draft

http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/04/29/rough-draft-assignment-2-2/

Peer review names: Saeed, Amina, and Sandep.

 

Artist Statement:

The audience for this paper is I guess everyone from all race in this diversity city New York City. I am contributing a message about police system in this city we live in and daily treatment of police towards us. So we red a play called “intersection” written by LaGuardia community college students. We see so many situations where people faced problems and how they struggle to overcome the conflict line. Then I choose one situation from the play, where a black girl was shot and killed by police officer with no valid reason. Then I researched and study some cases related to that situations. I want to let my audience know how racism is still relevant to this day and also that we have our rights everywhere. No matter what background, race, religion you are from we have to know our rights. For instance, if an individual is going somewhere and the police officer stop you, you have to right to reject compromising with them. I want my audience to learn that even when the civil right movement happened, there hasn’t been any changes since then. Black people still face racism; they still struggle from it. When it comes to arresting or targeting police mostly or I will say very often shot and kill black people. Most of the cases I discuss, the black individual has been killed innocent with no warrant. I guess the audience will learn something from the paper because I went deep in the play and discuss it well. On the other hand, they might not, because I sometimes write too much where I am lost and my ideas are spread out imperfectly. I don’t really know if I had brought unique perspective to my analysis that someone else might not have like I can read my paper several times and it will seem perfectly fine but in other people perspective they might not see what I see or they might see what I don’t. I learned a lot in this paper. I never knew that black peers are been stopped by the police compare to white peers. I did not know the cases I researched about. So I guess I am feeling the situations and what black families and those innocent individuals had went through. Honestly I like to go back to history and talk about it but in this paper I did not do any history background. I want to learn why do we have to practice racism in this modern world and why not we treat everyone the same as others regard to religion, race and background/class. If I had another week or so for this research paper, Yes, defiantly, I would had expand my thoughts on the paper. Since I discussed 2 cases I would had discussed few more cases from history. To sum up, I think we all need to change our thinking regard racism. Racism is often taught depending on who raises you and to which background you belong. You can change your mind but if you grew up thinking that people of another race are lower than you, then that ideology by you might be very difficult to remove and understand other races. So if we want to truly treat people justly, we need to explore how we can remove our subconscious racist beliefs. Lastly, we need to create a society of “COLORBLINDNESS” where everyone will be treat fairly and equally without regard to race, culture, and ethnicity.

 

Rough Draft Assignment 2

 

Racism is not about bad manners, but a system of treatment, discrimination and brutality in American society. Diversity groups face Racism everywhere their surroundings. In New York City there has been a lot of cases where unarmed individuals are being killed and stopped. After reading the “Intersections” play written by students of LaGuardia community college, gives students knowledge about others situation in terms of financially stability, family matters, education importance, stress they go through and how they resolve it.  In the play of “Intersections” there was a situation occurred at the end, where an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by the police without any warrant and justify evidence. In America we are been educated that we have our rights everywhere, we have the right to not cooperate with police without any warrant. Yet, there are still individuals mostly Black are more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, convicted and executed than any other group. How police force overwhelmingly attacks unarmed black individual increasingly in the New York City?

Reading the article “Police Terror in Big Apple” by George Scott, concluded that police brutality has been increased in the New York City. “Stop and Frisk” is all about people experienced with cops. “Stop and Frisk” is when police temporarily detain a person and check that person. As George Scott said “Getting stopped and possibly beaten by NYPD is the experience… for blacks’ folks, yet … VERY few white folks share” (Scott 21). White people are on the sideline in these type of accidents while black people experience “stop and frisk” very often by the police. White don’t face these struggles. Scott also discus that 53% black people were stopped by the NYPD in 2011 compare to white people were stopped only 9%. We see the number difference is way too much between black and white folks stopped by.  To me which obviously seems racism in police system. The stop and frisk law was changed after “Scheindlin ruled in an American civil liberties Uman-initiated case, that the NYPD must have probable cause in order to stop people” (Scott 21). This was a new rule added to the NYC state law by federal Judge Scheindln because of the fact that New York City police officers have blind eye to the evidence and are conducting stops in a “racially discriminatory manner” (Scott 21). Racism should not be existed in this modern world, in the United State of America. America the land of freedom, but not free of discrimination n and racism. A land where innocent teenagers are being killed unarmed. And all this happened in the case of Ramarley Graham in 2012. Graham was 18, an unarmed teenager who was shot and killed by the NYPD in his grandmother house in the Bronx. Graham was shot with “no warrant” (Scott 22). He was killed because he had marihuana and the police saw him with it. However, Graham was not give justice. “In 2013 a grand jury refused to indict the officer” (Scott 22). This case is full of brutally behavior and so prejudice to Graham family. Police did not have any evidence to prove he was the suspect, without any witness he was overwhelmingly shot. This seemed to me every racist. Graham was just a teenager in age where everyone black/white/any race teenager would have these types of drug. Why would a police kill a teenager having marijuana with him? This was inhumane aspect of the NYPD system.

Another article “The Rise Black-aimed death squads among the police” by Amiri Baraka. Amiri Baraka discussed the case of Amadou Diallo’s, 23 years old immigrant from Guinea, was shot and killed by four NYPD in 1999. This case was such a heartbreaking and brutal. Diallo was immigrant, came for education, expect for better life and was killed violently. Baraka said, “These cops were shooting at Diallo’s Blackness” (Baraka 12).  Police officer did not go to investigate why should we kill this black man, what is wrong with him. But they liked to use their guns rather their sense of humor and understanding the reason why killing an innocence person. The 4 officers who killed Diallo motto was “we own the night” (Baraka 12). This shows that the officers were openly terrorizing racial-fascist. This motto fact was resisted by the people and the officers were freed without any guilt. It seems fully racist to me that they were killing him because of his color.

In the “intersection” Janelle, black teenager who won’t give up on her grandmother health as she was on the last stage of cancer. Janelle wanted to bring her grandmother home and won’t let her stay in the hospital or nurse care. She was a hard working at her study but she falls out and got stress about her grandmother’s health. Janelle couldn’t tolerate her grandma’s health and said, “this shit I can buy on the street is better than those fucking pills. A t least with this, she will be at ease” (Intersection 23). When Janelle went to buy drugs and was on her way back home she was stopped by the police named Alex and Ricky. Alex police officer who was chasing a white suspect wearing a hoodie unfortunately Janelle got suspected.

Alex: HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM

Janelle: What I haven’t done anything

Alex: I NEED TO SEE YOUR ID

(she goes for her pockets)

DO NOT REACH YOUR PCKETS

Janelle: But you just said you want to see my ID

Alex: … TURN AROUND. TURN AROUND.

(we hear a gunshot) Phones have begun to appear, flashes of light pointing at the floor.

Ricky: REASONABLE AND EFFECTIVE, THE AMOUNT OF FORNCE WAS REASONABLE AND EFFECTIVE….

The above scene shows that Janelle was on her way home and she was stopped by the police with the doubt that she is the suspect because she was black and wearing a hoodie. This fact made the police shot and killed Janelle without any reasonable cause, without any warrant and with no justify evidence that she is the suspected. Janelle was considered a danger to them. I think police should get more practiced with how to get their real suspect because if these types of cases continue in our society we would end up with genocide. Janelle was innocent she was worried for her grandmother health, she got her something to cure her cancer but she was shot to the ground.

Racial terrorism hasn’t finished, every individual face it in different way from other individuals. The stop and frisk law is experienced by every individual from differed backgrounds. I think the idea of stop and risk is install fear in us to be ready to get checked by the police but why is police forgetting that we still have the right to say no if we don’t want to get stopped and frisked. The police are not only being trained to brutalize, hate, fear, disrespect and murder any black, yet they have been taught that they can get away with it. Again racist still have not finished even after the civil right movement. There hasn’t any change in our societies.

1.Can you understand the purpose of this paper? Is it enough understandable?

2.What makes you understand the main message of this assignment?

3.Did I support the argument well enough? yes/no and why?

4.Does any of my writing/ideas/arguments seems unclear? What should I fix? Give suggestions.

6.Does the paper go flowing? Are my ideas/examples organize?

7.Did my points/ideas meet the purpose of this paper? Why or why not?

Pre-Draft for assignment 2

 

After reading the intersections, i think the playwrights had to do research on issues we are facing daily such as successfulness, inhumanity, dependency, family complication, education value. Some research about inhumanity might be helpful. I will need to research why our society still face brutality, what’s the  consequences. I’ll need to find information why in educated and modern society do we still face inhumanity. There are many victims targeted that are innocent not only in U.S but abroad too. I might have to research criminal records/innocent victims. While i was reading through the scripts i see that everything going on in the play are all reality situations. I mean almost all these circumstances we face in life. I felt it real. I felt myself in some of the play i can relate to. Using different forms of research will help me look through deeper understand and and examine different ideas related to the topic. I will not have to randomly put out my ideas in my opinion but research will help me enhance my knowledge about the topic. Research to me is doing deeper investigation about study, finding facts, doing analysis, examine and research guides us to conclusion. I think when we research about something that means we want to reach the point where we get the conclusion or get what we want and if we are curious and interested in the topic that’s where it should motivate us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“We Never Value It Unless We Lose It”

“We Never Value It Unless We Lose It”

Appreciate what you have before it turns to what you in life. When an individual has something like love, money, things that makes us happy then we are all happy and complete. We feel complete because we have all the things that makes us happy but we never think of losing them. Yet, when we lose them then we feel upset and disturb because we humans always take things for granted. We never value it unless we lose it. In general, our parents never expect our thanks, but it won’t hurt to say it in a while, in your own way. You never know when it is too late. we have a lot of issues, that are created around us to keep us busy, like job, being in a relationship, money and success, our goals in life and what not. Still the only thing that matters a lot is our parents. Who had put us on earth, nurtured us, gave us education and our values and much more. often they would even sacrifice their own happiness. I think spending time to take care of them is not time wasted, not a shame but giving tem happiness and secure by their own children. We need to form our mind to realize what are the things that matters and to take the time to value it. Besides we do end up desiring for something that we could have while it lasted.

According to “#Dear Mum | Spoken Word” video described by narrator. He put out his whole life story from birth to death thankful to his moms’ love and felt sorrier for the wrongs he did. In the video he described the love given to him by his mother. Yet he felt guilty and regret for not realizing her love, sacrifices and worries for him. Throughout the video the narrator flashbacks his mother’s love and worries for him whenever he was not home “whenever we won’t home her heart will be torn I mean she could never ever sleep whenever we were gone she would stay up all night next to the phone although I would never call so she sends me text messages please I can’t sleep just let me know that you’re safe and secure”. The Deep love and worries as shown by the narrator’s mother was endlessness. When the narrator’s mother used to call him he did not value her missed calls, he did not even reply to her messages to make her sure that he safe and secure. The narrator is giving audiences the message of love realization. His mother was the women who cared about him when he was not home. I remembered when I used to go High School my parents would call me in the morning and after school. I have the feelings that not replying and not giving your parents the comfortability of secureness is like punishing them. Because they are suffering in their own child love I believe. Especially your mother’s love is the purest love. Mother could be ready to have many sacrifices in her life for her child in anyway. When we are sick we always whine to our mothers because we think she have the cure of our sickness. The narrator described his mother sacrifice “to the woman who was left sleepless from duck until dawn…with weakness upon weakness for nine moths long”. He is awarding his mother for the sacrifices and struggle she went through. For the hard time she had faced, nurtured him on this earth, to make his life worth, and give him pure love as honey. He shows audience what his mother’s scarified and he is all thankful for it. We live with the assumption that whenever we need something it will be there and that is our problem because the reality is you know that you had it but you just never thought you will lose it one day. But, the narrator feels the guilt inside him by making the symbol of “sword” lining through his heart in the clip. “I’m sorry for the pain that I caused for the nights you didn’t sleep and for all those missed calls for the fights we had I know how much you love her and miss her and I know what cuts too deep like a sword”. We never appreciate ones’ hard work until its put on us. As earlier the narrator showed the love that was presented to him, the scarifies his mother made for him, the worminess she had for him when he was away and all that. He did not understand that one day this caring, loving, and sac rising will be gone. And when it was gone he felt sorry for all misuse. He felt sorry for all the things he was not supposed to do.

The love between him and his mother was not recognized until she was gone from his life. And it was too late for all the love and regretful. I think it’s important for people to feel lucky with their surrounding people because we need to appreciate and realize what we have now. I think the narrator failed to appreciate the good things he once had and as a result he cautiously regrets what he did because he had the most valuable “mother” at all time. When I was born with my twin brother, my father was here in U.S. I didn’t care much about him because I did not have his love that was given me by my mother. After 9 years I met him. I did not recognize him yet I was eager for his love. Slowly I got used to him and he realized me that having both parents love is enough for a child. Nor mother nor father could fulfill child’s love but both together. And so I do appreciate both my parents love, caring and worries for me Alhamdulillah (Thank You God). I believe that happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they have.

 

ARTIST PIECE REFLECTION

The audience in my project in the ones’ who have parents love now. I want them to know that appreciate your parents love or it be once lasted. Do not let hates, misunderstanding or conflicts come between your love. Because for these who has lost their parents love, it is too late to say “sorry” to them, to express the love you have left for them.  I want my audience to keep in mind that love is like life. Once we lose our love ones they are gone. They will never come back to give you the love or to give them love. Do not take anything not only love for granted. Because we assume that these things will be with us whenever we need it. And we do not think of losing it and this is why we do not focus to the love that is given to us. I think the audience might get the idea. For example, when I came to the united states in 2011, my father always used to tell us to stay back from the sidewalk, do not stay near to the train or do not lie and so may lessons that was given to me by my father because he did not want me to get spoiled I guess. Something with love, we starts to ignore it when we are loved too much and this is why, when we lose it we regret to ignore it. I think more connection and reality I had talked about in my piece. I learned a lot from this piece of work. I learned that loving back our parents is not sin.  Even myself I really appreciate my parents love ad whenever I get little mad at them because of over protection then I feel guilty to have that hate feelings for them. I would like to learn that does tradition effects love between relations? I love poetry but I think before I have not looked at poetry this deep. I used to look at poetry in my language. Never looked up English poetry. Yet it was very interesting how poetry has deep meaning through every single word, how it has different ways to impact our daily lives. Since I did little of my work through comic kind of. It is not really comic but I designed it as comic. I’m interested in showing my work through comics. I would have explained my ideas infinite but I have to stop at somewhere. Since I did not compare two ideas I would like to work on this too. I would like to expand my ideas on comparison of 2 different works. Lastly, my peer review group was Gaby and Pragya.

 

Rough Draft for Assignment

1.What makes you understand the PURPOSE of this assignment? Is it enough understandable?

2.Did I support the argument well enough? yes/no and why?

3.Does any of my writing/ideas/arguments seems unclear? What should I fIx? Give suggestions.

4.Did my points/ideas meet the purpose of this paper? Why or why not?

5.Does the paper go flowing? Are my ideas/examples organize?

6.Are there any grammatical mistakes? Should I add more information?

7.Is this paper easy to read? What makes it/or not easy to read? How can I improve?

8.Please feel free to comment anything based on my paper. Thank You.

There are so many different relationships we ae link to. Its either parents and children’s, husband and wife, lesbian, gays, friends and many more that I may not know. We are been enlightened by the society the way they think. We are grown worth things that’s only happening around us or in our society. I was grown in a small village my mind only knew that there are few important relations that love exist in and its parents an grandparents only. I didn’t know what’s boyfriend girlfriend husband gay lesbian straight. When I came to United States in 2011 I was exposed to all these relations people have. From the videos that we watched about #love was very intense and powerful. Both videos carried its own familial message of pure love delivered in different ways with different intentions.

According to “#Dear Mum | Spoken Word” video described his whole story from birth to death of his mom’s love to him. He shows his love to him mother feeling the guilt and regression o about how he did not realize her love for him. As he gave the example of “texting/calling” the calls he received from his mother wasn’t received yet he feels the guilt inside making the symbol of “sword” lining through his heart. He also shows gives the audience the message that reminding us about the struggles our mothers have raising, caring and loving us at all times. He had a good way in giving a message about pure love as “tea honey and … lemonade”. However, there might be people who have no love for their mothers because they have not realized what mothers have done for them and as time passes by it would be too late to “feel sorry for everything…. Sorry for the pain” and express the love you have.

According to the second video “Kay – Baby Dykes: A Queer Love Poem” perceive to romantic sexual relationships. In this video a young baby dyke who is expressing true love feeling to the audiences. She is saying what’s happened recently to her. She is more realizing her true love delivering imagery by describing “moon shone approved … I thought I tasted spring and it never tasted quite like this”. This shows she and embracing every part of herself where I think she met her true love. She is showing free love without any fear. Lastly, I think love and understanding is what we are missing in us humans today still we should respect every relation in this world.