Rebecca Skloot

Rebecca Skloot the author of, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, came to Fairmont State’s campus to share her story about writing the book.  As Rebecca talked you could tell the passion that she felt behind getting to know Henrietta and her kins and also helping them find the answers that they had been searching for.  I personally enjoyed this book a lot and it was nice to hear Rebecca’s story behind it.  She answered questions that people had and read from the book some.  Everyone who had read the book there seemed to find it very interesting.  Rebecca did an amazing job with this book.  I can’t wait to see the movie.  I’m someone who has lost people to this terrible disease and so I feel for this family.  I have luckily been able to get answers and understand better than the Lacks’ did, but it still doesn’t take the hurt away that we feel after losing a special person in our life.  I hope that they can continue to find cures and I think that Henrietta will continue to help them with not only studying cancer, but other diseases as well.  I want to thank my teachers for picking such an awesome book for us to read and Fairmont State for allowing Rebecca to come here and share her memories. 

Soul Plane

                              

In our last class we watched a movie called “Soul Plane.”  This movie had all blacks flying on a plane except for one white family.  The last name of the white family was Hunkee and this name was used to describe how white people were portrayed.  The Hunkee family, with apprehension, allowed their little boy to dress and act like the black people they were around.  You realize that as everyone began to get on the plane that the Hunkee family felt uncomfortable especially the dad’s girlfriend.  Also the airplane was not your typical plane as it was purple and had a big bar.  Snoop Dogg, Captain Mack, was the pilot. The plane consisted of funky music, sexy stewardesses, a dance club, and a bathroom attendant.  When the flight began, it took flying to a whole new meaning!  As you watched the movie further, it showed a few surprising spins on how the passengers acted and the things that they did, but it didn’t take too long before you realized that everyone was having fun! This definitely wouldn’t have been an ordinary flight for any of us.  I’m sure most of us would compare it to something like a dream or maybe even a nightmare! 

Bamboozled

We watched the movie,” Bamboozled” which is an angry satire.  It pretty much asks that the audience forget the offensive and disturbing context that is being displayed.  Pierre Delacroix, the one black man working for CNS television show, has come up with dozens of ideas for television shows that involve black characters.  His ideas were always turned down so he figured if he couldn’t join the television industry he might as well beat them at their own game.  Pierre came up with the idea for an extremely offensive show. It uses story lines such as two black men hiding in the chicken coop looking for food with a white farmer outside with his gun, plus to the way they talked about themselves and their kin. The show took off and the audiences enjoyed being able to relate to the inside humor.  As you keep watching you never suspect that the ending will take a turn for the worst.  It ends with kidnapping, violence, and bloodshed all because some people didn’t enjoy the humor.  They took offense to the fact that their race was being made fun of. Since race is still such a sensitive topic in certain parts of our society, no one is trying to touch the topic and create a new, angry, satire episode.  After watching this movie, I’m really glad that they aren’t!

Power Point Presentations

In our last class we presented our Power Points and learned about certain individuals that we had been assigned to study.  Everyone provided the class with some remarkable information and I feel like we all learned a lot about why these people were so important for us to study.  I really enjoyed everyone’s Power Point and being given information about some truly amazing people.  It was interesting to see how race played a big part when it came to the people achieving their goals and the obstacles they had to overcome to accomplish the things they did.  We were informed about their history and about their families as we learned about an Olympic athlete, chiefs of a tribe, an artist, and many other outstanding people.  After the presentations were over, I realized each person was different, but yet they each had something in common with the other individuals that were studied.  The person I researched was David Ho.  Not only was he known for creating some great and very different art work, but he also helped with the research of AIDS.  While doing my research, I found myself wanting to learn more and more about David Ho as he is truly one interesting and amazing individual.  

David Ho

In our last class we were talking about race and how it affects our society.  We probably did not realize it, but we all passed judgment fairly easily when we made our baskets for different races in class.  A lot of people related food items, clothes, etc. to people because of their race.  The class was then split into partners.  We were assigned certain people to research and make a PowerPoint to present in class.  My partner, Kristen, and I were given a man named David Ho.  Little did we know when we started looking for information on Ho just how interesting the facts would be about him.  Among all the things Ho has done, we learned that in 1996, he was named “Man of the Year” in Time Magazine.  Ho received this honor because of his breakthrough treatment of AIDS.  He was also well known for his art work.  Looking through pictures of his art work was probably one of my favorite things about this project.  They’re very interesting and he seems to use a lot of different faces to express his artwork.  I’ve enjoyed reading different articles about him and learning about his life as well.  From what we’ve found in our research, Ho seems like a really well rounded man in many areas.  I’m excited to learn about the people that the rest of the class has been researching!

Diversity in Media

In our last class, we worked in groups to search the internet to see if we could find examples of diversity in media.  It was easy to recognize that each member of my group found it easy to add in their own ideas as we were surfing the net.  My group and I not only looked for different examples of television shows, but we also searched for pictures showing diversity.  While looking at the pictures, we found they helped us to better understand how diversely gender is portrayed in media.  Some of the examples we found were of men and women with perfectly formed bodies.  Their appearances even followed current fashion trends such as hairstyles, makeup, and clothing.  We also talked about some of the diverse television shows and movies we have watched that show examples of diversity.  There was one episode of “Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I remember watching when Will and Carlton were accused of stealing the car they were driving because of their race.  This was a false accusation, but very common for Will since he was raised in a lower class society.  Carlton, on the other hand, believed the cop was only trying to do his job, but then realized after talking to his dad that Will was right about the situation really dealing with their race.  After watching that episode, it made me think about how common it is for people to be judged by their race, class, or gender not only in our society, but in the media.

The Longest Yard

We watched a segment of the movie, The Longest Yard, in class.  It displayed masculine characteristics throughout the movie by using items such as cars, a football game, and an all-male prison.  Even the soundtrack was very masculine.  The inmates were separated into groups by race and crime.  Most of the inmates found the need to act rough and tough to make people fear them, but the guards always appeared to have the upper hand.  The male guards would bully the inmates to make sure they knew who was in charge.  The guards and inmates were going to play a football game against each other.  Paul Crew, coach of the inmates, was trying to recruit inmates to play on his team.  Once the inmates found out they would be playing against the guards, they all wanted to play.  Since some of the inmates had certain guards they did not like, they thought the game would be the perfect opportunity to get even with the guards.  As you watched the inmates practice, you realized that some of them were very athletic while others didn’t seem to have any athletic ability at all.  As a female, it was easy for me to notice the masculine characteristics that the characters used in the movie.  A lot of them displayed these characteristics through the things they said or the way they talked, their body language, and how they acted towards others.