Social Justice Documentary Analysis

The movie “Falling Down”, released in 1993, depicts an unemployed defense worker who becomes frustrated with society and unleashes that frustration on the Los Angeles community. The movie follows William through is destruction as well as the impact his actions has on other characters in the movie. It becomes apparent that the events and characters in the movie are ideal illustrations of the criminological theories anomie and social control.

Part two of the documentary which was labeled as “High and Low” struck out to me the most. This part brought up issues that we can all for the most part say we have at least saw in our daily lives. This section also brought up some of the many struggles that African-Americans have to deal with every day. For example, two women brought up the point that the label “Bourgeois” is a constant problem within black America. If a black person works hard to make a lot of money, get a good education and become successful, the black

The much applauded and critically acclaimed film, “Crash” (2004) directed by Paul Haggis is a film which appears to want the viewers to observe themselves and their world inversely. This film presents a truthful representation of race relations, racial discrimination, and social and cultural tensions in modern American society. It shows the stereotypes and racial myths that still occur today and continue to create racism. The film presents the intricacy of the relationships between diverse social groups and about the effects of discrimination on the everyday life experiences of a number of people. More specifically, the movie touches on three different types of discrimination. First and foremost, it deals with racism. Next, it depicts

In 2004 Paul Haggis directed the film Crash, a movie fundamentally about the effects of prejudice and bias on a group of Los Angeles natives including cops, robbers, and immigrants whose lives “crash” into one another’s. With the help of strong acting and an amazing storyline Crash won three Academy Awards and did it while carrying a message not so easily identified. The characters Anthony (Ludacris) Peter (Larenz Tate) Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon) and their depictions of explicit bias are so well done that the impact of implicit bias in the screenplay is almost missed.

The documentary "Before Stonewall" was very educational and interesting because it shows a retail group that fought for the right to integrate into the society and was where the homosexual revolution occurred. Also, through this fight, the "LGBT" was born. The documentary shows how homosexual people enjoyed and shared with each other. Also, the documentary shows their participation in World War II and how the government discriminated and oppressed them even denying the right to federal

The documentary “Fed Up” provides some important and disturbing details of the food industry. The 1977 heart disease and diet study known as the McGovern Report warned that the obesity rate was increasing rapidly due to American diets in fatty meats, saturated fats, cholesterol, and sugar. The food industry vehemently denied these claims, but the American people still demanded lower fat food products. The food manufacturers found that the fat removal made the food bland and unpalatable so to address this they replaced the fat content with sugar. Both the documentary and the Harvard Nutrition Source discuss the role sugar has in health conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. They both link the consumption of sugar as the causality for

The movie Crash, a film that follows the individual lives of several people and how they all intertwine with one another, hints at the underlying issue of race and the unconscious bias that are hard wired in us. It also shows that racism is not a one way street, but that it travels in both directions and because of this many film critics gave it a high praise. In this paper I will examine how it relates back to the topics we have covered in class, like unconscious bias, racism, and police interactions.

The movie “Crash”, by Director and Writer Paul Haggis, follows 8 ethnically diverse families/ individuals facing the struggle of modern day racism and stereotypes created and faced in modern Los Angeles, California. These individuals take the roles of individuals living their daily lives within Los Angeles, California while facing stereotypes. The cast portrays: 2 caucasian white male police officers, an African American director and his wife, a white district attorney and his wife, a Persian immigrant family, and a Hispanic father whose occupation is a locksmith. The scene chosen from this film involves the police officers (Officer Ryan and Officer Hanson) pulling over the African American Director (Cameron Thayer) and his wife (Christine Thayer) at a traffic stop. This scene establishes two different types of theoretic sociological concepts of Thomas Theorem and cognitive dissonance.

Some examples of this pathos include the words spread across the screen claiming, “What you see on the news is a story 150 years in the making” (“13th, Trailer”). This is to say that African Americans have been fighting for freedom for longer than most think or assume, and this documentary is going to get to the bottom of that. This is the same way that the video uses Kalief Browder’s personal testimony to bring the audience to tears and just feel what Browder feels, emotionally binding you to the documentary and causing you to want to see it to empower this man who committed suicide to escape police brutality. Adding to this idea, pictures of the brutality and unjust treatment add to this pathological tempt. It forces the viewer to want to watch the documentary because it makes the viewer feel that bad for all of the people shown in the documentary simply because of how they are being treated. Thus, pathos is an effective tool used to convey the message of the documentary and draws readers

Murder on a Sunday Morning brilliantly delineates the bogus murder conviction of an innocent boy. I was completely intrigued the length of the documentary because it demonstrated police profiling at its

Gentrification is the term that explains the process of renovating and improving homes, or a district to conform to middle-class preferences. As viewed in the documentary Class Divide, a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York called West Chelsea has already undergone a major shift in their community. The addition of schools such as The Avenues, and tourist attractions like the High Line has generated a new identity for the community. Children who are born in poverty in the United States have a harder time getting out of poverty than those children who come from other developed countries. This is due to various institutions such as The Avenues that have created a gap between social classes, making it harder for the lower class to achieve success. Throughout the documentary, the storyline constantly shifts to represent two different point of views: the upper class and the lower class. Within these different points of views, the central themes become evident: income inequality, opposing views of privileged and underprivileged students, and the gentrification of a community.

I did some research on social justice competencies and today I am going to discuss with you my findings. I am going to talk about why social justice matters, social justice with counselors and counseling psychologists, social justice competencies with group workers, and social justice paradigm. Social justice is the opinion of which every person ought to have equal rights and chances whether they be financial, governmental or social. Human service helper’s goal is to unlock the gates to gain accessibility and chance for every person, especially the ones that need it the most. A quick look at the various functions of human service helpers displays in what way this worth system gives emphasis to all that they do. Human service helpers will aid their homeless clients to obtain government assistance, food share, and care for their wellbeing. Human service helpers thrive to defend and safeguard their elderly client’s economic right and guarantee the client is getting the health and economic advantages that lawfully belong to them. Human service helpers furthermore utilize social-justice values and beliefs to underlying issues in the human service organizations where they are employed. ("Social Justice," n.d.)

The film Crash, written and directed by Paul Haggis, examines racial exchanges in several different ethnic groups living in Los Angeles. As the film move forward, we are able to view how each characters’ own racist experiences change their attitudes towards other races. Paul Haggis illustrates those change through the mood tone, setting, and even the music. By the end of the movie, the audience is left with a feeling of hope and an ambition to examine its own thought and actions towards others. Even though critics argue that the film Crash is stereotypically racist, the film encourages America to see past the misbelief we have of each other because empathy and self-examination is the starting place for change and the destruction of society is based on one’s choices.

The social injustice I humbly relate to is the intolerance toward Hispanic populations in America; whether the person is documented or undocumented. Before moving to Carthage, Missouri; I had essentially no interaction with Hispanic people. Embarrassingly, I admit, I relied on stereotypes to build my opinion of the Hispanic population as a whole. On May 22nd, 2011, we lost our home, every personal belonging, and our car in the Joplin tornado. We anxiously awaited our homeowner's insurance payout; with three dogs and nowhere to stay, we fretted, meanwhile homes available for sale shrunk by the hour. Soon, an acquaintance approached us, he had a home in Carthage; that was for sale and vacant. Built in 1910, I immediately fell in love with the home; it is my perfect home, with historically abundant features.

Social sciences and social justice are both based on the structure of rights. Our rights were designed to create equality for all. However, there are always outliers in our justice system and these outliers can be seen by all. My background and demographic are aggressively average growing up in a small, rural community with little diversity which has affected my views about justice. The class Social Problems and Social Injustice has aggressively opened my eyes to new statistics about society and has made some of my intuitions validated and destroyed some of my prior views. My new understanding of social justice is that is was created for all by excluding some. Justice is the structure of our institutions and society.