The Fiction Film District 9 And The Novel Dawn

Movies and entertainment outlets speak volumes about the current state of a nation’s culture. Cinematic creations in the United States allow small voices to be heard and controversial issues to be addressed. However, a repetitive and monumental issue continues to be addressed, yet continues to persist in our 21st century culture, racial inequalities. Since the inception of the United States, black men and women alike have been disenfranchised at the hands of the “white man” in America. Instead of continuing the conversation today, the issue is continually silenced referencing the successes and achievements of the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th century. Nonetheless, an unfortunate reality looms upon this great land; racially based systems and structures continue to exist in 2015 the in United States. This paper synthesizes three films focused on racial inequalities in different time periods. Separate but Equal (1991), Selma (2015), and Crash (2005) illustrate how influential the Civil War amendments are, while serving as an uncanny reminder of how the racial prejudices during the 20th century continue to exist in our great nation today. Needless to say our nation has made great strides, but still has a long way to go.

As a result, it aims to educate people interested in race relations on why racial tensions have not eased in this rapidly evolving time despite the trend to portray minorities positively. For instance, he cites the example that the myriad of Indian documentaries has given the perception that they enjoy living in poverty, and the public’s response to boost their image does not solve the problem at all (730). Mainly in this essay, Deloria addresses Native American needs, so it pertains to people interested in them specifically, but his message is applied to all minority groups. For instance, he states that Mexicans are only taught that their people have been involved in one side of the Alamo, but not the other, which makes them a victim of image boosting as well (731). As a Native American himself, Deloria is passionate in his essay. He decries the fact that his people are treated differently from even other minority groups in that their characters are sucked out of them so that they become one-dimensional and are only used to fill a single role. For instance, the Indians in the war movies only serve to transfer messages, only to disappear when their purpose has been served” (729). He wishes to highlight this issue and tell people that it is paramount that all people be treated as complex

The origins of African slavery in North America would trace back to indentured servants which were British males who were in debt and came to the New

Equality is a word that possesses many meanings and feelings which encompass centuries of wars and struggles especially with racism. While it is easy to look back at history and accept the accounts for misconduct and atrocities, it is vital to reexamine and revise thoughts and actions in order to prepare for the future. An invisible type of racism that can be revealed with reexamination often times is institutional racism. The short story, “The Comet” written by W. E. B. Du Bois, is a story set in a post-apocalyptic world. The story shows that in order to bring down barriers of racism, it requires a catastrophic event to occur. Another story that focuses on a similar concept of institutional racism, but uses science fiction as a vehicle is “The Bicentennial Man”, written by Isaac Asimov. In this story, a robot named Andrew suffers through prejudice and racism despite his many contributions to society. It takes a large sacrifice in order to allow for humans to disregard race and to take robots as an equal. Although both stories pull in elements of science fiction, it is clear that the stories incorporate a dominating theme of not just racism but institutional racism. This paper will discuss some historical context to the two authors’ experiences along with a deeper dive into the text in regards to institutional racism.

Blacks were being sold slaves for example slaves could not own land according to Document #5 Plan Of Slave Ship. They had no bathrooms or room on slave ships.

Most of the time, the slaves were exploited for the accumulation of the wealth of the whites. The Africans could escape slavery, but not their race and if ever caught they would be punished harshly.

Throughout history, many people have been oppressed because of their race, religion and gender, resulting in the loss of their rights and freedom. Despite the fact that freedom is an inherent rights of any human being, many examples have proven that these rights often require rebellious acts to obtain said rights. Although human rights have evolved over the years, humans still fail to learn from their mistakes, resulting in history repeating itself. Through storytelling and novels, people show depictions of history to honour those who have died and to educate younger generations to prevent unfortunate events from occurring again. In this same vein, Lawrence Hill and Alice Walker display oppression through abuse, structural inequality and gender stereotypes. Although the novels, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill and The Colour Purple by Alice Walker were written in different time periods and revolved around different cultural influences, each demonstrates the theme of oppression throughout various events.

The Slave States used their factories and plantations as reasons for owning slaves. The plantation owners were very greedy and slaves were very cheap and did absolutely did all the work for them. It was nearly free labor and it increased your social status as well. The more slaves you owned, the wealthier you looked and the more likable and desirable you are to those around you.

Slavery can be traced back to when the Europeans began settling in the North American continent.

In the movie District 9, there is a clear theme of apartheid. Except now, it's not people being seperated by race or ethnicity, but rather aliens by species. In this movie, the aliens are seperated almost completely from the people. The similarities between these two instances, are that one feels that he is superior to the other. There is a clear hierachy in both instances aswell.

[1] Before I start this essay, I feel the need to remind the reader that I find slavery in all its forms to be an oppressive and terrible institution, and I firmly believe that for centuries (including this one) bigotry is one of the most terrible stains on our civilization. The views I intend to express in the following essay are in no way meant to condone the practices of slavery or racism; they are meant only to evaluate and interpret the construction of slavery in film.

Although slavery and segregation laws are obsolete, racial inequality remains visible within our society. Throughout the course readings, one thing is for sure: the slave trade is the primary cause of racial inequality from 1500 to the present. Those sold into slavery become the property and a product of violence. Moreover, throughout the 15th to mid-18th centuries, slavery caused people to despise those who looked different from them, based on skin color. Slavery has caused numerous gaps among the privileged white community and minorities who have a history of slavery. This created a divided society based on skin color, with effects that continue to be a small part of our contemporary world.

Yet, despite this struggle for ownership, the fit between Science Fiction and people-of-color appears to be an intuitive one. Mark Dery (“Black to the Future”) poignantly points out, effectively noting that African Americans are always already seen and constructed as Other/Alien (8) . Is that all that surprising? Not

Over 400 hundred years there has been slavery, racism, and discrimination in America with blacks, and other minorities. A famous man once said “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word” – Martin Luther King Jr (brain quote). The movies ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ directed by Spike Lee, and ’12 Years a Slave’ directed by Steve McQueen both show the struggle African Americans went through during a tough racial period in American history. Even today in Modern society African Americans still deal with racism. Spike

In the movie, there are signs saying either no prawns or no humans and the humans show a major sign of xenophobia towards the prawns. In this day in age we see a lot of hatred towards foreigners, in particular, terrorists. In the beginning of the movie you see Blomkamp interviewing the humans about the prawns. They show a great level of hatred and disgust for the prawns intruding on their town. In the real world, we see this same form of hatred or disgust from certain people about the immigrants and refugees intruding on and taking over many American’s jobs. Blomkamp wants to push the issue that there is great hatred throughout the world today. The main reason he produced the film in Johannesburg was because there were high tensions between native south Africans and Zimbabwean refugees. He wanted to try to make the town he grew up in great again. Blomkamp wanted to open people’s eyes with the use of science fiction to show that in some ways we treat other humans like the humans treated the prawns.