I Can't Think of a Title Honestly. Sorry.

Max Drummond

I’m still gay.

It’s a horrible thought to wake up to in the morning.  Alarm blaring, all other thoughts of my conscious mind were drowned out by the alarm’s siren call except my recent revelation.  Despite this, some primal urge for survival drove me to push the sheets aside, and take the first steps of a new day.  First, get up, take a shower.  And I’m still gay.  Then, get out of the shower, shuffle to the wardrobe, get dressed, pack my gym bag.  Yep. Gay.  Half-awake, go make some toast, grab the breakfast mom left out.  Frickin’ gay.  Back upstairs.  And finally, settle in front of my computer with a delicious smelling casserole until Matt rolls up to take us to Saturday morning practice. Early morning practice, I might add.  God, who thought football on a weekend was a good idea?  Still.  Certainly better than surfing youtube.  Which is exactly how I’m spending my morning solitude right now of course.  At least practice will keep my video trawling to a minimum.  Despite my better judgement, I settle in until I see the text from Matt.  Best friend sure, but he sure as hell doesn’t like people, even myself, being late.   Clicking on the first random thing in my What to Watch stream, I’m mildly disgusted by a top ten most horrific torture methods of the eighteenth century.  Seriously, who sits in their home and makes this stuff?  Click next, I’m assaulted with the blaring sound of Metallica.  You have one friend show you one music video two months ago, and other musical shlock is turning up in your feed forever.  Geez.  Next, please.  And suddenly I’m suprised with a video about a man who admitted to his family he was gay, and was turned out on the street.  Disowned I think is what they call it.  Immediately, I’m thrust back into the contemplative state that prevented me from getting any sleep last night.  And the realization strikes home with an uncomfortably refreshing dose of reality:

I am gay.                 

How the hell am I supposed to come to terms with that?  I’m probably the least likely person to be gay in any small town, anywhere!  And how will mom cope when she hears that her beloved son is a homosexual?  How will the town react?  Alexander, suffered the tragic loss of his father in a horrific car accident, left with only his mother and their home, who miraculously came out on top as a prime running back, star jock of the football team!  And there’s the problem right there.  I’m a jock.  Jocks aren’t supposed to be gay!  We’re supposed to be hard hitting, dumb douchebags, with a disregard for personal safety and anything asides from football and girls!  I mean, yeah football is great and all, but I love baking with my mom on Friday evenings.  Hell, no wonder Matt has a girlfriend and I don’t.  I’ve never wanted one.  Guys like Nick, the quarterback though, they sure are eye-catchers…  Crap.  I really am gay.

Damn, damn, a million times damn!  This isn’t fair!  A distraction.  I need a distraction.  Anything!  And then, scrolling through the comments, I see it.  A comment made by a madhatter42:

“Bruh, this fag deserved it.  Being gay is a sin, and you will burn in hell for your homo-ness.”  Woah.  Excuse me?  That seems incredibly impuntent from someone who doesn’t even know this youtuber to say.  Glancing at the timestamp, I notice that this comment was posted less than a minute ago.  I can hear my Matt’s voice in my head as I begin to type on the keyboard: “Don’t get in fights with people on the internet!  They’re scumbags and assholes, the whole damn bunch.”  I know I shouldn’t post it.  Let sleeping dogs lie! Don’t poke lions with a stick.  I really shouldn’t post this.  I hit post.  As my comment pops up in madhatter42’s thread, I reread it.  “Who the hell are you to judge this man?  You know nothing about his life, his story.  If you didn’t know that he was gay, there is every chance that you two could have been friends!  Don’t judge people so discriminately.”  I regret it as soon as it gives me the thumbs up that my post has been successfully uploaded!  A pit begins growing in my stomach as I see a comment from madhatter42 pop up right underneath mine.  “What, you think fags deserve a chance at life?  This homo is a stain on the human race, just like every single one of them.”  Jesus Christ.  This poor human being, if you can even call them that, is completely blind to idea of equality I feel sick.  Unable to read any more, I shut my computer.  I have to get out of here. Taking my gym bag and dishes downstairs, I dump the dirty plate in the dishwasher, and go outside to wait for Matt.  Just as I’m sending the angry “Where the hell are you?” text, I see the old busted BMW fly down my street.  How can he even get that ancient thing to move that fast?  Throwing personal safety to the wind, I hop in the passenger seat, and toss my bag in the back.  Immediately I feel more comfortable.  This is my routine.  Matt and I have spent the last 3 years doing just this every Saturday.  The pre-talk brofist.  The revv of the engine.  And without a seconds hesitation, were off.  

“What’s up dude?” he inquires, breaking the awkward silence that I normally fill with my latest news.  “Sorry.  Just a bit shaken up.  I got in a fight with some asshole on the internet.”  

“Dude. What do I say about the internet?”  he replies.  “Well, I can’t really get on your case today actually.  I got in a fight too with some guy on youtube.”

I’m surprised.  “I thought you didn’t have a youtube account.”  He shoots me a grin.  “Signed up this morning! Anyways, I argued with this guy ‘cause he was defending a worthless fag about his video  What an asshole right?” Oh god.  No.  This can’t be happening.      “Uh huh.” I weakly respond.  “Hey, what did you say your account name was?”

“Oh it’s madhatter42.  Cool right?”  “Yea, sure.”  I whisper.  My mind is focused on other things.  Like the fact that my best friend is a homophobic.

And I’m still gay.             

Can the Media begin to Even Fathom Africa?

Max Drummond

Ms. Tompkins

WLH 2

10 March 2015

Can the Media begin to Even Fathom Africa?

    The media of today is a fast-paced, brainless beast, with attention for only the dramatic, and the ground-breaking, not the accurate details.  In such an indifferent world, the small details, the important facts, and the humanity of a situation can be entirely overlooked.  Such occurrences are all too common in a quick-changing area like Africa.  In fact, media degradation is having a serious affect on African pride, warping not only the whole world’s view of Africa, but also how Africa views itself.  

But what exactly is the main obstacle preventing politically correct publications?  Nanjala Nyabola from Al Jazeera blames an inability for correct translation, and states that when a multilingual person switches between languages, it's not just about finding the grammar or the syntax that best represents what they're trying to say. It's also about coded messages that indicate familiarity with the spoken to; that demand fraternity; that create space for all sorts of unspoken communication. It is in the informality of sheng' that tea (chai) or a soft drink (soda) becomes a bribe (Nyabola).  This means that, unfortunately, much informal spoken information may be lost in translation due to a worryingly small issue.  This issue is present in mainly small states, therefore an entire continent is an anomaly.  Simply because they have no media houses of their own in Africa that are taken seriously.

Patrick Gathara of The Guardian says that few African media houses are actually trying to cover the continent for the continent (Gathara). His reasoning coming from the fact that education is so thinly spread amongst the enormous population.  So if the West don’t understand the continent, and the continent doesn’t bother trying to cover itself, what are the issues behind Western coverage? The sheer inaccessibility of the elephantine land mass makes it incredibly hard to be anywhere in time to cover a story with an on scene reporter, forcing reporters to write from (often biased) eyewitness accounts, and sometimes from sources less reputable than that.  The continent is simply so big!  

And yet, even from the comfort of our own continent, the West often gets the affairs of Africa published in such a way that it causes outrage among activists and Africans alike.  Yurii Horton and associates believe that the media sets the tone for the morals, values, and images of our culture. Many people in this country, some of whom have never encountered black people, believe that the degrading stereotypes of blacks are based on reality and not fiction (Horton). If the media are expected to write about a people while that same media perpetuates awful stereotypes, how can they be expected to write factual articles without a hint of bias?  There is no direct culprit for this issue, be it an inability for translation, or a racist mindset belonging to the only media house writing on the problems of a continent, this issue does not just require public attention, but stands prominent among other issues, demanding, screaming for recognition, and ultimately solution.        

Works Cited:

Nyabola, Nanjala. "Why Do Western Media Get Africa Wrong?" - Al Jazeera English. - Al Jazeera English, 2 Jan. 2014. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/01/why-do-western-media-get-africa-wrong-20141152641935954.html?utm=from_old_mobile>.

Gathara, Patrick. "If Western Journalists Get Africa Wrong, Who Gets It Right?" If Western Journalists Get Africa Wrong, Who Gets It Right? The Guardian, 24 Jan. 2014. Web. 8 Mar. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/24/africa-media-who-gets-right>.

Horton, Yurii, Raagen Price, and Eric Brown. "Portrayal of Minorities in the Film, Media and Entertainment Industries." Portrayal of Minorities in the Film, Media and Entertainment Industries. EDGE, 1 June 1999. Web. 8 Mar. 2015. <https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/portrayal.htm>.

Msimangu: 

The character Msimangu is very authentic and observant of the world around him; he is not afraid to express his option even if it differs from the beliefs of the church and those around him. Alan Paton uses Msimangu to illustrate the conflict between how the complacent church feels and what the forward- moving younger generation craves and how these two viewpoints can connect and together to create what is the best solution in a ideal world. But, because Msimangu accepts the flaws of the world it forces the reader to think about solution in a practical way and with the characters come to the realization that often solving such a integral social issue is not simple or easy. Msimangu's character is also deeply empathetic and makes striking remarks about the tragic consquesses of the apartheid. 

pH 55 "I am not kind. I am selfish and sinful man, but god put his hands on me"

pg 56 "But the house that is broken, and the man that falls apart when the house is broken, these are the tragic things."

pg 70 "Because the white man has power, we too want power he said but one a black man gets power,  when he gets money, he is a great man if he is not corrupted....and because our desire is corrupt ,we are corrupted, and the power has no heart in it"

Concealed

The Suitcase

“We crept up to the suitcase.  It was tied with a thick rope of plaited straw, knotted crosswise.  We removed the rope and raised the lid in silence.  Inside, piles of books shone in the light of our torch: a company of great Western writers welcomed us with open arms.  On top was our old friend Balzac, with five or six novels, then came Victor Hugo, Stendahl, Dumas, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Romain Rolland, Rousseau, Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and some English writers, too: Dickens, Kipling, Emily Brontë…” (99).    

“The magic of translation! The ponderousness of the two syllables as wells the belligerent, somewhat old fashioned ring of the name were quite gone, now that the four characters- very elegant, each composed of just a few strokes-banded together to create and unusual beauty, redolent with exotic fragrance as sensual as the perfume wreathing a wine stored for centuries in a cellar,”(58).

The author uses the suitcase to emphasize freedom. These forbidden Western novels refer back to Old China, where Western ideas thrived and independence penetrated through Chinese society. The books inside the suitcase capture their mind into a non-revolutionary roller coaster where they can be free to think whatever they wish.

Coming of age is about learning and expanding your mindset to different ideas and concepts. it is being able to choose what you believe in based on different ideas you gather. The Cultural Revolution is pounding certain limited ideas into the minds of the people, and they are forced to believe in these ideas or they will be punished. The books offer more though, it offers new ideas and emotions that interest Luo and the narrator. The boys are being exposed to different things, a new world. Each book they read broadens their knowledge and gives them the option to chose, to chose what they believe in and what they want to learn.

The Movies

“We welcomed the challenge, and to be on the safe side we sat through two screenings in succession. The basketball court of the town’s high school had been converted into a makeshift open-air cinema.  The local girls were gorgeous, but we forced ourselves to concentrate on the screen, paying close attention to the dialogue, to the actor’s costumes and gestures, to the setting of every scene, even to the music,”(19).

“Phoenix mountain was so remote from civilization that most of the inhabitants had never had the opportunity of seeing a film, let alone visit a cinema. [...] By the time we, or rather he, reached the end of the story, in the allotted time, our audience was ecstatic,” (19-20).

Since the start of Luo and the narrator’s re-education, the two boys have led very serious lives. Being forced into such laborious work at such a young age while they are so far from home takes a toll on the spirits of the boys at times. Going to the movies represents an escape. An escape from the hard work they are forced to do, an escape from their troubles and an escape from their new lives they are forced to lead.

The movies connect to coming of age because every day of Luo and the narrator’s lives in re-education they are forced to grow up and mature in some way. Whether it be learning how to navigate without anyone looking out for them, or hard work that forces them to take on new responsibilities Luo and the narrator mature and come of age every day. The movies offer an escape from this forced coming of age and help the boys relax and just for a little while shirk their responsibilities. In a way, however, it also gives the boys even more responsibilities whether or not they realize it. By being given the duty of reporting back the movie to everyone in the village and giving them all an enjoyable experience, the boys are in a way being burdened with even more responsibility and further accelerating their coming of age when they don’t even realize it.  

Misleading Memories

Picture of Scared Child with Quote
Picture of Poverty With Question
Picture of Laughing Baby  
Picture of Crying Baby 
Picture of Supreme Court 
Picture of Police Lineup 
Picture of Comic 
Picture of Skull and Crossbones