The genre of gangsta rap was key for L.A. ghetto youth and was used as an inspiration and as a way for the hip hop industry to be able to relate to the youth in urban areas. The ability for hip hop artists to speak upon their struggles was easily relatable to the youth because they were able to relate to what artists were rapping about. More specifically, the struggles of being black in America and growing up especially as a black male with all these stereotypes. Moreover, during the 80′s the rap group N.W.A.  spoke to  L.A. youth and rapped about the realities of being black in America. They were a larger representation of blacks and were a key group that was an inspiration towards the black power movement.

I enjoyed both documentaries. The Black Kung Fu experience pulled my attention more because it was great to be able to see the Chinese culture and history behind Kung Fu and have another culture (black) be inspired by it and take in the Kung Fu experience as well. The black experience with Kung Fu is unique in a sense of because of the history of our past. Looking backwards to the 60s and 70s time period and how this was a time period that was key for self awareness and a sense of pride for blacks…an inspiration for blacks to be able to fight back. Black Power!

The art of Kung Fu and the way its used as dance because the movements are so similar, for blacks especially was something that gives the black Kung Fu experience a lot of uniqueness. While also respecting the roots of where Kung Fu was created, the black Kung Fu leaders recognized that in order to practice Kung Fu, you are also living it as well. You know what’s funny though is the fact that the black Kung Fu figure was always the bad guy in every film produced…seems to be the case in a lot of scenarios.

Overall, Kung Fu has been an inspiration to many which we saw in both documentaries. It is very well known and used as a means for art and a way of life for many cultures, it is not just the practice of Kung Fu itself, it is what many live their lives by.

I liked this movie. It touched on so many different issues. Specifically, some that I can personally relate to. One thing that grabbed my attention after pondering about the movie was the irony throughout the movie. More specifically, the fact that here is Wil’s mother being unaccepting that she is a lesbian, meanwhile she is pregnant at an old age with a male who she is not married to and who is also a lot younger than her. We see them both struggling, yet instead of embracing the struggle and dealing with them together, they are pushed further away from each other until near the end of the movie. This was where Wil finally straight up told her mother that she was a lesbian and although her mother did not want to hear it, she still realized she had to accept it. In the end, they both learned from each other’s experiences.

The Generation Gap between Wilhelmina, her mother, and Wil’s Grandfather was obvious through the series of events as well. The fact that her mother was nearly disowned by her father because she was pregnant and not married was an embarrassment to her father. When it is pretty common now days with younger generations to have children and not be married yet. However, her father took this as a slap in the face. Moreover, Wil’s mother had married once to please her father and was about to marry again for the same reason. Wil’s girlfriend taught Wil the importance and power of love which then transferred to a lesson taught to her own mother. Happiness is what is most important, regardless of the situation.

Ch. 6

• Identity-based oppression vs. identity-based exploitation
• Queerness and it’s relation to political economy
• “They were, in Raymond WIlliam’s useful terms, “residual” rather than “dominant,” the vestiges of an earlier historical moment that found their exploitation legitimate or at least manageable. But they are paradigmatic because they were also an “emergent” formation that may have tragically arisen to dominance.” (125)

Ch. 10

• How to effectively create change (The Slanted Screen) in relation to Japanese American’s appropriating “Americanness” to further their own inclusion in the nation

Ch. 11

• The term “Cablinasian”- can we all make up our own races/cultures into a new category? How does this help us as a whole/effectively make change?
• The struggle in having the racial background of two or more minorities
• “Woods’s multiracial identity is recuperated as a kind of testimonial to racial progress that simultaneously celebrates diversity in the form of Cablinasianness and the multiplicity that category suggests while erasing the histories of black disenfranchisement, racial –sexual violence, and U.S. imperialism that generate, result from, and entrench the legal, scientific, and popular definitions of race, including each racial component of Cablinasianness and their various amalgamations.” (223) Can we really erase the history behind racial barriers?

After this weeks reading, there has been a lot of information expressed about the Chinese race. It’s crazy to think about how the minorities are always subject to prejudice and racism in one form or another. This is one thing that we all have in common. Over time, we have been subject to dealing with these issues. The fact that the “yellowface” was mocked after “blackface” for minstrel shows proves the point of the continued attempt to make minorities feel inferior to the superior.

“The Chinese who immigrated to the United States as laborers arrived, in fact, as free labor in both the legal and the economic sense. However, once here, Chinese workers became intensely proletarianized and racially excluded “coolies.” The designation of hireling labor as “coolie labor,” like its analog “nigger work,” racialized the meaning of common labor.” (58)

This quote stuck out to me because it reminded me of the commonality between Chinese and Japanese Americans and what we studied last quarter. Over time, both races became racially excluded….anything to make the two groups feel inferior, but then again, we see this has always been the case for minorities. By adding a racial slur to the word work or labor already implies that the work is less than what common labor is because it is also differentiating the Workingman and the Proletarian.

“Wake up Ben! you’re just as brown as the rest of us.”

This quote struck out to me because I think so many minorities deal with this while living in America. Moreover, as we have seen during fall quarter and so far in this quarter, Asian American’s, more specifically Japanese American’s struggled with embracing both of their identities of being both Japanese and American. This is clear throughout the film with Ben as well, he is Filipino and also American, however, he tries to hide his Filipino culture as much as possible. It’s important to never forget your roots and where you came from which is what his older sister was trying to help him see.

The importance of family is another key aspect throughout the film that Ben finally begins to realize towards the end of the film. We see this at his sister’s party and how his white friends were so interested in his culture. I think he is surprised about how interested they are and realizes that family is very important. This also reminds me of last quarter with Japanese Americans always being able to count on their family and look to family in crucial times of need. So far we have seen that family is extremely important in the Asian culture. In addition, I think for all minorities, we see how truly important it is that we hold our family sacred to our hearts because of everything minorities have been through. That is one thing we have in common. We can always look to our families for support and as a remembrance of our roots. Because during the times that some experience the challenges in dealing with identity issues, when white America pulls those away from their roots, it is important to always look back to our family as a reminder of where we are from.

There is also a connection in Gran Torino with family. We see how Walt learns the importance of family through another family that is not even his and that is also an Asian family. Although Walt has pre judgments because of his experience in the Korean war, as he starts to learn more about Thao’s family, he begins to appreciate his own family much more. For instance, he tries to call his son and reconnect with him. Moreover, at the end of the movie he sacrifices his life for Thao and his family.

One thing that caught my attention right from the beginning of the film The Debut was that I noticed that three of the films we have watched so far have all had the main character’s name the same of  Ben. I wondered why the name Ben is so popularly used for Asian American actors.

From the beginning of the film, it is clear that Ben is ashamed of his Filipino family and attempts to fit in with white/western American culture as much as possible. For instance, he hangs out with his two white friends as much as possible and at the beginning he is embarrassed and does not want to let them in his home. Throughout the film, we see that he continues to struggle with this because he is constantly trying to avoid spending time with his family and is always fighting with his father and/or having issues with his sister. Moreover, Ben struggles because he is resisting what his family expects from him because his dream is to go to school for art yet his father pushes him along with other members to go to medical school and to be a doctor. It’s obvious that Ben does not understand why his father calls him spoiled throughout the movie because he does not realize that his father made a sacrifice of his dreams to be the father that he needed to be and take care of more important responsibilities such as raising his family.

The generation gap between Ben and his parents, mainly his father, demonstrates that he has a difficult time accepting his family and his identity because he does not know his native language very well unlike all his other family members. As he meets other Filipino’s he starts to realize he needs to become more in touch with his roots. I do believe his white friends helped him to be able to see this as well as his mother and his sister and in the end, he understands where his father is coming from. Furthermore, when he deals with Gusto in the fight and how he is treated by him because they believe he is a sell out and they call him a “coconut” basically implying that he’s brown on the outside but white in the inside. This generation gap reminded me of last quarter’s program when we discussed the issues that Japanese American Issei and Nisei experienced. I saw some similarities with the two races of Japanese and Filipino’s experiencing similar issues.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and was able to draw many different connections and relate them to issues discussed in previous programs as well as being able to make personal connections. I also found it interesting to be able to see the Asian American experience through the lens of a Filipino American.

Initially, the title Gran Torino struck out to me and I wondered why that was the name of the film, and even throughout the film, i kept questioning and looking for more clues to lead me into knowing the reason for the title as well. At the end of the movie, we see that in Clint Eastwood’s will he gives Thao his Gran Torino. His dog Daisy, I believe took the place of Walt after his death and was just as important to Thao as Walt was.

His plan to go to the gangs house because he knew they would kill him. I think the film did a great job with showing Walt’s growth as a person throughout the film. From the beginning he was bitter about his wife’s death and being in the war and having the weight on his shoulders of how many people he had killed in the war.

I thought it was really sad when he called his son to try and gain a closer relationship yet his son told him he was too busy and then soon after this scene I made the complete connection realizing that he wanted a closer relationship with both of his sons. Moreover, it was also important to note that while he had all these pre-judgements of his neighbors, he became closer to them than he was with his own family. One reason seemed to be because his family was very greedy and “spoiled” as he stated in the movie, it was clear they were only concerned about his possessions and the Gran Torino he owned. Yet, although he was rude to his neighbors, they still found the good in his heart and took him in as part of their family.

The quote from Thao’s sister Sue “You’re old fashioned too, but you’re American” when she was talking to Walt grabbed my attention because it made me think of issues discussed in last quarters program and how Japanese American’s had to try and fit in to western culture in order to be able to feel like they were part of the American culture. It also seemed to reveal the struggle to embrace both double identities that make up her own identity.

Furthermore, there seemed to be quite a bit of foreshadow of Walt’s death throughout the film. For instance, when he went in to the doctor, there was never an actual diagnosis to what his illness was. However, it was clear that he was ill because he continuously was coughing up blood. This seemed to be insinuating that at some point he was going to die. Then at the end of the film he was killed.

The film demonstrated Walt’s growth as an individual through the relationships he had made with the Thao and Sue and their family. Meanwhile, Thao’s character showed a lot of growth as well. Walt helped him become more of a man and he was able to fend for himself while Thao helped Walt become more sensitive and caring