“We will overcome”

Initially, I didn’t know what to expect from this movie. Just from the title alone, I assumed it was probably a documentary on Southeast Asians. Instead, it’s a fictional, yet realistic tale of a Indian male by the name of Khan who lives with the condition known as Asperger’s Syndrome. Despite this, he is a simple, good-natured man who is always trying to find a way to help others. After his brother Zakir leaves for the United States for a better life, their mother soon passes away and Khan takes it upon himself to fulfill his mother’s wish of having a better life.

Upon arriving in the United States, Zakir takes him in to give him work and pay. Zakir isn’t really fond of having Khan over since he used to be jealous of how Khan got all the attention when they were growing up back home. It should be understood, though, that the reason Khan received more attention was how fragile he was due to the social anxiety and difficulties caused by the onset of Asperger’s Syndrome. Eventually he meets an Indian woman named Mandira and comes to know her son Sameer. Eventually they all get to know each other well that Mandira and Rizvan Khan marry, already having formed a family with Sameer on board.

The 9/11 attacks spur this movie into a dramatic downward spiral. The attacks bring rise of prejudice against those of Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian descent. This culminates into the ultimate loss for Mandira, when Sameer is killed by bullies at school who picked on him because of his race. Mandira takes out her anger and sorrow on Khan, blaming him for her son’s death. Seeing no other way to appeal Mandira, Khan sets out to do what she told him and seeks out the president of the U.S. to tell him that he is not a terrorist. Along the way, his good-natured attitude affects those he meets, including Mama Jenny and her son in Wilhemina. It is interesting to note that the African American community there treated him as their own, despite his difference. He returned the favor by singing the common song “We Will Overcome” with the choir there, signifying that  he is not the only one struggling to make it in the world.

When he tries to meet the president, he is misheard and branded as a terrorist by the crowd, causing him to be apprehended. Thankfully a duo of Indian college students bring attention to his case, causing him to be released after it’s determined that he isn’t a terrorist. He returns to Wilhemina after it’s hit by a terrible storm, and lends a hand in helping the remaining community survive. His actions portray a positive image for all Middle Eastern and Southeast Asians, causing them to aid in the recovery efforts to show that they are as American as everyone. In the end, justice was served and Khan got to meet the president, who was now Obama.

This movie played plenty of themes. One theme was prejudice, which had a few forms in this movie. The prejudice of race was apparent before and after the ordeals of 9/11. For example, when Khan told Zakir he was going to marry Mandira, Zakir mentioned he can’t marry her because “she is a Hindu”. A post 9/11 example would be the anger towards Hindus, Indians, or anyone with a South Asian descent due to the threat of terrorism. Another theme present in this movie was the journey motif. Khan had no idea on how to live in the U.S., but used his remarkable skills to repair almost anything to help him along the way, just to prove he isn’t a terrorist. He travels not only from his homeland, but a great expanse over the American nation, just to win Mandira’s love back and to win justice for all those who are suffering the same prejudice as him. Finally there’s the theme to “overcome”. Not only did his Khan’s mother sang it, but the choir at Wilhemina and Mandira as well. Almost everyone in the movie sang the song. It’s a symbol that eventually all obstacles and misunderstandings will come to pass someday. It may not be immediate or sometimes in a person’s lifetime, but eventually there will come an understanding that will bring everyone together, no matter what their background.

This movie right here. This was a one of the emotional movies that I’ve ever seen. In this class as always I learned more about a race that I had no knowledge of what happened to them. In the movie where before 9/11 everything was fine and dandy with all the Indian Americans in the world and 9/11 hit everyone starts hating them. Why? They have just as much right to be here as we do. Why is it when something bad happens in the U.S mainly automatically after when finding out the people responsible, America turns against them. Everything about that particular race becomes wrong and bad even if their Indian American. Where in the electronic store where the owner was getting abused verbally and physically just because he resembles a Indian, but hes also American. Why don’t Americans realize this. This bugs the hell out of me and is wrong on so many levels. Even in schools where Sam was being ignored by one of his best friends and trying to see what he did wrong and just because of the color of his skin. Then when it gets to out of hand, someone dies and that was sad and wrong. It seems like a circle of tragic events that happen to races and I believe it will keep happening because America is not going to change when it comes to hating one race when something bad happens in the U.S. and affects thousands of U.S. lives and then boom. Hatred toward that whole race and they become the bad guys. They may have not started to caused the tragedy to happen, but just because of their skin and they resemble the bad guy. Someone needs to put a stop to this. That’s what I thought mostly about the movie we watched. Anyone who wants to know what happened to Indian Americans and what they faced post 9/11, they should watch this film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_Is_Khan

This death theme I chose I drew from the excerpt by Harry talking about suicide and the second part really boggled and made me think about Japanese all together on page 87.

The excerpt says,”Throughout history, we Japanese have always appreciated suicide. For us it is a beautiful thing that gives meaning and shape and honor to our lives forever. It is a method to make our feeling of alive most real. For many thousands of years this our tradition.”

This part was amazing to me and reminded me of 47 Ronin where the seppuku is such a traditional thing during the samurai times and was really wondering from fellow Japanese or anyone if this tradition of suicide is so greatly expressed in a way where suicide is the way to show honor and makes felling of alive most real. Where in 47 Ronin where the samurai got to perform seppuku to have honor and to feel proud of what they did even though it was against all that the emperor said to do. Questions and also thought that was a cool connection, but this I would like to be answered if anyone would know. Enjoyed the book so far a bit confusing at sometimes, but hope everyone has a good weekend. Peace

Reading Kato I found a section where it really reached out to me. This paragraph of words is powerful to me. It’s mid section where it is explained as a constitutional aspect of hip hop aesthetics.

“From the beginning hip hop’s development, before there was even a word to describe it, hip hop was about looking for the perfect break and juggling it back and forth on two turntables. . . . And that perfect break could come from anywhere: Funk, Bebop, Classical, or Rock–any musician able to strike a groove for just a bar or two. . . .It is a music made up of bits and pieces of preexisting sounds–looped, collaged, and layered until they take a new identity.”

Then Kato says that in Jeet Kune Do and hip hop, creativity arises from the autonomy of self-expression. This right here blew me away because I know that way back in the day the section above, music was like that and now it’s a different story. Self-expression that one experiences when they make a song, rap, symphony it doesn’t matter what it may be because self-expressing yourself was the main motive. Some may do that now, but the way people view and hear music especially rap and hip hop has changed. Some peoples music and lyrics have gone beyond the main focus of what hip hop was and what some rappers made it to be. Ever since the lost of some of the big fish of hip hop, the genre has fallen, but still gathers attention, but as much as people would hope well that’s what I think. Hope that hip hop somewhat brings what it had when great MCs made hip hop great and not now for what it has become.

Pop-osition 3) The meaning and authority invested in the word “father” or “pappy” comes from a globalized legacy of European imperialism.

I found this chapter interesting because it reminded me of something I learned about in a previous class I took.  I took a Women’s Anthropology class before I came to Evergreen.  I absolutely loved it and learned so much about myself and about many different cultures all over the world.  However, we were looking at the Patriarchal systems that run most of the world, and were questioning why it is that men seem to run things in many different cultures throughout history and all over the world.  ”The digression is the point: terms like “pappy,” and like his pedos for that matter, have an interestingly wide circulation in time and space, and have original meanings that can be remade, and can be remade in the interest of tapping sources of authority, or even deflecting their reach.” (Diaz, pg. 103)  We studied many different cultures, most of which were Patriarchal.  Specifically we looked at, a Matriarchal system.  What we came up with was that Patriarchy isn’t something that is innately in us as human beings; it is cultural.  It is formed by a Patriarchal society that has the power to make it that way.  So in terms of this chapter, and the term “pappy” and it’s many forms, it’s interesting to see how Patriarchy plays out in so many European countries.

Through reading this book, I was looking forward to watching the fight between Lee and Ohara. This was because it was interesting that the actors looked confused in the film while in reality, according to the book, “Bruce had stated on several occasions that Bob was not a friend of his and he had even expressed outright antagonism toward Bob. … Bruce had been meeting with his stuntmen and agreed he had to exact revenge for this treacherous act.” (Kato, p122) Honestly, I couldn’t believe that Bob had made the accident on purpose, because sometimes battle movies like this have some accidents; however, I’m not a fighting specialist and I know Lee was a Kung Fu specialist, so I decided to believe his words before watching the movie.

Click here to view the embedded video.

After I finished watching, I checked the fighting scene between Lee and Ohara again because I wanted to make sure the sentence in this book was true: “Toward the end of this scene, the emotional intensity not only of Lee but also of the extras present on the screen (…) had reached its peak, projecting a strong aura from the screen.” (Kato, p122) After I watched the scene twice, I found one extra in back was jumping. I assumed it was his action made in the background of the making of this movie. I learned from this book and this film that knowing film analysis before watching movies is very helpful and important because I can know more about the movies, including background events.