The film Sleep Dealer directed by Alex Rivera sits at the intersection of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and ecocriticism. It is the story of a man named Memo and his struggles to provide for his family in a modern time where people have nodes that allow them to directly interface with computers and robots. I am unsure what part of Mexico or South America that he is living in but Memo lived in a small river valley called Santa Anna. The river had been dammed and Memo’s family were no longer able to grow crops due to the high cost of water. Memo gets in trouble when he overhears a government transmission. They conduct a drone strike on his home which results in the death of his father. Memo leaves his home in search of work and nodes. Memo ends up meeting a woman that helps him get his nodes and without his knowledge is selling her memories of him to support herself. They start to fall in love and Memo gets his nodes. This allows him to find employment as a welding robot. He ends up working extremely long hours and sending the money home.It is obvious that the working conditions for Memo were less than safe. I believe that there is a scene where he is allowed to work an 18 hour shift and ends up “dying” as his robot falls off the skyscraper he is working on. After some time it is revealed that he has co-workers that are dying and Memo ends up helping his boss drag the co-worker off of the main work floor. The story takes a very interesting twist when the drone pilot that killed his father is the one buying information about Memo from his girlfriend. They end up meeting in person, and that results in the pilot helping Memo destroy the dam that had blocked the river that had provided for him and his family for years.

Throughout this film it was easy to see how this film related to CRT and ecocriticism. The CRT aspect to me has to do with the American outsourcing of work to lower income populations outside of the country where regulations are less strict. In my eyes it is accessing the workers, without actually having to provide reasonable wages, occupational safety standards, or having anyone else enter the North American continent. It is obvious that there is unfair treatment of these employees as well. On the other side of this there is the ecocritical lens. This film starts with the need for water and ends with the dam breaking and people having access to water again. It is obvious that Memo’s family had a strong connection to the earth. Without access to natural resources like water, they were unable to provide for themselves. All in all, this was an excellent film that examines hard topics like worker equality, and environmental exploitation.

I had only looked at ecocriticism through a somewhat limited lens prior to reading these articles and watching the TED talk. The chapter from Earth Democracy by Vandana Shiva really stood out to me. The idea of looking at issues around the environment not only as environmental issues is something that I must have overlooked prior. What I took from this chapter was that environmental issues are not only environmental, but they are human problems. When looking at the principles of Earth Democracy as described by Vandana Shiva it is easy to see the strong correlation between ecological concerns like global warming or extinction and human concerns like racism and genocide. If we are unable to address issues of environment, we are likely to struggle in solving issues on a human level and vice versa. They go hand in hand in that aspect. The lack of respect shown for people of other race, culture, or identity is not so different from the disrespect shown to our planet. This message is echoed in the second reading titled Toward an Environmental Justice Ecocriticism by T.V. Reed with a somewhat different twist. One of the things that stood out to me about this reading was the examples of racism and phrases used to describe out natural world. The examples in the text included “urban jungle” and “savage wilderness”. It is powerful to read these phrases and have the awareness to recognize that even phrases in relation to nature can perpetuate themes of racism.

The thing that in a way drew all these themes together was the TED talk titled Green is the New Black by Shannon Prince. In this TED talk the presenter looked at the similarities between slavery and the exploitation of our natural resources. I enjoyed her use of Tupac to further emphasis her point and her somewhat literal translation of the lyric. Shannon Prince went further to compare the difference in birth weight between a mother that has access to green space, and a mother that has not. This video helps blend critical race theory and ecocriticism in a way that helped this all come together.

What I took away from the two readings and the TED talk was that we are often separating two issues that should be looked at collectively. We are very unlikely to address the issues of racism if we cannot respect the environment, and issues of environment without addressing racism. They are connected and a result of a of similar exploitative and colonial beliefs.

The film Avatar is an excellent film that covers a wide range of topics that fall into the category of ecocriticism. Throughout the film there are looking at the idea of white colonialist wanting to exploit the planet Pandora. At the beginning of the film a solider who goes by Sully has been sent to Pandora to take his twin brothers place in an avatar that was created to only work with their DNA. Sully ends up being asked to be a spy for the Colonel and his task is to learn the ways of the Na’vi. He is taken under the wing of a Na’vi woman. After some time, Sully learns the ways of the Na’vi from this woman and they fall in love. Shortly after Sully is accepted by the Navi people it is time for whatever company that flew Sully out there to start deforesting Pandora in hopes of harvesting unobtanium that sells for millions of dollars on Earth. Classic case of white men taking advantage of a group of people and natural resources for monetary gain. The group trying to colonize pandora attacks the Na’vi people and destroy their home tree. At this time our hero, Sully who is not of the Na’vi people becomes the hero and rallies the Na’vi people to fight against their oppressor, and eventually send them on their way back to earth. One of the things that stood out to me watching this film for this class was the fact that the hero was a white male. In chapter thirteen of Ecofeminism Women Culture Nature the author Karren Warren looks at the idea around nature being defined as female and only being described by male authors like John Muir. This film is an amazing comment on human’s ability to damage or exploit our surroundings through the use of amazing graphics and a beautiful world.

There is also something to say about this film being used as a tool for environmental discourse. I hope that people watch this film and are able to look at their own practice or the practice of the world around them and recognize the similarities between our world and this film.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind directed by Hayao Miyazaki is a wonderful film about a princess Nausicaa. The film starts with another character though. Master Yupa is exploring an abandoned town that has been infected by the toxic forest. This first scene gives us an idea about what the rest of the film has in store. There is a very delicate relationship between the people of the Valley of the Wind. This toxic forest has been slowly expanding. Then it goes to Nausicaa exploring the forest. She is wearing a mask that protects her from the toxic are of the forest. While she is exploring, she finds the exoskeleton of an Ohmu. An Ohmu is a giant sand crab like creature with multiple eyes. She explores its giant shell and takes one of its eye caps and is hoping to return home when she runs into Master Yupa being chased by a very angry Ohmu. Nausicaa gets on her glider (super cool) and flies to his rescue where she calms the Ohmu and guides it back to the forest. At this point you begin to see the value that Nausicaa places in the environment. They return to the valley where Nausicaa tells the village where the Ohmu shell can be found so that they can use it building material. Shortly after they return to the valley a plane crashes containing dangerous cargo, and the owners of the ship, the Tolmekians occupy the valley. Throughout the rest of the film Nausicaa is trying to escape their control, and stop another group of people, the Pejites from destroying their world by angering the Ohmu and causing a stampede.

                This is an excellent film that looks at the relationship between people over land and resources, and the relationship between people and the land. They show these struggles between the Tolmekians, and the Pejites. The Pejites have had their home destroyed by the Tolmekians who crave power. The relationship between Nausicaa and nature is the one that stands out to me throughout this film. Her ability to calm the insects when they were angered, and to stand up against all odds for their safety. At the end of the film she stops the giant stampede and saves the baby Ohmu and in a way brings peace to the Valley of the Wind. In the article An Ecocritical Reading of Hayao Miyzaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: Territory, Toxicity, and Animals by Phacharawan Boonpromkul they discuss how this film speaks to many of the environmental concerns that we deal with today over 30 years since this film was made. It is powerful to see the impact that this film still has today.

I am sitting here shortly after finishing the movie Okja, directed by Boon Joon-ho. It was a wonderful film about a young girl Mija and her experience fighting to protect her giant pig like creature Okja. The movie starts with a press release explaining the Mirando Coperation’s plan to send 26 giant pig like creatures to farmers around the world in hopes of producing a meat that will have less of an impact on the environment. This scene leads into Mija and Okja going about their day, looking for food and taking naps. Mijas father was one of the farmers chosen to care for these giant creatures in hopes of producing the best one that would attend a contest in New York. Shortly thereafter representatives from the Mirando Coperation show up to collect Okja, and take her back to New York where she will be exploited for her resources. The film is showing Mija’s struggle to get Okja back to her home in the mountains where she will be safe from the people hoping to exploit her.

Looking at the first question “How are nature and culture represented in this text?” It is easy to see that nature is represented as a resource that is on one hand valued, and on another one that is to be exploited and twisted for the benefit of humans. It is clear that Mija values nature and her relationship with it. On the other end of the spectrum there is the Mirando Coperation whose goal is to genetically modify animals to produce not a “cash cow” but a cash pig. This film portrays the Mirando Coperation as the obvious villain that is lying about their plans and hiding in plain sight.

The second question is “How do we see issues of environmental disaster and crises reflected in “Okja”? How are ecoactivists portrayed? How are corporations portrayed? Where does middle ground exist?”. Well, there is very little blatant reflection on the issue of environmental disaster or crisis in this film, but they are hinting at the fact that the world is running out of renewable resources, so they are looking for another way to address this issue through further exploitation. It does hint at the idea that humans will go to any length to exploit a resource to advance their position in the world. Humans are notorious for being blinded by greed and not seeing the damage done by their actions. Ecoactivist are a big part of this film and play the traditional “criminal” role. They are hiding, wearing masks, and resorting to violence (even when their creed says otherwise). The coperations are playing a white collar crime role. They are hiding their crimes from the public and making it look like a good thing. I did not see very much middle ground in this film. In my eyes it was a battle between two polar opposites, resulting in the “success” of both parties. The Mirando Coperation continued to slaughter the giant pigs for profit, and Mija got to take Okja home.

Lastly, “How are animals represented in this text and what is their relationship to humans?” The relationship between Okja and Mija is a powerful one. They have spent 10 years together building a strong bond. Okja has saved Mija’s life, and Mija has saved Okja’s. It is a view of nature that most of the world is very detached from. We have little to no involvement in the procurement, or production of our own food. Taking the life of an animal to feed yourself is not an easy task and let alone one that many people have had to be involved with. The majority of the population goes to the supermarket, buys their meat in a saranwrap package, and consumes it with little to no thought about where it came from, how it was raised, the impact that it had on the life of the animal, or on our planet. I am guilty of this numerous times a week and continue to go through the motions without consequence. I have accessed natural resources through hunting and fishing, the relationship that is had when you are responsible to taking the life of another animal for your own nourishment is not one to be taken lightly, but sadly I continue to take advantage of the convenient, easily accessed resources that are obviously maltreated. This film will result in some serous reflection on my food choices, and hopefully will inspire others to do the same.

Snickers is a delicious candy, but their commercials are pretty odd. The snickers commercial from the super bowl is no exception. Their typical approach is “You’re not you when your hungry”, but this year it seems like they are taking a much different approach. The commercial is mostly short comments on the state of our country, environment, and human interactions. It ranges from everyone taking dirty pictures to children being named after vegetables and at some point, they think that feeding the earth a giant snickers bar will address these issues. Looking at this add from an ecocriticism view, there is quiet a bit to unpack.

Nature is oddly represented in this add. It is only on the screen when a large group of people are walking towards the giant hole. This stands out to me as a representation of how people treat the earth, by walking all over it. Mars company has been working towards becoming a more sustainable business, and has some pretty major sustainability objectives for the next 30 years based on their sustainability score card.

One of the first things to stand out to me about this add was the joking attitude about whether or not this giant snickers would actually work. In a way this stood out to me as a joke about attempts to address these worldly issues. Will anything work? We don’t know. I very well could be reading into this too much but there is something to be said about the odd use of humor. People try things to change the issues that they covered in this add like politics, and technological issues but my message from this was is it really changing anything?

Lastly the idea of dropping a giant snickers into a man made hole in the ground? What a thought. For me this is just odd and speaks to the damage that humans have done. This add seems almost satirical in nature. They are making light of a very serious issue; humans are so worried and caught up in these other issues but fail to address one of the most important. If we destroy our planet, there will be no one to worry about a surveillance state, no politicians, and no children to name after vegetables. If we stop caring (like dropping giant pieces of candy into the ground) we are only hurting ourselves.

I really enjoyed watching Babel. Having multiple plots not necessarily taking place in the order the movie presented them in added to the shock factor of this film. In the article The Contingency of Connection: The Path TO Politicization in Babel written by Todd McGowan the idea of idea of the contingency was explored in a detail that may have been written in a way that was a little bit over my head. In the same article the author writes…                     

“Recognizing structural incompetition requires an ability to see contingency at the point where explanations break down and where one typically posits the mysterious power of God. The place where a final signifier is missing represents the place where the contingent resides. But it is difficult to see the contingent as contingent and not interpret it according to some hidden necessity determined by the real Other behind the scenes.”

Very interesting comment on humans understanding of the unknown, but this film speaks to that idea of contingency. The Japanese father Yasujiro Wataya, gives a hunting rifle to Yussef and Ahmed’s father, who in turn lets them use it to shoot jackals, which results in the bullet hitting Susan, starting her and her husband’s journey to find medical care in Morocco. Even this very small part of the plot leads back to that idea of the unknown. It may seem very unlikely, as many things in life are, but can only be understood as random, or contingent.

This article continues to look at the role of contingence and connection. I may have missed the director’s original intentions with this film. There were some very deep philosophical messages being communicated. I did sense a lack of connection with Chieko, the two boys Yussef and Ahmed, and their father, the couple Susan and Richard, and so on. My original thought was that it was a comment on the children’s role in the parent’s life, and the parent’s effect on theirs. Almost every major scene is the result of an interaction between a parent and their child, especially towards the end of the film where Brad Pitts character is talking to his son on the phone, the nanny dancing with her son, the father comforting his daughter, and Ahmeds death.

This film was incredibly enjoyable to watch even with some of the dark themes. Reading it along with the article by Todd McGowan opened my eyes up to some of the unseen messages. The commentary on the role of contingence and connection is true to life and some of the unexplainable situations that we encounter. With out the randomness that contingence offers we would be living in a world where many of our opportunities to connect would be missed.

The movie Black Panther was an enjoyable Marvel film with a much more complex message then their films in the past. T’Challa has become the king of Wakanda after the unexpected death of his father. The world is looking to Wakanda in hopes of accessing its most valuable resource vibranium. T’Challa steps into his role as kind and seeks to stop a group of thieves from stealing a historical artifact containing vibranium. The plot thickens as one of the thieves (who we later find out is T’Challa’s cousin) kills his partner in crime and challenges T’Challa’s place on the throne of Wakanda. He wins and the country spins into turmoil. The cousin is planning on using incredible technology that they must remove the forces oppressing all African Americans. To sum this up quickly, T’Challa saves the day, and they decide to address the issues of oppression and racism in a less violent manner by educating people and providing resources.

The articles that we read looking at the criticisms of the film were very interesting. My favorite of the two was the New York Times article written by Carvell Wallace titled Why ‘Black Panther’ Is a Defining Moment for Black America. This article looked at the potential challenges that came with producing this film, but also looks at the hope that movies that cast culturally appropriate roles, and empower women actors has on people. One of the quotes that points out the rarity of this feeling for African Americans.  “In a video posted to Twitter in December, which has since gone viral, three young men are seen fawning over the “Black Panther” poster at a movie theater. One jokingly embraces the poster while another asks, rhetorically: “This is what white people get to feel all the time?” There is laughter before someone says, as though delivering the punch line to the most painful joke ever told: “I would love this country, too.” Wow. We are failing to provide people of other cultures something as simple as a culturally appropriate film.

When watching Black Panther with the intention to analyze, I saw a lot more that I missed the first time through. It is a powerful comment on race, and the anger that is felt by people about the oppression that is perpetuated by white culture. The ending where the white guy asks something along the lines of “What would your country have to offer that we don’t already have?” And very little is said as T’Challa grins. He knows that there is so much more him and his people. I appreciated view of a non-violent approach through education. This is true today. People will continue to fight and oppress each other without people coming together and learning from one another.

The readings on Critical Race Theory (CRT) this week were very interesting and insightful. My understanding of CRT at this time is probably best defined in a way that is similar to how it was described on the Owl Perdue Website. They initially talk about CRT as an interpretive model that looks at racism in a dominant cultures media, and messages. The Owl Perdue page on CRT continues to look at how individuals using CRT look at the impact of these messages and how they might combat these views. In the article “Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory?” by Derrick A. Bell he looks at CRT in a few different ways. The first one being the results of a standardized IQ test. In the last few years I remember being a part of a conversation about how standardized testing should be appropriate to the culture. For example, if the test was written in Spanish, I would be unable to complete the test due to the language barrier. In this situation an IQ test that was based on a white person’s perspective, is not a fair representation of someone from another culture. When the IQ test was adjusted, it showed that black people were smarter than white people. In many ways this represents another form of oppression and misrepresentation of the African American people.

Another aspect of the article “Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory?” by Derrick A. Bell that stood out to me was the summary of his story The Space Traders where aliens want to take all of the black people back to their home planet, for guarantees of riches to the white people inhabiting the planet. In my eyes this is a comment on the exploitative role that white people have played throughout history. When offered riches they exploit whatever possible to reach that goal. This has been proven time and time again with out nation’s history of colonization. When talking about the critiques of his story Derrick A. Bell states “Some even condemned me as a racist for daring suggest that white Americans would ever trade away any American lives for profit and well-being.” It is hard to believe considering white Americans track record that anyone could make this assumption.

The video of Travis Turner talking about his new role in an animated show where he is the voice of a black character is painful. He is struggling to complete a thought that screams racism, while trying to not be racist. He is trying to use several collaborations with black artist, and his experience living in motels to somehow right his wrongs. The most difficult part of this video for me was comparing his experience living in an Urban environment to that of another person. Everyone will experience similar circumstances differently. He is making a broad assumption that he can now relate to everyone that has every lived in a motel, and more specifically black people. In my eyes this is pretty much assuming that all black people have lived in motels. He also goes on to say that it would be racist if there was someone else better suited to play the role, there are so many people that would be a more appropriate voice actor for a black role in an animated series. One of the other main points of this interview that stood out to me was his voice acting bit. When you hear someone use a New York accent, you have an image that pops into your head. The same goes for someone with a deep southern accent, or an English accent. People speak differently throughout the world, when using an accent in a role that will be seen by thousands of children, is only advancing racial stereotypes. This video was cringe worthy in so many ways.

There are numerous ways in which my media influences shape my view of the world. One of the first things that comes to mind is music. I tend to listen to country and folk music, mostly because of its relatively simple view of the world, happy or sad. Although I might not agree with some of the messages the artist is passing along, I do find comfort in corny love songs, songs about work and “country living”. Another thing that comes to mind is video games. Especially the Witcher series. This game may come across as high fantasy, but it is very much a comment on racism and class. Through out the games they are often eluding to the difference between “humans” and “non-humans” and the power struggle between the two. Lastly, books are a huge influence on the lens through which I view the world. I have often thought that whatever you invest your time doing, whether that is playing video games, watching tv, or reading that you take the creators ideas and they mix with your own. There is some selection that takes place, but even when you read a book looking at a section of history, that information effects your view of that time frame.

When looking at my media influences through the different theories on the Perdue Owl website it is difficult to match up with one view entirely. For the sake of this exercise I found the Reader-Response Criticism to work well for my views of some video games. Based on whoever is playing the game they may have different feelings or views about what takes place. On the Perdue Owl website there is a quotation from Tyson that discusses the two main beliefs of Reader-Response Criticism. One being that the reader plays an important role in the meaning of the media, and that readers don’t always see the message being presented to them but instead might make their own meaning. In the typical questions section of the Reader-Response Criticism explanation on the Perdue Owl website the first question is “How does the interaction of text and the reader create meaning?”. You can make this question work for other media types by changing the word “text” to whatever media type, and “reader” to a consumer or audience. Someone could play the same video game or listen to the same song as you and have a very different feeling.

I have mixed feelings about the Peleton ad, and the Ryan Reynolds ad. I can see both sides of the views towards this ad. In the Peleton ad the wife is given a very expensive exercise bike and some of her comments in her vlog like recordings make her sound hesitant or resistant to the experience, but she also sounds motivated and even excited at some points. I have spent the last few minutes thinking about how this would feel if my partner had given me the same thing for Christmas. I have recently gotten into exercise again and I’d probably be through the moon to have access to this bike even though it is way outside of our price range. I think without any context to conversations that may have taken place prior, the ad can be taken either way. If it was with ill intention, or the husband gave it as a motivation to lose weight, it is a very sexist ad. I do think that this ad is out of touch in a lot of ways. That house screamed wealth to me, and so does spending thousands of dollars on exercise equipment. Considering that I had never seen the ad prior to this, I would be interested to see what a large group of people felt about this in blind survey. I think that the gin ad on the other hand was a somewhat successful way to profit from a major error from Peleton’s marketing team.