Week of Sept. 8-12

This week, we continued to discuss the film Los Trabajadores (2001). On top of the evident discussions of racism, illegal immigration and the economic advantages or disadvantages to a system of day labor, we also pulled in a video of an interview that CNN political commentator, and self-appointed spokesman for the issue of illegal immigration and the border wall, conducted with the president of Chicano rights group, La raza. Though she (the president of La raza) started out speaking calmly and collectedly about the issue of immigration reform - she wanted to "promote a rational solution to this system" and proposed "comprehensive immigration reform" - she did away with this demeanor once she was backed (inevitably) into a corner by Lou Dobbs. He brought up the fact that her organization advocates that those who are in this country illegally "should try not to be at one's house" if they fear there is suspicion about their immigration status. Lou Dobbs hammered this point home and he would not let her off; she continued to get so flustered that it appeared as if she was just a child who couldn't come up with stories to back up her lies. Though this was probably not the case and, as we all know, it is very possible that this quote would seem very different if we were given some context in which to place it. So, in conclusion, Lou Dobbs is mean imbecile and he probably extrapolated that one part of a sentence from a 30-minute speech. Viva La raza!!

We also talked about representations of Blackness on television and we had to watch that horribly acted episode of Frank's Place. But apparently the comedy crop on television must have been weak that year because the series earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy series. I probably judged too harshly based on one episode, but I will say that it did challenge a whole wheelbarrow full of race issues in America in the course of 30 minutes. Darn, now that I look back on it, it seems that the show really showed a fair representation of Blackness in just that one episode and to me, real and not contrived comedy is the best sort. So, to tell the truth, I probably would have like the series, had I been willing to give it a shot past the first episode. 

Brady