shelf

there’s this white shelf in my room.

shelves serve to hold things up but

mine, it sits under my bed.

my mother insists on installing it

so I can litter it with pretty trophies and medals

always on display, always sitting pretty

always ready to impress

never being any less

than what the Ivy Leagues expect of me

nails hammer themselves into my bedroom walls

baby blue paint crumbling to make way for adult hues

shades of green dollar bills and creamy manila certificates

gold glinting off of gleaming victories

and proof of being worth it

but instead the gray dust of my failure

litters across the surface

like crumbs of something bigger

that were never touched upon, never reached,

but left behind as unwanted

leaving my shelf empty

empty, as if expecting more

until the hinges break loose with the trophies that weigh it down

the trophies that can stand up on their own

the trophies that are bright and hold meaning

the trophy unlike the girl whose gravity

is as insignificant as the last whisper daring to break

the empty shelf.

Baba's Secrets

This image represents Baba's secrets and its effects on the people around him, especially Amir. The combination bike lock represents Baba's lock on his secrets, while the wheel represents Amir. The "lock" of Baba's secrets tries to protect Amir from having to go through the cycle of losing "nang" and "namoos" in Afghan society, but his intentions subconsciously stifle Amir and his ability to grow and mature into a confident adult. However, Baba is also there to keep Amir grounded and locked down before cycling carelessly in life in order to prevent Baba from losing even more pride through Amir's shortcomings. The combination lock of the bike lock represents the many safeguards and barriers that Baba has put up in between him and Amir in order to prevent his secrets from leaking out and a loss of honor.

AfriCAN, not AfriCAN'T

Why is it that when most of us think of Africa, we see a poverty-stricken, helpless country? Surprisingly, Africa is actually “among the world’s most rapidly growing economic regions” according to the McKinsey Quarterly. (Rothmyer) Despite this, in 2010, magazines and newspapers in the United States ran around 245 stories focusing on Africa's poverty and only a mere 5 on its economic growth. (DevelopAfrica) The truth is-bad news sells, and that’s why the problem is perpetuated. This imbalance in variety of viewpoints on Africa has shown a dramatic impact on the country and on how other countries view them.

Many people tend to mold Africans into stereotypes based on assumptions they cultivate from what they see in western media. Negative articles and news broadcasts tend to portray Africa’s people as incompetent or not hard-working. Other recurring stereotypes include primitivism as well as incapability of being able to manage and care for themselves. It paints a picture of people ill-fitted to run their own country and relying solely on outside aid and intervention. As a result, Nigerian, Kenyan, and Zambian university graduates working in Europe find themselves overperforming in their jobs in order to gain the same respect as their counterparts. (Adekoya) One of the main purposes of media is to be a resource on realities not directly available to individuals. Many studies show that this media feature is particularly true in media relating to Africa. (Mezzana) As a result, people who have never even been to Africa feel like they know something about the country based off of a tunnel-visioned media and subconsciously generalize and stereotype its people.

This imbalance of viewpoints also causes a paternalism mentality towards Africa. Understandably, many NGOs(non-profit organizations) focus more on progress that needs to be made rather than what has already been accomplished. Essentially, they are pressured to continue attracting funding and attention to keep the organization running by releasing a superfluous amount of negative articles. Sunny Bindra, a Kenyan management consultant, says, “There are famines; they’re not made up. There are arrogant leaders. But most of the journalism that’s done doesn’t challenge anyone’s thinking.” (Rothmyer) This representation of African people as helpless victims dehumanizes them and makes it seem as though they do not possess the capability of fixing their own country. It promotes paternalism, “a term that invokes the authoritative but benevolent relationship of parents to their children, with the latter needing guidance since children are unable to act “properly” on their own.”(Baker)

Africa is not a homogenous country. Not every crevice of the place is rife with economic, social, and political despair. Instead, it is a continent made up of heterogeneous countries, some of which are experiencing problems, and some of which are not. Although these problems are often dramatized and written about in excess by the media, they do help raise awareness and influence others to solve these problems. An example of this would be the media calling out of one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises in northern Uganda which both Ugandan and African media chose to hide. (Africa) Africa still does deserve unbiased, diverse news coverage which focuses on both the problems and successes of the continent. However, if the problem is perpetuated and African media does not step up to the responsibility of reporting about their countries, Africans may still continue to be subject to paternalism and stereotypes.

Works Cited

Adekoya, Remi. "Why Africans Worry about How Africa Is Portrayed in Western Media | Remi Adekoya." Opinion. Guardian News and Media, 28 Nov. 2013. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.

"Africa's Media Image: Blame It on The West?" Africa News Service, 15 Sept. 2005. link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A136243691/GIC?u=los42754&xid=85a03a80. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.

Baker, Andy. "Media Portrayals of Africa Promote Paternalism." The Washington Post. WP Company, 05 Mar. 2015. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.

Mezzana, Daniele. "A Cancerous Image." Berkman Klein Center. Harvard, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2017.

Rothmyer, Karen. "Hiding the Real Africa." Columbia Journalism Review. Columbia Journalism Review, Apr. 2011. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.

"The Media's Problematic Portrayal of Africa." The Media's Problematic Portrayal of Africa | Develop Africa. DevelopAfrica, 23 Jan. 2017. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.

"Movie"ing Towards Responsibility: A Coming of Age "Tail"

"Movie"ing Towards Responsibility: A Coming of Age "Tail"

Buffalo: coming of age

“... We spotted Four-Eyes crouching by the inert mass of the dead buffalo: he was collecting the blood pouring from the gash in a big upturned hat woven of bamboo leaves” (93).

“‘To gain courage, you must swallow it when it’s still lukewarm and frothy”’ (94).

Movies: coming of age

“The local girls were gorgeous, but we forced ourselves to concentrate on the screen, paying close attention to the dialogue, to the actors’ costumes and gestures, to the setting of every scene, even to the music” (19).

“The headman sat in the middle of the front row, holding his long bamboo pipe in one hand and our ‘phoenix of the earth’ in the other, to time the duration of our performance” (19).

Sijie uses the symbols of the buffalo and the movies to illustrate how the narrator and his peers experience adolescence and coming-of-age during their re-education. The buffalo that broke Four-Eyes’s glasses is slaughtered for his leaving ceremony. This ceremony is to celebrate the completion of Four-Eyes’s re-education, which is part of him growing up and fitting in with the rest of the new proletarian society. The headman of Four-Eyes’s village encourages him to drink the buffalo blood to symbolize him gaining courage, leaving behind his childish cowardice and bourgeois ways.  

At the movies, even though the narrator and Luo are distracted, they acknowledge that as they become older, their responsibilities hold more weight and. This causes them to be very attentive during the movie even though there are a lot of other distractions.This demonstrates the maturity that they have gained during their re-education.

Rythm

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west

The clock ticks and tocks

Rivers rush forward and wheels keep turning

Yet somehow you feel lost in midst of the rhythm

If you keep up with the trends

you feel suffocated by the pace

The mechanical cookie cutter print sears your imperfections

Let go of your inhibitions

Let go of your stiffness

Let go of your facade

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west

But you dance under the sun and make your own rhythm