What are we talking about anyway?

We'll spend time Thursday talking about Malcolm X, nationalism, self-help, mutual aid, and, of course, oppression. I think we'll find that it won't take long for us to run into questions related to defining what "the problem" is. Malcolm X's speech may already have you doing this.

The following are two perspectives I'd like you to start thinking about as soon as you can. They are radio interviews available online, so you can listen while you eat dinner, clean, or exercise. :)

Click here to listen to an interview aired just today on a radio program called "Against the Grain." While the whole show is very educational, the first part with C.S. Soong interviewing Martha Gimenez, a recently retired professor of Sociology from the University of Colorado, will give you a good idea of one way to think about class, race, and oppression.


Click here and listen to the second half of another episode of "Against the Grain" with Dylan Rodriguez, a professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside whose work was part of the last insurgency class. While he shares many of Gimenez's views, you'll notice some differences. :)

I think we can learn a lot from both of them.

Listening to both interviews will take about an hour.

Free Japanese Film Series Starts Tonight!

The following announcement comes from the University of Iowa Center for Asian and Pacific Studies. I hope you can watch these films. I haven't seen any of them yet, but they seem to address issues related to our class topics. This is a rare opportunity to see some new Japanese movies on the big screen in Iowa City! And they are all free!
*******************
The UI Center for Asian and Pacific Studies invites you to the following 35 mm film screenings in the 2008 Japan Foundation Film Series with a theme of “Diversity in Japanese Society.” The screenings are free to the public.

Film Title: “All Under the Moon” (Tsuki wa docchi ni dete iru 月はどっちに出ている)
Color / vista/1993 /35mm/ 109 min with English subtitles, directed by SAI Yoichi.
Show Time: 6:00 pm, January 25, 2008
Venue: 101 Becker Comm. Studies Building

Synopsis:
Kang Chung Nam, a North Korean born in Japan, works as a taxi driver at a Tokyo company owned by his old classmate, Kim Seil. He is surrounded by an odd-collection of fellow employees, including a new driver with no sense of direction, an ex-boxer Hoso who claims he hates Koreans except for Chung Nam, and an undocumented immigrant from Iran. Chung Nan ignores these problems as well as the divisions between North and South in the Korean community to chase after women. Chung Nam keeps searching for a woman until he meets Connie, a Filipina who speaks Japanese with an Osaka accent and works as a hostess in his mother's bar. Connie, however, proves impervious to his advances until he half forces his way into her apartment and, tricking her, moves in.

Life does not remain settled for the couple. At the taxi company, the Iranian mechanic is caught by the police for illegally driving a cab and Hoso, who always asked Chung Nam for money, is arrested by the Niigata police for running off with his divorced wife's kids. Chung Nam and the other drivers' salaries are also in trouble when Kim Seil invests his fortune, with the help of gangster loan sharks, in a golf course. With Connie and Yong Sung always at odds, Chung Nam hesitates at Connie's idea to move to the Philippines together, a reluctance that drives Connie to leave him and switch to another bar in far away Nagano.


Film Title: We Shall Overcome Someday (Pacchigi パッチギ）

Color / Vista / 2004 /35mm/ 119 min. with English subtitles, directed by IZUTSU Kazuyuki
Show Time: 6:00 pm, February 1, 2008
Venue: 101 Becker Comm. Studies Building

Synopsis:
The background of the film is the turmoil of the 1960s and the relationship between Japanese and Koreans in Japan. The story begins when members of the karate group of a Kyoto high school insult two girls from a Korean high school. A war breaks out when the Korean girls get the boys from their school, led by a boy named Lee Ang-son, to seek revenge. The Japanese boys are reprimanded by their teacher, and two boys, Kosuke and Norio, are told to go to the Korean high school and make a peace offering: to have the two schools play a friendly soccer match. Kosuke and Norio are intimidated by the Korean boys but they deliver the invitation.

While they are at the school, Kosuke hears the sound of a beautiful song and follows the music to the music room. In the music room, he sets eyes on a flutist who turns out to be Ang-son's little sister, Kyung-ja. Kosuke is a non-violent, peaceful, 2nd year high-school student who is part of a band. He finds himself drawn to the young girl and the sound of the Korean folk song, "Imjing River." He steps over the ethnic divide and becomes friendly with Ang-son and his rough-neck gang.

Film Title: Hanging Garden (Kuutyuu Teien　空中庭園)
Color/Vista/2005/ 35mm/ 113 min., with English subtitles, directed by TOYODA Toshiaki
Show Time: 5:00 pm, March 28, 2008
Venue: 101 Becker Comm. Studies Building

Synopsis:
Eriko lives with her family in what used to be a thriving, modern suburban residential area, but which has now degenerated into something like a slum. Eriko has only one rule in her house - "no secrets in the family." This strangely "open" family consists of the father, Takashi, daughter, Mana, and a son called Ko. In fact every single member of the family harbors some kind of secret. Both children regularly play truant from school and the father is having an affair. When his lover turns up as Ko's home tutor all the skeletons threaten to come tumbling out of the closet, but the person with the biggest secret of all turns out to be Eriko herself. Her cheerful facade covers a dark and desperate past. When everyone's secrets finally come out, the family faces its greatest danger, but this crisis will become the catalyst to renew their deepest bonds. Although Eriko ends up living on her own in another apartment, her family all come to visit her on her birthday.

Legacy of Torture

Hi, Bill! (We talked about you on the first day of class a bit. It's really cold in Iowa City.)

I've been teaching university classes since 1991 -- as a TA, adjunct lecturer, postdoc, and now assistant professor. I've had lots and lots of good days, great classes, and moments of joy with lots of amazing students (over 3,500, including Bill). Today was truly and uniquely special for me -- for lots of reasons. Needless to say, I'm really excited about this class. Those of you who had to leave early really should talk to a classmate to find out what you missed. I'm really glad each and every one of you decided to take this class.

To watch the rest of the short documentary The Legacy of Torture, click here.

Last semester, as part of the class radio show on KRUI, Nate and I interviewed Claude Marks, one of the producer-directors of the film. You can listen to that show by clicking here if you'd like. (The interview begins about 10 minutes or so into the program -- after a few technical problems.)

You might also want to check out the following links:

Free the SF8
Essay by Ron Jacobs

But don't forget you need to focus on Malcolm X for next week!

We quickly covered a lot of ground on the first day (from Nat Turner to COINTELPRO), and I am guessing you all already have lots of questions. (I hope you do!) Please feel free to send your questions to me at any point, and I can start integrating the issues you want explored the most into our class plans.