Introduction This paper is about the movie Hidden Figures. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson all faced racial injustice in their careers as NASA. They were looked down upon as African American women, thus depriving them of attending school necessary to become an engineer as well as attend meetings that presented data essential to calculating the mathematics required for Katherine to compute the landing point of the rocket. They received everything from glares to spiteful comments by opposite sexes and races. They were stuck in a world filled with segregation and unequal treatment. Katherine, receiving a promotion in her computing job, transferred to a spacious room filled with white men and their cubicles. She was the only colored person in her office and faced extreme racial prejudice. Katherine was provided with a “colored” coffee pot by which had no coffee, simply disabling her from being able to drink coffee from their own pot. Additionally, she lost hours of work, around 40 minutes at a time, literally sprinting back and forth to the only “colored” restroom a half a mile away several times a day to simply go to the bathroom (Robinson). Katherine also computed all of the numbers on reports, but her white male coworker’s name was printed on the top instead of hers. She also received many sarcastic remarks, predominantly from Paul Stafford, such as calling her job to check their accuracy in their numbers a “dummy check.” She even faced prejudice from the
The films, Remember The Titans and The Sapphires are both discovering significant social messages of racial conflict. With these messages and the techniques used in both films they have resulted in two powerful films that highlight racial discrimination. This essay will explore the relationship between the filmmaking and the social messages it is trying to highlight, as well as the similarities, differences and techniques shared between both films
The independent reading book that I read, was Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. The main character in this book, was Dorothy Vaughan. Dorothy Vaughan was a lack, hard worker. She became a math teacher, then went to college and ended up working in NASA, because she was extremely talented at math. Dorothy also had many challenges and struggles that came with her 4 children and husband.
There are many people in our world today, that believe racism is a problem of the past, that segregation and inequality are expressions that are not relevant today. The cold heart felt reality of this statement is that racism, is even more alive in our world today, than ever before. Circumstances such as, Caucasians being paid more than African Americans for the same job and Caucasian police officers gunning down innocent African Americans and being acquitted for it, are just some examples of the racial tensions in our society today. The people that believe racism is no longer a problem in this world, are simply ignoring the recent and past tragedies of African Americans. The inequalities this minority group has endured, has caught the attention of certain groups of people, that are trying to bring change, by taking a stand for a solution. In this challenge, the media has been very effective, in not only bringing the problems to the surface but also in seeking to effect resolutions. Throughout our countries’ past, the media, and even more specifically, movies, have been a powerful tool in bringing light of many types of injustices brought onto minority groups. A prime example of a movie that presents some of these issues is “Remember the Titans”. Throughout this essay, I will be analyzing this film, identifying some of the aspects of the film’s form, content and symbolism, regarding the impact on American culture, that can be seen within it.
Equality is a word that possesses many meanings and feelings which encompass centuries of wars and struggles especially with racism. While it is easy to look back at history and accept the accounts for misconduct and atrocities, it is vital to reexamine and revise thoughts and actions in order to prepare for the future. An invisible type of racism that can be revealed with reexamination often times is institutional racism. The short story, “The Comet” written by W. E. B. Du Bois, is a story set in a post-apocalyptic world. The story shows that in order to bring down barriers of racism, it requires a catastrophic event to occur. Another story that focuses on a similar concept of institutional racism, but uses science fiction as a vehicle is “The Bicentennial Man”, written by Isaac Asimov. In this story, a robot named Andrew suffers through prejudice and racism despite his many contributions to society. It takes a large sacrifice in order to allow for humans to disregard race and to take robots as an equal. Although both stories pull in elements of science fiction, it is clear that the stories incorporate a dominating theme of not just racism but institutional racism. This paper will discuss some historical context to the two authors’ experiences along with a deeper dive into the text in regards to institutional racism.
Richard interviews for a job working for a white family and the woman asked him bluntly whether or not he stole. Richard says and I quote “ If I were to steal from you, I definitely wouldn’t tell you. The job includes meals but Richard ends up not enjoying his job and the first meal wasn’t edible due to the mold growing on it. Richard talks to the woman about schooling and that he wants to be a writer and the woman doubts him just like everyone else. He immediately quits. Richard gets another job with another family isn’t any better than the last. The family is ungrateful and rude towards him, but he keeps the job because it’s easy to steal their food. Armed with wages and lunch to eat with his friends he can now contribute to social life. I thought that was a smart answer to her stupid question honestly. I wouldn't tell her I stole if I did and she would never think to
Race has been a dominant, defining factor in both the 20th and 21st centuries. It has been a reason for missed job opportunities, unequal treatment, harassment, and even murder. In today’s society, race discrimination is still having a heavy effect on the lives of individuals with different colors of skin. Although some progress has been made, the treatment of different races can be brutal still today. There are stories featured in the news everyday about the mistreatment of an African American or the stereotypical harassment of a hispanic person. What has improved, is the way society is handling these relations and discriminations of race. This improvement is clear when you compare the treatment of the victim in the 1930’s
Despite the laws and protections that have been established, workplace discrimination is still reported as a common occurrence in the U.S (Triana, Jayasinghe, & Pieper, 2015). The subsequent sections will examine a case of workplace discrimination as described by Monica Harwell, an African-American woman working for Con Edison, in New York. A consequent discussion of Monica’s account of discrimination evaluates the case in terms of
Yet, despite this struggle for ownership, the fit between Science Fiction and people-of-color appears to be an intuitive one. Mark Dery (“Black to the Future”) poignantly points out, effectively noting that African Americans are always already seen and constructed as Other/Alien (8) . Is that all that surprising? Not
I am Sarah Riesberg, a white female born in 2000. I haven’t had any major struggles in my life, like others have. My family didn’t have much money when I was growing up, but they do now. In Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, every women she talks about is black; this book also takes place in the 1950’s where segregation was still ongoing. Everyday these women have to deal
People from all walks of life have vastly different views about racism and discrimination, in America. Many other groups see themselves as the most discriminated against. Our personal experiences have an enormous impact on how we perceive discrimination. Undoubtedly, African Americans have faced the most cruel and inhuman treatment in this nation, but it is important to recognize that living in America and identifying as anything other than white, you’ve faced discrimination. While there is no comparison of the struggles each group has faced, Kara Walker’s “Event Horizons” reminds us of the adversities African Americans faced and continue to overcome, and Anna May Wong’s journey in Hollywood as an Chinese American reminds us that African Americans
Hidden Figures is a 2016 film that recounts the story of three incredible black women in NASA history: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. The film largely sheds light on the experiences of these three women working as computers for NASA during 1960s segregated America. Public restrooms are separated between the whites and coloreds, the white male patriarchy dominates the field, and as always, racism is alive and well. During the film, the political unrest of the country is present and very much of conversation, and as these three women navigate their way throughout society with positions no one expects them to hold, they quite literally make history through their groundbreaking work, history
Hidden Figures, an extraordinary film that shines light on women existence and their intelligence. The women, Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan used the power of their intelligence to decipher complex math calculations, computer language to build rockets that other could not see. Throughout the movie racial descrepancies were vividly clear, but these eager women had something to stand for. They dared not let the words of bitterness deter them of their worth.
“Here at NASA we all pee the same color.” (Cherin, 2016). This is a quote from a movie by the name of Hidden Figures which was released in 2016. It is about a group of black women who work for NASA. The women were helping NASA send a man into space using math, engineering, and programing. They are also trying to prove that black people were just as capable as white people in learning the subjects of math and science. The film reenacted how American’s in the 1960’s lived. The Space Race was at its peak in popularity during this time and the United States was desperate to put a man in space for the Russians. Hidden Figures shows how the women worked to overcome the stereotypes which are placed on them due to their skin color and gender from society. The movie also highlights several social problems that society faced in the past and their continued existence even today.
After watching the movie Hidden Figures from Humanities class. The way how three African American women, who were Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan gain the respect of the white men in NASA was admirable. They did excellent jobs to make white people changed their mind about giving respect to African American people. They dared to think and dare to do what they have thoughts. They used their gray matter to contribute to the space race of the United States vs. Russia at that moment, and also they changed the white men thoughts about colored people.
During the 20th century, racism ran rampant throughout our society. In both Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Tate Taylor’s film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help demonstrated the values and attitudes society held for people of colour during their respective time periods. Issues such as racism, segregation and superiority are all explored through a range of methods.