documents related to econ and english, Skripte od Medicinska genetika

Preuzmite documents related to econ and english i više Skripte u PDF od Medicinska genetika samo na Docsity! To what extent does the experiences of M.L. (character from The Letter) from Miljenko Jergovic’s Sarajevo Marlboro resemble that of African Americans in the 21st century? In the article ‘Visualizing Racism’ by The Washington Post Magazine nine photographers have 1 taken the challenge of depicting bigotry. One of the nine photographers, Jahi Chikwendui, had submitted a few of his intriguing works with a very honest text. This text was released on the 25th of ​November 2019​ and it spoke about the dangers of internalizing racism. Titled ‘Chokehold’ this piece of art conveyed very heavy emotions with the pictures and the words. Jahi Chikwendui’s narrative that shows his point of view of how racism came to him is quite similar to ‘The letter’ from Miljenko Jergovic’s Sarajevo Marlboro (1994), this being the subject of my higher-level essay. Firstly, the five black and white images carry intense sentiments. The man in the pictures has his hands painted white, meant to be the ‘whitest hands’, an adaptation from Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eyes’. In the images the man seems to be choking, cutting off his dreadlocks, shooting himself and the viewer with his ‘whitest hands’. What I perceived from this was the whiteness surrounding him was choking, suffocating, blinding, deafening and silencing him. This depiction of racism is very thought-provoking and the text adds on to the photographer's perception of internalized racism that he faced while growing up. Chikwendui goes on to reveal his own story of how his ‘rambunctiousness’ compared to that of his ‘pink’ classmates continuously brought about harsh reactions from the authorities. His sense of self-identity was distorted from the moment he stepped out of his brown neighbourhood to the bitter reality. Chikwendui’s experiences have made him the person he is today. The character of M. L. in Jergovic’s ‘The Letter’ shares pathos similar to that of the photographer. M. L. mediated in that piece of letter that exposing himself to Sarajevo was somewhat bewildering and overwhelming as he found it difficult to blend into the norm. Well, he couldn’t. His skin colour was the obstruction. His urge to live the dreams of Eldorado did ultimately get shattered. That too, not only because of the biases against his colour but also due to the conflicts amongst Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks in Sarajevo at that point of time. Predominantly the book is a reflection of the writer’s childhood and war-torn home town. The short stories in this book speak largely of how the Yugoslav war(1991-1995) and the Sarajevo Siege(1992-1996) shaped the people’s life. It portrays personal stories of ​inhabitants and their thoughts and emotions during the siege.​ However, amidst all the stories, the story of an outsider struck me the most. The story begins with the narrator—presumably a hard-bitten Sarajevan living away from home—sharing his bitter experience of living in Sarajevo city and how that had shaped him. The letter was given to him by a stranger who hoped for it to be transferred to a friend, who he didn’t know had died in the siege. The important character of M.L. was the most interesting.​ He is a black man, who came to Sarajevo 15 years ago to study. ‘I didn’t have the courage’ he apologized in the letter but then he went on sharing his experience as a black man in the city. He recollects: ‘The black man was greeted by the whites without hatred or love. It was only when Sasa and I got drunk and became argumentative that he would curse my “black mother.”‘ 1 ​https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2019/11/25/visualizing-racism-photo-essay/?arc404=true ( last accessed on the 17th of May 2020)