City of Angels 2019-20

Over the course of the semester, and really all year, we have been discussing public problems and the broad spectrum of behaviors that people exhibit in response. We have looked at air pollution, green space, criminal justice, disease, and more to develop a better and more honest understanding of the different ways people react to these issues. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic (Yes, WHO DG Dr. Tedros Adhanom started using the “p” word last week), we have seen a huge spectrum of responses. Some media outlets use language such as “hoax” (by the democrats, of course) to dismiss the severity of the situation, while others can’t wait to boost their viewership by putting together some of the most bizarre banners I’ve ever seen, complete with eerie music and the word pandemic in the same font used for horror movies. You know, with the blood dripping from the letters. On a personal level, we probably all know some people who are perhaps unnecessarily terrified, refusing to leave their ho...

This past week, we watched Panic in the Streets (1950). The movie takes place in New Orleans, where Dr. Clint Reed is called in to overlook an autopsy of an unknown man who had been murdered. Dr. Reed discovers that if the man had not been shot, he still would have died of pneumonic plague. Revealing his discovery to the mayor and city officials, Reed is informed that he has 48 hours before the public will be told about a potential outbreak. Dr. Reed and Captain Tom Warren run around to find out where the unknown man came from and who he could have spread it to. I noticed that everyone that was questioned in the movie was an immigrant. Immigrants seem to take on the role of the villains and spreaders. The Coronavirus outbreak has brought Panic in the Streets (1950) to life. Coronavirus or COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan, China and has continued to spread across the world. The Asian culture of “wet markets” and people of Asian descent have been ridiculed and blamed for the spread of ...

Over the course of the semester, something we have discussed is the idea of stereotyping people in relation to disease/illness due to the mass panic surrounding that disease/illness. Recently, as I’m sure you all know, coronavirus (COVID-19) has captured the attention of the entire world because of the speed with which it has spread throughout the globe. Coronavirus is part of a large family of viruses that can range from simple colds to severe diseases. This new strain, COVID-19, is an acute respiratory disease that had not previously been identified in humans. Many diseases have caused panic throughout the world, but coronavirus has been particularly alarming and prone to causing mass stereotyping because of its similarity in appearance with the common cold. Today, even a simple cough can deeply frighten someone. Coronavirus’s prevalence in the news and in everyday conversations has led me to think about the stereotyping and panic that surrounds it. I have heard countless storie...

In our city of Angels class, we recently read Raymond Chandler’s  Red Wind,  and although it would interesting to delve into Los Angeles’s noir period and the winds that could drive someone to murder, I felt that my blog post would become too similar to those from the past. However, I was interested in talking about our recent reading on Gil Cuardros’s “Holy” chapter from the  City of God . This chapter focused on an old woman who constantly pesters Cuadros with religious alters and items. After reading this piece, I became interested in Los Angeles’s religious makeup and the influence religion has on Los Angeles cultures. Similar to its demographic makeup, Los Angles is a melting pot when it comes to religion. Currently, the religion with the largest population is  Roman Catholicism  due to Los Angeles's high population of Latinos. Nevertheless, Los Angeles is home to the largest Buddhist population in the  United States  and the second-largest p...

This past week, we’ve entered a new chapter of our focus on environmental justice: air pollution. We have been reading various articles about different subsets of air pollution, where the terms NIMBY (not in my backyard) and YIMBY (yes in my backyard) have come up. Because high-impact projects affecting the environment have been discovered to be biased towards lower class, certain races, etc., the term has been used by advocates of environmental justice. These projects like a nuclear-powered generating station are placed near lower-income neighborhoods which are primarily minority. Thus these neighborhoods bear the full burden of the toxic waste and health-threatening effects; on the other hand, these projects create jobs and money.  We’ve also talked about the plane dumping fuel incident. Fuel is allowed to be dumped at a certain altitude and designated unpopulated areas. However, early January, a Delta airlines airplane dumped fuel over several schools while performing an emer...

For our latest in-class essay, we read the poem “Bordertowns,” which is in “City of God” by Gil Cuadros. Cuadros describes the border as having an overpowering, overwhelming effect on those who interact with it. For example, Cuadros illustrates the “fresh asphalt drive to San Diego/Tijuana” as “long,” he describes Laura as sleeping and feeling completely exhausted, and he describes Laura as having a connection with the land by comparing her hair and the freeway and her body and the road. Even though at first, Cuadros and Laura don’t speak much, it is clear that they have a very special, protective, caring bond. The border, and the journey to and from the border, is illustrated as having powerful effects on people, whether it be making Laura exhausted, or forging a strong bond between Cuadros and Laura, which could’ve been formed as a result of shared experiences, specifically with the border.  This poem led me to think more about borders and how they and the people who cross bor...