Looking Through Different Lenses

The objective of today’s class was to apply social and political lenses to analyze narratives and to interpret the theme in horror films. The first thing we discussed was what lenses are. Lenses are like a point of view and reveal many different traits and qualities about the organization they are analyzing. There were four different types of organization lenses that we discussed in class. The first of which is a cinematic lens, which links between product and craft. The second is the environmental lens, which links between the product and the environment. The third is a social lens, which links between product and society. And the final one is a political lens, which links between product and politics.

The next thing we did in class we analyzed a quote by the director of the movie, Get Out, which is the film that we watched the beginning of in class. The quote was, “Peele wanted the audience, regardless of race, to see the subtle racism through Chris’s eyes. ‘It was very important to me to just get the entire audience in touch in some way with the fears inherent [in] being black in this country,’ Peele says, ‘Part of being black in this country, and I presume being any minority, is constantly being told that… we’re seeing racism where there just isn’t racism.’” We discussed both the social and political lenses that are present in the text. The social lens is the representation of problems such as racism (people saying that it’s not that big of a deal), and people arguing over what is isn’t racist. The political lens that the class agreed upon were fears of being black in this country, government perception of race, and representation.

The political lens in this quote is very potent in today’s society. Racism sadly is still a very common issue. Many people fear to be black due to the discrimination that they receive, such as the violence and discrimination that has occurred between police officials and blacks in recent years.

After the notes, we started to watch the movie Get Out. While watching the movie, we will be taking note of the social and political lens present in the film. So far in the film, a girl and her black boyfriend are going to visit her parents for the first time. The boyfriend is worried that they may not agree because of his race. On the way, they hit a deer and call the police. The policeman asks to see the man’s ID even though he was not driving, due to his skin color. When they arrive at her parent’s house, they see a few black workers, which can be perceived as slaves. The father assures him that they are just workers that he hired.

P.S.

Ready Player One Level 2 will be due on November 13 when we get back from the break. You need to:

• Apply a political or social lens to level two
• What does the text critique about contemporary American society or politics?
• Prepare two-three passages for class discussion and writing
• Identify, annotate, analyze, etc.