Posts Tagged ‘culture’
Something different: A Question of Culture
So, in my college pursuits, one of my classes is Introduction to Screenwriting. As an exercise in this class, I was assigned the task of writing a short scene in which two people at a cafe have some kind of expositional dialog. At the same time, while preparing for Diversity Day, which was sponsored by the student government (I’m a member,) I learned that there was a need for some skits to be written highlighting the issue of racism. There were already a couple of skits written by other folks, of course, but there were two complaints discussed in one of our planning meetings: First, that the existing skits were a bit…provocative in their language, and second, that both entailed white students attacking minority students, which is, of course, not how things always roll.
Well, it occurred to me that perhaps i could combine these projects, and moreover, that I might be able to assemble something that would be a complete short story wherein not only is the perpetrator of the racist act not a caucasian student, but the racism involved isn’t even meant in a harsh or hurtful way; it’s simply a matter of culture and traditional values clashing with the modern world. The following story, written more or less in Screenplay format (I’ve made some modifications to make it easier to read in this medium) using CeltX, was probably a little too subdued to justify being performed live on a campus (indeed, it wasn’t,) but is nevertheless, I think, an interesting short story.
A Question of Culture
ACT I
SCENE 1
A WHITE MAN and an ASIAN WOMAN walk together,
laughing and chatting casually. They appear very
comfortable together and seem to be enjoying each
other’s company a great deal. They are coworkers
at a Computer Services consulting company.
MAN
Boy was that guy funny in the meeting today. What in the world made him think that server would work online without a network card?
WOMAN
I don’t know, sometimes people at this company are so silly! The look on his face when you explained it to him was so funny, though, you almost made me laugh out loud!
MAN
Was I rude, do you think?
WOMAN
No, not at all, I thought you were very polite. You’re always polite…and sweet!
MAN
Well, you make it easy to be sweet. You’re so smart and funny all the time!
The two sit down at a table, still smiling and
happy. A waiter approaches.
So, a new Prez-Elect!
So we have a new President Elect in the form of Barack Obama. Some of you are elated, some of you deflated, and others of you think “meh”. I tend to fall into the latter(est) category for many reasons. First and foremost-DUH. Obviously Obama was going to win, and if you didn’t see that coming months ago you probably weren’t paying attention. While I think it’s fair to say that both top shelf candidates (it’s a little strange that our Top Shelf is so Bottom Rung, isn’t it?) were pretty mediocre, McCain was in most respects the most mediocre of the two, and the least charismatic by far. Moreover, the Republican Party has spent the last several years pretty much slapping the faces of their own constituents. Instead of following through on their “less government” rhetoric of years past they’ve inundated us with bigger, more intrusive, more expensive government.
Instead of following through on their words about “Liberty” they have instead catered to the religious nutjobs on the extreme right. And strictly from a PR standpoint they’ve put forward the most boring, uninspiring candidates imagineable. Whatever else you can say for or against Obama, the guy comes across as genuinely likeable. I’m not at all convinced that he truly believes his own rhetoric, but then, I haven’t seen a mainstream politician who convinced me he believed in his words since Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton (and while both of those had buckets of charisma, neither had what you might call brilliant presidencies).
What, though, is the real significance of this election? Well let me tell you what I think. After a lot of consideration I’ve come to the conclusion that the significance of a Barack Obama presidency is not in the politics of it, for he is by and large the same candidate as John McCain. The real significance is a cultural one, and it has more to do with the American people than with Obama himself.