It all started during quarantine, everyone had nothing better to do than to be on social media all day. Then the worst happened, all over the news, George Floyd, an African-American man murdered by a police officer during an arrest. One of four police officers who arrived on the scene, knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for 9 minutes and 29 seconds which resulted in his death. I though is this what this world has come to. So blinded by a color that we don’t realize that we are the same. We may not look or act the same but we are all made up of the same things. I am no different than George yet he is dead and I remain. (may he rest in peace) I was filled with so much rage and somethig just kept telling me to write out what I was feeling, so I did.

Police brutality

They have different mentalities

Shootin people around like it’s casualty

I walk a mile it stays the same

This stop and frisk shyt everyday

It’s cause they’re black

That shyt is wack

Yeah yeah yeah

Police brutality

Police brutality

Police brutality

Police brutality

People dying for no reason

Cops is lying their the demons

Got their tasers, got their guns

Got you and me on the run

They havin fun

Oh shyt we’re done

Yea this war has just begun

I wrote this piece and it was as if a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. Not only did I find a way of venting but I also found a way to understand myself more. Putting these words on a page made me realize how dire the situation actually was. After this i completely fell in loove with writing. Theres certain things that i just cant wait to write down, and I’m so glad that police brutality was one of them. If it wasn’t because of this situation then i would’ve never found my current form of venting and coping.

Allison Chavez

On a popular social media platform, that being Instagram, I endlessly scroll on my search for a worthy meme to send to my twin sister. Upon that journey I come across Kylie Jenner with her beloved daughter Stormi. “Beautiful”, I think to myself. I don’t bother reading the caption since the image itself spoke to me. Kylie has given her daughter a $12k Hermes backpack for her first day of homeschooling. As I snuck my way to the comment section there is a split in the audience, one side loving how adorable Stormi is and the another side “hating” on Kylie for foolishly spending her wealth on material items and supposedly teaching Stormi to grow up as a spoiled brat. I stood on no side.

Kylie Jenner estimated wealth is around $700 million, weather or not  you agree in the methods she used to collect such a colossal wealth, Kylie stands upon the 1% along with the rest of her family. In the past years the Kardashian/Jenner clan have given rise to the next generation of Kardashians/Jenners and as most will assume these children will live a life that most of us cannot fathom. As these children are born into this family they enter the world of the ultra wealthy and similar to the old European history of divine right, these children will inherit the prosperities their parents have collected.

Dynastic wealth, as a quick google search will define it as; “occurs when families pass money down from one generation to the next”. As stated before I find it oddly comical in the similarity in dynastic wealth and the divine right of kings, one being a god given right to rule and the other being a god given right to wealth. However, dynastic wealth has little to do with religion.

Unfortunately, we cannot look into the future, however, we can always predict the infinite outcomes of how the future will form. As seen today the Kardashian/Jenner clan mostly gain a lot of traction in popularity by flaunting their wealth on social media. You’ll see designer goods that range in the thousands or even close to the millions. I predict that the heads of the clan will teach their children to do the same and show them their methods of increasing the family wealth for future generations. Yet, what about morals?

When I say morals I’m not talking about how Kim’s sex tape got leaked and her mother saw an opportunity and took. But I’m mostly talking about the ways they use their wealth. Now it might seem hypocritical of me saying that since I said I stood on no side when Kylie gifted Stormi a $12k Hermes backpack. I myself am not a parent but most parents want to give their children the world and if they have the money then why not? Wouldn’t you want to give your children everything and anything? At the end of the day its Kylie’s wealth and weather or not you agree, she’s allowed to spend that wealth however way she sees fit. Yet, I can’t help but think; do all these ultra wealthy individuals not see the calamity that goes on in the world? Or maybe they just choose to ignore it?

I’m not into finances nor do I know anything about finances. I’m not gonna give the argument “the rich should pay this or that, the rich should pay more, etc”. This mostly stems from my frustration of feeling useless when I see someone in need and I’m unable to help them for the simple fact that I don’t have the wealth to do so. Many may agree and many may disagree but money is what runs this world and without it nothing can be changed. We live in a world where it’s slowly burning to death, mass extinctions, war and famine ravaging our world, and so on. Now the ultra wealthy have the right to spend their money however they see fit but what’s stopping them from giving, even if it’s a extremely small percentage of their wealth, to help improve the world that at the end of the day we all live in.

All rich individuals are not the same though, some give and some spend their money. Even so, our planet Earth has reach a critical point in time where action is needed and none is taking place. Elon Musk has bloomed the idea of making Mars our new home, I personally find that insulting. Elon Musk CEO of SpaceX, one of the leading tech companies with an accumulated wealth of $185.7 billion. Musk is one of the most wealthiest men in the world, making his net worth seem like pocket change compared to what Kylie Jenner has accumulated. Before Musk the idea of space travel and breaching the space frontier was popular, however, Musk made that idea explode with tremendous popularity. The exploration and colonization of space is one of the biggest barriers we as the human race can overcome and I am all for it. Yet, should we just let our home, planet Earth, die just because we found a “new” home? A “home” that 90% of the population will never experience since the price tag for a ticket to Mars is in the millions of dollars.

Just like Kylie, Musk is a parent and has a son, he will never know what hunger, illness, or lost feels like. He will continue to live a life of pure luxury, that’s what we all want for our children. Musk will pass down his wealth and his family will never know what struggle feels like for generations to come. While there are families struggling to feed their children or keep a roof over their heads.

I can’t help but wonder, as these families continue to pass down their massive wealth generation after generation and continue to increase it, do they not feel for the state that the world is in? If they are aware of the issue why do they ignore it? With the power to change how the world runs, why don’t they do it?

Tumblr posts re-shared to Pinterest are, arguably, the greatest sources of life advice.

I used to scour Pinterest for them. And there was one—that I cannot quote and will not try to find, as my tome of Pins exceeds two Boards and over 4000 saves—that called attention to a phenomenon that I was, at least, already partially aware of, but that had never been brought to the forefront of my mind.

It went along the lines of this: the OP in memory languished over the mistreatment of women in fandoms. (Fandom, for those unfamiliar with the term, essentially refers to a general community of people who are a fan of something—sports, television/movies, music genres, artists, etc.) They argued that female fans of anything were never, and most likely will never be, taken seriously by the general public, and as such, the objects of their appreciation and enjoyment will forever be degraded. Examples included: One Direction (a band we’ve all made fun of at some point when we were in elementary school) who had a predominantly female fan base, and the Beatles, whose fame originated from the devotion of mainly female fans, and who only started to become mainstream after the increased support of men. Any boy band, really, could work as an example, the OP said. (I would personally like to add K-Pop boy bands to the mix, as well).

This post was one that added to arguments I had already heard, and am still hearing, all over social media. That women—young girls—are mocked and dismissed simply for liking things. But this added to that claim another aspect; that the things we like themselves will be held in contempt, as well as us, personally. As if female adoration of a genre, group, etc. lessens its value, even if they are the same things that are adored and respected by men. None of these ideas are new ones, in fact, one could say that they are quite banal simply from how long they have been voiced, and by how many voices. (Because how many times have we been told, “Oh so you’re one of those girls who like [insert literally anything].”) But upon reading that post (from how long ago? Three, four years? The post itself probably being older) I came to a very solid conclusion. It goes as such:

I, a woman, a lover of anime and k-pop, fashion and classical literature, will, despite having to inevitably experience mockery and ridicule, rolled eyes and dismissive head nods, will not fall victim to it. Never, for as long as I love what I love.

I, a woman, can and will like whatever the fuck I like.

Racism in media has always been something prevalent in all forms of digital and physical communications including television, sports, newspapers, abstract media, movies, and an abundance of other media avenues. However, in the coming years, we’ve seen a specific forum of media garner more attention as it increased in popularity throughout YouTube channels such as Bon Appetit, Buzzfeed, and a plethora of other platforms. Food Media. And as any other form of highly consumed digital media- we have the constant whitewashing and racism taking place. Albeit controversial, we must call it out as it is- digital food media exploitation. Specifically when talking about chefs of color, we see their recipes being folded (no pun intended), in order to appease to the white eye. In turn, we see scrutiny from both sides of the coin. Sometimes you’re not being cultural enough and not pleasing people that are connected to their roots. And on the opposite end, we have white media moguls not happy because a certain recipe or dish might not be hip or trendy enough. It’s a problem that we see trickle over every couple of years. So why aren’t we doing something about it?

During the peak of the pandemic, (Mid 2020), I was given the opportunity to create my own digital and physical magazine along with my peers that celebrated chefs of color (linked below). Interestingly enough, one of my articles, titled “Priya-ish” was centered around the famous Bon Appetit chef, Priya Krishna who had just left the Bon Appetit test kitchen due to prejudice surrounding her day to day work life. Shortly after came the resignation of the then former editor-in-chief Adam Rappaport. In the coming weeks following Rappaports’ resignation, we saw more chefs of color from the test kitchen starting to speak up about unfair compensation and micro-aggressions faced in the work place. They weren’t getting recognized for their hard work. And not surprisingly, their white co-workers were getting paid much more than they were despite collecting the same amount (and sometimes even more), amount of views and clicks. As mentioned time and time again, Food is supposed to bring people together. So why are we in a constant state of using it to tear us apart? Even if subconsciously. This is addressed in my article and even sparked some debate amongst my peers and people who bought copies. We should not be afraid to make people uncomfortable when talking about these issues. They aren’t menial or something we can simply push aside. This could and WILL have devastating effects on the future of all aspects of food (including myself).

WORK CITED:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/dining/pass-the-spatula-magazine-food-and-finance-high-school.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/06/bon-appetit-and-why-table-stays-white/613093/

Foster Care is a system in which children are placed into wards, group homes, or private homes of a state-certified caregiver. Children until the age of eighteen years old have no say in where they live until they become a legal adult. Many are abused, mistreated, and not loved in these homes. This system has done a great injustice. Once you are in the system there is no way to escape, and for many of these children it feels like a prison. People who work for the system place these children anywhere, without finding background on the families. That’s why many are abused and mistreated because nobody knows the families they place the children with. It is as if they just place them just to get rid of them. The foster care system is severely flawed as it is not sufficient to protect the health, needs, and welfare of the child.

As children grow older, many do not want to take them, especially starting at the

age of ten because most want a baby to adopt, not an older child. Dontay Davis was a prime example of this. Due to the fact that Dantay was 10, they did not adopt him. Many siblings without a permanent home don’t get adopted within the same family at the same time. This makes families drift apart and end up with a bad future. For Dontay, he clung to the dream of seeing his family again. At 19, he ended up in prison. While in prison, his siblings died, but he was not informed until after he was released.  

When the Harts adopted them they declined to adopt Dontay, the oldest at 10 years old. Days after that separation, which would become permanent, he tried to kill himself. He remained in the Texas foster care system for eight more years. Four of those years were in a restrictive “residential treatment center.” For all those years and until his siblings’ death he held onto the hope of being reunited with them. Then at 19, he was in prison. It was while he was in prison that his siblings died, but he did not learn of their deaths until after he was released.

 Dontay tried to kill himself after the separation. They did not support him whatsoever. Families being separated does not benefit anybody because people are being hurt in the process mentally and emotionally. Someone like Dantay, tried to take his own life because of this, and still nobody did anything to help him be reunited. All he had was hope that they would get reunited. 

(Gullapalli, Vaidya)

The foster system is severely flawed with children who do not have a say in their own lives, with children who get separated from their own family, and with children who get hurt, abused, and/or punished. Children have no say in who hurts them, whether it’s physical or emotional.

Works Cited

Gullapalli, Vaidya, et al. “The Damage Done By Foster Care Systems.” The Appeal, 18 Dec. 2019, https://theappeal.org/the-damage-done-by-foster-care-systems/