Garrett, This is really good stuff. Thanks for keeping it open. It hit close to home as I am a TFA alum who spent over a decade teaching in Baltimore, DC and Maryland. I cringe out how much I didn’t know and how much I have learned. I still teach students and teachers and I still work for equity- just in a more humble, connected way- and am grateful for this kind of writing that looks at things a little more complexly. Have you read This Here Flesh? Cole’s writing is incredibly moving, and there’s a few lines I keep coming back to that I thought of one I read your work. I’ll share them later when I’m done moving my office.
You know, in general, caring and trying is better than not caring and not trying (and sticking with it, quietly and humbly, over a long runway, is even better). And no, I haven't read This Here Flesh! Sounds amazing though.
THIS. This is what I thought of when you proposed this series. It’s so connected to you and - past you, present you, and future you. There’s zero distance between the point and the effect of the point on you and on culture.
It’s the unreliable narratator in its highest and best use. In a recent conversation about Journalism, Michael Hobbs made the comment that he’s over the idea that journalists should be non-biased. (Putting aside the fact that it’s impossible to ever fully be that and almost never actually true), the message was essentially that is precisely our bias - our experiences w topics and themes and experiences etc - that make stories matter so much.
Oh thank you. I think that's definitely what I'm trying to press myself to do with this series (move beyond what the easy critique would be of each film, and interrogate my own relationship to these and other narratives), and glad that this one hit that spot well. Definitely agree that with the problem of faux-objectivity.
Hi Garrett! Really enjoying this series--thanks for the thought and time you are putting into it. Thanks/no thanks for allowing Gangsta's Paradise to play in my brain repeatedly in 2023!
You mention White male saviors and I suddenly thought of the TV series that I loved as a teen (but remember nothing of) called "The White Shadow" about a White basketball couch in a racially mixed (mostly Black) school. It starred Ken Howard who was at the time married to Margo Howard, the daughter of Ann Landers and herself later Dear Prudence for Slate for a while. That reminded me ofa show called Room 222 (from the early 1970s, about a Black teacher but also some White ones) and of course Welcome Back Kotter in the later 1970s. I wonder if anyone has written about that decade and these Whitish Saviorish shows that were in their ways/for their time doing something? Lots to unpack as they say.
Oh I haven’t heard of The White Shadow or Room 222 but I thought about Kotter as a counter-point maybe worth revisiting. That would be a fascinating case study- how does the savior trope present itself when it is a White man in the care-giving role.
“We cannot trust a society that makes judgements on the morality of a person without taking responsibility for how it’s own morality has instigated the conditions that call for such desperate decision-making” Cole Arthur Riley
This is really interesting as I always appreciated the song and thought any ridicule was because either it was “too” popular to be cool during the 90s when being alternative and liking unknown music was cool or because the movie made it seem too goody-goody and people missed the meaning. I didn’t grasp the underlying white privilege and supremacy in this and I didn’t even know about the parody until a few years ago. I find the parody distasteful, like it’s trying to take ownership of the song for white people.
I will also say even though the move is try-hard and definitely a white savior film, I liked it. I liked it because it felt like the stories could be real. There are students who face these issues. It didn’t shy away from death and grief, abortion, teen pregnancy and there are white teachers extremely out of their depth trying to teach. I definitely liked the students best and also I think since I was a student I really wanted a teacher to care about me as a person too.
I think this is what makes these films complicated. For some of us, they can feel both real and inaccurate and they can reinforce harmful stereotypes and feel meaningful and enjoyable. I knew that at the time even as a teenager and now I have more layers to that understanding.
Your last paragraph is super important and I couldn’t agree more. It’s not about whether this (or any of the movies I cover in this series) are “good” or “bad.” They’re about what stories those movies are telling, both explicitly and implicitly, and what we take from them about that crafts how we see the world (racially, gender-wise, class-wise, etc). Some of those lessons are invariably helpful and heart-opening, and some can have negative impacts! The movies, like us as people, are big complicated messes!
That’s important because a lot of my media analysis is similar but also trying to talk to people about our choices as creators. What messages we choose to create and perpetuate can be good or bad in whether they have mostly positive or harmful effects. We have some impact as consumers and much more as creators and more people are taking on roles as creators now.
i really appreciate how well you unpack the fantasy that all we need to do is perform contrition a little better, with the right most serious face on-- i can see how it's an appealing and enduring idea.
Garrett, This is really good stuff. Thanks for keeping it open. It hit close to home as I am a TFA alum who spent over a decade teaching in Baltimore, DC and Maryland. I cringe out how much I didn’t know and how much I have learned. I still teach students and teachers and I still work for equity- just in a more humble, connected way- and am grateful for this kind of writing that looks at things a little more complexly. Have you read This Here Flesh? Cole’s writing is incredibly moving, and there’s a few lines I keep coming back to that I thought of one I read your work. I’ll share them later when I’m done moving my office.
You know, in general, caring and trying is better than not caring and not trying (and sticking with it, quietly and humbly, over a long runway, is even better). And no, I haven't read This Here Flesh! Sounds amazing though.
This here flesh is amazing..
THIS. This is what I thought of when you proposed this series. It’s so connected to you and - past you, present you, and future you. There’s zero distance between the point and the effect of the point on you and on culture.
It’s the unreliable narratator in its highest and best use. In a recent conversation about Journalism, Michael Hobbs made the comment that he’s over the idea that journalists should be non-biased. (Putting aside the fact that it’s impossible to ever fully be that and almost never actually true), the message was essentially that is precisely our bias - our experiences w topics and themes and experiences etc - that make stories matter so much.
Oh thank you. I think that's definitely what I'm trying to press myself to do with this series (move beyond what the easy critique would be of each film, and interrogate my own relationship to these and other narratives), and glad that this one hit that spot well. Definitely agree that with the problem of faux-objectivity.
Hi Garrett! Really enjoying this series--thanks for the thought and time you are putting into it. Thanks/no thanks for allowing Gangsta's Paradise to play in my brain repeatedly in 2023!
You mention White male saviors and I suddenly thought of the TV series that I loved as a teen (but remember nothing of) called "The White Shadow" about a White basketball couch in a racially mixed (mostly Black) school. It starred Ken Howard who was at the time married to Margo Howard, the daughter of Ann Landers and herself later Dear Prudence for Slate for a while. That reminded me ofa show called Room 222 (from the early 1970s, about a Black teacher but also some White ones) and of course Welcome Back Kotter in the later 1970s. I wonder if anyone has written about that decade and these Whitish Saviorish shows that were in their ways/for their time doing something? Lots to unpack as they say.
Oh I haven’t heard of The White Shadow or Room 222 but I thought about Kotter as a counter-point maybe worth revisiting. That would be a fascinating case study- how does the savior trope present itself when it is a White man in the care-giving role.
Thank you for writing this.
Thanks for the kind words!
“We cannot trust a society that makes judgements on the morality of a person without taking responsibility for how it’s own morality has instigated the conditions that call for such desperate decision-making” Cole Arthur Riley
You were right, I love it!
This is really interesting as I always appreciated the song and thought any ridicule was because either it was “too” popular to be cool during the 90s when being alternative and liking unknown music was cool or because the movie made it seem too goody-goody and people missed the meaning. I didn’t grasp the underlying white privilege and supremacy in this and I didn’t even know about the parody until a few years ago. I find the parody distasteful, like it’s trying to take ownership of the song for white people.
I will also say even though the move is try-hard and definitely a white savior film, I liked it. I liked it because it felt like the stories could be real. There are students who face these issues. It didn’t shy away from death and grief, abortion, teen pregnancy and there are white teachers extremely out of their depth trying to teach. I definitely liked the students best and also I think since I was a student I really wanted a teacher to care about me as a person too.
I think this is what makes these films complicated. For some of us, they can feel both real and inaccurate and they can reinforce harmful stereotypes and feel meaningful and enjoyable. I knew that at the time even as a teenager and now I have more layers to that understanding.
Your last paragraph is super important and I couldn’t agree more. It’s not about whether this (or any of the movies I cover in this series) are “good” or “bad.” They’re about what stories those movies are telling, both explicitly and implicitly, and what we take from them about that crafts how we see the world (racially, gender-wise, class-wise, etc). Some of those lessons are invariably helpful and heart-opening, and some can have negative impacts! The movies, like us as people, are big complicated messes!
That’s important because a lot of my media analysis is similar but also trying to talk to people about our choices as creators. What messages we choose to create and perpetuate can be good or bad in whether they have mostly positive or harmful effects. We have some impact as consumers and much more as creators and more people are taking on roles as creators now.
i really appreciate how well you unpack the fantasy that all we need to do is perform contrition a little better, with the right most serious face on-- i can see how it's an appealing and enduring idea.
As it turns out, it’s a really omnipresent fantasy!!
This is really good stuff. Can't wait to read your book.
Thanks so much, Julie!