SfAA Panel: Beyond Environmental Injustice
Essay for the double-panel "Beyond Environmental Injustice", 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, March 22-27, 2021.
The Red Spot
The 2008 financial crisis was one of the biggest shifts of wealth away from the Black community.
pece_annotation_1473993631
tamar.rogoszinskiThe narrative in this film is an emotional one, rather than a scientific one. For the most part, scientific knowledge is common, as the outbreak occurred recently. The only scientific information given was at the end where the statistics of how many deaths occurred in Liberia are given as well as the amount of people who contracted the disease. The primary appeal of this film is that it plays into people's emotions. The narrator is a student at the University of Wisconsin, who discusses his struggle with getting his family to the United States and out of the infected areas. Through graphic footage, as well as this story and narratives from people within the community, we are given an emotional framework with which to empathize.
pece_annotation_1480523269
tamar.rogoszinskiThey are shown for a moment in which they bring in trauma patients, but are not a main player in this documentary.
Law does more than codify, regulate, and control; it also catalyzes and transmutes, provoking cascading social and cultural effects, particularly when the force of law is informational.