Week 2 Blog Response - Noah Kim Krohngold

Art has the unique ability to speak to people of all backgrounds. Art is often the expression of social injustice that groups are face and artists use their surroundings to fuel their artistic vision. Alice Bag's description of her pride in "being part of something as powerful as the Chicano Movement," (Bag, 70) after witnessing protests and injustice in her own community comes through in her music, where her powerful vocals and vivid lyrics bring the injustices she’s witnessed to life for people who aren’t aware. The protests of 1970 described in Bag’s “White Justice” depicts the “color blind” nature of white justice and how it doesn’t “work for [her],” demonstrating the cruel nature of the lies that permeate throughout white justice (Bag, 1:36).  Bag’s participation in social movements enabled her writing as she witnessed atrocities firsthand, and her art brings the atrocities to a wider audience in hopes of finding support from sources outside of her own community. I find Maylei Blackwell’s stance regarding masculinity and nationality particularly intriguing; the “constructions of masculinity” that have “been established as inherited tradition” (Blackwell, 97) aren’t necessarily conducive to the livelihood of men and often hurt the men involved since it requires such a fantastical appearance of what a man should be to his family and his country and creating a power structure that is unattainable for most men. These concepts receive criticism from artists, and art has the ability to influence views regarding masculinity, femininity, sexuality, and justice through diverse perspectives.