Type Away Cait

Photo Credit: Buffalo State Communication Department /  Facebook COVID-19 has impacted everyone, but those in the media field face an additional challenge: technology. “The biggest problem we have in media production is that we’re not able to hand out the equipment to everybody we’d like to,” said Meg Knowles, an associate professor of media production at the State University of New York at Buffalo State College Department of Communication. “In advanced classes they’re borrowing cameras, but in a class like basic production, where normally you’d be using cameras and recording equipment from our department, we’re not doing that this year.” All of the Communication 312 Basic Media Production classes are 100 percent online, which means that the students are “either dependent on a camera they may happen to have or using an app like FiLMiC pro.” “Learning the technology aspect of journalism is harder because I can no longer conveniently go to classmates or teachers for tips and warnings...

Photo Credit: Andre Chung “After taking this grueling journey to the dirt road of antiracism, humanity can come upon the clearing of a potential future: an antiracist world in all its imperfect beauty,” argues Dr. Ibram X. Kendi , in his book, “How to Be an Antiracist.” “It can become real if we focus on power instead of people, if we focus on changing policy instead of groups of people.”  It’s no wonder that 2020 was called the year that everyone wanted to say goodbye to: · the start of the COVID-19 pandemic · the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests that erupted after the deaths of unarmed Black people by police such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both incidents of which happened within a little over two months apart of each other · the presidential election Racial tensions were and still are at its peak in the U.S. The pandemic has no doubt pried people’s eyes open on the importance of racial equity and addressing issues of systemic racism. Despite the pandemic, the St...

  Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History,  written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman, is a compelling graphic novel of one man's fight to survive the Holocaust. What makes this story unique is that instead of using people, Spiegelman uses mice to represents Jews, and cats to represent the Nazis. Spiegelman also breaks away from the standard storyteller in which he himself plays a role and the order of events is told as if he didn't yet write the Maus series. He is gathering the necessary information from his father, Vladek, to write it. This was a great call on Spiegelman's part because had he not ordered the events as such, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to capture the father's character as well as he did.  Spiegelman succeeds at painting his father and making readers feel attached to the story. In the present, Vladek is old and ailing as he reminisces of his experience in Nazi-occupied Poland. Spiegelman captures his bitterness and that gre...

 #BreakTheChains is a global movement against the inhumane practice of confining and chaining people with mental health conditions. Due to lack of access to mental health care resources, "men, women, and children, some as young as 10, are chained or locked in confined spaces for weeks, months, and even years, in about 60 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas," according to Human Rights Watch . The shackled victims are "forced to eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate in the same tiny area." Most families who resort to this practice believe that mental health conditions happen to the sinned and are caused by evil spirits taking over the body. In state-run, private, and religious institutions, many are victimized to sexual and physical abuse.  "Globally, an estimated 792 million people, or 1 in 10, including 1 in 5 children, have a mental health condition," Human Rights Watch reports. "Yet governments spend less than 2 perc...

The 30-page book contains a speech given by William Lynch, a white slave owner, in 1712 on the James River in Virginia. "keep the body and take the mind" - Willie Lynch This is Lynch's recommendation and method for breaking down black men and women and making them into slaves. He compares the breaking down of human to a horse. His racist view of them is that in their "natural state," they are "wild" and "uncivilized" (14-15). There was a separate method in psychologically breaking down women compared to men, but in both cases fear was the slaveholders' main weapon. Though a short read, it is absolutely disturbing. People say that when art — in this case, literature — makes you feel something or draws emotion to you, you know it's worth your time. My stomach turned with every page. It was absolutely disturbing to read the mindset of a slave owner, actually so disturbing that I had to read it in two sittings. It's not that it was a ...

"Big Black: Stand At Attica" is a graphic novel memoir about the historical 1971 Attica prison uprising told from the perspective of Frank Smith also known as "Big Black." *SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD if you're unfamiliar with the historical context of this event The prisoners wanted one simple thing: to be treated as human beings. From dropping hot shell casings on one's skin, to one roll of toilet paper per month, to poor medical treatment, the prisoners had enough, so they drafted a manifesto. When that didn't work, they took matters into their own hands.  Written by Frank "Big Black" Smith and Jared Reinmuth, and illustrated by Améziane, what I was especially interested in and looking forward to prior to the completion of this book —not to mention the fantastic illustrations— was observing the idea of reversal of power. It took a moment, a faulty lock that broke the wall separating the oppressed from those in charge. When the rebel...

Two Buffalo Police officers were suspended without pay after knocking down a 75-year-old man that left him bleeding from the head in front of Buffalo City Hall during a protest on Thursday night, according to WBFO. ***WARNING!! This video contains GRAPHIC CONTENT** In a statement released on Twitter, Mayor Byron Brown of Buffalo said he was "deeply disturbed by the video." "After days of peaceful protests and several meetings between myself, police leadership and members of the community, tonight's event is disheartening," Brown said. It's only been a little over a week since the protests began in response to the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died shortly after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kept his knee pinned to Floyd's neck, yet so many instances of injustice by police have been caught on camera across the United States from arresting journalists on live air, to attacking journalists, to driving an SUV through...