I love documentaries. I love checking Netflix’s documentary section weekly, hoping some new exposé on an important issue has been visualized. Documentaries have taught me many things, about the corruption of Wal-Mart, about killer whales, about McDonalds, and now today, about how a select few of the Lost Boys of Sudan have resettled to the United States and what they face being in a new country, with new responsibilities, but as they reiterate throughout the film, the same priorities.

I liked God Grew Tired of Us. I enjoyed the humor of Daniel, John and Panther, their goals, their opinions. I cried when John was reunited with his mother as 17 years of separation. I was excited for Panther to return to Kakuma to marry his girlfriend. I was so happy that these boys were making way in what they wanted: finding their families, helping their friends, preparing themselves for a return to Sudan when the war was over.

What I absolutely did not like was Nicole Kidman’s obnoxious voice narrating what I wrote down was ” a racist/exotifying presentation” of a sociopolitical situation utterly irrelevant to her privileged life as an Australian movie star. And then I remembered that all the people behind the camera were not Sudanese. I do not want to assume, but the producers’ names in the credits seemed awfully Western, awfully white. And now that I think about it, who is supposed to be watching this documentary? It chronicles the lives of three Sudanese boys in particular from the Kenyan refugee camp in Kakuma to various cities in the United States. Why would a Lost Boy watch a documentary about what he may already be familiar with? This documentary was made for Americans, and that’s what is problematic and infuriating.

Americans, and other white Western countries have a habit of acting on our “white savior complex.” If you’re not familiar with what it entails, the short version is that white people feel guilty for their privilege and attempt to compensate by looking to other, less fortunate countries and attempt to fix their problems. Remember Kony 2012? I do. I remember watching the video (linked!) and thinking “Oh no! Poor Ugandan children being forced into the army! I’m so glad I didn’t scroll past this video! I feel so enlightened!” I fell for it. I believed that Invisible Children, the for-profit charity that was supposed to free all these children, was a good investment. I never did contribute money, but I lied and said I would when it was brought up in class, which is probably worse. Facebook blew up with it. Everyone wanted to stop Kony, because apparently the Ugandan government and army were incapable, so who better than middle class American teenagers pouring their money into this great charity?

Well as it turns out, Kony hadn’t been in Uganda for years. And he was probably dead already. But why give the people and forces of Uganda their deserved credit when we can give it to some white guys who care sooo much? Invisible Children didn’t “get” Kony, because he wasn’t there to “get” in the first place. In fact, the funds supposedly raised to help the child soldiers actually went to the heads of the charity, and the money given to Uganda was given to the army to arm them. Cool.

Oh, and the head of the charity was caught masturbating naked on the highway because he was so “stressed” about all the attention his inane video got him. Come on.

So God Grew Tired of Us has wonderful subjects in John, Daniel and Panther, and horrible producers. Remember Whitlock’s “Word Made Flesh” introduction, and her advisement to read “peri-text” carefully? Watch this documentary carefully. These men can easily be perceived as victims, as refugees, without agency, hope or a future. These men are far from the emaciated shots of children overlaid Nicole Kidman’s idiotic narration of the trek across Sudan to Ethiopia and Kenya. These men are not in America because they are helpless, nor because their lifelong dreams of becoming Americans are coming true. They are Sudanese, they are proud of it. They are hardworking and lonely, and like Valentino, they are aching to go home. That is what I took away from the film, that they can’t go home, they can’t be where they desire to be most. America is not their solution. America is a stepping stone so they may train in skills to bring home, to Sudan, to their families, to their friends.

I cried on a couple occasions throughout the film, but it doesn’t matter. The producers want your tears. I will not pretend an 80 minute film taught me exactly what John, Daniel and Panther want.

I think it can be said this weekend was a testament to how much young people  (we are young, I promise) love Halloween. Granted, we’re not that young, and on a college campus there certainly isn’t an excess of houses for trick-or-treating, and you’re likely to be wearing about half the costume you did when you were 11. Am I wrong? I’d say no.

I love halloween. I love candy (who doesn’t?) and how far people will go with their decorations and spending hours considering my options and eventually having my costume come into reality. I went costume shopping yesterday and was fairly disappointed  by what I saw. The store had no shortage of short skirts and “minimalist” get-ups, all designed for females. I’m sure this is nothing to new to most of you reading this, as it is not new to me either. In Political Science we have, despite a palpable hesitation, breached the topic of “feminism” in politics and political thought, and a large part of that is recognizing and actively rejecting sexism and its prescribed norms. See bell hooks’ Feminism is for Everyone if you feel this is unimportant.

In class last week, we examined how magazine articles cater to what they perceive as the engendered needs of men and women, but also work less explicitly to create the needs themselves. For instance, the Men’s Health website displays all manners of fast cars, fit guys, and articles that help you, as the reader, get there too. Now just a click away is the Esquire website, a women’s magazine that appears to focus more on pop culture, media, clothes, all things women are interested in, right?

Eeehhhhh. Not quite. Who says I can’t like fast cars or protein shakes? Who’s to say a “man” can’t enjoy advice about winter jackets or the Sexiest Woman Alive? Good question.

Now you’ve likely disregarded these differences until they were brought to classroom light because they correspond with a lot of your interests anyway, and because you likely assumed that a magazine for the opposite sex is irrelevant to those interests. I’ve never read a full Men’s Health GQ article either but what’s stopping me? MY OWN PRESCRIPTION OF GENDER RULES. I let myself believe I as a reader am disinterested with GQ while they simultaneously believe I as a female consumer would not be interested. This is a stretch, and very much based on my own tastes and experiences, please feel free to disagree. But to use magazines, there are differences that certain media outlets use to most effectively market their products based on sex.

Sorry I think this post was about Halloween costumes? It is. So I was browsing and ultimately came up empty because I don’t want to be a scantily-clad knockoff of a male superhero or immobilized by what the costume encourages I wear with it. It’s not news that revealing Halloween costumes are popular. I have no problem with them or the people who choose to wear them, why should I? That’s their business. What angers me is when I can’t connote Halloween as a young woman without the images of a sexy cat, or sexy bacon, or in this case, a sexy eating disorder.

I know, I know, take a minute. Who in their right mind would make such a purchase? I can’t imagine, but the fact that it exists speaks to the existence, or the perceived existence, of a desire to dress up like an implosive eating and mental illness. I don’t see any guy dressing up like obesity to match. I am horrified. Now it seems, that not only can I objectify myself, but I can trivialize, mock even, a disease that has taken the lives and happiness of people who are (I assume) exposed to the same engendered, objectifying media outlets that I am. No one person said this costume was OK by ANY means, but a collective figured they could get away with it because people would think it was funny, I think? I find nothing funny and everything sickening.

I’ll leave you with something to consider. Would you ever search a store, much less engage with the internet to find a costume so abrasively offensive and tasteless as this? Did you know it’s sold out?

When was the last time you had a coffee? When was the last time it was from Starbucks? I had one yesterday, and it was pretty good. Starbucks in general is pretty good. I’ve probably averaged a drink a week for the last couple years, and I know people who think that’s little. and besides serving up those delicious seasonal beverages, they also make sure that you they’re fair trade and environmentally conscious. Oh and CEO Howard Schultz is pro marriage equality. Starbucks can do no wrong, can’t they?

Wrong. Very wrong. And I’m very sorry classmates, but I am trying to make you feel the slightest bit guilty about your pumpkin spice lattes (I love them too).

Working at Starbucks seems to be a fairly good gig, doesn’t it? They preach good wages, good insurance, good hours, and good working conditions. However, defining “good” doesn’t appear to be up to the employees. According to the Organic Consumers Association, Starbucks has poorer insurance policies than Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart. They are also anti-Union, with spotty hours and availability commitments that inhibit many employees from seeking additional employment. And if $6.25 sounds like a livable wage to you, I’d like to live where you live. That’s not so peachy now, is it?

Now to take a little trip from the Starbucks around the corner to the coffee plantations in Ethiopia, one of the largest sources of Starbucks’ beans. Fair Trade as a business practice is meant to adequately pay farmers and producers of a number foods and goods from around the world, coffee being one of them. If you’ve walked into a Starbucks, you’ve seen how often they insert “fair trade” into their store landscape. They even sell Ethos water which is supposedly to fund construction of wells and water resources to those in need. The latte you just bought? The farmer who harvested those beans is getting pennies for it. The water you got to help build a well? Ethos the business gets over 90% of those profits. 

Now I could go on, but the links provided shed light on these issues better than I. The point is that despite how delicious and accessible Starbucks is, it’s globally damaging. As a company it is incredibly wasteful, unethical in practice, and a horizontally integrating monopolizer. Back home in San Francisco, there was a local chain of French-inspired cafe/eateries called La Boulange. The food was incredible and the fact it was the business of a local San Franciscan family made it even cooler. Starbucks bought them for $100 million dollars this year.

But now, if you’re still reading, how does such an omnipotent corporation like Starbucks get to where it’s at with little so little flack from the young people that buy all their paninis and macchiatos? They know how to frame themselves. They sweep these worker violations under their “Fair Trade,” “ethical” rugs, and we as consumers are content to believe that as face value. Teenagers can be passive. I would know. I’ve known Starbucks was unethical since 2011 and yet you could catch me walking to class with one of those infamous white and green cups; it’s hard to consider how my morning pick me up is depriving a both barista and a farmer of appropriate compensation.

Please do not be passive. The last time you went into Starbucks, or even the next time, consider who your fellow consumers are. How many people lined up are your age? Don’t be afraid of being invisible or irrelevant or unimportant. Starbucks is destructive, and you empower them. How does Starbucks keep growing? We keep spending our money. The same goes for any corporation: we gave ourselves to them. This is all very dramatic, I know, but so few young people realize the reality of their agency. Lead by example, and people will follow.

I disagree with Starbucks’ business practices, so I have stopped supporting them. I’m not going to be offended if you keep drinking their coffee. This post is to shed a little light on the unsaid, on the accepted, and how we can change that. Why start tomorrow what you could do today, or not do, in the case of buying a Starbucks. Do your research, empower yourself.