City of Angels 2018-19

In our discussions about the history of HIV-AIDS in Los Angeles, we’ve touched on the significance of political protest and activism within that period– when we posted images related to AIDS in LA on Slack, several of the pictures showed demonstrators demanding justice for AIDS patients and greater communal action against the disease.     I wanted to focus this roundup on the forces they were fighting against– in what systemic ways, and by whom, was AIDS ignored and stigmatized in American culture? In the 1980s, mainstream politicians refused to take the AIDS crisis seriously, most famously President Ronald Reagan’s administration. Was the government’s response inadequate, or reflective of bias, as protestors suggested? What events, statements, or policies were the protestors likely demonstrating against, and what were the major organizations leading HIV-AIDS advocacy at the time? We've also discussed the stereotypes and stigmas employed in popular discussion of HIV-A...

**sorry this is kind of long... Recently we split off into groups to research our interests surrounding Skid Row. While researching, I found an interesting article speaking to the recent increase of children on Skid Row. The article, titled  The Number Of Children Living On Skid Row Has Doubled Since Last Year ( https://laist.com/2018/10/31/skid_row_homeless_children.php),  speaks about the many children residing in Skid Row. There are organizations and spaces like Skid Row's Union Rescue Mission that are filled to capacity and are struggling to provide a place to be for a homeless family on Skid Row. Why do you think the number of children/families with children on Skid Row has had such a major increase in the last year?  I continued my research to see if there were more organizations providing spaces for homeless families on Skid Row to stay with children. Unfortunately, the article I previously stated above was the only one that revealed itself. It was co...

We haven't gotten to talking about this in class yet, but I'm interested in examining the quality of hospitals and healthcare across neighborhoods in Los Angeles. In 2004, the LA Times published an investigative series of articles called " The Troubles at King/Drew,"  which exposed malpractice at the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, a public hospital in Willowbrook, just south of Watts. King/Drew reportedly "had a long history of harming, or even killing, those it was meant to serve." The series' early articles discuss hospital staff members' errors and neglect on a case by case basis, while later reports question LA and the nation's public health system as a whole.  Here's a poignant excerpt: "'You know damn well the county knows what we need,' said 'Sweet Alice' Harris, long revered for her charitable efforts in South Los Angeles' black and Latino neighborhoods. 'My problem is: Why is it that ...

Recently, we have discussed the methodology and the history behind diseases and their associations. In the past, I have seen people with skin diseases, and I have also seen the public’s reaction to it. It’s sad that even though some skin diseases are harmless, a community’s reaction can lead the person to depression, and in some cases, contemplation of suicide. In addition, Sontag writes that cancer patients have their body portrayed as a battlefield with a military general in a safehouse commanding his soldiers to keep fighting as they battle to no avail. Do you know of diseases that can lead to unnecessary trauma and harmful effects, and how would you go about dismantling stereotypes about those diseases? What methods can we use to debunk harmful stereotypes? Can representation play a role?