Sometimes, if you hear things and you’re pushed you become what people see you as; negative thoughts become a negative reality.

Appearances are everything–particularly when it comes to enjoying a life without struggle. It has been my experience that people judge others mostly on their financial and social status. If they don’t know a person they determine this by race, dress, talk, and behavior. For example, if an African-American man walked into a very expensive clothing store while wearing baggy clothes and speaking street slang, some might be suspicious of his reason for being there. He may be labeled as a criminal even if he didn’t commit a crime. When African-Americans go to interviews, when we invest, when we do business and shop–our judgment of people and their social standing is a big part of our decision making and attitudes towards things. So, is this judging the crime against humanity? Or is it how we judge that’s the real crime? Or is it all about the action?

When watching Electrified I saw people on Maxwell Street turn a bad neighborhood into a community. There were a lot of different races and people from different backgrounds that came together to benefit and help each other. Then their culture and history was  torn down and built into a tourist attraction. They changed an entire neighborhood to accommodate a different community–instead of bettering it for the community that was already there. Some people saw this as a great thing and others saw it as a crime against humanity.

I believe Maxwell Street was a crime against humanity because the people on Maxwell Street were seen as the bad people messing up or ruining the area because they weren’t rich. On the other hand, the people from UIC were seen as bettering the community because they had more money and were of a higher class.  When deciding what to do with Maxwell Street, I think the art and culture was not taken in consideration, only the negative things. When expanding UIC, I think the only criteria was reaching people with more money and young adults that love to spend money.

“Publicity Stunts,” story five of Chicago Blues also has this theme of judging people. In this story, detective V.I. Warshawski is accused of murdering Lisa Macauley. Detective Warshawski was not a celebrity like the author Ms. Macauley and the famous talk show host Claud Barnett, who gossipped about detective Warshawski. Meanwhile, the people believed them because of the arguments and the slander Lisa had spread about V.I. In the end, the gossip about Warshawski became reality when she was tried for murder. Unlike Maxwell Street, however, justice was served in Chicago Blues–the streets were safer.