Finding Humanity
Creating Black and White Images from Not So Black and White Issues
What's Inside: How to Create a Villain
“One big problem with terrorism policy altogether is that it tends to interpret things from our perspective, based on what makes sense to us. That’s not really the issue: The issue is what makes sense to people on the ground”
-Understanding Terrorism by Tori DiAngelis
Dzhokhar ‘Jahar’ Tsarnaev was born on July 22, 1993, in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, into an ethnically Chechen family. He immigrated with his parents to the United States in 2002. Do you know him? Of course you don’t, or maybe you do, but by a different name. You might know him as the “Boston Bomber”.
The first time I saw Jaher was on the news, and I didn’t know him as Jahar nor the Bomber. To me he was just a guy that did something bad. I wondered why. Why would he do something like that? There must be a reason behind his action.
In my drawing, Jahar is looking straight ahead. There is the symbol of his school at his side with nice comments around it. I wanted people to look at him and read the comments. I wanted them to see the school symbol in hopes that they would think of him as if he were any other person. I actually showed my friends a picture of him and they didn’t know who he was. Then I told them the name and they still didn’t know, so with just his original name ‘Jahar’ and his face, the drawing kind of works as a clean slate.
But if I’m going to try change your mind , emphasis in ‘try’, I think I should first talk about the first view everyone has of him which is as ‘The Boston Bomber’. Boston Bomber (BB) along with his brother planted bombs during the famous Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and hurting 260 more. The brothers were on the run for three days until the police finally found them. During the final confrontation, the older brother was killed and BB got away for a couple more hours until he was found hiding inside a boat. There, he was arrested and sent to the hospital for major injuries. After sometime the famous Rolling Stone magazine published an article about the life of the Boston Bomber, and a lot of people responded in a harsh, cold way.
“This guy is evil. This is the real Boston Bomber. Not someone fluffed n buffed for the cover of Rolling Stones magazine” says Police Sgt. Sean Murphy. (Boston Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to go on trial in November by Lawrence Crook and Chandrika Narayan, CNN).
Changing the subject now to a more insightful view of BB, here is where I ‘try to change your mind. The Rolling Stones article “Jahar’s World” written by Janet Reitman in July 17, 2013, gave me more insight in the history behind Jahar. Jahar is from North Caucasus but was raised largely in America. Their neighbors described Jahar as a sweet boy who always obeyed his mother. He was also a determined guy who wanted a good education, which brought him to attend Cambridge Rindge.
Jahar had many friends, all of which described Jahar as a good friend who would have your back and a really ‘chill’ guy. He was part of the wrestling team but he was in no way violent.
Things started to fall apart when Jahar’s mother and brother were starting to bring their beliefs of Islam to a whole new level. Jahar’s father, having enough, asked for divorce and moved to Russia, later on followed by his ex, where they reconciled but didn’t go back to America. His sisters also long ago went away from their home. Jahar was left with his brother, who basically forced his beliefs into Jahar.
Flash forward to after the bombs exploded and the three days of persecution. There was something left behind that night, found in the boat he was cornered in. Jahar left a message:
“God has a plan for each person. Mine was to hide in this boat and shed some light on our actions”. The U.S government is killing our innocent civilians but most of you already know that” “I can’t stand to see such evil go unpunished, we Muslims are one body, you hurt one, you hurt us all”. “...know you are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven, now how you can compete with that”. “Now I don’t like killing innocent people it is forbidden in Islam but due to said [UI] it is allowed. All credit goes [UI]. Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop”. “F*ck America”.
His reasons is that he didn’t want to do it, but thought that the U.S. left him with no choice. Scientific surveys of Iraqi deaths resulting from the first four years of the Iraq War found that between 151,000 to over 1,000, 000 Iraqis died as a result of conflict during this time. A later study, published in 2011, found that approximately 500,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the conflict since the invasion. If the U.S. keeps on going with killing Muslims and attacking, the Muslims are going to return the blows.
The problem is that both sides are either too prideful or cowardly to back out. Cowards? I think that because some people are afraid to look weak, or it could be a whole different reason that we, or at least I cannot see yet. I guess I should bring the quote from the beginning. DiAngelis states, “One big problem with terrorism policy altogether is that it tends to interpret things from our perspective, based on what makes sense to us. That’s not really the issue: The issue is what makes sense to people on the ground” (DiAngelis). Now, I’m not saying that I agree with Jahar’s actions. I’m just saying the to many of us, even Muslims, think that what he did was a monstrous act, but we are overlooking something. What about the others? The ones who are with Jahar? What are they seeing and thinking? Now that’s the real thing because most of us hide in our reasoning, we see something and we start coming up with theories, but we still have the question, that annoying three letter question that drills itself in our minds, the famous ‘why?’ Why did this happen? Why did he do it? why, why, why, thousands of why’s. And when they released the truth, when we finally have the answers at a hand’s reach, brushing our fingers, we don’t grab it. Why? Because we are afraid of being proved wrong, of having our little bubble of reasoning destroyed and we’ll have to face the sometimes horrible but true reality. Instead, what is the reasoning most come up with? Muslims hate the U.S., but that’s not true, is it? “So please, enough of the questions. Muslims do not hate America. Muslims in the East, like non-Muslim Americans in the West, both hate injustice. Peace is possible despite free speech differences — but only by joining together against injustice” (Why Muslims hate America by Qasim Rashid.)
In my second drawing Jahar is getting out of the boat in which he was cornered. It’s the end of the chase. This could make people have mixed feelings. Maybe they will feel bad that such a good boy had to be like that, become what he is today. Maybe they’ll be relieved that he has been caught or maybe they will sneer at the picture. But, I’m also going to put the message Jahar left behind, how the U.S. has killed innocents. Now that is going to give people something to think about.
I want people to understand how such a small thing can make a nuclear reaction. Jahar being left behind with his brother by his parents and sisters, not to mention that his brother was an extremist, yeah, no big deal for some, but not for him, for him it was the big deal. The day the Boston bombs exploded at the finish line, another bomb exploded. Jahar had another one, the one made of anger, sadness, his parents and sisters leaving, the ideas of his brother, the thought of what he was about to do along with other stuff, it just exploded, reaching it limits.
The idea is that everyone has a bomb inside. Some are big, small, or halfway made. But there are those whose bombs are completed and they keep building up. All those emotion create the explosive. They just need one single spark to set them off. It just depends in which direction the destructive wave is heading. But, that doesn’t mean the wave has to be negative. Jahar wave was a nuclear bomb that destroyed people’s life and his own, we, you can stop things like this from happening with just a little understanding. You can help people by just sitting beside them, sharing a lunch, say hi in the morning, say bye at the end of the day. And who knows, maybe they’ll share their story with you and you can help make that explosion be something positive. Jahar didn’t have someone to help him, but that was because he didn’t want help. To those who think they don’t need help, stop it, if you are in bad footsteps go to someone, the neighbor, a friend, a stranger sitting beside you on the bus, family, get someone to listen, don’t let that bomb destroy you like it did with Jahar. Listening is enough, more then enough, disassemble that bomb as best as you can. After all this, tell me, are you a bomb disassembler? or a bomb carrier?
-Understanding Terrorism by Tori DiAngelis
Dzhokhar ‘Jahar’ Tsarnaev was born on July 22, 1993, in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, into an ethnically Chechen family. He immigrated with his parents to the United States in 2002. Do you know him? Of course you don’t, or maybe you do, but by a different name. You might know him as the “Boston Bomber”.
The first time I saw Jaher was on the news, and I didn’t know him as Jahar nor the Bomber. To me he was just a guy that did something bad. I wondered why. Why would he do something like that? There must be a reason behind his action.
In my drawing, Jahar is looking straight ahead. There is the symbol of his school at his side with nice comments around it. I wanted people to look at him and read the comments. I wanted them to see the school symbol in hopes that they would think of him as if he were any other person. I actually showed my friends a picture of him and they didn’t know who he was. Then I told them the name and they still didn’t know, so with just his original name ‘Jahar’ and his face, the drawing kind of works as a clean slate.
But if I’m going to try change your mind , emphasis in ‘try’, I think I should first talk about the first view everyone has of him which is as ‘The Boston Bomber’. Boston Bomber (BB) along with his brother planted bombs during the famous Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and hurting 260 more. The brothers were on the run for three days until the police finally found them. During the final confrontation, the older brother was killed and BB got away for a couple more hours until he was found hiding inside a boat. There, he was arrested and sent to the hospital for major injuries. After sometime the famous Rolling Stone magazine published an article about the life of the Boston Bomber, and a lot of people responded in a harsh, cold way.
“This guy is evil. This is the real Boston Bomber. Not someone fluffed n buffed for the cover of Rolling Stones magazine” says Police Sgt. Sean Murphy. (Boston Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to go on trial in November by Lawrence Crook and Chandrika Narayan, CNN).
Changing the subject now to a more insightful view of BB, here is where I ‘try to change your mind. The Rolling Stones article “Jahar’s World” written by Janet Reitman in July 17, 2013, gave me more insight in the history behind Jahar. Jahar is from North Caucasus but was raised largely in America. Their neighbors described Jahar as a sweet boy who always obeyed his mother. He was also a determined guy who wanted a good education, which brought him to attend Cambridge Rindge.
Jahar had many friends, all of which described Jahar as a good friend who would have your back and a really ‘chill’ guy. He was part of the wrestling team but he was in no way violent.
Things started to fall apart when Jahar’s mother and brother were starting to bring their beliefs of Islam to a whole new level. Jahar’s father, having enough, asked for divorce and moved to Russia, later on followed by his ex, where they reconciled but didn’t go back to America. His sisters also long ago went away from their home. Jahar was left with his brother, who basically forced his beliefs into Jahar.
Flash forward to after the bombs exploded and the three days of persecution. There was something left behind that night, found in the boat he was cornered in. Jahar left a message:
“God has a plan for each person. Mine was to hide in this boat and shed some light on our actions”. The U.S government is killing our innocent civilians but most of you already know that” “I can’t stand to see such evil go unpunished, we Muslims are one body, you hurt one, you hurt us all”. “...know you are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven, now how you can compete with that”. “Now I don’t like killing innocent people it is forbidden in Islam but due to said [UI] it is allowed. All credit goes [UI]. Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop”. “F*ck America”.
His reasons is that he didn’t want to do it, but thought that the U.S. left him with no choice. Scientific surveys of Iraqi deaths resulting from the first four years of the Iraq War found that between 151,000 to over 1,000, 000 Iraqis died as a result of conflict during this time. A later study, published in 2011, found that approximately 500,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the conflict since the invasion. If the U.S. keeps on going with killing Muslims and attacking, the Muslims are going to return the blows.
The problem is that both sides are either too prideful or cowardly to back out. Cowards? I think that because some people are afraid to look weak, or it could be a whole different reason that we, or at least I cannot see yet. I guess I should bring the quote from the beginning. DiAngelis states, “One big problem with terrorism policy altogether is that it tends to interpret things from our perspective, based on what makes sense to us. That’s not really the issue: The issue is what makes sense to people on the ground” (DiAngelis). Now, I’m not saying that I agree with Jahar’s actions. I’m just saying the to many of us, even Muslims, think that what he did was a monstrous act, but we are overlooking something. What about the others? The ones who are with Jahar? What are they seeing and thinking? Now that’s the real thing because most of us hide in our reasoning, we see something and we start coming up with theories, but we still have the question, that annoying three letter question that drills itself in our minds, the famous ‘why?’ Why did this happen? Why did he do it? why, why, why, thousands of why’s. And when they released the truth, when we finally have the answers at a hand’s reach, brushing our fingers, we don’t grab it. Why? Because we are afraid of being proved wrong, of having our little bubble of reasoning destroyed and we’ll have to face the sometimes horrible but true reality. Instead, what is the reasoning most come up with? Muslims hate the U.S., but that’s not true, is it? “So please, enough of the questions. Muslims do not hate America. Muslims in the East, like non-Muslim Americans in the West, both hate injustice. Peace is possible despite free speech differences — but only by joining together against injustice” (Why Muslims hate America by Qasim Rashid.)
In my second drawing Jahar is getting out of the boat in which he was cornered. It’s the end of the chase. This could make people have mixed feelings. Maybe they will feel bad that such a good boy had to be like that, become what he is today. Maybe they’ll be relieved that he has been caught or maybe they will sneer at the picture. But, I’m also going to put the message Jahar left behind, how the U.S. has killed innocents. Now that is going to give people something to think about.
I want people to understand how such a small thing can make a nuclear reaction. Jahar being left behind with his brother by his parents and sisters, not to mention that his brother was an extremist, yeah, no big deal for some, but not for him, for him it was the big deal. The day the Boston bombs exploded at the finish line, another bomb exploded. Jahar had another one, the one made of anger, sadness, his parents and sisters leaving, the ideas of his brother, the thought of what he was about to do along with other stuff, it just exploded, reaching it limits.
The idea is that everyone has a bomb inside. Some are big, small, or halfway made. But there are those whose bombs are completed and they keep building up. All those emotion create the explosive. They just need one single spark to set them off. It just depends in which direction the destructive wave is heading. But, that doesn’t mean the wave has to be negative. Jahar wave was a nuclear bomb that destroyed people’s life and his own, we, you can stop things like this from happening with just a little understanding. You can help people by just sitting beside them, sharing a lunch, say hi in the morning, say bye at the end of the day. And who knows, maybe they’ll share their story with you and you can help make that explosion be something positive. Jahar didn’t have someone to help him, but that was because he didn’t want help. To those who think they don’t need help, stop it, if you are in bad footsteps go to someone, the neighbor, a friend, a stranger sitting beside you on the bus, family, get someone to listen, don’t let that bomb destroy you like it did with Jahar. Listening is enough, more then enough, disassemble that bomb as best as you can. After all this, tell me, are you a bomb disassembler? or a bomb carrier?
Words of Wisdom 3/26/15
Exhibition:
- Tell me a story about creating this project. You can tell the story of exhibition, how difficult it was to create a lenticular and how you got over that, or whatever story is most important to know.
- If you were talking to a fifth grader and you were trying to explain the steps of researching to understand a person, what would you say to them? What are the steps you would tell them? What would you tell them is most important? Use a specific example from your research.
- What are the similarities between researching for humanities and researching for physics? What are the differences? Use a specific example from each class.
- Do we need art in our world? Why or why not? How has making a lenticular changed your view on art, either your ability to produce art or what are can be?
- Do you see humans in a more positive or negative light after doing this project? Why? Relate this to your hero or villain.
- All of the heroes and villains are very different. Some are mass murderers, others are pop singers, some are people I’ve never heard of before. What are the commonalities between the heroes and villains students chose? Use two heroes or villains as examples in your response.
Directions for DP Page
- Create a new page on your DP. Title it, "Finding Humanity Project"
- On your DP Page, write the title, "Finding Humanity: Creating Black and White Images from Not So Black and White Issues"
- Take FOUR photos of your lenticular. One from the left, one from the right, one straight on, and one with you holding the lenticular.
- Add these photos to your DP page.
- Below these photos, paste your artist statement
- Below your artist statement, answer the Words of Wisdom questions (your reflection on this project)