Trailers of Precious

To watch the trailer of the film pleace click on the links below.

hollywoodstreams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5FYahzVU44

LionsGate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krQiRIUSZs0

Visit the official site to get more information
http://www.weareallprecious.com/

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey (born January 29, 1954) is an American television host, producer, and philanthropist, best known for her self-titled, multi-award winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history.She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century and beyond,the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and was once the world's only black billionaire.She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.

Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, including being raped at the age of nine and becoming pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place,she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

Credited with creating a more intimate confessional form of media communication,[ she is thought to have popularized and revolutionized the tabloid talk show genre pioneered by Phil Donahue, which a Yale study claims broke 20th century taboos and allowed LGBT people to enter the mainstream. By the mid 1990s she had reinvented her show with a focus on literature, self-improvement, and spirituality. Though criticized for unleashing confession culture and promoting controversial self-help fads, she is generally admired for overcoming adversity to become a benefactor to others. In 2006 she became an early supporter of Barack Obama and one analysis estimates she delivered over a million votes in the close 2008 Democratic primary race, an achievement for which the governor of Illinois considered offering her a seat in the U.S. senate.

Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

my opinon:

it is surprised that the super famous talk show star Oprah have been raped when she was nine.

it seems like raping is the common burden for African America women.

Precious is raped by her father, and it hurt her forever physically and mentaly.

Oprah face the some disaster.

But both stands up to reconstruct their life.

The sociao welfare is extremely important, a lot of black women need help.

the system should be well organized to protect and help black women.

pics of precious II

pics of precious

Black Women Bear Brunt of Domestic Violence II

And cycles continue, through generations. Boys watch daddy pummel mommy and start practicing their shoves on sisters and cousins. Shoves elevate to punches, now foisted on girlfriends and wives. To curb that cyclical violence, prevention education emphasis is falling to not just entangled adults or even teenagers, but to elementary school students, where impressions begin.

“We don’t always want to equate domestic violence in other conversations we have, like HIV/AIDS, housing, unemployment,” Williams said. “Even if it’s not called ‘domestic violence,’ it’s present. It’s a challenge for us to get our heads around. But we need to look at it from a holistic perspective of making sure our community is healthy.”

He has seen advances in his 30-plus years as an advocate. From literature to counselors that reflect the African-American, and later, the Latino and Asian and Pacific Islander, experience, he can document progress.

In 1993, he and his cohorts were pioneers in tailoring domestic violence prevention efforts for African-American audiences. Today, they find themselves in the company of others, community efforts taking root from Atlanta to Los Angeles, with successes budding, lives being saved.

But it’s still not completed work. Shelters have been a good start and a proven method for some, but may not be the most accessible outlet for every woman. African-Americans still need to dig deeper, look at barriers raised by class and culture and develop their own networks and remedies to address them, he said.

And while wider society is beginning to accept and support those trying to survive abuse, the National Women’s Law Center reported in 2008 that in nine states – Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming – and the District of Columbia, it is legal to reject survivors of domestic violence for individual health care coverage, citing the abuse as a “pre-existing condition.”

On many fronts, it’s still part education, part action in the battle against domestic abuse.

Washington is working on both ends. On Oct. 24, she will host her second walk in Philadelphia to raise money for the hotlines in the area that direct women in need to crises support services, a lifeline for many fleeing for their lives.

She suffered her abuser for nine years, but it wasn’t until 14 years later that she recognized and understood what she had endured. Once she did, she began speaking out.

Washington will continue to do so, urging other women to chose other options.

She is still “Cookie” to those who knew her when, and “senator” for those who know her now. But she is a victim no more.

Today, Washington is known as an advocate, a voice, a survivor. And more than anything, she hopes other women will walk alongside her, not just this October, but every day.

resources: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/moving_america_news/13144/2

Black Women Bear Brunt of Domestic Violence I

LeAnna M. Washington is busy at work these days like many of her colleagues in the state senate, looking to push through Pennsylvania’s budget, finally freeing needed dollars to strapped social service agencies that aid the most vulnerable. Washington once was among them.Well before she was called “senator,” looking to right wrongs, she was called “Cookie,” looking for love. When she was 18, she figured she found it.She became a married woman, with a black eye as a honeymoon present from her new groom – the first of many.“It was the big secret,”

Washington told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “But women being beaten was not unfamiliar to me. And I got used to being beaten.”As have many black women across the country.While the sensational incident between pop stars Rihanna and Chris Brown recently snagged headlines and electrified airwaves, the struggle against domestic violence among African-Americans is an age-old and often silent battle. Those fighting to end it hope the spotlight from Domestic Violence Awareness Month will draw recruits.It’s not just about donning purple ribbons or playing celebrity public service announcements.

It’s about absorbing the reality that close to five in every 1,000 black women aged 12 and up are victims of domestic violence, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. It’s understanding that among those abused aged 15 to 34, murder by a husband or boyfriend remains a leading cause of death.More importantly, it’s about actively working on changing those outcomes, said Dr. Oliver J. Williams, executive director of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African-American Community.“We have to figure out ways for our communities to own it,” Williams said. “We have to devise ways to get communities to see what actions and activities they can do to be engaged and involved, to develop solutions to it.”First observed in October 1987, Domestic Violence Awareness Month evolved from a single day of unity to a month-long endeavor to spotlight a social condition that was considered taboo for polite conversation.

Verbal, sexual and physical abuse are forms familiar to a large swath of black females. Historically so, Williams said. These are the scars of slavery, lack of education, discrimination, unemployment and other frustrations that have been exacerbated among African-Americans.Poverty tends to be an indicator for abuse, though violence is not confined to one social class. The difference is having options and resources to escape – options not always afforded by those struggling to survive day-to-day. Feeling trapped leads many women to stay put - and in peril.For Washington, those days seem like a lifetime ago, but the memories still make her cringe.

Like when she and her young children would barricade themselves inside a bedroom, dresser against the door, and remain huddled together until they heard her husband's truck pull away in the morning.Or the time she tried to exact revenge after a beating by tossing a pot of boiling water at him, and instead he dumped the hot water on her.Or the day he unexpectedly stepped in puppy feces, dragged her to the spot, twisted her arm and shoved her face in the smelly mess.But the beatings were the constant, followed by the apologies, the promises to change. Until the next beating.“A lot of people ask me to come and share my story,” Washington said. “The toughest woman will stop and pay attention, and that’s because it’s not just unique to me. We all know this story, but just with different players.“Sometimes I laugh when I hear myself repeating the stories, asking myself, ‘Why did I take that?’ But it was real life. And it happens all the time.”

resources: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/q=articles/news/moving_america_news/13144/1

from Los Angeles Times

For African American rape victims, a culture of silence
But as the phenomenon is finally addressed, women's voices emerge.
July 20, 2004 Gayle Pollard-Terry, Times Staff Writer

There's an old saying in the African American community: Black women raise their daughters and love their sons. A legacy of the atrocities of slavery, it signifies a communal protectiveness of black men, from the coddling of toddling boys to a reluctance to report rape and incest.

It's not like a get-out-of-jail-free card. It's born of a wariness of authority, especially white authority, learned from those stories about how your light-skinned sister got those gray eyes and your dark-skinned cousin got that keen nose, from those photographs of white lynch mobs and the beaten body of Emmett Till, a black teenager killed because of a wolf whistle.

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jul/20/entertainment/et-pollard20

Domestic violence in African American society

photo from http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/feb2009/0/3/Rihanna_milticrop_524570783.jpg

Domestic Violence and African Americans

African Americans, including African American Women suffer deadly violence from family members at rates decidedly higher than for other racial groups in the United States. However, it is observed that research concerning family violence among African Americans is inadequate.

Factors such as the breakdown of families, unemployment and underemployment, poor schools, inadequate vocational skills and training, bad housing, the influence and use of drugs, and the density of liquor stores in the inner city contribute to the problem of domestic violence. All of these ingredients may compound and coalesce into a strong undercurrent of frustration that can lead to domestic violence.

A Painful Dilemma

Many Black women may find it harder to leave a battering relationship than White women. The reasons for this are unclear, but some possible explanations include the following: (1) African American women have fewer options in their search for a marital partner than do White women; (2) African American women on average, have a lower income level than that of most White women; (3) Black women are reluctant to call the police because they see the racial injustice in the criminal justice system; (4) community support systems including women’s shelters and other service programs may be less available to them and they may view the shelter system movement as something mainly to benefit White women. Unfortunately, many Black women resort to “homicide” as an answer to the violence and battering they encounter.

from http://www.blackwomenshealth.com/2006/articles.php?id=35

Scenes of Friendship

Precious finds true friendship later in the film. The teacher Ms. Rain she met in Each One Teach One helps Precious to rebuild her confidence. Precious is humble and willing to learn all the things Ms. Rain teach her. Due to Precious' kind heart and humble personality, people around her willing to offer her helps and being her friends. Precious has learned to love and care for others after she has been loved and cared for during the days she get along with Ms. Rain and her friends.

Scenes of White Refelction in the Mirror

The mirror always functions to refelct people's mind, thought or subconsciousness in the films. Precious sees herself as a blonde in the mirror which shows her eargerness of being a White woman. Precious is lack of confidence when she has oppressed too long by the environment she grows. Precious pursues a common (or even philistine)value of beauty in her contemporary that only blonde stands as beauty. By viewing herself as a blonde Precious gains herself some confidence. However, the blonde in the mirror is wearing a sad face which refelcts Precios' true mental status.

Scenes of Being Superstar

By dreaming being a superstar Precious can run away form the miserable events for a short period. In the film, Precious always has her dreams when she is maltreated. (Been raped, bullied, and kicked out by her mother) Though Precious grabs a short rest through these Superstar dreams, she has to face the crule reality after she wakes up, which is always a sad thing. These Superstar dreams make an irony to Precious life which makes people sad rather than excited to see her illusions.

Scenes of Romantic Illusions

Precious always dreams for having a romance with a "lighted skin guy who wear nice hair". The scenes above show her illusion for her teacher and the nurse both with lighted skin.(The teacher is a White man and the nurse a lighter Black man) We view Precious' such dream as the result of the offensive feeling caused by her father's violence rape. By dreaming her romantic dreams, Precious gets the chance to run away from the crule reality.

Scenes of Being Bullied

Precious is not only maltreated at home but also out on the street. Beside to the fact that the gays laughed at her for her fatness, gender issue is also the problem. The scenes indicate female's status is lower than the male's in African American society.

Scenes of Being Raped

The raping scenes show Precious' miserable life in the past and they are the connections to the present to tell audiences what happened to Precious that leaded to her pregnancy (which also made her been kicked out from school). In the raping scenes we learn that Precious' mother notice what is happening as we can see her figure shows up at the door. However, the mother choose not to stop what is going on. Having a monstrous father and an indifference motehr Precious still has her fantastic dream. During the raping, Precious dreams of being a super star. The breaking ceiling will turns out to be Precious' illusion as a super star which is compeletly the other way from the reality.

Scenes of Being Abused

These scenes show how Mary abuses Precious physically and verbally. The abusing scenes provide the audiences the background imformation of Precious' life. Abusing scenes can be saw through the whole film that remind audience how miserable experience Precious always comes up with. The abusing scenes are Precious' shadowed past which make an obvious contrast to Precious' better future.

Rising Out of Oppression: The Identity and Self-Definition of African American Women

※Oppression

The pain that oppression brought African American women was extensive because they faced the double-edged sword of being black and women, receiving no respect or opportunities.

1. In the beginning: slavery

At that time, they have to try their best to adjust to the new environment, culture and language. Besides, most of them come from different tribes, so they must learn English to communicate with each other.

2. After Abolishment: non-citizens

“ Mules uh de world." Hill-Collins (2000)
→The gender roles for African American Woman
"physically demanding, economically exploitative," and "intellectually deadening" (p. 48).

3. The wrong images for African American Woman

EX : Film "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Cabin in the Sky."

※ The “Voice” of African American Woman

1. The first was with maintaining a connection to the culture through maintaining the Black English Vernacular that was adopted during slavery.

2. Blue Music:

EX: Bessie Smith, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, and Billie Holliday

3. Scholarly Works : Black Feminism

4. They were the women in the neighborhoods getting together to discuss how to educate other women, teaching their children both solidarity and independence, refusing to be called "girl" by white women who were younger than them (Hill-Collins, 2000).

※The new images of African American Woman: Strong, Independent and determined
( source :
Rising Out of Oppression: The Identity and Self-Definition of African American Women
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/293514/rising_out_of_oppression_the_identity.html

The Difference between Precious and Her Mother

If we see the movie unilaterally form Precious’ point of view, it is she is abused by her mother physically and verbally. In addition to our sympathy for Precious, we should take more consideration to the discrepancy of the mother and daughter’s interaction. For Precious, though be maltreated by her tyrannical mother, she still has beautiful dreams in her mind. Precious encounters all the unimaginable unfortunate events in her life, but she finds her way at the end of the movie. Despite all the misfortune Precious comes across, her genuine mind makes the people around her willing to help her which lead her life upward gradually. For Mary’s part (the mother), we have to think what kind of life she had lived and what kind of environment and people she had met that make her into a such monstrous figure. In the film Mary not only abuses Precious to release her oppressed emotion but her action could almost considered as self-abuse. Mary avoids to pursuit a better life for her family rather she chooses to live on others and complain all day long. Is it because her mother and the man she has chose leads to her misery outcome or she just made her own bed to her misery fate? Should such a role like Mary be sympathized or be spurned like the social worker did in the end of the film?

Domestic violence hits Black women harder

According to a recently released study, the weapon most used by men to kill African American women was a gun.
The Violence Policy Center, a national non-profit organization that conducts research on violence in the United States stated in its annual report, "When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2006 Homicide Data," that 551 African American women were murdered by males that year.

Of those homicides where a murder weapon could be ident

ified, 305 of the victims were fatally shot and most during the course of an argument.
The study stated there were 1,818 race-identified females murdered by males. And while white women accounted for the largest total of those killed–1,208–African American women were killed at a rate nearly three times higher.

In Illinois, there were 39 domestic-related homicides and 114,921 reported cases of domestic violence in 2006.
Justine Gray* (real name withheld to protect her privacy) lived to tell about her repeated incidents of violence at the hands of a former boyfriend.

Gray said she was fresh out of college and had a 2-year-old son. She said it was hard to make ends meet while working, caring for her son and maintaining stable housing. The jobs she held paid barely above minimum wage, and she had little help from her family.
Then an old acquaintance came into the picture, and she thought things were starting to look up. They moved in together, created a two-income household and the man treated her son as if he were his own, she said.

“But jealousy kicked in for some odd reason, and I became a punching bag. I have no idea what set him off,” the now-married mother of three said.
She wanted to leave but could not bear no longer having a stable environment for her son. She initially thought she was to blame for his tirades, plus he threatened to kill her if she left.
Related Content:
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Related to:domestic violenceAfrican American women murderAfrican American women domestic disputeblack on black crimeBlack women abuseBlack women beatBlack women fightBlack couples fight

“Even though I was working, it still wasn’t enough to put food on the table, pay the rent, the bills and pay for day care. He treated my son very well and was paying his child care costs. I don’t know where we went wrong,” Gray said. The man hit her several times--a few times she was knocked unconscious. There were many times she had to wear sunglasses to hide the black eyes that sometimes never seemed to fade, she said about the “toxic” relationship.About a year into the relationship, she mustered the courage to leave. “It was the best decision I ever made. I just wish I had the nerve to do it sooner,” Gray said.Domestic violence is a pattern of mental, physical, emotional or sexual abuse where one partner makes the other partner feel scared, weak, isolated, hurt or sad, according to Between Friends, a Chicago-based non-profit agency that provides educational and counseling services for domestic violence victims and advocates. “One in three women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime so everybody probably knows someone who has been affected,” said Kathy Doherty, executive director of Between Friends. Signs of abuse include jealousy, controlling behavior, isolation, forceful sex, and physical and verbal abuse. “It is our responsibility to help others learn more about the issue and take action that will make a difference in the lives of the women and children affected by domestic violence,” Doherty said. October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
For more information, visit www.betweenfriendschicago.org, or www.ncadv.org.
______
Copyright 2008 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

My opinion:
It really shocks me that one of three women will suffer from the domestic violence in their lifetime.
The condition will become worse for black women, since they have to suffer the discrimination, and when they come back home, there is another bully. It really burdens them very much.
Every women should be equally treated, so there must be some social welfare institute to help them.

Push (Novel)-plot summary

Push (Novel) by Sapphire

The novel is set in New York in 1987. The narrator, Claireece Precious Jones, is an obese and illiterate 16 year old. The victim of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of both of her parents, Precious is pregnant with her second child, both pregnancies the result of repeatedly being raped by her father. Her mother, an obese woman who hasn't left the house in several years, supports the two of them with welfare money and food stamps and expects Precious to do all of the cooking and cleaning. She receives extra money for Precious’ first child, "Lil' Mongo," who has Down Syndrome. The child lives with Precious’ grandmother, Tootsie. Although Precious' father is married to another woman and has another family, he lived with Precious and her mother until the birth of Lil Mongo, at which point he disappeared for about three or four years, returning to rape Precious and impregnate her once more.

As the novel begins, Precious is summoned to the guidance counselor's office. The school has decided to suspend her because she is pregnant. Precious is furious, but the counselor later visits Precious’ home and convinces her to enter an alternative school called Each One Teach One. Despite her mother's insistence that she apply for welfare, Precious enrolls in the school. She meets her teacher, Blue Rain, and fellow students: Rhonda, Jermaine, Rita, Jo Ann, and Consuelo. All of the girls come from troubled backgrounds. Ms. Rain's class is a pre- G.E.D. class for young women who are below an 8th grade level in reading and writing and therefore are not ready for the high school level courses. They start off by learning the basics of phonics and vocabulary building. Despite their academic deficits, Ms. Rain strives to ignite a passion in her students for literature and writing. She believes that the only way to learn to write is to write every day. Each girl is required to keep a journal. Ms. Rain reads their entries and provides feedback and advice. By the time the novel ends, the women have created an anthology of autobiographical short stories. The works of Audre Lorde, Alice Walker and Langston Hughes are inspirational for the students, especially for Precious who contributes poems to the anthology.

While in the hospital for the birth of her second child, Precious reveals to a social worker that her first child is living with her grandmother. The confession leads to Precious' mother getting her welfare taken away and when Precious returns home with her newborn baby, her mother is enraged and chases her out of the house. Homeless and alone, she turns to Ms. Rain who uses all of her resources to get Precious into a halfway house with childcare. Her new environment provides her with the stability and support to continue with school. Precious' literacy skills continually improve as evidenced by her journal entries, which become gradually more coherent and are peppered with imagery and similes.

With her attitude changing and her confidence growing, Precious finds herself thinking more about having a boyfriend, a real relationship with someone near her age, someone she's truly attracted to. Her only sexual experience thus far has been the rape and sexual abuse by her father and, to a lesser extent, her mother. Although she tries to move beyond the trauma of her childhood and distance herself from her parents, an unwelcome visit from Precious' mother reveals that her father has died from AIDS. Testing verifies that Precious is HIV positive, but her son is not. Her classmate Rita encourages Precious to join an incest support group, as well as an HIV positive group. The meetings provide source of support and friendship for Precious as well as the revelation that her color and socio-economic background weren't necessarily the cause of her abuse. Women of all ages and backgrounds attend the meetings. The author doesn't conclude with a clear prediction for Precious' fate. We aren't told how long she has to live. We know she is focused on her goals. As readers, we are left only with Precious' dreams for the future; her desire to increase her test scores to a high school level and her dream of going to college and getting a job so she can independently care for her son.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_(novel)#Plot_summary

Purpose

Purpose
Since 1943, the year which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man, women of the Black have always played an essential role in the painful history of the Black striving for their right. The peculiar incident of Montgomery Bus Boycott was not merely an accident. In fact, it was a plan schemed to initiate the Black to fight against the segregated laws through the hands of black women (Jo Ann Robinson and Rosa Parks). To place black women as the key factors in such a movement inspired us to stretch our studies to the profound gender and social issues related to black women. “Precious” is such a film that not only portraits the ghetto life of Precious Jones, but various aspects of her encounter with different characters.