Sometimes society abuses certain terms or distorts it to a degree that the term doesn't mean what it was originally meant. The 2021 word of the year was "vax," as in Covid vaccination, but another addition to the lexicon has been "white privilege," indicating that white people get special treatment in society, contrasted with the plight and systemic racism that cuts against black Americans. Well, if we're talking about just privilege, I am not white but still did get the kind of privilege that "white privilege" connotes, like having 2 parents married living in the same household, with a steady income, and I had every expectation of going to college, didn't have to help my parents' business or otherwise work to put food on the table as a high school student. I had all the conditions and privilege to become a successful individual. The white people depicted in the movie, "Coda," however (the 2022 Academy Award winner for Best Picture! Somehow I missed that, but the movie is definitely worthy of the title. As I've grown older I've come to appreciate much more the artistic, storytelling, cultural value that movies like Coda provide but do not privide the financial value like the big blockbusters Marvel movies, Harry Potter create), do not have that privilege, as the whole family except 17-year-old Ruby is deaf, and struggling to make ends make owning a fishing boat and selling their catch. One of the central conflicts is if Ruby can go to college and pursue her dream as a singer at the Berkely School of Music (in Boston, and apparently almost as famous as Juilliard, though I've never heard of it) or if she must stay home and support her family who need her to translate in sign language.
I might start judging the quality of movies by how many times they make me cry or shed tears, and "Coda" definitely made me do it 5-7 times, all wonderfully depicted moments reminding me of my college years of confusion and pursuig dreams. Sure, it's not as believable as someone as beautiful and gifted as the actress Emilia Jones (who plays Ruby) would actually have these problems in real life, but someone out there there definitely is someone like Ruby who's struggling, and it's not about race, and it's about not being born into wealthy families who can provide their kids the best conditions to success, and having to fight from the bottom to gain traction into society and battle against powerful forces that life has thrown against you, and in that way everyone can relate to the characters in "Coda." Really a feel-good movie that I personally needed after ranting out the deterioration of society just yesterday. Also "Coda" makes me want to learn sign language, just in case I'm ever stuck on a boat or desperate situation with deaf people who only speak sign language, or somewhere that it might come in handy. I really also hope that colleges nowadays can get more people with backgrounds like Ruby who have come from families with lower socioeconomic status and they are the first ones in their families who are going to college, people for whom college means so much more, rather than just a stepping stone like a lot of college studnets treat it as nowadays. I definitely took college for granted (mostly due to my privilege) and thought of it as just a given, and I'd just need to get into the best college I could get into for my own vanity, not thinking about what college is really for or wat I could learn from there. I was so focused in my wild dreams of getting into an Ivy League school, and then when I didn't get in, felt so disappionted to "settle" for my state school in a time where disappointment is exactly what I needed to knock me down a peg, to make me realize how many smart and talented students there were out there that had struggled a lot more to get there, and I'd need to step up my game upon getting to college and use it as a springboard for life, not just use it as a status symbol or medal of accomplishment for getting into X school.
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