Cyp 3.3 Episode 1

In the Black Mirror season 3 episode 1, the world is ruled by social status and social acceptance, everything from entering a building to flying on a plane is based on your social status which ranges from 0 to 5 stars. The theme of Racial profiling leading to demonization is present strongly in this episode. Black people and people of color are mostly seeing working in cafes and low-end jobs where their white counterparts have jobs in buildings where they seem to build their social status instead of working. Furthermore, the scene where Lacie was locked up in a prison the only other prisoner was a black male in a suit, representing that he was a worker but was racial profiled and locked up. Lacie then proceeds to insult the black male, calling
him names and saying statements like “look like an alcoholic former weatherman” (APA format). This shows that a black male in a middle to high-class job got locked up was not a surprising thing to her, it seems normal to Lacie.
Bruce A. Arrigo (2008) discussed the idea that black people were more likely to incarcerated than their white counterpart, he later stated that “Ramirez (1983) found that Black convicts received a disproportionate number of conduct reports compared to their White counterparts in a medium-security federal correctional institute” (Arrigo, 2008, p, 633). Arrigo discussed how a black person was treated differently in the same situation is like how two black men in this episode loss their social standing and their jobs while only one white woman had a type of loss. Furthermore, this shows the how the society in the episode is based solely on social standing and that people of color are more likely to be of low standing and if they get high they have a greater chance of falling too low social standing than their white
counterpart.
Season 4 episode 2 of the black mirror is about a technology called the Arkangel that lets parents control what their children see and hears and give them information about their location, health, and physical state.
Throughout the episode, there was a constant abuse of power by Sarah’s mother through the use of the Arkangel. furthermore, Sarah was subjugated to 24-hour surveillance for the majority of her life and this caused Sarah to have a fight with her mother and eventually run away from home. One example of the abuse of power is when Sarah’s mother used to the video feed from Sarah's eyes to spy on her after they agreed to stop using the Arkangel, she then used that video, which was of Sarah having sex with a guy, to blackmail the guy into leaving Sarah. This personifies a type of incarceration where Sarah is being imprison by her mother through the Arkangel device. Furthermore, this shows the unfair treatment towards Sarah while she was being watched because Sarah did not have free will, her actions were controlled through the control of her eyes and ears. Sarah’s mother implanted the device into Sarah’s head because she wanted to control her actions and what she sees. This can be seen as a form of juvenile detention where the child can be controlled, Christopher Bickel (2010) argued a comparable situation where he said, “juvenile detention centers provide the social location in which detained children, who are often working class and of color, are created different
and unequal.” (APA). This relates to Sarah’s cases in which she was isolated from other students at her school because she could not connect with them because of the Arkangel device. Furthermore, Bickel examines the treatment of the children in these detention center even although majority of the children are there for a non-violent crime they treatment resembles detention prison-like treatment.
Season 2 episode 3 of the black mirror is about a cartoon character called Waldo that derides people by using profanity and childish humor, however, he ended up going for a by-election as an advertisement stunt but gained acceptance from the public and became the leading opposition in the by-election. Waldo was played by a guy named Jamie who is not interested in politics but was forced to participate in the election anyway. Jamie is the victim of corruption within the government and entertainment business because he lost Waldo, a character that he created, to an American government agent called Jeff. Furthermore, this agent aids to use Waldo as a political tool to make the public agree with a specific policy, he refers to Waldo as the ‘perfect assassin’ because he would be able to deliver a message without the issue of being human. Jeff is a prime example of the reoccurring corruption of the government and how they like to manipulate people to believe in a specific policy. Jamie was fired from being Waldo and ended up homeless, meanwhile waldo become international. Waldo was a part of many major organizations like schools, military, and politics, so the corruption of the government can be clearly seen in the way they treated Jamie because he would not do what they told him to.