Kyna Nicholas, Lia Miller, Tierra Tucker

FOX News-
ATTENTION! Just in, there has been what seems like an upstream o extraterrestrial activity happening on earth. It seems that these Aliens have landed in America. These Aliens, described with green translucent skin, tentacles, and glowing eyes, claim to have come to earth in order to learn more about American culture. Fox News has uncovered stories from 3 people who claim to have talked to the aliens.

KYNA: (A middle aged woman from Chicago, Illlinois)

I was in the kitchen making me a plate ofbuttered noodles when all of a sudden my house shook. I look out the window and see what appears to be a gigantic piece of metal implanted in my lawn. I drop my noodles without even realizing it, that was on my grandmothers plate, which also went shattering to the floor.  I quickly ran outside.

 Before I knew it I was saying

                “What the hell are you doing?!”

                The creature that sat in front of me was green with bright eyes and tentacles.

“You know what…I’m calling the police” I quickly run back in the house and grab the telephone and come back out. “Do you hear me? I’M CALLING THE POLICE! AND I’M GONNA SUE YOU…AND I’M GONNA GET MY MONEY FOR THIS. FOR YOU…FOR YOU DESTROYING MY YARD!!!”

                “For what… pshhhhhhhhhhhhhh Gosh. Needy Greedy.”

                “Your in America…” I start to dial the phone. “What do you expect.  Everyone over here is greedy.  That’s our middle name! “

TIERRA: (An old woman, in her 90s, from Atlanta, Georgia)

“Do you wanna know what I’sa thinks of America ?” I said.

“Yes, that would be correct.” Mumbles the alien.

“Well from my 93 years of living in this here country, I’sa had seen it all… But mostly what I’sa have seen is the strife of my people and the struggles we had in this’a here country. I witnessed first hand what our people done been through. Because I’sa was right there pickin’ cotton,  I’sa was right there getting whipped, I’sa was right there getting’ mistreated by them red necks, and I’sa had to prove myself to them and fight for my rights and what I’sa believe in! “

*rubbing their chin* “wow, very interesting, but may we ask what this idea of strife is? “

America has a mass history of African-American strife. Throughout our history of America we have witnessed many tribulations within our African American heritage which has shaped our culture today. Two prime examples I would like to depict throughout my overview of America from part and more recent are “Roots” and the “Great Debaters” movies.  These two artistic pieces represent my concept of America because both pieces do a swell job at illustrating the African-American strife, African-American struggle, and a common theme of how they overcame and paved the way for not only African-Americans but all minorities in America. And created a tremendous change overall.

“That sounds very intriguing as well. May you further explain how these concepts represent America as a whole ?” states Alien A1.

“Yes’m , I would be’sa very honored to share with you my rationale.” I state.

… “Well it all began in “Roots” when Kunta Kinte was abducted from his African village, sold into slavery, and taken to America. He made several escape attempts until he was finally caught and maimed. He married Bell, his plantation's cook, and they has a daughter, Kizzy, who was eventually sold away from them. Kizzy had a son by her new master, and the boy grew up to become Chicken George, a legendary cock fighter who leads his family into freedom. Throughout the series, the family observed notable events in U.S. history, such as the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, slave uprisings, and emancipation.

And another here example I has’a for yall here today is found in the film “The Help”, where African-American strife was strongly depicted especially in the scene where the African-American maid was not allowed to use the caucasion home owners restroom. It caused a huge descrepency in the film where the maid was fired and it showed how mis-treated and the inequality the African-Americans were.

The last example I’sa had is “The Great Debaters.” The film depicts the Wiley Debate team beating Harvard College in the 1930s. They did not debate Harvard, however. The debate depicted in the film instead mirrored the match up between Wiley and the University of Southern California, who at the time were the reigning debating champions. Wiley College did indeed win this matchup. According to my close friend Robert Eisele: "In that era, there was much at stake when a black college debated any white school, particularly one with the stature of Harvard. They used Harvard to demonstrate the heights they achieved. The film omits another reality: even though they beat the reigning champions, the Great Debaters were not allowed to call themselves victors because they were not truly considered to belong to the debate society; blacks were not admitted until after World War II.

            So throughout all of these movies they shared a common theme of  African-American strife and sufferage. But in the end it shows how African Americans over came their trials and tribulations and made a difference, change, and overall improvement to the African American culture as a whole. 

LIA: (A hip teenager from Los Angeles, California)

Yes, the aliens came to me last week, they told me that they wanted to know about modern American culture from a modern American teenager. I told them that in my opinion, you can learn a lot about American culture from watching television. 

“Explain” said the tentacled Aliens aliens.

 “Well, for example, in this age the closest thing we have to royalty in America is…”

“Wait”, they said “Is it Barrack Obama and his family? Isn’t the president considered your American monarchy?”

 “No, not exactly” I said. “See, if you watch American TV, you’ll find that our royalty is more like the Kardashian family. The Kardashian’s are probably one of the richest families in America right now, and there show is a hit.”

 The aliens rummaged through the images in my brain like a photo album until they found a scene from “Keeping up With the Kardashians” that I watched last week.

 "Wow" Said the aliens, "Is it really possible to make currency by doing absolutely nothing in America?"

 "Yup", i said, "We call that the entertainment industry."

"Show us more" they said, "How do commoners function in America?"

"You mean ordinary people?"

“Yes that would be the correct term" the mind reading aliens exclaimed.

  "Ok, check this out" I said as I remembered a scene from The Simpsons. I pictured a scene where Homer is strangling Bart, which made me laugh.

 "Wait" they said, are all American fathers abusive and dumb?"

 "No" I chuckled, "Only the bad ones".

 "This show appears very entertaining" they said “We can see that even though they are a dysfunctional family, they still love each other."

 "Precisely" I replied.

The aliens sighed, "Enough with this. May we see an example of the American plight?"

 "Ok, let’s see" I remembered watching an episode of the Oprah show where this woman was given a brand new house because she was homeless with 4 children.

 "Who is this Oprah?" the aliens asked.

 "She’s like the most powerful woman on earth."

 "Oh, so she can do magic?"

 "Yea, it’s called using the magic of money. Here in America money equals power."

 The aliens gave a confused glare "So when you American suffer, Oprah will come to give you things?"

 "Well, not exactly" I said, “She only gives some people things but there is a lot of poor people in America like the one in this episode, because of the economy."

"Your American culture seems very superficial, where is the substance?" the aliens asked irritated

 "Well" I said, "It’s not that superficial, that’s just what’s on TV.

 A lot of us are just focused on the superficial main stream pop culture that we see on TV, but that doesn’t make all Americans superficial. I know America is much more than that, we just loose site of who we really are sometimes, which are free, proud people."

 "Oh," said the aliens, "Now we understand". 

Then they loaded back onto there huge mother-ship that looked like a metal meteorite and vanished like a beam of light fading into the darkness.