The film "Flag Wars" is by Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras. This is a documentary which gives an inside view of the conflicts that occurred when black working-class families were faced with white gay homebuyers in their Columbus, Ohio neighborhood. .
The white gay homebuyers were easily able to move into the neighborhood, due to an increase in code enforcement complaints and the efforts to reduce low-income housing in the community. Nina, a lesbian realtor was in the middle of all the changes being made in the neighborhood. Linda was one of the one of the African-Americans in violation of the housing codes. Her illness and limited resources prevented her from making any repairs to her home. Linda, along with many other African-Americans in the neighborhood, believed the white gays were responsible for the increase in code enforcement complaints. Because of this, the white gays were having their homes broken into and their personal belongings stolen. The African-Americans and the white gays were working against each other, rather than helping each other in making the neighborhood in compliance with the housing codes. .
Not having prior experience to this type of environment I found the documentary to be very inspiring and helped me gain a glimpse of hardships that the black working class-families had faced in their neighborhood. The documentary gave great insight on the conflicts that arose throughout the neighborhood from public hearings to street protests.
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Richard Manning authored "The Oil We Eat", and essay in which he covered the gradual process that assigned the greatest monetary value to grain. Manning used historical and contemporary examples to support his essay's topic which is that all the world's wealth is used toward the growth of grain which in turn serves as storage for energy. He contends that wars have been fought, and entire species of man have been wiped out all the pursuit of "grain power".
