Soc. 3251W Race, Class, and Gender

I was astounded watching this clip of the Tyra Banks show. I have felt disgusted by my race when members of my race directly perpetuate discrimination against other races (like Caucasians promoting slavery in the United States), but I have never felt disgusted in my own skin. It was very confusing and sad to realize that with race being one of the major indicators of difference in our society, that some people feel that their race is unacceptable. It seems that people often try to mask their race when race is obviously such a large part of their lives. For example, the African American man who was absolutely disgusted in his own skin was very happy when “changed� into a Caucasian man through the use of makeup. This man was overwhelmingly happy to mask his race despite the enormous contribution that race had made in his life. In this case, I would like to ask... are race and skin color the one in the same?

Before seeing this clip, I would have said no..that they are different characteristics, but this clip seemed to restate in a variety of cases that race and skin color are united.

In addition, it is important to realize that the majority of people do feel dissatisfied with their race in some way. However, I agree with one of the guests on the show who stated that their hatred of their own race solves nothing and actually “makes racial problems worse.� It may seem that being open to other races more than an individual’s race would decrease racism, but hating others of your own race continually perpetuates racism among individual people.

I cannot help but wonder if these people are so disgusted with their race simply because of the racial expectations and perceptions set among them by society. It seems highly unlikely that, if kept in isolation from society, a person would have any problem or negative opinion about their skin color. I wonder if these people simply feel challenged by the perceptions of their race that they do not agree with. For example, if people of my race were thought to be inhumanely cruel towards each other, I may be disgusted with my race and deny its importance in my life as well!

I feel that this clip brought up a variety of questions and ideas that I have never thought of or heard answered before and it seems the discussion of these would be very beneficial to our view of individual race.

I was shocked by the episode. I could not believe that minorities felt disgust within their own communities and toward their own race. Being white, I have never felt that way until now. I have always lived in predominantly white communities but while growing up, my dad had an African American best friend who I considered a second dad. He was always so nice to me and I never looked at him any differently then I looked at my family or anybody around me. Now that I have grown up and seen diversity, it makes me sick to be white. I do not understand why people are racist and why they have these feelings toward people who look different. Even though I am white, I have felt diversity because I have red hair. I have always hated my hair until now because I now look at it as being beautiful. I'm different from everybody else and that makes me feel good. If we all looked the same, I do not think we would have such a unique world.

Apple now has Rhapsody as an app, which is a great start, but it is currently hampered by the inability to store locally on your iPod, and has a dismal 64kbps bit rate. If this changes, then it will somewhat negate this advantage for the Zune, but the 10 songs per month will still be a big plus in Zune Pass' favor.

Between me and my husband we've owned more MP3 players over the years than I can count, including Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etc. But, the last few years I've settled down to one line of players. Why? Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and fun to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.