For more than eight decades, the Walt Disney Company has been paramount in the field of family entertainment. Disney is a forerunner in childhood culture and presents itself as a company rooted in innocence and magic. However Disney is a corporate mogul owning media giants such as ABC, ESPN, ABC Radio and the Disney Empire itself.
Continue reading "Racial Stereotypes in Disney Cartoons & Films" »
I Stumbled acorss a CNN article focusing on Asian-americain life and the still existing stereotypes. I think this article is really interesting because it actually sheds light on a lot of the problems we talked about in class, and seemed to give information with an unbiased sense. This article I think is kind of a positive thing, because it seems to bring these issues into focus, reminding people that being American is not only for people that are white, without also being negative towards them.
One thing I liked especially was noting that you can't simply say one is Asian and have that encompass all cultures, languages, and people. The term Asian-american seems like such an old un-updated word, that still floats around carrying all of it's stereotypes, such as not being able to speak enlglish very well or to be good and successfull only in math or science. The acticle also mentions 'Apu' from "The Simpsons" as the old Asian-american stereotype, and how our society is finally starting to move away from that.
I think that this relates to our class topics because of all of the inequalities we talked about considering race. Especially now, I'm very undecided which direction society should strive to head for. Whether it's important for society as a whole to move towards more terms for people of different areas and cultures, or if we as a whole need to move away from labels completely. It seems that by eliminating labels we may be throwing away important pieces of culture, but by creating more distinct labels it could simply increase stereotypes, assumptions and inequalities among us. I generally feel that in our specific society, we would be better of without labels in all aspects, because labels in America generally only lead to further discrimination. What do you think?
Lately a lot of press has been spent on the idea of the "loner" in society. After last months shooting at Virginia Tech, a lot of people have been speculating on what makes somebody "become a loner", as well as what can be done to create an air of inclusiveness in which people can be open and honest, and not be afraid of being bullied or otherwise excluded.
There is a significant minority of the population that doesn't have a lot of the social abilities that the mainstream populace has. Autistics, specifically "high-functioning" autistics, have a tendency to feel withdrawn from society, not necessarily because of a lack of social development, but because of (possible) physical conditions which prevent them from understanding social culture and norms. Many report several people not wanting to "fit in" arguing for their own ability to stay excluded, because this is how society makes sense for them.
Is it possible that we could be forcing a minority into assimilation by trying to create an "inclusive" society? Aspies for Freedom (http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/) seems to argue this point at times.
Posted by Jessica Stiffarm
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/23/turner.prom/index.html
This article is form Ashburn, Georgia
This article was about a prom for the first time ever was going to be a mixed white/black prom. All the other previous years the proms wer held seperate one for blacks, one of whites. Alot of parents disapproved of this and didnt let their kids go, and some kids did not agree either. But the town deciced it was time for a change. Although they had a mixed prom they had a white prom a week before. What is that really showing?? That the white race is more important than the black race? I think that a change should ahve happened along time ago. I think this is a great example of how racism still exsists in our society. What do you think about this article? IS this fair? From taking this course we have learned that to some degree there is a white/black divide but is this just pushing things to far?? I think it is only teaching younger generations the white/black divide. What do you think?
This article I found really alarmijng that this kind of thing still happen in America.
http://www.askmen.com/money/career/16_career.html
This article posted on askmen.com brought up many of the interesting issues we talked about in class regarding gender biases against women in the work place. I was especially intrigued by the chart on the second page of the article which outlined many of the different behaviors men and women exhibit in the workplace. Of the eight characteristics listed, all of them show the favorable attributes women display compared to men. It is obviously a generalization, but I can relate to all of the items and have seen them in everyday interactions with men and women. This article was written by a man, and his insightful commentary is impressive. He states that while women have made great strides in achieving some steps toward gender equality in the workplace, many men write these successes off to women using their attractive looks or flirting skills to achieve what they want.
Continue reading "While women strive for equality, men are in denial." »
A month or so ago, Virginia Tech went through a very devastating experience that affected the whole nation. In the wake of the massacre, Channel 5 news (KSTP) did an interview with a Sociology professor at the University of Minnesota that focused on the killer in the massacre, a male student. The reporter asked many questions regarding the gender of the killer. Majority of serial killers, mass murderers, etc. have been males. There is always an exception to the rule but why do men kill more then women? In society, we place a huge importance on making sure men are manly. As little boys, they are given GI- Joes, cars, trains, weapons, whereas women are given dolls, Barbies, dresses, make-up. We tell boys that they have to suck up whatever they have wrong with them and fight their own battles. They are taught to be tough and that they should not cry. Boys eventually grow up to be men and as they grow up, they typically turn into these harden people that do not like to show emotion and who take care of themselves like they were told many years before. With this harden attitude, men create this idea that if trouble comes around, they need to take care of it themselves. Men also believe that they have to be powerful in every aspect of what they do: relationships, teamwork, work, etc. This idea of power sometimes over takes some men in society and they end up becoming a murderer, mass murderer, serial killer.
This interview relates to the course because we talked about how social construction affects society. We discussed how men and women differ throughout society and within this realm, men and women do differ. I discussed how boys and girls are treated when they grow up which is a social construction that society places on every girl and boy born.
I read a story from a science website saying you can now test the gender of a fetus after six weeks. It is causing problems with anti-abortionists. I think it is a useful tool but I also think that it can be misused. This is relevant to our class since it is about gender and how some people have a preference for one gender or the other and now you can find out early on and possibly abort the baby if it is not the gender you wanted.
For my media journal, I read a New York Times article about a very diversified sorority from DePauw University that suddenly discriminated against some of its minority members. What happened is that some of the girls from this sorority were suddenly asked to leave the house and live elsewhere, some were asked to leave the sorority for good, and when it was time to meet the new freshman recruits, only certain girls were allowed to meet the potential recruits. The problem is that, consistently, the girls who felt the negative impact of these actions were those girls who were not white. Additionally, several of them were overweight, not real popular, and overall not the typical pretty sorority girls.
Continue reading "Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias" »
For my media journal, I read a New York Times article about a very diversified sorority from DePauw University that suddenly discriminated against some of its minority members. What happened is that some of the girls from this sorority were suddenly asked to leave the house and live elsewhere, some were asked to leave the sorority for good, and when it was time to meet the new freshman recruits, only certain girls were allowed to meet the potential recruits. The problem is that, consistently, the girls who felt the negative impact of these actions were those girls who were not white. Additionally, several of them were overweight, not real popular, and overall not the typical pretty sorority girls.
Continue reading "Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias" »
A recent article in the The New York Times talked about a "model middle school" in New York. This middle school is Briarcliff. It has earned the title of a model middle school because it had gone beyond the norms of just teaching subject to "focusing on how adolescents think and develop" and to help them cope with the stressful middle school years.
This is all well and good for them, but they spend an average of 24,738 dollars per student. The school can even afford to buy multiple copies of book for each student so they can leave one copy at home.
While this is a great advantage for these students (91 percent of the student population are white) it leads me to think about the stuggling inner city poor schools that can not afford books at all. This is a prime example of where wealth is not being evenly distriputed to those that need it the most, and it is a very sad fact.
In addition, while this school is able to expand past the bare minimum of teaching children their lessons, they develop lessons and skills that focus on critical thinking, moral values and organizational skills. Children from inner city and poor schools do not recieve these opportunities, so how and why should they be expected to compete with children who have been raised with all the "luxuries" of a extremely rich school?
I stumbled upon this blog on the star tribune's website and it relates to some discussions we have had about families. The link is http://www.startribune.com/blogs/cribsheet/ and the article in discussion is called "Couch Potater Tots." The article is written by a woman who doesn't know if she should let her children watch much TV. They are under two but there is much pressure and advertising by television programs that they can make your kids smarter. Series' like Baby Einstein or Baby Mozart are out there and are telling her to have her kids watch them so they become smarter. She had watched Sesame Street as a kid and she implies but never expicitly says that that is proven as a benefit towards children's education.
This relates to the conversation we had in class about families and the parents changing the developments of their children. The mother here is struck with the decision of how can I make my kid as smart as the other kids out there and it is a tough spot. With parents having such an impact on the development of her child could be altered by whether she buys her kid fancy movies and what-not. Furthermore, this strikes a deeper chord in relation to whether or not people can afford these intellingence-advancing devices. Assuming that Baby Einstein does in fact make kids smarter, what about the parents without the money and time to make that happen. Is this yet another area where the poor will struggle more to educate their children at as sophisticated a level as the rich? If intelligence is purchased, is smart kids to some degree something you need money to have? If yes, the rich will keep getting richer and so on unless changes are made.
Tomorrow there will be a vote in the town of Farmer's Branch which is a smalll suburb of Dallas. Usually in the past this has been the type of issued addressed by the government, but it is the first time it will be subject to a vote from the general population. Only about 35 years ago this was a town that was 100% white, but currently is approximately 40% minority, most of these residents are o hispanic descent coming from coutries like Mexico and Guatemala. The new legislation that is being proposed would prohibit landlords from catering to tenants that are illegial immigrants, and levy fines of $500 per day for doing so. Lnadlords are strongly opposed because of business as well as them having to do a federal job, just as banks are upset about having to comply with anti gambling laws, doing something that is out of their jurisdiction. Many say that this proposal has increased public hate and bigotry, as it is not so stigmatized since this vote is about to happen.
I saw a disturbing topic on the news yesterday night. One of the higher-ups of the St. Paul police (I believe he was the chief) was blaming several unsolved murders and violent crimes on...hip-hop. His rationale was that hip-hop promotes "anti-snitching"--not telling if you know something about a crime. He claimed hip-hop portrayed the police as the enemy. Although you may be thanked by the police, you will have to deal with the "real law," the law of the streets and you'll probably get hurt/killed for telling.
My issue with this is that the story itself was constructed showing images of black male after black male being searched by the cops or handcuffed but I'm fairly confident that they didn't mention race once as an issue or topic, they successfully avoided it by just saying "hip-hop" and showing pictures of black men. It was a successful attempt at making race similtaneously an issue and a non-issue.
Just like we've discovered a million times before with Marilyn Manson, and countless other genres, songs and artists, it is not the music that makes people violent, silent, etc. it is society. I could easily say there are countless raps about being good citizens, standing up for what is right, etc, but I won't. It isn't the issue. I will say rap is a cultural expression, agency against a dominant power (which hasn't always been fair and just as the cops claim they are being) and creative-expression. The news clip made it seem like hip-hop was part of a glorified gangster way of life and completely neglected many of it's positive attributes. It is just interesting to me how the story manipulated the truth. It didn't mention that the communities could feel silenced not because of rap music, but because both communities in question are poor, inner-city and almost all people of color. With those statistics it is often dangerous to involve authorities, who stayed uninvolved until the violence reached outside the community. Maybe the cops need to re-examine the way they "deal with" the inner-city rather than blame hip-hop. The story really reiterated the fact that there are so many lingering problems between when it comes to justice, race and class, so many ways to manipulate the story and avoid the reality of the situation.
After our lecture on health care systems last month, I became very interested in this topic mainly because I am going into a health related profession. A couple of weeks ago I came across this article on CBSnews.com titled “Poll: The Politics of Health Care�. Just the title was enough to catch my attention, so I read the article and found it was much related to our lecture.
The main point of this article is that the majority of Americans favor universal health care systems. CBS News and New York Times did a poll of Americans to see their actual thoughts on this topic. Some of the results were as follows:
-Providing health insurance to everyone is thought by two-thirds of Americans to be more important than keeping the costs of health care down.
-9 out of 10 people think the current U.S. health care system needs some type of fundamental change.
-36% believe that the current U.S. health care system needs to be completely redesigned.
-59% of Americans are very dissatisfied with the overall cost of health care in the U.S.
-The majority of Americans think the health care system can be improved by the government because they are capable of doing a much better job than private insurance companies.
-64% believe that the government needs to guarantee health insurance for everyone and only 31% believe the government needs to keep health care costs down.
The article also stated that in February 2007, health care was tied with jobs and the economy for the #2 issue the U.S. is facing. The #1 issue was the war in Iraq. The 2008 presidential campaign is sure to focus much attention on this very critical issue of the U.S. health care system.
This article was very interesting to read after our lecture because it was very reassuring to see that the majority of Americans feel the same way the majority of our class felt regarding the U.S. health care system. After learning about the different types of health care systems that exist around the world, I do believe that there is a better way of doing things here in the U.S. I am not sure what system I would choose if I had the option (a public assistance system or National Health Service system); however, I believe that both have many more benefits than our current system.
It is also very good to see that this critical issue is being given the attention it deserves. I think it may take some type to reformat our health care system, but I would like to think that in the future we may have one of the better systems, not one of the worst.
The movie Little Miss Sunshine displays the dysfunction of a white middle-class family in New Mexico. At first, the family is depicted without any characteristics of togetherness and without any common bonds among its members. But when the daughter of the family, Olive, gets entered into the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, the entire family begins a journey to California which would lead them to become as close as ever. Throughout the film, there are several instances in which issues of sexuality, class, and gender are confronted and dealt with by the family.
At the beginning of the movie, Sheryl, the mother, is seen driving to pick up her brother from a mental hospital. Frank was admitted when he attempted to kill himself after discovering that his male partner was no longer interested in him. This discussion arises at the dinner table later, when Olive asks Frank what was wrong with his wrists. Frank tells the story of how his partner didn’t love him anymore, and Olive’s only response was that Frank was silly for loving another man. Even though Olive is a child, she still demonstrates anti-homosexual beliefs, which she probably obtained through her parents.
During the movie, Richard, the father, is portrayed as a failed father who is jobless and trying desperately to promote his self-help book and plan. Ironically, Richard himself represents the working class struggle to uncover opportunity in the workplace. Technically, Richard does not have a career himself, but is a motivational speaker for an audience that almost never shows up. His unpopularity with his self-help concepts leaves the family high and dry when he fails to get his book published.
The issue of gender is also tackled in Little Miss Sunshine when Olive arrives at the pageant. At the hotel where the pageant is being held, there are numerous girls of all ages, wearing make-up and expensive dresses that characterize them as young ladies. Olive, on the other hand, has a plain outfit, no make-up, and large rimmed glasses. The other girls, and even their mothers, gawk at Olive’s less than outstanding appearance. In the film, Olive and her mother show that feminine beauty is not dependent upon sparkling gowns, perfect smiles, and mounds of make-up, but it is dependent upon personality and character.
I read an interesting article posted earlier today regarding gender in the international sense of politics. In the French presidential race, an attractive socialist feminist named Segolene Royal was defeated. The article, titled "Is Gender a Real Disqualifier?" indicates that some Republicans are using this case as evidence that Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is doomed.
On April 30, 2007 there was an article that ran in the Star Tribune newspaper titled, "Minnesota companies have learned how to recruit minority workers. Now the problem is KEEPING THEM." This article discusses how it is such a challenge for corporate Minnesota, who spends so much on getting African-AMerican transplants, to hold on to them once they are here. Although it is a struggle with all minorities, it is even more prominent among blacks because recruiters say that there is a much smaller number of them. Only six percent made up the population in the metropolitan Twin Cities in 2003. The article goes on to discuss how when a Twin Cities company hires a diversity candidate, that they work hard to introduce the individual to to other diverisity employees and show them what Minnesota has to offer in areas such as churches, ethnic markets, and entertainment. Companies have found that a diverse candidate who does not feel attached and welcomed to the Twin Cities is most likely to leave in less than two years. A black women that was interviewed expressed that it was many little things that all add up and make the quality of life unsatisfying. Minnesota would enjoy for these minorities to stay, after all they are putting work into getting them here. Minnesota has devised many strategies for retaining minority workers, such as sponsers to help guide a worker with worries and uncertainties. I think this article was very informing. During the course of the semester, we have discussed how minorities need more options and I feel that Minnesota is doing a great job at trying to provide these opportunities.
Today reading thru the Pioneer Press I ran across an article that reminded me of the in class activity we had in class a few weeks ago, when we shared what we wanted to change in order to make society a better and more equal place. In the group I was in we said that what we wanted to do was to tax rich people higher and also business owners and that way we would have more money to distribute to people in need. The article I found was about this same issue. A proposal to tax rich people was passed by the Minnesota house today and sent to Gov. Tim Pawlenty. The expectative is that Pawlenty will veto it because he does not agree with increasing taxes; he argues that the state does not need additional tax revenue. This article made me reflect on what we had learned in class and especially what Mr. Tranby told us the last day of class about the inequality and unequal opportunities in our system. We have many people in Minnesota in shelter homes, people depending on Welfare and at the same time we have very wealthy people who are not expected to contribute to society with their taxes.
In the last few days, there has been a lot of controversy around Reverend Al Sharpton and his comments suggesting that Mormons do not believe in God. His reference was towards GOP candidate Mitt Romney and he said that a Mormon running for office will be defeated by those who really believe in God. Sharpton was responding to a previous comment from Christopher Hitchens who said that Mormons promote racism because they have kept blacks out of the church.
Whether or not these statements are true is somewhat beside the point. I think the main point is that the debate these two men were having was judging Mitt Romney not as an individual person but as a member of the Mormon faith. I think it is ridiculous that two men of the status of Rev. Al Sharpton and Christopher Hitches cannot bring themselves to discuss the viewpoint of an individual man and feel the need to judge him by the group he is a member of.
Here is an article about it if anyone is interested:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660219285,00.html
Media Journal
As the 2008 election is coming soon, candidates for president are fighting and trying to cover as much ground as they can. By this I mean they are trying to win the votes and be the next president.
However this time around media is concentrate around different causes than usually. As I remember media was more concerned about the policies that the new candidate promises to bring to the table. However, this time around they seem to be more concerned about who is running (sex, race) for that seat in the white house.
For example the other day I was watching some show and they were talking about how Hillary Clinton and Obama are refreshing news to so predictable-white-male territory. But, as they were talking they were in a way discriminating against both Obama and Clinton by saying that they just can’t win they are not that strong candidates, one person even added that “American is not ready for ‘those’ leaders�.
I think that media should give equal chance to all candidates and not secretly ignore the possibility that we might indeed have a black or woman as a president of the United States.
By: Fahrudin Turnadzic
I would like to start off, by saying this is a really interesting video and I suggest everyone watch it. The video uses sounds, and shapes to discuss race. There is a white man who positioned in a circle, and a black man who can only walk a straight line. To me this represents, the more choices that white Americans have. This was a creative way of showing this difference, and I understood what the representation was right away. Next, there was a sound that was added to the video. The black man and the white man both heard the sound, but they heard it differently. The white man heard a harmonic tune, while the black man heard a horrible loud noise. This represents the differences that each race faces when the same obstacle/problems are presented. At the end of the film, the white man leaves his area and travels to the controls. The black man is still in walking his straight line. Overall, I really enjoyed how this video represented race in our society. I think it could have done a better job at introducing more obstacles that we as people are faced with, but this had a lasting impact on me.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eFLqt46OETE
There is Carlos Mencia, Dave Chappelle, Ellen Degeneres, Eddie Lizzard, Margaret Cho – and now, “The Axis of Evil� comedians. The “Axis of Evil� is a new comedy tour of four men of Middle Eastern decent who made a name for themselves using George Bush’s description of terrorists. They claim that they are breaking stereotypes with comedy because “you can’t hate someone when you are laughing them.� The group makes light of airport security, terrorist stereotypes, and traits specific to a variety of different cultures within the Middle East. It is their way of saying “hey, I know what you think of me and I will laugh at the stereotypes with you.� This style of comedy is not unlike the tactics used by the minority comedians listed above.
I am very unsure what to think of this. From one angle I see it as a sign that the country has gotten over the extreme phobia and does not hate Middle Easterners any more than other minorities. I watched video clips from some of their shows, and yes, I laughed; however it was because I thought it shed light on how ridiculous the stereotypes applied to them were (which is what I believe they were going for). Unfortunately, I think that some other viewer may laugh because they actually believe that crap. From the other angle, I find the tour disgusting. Why is it that there has to be a Hispanic, Black, Lesbian, Transgender, Asian, and Arab comedian to assure the media that these groups of people aren’t scary? It is like making minorities dance on a stage because their freakdum is a surefire source of humor for everyone else. Some of the audience will laugh because they can relate and everyone else will laugh because they think they are better than the minority. I think there are positives and negatives to this type of comedy, I’m just wondering how other people feel about it.
So, I was watching the Jon Stewart show and they were making fun of the democratic presidential candidates. Jon Stewart was saying how candidates are still playing nice and they need to start dissin’ each other. Then, he said that Clinton should tell Obama that he smoked so much that the only black thing about him is his lungs.
I really did not think it was funny because I have been hearing a lot about how Obama is not “black enough� because his dad is from Kenya, his mom is white and he grew up in Hawaii. And this is not just about Obama or just the black race. This happens in almost every race, ethnicity, religion and country. And the worst part is that the media does a good job of maintaining stereotypes. How can we break stereotypes, (which I believe helps to integrate people of different background in the US) when we have people telling others that they are not black enough or white enough. What does a person have to do to prove themselves and do they have to prove themselves.
If Obama says he is a black man, then he is that, regardless of his parents’ race, nationality, upbringing, how they talk and dress. Lets not limit people to fit our standards of being part of a certain group
There was an article posted in the New York Times online today addressing the rising cost of healthcare and the 46 million uninsured Americans. Large companies who are helping pay employees bills plan on Monday to lobby Congress for a market-based approach for providing universal health-care coverage. They also said individuals must take more preventative steps to avoid expensive health crises down the road as Congress looks for ways to expand coverage to the 46 million uninsured Americans. Addressing health issues before they become major is an important step in fighting the rising cost of health care. I wonder how we can do this though, with out telling people to take their vitamins and shop organic at he local co-op? I realize that's the white, college educated soul speaking in me, but it seems the most sensible plan of action- provide our body with the proper nourishment and then your visit to the doctor is less likely. Maybe we should look at forcing these multi-million dollar health care companies to pitch in funds for the fight against poverty.
Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has proposed a bill to provide universal coverage by giving individuals access to various private health plans available in their states.
``We're going to make a big push ... to fix health-care in this session of Congress,'' Wyden said. ``We don't think the country can afford to sit around and wait for another presidential election to fix health care.'' Health care has gained widespread attention from the 2008 presidential candidates but they mostly focus on covering nine million uninsured children. Several studies have found fault with the current U.S. system -- a free-for-all in which employers provide most health care, government programs provide much of the rest and an estimated 46 million Americans are left with no health insurance.
I'm glad to see Health Care in the scope of the media, and I think it's an issue we definitely have to take to the politicians and the future leader of this country. It's something that needs to be on our minds during this next election especially. We're students, and I don't know about you all, but I'm not sure how I'm going to have health Care after graduation next year........
The movie blood diamond is a movie about the harsh reality of the diamonds that are imported into the US all the time. In the movie, families are destroyed and innocent people are exploited for the retrieval of diamonds. Throughout the movie the truth about the diamond business and becomes apparent. Also, the US government is basically giving the okay for the whole corrupt procedure. The process goes like this, there are rebels who control and capture locals and make them work to retrieve diamonds. Then there is a middle man who comes to collect the diamonds, he then brings them to the US in great numbers. Then the US government puts them in confinement and does not tell the public about the surpluss so they can charge massive amounts for diamonds because people think that they are rare. Thus, the US controls the economy through scandalous and unjust opperations.
This movie relates directly to class topics in many ways. First of all it addresses racial inequalities around the world. Also, directly supporting income inequalities around the world. Those people collecting the diamnds do not make anything in comparison with the big bussinesses in the US controlling the markets and economy.
Without a doubt, prom is a symbolic right of passage for many American teenagers. It represents weeks of planning, shopping, photos all for an evening of glamor and make-believe luxury. I'm sure any who attended their high school prom have one or two vivid memories of the night--something to share with your children as they too someday approach prom. Now imagine being able to share memories of attending your high school's first racially integrated prom. Sound like something from post-Civil Rights Movement Era? Guess again.
The rural community of Ashburn, Georgia celebrated it's first ever racially-integrated prom this past April. For many years, the community has privately funded two separate proms, one for White students and the other for Black students. Their senior class is composed of roughly equal numbers of White and Black students. Since the public school district does not fund the event, the blatant segregation is legally allowable despite resistance from many students. Parents and community members have allowed the separate proms to continue in order to avoid complications of interracial relationships.
Having ended class reflecting on the future, I think this story and the senior class of Turner County High School model how important the actions of our generation will be. Traditions only exist as long as people are willing to participate. Hats off to this group from Georgia for acknowledging that segregation is a tradition our generation will not continue.
The article I found was from the New York Times. It is titled, "Sexual Orientation Gets 'Hate Crime' Protection." The House of Representatives voted today to include 'hate crime' protection for people who are victimized for their sexuality. This includes crimes spurred by a victim's gender, sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as their race, religion, color or national origin. This same type of legislation is moving through the senate but may get a veto from President Bush because it is "unnecessary and constitutionally questionable." Civil Rights groups have urged for some type of protection for people who are attacked because of their sexuality for a long time.
I think this topic relates to our class because we talked a lot about discrimination against people of other races, classes and genders. If people become aware that there is a problem in our society we might be more inclined to fix it. I know in our class we talked more about discrimination and inequality between races but I think it is just as interesting to research the discrimination against people of other sexual orientations. This is something that a person has very little control over, just like race.
Here is a link to the article :http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/washington/03cnd-hate.html?hp
Once again I am writing about the Tyra Show! She does such a good job at addressing race issues that I feel I should pass it on. http://tyrashow.warnerbros.com/show_recaps/show_recap_wed86.htmlThe other day I was watching an episode where a practicing Nazi came on to illustrate his beliefs. He also stated he was going to pass his beliefs on to his children, meaning our future generation. He proceeded to explain how he felt that all Jewish people should be dead and that all minorities should go back to their own country. After this comment the audience was allowed to ask questions and one woman asked the question that was burning in my mind. She asked him where he thought he was from, because his descendants were not originally from America unless they were Native Americans. Conviently, he talked around the question.
That is the one biggest comment that people can make to get under my skin. "Go back to you own country". That shows how ignorant some people can be. It just disgusts me to be exposed to people like this. It was amazing for me to watch this man tell Tyra that she would be a good representative to Africa when she went back there. Tyra could only laugh at how ridiculous this man honestly was. It was just shameful for this man to honestly believe this is how the world should be run. He also made a comment how he would fight to continue white supremacy so to be ready. It sent chills down my spine to be so close to so much hatred. What is our future generation coming to with people like this living in the land of freedom?
So, I know this is a little off-topic for this class, but I'm hopping mad about it and figured it warranted a media journal. It's sort of a class issue, if you consider that lower socioeconomic classes are often forced into the military as one of only a few realistic ways to advance to a higher social class in our society... so anyway, here's a repost from my personal blog:
So, now the US military is requiring all members of the armed services, government contractors, and even military family members to submit blog posts, e-mail, and any other posting of information in what would be considered a "public forum" to a military review before going live with it. Ignoring that stipulation carries serious consequences. That means that not only can my mom (who is an officer in the U.S. Air Force) not technically blog without submitting it for a content check first, but I can't either.
You know what? Screw you, Uncle Sam. Soldiers make up a very small portion of the population who are willing to go and fight on foreign soil because they believe in our country. You can argue that some people do it for money, and some people do it for necessity, but the truth is that anyone in the armed forces for any length of time is a die-hard patriot on some level, no matter how much they bitch about the government. I can understand being worried about leaks and whatnot, but this is ridiculous. Who's going to accidentally post classified information? Answer: no one. It's the same reason you don't go to a bar and "accidentally" start talking about classified information.
What this is really about is intimidating soldiers into silence and preventing them from expressing their viewpoints. Why? Because the picture isn't pretty. The government wants the population complacent. They don't want people to get uppity about the war. They want to keep it fairly low-profile, positive, optimistic, and happy. They want to show Joe Shmoe, happily eating burger after burger at the local McDonalds, that everything is fine and dandy overseas. "We're winning, Joe! Aren't you proud to be an American? Don't worry about the logistics... we'll take care of everything." Oh, except that our body armor sucks, our vehicles suck, we have no funding, we're digging an ever deepening hole, we're fighting a war of attrition with no objectives at this point, whose original intent has been so twisted and perverted by successful PR and spin that nobody even remembers or cares that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or that we went in looking for WMDs and somehow morphed it into a benevolent peace-keeping mission.
It makes people sad and confused when they see mangled bodies coming back from an unclear mission. It makes people angry when brave young soldiers don't get adequate supplies, armor, or resources to carry out their mission in the first place. When the soldiers themselves complain that they don't see the vision, don't understand the mission, and don't think that they're accomplishing anything in an increasingly dangerous and hostile environment, thousands of miles from their homes and the families that are being destroyed by multiple forced tours, it really upsets people. So the government doesn't like to let their soldiers talk. At least not where anyone can hear them.
So yeah. Screw you, Uncle Sam. I didn't sign anything, and I'm not going to stand idly by and let you revoke my constitutional rights to free speech on a whim simply because I have a family member in the military. I can't do much if you force her to be quiet, but I can damn well voice my own opinion about it. You can't keep me quiet. I'm not having my writing approved. I'm going to bitch about this as much as I want, and if you want to coerce me, lets go have a chat with the Supreme Court about the constitutionality of that.
I'm sick of seeing our soldiers silenced, abused, demonized, confused, weary, and wounded. I understand that soldiers might not always understand or like the mission and have to do it anyway, but don't force them to be silent about it under pretenses of security. If this is how we treat our bravest, strongest, most capable warriors, who is going to want that job? "Shut up and do your job" doesn't fly these days. We have a responsibility to the men and women who agree to give their lives protecting our country. We need to hear their voices, so we can help them accomplish their mission. We shouldn't be blinded and deafened to their opinions, whether positive or negative.
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/05/02/1352258.shtml
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/05/army_bloggers
http://blog.wired.com/defense/files/army_reg_530_1_updated.pdf
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/05/new_army_rules_.html#comments
So anyway, sorry to sort of hijack the class blog, but I think it's important to get the word out about this.
I recently went to the Race exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota. I was initially shocked upon entering because the exhibit immediately confronts the viewer with a history of white supremacy alongside a wide variety of personal descriptions of race. The definitions ranged from stating that race is one’s identity, to the simple characteristic of skin color, to a prescribed variation in society that humans would be better off without. Next to these verbal beliefs was a paragraph, which stated that race is a human invention that is only hundreds of years old, compared to humans thousands of years of history. I was, and still is, used to legitimatize differences among people.
In a small daily survey 41% of the participants voted that race should be eliminated from the US Census. Alongside that was a photo of people who wore shirts that showed how their race was altered in Census history. For example, one woman was a Negro in the 1790s, a black in the 1920, a mullato in the 1970s and a Hispanic in the 1990s. There was also an area that showed scientific evidence that race is not a biological epidemic, it is purely social.
While I was browsing through google news, I came across this article about the difficulty which women face when they enter the political arena. We talked about this in class a few weeks ago, but this got me thinking about it again. Something which really caught my interest was this quote:
"Most of the male candidates running wouldn't be running if they were women. A woman John McCain's age would have a hard time, a woman with Barack Obama's experience would have a hard time."
I also find it interesting to consider what the ramifications of voting the first woman into the presidency might be. I can't help but feel like she's going to be the model that every female candidate after her will be measured against. We practically deify George Washington and his deeds have taken on an almost legendary quality. If the first female President does a poor job or is viewed negatively once in office, will that shut the door for another 50-100 years for other women? If she makes the right decisions would it lead to an influx of female candidates and a restructuring of the political landscape?
Intriguing thoughts.
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/3522
This Richard Gere story is filled with many different angles that pertain to class. Richard Gere, attending an AIDS awareness benefit attempted to parody one of his movies by kissing famous Indian star Shilpa Shetty. This, apparently, is a no-no in Indian culture and many Hindu groups protested Gere.
Whats interesting about this is the differences in our cultures. If this story happened in American culture, it wouldn't be as big of an issue. Gere must have assumed that his parody of his movie was universally known. Unfortunately, Shetty is being punished by the government for this.
What is unfortunate here, is this was all at an AIDS benefit. Suddenly, this is ignored and the focus is on the media picking a celebrity and calling them out. This has become a trend in media.
Also, its interesting that public obscenity is illegal in India and that one can be arrested for this.
An article in Saturday's Star Tribune (http://www.startribune.com/535/story/1149212.html ) was about a new theory Alberto Alesina, an economics professor at Harvard, has come up with. He wants to lower income taxes for women. To even things out he wants to raise them for men. The idea behind this for him is that research has shown many women do not join the labor force because they are more sensitive to taxes than men are. This tax break would help out single women and families. It would be easier for women to be independent. Married men whose taxes increased would still get relief, because his wife's taxes would be lower. It might even lead to men spending more time at home with the kids.
Continue reading "Luring Women Into the Workforce with Lower Taxes" »
I read an article today "Child Welfare Agency is Under Fire", in the New York Times written by Tina Kelley which can be found at the following website, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/nyregion/25abuse.html. The article discussed some major problems that New Jersey's child welfare agency is having. Currently, there is a lawsuit be filed against the State Division of Youth and Family Services by one of the programs adoptive mothers. This mother is demanding reform in the states child welfare policy, focusing specifically on medical care for the children that need it. This is not the first time the State Division of Youth and Family Services has been sued. In 1999, Children's Rights, an advocacy group sued the agency for endangering New Jersey's youth by having an inadequete child welfare system.
In spite of continuous research and studies done all around the world on social and economic conditions of various countries all over the wold, there are several myths about the developing nations. In this video, Hans Ronling debunks many of the contemporary myths based especially on statistical data around the world.
It is amazing for me to find out the relative courses taken by various countries over the period of past decades. The data representation in forms of definitive curves and plots in the fields of child health in terms of mortality rates, and fertility rates over time showed huge improvements in health conditions in Asian countries, and their dependence on wealth and education as well. The economic growth of most Asian countries has been in the news which makes the considerations in terms of per capita income, GDP growth are less baffling. However, the current universal strategies under way for African social, health, educational, and econimic reforms are proven to be lacking in analysis due to the vast variations in situations of the various countries such as Sierra Leone and South Africa. It is amazing to realize the gap between the contemporary understanding of the world situations and the actual realities.
I was on Mother Jones website tonight reading some of the political articles. I came across an interesting blog written about Mexico City. If you are interesting in reading the article it can be found at http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/index.html#4282. and http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/04/4054_mexico_city_wil.html.
I was looking through the news on Yahoo, and I found a very short article that says the popular mobile phone text messaging is having a negative impact on writing standards, especially on youth. According to the State Examination Commission, the frequency of errors in grammar and punctuation has become a serious concern. This is evidenced by the report of last year's exam performance by 15-year-olds.
In class we have been talking about welfare and problems with such social assistance programs. I found this article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_re_us/a_week_on_food_stamps) describing Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski's effort to show how these programs, including the use of Food Stamps, hardly provide for the basic needs of individuals. Guided by a former food stamp user, the governor went to the grocery store with only $21 to spend for himself for a week's worth of groceries. He quickly was steered away from more expensive organic foods that he usually goes for, like organic bananas, and even had to change from relatively cheap soup to cheaper cups of noodles. In the end, his selections ran over his $21, so he had to put a few items back.
Of course this is just a temporary situation and no one likes to think that people actually do live like this, but the reality is that it happens and to hope that this is not real for some people is to ignore the problem entirely. I like that the governor is doing this because not only is he personally getting a "wake-up" call to the state of our social assistance programs, but so are the public and hopefully the state and national politicians as well. Since the states are responsible for delegation of funds, it is up to local politicians to advocate for these programs. Individuals can make a difference. As college students, many of us know what it is like to have to budget expenses. This is something to remember and advocate for now and in the future when we have more stable incomes. This article was a little bothersome in that it shows how easy it is for our politicians to become removed from the daily life of the average U.S. resident. Like it says in the article, the governor didn't really have any idea how to budget his money or even how to go grocery shopping in that you can find deals and use coupons and such. Overall, I hope this experience encourages social assistance program reforms to better meet the basic needs of all people in the U.S.
In an article on April 23, 2007 in Yahoo! News, Russell Simmons recommended eliminating certain "highly offensive words," consisting of racial slurs and degrading women, from the recording industry, claiming they are "extreme curse words." The article notes that Simmon's recommendation comes less than two weeks after the incident with Don Imus. Simmons asked that the recording and broadcasting industries either remove, delete, or bleep these words. Although the move is voluntary, he hopes there will be "guidelines for lyrical and visual standards." The article is a change from his original stance on the matter, saying that they "may be uncomfortable for some to hear, but our job is not to silence or censor that expression."
Although I don't listen to much from that genre, many songs I do hear seem very obscene. I think that it is an artist's choice what content to have in their songs, but I think a set of guidelines would be a good idea. The things artists say in their albums say a lot about them, and what they are willing to say to sell albums. Constantly falling back on obscenities seems like a cheap way of appealing to the public.
As mentioned in lecture, language is a powerful tool in reinforcing and reproducing advantage and disadvantage. By allowing racial slurs, and other words that tend to act as labels, people become accustom to hearing these words, some using them in their everyday vocabulary. When people, especially youth, hear obscenities in the popular media, they think those words are alright to use, even more so if the person who is using them is their role model. A shift towards more appropriate vocabulary in music could drastically change the outlooks of people, at least those who are that impressionable.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070423/music_nm/usa_hiphop_dc;_ylt=ArcoKQx.6WX5emnVogqO9TOVEhkF
This weekend I went to the Science Museum to see the race exhibit. Overall I thought the exhibit was very interesting. Some of the information was very basic; however, I think it is extremely important to include the basic information because there are a ton of Americans who still do not see the effects of race.
One thing that I did find interesting is a sign that stated that race is only about a hundred years old. It stated that race is a product of humans, which I believe to be true. Humans are very similar to every other human on earth even between races. People have come to separate others based on the color of their skin and therefore it is a product of humans; however, I question that the concept of race is only a hundred years old. To my knowledge inequalities have been occurring in Africa for hundreds of years based on the color of skin. Furthermore, there were inequalities beginning when Europeans first started traveling to America. Native Americans, an often hidden race, was discriminated against based their history, skin tone and culture. Although the concept of race may have become more prominent within the last hundred years, I think it has existed for a long period of time.
My favorite part of the entire exhibit was a wall that was filled with portraits of individuals of mixed ethnicities. Under each pictures, the individual who was photographed wrote a few sentences about themselves. The one that caught my eye in particular was of a woman who I think was Chinese and Irish. Under her picture it stated, “I am not Chinese. I am not Irish. I am the ‘other.� I thought this was such a wonderful point. Why do we always have to claim ourselves as a certain race? The great majority of the population in the United States is not from only one background or another. Instead of acknowledging this fact, most individuals claim themselves as American, which I would consider the ‘other.’ However, as we discussed in class earlier, not everyone is allowed to claim himself or herself as American. It is believed that to be a true American you need to be white. Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where the concept of race did not control how people view us? We would not need to choose one ethnicity to identify with, but instead we could be an individual separate of our history: a complete person who lives and breathes without criticism based on appearance.
On a separate note, I just want to share one other portrait just because I thought it was so adorable. It was of a boy who must have been around the age of seven. Under his picture he wrote, “I am part Chinese and part Danish but I don’t tell people I am Danish because they think I am a pastry.� Although I am not going to analyze the meaning of race in the young boy’s comment, I thought other people might enjoy the humor as much as I did.
-Lacey
According to the MPR website (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/04/20/healthbill/), the State House has approved a bill for $10 billion to spend on health, about 30 cents out of every state dollar. I found this blurb interesting because it mentioned that Republicans are fighting against the bill because the bill would be "leading toward a government-run health system." I thought that this write-up fit well with the health care section that we are currently studying as it is what we are studying in action right at the moment.
Public funding for abortion also barely passed as the majority in the house, while attempts to raid family planning also failed. Many changes to the welfare system were also proposed, as well as more funding for children's health insurance. I find it interesting to see what our state values within these issues and how our state is duking out what is and is not important. It is also interesting to see how political parties play a large part in how our healthcare is funded in the state.
In her article "Lurking," from the April 12th edition of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, Vickie Evans-Nash explains how the Minneapolis Lurking Ordinance has come under criticism because of the discriminatory manner that it has been enforced. The ordinance which is part of the Disorderly Conduct Ordinance has been on the books since 1877 and some consider it an important and indispensable tool that police can use to crack down on drug trafficking and prostitution. Others criticize the ordinance, citing the fact that in 2003, 466 of the 800 arrests made were of blacks. Opponents of the ordinance claim that since the ordinance does not explicitly state what "lurking" is, it allows for discrimination on the part of the individual police officers when they are enforcing the ordinance. Lieutenant Amelia Huffman of the Minneapolis Police Department claims that "Loitering is typically loitering for narcotics, loitering for prostitution." She is therefore in support of the ordinance, or at least something like it that would assist the police in cracking down on illegal activities.
I do not think that the ordinance should be repealed, or completely taken off the books. The Minneapolis Police Department has had a tenuous relationship with the African American community for a very long time however, and something needs to be done to address any discrimination that is taking place. Instead of repealing the ordinance, measures should be taken to better define what is meant by "lurking" so that not as much is left up to the discretion of the individual police officers. This would hopefully cut back on any kind of discrimination that is taking place where police officers are specifically targeting young African American males because of their own personal prejudices. It is one of many important race issues in the city of Minneapolis that is not given enough attention. Something needs to be done about the inequalities and injustices that are all too prevalent in our otherwise beautiful and glorious city.
Radio "shock jock" Don Imus was fired by CBS and NBC after he called the Rutger's women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" in a broadcast last week. He made a public apology Thrsday evening to the team, and while the team accepted him apology, they still considered his statements to be unacceptable. Imus did not want to make any further comments to any other press but the women on the basketball team, even though there were many other members of the media who wanted to hear from him. (cnn.com AP)
I have been watching a lot of news coverage lately about this incident, hearing a lot of different perspectives. Some people have been angry about the fact that Don Imus lost his job over one monent of uncensorship, other people simply appalled at his racist and sexist remark. It is interesting to think about this remark in the context of free speech, because really it is just an opinion that is technically free to make. But it is a misuse of his power of speech on public television and radio. By being racist and sexist in his comment on public airwaves, he is representing himself and his career very poorly, and he is also representing the companies that advertise on his broadcast stations poorly. Some argue that firing him after the duration of his career is being too harsh and controlling of public free speech, however I think that Don Imus took his power too far and clearly offended a group of people that were targeted by being female and being black. I don't think that it was a bad idea to end Don Imus' career after making that statement because he didn't think before he made it, and he should have been.
I am sure that most everyone has heard about the Don Imus issue for MSNBC. If not just go to MSNBC.com and look up Don Imus. An overview of the situation is that the morning after the Rutgers women's basketball team lost the championship game Don Imus made some comments about the Rutgers team. He said that the Rutgers players were "rough" women with "tattoos" and that they were some "hard core hoes" "some nappy headed hoes". Well these comments obviously offended the Rutgers women and many other people so after consideration (and a lot of companies threatening to stop advertisements with MSNBC) Don Imus no longer has a show on NBC but apparently the CBS radio program is still considering what to do.
Newsweek features an article that dubs Will Smith “The $4 Billion Man,� for topping the Newsweek's annual Hollywood power list. According to the article ‘The Toms’-Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise- were the undisputed occupiers of this position, with some appearances from Mel Gibson. However, with Hanks aging and not having any new releases (except “The Di Vinci Code�), Cruise’s “TomCat� relationship being all over the tabloid, and Mel Gibson anti-Semitic controversy, Will Smith is now the most powerful man in Hollywood. He has had consecutive blockbusters, he appeals to international audiences, and plays characters that all races/nations can identity with. After reading this article, I told my friend about it. She was surprised that Will Smith topped the list, due to his race. My friend’s reaction is not surprising due to the fact that Hollywood is a white/male dominated industry. The article pointed out that Will Smith, other than Denzel Washington, is the only (current) black actor that has an international appeal.
In the video A Girl Like Me, a group of African American girls discuss their experiences in living in this society where being black is seen as not desirable. It’s a short documentary but it’s very powerful how the girls talk about their daily experiences of being black women in the United States.
Buhendwa Nathalie
SOC 3251 W
Media Journal
Lat night I was watching the show: Two families on Without a Trace, TNT channel. It was a case of two missing teen ages; a black boy and a white girl. Jack Melon the main character is shown along with is colleague Vivian Johnson to have the hardest time because of the racial profiling of both cases. Despite that the two teen ages goes to the same school and disappeared the same day only the girl receive major television coverage. With assistance from FBI agents. The Media provide a showcase that every body is tuned to. The mother of the black boy could not do any thing but watch as her son’s case being given less attention and fewer agents to conduct the search.
Most of the people concern; the FBI agents and the white family feel uncomfortable to witness such a gap and discrimination but non do any thing to stop it, Jack Malone attempt to pressure the Media to ear the case of the black boy as well but his turned down. This case had many points that we covered in our class readings for instance: racial profiling, racial discrimination, gender bias and discrimination, class stereotyping, all of witch were supported and reinforced by both the Media coverage and the authority. The FBI agent choose to put more effort in finding the teen age girls than the boy because of the pressure he received from his superior to solve the case fast. The anchor guy just said it as it was: “a young rich white girl went missing; it is every one’s duty to find her�.
Question
- Any one knows what to do to stop this racial profiling both in the media as well as by the authorities?
- I you were faced with similar situation as Jack Malone what will you do?
In the film The Color of Fear, a group of 8 men (two African American, two Latinos, two Asian American and two Caucasian) were called together to talk about the issues of race that they all have individually with one another and within their own race. It was a small group documentary as they sat around in a circle conversating there true feelings and stories that they all had in their lifetime. There are some very emotional moments within the film as the men all are able to let out what they had wanted to in a long time, but had never had the oppurtunity to do so.
Victor, one the African American men, mentioned how when he was in elementary school his teacher had automatically put him into the low reading level class, when he knew that his reading level surpassed that of the highest level in the class, because he was "black" he was discriminated against.
David, one of the Caucasian men, said that how he didn't see what the problem was with racism and doesn't believe that it exists around where he lives. I thought this was based on his location, many people may not show that they are racist, but deep down inside it is hidden, and who knows what they are thinking besides themselves, and with that David never saw any problem with racism around him because he himself has a diverse amount of close friends. He doesn't realize what else is going on around him, and with that, all of the other 7 men, tell him their stories to show him that there is a problem today with racism.
I personally believe that this is one step to shed some more light that racism exists, by letting alot of people know that it is still going on. They don't want to believe it is still going on, so they block that fact from their mind and go on about their day like everyone is treated equally. And when they act upon a stereotype or say a racist comment based on a racist stereotype they deny that they ever did say or did what they did. Once people know what is going on around them, they won't know what they are doing to raise or lower the problem.
It's hard to admit sometimes, but once in a while, I too feel the urge to flip through a People magazine and catch up the gossip. But hiding behind the pictures of Brittany's newly shaved head and the oscar winning styles of the March 5th, 2007 issue is a story on Renee Richards. Apparently the self named "most famous transsexual", I was intrigued. Renee, now 72, had a sex-change operation in 1975. I think the article in general is very good at telling the story with few stereotypical comments. It did however highlight a time in here life of developing a list of "masculine credentials". This was in terms of becoming an eye surgeon, attending Yale, and becoming a nationally ranked amatuer tennis player.
Renee underwent her sex-change during her marriage in which she had a son, and much of the article focuses on the scars coming out of that. Her son, now 35, has mostly come to terms and forgiveness with his mother, although he still calls her dad. Renee talks about her sarrow for the pain and confusion her son had to go through. Another aspect of the story is her life in the public eye. One of her main regrets is pursuing the right to play tennis as a woman, which she fought hard for and won. However, she is now telling her whole story in a book about the second half of her life.
I thought this article was really interesting, especially in terms of questioning sexuality and gender, and how the media and our cuture expects it to be. They talked about her unwillingness to speak to transgendered youth, because, she says, that "it would be presumptious of me to advise people". I think we see so much in the media these days of people speaking out and claiming to know how to help or persuade others because "they've been there". I think it's amazing that she doesn't assume she can help anyone else through such a dramatic change just because she did. This can almost relate back to the Hillary Clinton/Female, and Barack Obama/black issues. We/the media, assume that people that are not white males, have to focus on their differences and speak out for them, and focus on those issues.
I know this link probably won't work, unless you have a Star Tribune account, so my apolologies but it's: http://www.startribune.com/562/v-print/story/1034098
The story is based on the recent comments made by City Council Member Don Samuels. He said North High School should be burned down for poorly educating black males. Samuels is a firm believer in vouchering, moving kids from one district to another, and more funding. The author John Cook (assistant principal at Robbinsdale High) does not think vouchers will work because the issues go way beyond schools and deal directly with social impacts; "[The gap] is not just an educational problem. Rather, it is a biproduct of America's socio-economic, cultural, family and racial crises...If kids could attend the school of their choice there would still be an achievement gap...There would still be an achievement gap due to America's unresolved issues of race and class." (John Cook, from the article, March 5).
We talk alot in class about the laws and institutions that foster racism and discrimination. I think this is an interesting article because it examines the gray area--where laws and funding, even good in intention, will not help. The article really deals with the intersections between race and class. In this case, there are issues beyond the school itself at play; income, family structure, violence, discrimination outside of the school, and other things that plague the inner-city that all aid in continuing the gap. In this case the answer is not as obvious and must be dealt with in peices, thru the community, thru law and thru the school. Also, the article touched on the fact that even if the stakes were evened, there would still be an "expectation" that black males are not as capable and less would be done to encourage their learning. Here is another example of the less obvious racism we talked about in class. It is hard in this day and age to pin point inequalities like these, because the laws SEEM rather fair, but when you look closer there are so many other issues going into the mix, that these problems really must be taken on by everyone rather than the schools alone.
Today I was reading the news articles on the WCCO website and came across this one: (http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_066193629.html). The subject of this article was about how children think of race these days. It was based on an experiment that took place in the 1950s and focused on how children think of race.
I was surprised that of the 21 young black preschoolers who participated in the study 15 of them chose to play with the white dollinstead of the black doll. Many of the preschoolers said that the white doll was the good doll and that the black doll was the bad doll.
This relates to the class because we have been talking about the different stereotypes of genders and how things have changed. Apparently there is still a feeling that black people are the bad people and white people are the good people.
After completely writing my media journal for this semester, I was listening to the radio and heard the radio personalities discussing an issue I found much more interesting. The KS95 afternoon hosts discussed a recent statement that Rosie O’Donnell made about American Idol while on the television show The View. To give you a bit of background, Rosie discusses how an overweight, black contestant on American Idol was kicked off the show for allegedly having posed for “scandelous� pictures before entering the contest. However, on this season of American Idol, a “hot� white young lady was accused of the same scandelous actions, yet she is not being disqualified. The link can be found here: http://us.video.aol.com/video.index.adp?mode=1&pmmsid=1862800.
Continue reading ""Weight-ist and Wacist... You Screwy Rabbit!"" »
I chose to investigate the story of the rumors of Barack Obama going to a Muslim extremist school when he grew up. This subject interests me, because we have the chance at having the first black president in the history of our country, and he is being attacked when he hasn’t even been nominated for candidacy. This clip from CNN investigates the rumors of Barack Obama attending a Muslim extremist school in Indonesia. This rumor started from a “conservative magazine� and was blown up by no other than our media. The news clip then investigates Hilary Clinton as part of the reason this issue was blown up so large. CNN actually goes to Jakarta, Indonesia and visit’s the school Obama went to and they find no truth to the rumors. It is a public school in a good part of town, that teaches children with no focus on religion. The school does acknowledge the various religions, but they do not teach religion or hate for that matter. CNN puts all of the Barack Obama rumors to rest with this piece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY47URQXU3k
http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?JServSessionIdr001=yoiqsju0h1.app7b&page=NewsArticle&id=6487&news_iv_ctrl=1261
This article is about John Amaechi becoming the first male professional basketball player to come out as being homosexual. He is the 6th in the 4 major pro sports to do so. This also coincided witht he release of his book "Man in The Middle". He talked about keeping his secret, and having to hear plenty of gay bashing while in the league. Most of the reaction to his revelation was positive, although it was said that he violated the trust of the locker room by keeping his orientation covert. Tim Hardaway was his biggest critic, he decried homosexuality and said it had no place in the world or country. Although reaction was posiitive to Amaechi people though this was career suicide for Hardaway and would always tarnish his image in the eyes of most observers. Hardaway also was banished from the NBA All Star Weekend after his comments.
Continue reading "Anti-gay bigotry, the NBA and John Amaechi's coming out" »
What makes an American, is it the race, the will, or something else? People tend to have their own views, some say that true Americans are the Natives; on the other hand, one might argue and say that an American is anyone who is born on the soil of the America.
The documentary film, The Color of Fear, we watched on Tuesday felt as if the whites were the main reason why minority groups are not able to move forward. It is in a way funny; when minority member succeeds it is because of his/her will power to be better, to get more out of life. On the other hand when minority member fails to achieve his goals it is because there is a ‘white’ guy in the way, “blocking the progress, the road� to ones success.
I couldn't help but notice the typical Clinton reference in today's news. Just as the article title describes, Hillary Clinton has made a push for women to help in her 2008 presidential campaign. On Tuesday, February 6, 2007, Megan Shannon of All Headline News reports that Clinton made a specific request for increased female activism in her 2008 campaign [http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7006665084] . The article struck me as slightly frustrating. Throughout the early campaigning, it seems as though Clinton is running more on a platform of female activism than the overwhelming political issues facing our nation today. Forget the war, taxes, health care, or education, Clinton seems to be running mostly on her femininity.
When I first read the article on Rachel Jamison in the MNdaily, I was in completely awestruck. The article talks about sexual assaults on Jamison during her study abroad program in Tanzania, and the lack of support from the University of Minnesota center.
Having a bunch of friends from Tanzania, I have had the opportunity of learning about Tanzania, and relating to it from a perspective of a native. Anecdotes from friends had led me to imagine Tanzania as being one of the countries where white is still considered a better color. It might not be explicitly said, but white skinned people are seen either as either better human beings or filthy rich upper class. One of my very close friends told me about the royal treatment they gave to the American people in Tanzania. In the same line of thinking, Jamison believes the main reason for being the target of assault could have been her body type - tall, light skinned, and full figured, which attracted some African men.
Such incidents make me realize the importance of teaching about races, class, and gender; not only in American context, but also from the perspective of international relations and globalization. However, the incident in question forced me to question the mind set of the assaulted. I know about one very similar incident as described in the article happening at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, which was laughed away by the woman who had been assaulted.
A couple of weekends ago, I went to the Science Museum to see the new race exhibit. I only wanted to go there so that I could do this Media Journal but when I got there, I was engulfed in everything that was going on. There were many different displays of the inequalities within the U.S. There were two parts of the museum that caught my eye the most. One was the photo of a group of people of different races wearing T-shirts with different words of what they have been called throughout history. The one white person had the same name throughout history: White. Even though every single human being has a little bit of African in them, we still treat people who are not "white" as different. There is nothing different between us, studies have shown that intelligence, behavior, and physical abilities are NOT different between races but yet we still treat people who are not "white" as being inferior to us. The other interesting part of the exhibit was the pictures that line the wall towards the back of the room. There were different people from different backgrounds, races, countries. They all had written something about themselves and what they liked about themselves. There were a few comical ones, some that were unreadable (written by a kid), and a few that explained of hardships. To see how other people felt underneath their skin really interested me because I am white and I have no idea what it is like to feel as different and discriminated against as they do.
I thought the exhibit showed a lot of interesting view points of society and how it discriminates against people of minorities but I thought there were some flaws. The biggest was that the exhibit widely showed what it was like in the United States when it comes to racism and discriminatory practices. I would like to see what it is like in other places. Is there as much racism as there is here in Japan, Russia, Germany, Australia, etc.?
Recently there has been some news about a supposed astronaut love triangle involving astronauts Liza Nowek and WIlliam Oefelein. The jist of the story is that Liza found an email from Williams other girlfriend, and proceeded with a 900-mile roadtrip in order to confront her about it. But let's leave the rumors and gossip alone and focus on the main issue here. Here is a link to an article about the story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/washington/07astronaut.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
It just seems that this story, which is really a non-story, got blown way out of proportion just because the astronaut in question is a woman. Just because she is a woman, her action to go confront this girl was viewed as emotional, and irrational. If it had been a man, it wouldn't have been a big deal, and would have remained a non-issue. This is really a private matter that needs to be worked out between the three of them, and not a national news story.
I did my media journal on a book called "The Street" by Ann Petry. It is about a black women who is trying to work and handle the pressures of being a single mother. This women, Lutie, has race, class, AND gender working against her, and this book exposes the discrimination she faces in each of these aspects.
I read in the March 4th edition of the Star Tribune an article in the Sports section entitled, “Diversity makes staff stand out.� This is a link to the article: http://www.startribune.com/512/story/1032386.html
The story told how new Gophers football coach Tim Brewster has hired six full-time black assistant coaches. Brewster has a total of nine full-time assistant coaches. The staff of Tim Brewster currently is tied for the highest number of minority football coaches in Bowl Championship college football teams. In the past, the Gophers athletic department has been criticized for its lack of minority coaches. Today it still currently has no minority head coaches. Brewster said his hiring decisions were based on the candidate’s ability to coach, recruit, and also connect with athletes. He said the ability of a coach to mentor students was also important.
As we have discussed in class, minorities in positions of power are often disproportionately left out. For example, African-American student athletes make up 46.1 percent of NCAA football players, yet the proportion of minority head and assistant coaches in college football is much less. Even though there are more minority assistant coaches on the Gophers staff, the head coach of the football team is white. I think the cause of the general inequality in college football is the same as in other areas we have discussed in class; it is related to the ideas of white privilege and minority disadvantage. Racial stereotyping has probably played an important role in this development.
Here's an editorial I read in the Daily today (third one down): http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2007/03/06/71054
The author, a Caucasian lawyer who represents Asian-American immigrants, was shocked when he found out how many of them expressed racist views toward African Americans. But as he examined it more, he discovered that this wasn’t just uneducated bigotry. Many of these people had been the systematic victims of crime perpetrated largely by African American men in their communities.
This raised some interesting questions for me. Is racism as a response to negative experiences still racism? And if so, can you call it unjustified? The problem, of course, is one of stereotyping. Just because some African American men had victimized these people, doesn't necessarily mean that all African American men were bad and would continue to victimize them.
But that doesn't change the perceptions or experiences of these Asian-Americans. From their perspective, they were the victims and targets of primarily African-American criminals. Do we minimize their pain, and dismiss their experiences? Do we criticize them for directing animosity towards African Americans in general when so many of their experiences with them are negative?
I think the short answer that many people will toss out is "Yes, we should. Racism is bad, and they're misguided for stereotyping people."
But I'm not so sure. It's easy to ride a moral high horse when you're not the victim. I'm trying to put myself in their shoes. I think that it's a natural response to be wary of people who look like a person that victimized you, especially if it's repeated over time, and especially if your friends and family all have similar experiences. It's also easy to tell people that they should rise above such experiences, without having been in that position yourself.
I'm not sure there's an easy answer.
The other day, I watched the Tyra Banks show and it was an episode about racism and who has it worse. The audience was divided into racial groups of White, Black, Muslim, Latino and Asian people. Tyra also had five guests from these different racial groups who participated in a random focus group in order to determine which race had it worse based on first impressions. The five women from the stage stood before the focus group while a moderator asked questions like, “Which woman do you think would have a PhD,� and “Who would you prefer not to sit next to on a plane?� “Which one is more likely to be on Welfare and be a single parent?� “Which girl was likely to be a maid?� The answers, of course were not surprising because even when the moderator was asking the questions I knew the answers. What was interesting was the focus group knew these were stereotypes and what not but most of them admitted to believing them and using them to judge people. One lady even went on to mention about how she feels about Muslims is because of how the media portrays them and even though she knows it's not true. Anyway, then it was time to answer the question: Who has it worse? And every race believed that they had it worse. It need up being the black girl and the Muslim girl debating who has it worse and one of the arguments that was given by the black girl was that Muslims have mostly being suffering since 911 but Black have been suffering for centuries. I thought that statement was quite true and Tyra invited some race experts who confirmed that though all the races have it bad; the Black race has it worse, looking at their whole history and backgrounds.
I was looking online at the New York Times when I came across an article on the Pussycat Dolls. They currently are scheduled to have a tv show on CW network tuesday nights. They are looking for the next Pussycat Doll. The article basically talks about this show as another reality show with women walking around wearing bearly any cloths. While the producer states that the show is about female empowerment. He says it's empowering for women to get dressed up like a doll, while a 17 year old girl sees the group and their antics as a giant step backward for women. Here is the link if anyone is intrested in the article.
While looking for topics to write a media journal on, I came across a letter to the editor from an article in the Collegiate Times titled, "Black History Month Is Racist By Definition." I found the title ignorant enough, and relevant enough, that I read the whole web-page.
http://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/2/ARTICLE/8589/2007-02-23.html
The author of the primary response, Clint Camealy, argues the idea of creating "White History Month," where he could honor such figures as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. After suggesting other options which he all deems as "terrible ideas," he suggest focusing on holidays for specific people and not for whole races. Before reading the responses to his letter, I recalled how this topic had been mentioned in class. Every day is "White History Month."
The second part of the web-page has the response to Clint's rant. As expected, people made comments about how every month is white history month and how Clint was just being ignorant. Clint is a perfect example of the "Whiteness Theory." Whether he recognizes it or not, he sees being white as "natural" and doesn't recognize he is more privileged as a white man. It sounds as if he sees "Black History Month" as unnecessary and obtrusive. It could be similar to the situation in the in-class video we saw, where the white man was told that he couldn't see the inequality because being white, he could not relate to the other people's situations.
This weekend I watched an old episode on race from the Tyra Banks show. She has been conducting a piece called the "Focus on Race Series". This episode can be found at http://telepicturesblog.warnerbros.com/tyrashow/2007/02/focus_on_race_series.html. One particular part of this episode was discussing racism within one race. Tyra interviewed a black man who felt he was cursed and felt hatred toward the black race. She also talked to a white female who hated the caucasian race, and an Indian who felt disgust for her own culture. While these stories were confusing and hurtful, it showed that racist stereotypes feed on not only other races, but within their own.
I have first hand experienced racism between Mexicans concerning bilingual or English speaking only. This racism is a strong example of how negative stereotypes effect everyone. Social construction is unsolvable when one race or class cannot overcome stereotypes. The most interesting case to me, was the African American man who truly felt disgusting. He could not even look at himself in the mirror because of the shame he felt. Tyra had her makeup artists make him appear caucasian to see if he would feel any happier about himself. The whole day he was overjoyed to be removed from his dark skin. These illusions of a better life hold equality back. This episode was just a brutal reminder of that fact.
Right now Wimbledon is making waves in sport’s news for finally upping the prize money for women to what the men will win. Wimbledon’s news release about it can be found at http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/pressreleases/prizemoney.html. In the first year Wimbledon paid the female winner Billie Jean King only 37.5% of what Rod Laver, the men’s winner, received. The gap has been lessening over the years and this will be the first year that it is equal.
This seems like a logical trend. Women are definitely underrepresented in high paying jobs and in many cases get paid less than men for the same job. Just like the disparity in the Wimbledon prize, this difference has been decreasing in other jobs. On one of the lecture slides from class, there is a graph illustrating the closing gap between female and male’s annual earnings. In the Wimbledon article, it was even pointed out how the change was coming at an appropriate time. It seems as if they finally realized that it is less acceptable to be sexist about pay. One thing that bothered me about the article was how blase' the author was about the whole issue. In the end it was mentioned that "they believed this positive step will be widely welcomed." Once again language is being used to influence perceptions on a situation. To me using the word "believe" leaves it open to be a controversy. It suggests that maybe paying women equally is not the right thing, but they will just try it anyways.
I like to see women getting equally rewarded in the sports world. Women are far to underrepresented in sports. Hopefully the steps Wimbledon took will bring this issue into the light and do some to help women's sports along. Wimbledon made the point that the tournament has women and men competing in the same event at the same time. I think it is important that people are finally starting to recognize that when a women does that same thing a man does, she had better get the same pay for it.
I read an article in a recent Time magazine in which the author makes the claim that lesbians, such as Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell, now have a place in mainstream, Middle American television. He goes on about how people see Ellen as a "good-natured, likeable, dancy" person who doesn't really flaunt her sexuality, where Rosie O'Donnell is more apt to talk about her sexual preference. The author states that Rosie is more controversial, but that her "coming out" on national television was good for her career. He also talks about how women dominate who watches t.v. and that through socialization, they are more likely to be more intimate, not in a sexual way, with friends and more accepting of lesbians.
In class we watched a film entitled, “The Color of Fear,� which focused on the reactions of eight men when they were placed in a room with men of different ethnicities. For two days the topic of race was discussed in order to understand the inequalities and discrimination that occurs in the United States.
As tensions built up in the room, the conversations between the men became increasingly more powerful. I really enjoyed listening to the intensity that grew from the conversations that took place between the white Californian and the black/native American. The white man was so ignorant to see the daily discrimination that is faced by minority groups. He even ended up blaming minority groups for their inequalities. He commented that all men stand on their own. After making this comment, the black/native American stood up in outrage and yelled, “We do NOT stand on our own! Some men stand on other men!� Although this is a sad realization, the truth is that by pushing others into poverty, the rich can get richer; the European Americans can climb the economic latter.
One of the best points made in the film took place near the end of the portion that we viewed in class. The white Californian was discussing his idea on inequalities. He believed it was unfair that universities and corporations should save a certain amount of positions for minority groups. The point that was made by another individual was that we should stop pointing the finger at girls and minorities for taking the available jobs and rather we should blame corporations. Many corporations are leaving the country in order to find cheaper labor, however, this leaves our country with fewer job positions. I thought this was a miraculous point. Why should white males receive the available jobs when there is a lack of positions available? Why do minorities and girls get blamed rather than looking at the bigger picture to see who really is taking the jobs away?
Another point that was made over and over in the film was that whites do not have to think of themselves as a minority. When they think of themselves, they think in terms of being a human being or and American citizen. However, minorities have a very different mind set. When they think of themselves they think in terms of race and ethnicity. It was so interesting to hear the Japanese man say that when he applied for a passport he refused to claim himself as an American even though he was born and raised in America. It seemed to be an insult to call himself American. As the Chinese man stated, “In China, America means white.�
This film showed some great examples of how racism occurs in America. Not only are white individuals discriminating against minorities but racism occurs between minority groups. Throughout the interactions between the men it was interesting to see how the men reacted when their stereotypical ideas were confronted. I thought this was a very educational and intriguing video; however, if this situation were to be played out again in the future I would like to see some women involved in the conversations to see their point of view and what different inequalities and fears they face.
This weekend, I saw the film Zodiac, which chronicles a murderer during the 1960’s and 1970’s who kills couples in areas surrounding San Francisco, California. Somewhere at each scene, Zodiac leaves a symbol identifying himself as the assassin. Zodiac also writes letters to a major newspaper confessing his crimes and requesting that the paper publish the cryptograms he includes in his letters, with the threat that he will kill again. The newspaper constantly gives into his demands, while publishing articles speculating about who he really is. Throughout Zodiac, there are three main intersections of race, class, and sexuality.
After Zodiac commits his first murder, he is immediately suspected to be of African-American descent by the newspaper staff and by the authorities as well. A warning goes out to the state of California, informing citizens that the unknown killer is black. However, subsequent further investigation and interviews, it is established that Zodiac is a white male. This information is relayed to the papers and radio stations, but the assumption that Zodiac is a black man still presents itself through the media. The assumption that Zodiac is black illustrates the racism that was rampant during the Civil Rights Era of the mid to late twentieth century. Almost instantaneously, white citizens of California supposed that the killer had to have been non-white because of the incredibly horrifying crimes he committed, which were all against whites too.
The character of Paul Avery, a writer for the newspaper following the Zodiac’s murders, composes an article that was published in the paper that classifies Zodiac as a “latent homosexual� without any evidence establishing him as such. This postulation utilized by Avery as an insult in his article, is indicative of the societal view that homosexuality is abnormal and an unacceptable form of sexuality that should not exist. Avery makes this assumption about Zodiac’s sexual orientation in order to simply obtain more attention from readers and to create more hatred against the murderer he portrays as extremely troubled.
Finally, the movie reveals possible Zodiac suspects as middle-aged men of low class status. Authorities investigate the main suspect for the crimes, who is guilty based on evidence that has been uncovered. The investigators arrive at Zodiac’s house, or trailer rather, only to enter and find a complete mess of rodents and insects feasting on Zodiac’s belongings. Thus, the media again depicts Zodiac in a stereotype that the audience cannot help but hate based on his perceived and assumed background.
The goal of the media through the film was designed to make the viewers strongly dislike the Zodiac killer. It also follows that an audience presented with such biased information representative of a person about whom they are unknowledgeable will be inclined to believe any ideas about that person, whether good or bad. The audience will tend to imagine such a figure like Zodiac in the worst possible fashion, because that is how we view criminals in society.
Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN this afternoon ran several pieces on illegal immigration and how several major presidential candidates are beginning to take position on this issue. It was not so much the content of the segments that were so striking, but the rhetoric of this and all immigration coverage. While watching how CNN connected illegal immigration to gang violence and a "new American mafia", I began wondering how different the coverage would be without the term "illegal alien". Without a doubt many conversations about border control and immigration issues would look much different if popular media used 'undocumented workers' instead. Illegal alien and undocumented worker convey two separate messages about tolerance and inequality.
We have discussed the power of language and the media in issues of social stratification and it is particularly evident regarding immigration. Using the term illegal to describe a human being immediately identifies them as an 'criminal' whether or not those individuals are making honest attempts at citizenship or living peacefully in the United States. How can a human by nature be illegal? If what makes them 'illegal' in this country is the absence of proper documentation, why not use the obvious and more descriptive term 'undocumented?'
Even more obvious is the use of 'alien', which instantly identifies undocumented workers as an other and foreign. Even though 'alien' references The Alien and Sedition Acts, many Americans seem to connect the term with science fiction and a being from outer space. Using workers again clarifies the current situation and states the reality that the majority of people come to the United States seeking work and economic relief.
I argue that the current administration continues to use this term as a way to generate unnecessary fear and intolerance for the immigrant population in the U.S. Unable to control an issue resulting from free-market trade and globalization, by treating undocumented workers as illegal aliens the issue moves to the individual level. The issue becomes individuals being deviant from the American hardworking honest ethic rather than a systemic political oppression of a population.
Many organizations are beginning to speak out about the usage of illegal alien and illegal immigration both in popular media and in current legislation. It is much easier for the major media outlets like CNN to connect illegal aliens to gang violence since they are already seen as criminals. However, 'undocumented workers' eliminates the swirling negativity and oppression around immigration. I urge everyone to consider how conversations around immigration would be largely different if we witnessed a change in language.
While doing Research, I've come across an interesting article to take a look at.
The name of the article is Snakes and Leaders: Hegemonic Masculinity in Ruling-class Boys' Boarding school.
it can be accessed sociological abstracts in the Library database.
http://www-md3.csa.com/ids70/results.php?SID=7e6e62caf03b669a791e74424e1c7fe6&id=3
The article looks at a boys' boarding school where bulling is being addressed. It's argued that bulling is a norm/ inherit in boys' boarding school and is an important part of making ruling-class men. Using life-history methods with available biographical material, the article shows that ruling-class schooling of boys in boarding schools involves "sending away" & initial loneliness, bonding in groups demanding allegiance, attachment to tradition, subjection to hierarchy & progress upward through it, group ridiculing & punishment of sensitiveness & close relationships, severe sanctions against difference, brutal bodily discipline, & inculcating competitive individualism. Brutalization & "hardening" are essential to all these processes & are characteristic of ruling-class masculinity.
Considering the society we live in and the dominance of males, especially white males, I don't know if this environment is a healthy one to be promoting. I think it's fueling the wrong Ideas of masculinity and class.
While reading the news I stumbled upon an article that brings up some interesting looks at homophobia in American culture. Here, we have Anne Coulter (ultra-conservative columnist) calling John Edwards (Democratic presedential candidate) a faggot (reminds me of my playground days). I find turmoil here. Ms. Coulter seems to think that her proclamation of what she believes Mr. Edwards' sexual preference to be is a high quality insult. Makes about as much logical sense as him insulting her preference of black or green tea. Why is this an insult is the question I would like to ponder.
The problem with being a faggot is the equivalent problem with being a girl. Not so much that girls and faggots are bad people, as that they are exactly what men must fight not to be. To be one of those is to fail to abide to societies' masculine ideal. Namely, that a man should be stoic, strong, heterosexual, etc. Throughout elementary school, high school or until you grow out of it (unlike Ms. Coulter) accusing a man of failing to be a man is the best insult you can come up with. If a man does anything resembling feminity, such as wear pink, say "cute," sing soprano, or cheer for the Packers they are bound to get called a homo, fag, or sissy by their more homophobic friends. This is the angle that American society has played on faggotedness and why Anne Coulter thinks that she is actually insulting him. She is likely trying to communicate that she thinks he is a wuss or chicken in some sense but I don't really know.
The 10 pm broadcasting of the CBS news, has a segment called, In The Know: Good Question, which focuses on an issue that relates to the general public. On February 9th, the In The Know question was: Why do men make more money than women? Ben Tracy was the reporter for this storyline. He gathered information from random people on the street, both men and women, and he also interviewed Pat Hedberg, a St. Thomas business professor. The main focus of the segment was discovering if men make more money than women is true. The answer is yes; there is a gender gap come payday. For every dollor that a man makes, a women only makes 0.77 cents. Unfortunately, this statistic may be misleading because this pay disparity represents what men and women make on average, not for the exact same job. However, for the most part, men do make more. The median pay for men is approximately $41,000, for women it is $10,000 less. Pat Hedberg listed off a few reasons to why women get smaller checks. For one, women tend to go in and out of the workforce more often than men. Men don't tend to have the juggling act of homemaker, mother, and career woman. Women also seek more flexible jobs, which in return doesn't result in the best pay. This pay difference is a bit discriminating. Women rarely get the opportunity of advancement to become CEO's or high executives within companies. It's unfortunate that men and women work in such gender segregated occupations. To close this gap of gender inequalities within the workforce, women are compensated with maternity leave, and should try to negotiate salaries more. This news clip stated that men are eight times more likely to challenge job offers. This segment really did not surprise me. Although, we are getting closer on closing the pay gap, we are not there yet, and therefore the question of why women get smaller pay checks still remains. If a woman can do a job just as well as a man, there should be no difference at all.
On February 20th, we watched the film "The Color of Fear". This film documented eight men from different ethnicities who spent a weekend discussing their experiences of race with one another. Throughout the weekend these eight men of Asian, European, Latino and African descent presented their personal experiences with race issues and the pain that accompanied it. They attempted to understand each others pain and to trust one another, but found it was often very difficult. The discussions became quite intense and emotional, and as a member of the audience, even fearful.
One of the main topics of discussion was regarding what makes someone an American. To be an American meant to be born, raised and educated in America according to these eight men. Even though all eight men were American, many of them still wanted to be identified as "African American" or "Chinese American". Identifying as just "American" denies one of who they are. There is no American ethnicity; being American means giving up your ethnicity. The eight men also discussed that to be "American" means to be white, and to be "white" means to be human. This topic related to the American civic identity that we talked about in class. Whiteness is associated with what it means to be American and is also considered the norm. Everyone is supposed to act white to fit in with society, and it is those of non-white cultures that stand out.
This film was also a perfect example of how race is a socially constructed category. The culture and the media have a large role in constructing these socially unequal categories or race through language, norms, and expectations. Language is one of the ways in which we subconsciously reinforce as well as reproduce inequalities related to race. Some examples of language that we talked about in class were racial slurs, color symbolism, ethnocentrism, loaded words, labeling, and controversies over speaking English. The media is also one of the ways, possibly the most important, in which inequalities of race are maintained. The media is largely responsible for adjusting our perceptions of race by reinforcing the white middle class. The reason the media conforms to the existing stereotypes is because it is easier than having to challenge them. Because of social categories such as the media and language, white privilege and racial stereotypes gain an immense amount of power. White privilege was also talked about in the film. A few of the men discussed what it meant to be white; having the privilege of being able to blame colored people. They also discussed that black people equate lighter skin with privilege; an idea created and reinforced by the media.
“The Color of Fear� was a wonderful film that took many of the concepts of race we have learned about and transformed them into how they are actually experienced in a white supremacist society. It was very interesting to see the many different perspectives and experiences of race presented by these very diverse eight men.
I found a clip on CNN.com of Keith Oppernheim looking at the death of quality food choices in some American urban areas. (http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/health/2007/03/01/oppenheim.food.deserts.cnn). The clip shows a 50 year old African American grandmother that has to walk a mile to a dollar store because she doesn't own a car. In order to buy fresh produce she must catch 3 buses to get to the grocery store which is over 2 miles away. Although these areas are food deserts, fast food resturants and liquor stores are plentiful. Half a million people in Chicago have difficulties getting to the grocery stores. Studies show that the driest food deserts are in African American low-income neighborhoods. Blacks travel 50% further than whites to get a grocery.
I think this clip ties in perfectly with the topic of the social inequalities by race and class. The government should realize that food access is a public health issue. It's really interesting to see that these neighborhoods have more liquor stores than grocery stores. Are they saying that liquor is more important than foods to African Americans? It doesn't surprise me that businesses don't want to invest their money into an area where they don't think they can maximize profits but it shouldn't mean they have the right to make it even harder for those who are already economically disadvantaged. The government claims that they give a tax incentives to businesses in urban areas but they should do more because everyone has a right to public access to food. A black man's dollar shouldn't be worth less than a white man's.
An article by Matthew Lee of the Associated Press on www.yahoo.com touched on the current administration's war on drugs and the statement by the State Department that anti-terror allies to U.S. were falling short in their anti-drug efforts, and perennial foes were not cooperating with the U.S. to alleviate these problems. The department released its annual global survey of the drug war, and said that massive opium poppy production (the main ingredient in heroin) in Afghanistan continued to pose a major threat due to its links with groups such as the Taliban. It was stated that "There is strong evidence that narcotics trafficking is linked to the Taliban insurgency. These links between drug traffickers and anti-government forces threaten regional stability." Other allied nations, Pakistan and Colombia, suffer from many levels of corruption by small local officials and are not preventing drug production at a rate acceptable to the U.S. Members of the "Axis of Evil" Iran and North Korea also harbor and promote drug trafficking, according to the State Department. Iran was chided on its lack of enacting or enforcing laws to decrease demand that has resulted in what the report said "can only be called an epidemic of opiate abuse."
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I just read an article on CNN.com titled, "Obama getting a cool reception from black America" . This is a very interesting issue for me. I am a huge supporter of Barak Obama for the Presidency. He has dedicated his life to working for the people as a community organizer in poor neighborhoods in Chicago, and working as a civil rights lawyer. He has accomplished huge feats in his life and has achieved success that most people never see in a lifetime. He believes in family , and has a passion for unity and for this country. That is why I think this country needs him. But in this country there is no ignoring race, class, and gender, and in this situation Obama's race doesn't fit the mold.
Last night I watched the movie The Color Purple by Steven Spielberg. This movies main focus is how women especially African American women are mistreated. They are treated as slaves, and as property. The main focus was on a young girl named Celie how has controlled, beaten, and raped by her father. The only thing that Celie had was her little sister Netty. But Celie ws separted from her sister Netty, soon after having the second child from her father, who also took both her children away. Then Celie was forced into a marriage with a very abusive husband. Her husbands name was "Mr.", who only caused more strive to Celie's life. But not long after Netty came to stay with Celie to get away form the abuse from thier father. Although that didnt happen because Netty soon was forced to leave, after she refused to let "Mr." take advantage of her. So Celie's last freedom was taken when she lost her sister. But things started to look up when along came a singer, who "Mr.' feel in love with and started to focus all his attention to the singer and didnt beat Celie when the singer was around. But as time went on Celie started to admire the singer, and they became friends and eventually helped Celie to work up the couragge to leave her abusive husband. Anoth er thing that helped give Celie strength was Mr.'s son getting married to an large, independant, outspoken lady. She showed Celie that you have to overcome your struggles. But little hope that Celie had was lost when Harpers wife was placed in jail for years, and forced to become a nany of the town mayor, after she punshed him(the mayor) in the face. But eventually Celie is finally reunited with her sister Netty, and her two children.
This video was extremely interesting, and at times tense and even uncomfortable. I think that those moments especially highlight what a sensative subject race is.
While there were many interesting points and opinions brought up, I think the most interesting thing about to whole film was the white man (the non self proclaimed racisist). He was just absolutly clueless as to what really goes on in the world when it comes to race, and the issues surrounding it. I almost felt bad for him after a while because he just wasn't getting it, as much as all the other men were trying to get it through to him that race really is an issues, and that they really do encounter problems beause of it in their lives. I also thought it was interesting that the white man who did state that he was a racist, was the one that all the other ment turned to and asked him to help the other white guy really understand what was going on in the world concerning race. Which I guess is understandable because at least he knows that there are issues of race still in the world, because he has those issues himself.
I thought that the setting in which the film took place was very unique. It's not often that there is an area where such a diverse group of people are able to sit down and have a converstaion about such a sensative subject. I think that because of this they were all able to put their guard down for at least a while which allowed them all to open up and share exaclty what they were thinking and feeling.
The one isse that I noticed throughout the entire film was how they referred to each other. In the beginning, it was "Black" and "White", and then towards the end they were referring to each other as "coloreds" and using phrases such as "you people." Which is how they probably talked in real life, and after a while they all become comfortable enough with each other to slip back into their usual speech.
The movie, "The Color of Fear," is an astonishing display of fear, priviledge, and skeptisicism all intertwined with the formost issue of Racism in America. In class we talked a lot about white priviledge and how it is not often discussed. This movie, discussion, between people of many different ethnicities showed very poinently how white americans have the power, whether they realize it or not. A particular white male in the movie clip stated from the very beginning how he did not have a problem with "those people," how he employeed "them" and that they were his friends. This man had no idea that the people he was refering to, were not his friends. He was there superior and they were his minimal wage employees. When thie fact that he does not have to deal with being frightened by another race because of their power, he felt ashamed, almost stupified. White priviledge in the united states is a problem because people of color are set back just because of the color of their skin. People are forced to loose their identities and nationalities all to become "what the white man wants them to act and look like," as was stated by an African American man in the video. I think this concept of white priviledge is displayed every day in places like coffee shops, and restaurants where whites are served first, where they are noticed first.
In this film, The Color of Fear, a group of 8 men of different races are brought together to discuss their issues of race individually, with eachother's racial groups and within their own racial groups. The film was set up as a kind of filmed "support group-documentary" typed voyeuristic film to really capture these conversations candidly to set up the true feelings of these people and their stories and feelings regarding racism. There were some very emotional moments set up when the group basically turned against one white man trying to explain to him the idea of white privlege (in so many words) and trying to break through to him their ideas of the responsibilities belonging to white people in American regarding the treatment of "others" that are of a different race than him. The whole group basically set up this team against this man who refused to see that in his view of regarding people that are not white, and trying to regard them as human beings, he is only further perpetuating a separation of them from himself, and in the words of Vincent, one of the African American men, expecting others to all be like white people. Not human beings, but for all people to see themselves as equal white people. It seemed as though all the people there except David (the white man, who was seemingly a bit naive) were on the same page about this unfair treatment, and were trying to get him to see how big of an issue racism is, and how there is no easy solution by just refusing to acknowledge it by saying that we are all equal human beings.
There were also some very interesting dialogues that came to the forefront when Vincent questioned David on what it is like to be white. It was really making him vulnerable and making him answer a question that I think a lot of white people don't know how to answer. I addressed this kind of topic in an earlier response I made to someone's post, regarding ethnicity. A lot of white Americans do not subscribe to their ethnicities because they generationally so far removed from that ethnicity, that it does not really mean anything to say that they are German-American or Irish-American. There is no pride attached to being Euro-American as there is being African-American or Latino-American because being white and American is taken for granted and having that white privelege is something that white people don't acknowlege on a daily basis like colored people do, as Vincent pointed out. "Colored people know what it is like to be white, but white people have no idea what it is like to be black or asian or latino," I think it what he said, or something along those lines.
I think one way to solve this kind of problem once again is to take the initiative to be more prideful of your ethnicity and be aware of where you are coming from. Yes, we are all Americans if we were born and raised in America. But for the most part, we all immigrated here at some point and we have an ethnicity in our families that we have a right to celebrate and learn about and embrace. It is something that lives in us and is a part of us. Being American means something a lot different than what we believe it to be, based on our histories and backgrounds. Unless we are Native American, we really are not coming from an American ethnicity. Once we learn about our own ethnicities and backgrounds we can start to understand eachother's a little better and I think it's a valient start to tackling racism and the hoplessness that follows it.
The film The Color of Fear (1994) directed by Lee Mun Wah opens a discussion on issues surrounding race in the United States. I imagine the goal was to observe the interactions between people of different racial backgrounds to see what is said about the racial inequalities that many face today. It features what seem to be ‘representatives’ of various races that characterize a large population of the United States. Set up as a group discussion about race in the United States, the following question is posed as a point of discussion: “What is presented to me as an ‘American’ does not look and act like me.� This is an example of why many of the people in the room whom were not white did not feel like they were only American.
For example one man, Victor Lewis, said he insisted on being referred to as Black or African American – but not just American. This is an interesting point raised, as media plays an extremely important role in our self perceptions whether we like to believe it or not. Media may not have been on his mind when he used the word “presented,� but media is a powerful form of representation that seamlessly tells us how we might view a particular notion about ourselves or our country such as “What does it man to be American?� How do the media portray the typical “American?�
One of the most poignant comments made came as a response to a question from David Christensen, one of the White men. After debate over his repeated statements that he doesn’t believe racism really exists around his life and that he feels all the others in the room are viewing things too negatively, he asks “What can I do to help you?� The response comes from Lewis, one of the African American men who says “what I need is for you to understand yourself [as white] – I don’t need help from you.� The claim is that Christensen’s problem is that he doesn’t see a problem because has failed to problematized the “White� category and the hegemonic structures that many fail to see on a day to day basis. I found this to be a really important point because what is considered the ‘norm’ or majority in a society seems to rarely be investigated more closely. The subjects of close investigations seem to rely more on minorities.
Afterwards, I thought about the people that were selected for the film and wondered about what series of questions they must have needed to answer in order to be ‘chosen.’ I doubt they were randomly selected for the purposes of this film. Assuming they were carefully selected, what were the criteria for this? Does it represent an accurate sampling of representation? I felt as though the film was trying to capture the ‘overall feelings’ that surround racism and wonder if that’s really possible. As a documentary, it doesn’t literally claim that it’s trying to do so; however the way which it was filmed suggests so.
In this morning's class we watched the Color of Fear, a film of a continuing conversation about racism in America. The participants include eight men, two white, two black, two latino, and two Asian, with the Asian director also involved. As the men began to interact and discuss their personal experiences, it became incredibly clear that racism was deeply intertwined into all of their lives, whether they were aware of it or not.
We watched part of this movie called "The Color of Fear" in class this morning. The movie provide very insightful ideas and thoughts regarding to race relations in America across eight men including White, Asian, European, Latino, and African. They each expressed their own feelings with their past experiences. They revealed the pain and the psychological impact on their lives by racism.
I recent read the article "The drugs, imprisonment, and HIV/AIDS connection" by Nekima Levy-Pounds in the "Insight" community journal. She talks about how the war on drugs has resulted in disproportionate numbers of blacks being incarcerated. She cites this high rate of incarceration as being a major contributing factor to the spread of HIV/AIDS in the black community. In prison, men sometimes have both voluntary and involuntary sexual interactions with one another. Since they are not provided with condoms in prison, the risk for the transmission of HIV/AIDS and other STD's is very high. When the men eventually are released from prison, they return to their families and loved ones, possibly spreading any infections that they may have picked up while in prison.
I found Levy-Pounds' article to be really provocative and insightful. She makes an important connection between the high rates of incarceration in the black community and the incidence of HIV/AIDS. I had heard before how the war on drugs has resulted in disproportionate numbers of blacks being imprisoned, thereby furthering poverty among African Americans. As my fellow soldier Tupac Shakur once stated, "Instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs, so the police can bother me." The war on drugs, rather than helping impoverished communities, is instead exacerbating the vicious cycle of poverty and drug abuse. Levy-Pounds brings up another negative consequence of the war on drugs with the HIV/AIDS connection. We can see that the war on drugs is an example of institutional racism. There is no race specific language in any of the laws, but we can see that the war on drugs has disproportionately had a negative effect on the black community. Even though discrimination is supposed to be illegal, we do not live in a colorblind society where everyone has equal life chances. We must be aware of these injustices and fight the good fight for equality. Freedom fighters unite!
to once again borrow the words of brother shakur:
"a coward dies a thousand deaths... a soldier dies but once"
Something the Lord Made is a true story of two men who, Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas, who work together to develop a heart surgery to save their patients suffering from Blue Baby Syndrome. Their 34-year partnership develops through the depression era in Nashville where Blalock is a white surgeon, head of surgery at the John Hopkins Hospital, and Thomas is a poor, black carpenter with a dream of going to college and medical school. Blalock originally hires Thomas as an assistant in his lab, but discovers his talent in medicine and develops into Blalock’s research partner.
Blalock praises Thomas’ surgical skill and has Thomas coach him through the first Blue Baby surgery despite protests from Hopkins' administrators and other surgeons. The two men remain separated outside their medical partnership due to race, where Thomas has to fight for a wage higher than a janitor’s and is not invited to recognition of their groundbreaking work by the medical community. Thomas remained unknown until after Blalock’s death in 1985 when he was granted an honorary doctorate by John Hopkins' for many notable accomplishments throughout his career.
This was an incredibly touching story that I found to be both inspiring and frustrating. Blalock received international recognition while Thomas worked long hours in the lab to perfect the surgery and to earn just enough to provide for his family. It was interesting to see how long it took the American culture to accept a black man in a position of importance in medicine. I was impressed with how modest Thomas was. Even when Thomas stood up for himself, he was well spoken and said just enough to make his point. Blalock demanded respect and authority from the medical community, where it took the community decades to give that respect to Thomas, who in some ways deserved much more. I highly recommend this movie, as it demonstrates the segregation and limitations imposed in some fields. It is also inspirational to those who still are making advances in their fields despite social constraints.
Today, while listening to the public radio station, I caught a news report about poverty. But it was not poverty as we normally hear about it in the news. According to AOL News, more people now live in poverty in the Suburbs than in actual cities. At first, I was very surprised to hear this, but then went on to explain the reasons behind this movement from city to suburb. Because more people than ever are living in suburbs, the population of suburbs are simply growing at a faster rate than in the city. With this population growth follows more diversity in the suburbs, and more jobs, specifically low-wage jobs. Also, recent immigrants are moving straight into suburbs and surpassing the city, and generally these immigrants have lower incomes than native born citizens. With these low wages follows poverty.
In the past, poverty has always been seen as a big city problem. But now, it is interesting to note how poverty can follow population growths and suburban spread. Unfortunately, this is a relatively new finding, and the general population still believes that poverty is mainly in the cities. This causes major problems for the poor who live in these suburbs without the resources that may be offered in a larger city to help them out. One woman spoke of how she had recently bought a car for $75 because there is no public transportation available to take her to her job, and how the insurance, gas money, and other expenses were slowly adding up and was becoming too expensive. Public transportation is just one example of something that the suburbs are lacking in terms of resources for the poor. The education in the suburbs is also usually more expensive, there are fewer organizations to help with everyday needs, the list goes on. Because the large population of people under the poverty line has been largely unnoticed in the suburbs, the poor there are struggling even more than they might have been in the big cities.
I guess it's time to rethink how we are helping the poor in our country and where to focus our energies. Even though it may seem that suburbs should escape the grips of poverty, it's time to realize that where the people go, poverty will follow. It's time to move to the burbs.
Last night I watched CNN’s Paula Zahn Now. Zahn has been doing a series of shows about race in America, and last night’s show (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/16/pzn.01.html) was specifically about the role that race has played in the Duke assault case. The story is probably quite familiar to most people, but here is a quick summary. Last March members of the Duke University men’s lacrosse team threw an off-campus party and hired 2 female strippers to perform at the party. One of the strippers, who is black, accused 3 white team members of raping her that night. The players were charged with rape, kidnapping, and sexual offense, but the rape charges were dropped last month.
This case is a great illustration of the intersection of race, class, and gender. The alleged kidnappers/sexual offenders are white males who attended an elite, private university. The alleged victim is a black female who attended North Carolina Central University, an historically black university. Indeed, these differences of race, class, and gender between the accused and the accuser seem to be a main reason why the case has attracted so much national attention.