zilsk001

Coffman

2007-05-01T03:48:25Z

From going taking the trip to Coffman, I noticed many signs in the surrounding by the Starbucks. I sat at a table for about 15 minutes and taking notes on my enviornment. I noticed that all of the tables were taken up, mostly by 2 people at a table, and what was even stranger was that they were all of the same race. For instance, there were 2 asian guys at a table doing math homework with their calculators. There were also 2 middle eastern girls sitting together talking in a different language and doing homework, also there were 2 white males in collared shirts doing homework together. These definitely go along with a typical stereotype which I would never have guessed happened in the union. There were also two tables where there was only one person sitting at each, and what was interesting was that they both had headphones on and laptops facing towards everyone with their backs up against the wall.
From this trip to Coffman, I saw how people interacted with each other and the common norms that students follow while at the University. For intstanc,e, every single table had at least one person drinking a beverage of some sort and all were doing homework. I found some of these aspects very interesting and intruiguing, I'm very glad that we took this opportunity to become better acquainted with our surroundings.

Suburbs vs. the City

2007-04-25T17:41:23Z

During the discussion about suburbs and the city, I didn't exactly understand the meaning of the exercise because my whole group was from the suburbs and trying to write about what the city was like. I wish that we had someone to compare against from the city and talking about the suburbs. I felt like the suburbs were more homey, safe, and comfortable. I thought that it wasn't so fast paced and that there's less comotion during the night. Whereas in the city, it's always full of life, and seems dangerous at night. I wouldn't want to go walking through the city by myself after dark, but it's different in the suburbs. I feel safe because it's comprised mostly of families and seems like a community of it's own; but not separated.
In class, the idea that the suburbs were physically separated from the city, but I didn't believe that was true. I just felt like half the time there's no need to go into the city unless it's for a sporting event or a concert. There's nothing holding the suburbs back from going down into the city, just that there's no reason. And I wouldn't think that people from the city really have any reason to come out the suburbs. Someone mentioned in class that they believe the suburbs are full of "stay at home moms" who drive their kids around in minivans, which is somewhat correct.
Another aspect we talked about in class is going from the suburbs to a big college in the cities. I didn't think that there was much of a transition because there were plenty of kids from Brookfield which were attending the U, so it wasn't so overwhelming. I think the U feels much smaller now that we're in classes and making friends and being involved in other activities.

Suburbs vs. the City

2007-04-24T17:41:23Z

Advertising and People of Color

2007-04-11T20:38:41Z

In response to the “Advertising and People of Color�? and the class discussions, I don’t exactly believe that media changes how we view races and that they create more stereotypes. Originally, when we were asked that question, I thought that according to the article, media was responsible, but then the discussion helped me realize that they’re only advertising the stereotypes that we already know about. In other words, the media conforms to the stereotypes we are already accustomed to. And that the media conforms to the different stereotypes in order to please the majority, which happens to be whites. The media feeds into our views of stereotypes and doesn’t influence us to believe in different stereotypes.
One of the examples given in the article that I found interesting was the lazy Mexican who said that he was able to be seen in all of us. And many were offended by saying that they were considered Mexican and lazy. I thought that the society took that example a little too personally because it was only a metaphor and a commercial in order to sell a product. If I saw that commercial, I wouldn’t think too much about it.

Feminist Readings of the Disney Heroine

2007-04-04T02:04:05Z

My response deals with the discussions that we had in class about the reading of the Disney princesses. I thought that a lot of good points were brought up of how Disney might have an underlying message to all children from the ages of 3 and up. Girls are supposed to be quiet, that princesses are only pretty, and that girls are never truly happy until they find their prince charming. I think that the princesses were made the way they were because they’re more appealing to children. I don’t think that children would want to really watch a movie where the girl doesn’t get the guy in the end and ends up sad and depressed. But on the other hand, I can see where the feminist roles play into the movies, but they never caught my attention until I read this article. I understand the side that says that Disney wanted to portray that message in all the movies, but I don’t believe that was their initial intention.
I believe that the Disney movies were made the way they were because they’re most appealing to children. No child would want to watch a movie where a princess doesn’t get a prince in the end or if the princess was ugly. The movies were made for enjoyment, which would be a great reason for why they’re re-released every 7 years. For instance, I grew up with all Disney movies, and still watch them time to time with my girl friends. We don’t think much of the feminist roles trying to be shown throughout the movies, and instead we enjoy the movie for what it is and don’t take much else into consideration. This article is looking too deeply into the movies and trying to find underlying meanings that no one would think of on their own, especially children.

Living in Color

2007-03-28T18:44:09Z

I found our conversation in class on Monday to be very interesting about races and how much race is impacted in our every day lives. For instance, the institutional forms of discrimination are still present today in media. It was more difficult to think of examples, but the book had mentioned some which aren’t in existence today. I found it appalling that blacks weren’t allowed to be managers, presidents, and weren’t capable of having a steady job. And on the other hand, I thought that the inferential overt racism even more interesting.
In class, we were to come up with known facts about different races and notice that we don’t mean harm by saying them. A few examples that our group came up with were that Jews were rich, Middle Eastern owned gas stations, Asians are good at math, and that men are bad drivers. The curious thing about this is that these are funny when the same race says these to each other, but when another race makes a comment about these; it comes off as offensive and racial. And the question is where the line is drawn.
I don’t exactly know why everything seems so racial simply when a race says a joke about another race, but it’s ok when the same race jokes about themselves. It doesn’t make sense. I believe that some races don’t feel comfortable around others, and immediately think that they’re being made fun of and it’s not a funny joke anymore. Races need to become more secure and lighten up because I don’t think that these inferential discrimination jokes are meant to mean any harm because there are many worse racist things that can be said.

People like us

2007-03-19T17:51:17Z

After watching the “People Like Us�? movie, the one person that influenced me the most was the mother of three boys who was clearly living below poverty. She said that she grew up poor, and that she knew that she was never going to go anywhere in life, and that she said she couldn’t change how her life played out. I completely disagree with her statement about how she lived her life. People are able to change for the better and that their family histories shouldn’t affect how someone should live out their own lives. For example, her own son knew that he wanted to go somewhere far in life because he couldn’t handle how he was growing up. He said that he was planning on going to college and got plenty of awards in school. He has ambitions to become better unlike his mother.
Another example of someone who changed social classes is my father. He grew up without a father, and had to grow up in a small one bedroom house with his mother and his grandparents. Although his living conditions weren’t the greatest, he still managed to get scholarships to college and is very successful today. He said that he didn’t want to grow up and do nothing in life. He took responsibility for his actions and changed his life. He didn’t let anyone get him down like the lady did in the movie.

grey's anatomy's influence on society

2007-02-28T02:25:23Z

From the recent reading, in class we were to find shows that contradicted the ideas of race, gender, and money. And in our small group, one of the major shows that stood out was Grey’s Anatomy; more specifically Cali. She is a very successful woman in the show and is a perfect example of how society is changing today.
Cali was recently married to George, and now is his boss in the hospital. That’s not usually a normal relationship portrayed in today’s society. Usually in society, people would think that the man would have a higher ranked job than the woman, and especially at the same job. She has the ability to boss him around on the job and George cannot oppose at all. In the beginning, he was bothered by the fact that his wife was giving orders to him, but Cali pointed out that they were on business and he had to deal with the fact that she was superior to him.
Two more examples that portray Cali as the not-so-typical woman, is her race and her income. Cali is Hispanic, which shows that other races are just as successful as the white community. Women of color are very capable people and should be thought of that way as well. Another example of Cali and that she’s poor, or at least portrayed as poor because she was living in the back of the hospital without anyone else knowing about it. This also goes against society because I don’t think that anyone has heard of a poor doctor who can’t afford or want to live in a house. That example wasn’t explained very well in the show, but didn’t even seem to fit into her character.
Cali not only says the opposite of the article we discussed in class, but also how society views race, gender, and judged according to how much money someone makes. She’s a minority, a woman who has a higher status than her husband at work, and doesn’t seem to have much money for herself. The character Cali of Grey’s Anatomy makes society think twice before opinionating people.

article and life according to tv

2007-02-14T05:13:08Z

My blog will be mostly on the handout that was given in class about “Facing the facts of Bigotry.�? I disliked this article very much because just in the first line, it says that I’m racist, which is based completely off of nothing. The author cannot make a claim like that towards everyone, and I took it very offensively. Sure, there might be many people who are racist, but I do not agree with addressing it immediately and that it was aimed at everyone. I also disagree with the fact that the danger in racism is denying the fact that someone is racist, instead of coming out in the open with it. I do not understand the meaning of that at all because racism is looked down upon no matter who you are.
I also thought that this article was very vague in the short and small paragraphs written. She mentions prejudice and ignorance, but doesn’t elaborate enough. She shouldn’t be able to state that we’re all racist people, but then not explain it further. There are too many claims in this paper without expanding more on her ideas. This entire article disgusted me because she makes all these negative accusations but has no proof to support her argument.
Talking about the text from the book, I thought that it was very interesting how the television influences people. I found it intriguing that males outnumber females during primetime, and that people over 65 are not represented well enough. Another aspect of this article that caught my attention was the health topic. Television could be the most persuasive source of information, yet it leaves people frustrated because it revolves around junk food and alcohol, yet everyone on television remains slim and healthy. I would never have thought or even noticed that detail about television’s ability to take control of what we believe in.

Cop Killer

2007-02-07T04:41:04Z

In class, I believe that we covered a lot of good topics about “Cop Killer.�? First of all, I do believe this article was giving a racial aspect because it does have to do with the rap genre and the fact that the white community looked past the lyrics and saw a black person talking about it, so therefore it must be worse. For instance, not everyone is gong to interpret the lyrics the same way because everyone comes from different standards of living. It might be more common that a black person is beat up; nearly to death than a white person. Therefore, a white person will not understand where the lyrics are coming from. We discussed that these lyrics should have a universal meaning, but I don’t believe that they do. As an example, nearly 60 percent of white people and only 34 percent of black people said that they were angry at the lyrics of “Cop Killer.�?
Another topic that I found interesting was the reference to ‘accents.’ Before this article, I simply referred to accents as a different tone of speaking, such as different countries, but it may also refer to races’ speech. As the lyrics went through different accents, the meaning of the song became distorted and there was no longer just one meaning. I don’t agree that people should be so quickly to form opinions about songs and the background of the song, especially when they don’t understand the experiences that the artist went through. I found it frustrating that Ice-T had to explain his lyrics repeatedly to white people because they continuously interpreted it wrongly. Language accents change perception, and it wasn’t fair that Ice-T had to justify himself to people who didn’t know where he was coming from.

Shitty First Drafts

2007-01-31T03:59:46Z

This essay wasn't very long and was rather difficult to write about.
I think that this essay on first drafts was mostly all common sense. It makes complete sense that the first draft is going to be terrible, but leads to better and better drafts. It might be that papers are so time-consuming that writers are turned off to wanting to write more and more about the same topic. I agree that the first draft is basically when the author just pours out ideas without much logic and organization, and that the writer would rather get through the paper than to take the time and think it out. The same thing happens to me because I catch myself writing aimlessly and not making much sense. First drafts are a lot more time consuming than I thought, and when ideas finally come, I tend to just write them down without much thought or order.
Also, I believe that the writer needs to clear his or her mind in order to create a good paper or draft and cannot be distracted by outside problems. Instead of being distracted, it’s important that no matter what draft it is that they should do well because people will be able to notice how much time and effort was put into a paper. I find it particularly hard to focus on a topic to write about when I don’t have much of an opinion to write about in the first place and therefore I have less motivation and am more likely to get distracted by other events. And one last idea that I agree with is that the more you write, the more you understand and trust your writing skills instead of worrying so much about what the critics are going to say. Writing doesn’t come automatically and we all need practice in order to become better writers.

reading and writing about art / ways of seeing

2007-01-23T06:17:53Z

The first article did not appeal to me as much as the second article. I did not find it to be very exciting or interesting, and the only part that I found intriguing was the difference between high and low art. I do not like the classifications of the two types of art, since low art is also considered unsophisticated and pedestrian. I think they should find different names for high and low art. It reminds me more of high and low classes.
I found “Ways of Seeing�? much more interesting. The article believes that we’re all affected by art from personal experiences. Everyone is looking at art from different worlds because different objects mean different things to people. One of the paintings that I found interesting was “Regentesses of the Old Men’s Alms House�? because of the argument between the first and the second critic. The first critic assumed that the governor and the governess were dressed as a lower class than they really were because the artist was poor and bitter towards richer classes. On the other side, the second critic corrected the first opinion and explained that there wasn’t bitterness towards the governor and governess. This is a good example of how past art cannot be examined in the present because the meaning will always be different. We will never know how the artist felt in the past because we can never go through the same experiences as them or live the lives they lived. I also liked the “Wheatfield with Crows�? because of the two different meanings it gives the audience before and after knowing why it was painted. There’s more meaning once we understood the background of the artist, which I believe is very important when looking at and examining certain works of art. When talking about the reproduction of paintings, I do not agree with it because of the dispersal of meanings behind the work in the first place. It is alright for people to have their own opinions of what the art means, but I believe that the original truth is more important and gives more meaning and people can appreciate art more.