Recently in Racial/Ethnic Category

Instead of an actual article or something of that nature I actually have to report an incidence that affects me personally...or rather my sister. My sister is 11 and goes to Meredith Middle School. For the most part it is a pretty diverse school for being in Iowa (granted it is in Des Moines). Anyways... She is 11 but she still understands the concept of discrimination, whether or not she understands the actual term. There is a group at her school called the "Sisters for Success" that gets the chance to go on field trips and do little fun projects as a group. It is sort of a club that recieves special priveleges if you are a member. My sister, naturally, wanted to join. Who wouldn't want to go on field trips? They turned her down because she was white. They told her that this was a group only for African American girls. Disappointed, she told me about it. I find this very interesting. I know that there is an understanding that groups should unite and band together to celebrate who they are, but she obviously wanted to join this group. From what she told me, it doesn't seem like they are actually doing this in the first place. They mostly just meet to be friendly, not necessarily to talk about race. I could just be bias (given that this did happen to my sister) but I feel like this is wrong. She is 11 and she does understand what is going on, but what are your thoughts on the subject? Is this type of thing a problem?

...also.. when we talked about this she said the most interesting/adorable thing she probably could have, "actually... I feel kinda bad for the boys....they don't have any sort of group for them."

Here's the link to the article and blog from CNN: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/28/dems-call-for-overturn-of-arizonas-immigration-law/

Since we mentioned this in class, I thought I should post an update about it. I saw other people have posted about it, but this article is talking about the federal government's response to the law.

Also, check out some of the comments posted on CNN's blog about it. Some of them are pretty unbelievable, but I guess that depends on what party ideology you identify with.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100428/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1831

 

I just got through reading this little slice of heaven and it is infuriating. Republican Tim James, who is in the gubernatorial race in Alabama appears in a campaign add where he promises to give the state's driver's license exam in English only. His reason?: it will be a cost-saving measure...um, ok? I fail to comprehend how getting rid of the existing non-English versions of the exam will cut costs. He goes on to say: "This is Alabama, we speak English. If you want to live here, learn it".

This topic always gets my blood boiling. I have been all over Mexico and I have yet to see an American make an attempt at speaking Spanish. Also, whenever people do make an effort at speaking English here in the U.S., they get discriminated against because they'll speak it with an accent. This happened to my mom the first time we went to Chicago in 2003. We were in an elevator at the Sears Tower and some people were being rude. My mom made a comment about it in English so that the men would understand, and I see an employee of the building give my mom a dirty look and rolled his eyes...My claws came out at that point. I said, "You got a problem there cheif?"...he denied he had a problem..."So why are you rolling your eyes? You think every Mexican that comes here doesn't understand English or speaks with a heavy accent? Are you that ignorant?" ...he profusely apologized and said I was right in calling him an ignorant moron. I doubt he was sincere but it gave me great pleasure to call him out in front of a large group of people. I've seen this type of crap all the time.

Not only do people have to speak English while they're here but they also have to speak it without an accent as well. Otherwise they're some kind of simpleton who don't know anything.

This proves the point I was trying to make yesterday in class while discussing Cassie's book Black Like Me. Although people are a little more open minded than what they once were, there are still a lot of places in this country, particularly the South, that continue to be overtly racist.  

What do you guys think of this idiot's campaign?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36660242/ns/us_news-washington_post//

 

This article discusses the semi-recent resegregation in two Mississippi schools.  In Tylertown Mississippi, a predominately black town, there has been a majority of white students throughout the years moving to the Salem school district,  a predominately white town.  Where Tylertown is looked at as the "black school" and Salem the "white school."  That idea really hit home here in teh Cedar Valley, where in waterloo, East and West are split into the "white" and "black" schools, with the intention that the "white" school is better than the other. 

In the article, they discuss that there has been some recent legal actions taking place.  They are investigating into the "segregation" for reasons based on race.  They are also looking into whether minority students are being treated differently than the white students in the schools.  They go on discussing how resegregation has been a recurrent trend since the 1980's. 

In this school district, they ahve had separate homecoming courts based on race and proms have been been separated based on race in the past as well. 

After reading the article I couldn't believe that this is still going on.  I have heard of having the better schools and that being based on race, which is still shocking to me, but the idea of having separate homecoming courts and proms within a school surprised me, even though it is in the south. This article both stigmatizes the black people in that town and the white people.  In recent news, the white people in these towns have been labeled the "hillbillies of Mississippi."  There has been a lot of negative press towards the white people in this town and they have all been greatly stigmatized. 

Here's a link to a video about the U.S. Census: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36101466#36101466

The problem is people are having difficulty filling out the form when they have to choose a "box" or group to identify with. One of the newscasters shares his family's stories. Also, the statistics about Hispanics are interesting too.

What should be done about this issue? How should we address it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecmSh8oKzr0

 

I recently watched Australia, and was very supprised by the content of the movie.  The trailer that I just linked makes it look like a love story that happens to take place in Australia, but that is really a second story line. Without giving away to much, the film is told from the perspective of a mixed race child, and the main story line is about race relations in Australia before and during WWII.  It is very simmilar to the way we treated Native Americans here.  The film is very long, but it provides a great social commentary on how the aboriginal people of Australia were treated.

This article on msnbc: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36208200/ns/us_news-washington_post/ immediately caught my eye. Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) of Virginia recently declared April as Confederate History Month. Various civil rights groups have expressed outrage over the governor's move, and I think rightfully so. Gov. McDonnell's defense was that it is a means of promoting tourism in the state. Seriously?? You have got to be kidding.

This also brings to mind the issue with the Confederate flag. I know driving through the south I have sometimes seen people displaying the Confederate flag as if it is something to be proud of. I once asked someone why they didn't view the flag as being a problem and their response was that the flag symbolized southern tradition and not racism. Aren't those one in the same though? To me they are.

What do you guys think? 

March Madness just finished, but I came across this article regarding racism: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=jn-race040410 

 

Here's a short section from the article:

"Even though the race issue isn't discussed in polite company, it's been the subject of hushed conversations at the Final Four and will be obvious to anyone in attendance or tuning in at home. The subject is so taboo that even Larry Bird bristles when it's brought up."

 

What do people think about this issue? We have talked about it before, but I was interested in the issue being so "charged" that people don't even want to discuss it.

"On February 4, the Fair Housing Justice Center (FHJC) announced the filing of a federal race discrimination lawsuit against a real estate broker, Amelia Lewis, and two housing cooperatives, Silver Beach Gardens Corporation and Edgewater Park Owners Cooperative, Inc., located in the Throgs Neck area of the Bronx, New York."

http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/


     Okay, So I'm not a Realtor, but I have worked in way too many sales jobs already to keep my head above water as a poor student.  I also know that in the last few years if you have to sell your house, GOD BLESS YA, cause its gonna' take awhile.

      With this in mind, how do things like this EVER happen?  Is it really possible that this is some kind of accident?  Lets see, with a name like the "Silver Beach Gardens Corporation", one might assume that this neighborhood co-op is composed of some pretty damn nice places.  Now, to have the means to purchase a nice joint you've either got to make a boat load of money, OR your parents made a boat load and gave you a good share of it.

     Regardless, lets assume that most of these people actually earned their money, which as research has shown over and over how education and income share a strong correlation.  This means that many of these folks must have gone to college, and were required to take some of the same courses you were.

     You'd think that SOME of these folks would think to themselves "Hey, you know what, our neighborhood is flippin pale, I wonder why that is?" 

OR maybe this is not the case, maybe it was a simple oversight, due to an antiquated protocol that overlooks such things.  But really?  Its safe to assume that many of these folks had to get the same 3 letters of recommendation from current owners to be able to purchase THEIR place, so doesn't that mean that this place is solely inhabited by all the "cool kids" from high school that still wear their "Senior Keg 1992" t-shirt while mowing the lawn?

This whole thing perplexes me...and I'm not sure how to best address this sort of issue?  I mean, what are you going to do, enforce affirmative action for buying homes?

Jeesh.... 

 

 

"Anti-abortion groups are targeting black audiences with the message that abortion is a form of "ethnic cleansing." But as many point out, this strategy ignores the real needs of all women."

http://jezebel.com/5483679/womb-lynching-on-the-anti+choice-targeting-of-african+american-women
















     When I heard this spot on the radio the other day, I immediately thought about the situation we discussed in class about the adjunct professor that was fired for using the "N" word.  According to our class discussion, one of the main reasons we believed this action was taken was because of the instructors' inability to recognize the history and the true meaning embodied by that sort of language.

      This use of the word "lynching" regarding African American children seems to do the same thing.  Though I think all of us would like to see the number of abortions performed each year decrease, it seems the groups using this sort of language are also disregarding the historical and contextual meaning the word "lynching" has.

     Media coverage over the last few years (even as recent as last month) has shown time after time how even a noose hung in a tree or a campus building incites fear, resentment, and anger amongst those who understand its meaning.

     No matter what side of the abortion issue you find yourself, I think this kind of use of language proves ineffective for its intention...  

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin is written using the journal entries kept by John Griffin (a white, middle class American from Texas) as he underwent treatment to temporarily become a black man.  Griffin, as a black man, traversed the streets of New Orleans, Birmingham, Montgomery, Atlanta, and various other cities in the Deep South.  Griffin provides a unique, up-close look into the prejudiced and racist south in 1959.  He is able to write from the mind of a white man but behind the eyes and experiences of a black man.

This book was a written hit to the funny-bone; it was some what painful to read but also uniquely enjoyable.  Growing up in the public school system, I learned with some regularity about the tragedies of the south up until the Civil Rights Movement.  If your average high school history text book and Black Like Me were sand paper, the text book would be a quick glance over with a table sander on low and Black Like Me would be an hour long elbow-greasing with a piece of thick grained sand paper.  Where the text book provides a technical, factual covering of the facts of pre-Civil Rights south, Griffin's book is one man's well written accounts of a black man's every day experiences. 

Some of the people he met and the things he saw made me wince with pitty, and I frequently found myself feeling shameful for the things my race has done.  I couldn't help but feel partially responsible for the horrendous treatment of my fellow man.  On the other hand, it was a real page turner.  Griffin is an easy to read author who is clearly well educated and opinionated but does a wonderful job at making this book a conduit by which to tell his experiences and not a platform to display his opinions and vocabulary.  I would recommend this book to any one wanting anything from an eye opening read, to a medium length page turner.

Author Tim Wise does an excellent job describing the state of racism in America (both before the age of Obama and during his 2008 presidential campaign). Wise's book is broken down into two main parts, or essays as he describes it. The first is an overview of racism and discrimination in America, citing both explicit and subtle forms of racism within the realms of employment and income, housing, education, criminal justice and law, health care, and even going into great detail of the inequality demonstrated during hurricane Katrina in 2006 and the 2008 presidential campaign. This portion of the book was mainly aimed at getting across the point that racism in America is still going strong, despite the fact that statistics show that most white Americans believe Obama's election as our president signals the end of racism in our country. Wise argues that although the election of a black man to our highest ranking position is a big step in the right direction, it does not mean that white people view black people on the same level they may see the president (he uses the analogy of Bill Cosby and the Cosby Show in terms of how white people view him differently because he does not fit the stereotype-consistent role of the "black man in America". Wise also spends a good portion of this part of the book criticizing Obama for his failure to address racism in a more direct fashion, stating that Obama has often side-stepped the issue of race in America and what needs to be done to promote more equality within the realms I mentioned above. My question regarding the first part of the book is: Is it really Obama's task to focus more of this effort on racism in America because he is our first black president? Because of the fact that he is our first black president, does it just come with the territory, whereas presidents before him were not "expected" to tackle this issue because they were old white men?

The second essay of the book focuses on what needs to be done to help alleviate modern racism (or racism 2.0, as Wise refers to it). In particular, Wise focuses on what white America needs to do in order to help promote equality in our country. He mentions five main goals for white America: 1) Take personal responsibility addressing racism and white privilege. 2) Listen to black people regarding racism. 3) Stop the denial of our disturbing history dealing with race. 4) Connect with anti-racist white culture to help promote understanding. 5) Speak up! - When you see racism, no matter how subtle, take action and make a difference.

Overall, I thought this book was a well organized argument for how racism is still a very big issue in our country and it can be seen where ever we go. Wise definitely did an excellent job getting the point across about how Obama's election to president does not mean racism is ending, it is simply not what it used to be....racism has evolved. Wise point out several instances of racism and discrimination in the book that relate to many concepts we have discussed in class, including stereotype threat, ingroup/outgroup biases, situational factors that bring out hidden prejudices, and institutional and modern racism. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good overview of where America stands in our battle against racism and discrimination.

The Pulitzer Prize winner To Kill a Mockingbird is a timeless classic written by Harper Lee. The story takes place in the small southern town of Maycomb County, Alabama in the midst of The Great Depression. The narrator of this riveting story is a young girl named Jean Louise Finch, or Scout. Scout is not the typical delicate, shy, and ladylike child that society expects her to be. She is an outspoken, rambunctious and free spirited tomboy who wears overalls, plays in the outdoors alongside her older brother Jem, and is far more intelligent than most in her age group. She and her brother Jem are the children of Maycomb County defense lawyer Atticus Finch. Atticus can be considered an untraditional man in several respects. For starters he is a single father raising two children. He also encourages and stresses the importance of an education and egalitarian beliefs to Scout and Jem during a time when it was very unpopular to do so.

Throughout the text, Scout walks us through her childhood adventures in this conservative southern Alabama town alongside Jem and occasionally their best friend Dill. At first life seems simple. But when their father Atticus takes on the case of his life, they all begin to realize the severity of racial turmoil that defined American society during this time period.

  In the story, Atticus takes on the case of a Negro man named Tom Robinson. Tom is a young family man whose only crime is that he is African American. He stands accused of raping the eldest daughter of Mr. Ewells, an impoverished social misfit in Maycomb County. The Ewells are an unpopular family who live on the outskirts of Maycomb in the midst of the town's dump. They are known by everyone in the county for being aggressive, dishonest, uncivilized, unclean, and uneducated. Despite these facts they hold a great advantage over the most civilized and honest African Americans: they are white.

 Scout and Jem encounter dirty stares and insults by many of their fellow townsfolk because their father is defending a Negro. Through example however, Atticus teaches his children that the color of your skin does not define what kind of person you are. Everyone should be treated with kindness and respect. Scout and Jem manage to hold their heads high and support their father's cause. Despite the best efforts of Atticus however, Tom is convicted of raping Mr. Ewells' daughter and is sentenced to death. Scout and Jem learn the grim reality that justice for all does not exist in the ignorant and racist American culture.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful text to read when learning about stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Readers can get examples of all three of these elements throughout the entire story not just in the context of black versus white, but also society versus women, and poor whites versus everyone else. Some of the social psychological underpinnings of this novel deal with constructs such as categorization, Social Identity Theory, depersonalization and dehumanization, out-group homogeneity, social motives such as self-enhancement and control, and the list goes on.

Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful representation of the struggles experienced by generations of minorities as well as females throughout American history. From a social scientific standpoint, the novel gives social psychological novices a well rounded summary of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination along with solutions to such issues.

Everyone should check out this website and the accompanying video! This has changed my entire view on the history of the United States in terms of racial relations between white people and black people. Is it possible that we have all been brainwashed through years of exposure to the superiority-inferiority of the two races? Would this explain why so many people still hold strong prejudices and/or are outright bigots?

http://www.stopthebrainwash.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIBQPORReWY&feature=player_embedded

I think that we, as a society, need to take a long look in the mirror and figure out where we have been in order to decide what we really are today. This does not only include the white race, but the black race as well. The perpetuating harm that is being done today through the media has ties to early advertising of slaves, mockery of black people, and early silent films. However, we do not even realize this because of how long this propoganda has been around. I don't know about you, but I totally buy into what Tom Burrell is getting at through this website. Check out Kim's post on Burrell's NPR interview if you want to hear more from him.

 

Paul Mooney is one of the Kings of comedy. He has written stand up comedy for Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Saturday night live and many other venues. He is mainly known for his active stance in confronting racism in America through Stand up Comedy and going on different talk shows to address these issues faced by society today. Paul has a strait forward or blunt approach he takes which makes most White people uncomfortable and upset. There are a lot of good youtube videos that go into greater detail with his views. Do you think by him being direct about these issues help or harm the message he is trying to portray?

Here's an article that was on MSNBC's page: http://www.thegrio.com/opinion/the-state-of-black-america-unemployed.php

Some of the statistics here are pretty bad. "African-Americans are twice as likely as whites to be unemployed, and in some areas of the country, nearly one in four young black men are out of work." The recession has affected some people more than others. What can be done to alleviate this problem?

So, I am a Micheal Jackson fan...and you can think whatever you want about him, but he has made a great impact on our music that we have today.

When I went to buy a cd of his that had recently broken, I didn't realize that one of the songs was going to be censored. The song is titled "They Don't Care About Us" and you can find the lyrics on the site below:
http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/michael-jackson-lyrics/they-don_t-care-about-us-lyrics.html

the two words that they censor are "jew" and "kike".. if you want to listen to the song you can go here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNJL6nfu__Q

 

The point of this song is in the message, and I was really suprised to find that they were covering up these words. I feel like this really connects with our class where we put all of the hateful words on the board. By covering these words up, what kind of message are they trying to promote? He is trying to bring up these issues to the forefront, by blocking them out there is only a greater hate for the words.
What do you think about censorship? Are there times when it is ok to leave things uncensored? Are there times where things NEED to be said? 

http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/57389/bias-incidents-at-u.c.-campuses-raising-alarm-of-bigotry/

I thought this was a fitting article after reading Billig. Do you think the incidents on some of California's campuses could be attributed to pockets of hate or something else (the article mentions media attention and adolescence as a couple)?

This is an article from NBC Sports about comments Torii Hunter made:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/03/torii-hunter-black-dominican-players-are-imposters.html.php

Here's one of the main quotes that Torii Hunter said from the article:

"People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they're African American," Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torii Hunter says. "They're not us. They're impostors.

The racial categorization going on here is pretty clear, especially from the "us" comment. But to call these players "imposters??" Hunter is getting some bad press from these comments, as well. Some of the other comments he made in this article are pretty outrageous too. What are everyone's thoughts on this?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/09/howard-stern-gabourey-sid_n_492102.html

Howard Stern unleashed a vicious attack on Gabourey Sidibe on his Sirius satellite show on Monday.

"There's the most enormous, fat black chick I've ever seen. She is enormous. Everyone's pretending she's a part of show business and she's never going to be in another movie," he said. "She should have gotten the Best Actress award because she's never going to have another shot. What movie is she gonna be in?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/03/AR2010030303895_pf.html

 

Recently, a sorority of white girls won the national step dancing championship. This is significant because this is a type of dance that is primarily dominated by African American culture, so the upset win did just that....upset people. There is some controversy of the white girls impedeing on black culture. The judges actually awarded the 2nd place team the same amount of money as the winning team because of the number of complaints about the results of the competition. What do you think about this? If anyone is eligible to compete in the competition, why is there such an outrage over white women winning it? Do you agree with the actions that have taken place following this, or do you think this could have been handled differently?

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rusty-weiss/2010/02/01/rush-racism-media-stunned-black-woman-could-win-over-limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh surprised the media in voting for a Black women at the Miss America Pageant in which she actually won. He has been labeled as a racist by many sources and people. Rush has a conservative talk show where he expresses his opinion about various issues going on in America and the world. The other judges were Vivica A. Fox and Shawn Johnson. Do you think Rush's vote was sincere or do you think he was singled out by the other judges? Another questioned to keep in mind is if he picked her to convince people that he wasn't a racist.

The case of 17 year old Chelsea King has been making headlines all over the news. A few days ago, Chelsea King, an honors student at a local San Diego high school was reported missing after not returning home from a jog. Her father found her BMW and other belongings at a trail overlooking a lake. Sadly, today they reportedly found her body in a shallow grave. She was sexually assaulted and then murdered. They currently have a registered sex offender named John Gardner in custody for the rape and murder of this teenage girl.

In this article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587622,00.html, they go in to great detail about the massive search conducted to find Chelsea.

"The San Diego County Sheriff's Department, along with the FBI and law enforcement from Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties, launched on all-out search for Chelsea using helicopters, infrared devices and search dogs to scour the park's rugged terain."

I personally have never seen this kind of response for missing person's who are of lower SES status and/minorities. A few months back I read an article in my hometown's newspaper about a 16 year old high school student who went missing in El Paso, Texas. The young lady had texted her mom to pick her up at school but when she got there, her daughter was nowhere to be found. The woman later received a message from her daughter saying that she was in Juarez and needed to be picked up there. Sadly, the young woman has not been seen or heard of since October. There were no massive searches by anybody, no helicopters, no info-red camera's, nothing. These poor parents have been all over Juarez, recently named the most dangerous city in the world, looking in hospitals and shelters in the hopes of finding their daughter.

Why is it that the cases of these rich, white, upper middle class victims make the headlines all over the national news while others do not?

 

 

Here's a link to the article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35677130/ns/us_news-race_and_ethnicity/

I thought I'd post this update since we have been talking about this in class. I think the administration's response to these incidents have been good, but I think they need to do more. If you get a chance, read the Chancellor's statement (I think it is in another blog post). She uses a lot of "we" language. It is creating a common group identity as UC San Diego students.

What else should be done to address these problems? What statements would you issue to the public about these events?

If you look up "Epic Beard Man" and sign into youtube you can watch this video with what they are saying alongside it. This fight seemed to spring from a missunderstanding. The black man was upset and pushed the old guy too far, causing the fight. There are many race-related fights happen in our country, but many probably going underreported. It is interesting to see how the black man carries himself in the beginning, and then how he acts after his pride has been trashed. Do you think this man was just trying to uphold a stereotype based on this fact? Do you think the man was justified for beating him up? What about why the fight started, do you think this was totally just based on racism or was something else involved?