Is it REALLY racist?

Since the beginning of this class, when we first discussed what racism is, one question has stuck in my mind: if there are 3 things that classify racism, if you have or are just 2 of them, is it still racism? I know a lot of people that use stereotypes to identify people, but in no way think that they are better than them. So if you use race to classify someone without knowing anything else, but don't use that classification in a negative way...is it still racist?

Another thing that caught my attention is how normal it is for everyone in this country to assume gender roles, myself included. There are certain things that are just biological, for instance, a woman taking the primary role in raising children. In fact, from a biological stand point, its actually kind of strange for the man to raise the children. Human higher functioning is what allows this sort of behavior to happen. However, the woman doing the majority of the cooking, or the man doing the yard work;these sorts of things are all just socially constructed roles, and I'm not sure why we follow them. I love mowing the lawn, but when I say that, it seems weird because thats a 'mans' job. It just seems strange that even though people claim they don't want to conform, there are still these roles.

Angela

Post 2!

Affirmative action and Anti Racism.

What is it that defines an anti-racist? The concept of anti-racism was one that we thoroughly discussed and one that in my opinion still is somewhat unclear. I had brought up the idea of a passive anti-racist (to oppose passive racism) in order to make a point that those that choose to do nothing are not to be put in the racist realm. After having a bit more time to think about it, I think that those people that do not do their part in whatever situations they can should not be considered to be an active anti racist. However, I still believe that they should not be put into the category of passive/active racism. Instead there should be another category where you can place people that have a firm disbelief in racist attitudes but do not find it within themselves to combat the ideals of racism whether it be societal pressure or difficult situations involving a superior etc. I find the anti-racism involves the ability to combat the ideals of a racist thought. So in class I contradicted myself trying to bring up the idea of a passive anti racist, when by definition there is no such thing. Rather those people to be placed in that category are perhaps undefined and separated (an almost “I don’t care” group that I would personally fall into).

Another idea I wanted to perhaps expand upon was the problem with affirmative action. Though it promotes those that are less fortunate to do well, if we want to live in a society where race isn’t a factor it should eventually be eliminated. Affirmative action in some (not all by any means) situations can be seen as giving minorities a handicap. In this action society is acknowledging that those that don’t receive the help (whites) are more capable in their ability to function without while the minorities that get it in some ways need it. Yes conceptually it is anti racist, the action to aid the less fortunate is fine with me and I am completely for it, but it does not promote a society of equal races. When Affirmative action is not needed is the day we have come one step closer to complete racial equality. When we acknowledge that no one needs extra help because of his or her race and historical factors that are tied, that we have in fact moved on from the historical oppression and have acknowledged a new day of equality.

Omar Mir

Gender and Fear

The role of gender and sex is one that remains undefined within the realm of our social environment. To some it is as simple as mail and female. To other’s it is much more complex. Gender is not necessarily always what we expect it to be. That is to say, the social definition or “norm” does not translate too each and ever individual. This issue is one that was talked about frequently and was referenced in Ma Vie En Rose. At times the roles of gender and sex do not seem clear, not only to the person that is experiencing but society as well. Often times (as illustrated in the movie) the strain of gender roles have the ability to affect the lives of people in a negative fashion. This comes down to a few simple factors. We can look to History to observe this, but the lack of understanding of gender “confusion” leads to fear, I complex most humans are susceptible to.

In Ma Vie En Rose, I found that most of the “issues” were stemmed from the fact of this fear as opposed to a hatred for what the child was going through. The lack of knowledge in the inability to understand what was going on is what was causing the issues not only within the family but the problems in the community as well. This was obviously conservative, traditional community that did not have knowledge of the issues of gender complexities. Due to the lack of understanding there was a subsequent fear. To me, the movie was made in part to show the effect that the fear of not knowing in reference to the issue of gender abnormalities. This is something that we can see in our own society, though maybe not as often or extreme due to the time pasted and the strides made by our community since then. However, I feel that the issue is still there to some extent. The solution to this is quite simple. The education of issues like this should be made mainstream and therefore the understanding can be set, eliminating the fear. We fear what we do not know. Once we are able to understand, the anxiety and controversy of different genders can be eventually put to rest.

Omar Mir

Difference in two genders brain.

I used to think sex and gender are same thing, you are either male or female. In this class I found out that sex and gender are two different things. Sex is determine by physical anatomy and biological differences and gender is determine by the culture and society we live in. This got me thinking and I came across a Los Angles Times article "Brain study focuses on gender identify" by Rosie Mestel. http://articles.latimes.com/2003/oct/20/science/sci-gender20. According to this article Scientist have found genetic difference in the develping of male and female mouse brain which may help them find differences in two adult genders brain.
This article also talks about some know distinction in male and female brain. Women brain tend to be more symmertical than Men brain and based on the distinction researcher generalize that men's are generally superior ar spatial reasoning and women are often superior in verbal skills.
After reading this article I am wondering if scientist can explain... why Ludovic the main character from the movie Ma Vie En Rosei thought he was a girl? Can we identify gender by looking at the brain? Does society and culture have a effect on the brains anatomical development ?

Racism: For Whites Only?

After reading Tatum's article "Racism: For Whites Only?" I was extremely disturbed after reading Phyllis Wentworth's case study regarding the concept white privilege. Wentworth interviewed a group of female women that came from "working class backgrounds, from families where women were expected to graduate from high school and get married or get a job" and about "the pathways that led them to college" (129). These same women graduated from college and made a life for themselves all which normally comes from what people think of as a reward to hard work throughout one's previous years. Instead, the author tried to define their good luck experiences of " [obtaining] apartments without a deposit, good jobs [being] offered without experience or extensive reference checks, and encouragement provided by willing mentors" from only occurring due to the fact all women were white (129). The author tried to label all above actions as white privilege and "that being white worked in their favor and helped give them the benefit of the doubt at critical junctures" (129). At what point can we draw the line and just label the above actions as the American Dream coming true for such individuals? Just because all individuals were white doesn't mean that these possibilities occurred because the parties were white. The author tries to hint that the American Dream is only possible for whites, which if were true then why would anyone from outside the United States move to this country to attempt to achieve this dream? I believe that racism still goes on today regardless if anyone wants to acknowledge it or not, but I am tired of the author labeling all good occurrences as ones that only happen for white people, that people of color will never have these same opportunities.
I would agree to an extent that white privilege does still exist. In so many instances there are still cases where it seems like there will never be complete equality, but does it sometimes get taken too far. This weekend I was at Burger King near Sunset Bay Beach. There were two Caucasian females that came in to the restaurant wearing only bikini's. The manager of the restaurant came out and refused service to either female until they put on the required dress: shirts. A few minutes later two African-American females came into the restaurant also wearing just bikinis. The girl working the register looked at her manager who gave a slight head shake and told the worker not to say anything because it will come off as racist. Rules are rules and if there is a no shirt no service rule in effect it should be across the board. If it is ok to mandate the Caucasian females to put on shirts on in the restaurant, then the same must be said of the African-American females. In situations like this, being white actually works in the disfavor for the two Caucasian females. The author clearly makes the point white privilege is still prevalent, but what about the idea that being white can be a disadvantage at times as well?

Racism

On Wednesday night we spent time discussing about prejudice and racism. I agree with Tatum that everyone is prejudice because we all grow up with those words from parents and everyone around. When we were young, our parents always said don’t go out or talk with strangers especially those with suspicious looks. What did they mean by suspicious look? The one with furious face, or torn clothes? What is it to say that they are bad people? In my opinion, there are good side and bad side for this. Without prejudice we might walk straight into the alley where this bad guy is waiting to rob someone, but because of prejudice we know that we should not. Also because of prejudice we might not be able to get to know someone special that we thought he/she is a bad person because of his or her appearance.

From the prejudice, it can create racist which has become a worse issue. Why would one says don’t live in neighborhood that there are people of color are majority of the area? Who is it to say those are a bad neighborhood? From my perspective, I think because people of color have more reputation on committing crime, selling drugs, and other bad things. This doesn’t mean they are all bad. In Bonialla Silva passage, the interview from Jay, student at WU, he said due to the lack of education, they grew up in the household that they cannot afford them to go to school. For example, 50 cent started to do and sell drugs since he was twelve years old, “I didn’t want to ask her for a pair of Air Jordans when I knew she couldn’t afford them, so I began working to get my stuff and not stress her out”. Because of poverty, people of color tend to do the wrong things in which can make other people look down on them as a whole. I think they should get a chance to get the same education as others, and also they should choose to do the right thing.

http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/A-Ca/50-Cent.html

Gender and Sexuality

I believe that gender and sexuality are shaped by society, religion, environment, etc. As Judith Lorber passage suggested that gender is social constructed since we were born. And as time goes our society starts to change little by little which slowly changes the way of our thinking too such as now men can do women job and vise versa. It becomes more acceptable. There still is some thinking that always going to be there like dressing the babies with certain items to identify their gender. Is it important to label children that way? My answer would be no but it is just the way it supposed to be because I’ve seen, learned, and experienced things this way as I grow up.

Religion also plays the main role for sexuality. Hubbard stated that “To fulfill the Christian mandate, sexuality must be intended for procreation, and thus all forms of sexual expression and enjoyment other than heterosexuality are invalidated”. From one of south park episode where one of the children were misunderstood by his parents that he was bicurious, the parent were so furious with him and told him that he would go to hell. While where I came from, Thailand, the society is totally different than here. We are more open in exploring our sexuality as Sutirat said in the article “because Thai society and culture tend to be very sweet, very soft, and the men can be really feminine, if we tend to be gay, many of us tend to be transgender”. I think to give more freedom of thinking and exploring our sexuality is very important to identify ourselves. Sexuality should not make a different if you are gay, lesbian, or bisexual, we consider one person based the inside not the outside, “Don’t judge the book by its cover”.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7529227.stm

Social construction of gender

I recently came across a picture of a transgender who was once a girl but changed her sex to male through surgical procedures. His name was once Yvonne Buschbaum when he was a girl, he changed his name to Balian Buschbaum to start living as a man. When I saw his picture I was totally surprised of his perfect man feature. If the articles did not state that he was a transgender, I would think that he was one of the charming men out there. However, when I looked at the picture before he changed his sex, he didn’t have much of feminine physical appearances. He had a muscular body with broad shoulders(http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcHXhLXY7jZLMhjM6Kq-Ysc93zMV8U45dSG0FGlDwMZkntd4HlI_hccSyoSIGD7yx5-dgeiavjPO6GI4Or8qBcOVBtciIIx4BDccZLyB2k33c0g1oS68708Ot2dRFqv86lTL7CmuEjH2ab/s320/hotslutbailban.jpg&imgrefurl=http://thisiswhyimlonely.blogspot.com/2010/03/meet-balian-buschbaum.html&usg=__yfXCD7gl-RqRYYq2wV5fG-nMpBg=&h=320&w=250&sz=13&hl=en&start=59&sig2=9AUYapd0MwhRRz6l3luECQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=_wX03ZCo_rJkwM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=92&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBalian%2BBuschbaum%26start%3D40%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=rdUBTIffOIH_8Ab-mc2WDQ). After reading the Lorber’s essay, I realized that I was socially contructed of gender because I thought that he had more of masculiny even when he was a woman according to what I saw of his physical appearances . He excerpted in his essay that gender, like culture, is a human production that depends on everyone constantly “doing gender”. I, myself, do not agree with a clear distinction between men and women and how they should behave like according to their gender. Even the words masculinity and feminity are socially constructed. I believe in equality of men and women, therefore, woman doesn’t have to look all feminine and does the houseworks all by herself. I actually spent my childhood with my brother and boy cousins, I hated the gap between a boy and a girl, therefore, I tried to mingle in by looking strong to play sports with them. But after a few years, I decided to just do “girl things” and accepted gender difference. Lorber once stated that “Individuals are born sexed but not gendered, and they have to be taught to be masculine or feminine”. I spent most of my childhood with boys, however, I decided to do “girl things”. How did I know what “girl things” are when I expierienced more of “boys things” than “girl things”?
The movie Ma Vie En Rose depicts the social construction of gender very well. Ludovic is the youngest child of the family in the movie but he is considered to be “bent” because he likes girly clothings and a boy named Jerome. He often meets Pam in his dreams , a beautiful, feminine figure that reflects what society wants a girl to be like and wishes to be like her. One day, he is told to bring his favorite toys to school, unlike other boys, he brings Pam and Ben to school. As he starts to like Jerome, a boyfriend, and begins to realize his identity and says “I am going to get married to him when I am not a man” and thinks that God gave him y chromosome instead of an x chromosome which has fallen into the trash. He is considered “bent” in the movie because society calls him “bent”. People refuse to accept the way he is and don’t let him be what he is. As a result his parents get in trouble with raising a “bent” boy and decide to send him to the psychologist. However, after a few sessions of therapy, the psychologist realizes his biological identity of gender and tells his mother to accept the way he is. In the end of the movie, his family moves to a different neighborhood and accepts the difference. However, the society expells him out of school and community. People are stereotyped because of what they learn at birth. However, there are exceptions that can not be explained but because of what they learned at birth, they do not accept but attack to correct the "wrong".

Racism

In my personal experience as a middle class white american i do feel that it is very easy to forget about racism and simply think of it as a thing of the past, of our parents and grandparents generations. But as Tatum wrote about in "Defining Racisim" , racism is still very much prominat in our society. popular culture still uses degrading sterotypical images in TV and such, and as we watch these growing up we learn these images and views subconsciouly. we also gain these views from our parents and our grandparents generations, as they grew up in more raciest times. and if we simply do not think about it we also go along in life projecting these views. the first thing to do to stop racism is simply to know what it is, and once you realize it you can stop yourself from thing or projecting racest thoughts. even if someone does not actively fight againt racism, just having them realize that racism is wrong is a big step.

Can people of color be racist?

When we were discussing racism in class a question came up " Can people of color be racist". Usually when we talk about racism we only think about white being racist towards people of color, we never think about people of color being racist towards other people of color or people of color being racist towards white.
In the Tatum article author said that people of color can not be racist. But if we believe that one group having advantage over another graoup is racism then people of color can be racist. I know a person who worked at a small business which was own by a minority, had to quit his job because owner supported employes who were from his own group and he was racist towards him. And we also heard from one of our classmate that he experienced racism from other minority group. So i think just because you are a minority group it doesnt mean your action or belief can be any less racist than those of the majority group.

Invention of Heterosexuality/Ma Vie en Rose

I really like how Katz separates the developing periods of heterosexuality. I would have liked to read more about how during the Greek era homosexuality was widely accepted and commonly practiced, but this article was about heterosexuality, so I do understand why it was not included. Growing up in this age it's so interesting to look back into the past and see how differently things are these days. Just look at how people act with their sexuality everything is in the open and exposed. Imagine if we had to live in the Early Victorian True Love Period, I think it can be compared to a the time before cell phones, we would be completely lost. Although maybe life would be easier. But then I think it would be interesting to live in the Late Victorian Sex Love era too.

Ma Vie en Rose was such a thought provoking movie. I have no idea how Ludo must have felt going through all that family drama. Another good movie for this class could be All About My Mother. We watched it in my film history class. It's about Transgenders and Transsexuals and has a convoluted telenovela plot line. Very interesting movie. It deals a lot with the issues of I guess you can call it sexism or transsexualism in Spain. I highly recommend it.

Modern Sexuality

As we discussed in class, sex and gender are different even they used to refer the same thing in real life. As far as I know, we can classify sex in two ways. Sex is referred as 'male' and 'female' biologically. But gender is more like be the sexual orientation. We can classify it in many ways. It basically dependents on the attraction of people. People may attract to the same or opposite sex. Or they might feel like they would be more comfortable if they would born with another sex. But unlike what they think, society and culture might force them to be like themselves. Just like racism, people feel afraid for the things they don't fully understand. I think if the majority of the population was gay or transsexual, being straight would be caused the same problems that it caused for gay or transsexual people in the past. But I believe people are breaking those barriers now days. As it mentioned in the earlier posts, education will fix these judgments in society.

In class we also watched the movie 'Ma vie en rose' or ' My life is pink'. The movie was based on the difficulties that little Ludovic faced when he was trying to identify his gender. He sees himself a girl-boy and movie shows his attempts to become a boy due to pressure from his parents, neighbors and classmates. His parents forced to move away from the neighborhood and Ludovic expelled from school. His mother was so supportive at the begging and his father was mad. Somehow it change with time and his mother was blaming him for everything when his dad was trying to understand him. At the end, his parents were completely supporting him when they meet Christine's (a girl having same conflicts as Ludovic only the opposite) mother.

Ludovic is so young to predict his sexual orientation. He might be transsexual but he might be taking his mom or favorite TV show character Pam as a role model and that might cause he is more feminine boy. But I guess the main point in the movie was to show the difficulties that Ludovic is facing to find his true identity and how society reacts when they face with different and new things for them. The best thing will to understand and respect how people want to live and what they want to do.

Kivanc Yoruk

"If you are not white, you're black"

As I began to read the first paragraph of Sethi's essay, the conversation between Sethi and the Steve Riley really caught my eyes. They were having a conversation on how you are black if you are not white. I was actually shocked because referring to their conversation, there are so many more blacks compared to the number of whites in this country. America is a country of immigrants, most of their ancestors came from different countries to begin with. However, white-skinned immigrants were said to be superior than others because they are white and all others were considered black and they experienced racism throughout their life in America. As time has passed, racism has become less visible but it obviously exists. I have been wondering why a small number of whites always had superiority over all other so called black group(which is a majority group if you look at it by numbers). Black group outnumbers white group but there has been racism persisted throughout the time.
According to Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, racism is a matter of group power; dominant racial group is striving to maintain its systemic advantage and minorities are fighting to subvert the racial status quo. Just like most of the countries are dominated by a few superior groups, this country has a dominant group consisted mostly of whites to maintain the order of the country to prevent chaos. Even though the racism is minimized and racist activities are less seen in public, the very first Black president of this country receives the most racist attacks via cartoons and other means of actions (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/18/new-york-post-chimp-carto_n_167841.html). I truly think that people from the minority groups definitely have as much ability to thrive this country and I feel regrets that they do not get much chance and always have hidden obstacles to be take roles of a dominant group.

Passive Racism v Passive Anti-Racism

We had discussed in class, the differences in "Active Racism" and "Passive Racism" and how a person would fall in one category in contemporary society. It was mentioned that if a person does not actively work to "fight" racism then he/she is not part of the solution but part of the problem. I respectfully would disagree to that idea. There are some who are actually against racism but wish to do their part passively or not as direct. Such examples would be not participating in racist like behavior or discussions. If this is at least done then its shows some attitude of anti-racism.

One way to look at it is when given the opportunity to help someone or a group of people of a different race against racism, one might be willing to help in a matter that's reasonable and they are capable of doing. For example. I would not mind signing a petition, donating money or spread awareness of help to fight against racism for a particular ethnic group. That would be my part of actively or passively being anti-racist. However, if something were to be asked of me where I lose something or an opportunity of great value, such as the hypothetical apartment situation mentioned in class, then I probably would not participate at the current time as actively. Regardless of my capability or decision as to how much I should participate against racism, should be met with respect and understanding. Like most people, I would take great offense to be labeled as racist for only passively participating against anti-racism. I believe, people are willing to help one another as long as we do not see danger or a lost on our part.

Beverly Daniel Tatum on Racism

Rise to Mutiple Culture "Privileges"

After reading Buck's "Constructing Race, Creating White Privilege," I tried to compare society's set of the "white privilege system" in the time after Bacon's Rebellion to today's possible "white privileged. " From my understanding, people of the 1700s developed a "white privilege system" mainly to distinct themselves as a race of white purity and also as a social class that can be found anywhere above the last social rank, which was placed as enslaved Blacks. Holding the power of authority and ownerships of material objects, like land, gave lower class whites the feeling that despite their economical hardships, they can't go lower that slaves. This idea was especially applied to lower ranked farmers.


Obviously, our society today has come along way and is governed differently. We are now more liberal and supportive of the idea of creating, as close to possible, equal opportunities. Even today, it is generally assumed that white people still hold white privileges on political, economic and financial aspects of society. However, from my perspective there is growing opportunity and "privileges" for any American of any ethnicity. If there is "white privileges" for whites then I would think those privileges are not based as much on race as they use to but rather on their social class and financial status. Are far as who can be placed in the upper class, middle class or lower classes of our society, anyone and of any race can take position in any of the social and financial classes. Comparing the make up of our lower class and our upper class, shows that there is a general mix of people of different races in both class rankings in society. This was made possible to the growing of a diverse cultured America and the spread of opportunities. These opportunities became the privileges of all races. As mentioned before in class, ethnic groups are defined by the grouping of people with common traits and have a sense of being territorial. With everyone offered some opportunities today, people distribute and set privileges for themselves and people of similar ethic backgrounds. This shows that there is privileges of some sort despite a person may not be white or be considered upper class.

- Gabriel Muñoz

Racism in religion

Once i was reading article about Racism and Religion then i wondered if religion also causes racism or if people are just racist about religions . The world we live in has all kinds of religions . There are approximately over 750 million religions exist in the world.The question that we should ask ourselves is that " Does religion really cause racism or is it that are racist people are religious? ".In my opinion it is that religious people more likely to be racist than average people. . That applies mostly in the USA and probably applies to Europe but not necessarily the rest of the world.Or should we ask that we could make someone racist simply by reminding them about religion ?

I think that racism could be triggered by religious thoughts. In fact we could see that in daily life , when people talk about two different religion it almost seems that there has to be racism in the conversation.Religion could be one of the reasons of racism because a religion does accommodate make some but not all people regard other people's beliefs and religions just because their religion does not accommodate for them and their beliefs in their life which they are free to choose.

Racism in Human Lives

Once my father said "The world is not running by the laws written on paper, it runs by people". I was not able to understand what he meant by that. Did he mean that individuals are greater than laws of the society? Applying his quote to racism makes a lot more sense. Governments may establish tons of laws and spend millions to prevent racism. But as long as we cannot change what people have in their minds, all the efforts would be for nothing. How do we change people's opinions? The role of education is vast to prevent racism. We need to show people that there is nothing to fear to live with different colors, cultures and opinions. People may have caused racism by world wars. But that doesn't mean that we have to do the same mistake that they did in the history. Because racism is against both religion and science. In both point of views, we all came from the same place.

There was a time when all of our names were "baby". Then some of us named after Jesus, some of us Muhhammed, some of us Moses. We were all at the beginning of our lives. Some of us were white, some of us were black, and some of us were yellow. They feed us all the same way. We were so happy. Then we grew up, we became short, tall or blonde. They did not call us "baby" anymore. They tried to manipulate our thoughts. They told us to give a birth or go to war. People murdered us if we weren't looking a like. Like the color is more important than lives of human being. They said we are all equal, but they did not treat us like we were. Do not get confused, this planet is strange and not fair. But we as "babies" smiled all the time. Because we knew that when the time comes, they all going to call us just "HUMAN".

Kivanc Yoruk

Racism in Disney

While looking around for articles on racism I came across this article which discussed racism in children movies, where citing such concrete examples which I felt was right.

But a good question arises from this issue is that has the people have confused stereotypes and racism. I believe mostly nowdays there is a set stereotype for people from different nations, in America; being such a great diverse nation.

Like for example in the Lion King, "the hyenas speak in a kind of clear steer, inner african dialect. they are considered the bad guys."

Was this necessary to have them speak in that kind of a dialect.

Being an international student, during my freshmen years so many "americans" have told me that you dont seem like your from india, just because I spoke good english. I mean people dont even know that English is actually the first language in India. So this hints that firstly people should be more aware of the world news.

Again going back to the article by Sethi, saying that stereotypes, "people dont make them but dont want to show it." and even racism for fun, which is good to some extent but then its way you make a joke about it.

I would say to some extent even I make racist jokes but I would'nt consider myself racist due to the fact that I dont make people embarrassed or tease them from where their roots belong.

So, people should be made aware of their own culture, then they would support or take note of it.

http://www.nhaeyc.org/newsletters/articles/Racism_in_Childrens_Movies.pdf

Racism and Prejudice

As we were discussing about prejudice and race in class , i could not help but think about the difference between racism and prejudice. Prejudice , in some ways, may have nothing to do with race . Prejudice comes from "prejudge", usually , unfairly but not always which is making comments, having different ideas about someone's race, ethnicity, religion, behavior or anything that people could think of without even knowing them. Racism is to judge or usually prejudge someone about their race . I think the prejudice is that when you think of someone , not a specific race but when you think of racism people usually think that racism is to have opinions about a specific race rather than a person.

I think racism mentions about different people from different places but Prejudice does not. For instance, Everyone could be "prejudged" against a certain kind of food. On the other hand Racism includes skin color, customs, location and all kinds of people. . We still could think that they are similar to each other but Prejudice covers Racism in a larger view.Including the race you could find economic class, sexual orientation , age and religion, gender or sex.Prejudice could be used to illustrate beliefs about other things as well.Lots of people may feel that they are not prejudice or they think that they do not have anything to judge but We, as human beings all have prejudices against whatever. Even in daily life we all prejudice something even though we do not even notice.

Ibrahim

Post 1 ! !

Tatum Racism

While reading Tatum's article about racism I did not understand how colored people cannot be racist. I don't know if my definition of racism is too similar to that of prejudice, having negative views of someone or pre-judging them. In my mind there is only prejudice and separating it into different types, sexist racist etc only further separates us. There is even speciesism which is discrimination against animals, now that's going a little too far I think. I was on a Mohawk reservation upstate with my church one summer and we were helping people paint their houses. While we were on the front lawn some Native Americans drove by and yelled out "Crackers!" To me it had no effect because when I grew up there were only white people in my neighborhood and I had never heard the term used against me.

But I know the N word has much more of an impact on black people. A month or so ago my friend was playing her music a little too loud so the girl upstairs started stomping on the floor, my friend went upstairs to ask why she was doing that and the girl proceeded to call her the N word three times. My friend was so offended that she called the police and wanted to have her arrested. I believe the girl was referred to SWJ. I have never grown up with people judging me and consider myself ignorant, though I'm not sure that is the right word because I have many many friends of different races I date different races, of racism. I know racism still exists but it is a far away concept for me

Race at the Movies

When we were talking about racism in class I remember the point that racism "is still there, but more hidden" sticking out to me the most. The next day I came across an article talking about the "whitewashing" of the movie industry. In this case the whitewashing is the selection of white actors to fill the main hero roles instead of the people of color the source material requires. This week the movie Prince of Persia came out starring not a Persian, nor even close to a Persian, actor Jake Gyllenhaal. And in the coming weeks the movie Avatar: The Last Airbender based on a kids TV show that stars characters of many races and cultures will be released staring 3 white actors and 1 minority actor. This is definitely not the first time something like this has happened in Hollywood. I remember when the movie 21 came out and there were several people who felt it was wrong to turn a true story base book focused on Asian-Americans to a movie full of a white cast. Why does Hollywood need to bend the source material of these intellectual properties when making a movie? Does a movie need to star a white cast for these films to be successful?

Personally I think it's wrong and shouldn't still be happening. I don't think it would be hard to get the right actors of the right race and ethnicity to fill these casting rolls. And I also don't think that I need to see a cast of white heroes every time I go see a movie. In fact I feel that Hollywood is telling me I can't enjoy the movie unless I see a white person on the big screen. If a film was more culturally diverse wouldn't you be reaching out to more of the worldwide audience? For fans of the source material, the ones who would most likely go see the movie in the first place, this is hurting them the most. In the article a mother of a young Asian-American boy says that the movie studios "seem to have no clue that there's this huge fan base of young Asian-Americans who were delighted to see themselves" on screen," and also that "It could have really been groundbreaking. That's what is so sad about this." I feel that there really is a lack of minorities given big roles in movies, and now when there was a chance the studios take away all the interest of these families. Hollywood has a history of stereotyping races and pushing minorities to the secondary roles and when big money is on the line I don't see this trend of hidden racism stopping.

(http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/critics-airbender-prince-were-whitewashed-ap)

-Zachary Lewkowicz
-post 2 Apr26-

Homosexuality entry

It is clear by now we are all aware that homosexuality exists. It is now left to our society to figure out what direction will best push our society in the most positive manner. But for a minute I would like to present to you the stance other countries take on homosexuality. In Zimbabwe a gay couple was arrested for having pornographic material recently and within the last couple of weeks they have been released on bail. In Zimbabwe homosexuality is actually illegal. I bring this to your attention to only provide ourselves with a window of what if. Now in any controversy there are 2 sides that will oppose each other. This recent and very real example occurred in our time, this incident proves that homosexuality is not a problem but just another piece in the mosaic of humanity.
This article scared me that a person could be jailed for their feelings. I mention this article as a way to reflect by staring into the abyss. Let us imagine that somehow America developed a law that jailed you for your feelings toward other people in your society. I believe that American society and culture sets a global standard for personal freedoms. Lorber states “human society depends on a predictable division of labor, a designated allocation of scarce goods, assigned responsibility for children and others who cannot care for themselves, common values and their systematic transmission to new members, legitimate leadership…”(P55). Now because America is a nation that others look to think of the best, it is up to America to make great strides to integrate homosexuals into the fabric of society. As in the quote a division of labor is needed in human society. In any place around the world there is a work force, and within that workforce exist human interactions. Lorber also states that “humans develop gendered personality structures and sexual orientations through their interactions with parent of the same and opposite gender”(P57). So because within a labor force there are social interactions therefore each individuals sexual orientation can change by simply working and begin apart of society.
Now imagine a worker that slowly came to the realization that this worker is a homosexual. If this worker is part of a society that exiles or jails homosexuals, he/she will repress these thoughts and emotions but at the same time this individual will lose his/her place in society due to the fact his/her sexual orientation is not compatible with a society that exiles homosexuals. Let us now focus in on our society; part of lorbers definition of a society is to care for others who cannot care for themselves. How can a homosexual couple in our society be denied rights to see each other in a hospital, or how can we deny a person from serving their country just because of their sexual orientation? Our current society fails the requirement to care for others who cannot care for themselves. Our society and our law must be able to encompass every American no matter what their sexual orientation. It is our duty to ensure that because it is Americas founding that every person enjoy their freedoms. Love is an essential part to being human and therefore to repress someone’s love is a violation of someone’s personal freedom. The American society must not stand for such oppression.

-Douglas Domingo

This is the article is was talking about.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/10178826.stm

Racist illusions

Recently I watched this video called “Nina Jablonski breaks the illusion of skin color”. In this video Nina Jablonski explains that human skin tone is the product of evolution. She explains that our bodies over the years have adapted darker skin to use a natural sun block. She then illustrates the various ways people have moved both voluntary and involuntary. So to look at someone and cast judgment about them based on how they look is inaccurate. It is through human histories interaction that molded society prejudice of a race due to past historical events like the slave trade and various Diasporas that have occurred throughout history. Since racial prejudice was formed by these past social interactions couldn’t our actions in the present slowly erode the differences we have built from the past?

In Tatums definition of racism, a system of advantages based on race, made me wonder what advantages are truly gained. Racism and prejudice thoughts just give me more opportunities to surprise and defy your expectations of me. Nina Jablonski’s talk reminded me that we originate from the same pool of genetics. Therefore we are all related genetically to a degree. If you embrace prejudice or racist thoughts you forget that other people are resilient, resourceful, and are genetically similar to you. So assume nothing of your fellow humans, except that they are just like you, so treat them as you would treat yourself.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/nina_jablonski_breaks_the_illusion_of_skin_color.html#

This is the video I was talking about.
-Douglas Domingo

Population and Gender Issues

I recently read an article on the BBC News website about the effect of gender on China's population. The article claims that for every 100 girls born in China, 119 boys are born. Now why is there such a wide gap? Chinese families typically have a bias towards having male children. The Chinese government urged families to have sons instead of daughters causing a large population imbalance. Due to societies set gender roles it was thought a male child would be more likely to succeed in life. The cultural norm in Chinese society is that male children are of more value than female children. This idea has caused Sex-selective abortions to rise since the mid 80’s. I have read plenty in the past history classes about families preferring to have male children, but I find it really disturbing that families will go as far as aborting the pregnancy once they know it is a female fetus. Even more disturbing is that there is a selective female infanticide after the babies are born. The end result of all this population skewing will cause China many problems into the future.

The consequences of this skewing are that tens of millions of the new male population will have no females to marry to. Researchers from the British Medical Journal found that the Chinese government is openly concerned “about the consequences of large numbers of excess men for social stability and security.” How will these men feel like when they grow up and are part of the excess population? They might react badly to the situation and feel that they are of no worth to the society, or have no legacy to give to their child. In this case the gender stratification of Chinese society has caused an unknown future for the country. It is too late to prevent the situation because the population differences started growing 20 years ago. I imagine the only way to fix this situation would be either lots of female immigration or lots of males being forced to leave the country. The Chinese government must also denounce the use of sex-selective abortions so that the population may balance out further in the future.

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8451289.stm)

(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/world/asia/11china.html)

-Zachary Lewkowicz

-post 1 Apr24-

International Views on Gender and Sexuality

in class this week we talked alot about American views on gender and sexuality, but America is one of the more open countries in that regard and i think that alot of people may forget that most other countries are not as open. i found an article here that has to do with a gay couple from the African country of Malawi who were pardoned from a 14 year jail sentence. i really learned alot from this article about African views on homosexuality, with the fact that over 30 African countries outlaw homosexuality. the government's choice to not charge the couple will hopefully allow the country to have a more open mind in the views of homosexuality.
i also really enjoyed the fact that we watched an international movie as well. although Belgium is much more similar to America and we can see many more similarities in their views.

The Modern View of Sexuality

Ruth Hubbard discusses her opinion on modern sexuality. She feels that "a more open and accepting approach to sexuality would make life easier for children and adolescents." She feels we should encourage our children to express themselves sexually. She thinks that this will allow people to explore their sexual possibilities and understand how they feel about their sexuality. While I agree that this could make everything seem less stressful for adolescents I feel there are problems with this method. As Leah has stated, I agree that this could be similar to the use of alcohol as in other countries. They do not make as big a deal out of alcohol and therefore adolescents become used to alcohol and do not make it such a big deal.

I feel that more information should definitely be given to adolescents about sexuality. Although, I feel that encouraging exploration early is not the correct way to go about this. Hubbard herself states that "teen pregnancies and abortions are on the rise and teenage fathers do not acknowledge and support their partners and babies." I think encouraging more exploration would only add to this problem. And she also states that teenagers do not act responsibly and do not always use contraception. So how would encouraging more exploration solve that? I do agree that being more open about sexuality and providing clearer information earlier in people's lives would be advantageous for everyone.

The Social Construction of Gender

Last Tuesday evening we discussed the topic of gender in class. This altered my perception of this topic. I had never really put too much thought into the difference between sex and gender and their real definitions. To me, sex and gender were always two interchangeable words that, in my mind, relied solely upon genitalia. Then our discussion made me realize how gender is far from the same as sex.

I agree with Judith Lorber in that gender is socially constructed. From the minute we are born we are labeled by what sex we are...baby boys wear blue and baby girls wear pink. We are shaped by our social practices into what we are supposed be. I think this is what Lorber means by "doing gender," the way in which we expect and encourage people to act based upon their sex.

The film we watched, Ma Vie En Rose, showed an excellent example of "doing gender" which was completely different from what the individual, Ludovic, really felt or wanted. This was shown at many points, even the first time we see Ludovic. Ludovic comes downstairs to the party in a dress and with makeup on and his father tells everyone "It's his favorite joke." His father is upset with Ludovic for doing this because he feels that that is not the way a little boy should act. Another example from the film is when the father tries to spend more time with Ludovic and makes him play soccer. Ludovic obviously does not care to be playing the sport but his father does not notice because he feels that is what Ludovic should enjoy.

South Park Racism

We discussed in class the theory of the "moving walkway" of racism that unless we constantly put our effort into ending racism, it'll keep going on. Maybe this is a bit of a stretch, but throughout the discussion, something entered my mind. It's a guilty pleasure of mine, but I absolutely love the TV show South Park. It's notorious for being way over the top, ridiculous, and horrible in many ways. Pretty much every episode take stabs at Jews, women, homosexuals, racial minorities, and basically everyone. But it got me thinking; while South Park makes jokes about different races, they also take stabs at white people as well. I hear a lot of people say "no one is 'safe' from South Park". Everyone gets attacked in some way, and most of it just has to do with what current events are going on at the time.

So I wonder, is South Park maybe a step in the right direction against racism? If you ask me, I think South Park is actually making a mockery of racism by making the most absurd situations one can think of. One of the African American characters on the show's name is "Token Black" for crying out loud. It's like they are trying to be so racist against everyone that it almost cancels itself out and becomes nonracist. Everyone is stabbed at equally in that show. It's not the most ideal way to end to racism, but is it effective?

Naturally, the show has gotten a lot of controversy over the years, but I for one see past the jokes and see that South Park is actually a very clever and intelligent program if you really truly pay attention. I do realize that many of the jokes do possibly get taken too far, and some people may find the show offensive, and that's fine. But I for one actually see a little bit of anti-racism with all of the racism in the show, if that makes any sense at all. To use a specific example, I did some research. In one of the very controversial episodes I remembering watching, they use the N-word 43 times uncensored, and the episode basically focuses on the word and it's reaction. While it sounds terrible, the episode actually received some praise. In the last two paragraphs under the section titled "Delicate Balance" in this article: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2008/01/29/no_offense_but_/?page=2, the author is praising how the episode captured how Americans viewed race.

I also found an online transcript from a CNN news show where they discussed the episode in great length (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0703/08/pzn.01.html). They comment on the ironic role reversal, that the character whom accidentally used the N-word on national TV is now the subject of hate for simply using the word, and even gets denied from buying something at a store because of it. It's both ironic, clever, and a little hilarious if you ask me.

I'm not saying anyone has to agree with me about South Park, but in my opinion, I think that it may actually be very important to end the racial divides in our society, albeit maybe not the most ideal way. I challenge everyone else to maybe consider this. It sounds really ridiculous, I know, but I think it's interesting. Could a show that is so racist toward everyone be anti-racist, in that it, in a way, treats everyone equally by attacking them all and favoring no one?

--Cameron

Racism

Racism has been "invented" by different groups of race and has been part of our society all along. The idea from the class discussion about how 'racism cannot fully be stopped, unless the people are running against it' caught my attention. The idea does make sense and most people seemed to agree with it, but what exactly is running against racism?

As I was thinking about what actions would be considered as running against racism, Russell Peter came in my mind during class discussion, he is a Indian stand-up comedian. His stories and jokes mostly consists of different races and their stereotypes including his own race. (For example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frW0KTxrkGg.) I couldn't make up my mind on if he would be considered as running with the racist crowd or running against it. In ways, he is trying to show that all stereotypes in different races are not necessarily true and help the audience to understand where they come from. But the other way around, he is still telling racist stories and jokes. The whole idea of running against racism seems to be based on peoples opinion.

As discussed in class, things such as Affirmative actions could be the anti-racist actions. However I see that as only one small branch of racism that makes an effort to give all equal opportunity. Because racism is such a broad concept, I feel that unless one live as the other race, experience it and understand it, the barrier between these races will not be broken.

Hoon

Racism Blog Post

“Unless they are walking actively in the opposite direction at a speed faster than the conveyor belt – unless they are actively antiracist – they will find themselves carried along with others.” I thought this was a really interesting point that really rang true to me. Every now and then I admit I can make a racist statement, I think everyone does this, some just don’t want to admit to it. I have a friend like this, he constantly claims that he is not racist even though I have heard him make racist statements in the past, in fact he as claimed to me that he is antiracist. He does nothing to stop racism other than saying that he is antiracist and that racism is wrong. My friend thinking that he is an antiracist is really just a passive racist getting carried along with the rest of us until he makes an active decision to stop being racist and to start running in the other direction.
There is a song from the musical Avenue Q called Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist it about how everyone makes judgments based on race, while they might not be the biggest decisions they are little decisions, like telling black jokes or Polack jokes, or how a non-monster can’t go to a monster school. I find this song to ring very true, I will be the first person to admit that I judge people the moment I see them, I take in what they wear, what they look like, and what skin color they are, this may come from growing up around Detroit and my parents told me that whenever I go downtown don’t look people in the eye, and the majority of the people that I saw on the streets were all of the same race, they looked the same, they all dressed the same, which probably shaped my opinion of what I would think whenever I ran into someone that looked like the people I saw on the streets of Detroit. I think that everyone does this, most people won’t admit that they do, but everyone judges people based on what they look like. Everyone has made some form of a racist statement at sometime in their life, weather it be a judgment at a glance or a joke about a particular group of people.


-Emily Suchyta

Gender and Sexuality

“People fall in love with individuals, not with a sex.” This quote from the reading hit me as one of the most interesting quotes from this set of readings. When I first read it I thought about all the conversations I had had with my best friends that always ended up somehow saying “if you were a guy we would be the perfect the couple.” We have known each other since kindergarten, we know just about everything about each other, we are basically the same person, we get along better than any other set of best friends then I know. So if this quote were true, if we did fall in love with a person and not with their sex, me and my best friend would be dating, but we are not, because we don’t fall in love with a person regardless of their sex, sex is one of the first things that attracts you to someone, you look at them and say “you’re a boy, I like boys, you might just be attractive.”
I think it would be interesting to live in a place where this was true, where you did fall in love with someone purely based on their personality and how well you got along with them, and it had nothing to do with a persons sex. I wonder if this would lead to more same sex partnerships or if there would still be the traditional idea of opposite sex partners. I feel like traditionally we identify more with our own sex so I wonder if that would play a role in who would fall in love with. I also wonder if one gender would be more open to idea of falling in love with a person and not with someone’s sex.


-Emily Suchyta

Sexuality and DADT

Now firstly, I really loved Kimmel's article. I felt that it really brought up good points about the current issues of homophobia and why it seems to be so prevalent, especially among other men. Kimmel states that "Gay men have historically played the role of the consummate sissy in the American popular mind because homosexuality is seen as an inversion of normal gender development" (89). (Also, it's page 89 in the older edition, so it's probably different for everyone else). In my Dynamics of Leadership class I took in the Fall, I brought up something similar to the class, because some of the students came up with this "Man Card" system, and every time you did something "gay" or "unmanly", you would lose a card. Basically, anything a straight guy wouldn't "normally" do. You have 5 "cards" a week, and they would replenish every Sunday. Since I identify as gay, I was actually really offended by that. I had brought up "Whose standards of 'normal' are you using?" There is no definition for "normal" other than what is socially accepted as the norm, but to me, everyone has different criteria for what is normal. And it really upset me, too, that these students had been going along exactly what Kimmel had said, that homosexuals are treated as unmanly.

Another thing I wanted to bring up is about the recent talk about repealing (finally) DADT, or "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". For those who don't know, it's the policy in the military service that you are not allowed to disclose your sexuality to others, and others are not allowed to ask about it. I can kind of see why it would possibly work, in order to avoid any situations; however having a person hide something about themselves for the sake of those around them really bothered me. However, there have been some recent problems with the policy and the military's generally evident homophobic belief. First example: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/14/sara-isaacson-rotc-cadet_n_576401.html. If you don't want to read the article, basically, the woman (who is a lesbian) may possibly have to repay back her $80,000 ROTC scholarship because she came out as gay. Second example: http://www.sldn.org/blog/archives/stories-from-the-frontlines-former-army-sgt.-tracey-l.-cooper-harris/. In this article, the woman who also is a lesbian was "found out" by some other men in the service, whom forced her to perform sexual favors at the age of 19 in order to protect her secret. It really bothered me when she said that "homosexuality is treated worse than sexual harassment in the military", because going to complain about the harassment would lead to her discharge because of her being a lesbian.

I found these two examples very shocking to read, and it actually angered me. We have people who are willing to serve our military out of love for their country, but to be denied and kicked out because of being gay, something they CAN'T control, is ridiculous. I for one really hope that President Obama does decide to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", because this is just unfair.

--Cameron

Arizona, Our Most Racist State

If you haven't heard, Arizona has passed a legislation (http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a2741157-47e9-4794-a772-7522ccd60d88) - it is to come into effect July 28, 2010 - to crack down on illegal immigration. Law Enforcement officers are allowed to question potential illegal immigrants - but based on what? Reasonable doubt? How can one tell if you are an illegal immigrant? Is it, as long as you look like you're Mexican, we are going to search you? According to the bill, one must carry some form of ID with them at all times as proof of their status. Oh really? In Chicago, a Puerto Rican man was held for THREE days in an immigration detention center by ICE officials. The ICE officials were under the pretense that he was an illegal immigrant even though he had LEGAL PAPERS. Are you serious Chicago? Racial profiling seems to run rampant in contemporary America and I believe that racial profiling is the key concept behind the Arizona immigration bill. (http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/27/immigration.wrongful.detention/?hpt=Sbin)

To make things even more controversial, Arizona has begun to demote teachers (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703572504575213883276427528.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5#articleTabs%3Darticle) who have "heavy accents or speak ungrammatical English". Honestly, really, Jan Brewer? The superintendent of Arizona state schools claims it's to "politicize the educational environment". Say what? So what they are saying is that children can't learn because of their accents? What about children who have graduated under the teachings of those teachers? Were they at an educational disadvantage that the schools have finally decided to change their hiring policy to "You must speak with an American accent"? What happened to EOE? Demoting teachers. Really?

There is currently a bill introduced to the floor that Citizenship-by-birth should be looked over again and changed to "if you are not an American citizen and have a child in an American territory, your child shouldn't get American citizenship because you are not American." (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127093634) This targets specifically illegal immigrants and to-be American citizens. What the hell is wrong with America? The land of the free, the land of opportunities. This intelligent man, Randy Terrill, Representative of Oklahoma, states that "Currently, if you have a child born to two alien parents, that person is believed to be a U.S. citizen... When taken to its logical extreme, that would produce the absurd result that children of invading armies would be considered citizens of the U.S."

I can only say from these articles that Right-Wing America is starting to fear their marginality in U.S. culture and taking their fear out through their positions in government to limit "minorities" - especially people of Hispanic origin (but it encompasses us all) in society. This subtle racism goes unchecked and when it is, it is marginalized in the media. To acknowledge that racism is still alive and harming even the most basic rights of human beings, we should all take steps to rectify it. E-mail your state representatives, congressmen/women, join anti-racist societies, e-mail the President, join demonstrations.

Michael Koh