where you’re from

As we were hanging out, a kid I had just met asked me what my last name was to try and guess my nationality. When he found out I was german, there was no problem. I proceeded to tell him that I was italian as well and he looked at me with disgust. I’ve never been discriminated against before, and this was only a minute taste of what minorities in our country face today. The next thing I knew we were talking about all the derogatory names for different people. I didn’t think they were correct on some of them, but they assured me that where they’re from, they know they’re racist names. I found this entertaining that someone could be proud of not only being racist but also being completely correct in their terminology. They also informed me that where they’re from, most people live in trailers, drink, and do drugs. This ties into what we went over in class about how whiteness is based on what is not black. In American media, blackness is associated with poverty. These whites, however, share in the poverty and must further degrade minorities and other races to maintain they’re sense of white supremacy.

Tyler Perry

I went to see Tyler’s Perry new movie a few hours ago and I wasn’t surprised with the outcome of people there. There were a majority of black people there and only a few whites. In class a few weeks ago we had an assignment on movies and stereotypes in them and their directors, cast and etc.

I really didn’t pay much attention to this until we had this assignment. Yes Mr. Perry is a black man, his characters are black and it have their marital problems. Is this movie targeted for black people only? I don’t think it’s targets only for a black audience but truly I don’t think a lot of white people will interested in it. The jokes, the issues and the all the drama is stereotyped more in the black community. I don’t know, this is my opinion.

The Census

Being the procrastinator I am, I have yet to fill out my portion of the census and mail it back in.  This is not due to the confusing language that comes on the form, I just don’t ever think about doing it.  The interesting thing I found out was how you are supposed to classify your race by looking through the choices given and choosing the terms that most apply to you.  These terms have caused some uproar in the news which I can understand, first they included the word “negro” as a descriptor for one choice.  One other impermissible fault in their racial classification system is that they did not include the choices of Latino and almost completely leaving no options for people who are from the middle east.  One writer had to choose Hispanic and then on the lines where you can specify she wrote Iranian because the Hispanic race is what she most looked like.  I think for this fact the census will not be successful, If your citizens are having trouble filling it out then it is doomed to not adequately represent each culture, which is part of the idea behind it.  Now I have to figure out how to fill it out for me, this is going to be interesting.

Transgendered raising children

During one of my other classes, the teacher showed a clip about transgendered families having children. It was about this heterosexual married couple who decided to have children. Soon after their son was born the wife decided to transform into a male. So, now the little boy have a papa (who was originally the biological mother) and a daddy (biological father) which is what he calls his parents. Now there was 2 males in the relationship even if the mother was originally a woman. I didn’t know if the mom’s transformation made them gay or not. Even if some people considers this couple as gays or not it really does not matter.
The biological father said that he loved his wife and respected her choice. He stood by her and even if she will now lives as a male and they will still be together.

Of course there was negative talk about the choices this family made. Honestly, I feel it’s not the media business to comment about. This was a decision this family made and I respect them for that. The mother was not happy as a female so she made a change and the child is happy. This little boy have a papi and a father who both lives him.

People Thinking Obama Is Racist

I was curious as to why some people think President Obama is racist so I went on Google to look up articles. I came across a blog made by a guy around the time when the news was covering Obama’s former pastor. In his blog I immediately recognized many of the topics that we have talked about in class. I immediately noticed that he wanted to make sure and defend himself in saying that he is not racist because his girlfriend is half black, like Obama, so he is not racist. He also criticizes Obama for making it important to discuss the unfair treatment of Hispanics, Asians and Blacks in his campaign. The guy says that with all the civil rights in this country, he does not believe racism is an issue any longer. That is exactly what the authors of our books have written against. Many people do believe that racism is not an issue any more but in reality it still is. The fact that the guy is wrote that blog just gives more evidence that it is.

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Fifty years ago, there was a group of people peacefully protesting apartheid in South Africa. In a massacre, the people were killed. Now for the first time, the soccer World Cup will be taking place in South Africa. The secretary-general has stated that there will be no room for racist or xenophobic acts. He gave a message to commemorate the International day for the elimination of racial discrimination. He said that sports teams should take measures to eliminate discrimination. The secretary-general gave a long speech about countries all over the world doing their part to change the way that people regard to race. I feel that this is a wonderful step toward making a difference. Especially coming from South Africa, where discrimination has been such a huge part of their history.

Racist jokes

I was browsing the internet trying to figure out what to blog about. I went to google and starting typing in racism and one of the options was racist jokes, I found it interesting and clicked it. I found all these website dedicated to racist jokes about Black people, Spanish people, Jews, people from the middle east, and Gays. I guess it wasn’t shocking but I was just amazed that they would have websites on hundreds of racist jokes. One of the website said, to help their website by wearing their t-shirt and spread the hate. The person who developed this website and is advertising this really didn’t have anything better to do but to spread hate. Also, there was another website and on the top of the website it says, “we are not racist” and then has over a hundred racist jokes, really your not racist? Then at the bottom of the website she thanks her cousin for telling her all the jokes she knows today. This person is giving thanks to her cousin, as if this really something to be proud of. It is sad that people would dedicate themselves to such negative things.

Health Care Bill

With the recent passing of the health care bill many people are expressing their opinions about it through Facebook. People are changing their statuses bashing the bill and also talking about how horrible it is. I’ve also noticed that some of the people who are against the health care bill are trying to find ways to bash our President as well. Their statuses about the bill have turned into racial slurs against Barack Obama. I think that it is horrible that these people can be so ignorant as to think that the health care bill has anything to do with the race of our president. I know that these people have the right to express their opinions about the health care bill but I think it can be done in a matter that does not bring race into the picture.

Rape Game

This does not have all that much to do with race but I was reading this article and found it absolutely absurd and outright wrong. Apparently there is a new game, developed in Japan, that allows the player rape female characters. For instance, your players can be walking around the subway and spot a girl when the female character speaks, you can then corner her while groping and undressing her. You could also go into the subway and sexually assault her mother and sister. WHAT? What is gaming coming to? I mean I thought the SIM life was strange, now you can commit sexual abuse? Parents are outraged and they absolutely should be! This game will just make unstable players want to perform these same actions but in real life.

Black Barbie v White Barbie

I just read an article that found that a Walmart was selling the black barbie for less than half the price as compared to the white barbie. When I read this I was shocked.  What kind of message are they trying to send children who take notice of these differences and will want to gravitate towards the most popular. It is wrong to mislead young girls who already have to deal with so many issues when it comes to beauty standards in America. This is absolutely wrong!