This article "Arguing Over Images: Native American Mascots and Race" was very interesting and thought provoking for me. Upstate New York, where I grew up, is rich with Native American history and culture. I was, from an early age, inundated with the history of Native Americans in school, at various community functions etc. The team name of the school district I grew up in was the Redmen. I went to school outside my district but still went to sporting events with friends. I think I was in 6th grade when there was uproar from a select few in my small community who had enough. This didn't faze me too much since it wasn't my school but I still read about it in the paper every day. I remember thinking it wasn't a big deal at the time and couldn't really understand why it was a big deal but looking back on it I can't really believe the audacity of ANY team that's named something similar.

This leaves room for so much interpretation, especially for young people. "The arguments over the continued use of American Indian nicknames and symbols have much to teach us about race and media. They remind us of the creativity and situated agency of media consumers." This is a danger whenever any kind of reference to race is used. Everything said in this article is almost so obvious it's ridiculous. It just goes back to the same old thing: a display of how the engrained perpetuation of racism and racial stereotypes are used through even the most superfluous means.

I think this has been the first reading for this class in which I really have not been able to understand where the author is coming from. I actually adore Bell Hooks and can get behind everything she says but I feel that many of her grievances and criticisms belonged, not just to the female black community but were women’s issues. They did not simply apply to black women. On page 71 of the first hand-out listed in the syllabus (sorry Kevin, I can’t bring myself to write out the name) Hooks says, “Often black female models appear in portraits that make them look less like humans and more like mannequins or robots.” This made me stop and think awhile. That’s not just black models, it’s models period. Models, in a high fashion context, are made to seem inhuman on purpose. It makes them more “desirable” to the masses. This is why you see women of ridiculous height and impossible proportion modeling. It’s not an exclusive issue the way Hooks makes it sound.

Hooks goes on to talk about Vanessa Williams who won Miss America and was then subjected to harsh public criticism which eventually resulted in the subsequent loss of her crown. This would have happened to ANY Miss America. Look at the media hell that Carrie Prejean recently went through for her foolish statement about same-sex marriage. She lost her place as Miss California because of it. I do understand what Hooks is trying to convey here but parts of it are lost on me. “Unmasked by a virtuous white public, she assumed (according their standards) the rightful erotic place set aside for black women in the popular imagination.” This sounds incredibly negative. I do understand Hooks concept of an appropriated “place for black women” in media. But it also sounds to me like Hooks is copping out, making the generalization that “a virtuous white public” was just waiting for this woman to fall. I might be completely off-base in these interpretations but I was caught off guard by this reading.

Quality v. Quantity

Acham spends much time discussing Chris Rock and his “observations on black society.” Talking about the notion of a monolithic black society Acham says, “The issue of uplifting the race is a constant concern, because what Rock says is inevitably interpreted by a mainstream audience as representing the entire race, not the specific segment of the society that he focuses his observations on.” I think people see what they choose to see. I have to admit I have been ignorant to the way black people are portrayed in the media in this present day (although we have spent the last few class readings on how they were portrayed in the past). I don’t watch a lot of TV, movies are a different story. In the shows that I do watch, black people are few and far between. On the show Gossip Girl (yes, I used to watch it. Don’t judge me) I can think of one black character throughout the first two seasons. She was a background character, averaging maybe 2-3 lines per episode. She was one of the minions of the constantly changing “Queen Bee” in the show’s tale of Upper East Side high school hierarchy. And she was ALWAYS, always seen beside another character, her Asian counterpart, who played a role identical to her own. That was about the extent of the diversity in that show. I used to be a frequent watcher of Grey’s Anatomy, which cast Asian, Black and Hispanic women in leading roles leading its audience to believe diversity is well-represented. I think Acham is right when she (he?) calls the representation today “uneven.” Today maybe it is not so much the quality of the roles to be cast in, but the under-representation and lack of roles.

Growing up, my brother was obsessed with the show Family Matters. It was on as part of ABC’s TGIF nightly schedule and my brother loved it. Even though I was young at the time, I remember my brother loved the show with such intensity, that if my mother wanted to punish him, she would simply tell him he couldn’t watch it that upcoming week. This never ended well. This was probably my first exposure to “black situation comedy” as Coleman calls it. “(Family Matters) has been similarly criticized for being Black in the physical only. Reflections of Blackness and Black experience are nonexistent in this series, as well as many of the other post-Cosby programs in this era.” I never had anything to compare this show to, it seemed to me like any other sitcom on television but reading Coleman’s reflections now, I suppose it makes sense. Through reading Coleman’s words, I have struggled to recognize where a balance is struck. There are the oppressive and insultingly racist shows that portray black families in an incredibly negative light, or there are shows like Family Matters in which the family is accused of being “too white” and black in color only. But that was awhile ago. Have we as a society achieved a comfortalbe medium since then?

Extreme Confusion

“Why is it that the images of Black people in popular culture and mass media are so often reduced to a racial stereotype? Where did this “Other” as object, as exotic, and as spectacle for public consumption and amusement come from?” Through this quote, Coleman seems to reduce everything that has been going through my head into a few short sentences. For most of my life, I have maintained (not deliberately of course) a child-like ignorance about racism. All I really knew is what I saw and heard about. I went to a private school and most of my peer interaction was with white kids. My friends that were black were very much, like me. I was ignorant to “black culture” and this “other” that Coleman references. I have always felt very hesitant about addressing racial issues in anyway because I was ignorant of them for most of my young life. My mind could never fully wrap itself around the socially perpetuated idea of white people as “better” in any way. From childhood, if we are not taught, we derive our conclusions through what we see and hear. Coleman writes a lot about the various facets of oppression in mass media, the very real manifestation of black stereotypes and the public’s “continued embracing of racist imagery.” I continue to wrestle with this and will not hide behind the two terms which plague me most right now which I cannot confuse with one another: innocence and ignorance. I apologize for not really pertaining to our topic. I'm just trying to stack up the building blocks right now.

Thelma and Louise

The movie Thelma and Louise was not at all what I thought it would be. It proved much deeper and more thought provoking than I had originally anticipated. Of course while extraordinarily unrealistic, I found myself relating to each character in different ways. The bond between these two women was very relatable as I am lucky enough to have several friendships I could compare it to. I feel as though the writers of this movie were determined to paint men in a negative light. Every time they turned around they were being screwed over. Every man, save the detective, was selfish stereotypical male character. Still, it was enjoyable to watch the journey of growth and to see these women empowered through their stint of illegal activity. I think it’s interesting to contrast the way this liberation manifested itself in each woman. In Thelma it was far more obvious primarily because she had been so oppressed by her relationship with her husband so her growth was much less gradual and far more prominent. Louise was far more cautious and practical (or at least tried to be) about everything they did. It took her much longer to get on board with everything Thelma was doing. I liked this movie. I don’t think it’s a movie I want to watch again anytime soon but I appreciate being set straight on the content. I was somewhat disappointed in the ending. I feel as though it fit, but I would have liked to see it end differently.

“Commonly, whiteness is equated with normality and thus becomes invisible so that we do not think it requires attention.” Barker pg 250.

I would like to just take a moment and reflect on this one statement. As we switch gears in our class reading and discussion from gender to race and ethnicity, I find myself reflecting on my own perceptions of race and what the word “white” really means to me personally. The only conclusion I am coming to is not really one I can articulate without much difficulty. It’s really hard for me to admit this but when I used to hear the word white in a racial context I automatically thought: suburbs, picket fence, two car garage, cocker spaniel, smiling family that eats dinner at 7 on the dot every night. In a perfect world we would have no assumptions attained through our own worldview and reality. In a perfect world, the word black would carry no negative connotations. Now to be honest, I’m not sure what I think.