Which came first?

I was a little confused when we were talking about race and how it was created for political and social means. I know that it is a social construct with no biological significance, but I always thought that some sentiment of "race" had pretty much always been in existence. When we learned that race really came into existence and become more prevalent because it was easier to excuse slavery this way, I began to think. I didn't understand how it could have happened in this way. I truly thought that slavery could have only came about if there was already an existing notion that other races, such as blacks, were inferior.

Tuesdays class and race

Race? I'm not 100% sure of everything we discussed in class on tuesday but the question on my mind was why is race so relevant? I think the misperception is that race reflects ones physical apperrance, when that is definitely not always the case. I'm Latino, Puertorican to be even more specific and to identify someone from my "race" can be quite a challenge. We range from blonde hair and blue eyes to dark skin and brown (my family is a great example). Race is unfortunately a huge part of our society; it's everywhere: in ploitics, in sports, in comedy and even in movies! Race is so big because we as a people have made it this big! if you believe in something so strongly it's bound to stick and it has! It's an unfortunate way of classifying an individual both quickly and stereotypically. I see no change happening soon!

Buffalo Blockbusting

I was thinking more about the "blockbusting" we discussed in class. It seems absolutely crazy to me that this would happen. Then I found this article from the Buffalo News earlier this year about blockbusting that is STILL going on, in our own backyard. Not only is this article about race discrimination in certain suburbs of Buffalo but it also points out discimination against the elderly and disabled.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article361047.ece

I guess it shouldn't be that surprising that certain suburbs of Buffalo are in such an uproar about low-income, and senior housing being built in those areas, I'm not saying it's right, but the towns cited in the article have had issues with other big things going there. For example, WalMart has been trying to get into some of these places for years. The newer WalMart in Hamburg went through almost ten years of negotiation before the community finally agreed to allow it.

But there is a huge difference between trying to keep out a large, probably evil, corporation and keeping out people. It's a huge reminder that segregation came to a head just a few decades ago and some people still haven't completely let it go.


On a side note, I can't seem to figure out how to make links work on here...sorry about that...

Muslim life after 9/11

As we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11, it's evident that fear and ignorance towards Muslims is still around.


I think the worst part about the Muslim fear that's swept the nation is that there's no boundaries for it. As he talks about in the movie, his teacher looked at him "in a new light" after the attacks. How can a professional be so critical of a 7th grader? From a personal standpoint, I hear others criticizing Muslims and joking about them all the time. I believe this occurs because most of our country is under the impression that all Muslims are extremists. There are extremists with nearly all religions, even here in America! The only way to put an end to this hate would be a more broad understanding of the Muslim faith, and that there are a lot of good people that practice Islam.

The same interview, which came from a Nashville news channel, goes on to say that some Muslims have stopped immigrating to America because of the outrageous racism they face. According to the article, a recent survey shows that 30% of all Americans believe that mainstream Islam promotes violence.

Buffalo housing racism

When I read the article Detroit and the housing market I thought about the similarities to Buffalo. I looked online to find something about how the race and housing problems in the 1940’s are still a problem today. I didn’t really have to look online, all you need to do is drive through downtown buffalo. The things mentioned in the Detroit Time Bomb article reminded me of Buffalo. The east and west side is full of houses in poor conditions where people are living in bad neighborhoods. These communities are seemingly racially segregated, although I have family still living on the East Side an overwhelming majority of people who live there are Black. In better off communities such as Clarence or Hamburg there is a vast majority of “white” people.

http://newyorksociologist.org/08/Krieg-08.pdf

The article I found online discusses how racial segregation appeared in Buffalo from the Beginning and through the 1950’s when “whites” were moving to suburbs and the East Side became a predominately “lower income and predominantly African American neighborhood” (17). The article also brings up a more recent description of Buffalo, which are a “reflection of the past”.

Still Stereotyping

After speaking in class about how we construct racism, I started to think about it, and notice it more and more. As long as we continue to think of and believe in the stereotypes we hear and see, racism will sadly always be around us. As we discussed this more, I remembered something that I saw in the show Dance Moms. Dance Moms is a show on Lifetime about these young girls that take a dance class, and the drama between the crazy teacher and the crazy moms. I do not watch this show, and I do not recommend watching it, but however, I did see an episode once, when my sister was watching it. After seeing this episode, I never wanted to watch this show again. The reason I bring up Dance Moms is because in this particular episode, there was a controversy between one of the little girl's mom and the dance teacher. This little girl, named Nia is the only African American girl in the class. Because of this, the dance teacher wanted her to do a dance in which she wore an afro, jungle themed clothing, and played a character named Laquifa-a stereotypical sassy African American. The mother of Nia was outraged that she had her daughter do a dance that portrayed such an outdated stereotype. The dance teacher said it was best for Nia because if auditions ever called for an African American character, Nia would be able to know the ethnic dances. Still, Nia's mom was extremely upset, and after seeing the clip, you probably will be too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFTgUuHSQuM&feature=related

Is it right to portray an African American this way still in 2011? Isn't this almost a modern day version of the "blackface" in Minstrel shows? We will never make progress in our world if these stereotypical characters are still portrayed in the media. Even if this would help Nia get African American acting/dancing parts later in life, I do not think it is right to single her out in such a humiliating dance, just because of her skin color.

MLK Memorial

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is nationally considered one of the, if not the most, influential people in respect to the 1960’s civil right movement. Recently a memorial has been constructed near the national mall in Washington D.C.  The artist commissioned with creating the centerpiece of the memorial, a large stone with a statue of King carved into it was a Chinese national named Lei Yixin.  Should the artist of the statue have been an African-American artist, possibly an older one that was alive during the civil rights movement.  The civil rights movement was primarily composed of and for African-Americans who were being oppressed under the remaining Jim Crow laws that permeated society in the southern portion of the U.S., why should a member of that group not be given the exclusive right to make the national memorial to the fallen leader who lead them in abolishing most of what remained of de jure segregation? Perhaps Dr. King’s own massage of peace and brotherhood holds that answer. King spent the years leading up to his assassination supporting not African-Americans specificly, but equality among people of all races and creeds in America.  Would this equality not extend to foreigners with different political or cultural views?

Detriot

After reading "Detroit's Time Bomb" I decided to see if I could find a more recent depiction of it's decaying slums. Besides the shaky camera at times it really shows a lot of neighborhoods in Detroit that are/have been looking like ghost towns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6WKMNmFsxM&feature=related

From rusted boats, torn-up cars, old in-ground pools to entire buildings boarded up and crumbling. Entire skyscrapers have been abandoned and scheduled for demolition. Most of these buildings have remained in the same rotting condition for years. Police are called to many of these neighborhoods but never show due to the intensely high crime rate. To give you a perspective on how it is compared to the city of Buffalo here's a link comparing the two:

http://www.clrsearch.com/Detroit_Demographics/MI/Crime-Rate?compare=Buffalo%2C+NY

Now after the automotive industrial disaster, even more workers are out of jobs, placing even more strain on the already stressed city. Not to mention the graduation rate of high school students is under 25% (npr.org). Without even going any further into the depressing analysis of Detroit, I believe it's safe to say it is overall one of the cities in America most in need of a turnaround...badly.

---Jake

The Cotton Club

During the 1920's a famous club emerged in NYC known as the Cotton Club. The Cotton Club was a place where white upper class Americans could go and listen to jazz music of primarily black artists, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and much more. Here they could observe "African American culture" and music. The Cotton Club had a jungle theme or setting, and depicted African American's as uncivilized, savage, and barbaric, often playing jungle music and exploiting their culture. It was a form of entertainment for white American's to experience what was said to be "African American culture" by simply entering the club. The Cotton Club was one of the many factors in history which misrepresented African American culture, and led to racial stereotypes. It gave white Americans the impression that African American's were inferior to them, because they exhibited a savage like and uncivilized lifestyle and culture. The point I really want to emphasize is that racial stereotyping can emerge from just about anywhere, including American popular culture and music.

That 70's Show, Making a Point

http://youtu.be/4sd3OMQ9s4k

I wanted to start off my posting with something funny. So here is a clip from that 70's show when Hyde meets his black father. Skip to about 2:12 to see his entrance and how everyone acts when they see who's at the door. This is, obviously, a little exaggerated so that it'll be funny but it makes a kind of sad point about how people act when they are uncomfortable in a new situation. Also it's supposed to take place in the 70's when people were still getting used the Civil Rights act that was passed in the 60's. Another point this makes is that the white people were trying way too hard to come across as not racist to the black person. They were trying to act comfortable. I feel as though this still happens today sometimes, with all races overly trying to make the others feel comfortable and a lot of times it just causes more tension.

A few web resources

Since we've been talking about race so much in the past few days and will continue to do so over the course of the semester, I wanted to post a few resources that might be useful in understanding better what race is and how it influences the way we live:

1) Website for the documentary we've been watching in class: http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm
This is a really great site and has tons of background readings on the documentaries we've been watching. The videos are, unfortunately, not online, but you can find entire transcripts of the shows on this site (this might prove useful when you are writing a paper and wish to refer to what someone was saying on the show). It also has some other neat stuff - If you visit this page: http://www.pbs.org/race/002_SortingPeople/002_00-home.htm, you can play a flash game that lets you "sort" individuals based on their looks. So, you might want to test your prowess in how well you can tell someone's race by simply looking at them! There's also a neat timeline where you can explore how ideas on race have evolved over time: http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

2) I was in DC this summer and happened to chance upon an exhibit on understanding race in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. It's a really great exhibit, so if you get a chance to visit DC some time, make sure to check it out. In the meantime, feel free to explore their website: http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/race/ as well as the special website they created specifically to go along with the exhibit: http://www.understandingrace.org/home.html

3) There are several websites and blogs where people discuss race and racial issues: One of my favorites is Racialious, which describes itself as "a blog about the intersections of race and popular culture." Another is Colorlines, which provides news of interest to, and from the perspective of, people of color. You can also find both of these on facebook.

I'll post more resources as the semester goes by. If you have any more of your own to share at this point, please let us know in the comments!

shocking racism on the internet!

I wasn't sure what exactly I should blog about until I stumbled up on this on the internet. This is a picture uploaded from facebook of a white-African man with a dead African American Child in front of him. It's so sad to see this kind of stuff on the internet. It doesn't say if he did it but, the fact that someone would really upload this to facebook is just crazy to me. I wouldn't be surprised if a million people aren't harassing him over the internet now. Here's the full article for you guys to read

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/205136/20110829/facebook-racism-hate-crime-south-africa-white-man-hunter-photograph-eugene-terrorblanche-user-invest.htm

Racism can be found all over the internet and there is a perfect example. He probably put his facebook under a fake name because if he didn't then uploading that picture was just stupid. I even took the time to try to find him on facebook but all I found were groups protesting against him. I wonder what people said to him when he posted that. Hopefully they caught him and he is being punished for this!

The Catholic church's most secret documents

Here goes my first attempt at blogging, ever. After receiving the September 15th issue of Rolling Stone in the mail, I stumbled across an article that really caught my attention. "The Catholic Church's Secret Sex-Crime Files," goes behind the scenes of the archdiocese of Philadelphia. I don't recommend reading the article if you want to retain your full respect of Catholicism.

The article can be reached via the interwebs here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-catholic-churchs-secret-sex-crime-files-20110906


Being raised Catholic, this article really hits close to home. I'm disgusted in the church's cover up attempts at all the wrong-doings done by priests over the years. In my opinion, the most disturbing part of the article is how the church would re-locate the priests with accusations made against them. What kind of justice is that? No wonder this has been an ongoing problem over the years. I don't think Jesus Christ would have approved these actions.
-sean

1st Blog Post of the Semester! (: The Relationship of Race to Law

I want to write my 1st blog about the relationship of race, to law and politics. This is obviously the focus of the 1st few readings. White Lines brings up the idea that law constructs race. (10) I completely agree. The Rebirth of Caste talks about how when race issues are in the forefront, politicians use it as their platform to convince voters to switch parties. More importantly, the sad thing is when people want certain "resentments" to be maintained- so they'll support the party that isn't pushing for reforms or equal rights. Once certain laws do get passed though, whether it is segregation or integration, law makers / passers need to understand that the changing of laws is obviously going to create some upheaval. Under the Birth of Mass Incarceration, it talks about how segregationists "went further, insisting that integration causes crime." Well yeah, it may initially cause crime because it is a change in law that people are not used to. Moving onto White Lines, it consistently repeats that law constructs race. Page 15 particularly got my attention when it stated "what we look like, the literal and racial features we in this country exhibit, it is to a large extent the product of legal rules and decisions." This made me think about how law shapes how people are represented. For instance, affirmative-action. White politicians may put something in place to supposedly "help" minorities. But this then frames them in a certain way and may only help them to a certain extent. I believe that law does contribute to the racism in our country today.

The doll experiments

I mentioned this in class the other day and figured that I'd expand on it a bit further on the blog. Has anyone heard of the "Clark doll experiment?" It was originally conducted by two educational psychologists called Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark. It involved showing children two dolls, identical except for skin color, and asking them a series of questions including which doll they "liked" the best and which doll looked like them the most. They found that overwhelmingly children preferred the white dolls instead of those which had darker skin colors. They presented their evidence in court during the hearings for Brown v. Board of Education to demonstrate the negative effects of segregation on black children. Here are a few excerpts of their testimony in court

Kenneth Clark: "I presented these dolls to them and I asked them the following questions in the following order:
"Show me the doll that you like best or that you'd like to play with,"
"Show me the doll that is the 'nice' doll,"
"Show me the doll that looks 'bad',"
and then the following questions also: "Give me the doll that looks like a white child,"
"Give me the doll that looks like a colored child,"
"Give me the doll that looks like a Negro child," and
"Give me the doll that looks like you."
I found that of the children between the ages of six and nine whom I tested, which were a total of sixteen in number, that ten of those children chose the white doll as their preference; the doll which they liked best. Ten of them also considered the white doll a "Nice" doll. And, I think you have to keep in mind that these two dolls are absolutely identical in every respect except skin color. Eleven of these sixteen children chose the brown doll as the doll which looked "bad." This is consistent with previous results which we have obtained testing over three hundred children, and we interpret it to mean that the Negro child accepts as early as six, seven or eight the negative stereotypes about his own group. . . . . The conclusion which I was forced to reach was that these children .... like other human beings who are subjected to an obviously inferior status in the society in which they live, have been definitely harmed in the development of their personalities; that the signs of instability in their personalities are clear, and I think that every psychologist would accept and interpret these signs as such."

(sourced from: http://varenne.tc.columbia.edu/class/common/dolls_in_brown_vs_board.html)

Years later, in 2007, a high school student named Kiri Davis sought to conduct her own version of the Clark doll experiment and made a short film about the role race plays in dominant perceptions of beauty and the impact this has on how young black girls perceive themselves. Her experiment replicated the Clark experiment's result and is actually pretty painful to watch:

I think that the film as well as the doll experiments demonstrate fairly well that people often perceive different races to have different characteristics and that people, especially children, often internalize negative perceptions related to their race and develop, what might be called, racial self-hatred. What do you think is the impact of this? Also, if you have any thoughts about the video, please let us know in the comments.