Week of Nov. 17-21

This week was entitled, "Race and Hip Hop and Black Cinema," drawing sharp distinctions with who was in and out of the Hip Hop/Black Gang culture of the late 1980s and 1990s. Even today, these gangs still persist and the culture that surrounds them only serves to help keep up the support system of the gangs. Off the top of my head, there have been two great rappers who have died due to the gang culture that surrounds and inhabits Hip Hop, Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac. Both were taken before their time and I beleive that if they knew what would happen in advance of their deaths, they would have taken more steps to stop the gang-like war between the hip-hip coasts of West and East.

We saw clips from many films that glamorized the gang culture (basically, real depictions), and we saw how it is not only the black male who attaches himself to the cult of power that a gang offers but any male who has been born into underpriveleged conditions and doesn't want to have to work their way up through the society ladder. The gang culture offered an "out" in which those participants in it didn't have to work the daily grind job, or pretend as if they wanted to got to college. They could be in a gang, mafia or mob and just say that is what they wanted to do, no furhter aspirations, just be a gang man for the rest of their lives and that was an okay answer for society because it meant job security and good pay, as long as you stayed alive.

Today, the gang culture has become somewhat less mainstream with rappers emphasizing street roots, but not the gang culture that might have been prevalent in the area in which they grew up. Rappers today are more likely to rap about their money and women than the trials and tribulations they faced in order to get to where they are today. The culture is still perpetuated in their music, just in a less overt manner. 

Week of Nov. 10-14

For one of the last (real) weeks of class, and one in which the one-month countdown until the end of the semester began, the topic up for discussion and analyzation was "Issues of Contemporary Racism in American Society." And not only were we seeing just anaylsis of certain racially tense situations and the response to that certain situation, but we were actually witnessing (via different forms of media) the overt racism that still pervades American Society and threatens to rip our country apart based on a skin color. 

Most striking among the course materials asigned for this particular week was the selection of Naomi Klein's theory about the "Shock Doctrine," and how the government uses natural disasters and times of great distress to pass through unpopular bills while the public is still recovering from the shock of the event, so they cannot be bothered by questioning what might really be happening to them and their country due to their utter zombiefied nature. I do believe that the governement does these types of things, just like after 9/11. After an absolutely shocking and terrifying act of terrorism was exacted on differerent locations along the Eastern seaboard (most notably in Manhattan), the government pushed through the Patriot Act, which inlcuded many provisions which have now been "sun-setted", or taken out as per guidelines in the official rules of the Act. Many parts of the Act have been called unconstitutional, but any law-maker to have voted against this in the weeks following September 11, 2001, would have have been considered unpatriotic at best, and an enemy of the state in some not-so-far-off reality that we now inhabit. Most of their constituents just wanted action from the government, and this Act provided that while also providing America with a major blow to her Bill of Rights. It may not have seemed as if the Bush (Jr.) Administration forced through a lot of bills and legislation, but they never had to because Republicans controlled every branch of the government. With that kind of power, who need a shock doctrine, it's shocking all year long.

Week of Nov. 3-7

This post will probably mainly talk about movies as the movies assigned for this week are three of my favorite movies (I have a large number of favorite movies). I think of film as a complex medium through which society can discuss hot-button issues that are sometimes considered taboo.

In George Stevens' sprawling epic Giant (1956), the characters move through life on a Texas ranch, on which oil is discovered by James Dean's brooding ranch hand character. The film goes through his obsession with oil and it basically shows how his greed brought him down, despite his good intentions. Also, one of the more interesting things about this film is the subplot which involves one of Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor's characters' children and his spouse, a Mexican-American. It is punctuted by the type of closed doors to minorities that were so prevalent before the Civil Rights era, but ends with Hudson's character getting into a fistfight in a diner in defense of his daughter-in-law. 

There is also the brilliant film starring Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood (2007). Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, what is so funny about having this film on the same day as the previously mentioned film is the majority of both films were shot in the same small West Texas town, Marfa. This story centers more on Daniel Day-Lewis' character's greed and his emergence as the dominant oil man, through whatever means necessary. It also depicts a broad range of time difference and still retains it's focus as a film which is about Day-Lewis' character, not so much everything that is happening around him. 

Dean and Day-Lewis' character's don't differ much in that both are greedy and seem to only need their money. Day-Lewis' character end up alone due to his inability to accept that other can have a stake in the way things occur or what happens around them. Dean's character ends up lonely and alone due to the fact that he thought money could buy him love and affection, when in reality it only bought him less of that very thing. 

Week of Oct. 28-31

This week was entitled, "Race and Global Violence." Notably, we spoke about child soldiers in African underpriveleged countries on Wednesday and Dr. Tchouaffe spoke on a paper of his own writing on Frday (Halloween), which I regrettably missed due to my inability to send in for an absentee voter ballot which caused me to have to leave early in order to be able to submit my vote for CHANGE. Reading for this week included the aforementioned Olivier Tchouaffe paper on child soldiers, "Necropolitics" by Achille Mbembe and a screening of the film Blood Diamond (2006), which is a wonderful film that looks at the issue of child soldiers through the lens of a diamond hunter in the war-torn country of Sierra Leone. 

In the film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the aforementioned diamond hunter, he accompanies a man who is looking to find his son in the rebel bands of fighters so that he can take him home with him and reunite his family. In the end, the finding of his son uncovers so much more about the reason for the conflict than he ever intended to do and he helps to bring down the blood diamond trade, thus helping to cut funding to groups opposing peaceful governing forces in the countires where the diamond trade is conducted. The child soldiers are only utilized because they are easy to hypnotize into beleiving something and will rally behind a leader, who seems parent-like, when they are lost and cannot find their own. 

We watched a clip of a man speaking about his book on child soldiers and he himself, managed to find a way to get away from the rebel bands and how long it took to rehabilitate him back into nomal civilian life once he was freed. he spoke of the horrors of having to be fed many different types of drugs and the experience that this provided for himself and his fellow child soldiers. Some of the drugs he was given even contained dangerous mixtures of crack cocaine and gunpowder, which have probably damaged him for life. It is a strange situation which none of his, haveing grown up in this country, can even begin to comprehend the magnitude of.

Week of Oct. 20-24

The title for this week was "Race and Sport." We didn't meet as a class on Monday so that we could turn in our midterms, but we resumed the regular schedule on Wednesday. Assigned readings for this week were, "Young, Black, Rich and Famous," by Todd Boyd, an examination of the Duke Lacrosse team rape case through several articles as well as in-class video clips, and a watching of the movie, Hoop Dreams (1995). This week also inlcuded rousing and enthused class discussions on the subject of the Duke Lacrosse team and on rape cases involving Kobe Bryant and Mike Tyson. I want this blog to focus mainly on the discussion aspects as they actively engage the readings at the basest of levels and in my opinion, the class was more involved and particapatory in these discussions than in any one previously. 

Class discussion on the day of the presention given about the Duke Lacrosse rape case centered mainly on the differing stories and what possible reasons for this could be. Many people rather than calling it a case involving race, said that it was a case involving class. Upper class white male athletes who ordered a stripper to their house, only to have her report an incident of rape two weeks later. The argument seems compelling and it seems logical that a woman in her position might see an opportunity to get some quick cash, because if she was really raped why did she wait so long to come forward? But in a case that involves two different classes, it is necessary to examine race as an added facet to the multi-faceted case, especially when the case in question occured in the South, as this one did. The young men were white and the stripper was black, not necessarily a product of "the possessive investment in Whiteness," in this country, but it definitely seems to fall under that category.

In the cases of Kobe Bryant and Mike Tyson, we see two black athletes who were thrust into the sports spotlight. Both were involved in rape cases and in both cases, the woman came forward with accusations. But the difference lies in where the two men grew up. Kobe grew up as a middle class kid in a suburb while Mike was a product of the "Hood" or the streets of a large urban area. This changes how the media, and subsequently America, reacted towards the news of their cases. In Mike's case, he didn't apologize to the woman or to the jury for what he had done (or to his family members), he just maintained his innocence. He went to jail for three years. Kobe immediately issued a press release denying the claims of the woman and decrying her accusations as it brought unwanted attention onto his family. He even cried during susequent press conferences. Hood athletes never cry, suburb athletes do. But, I guess they shoul learn to start crying because Kobe got off scot-free, received a contract extension form the Lakers, America forgot about it and he is now featured in the new Guitar hero advertisement along with Alex Rodiguez, Tony Hawk, and Michael Phelps. Go figure?

Week of Oct. 13-17

This week was a a continuation of the race and genocide topic from the previous week on the days of Fall Break in which we were not in class and then on Wednesday and Friday, we moved into Jews and the Movies and Media Stereotypes of Jews. This was the week I chose for my in-class leadership project, and I chose to focus on the film Jews, Movies and the American Dream (1998), and the reading by Martha Woodbury titled, "Media Stereotypes of Jews: From JAPs to MDs." This week jumped out at me as a good selection because it is something that I am very interested in to begin with and the content of this class only serves to enhance my interest and broaden the scope with which I am able to examine the issued at hand.

The film is a great biography feature of the Jewish Hollywood studio moguls. It shows how they started out in Eastern Europe and then all had to fight the establishment on the East Coast, eventually moving out west to California to make movies away from Edison's Producers' Trust. What is know thought of as the "American dream" was invented by the studios of the Hollywood moguls and it is a little bit ironic, as was mentioned in the film, that these Jewish men who moved West to escape the hierarchy of the East would be responsible for generations of aspirations and hopes and dreams. I will quote the movie indirectly, as it said something to the effect of, "They weren't allowed into the real America, so they created their own 'shadow' America. Then, ironically, this 'shadow' America became what Americans associate their nation identity with." 

In the reading, Woodbury examines media stereotypes of Jews and where they draw their historical background from. She talks about the following stereoptypes: the greedy Jew, the stubborn Jew, the Jewish woman (including the Jewish American Princess), the Jewish mother and Jewish men. She seeks to provide a basis for understanding the stereotypes in film and other types of media so that when we see them, we may be able to identify them and not digest them passively. The dangers of not talking or studying about media stereotyping of Jews far outweighs the dangers of talking about it, which include further perpetuating the sterotypes in some type of media, be it for study or examination, it is still helping to create a greater awareness which always means that some people might latch onto the negative aspects of the argument rather than the positive ones. 

Week of Oct. 6-10

The only item listed on this week's agenda was under Friday's title, "Race and Genocide." The reading assigned for Friday was a selection from a book called, "The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide," by Jay Lifton. We were assigned chapters 7 and 8 to read and further examine so that we could discuss not only the debilitating effects genocide has on a group of people within whom it is exercised, but also the effect it can have upon on those who perform, in one way or another, in the process.

In the reading, Lifton says that, "Auschwitz can be understood only in relation to its three historical identities: as a Nazi concentration camp...as a work camp...and as an anhiliation camp..." (Lifton 312/425). It is essential to understand how it transformed into something completely different from the beginning of its creation (also, as the war continued) to understand how Nazis underneath the highest posts of command were able to stomach the orders for its next stages of eveolution. It was a gradual movement towards genocide, not an all-of-a-sudden rush to kill all the Jews in sight. The Nazi party not only couldn't have accomplished this, but more than likely as their goals for ultimate extermination failed, so would they have.

He also examines the processes of killing undertaken by Nazis in the in concentration camps. He also discusses how the doctors in the camps would actively choose the processes and sometimes even get into heated debates about why a certain process should be utilized. Someow, the topic of whether or not, as medical professionals, they should even be participating in should horrors never came up in the discussions. Doctors were also left to deal with the enormous amounts of corpses. They had to find a solution to the fact that the crematoria at Auschwitz wasn't near big enough to burn all of the bodies that were being systematically killed every day. 

Week of Sept. 29-Oct. 3

This week's topic range included: a book review over "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals," by Jane Meyer, class discussion about the effect race has on police officer response time and and in-class screening of the film SA-I-GU (1993). The breadth of topics discussed provided a wide base notonly for class discussion, but also for reflection. 

In the book review by journalist Tim Rutten, he speaks Jane Meyer's book and goes into depth about some of the topics included herein. He says, quoting Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis from some 80 years ago, "'THE greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding" (Rutten). He goes on to speak about how these words have never been more relevant, especially in light of this being an election year. 

In class we discussed the Rodney King case in connection with the video, SA-I-GU. Both cases occurred in Los Angeles and in both cases, the police were not performing up to their standards (in the case of King, resulting in his physical abuse). In the video, Korean shop owners are shown expressing discomfort and disbelief over the Los Angeles Race Riots that concumed KoreaTown. The video shows multiple police officers leaning against their cars and watching the riot unfold in the street before them while they chat with their fellows and consume donuts. In the film, there is footage of many of the Korean members of the population marching towards Town Hall to issue a formal complaint and to request that all their funds be reimbursed. 

Los Angeles has been the center of many race related riots/events that have grabbed national attention in recent memory. It is interesting to note, therefore, that the syllabus iuncludes the brilliant film about Angelenos and how their lives interweave, Crash (2004). 

Week of Sept. 22-26

This week we talked about an article entitled "The Possessive Investment in Whiteness", which centers on the facts that it is a combination of public policy and private prejudice that have created a "possessive investment in whiteness", which is the reason for the existence of racial hierarchies in our society (Lipsitz, vii). It speaks of Whiteness as having a cash value that benefits those who are socially identified as being "white" and that those people are, in turn, better off by investing in their own Whiteness and keeping the advantages over other classes and races in this country. 

It seems to me that Whiteness is not only something that those inside the parameters of the term "white" depend on for their continued advantage in society. It also seems that the establishments of power, like the governments and large corporations, depend on this concept in order to gain some type of meaning and to keep control in an ever-globalizing world. Even if the government and these corporations are headed by a majority "white" group of people, they still need the system for reasons other than personal advantage, which they already have. With this article, we talked again about the concept of power as was theorized by Michel Foucault. We spoke of the relationship between those who hold the power and how it is through the racial hierarchy that this power is maintained. Mainly, this was just how race being biologically determined, humans have associated with that the message that one race is better than another and that it is fit to "rule" over all those underneath it. In the article, it speaks about how whiteness is essentially a social fact, an identity that is created and continues to harm those who don't fall into its boundaries. I want to succeed on my own, not because I could be socially identified as "white". 

For this same day, we also watched American History X (1998), which is a movie directed by Tony Kaye that stars Edward Norton as a Nazi, quasi-KKK member who goes to prison for what he has done and comes out a changed man after his experiences with members of other races and with those who were also Nazis (Nazi being one who wishes to follow Nazi doctrine). I love this movie as Edward Norton is one of my favorite actors and he is brilliant in this film. The racial tension and his ability to change and to recognize what he has been doing is absolutely ridiculous is one of the best examples on film to date.

Brady

Week of Sept. 15-19

This week in class was focused on the man of the hour: Barack Obama. Not only is he the first major party African-American candidate for president, but he is also the man on whom millions of young Americans have placed their hope and dreams for better America. So, Obama is doubly relevant in our class as it is a class based on the exploration on the topics of race and ethnicity in their relation to the study of communications and because all of us who attend the class every day are members of the group that I termed above "young Americans". 

We watched Senator Obama's speech in Philadelphia that was mainly a speech focused on the topic of race. Senator Obama does not wish for race to be a factor in his campaign for the presidency, but the fact of the matter is that even his supporters continue to drag this issue to the foreground while other more important pieces of the campaign, like POLICY, continue to be set on the back burner so he can deliver yet another stirring "More perfect union" race speech like the one in Philadelphia. Senator Obama realizes this and he addressed it in the speech. I feel like no matter how many times he addresses the issue, people will still press for more and if elected, I  am sure he will be happy to oblige with an inaugural speech chock full of statements that challenge the majority opinion that racism no longer exists in this country and no doubt he will include several quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the late President John F. Kennedy. But, until that day comes (and I pray to Jesus that it does come) everyone just needs to calm down and let the campaigns run against each other on fair ground. Please do not let racism and intolerance bring this country down from potential greatness (in whatever form that might be) once again. 

I almost forgot about the poll we were given that said that Senator Obama could lose as much as 6 percentage points on election day just because of his skin color. Wow! Has this country seriously not gone beyond issues of race when choosing the best of those among us to lead? It's ridiculous to think that I, someone who grew up in a minority Caucasian town among a majority Hispanic population, could "see past his African skin" and look only at the American who is clearly standing right in front of all of us, while others who possibly grew up around African-Americans just see a skin color. One more thing, we also talked about "reverse racism" in class. The American Heritage Dictionary defines reverse as,"Moving, acting, or organized in a manner contrary to the usual." Because racism is not just defined as something that starts from those people who would define themselves as "white" towards those people who might define themselves as "black", what would usual or normal racism be? Thus, since racism exists between all races of people, directed in every which way, there can be no reverse racism, because usual racism is just racism, no matter who is involved, and that would make reverse racism the opposite of racism, or acceptance and the act of furthering the talks of progression towards racial harmony in this country.

Brady

Week of Sept. 8-12

This week, we continued to discuss the film Los Trabajadores (2001). On top of the evident discussions of racism, illegal immigration and the economic advantages or disadvantages to a system of day labor, we also pulled in a video of an interview that CNN political commentator, and self-appointed spokesman for the issue of illegal immigration and the border wall, conducted with the president of Chicano rights group, La raza. Though she (the president of La raza) started out speaking calmly and collectedly about the issue of immigration reform - she wanted to "promote a rational solution to this system" and proposed "comprehensive immigration reform" - she did away with this demeanor once she was backed (inevitably) into a corner by Lou Dobbs. He brought up the fact that her organization advocates that those who are in this country illegally "should try not to be at one's house" if they fear there is suspicion about their immigration status. Lou Dobbs hammered this point home and he would not let her off; she continued to get so flustered that it appeared as if she was just a child who couldn't come up with stories to back up her lies. Though this was probably not the case and, as we all know, it is very possible that this quote would seem very different if we were given some context in which to place it. So, in conclusion, Lou Dobbs is mean imbecile and he probably extrapolated that one part of a sentence from a 30-minute speech. Viva La raza!!

We also talked about representations of Blackness on television and we had to watch that horribly acted episode of Frank's Place. But apparently the comedy crop on television must have been weak that year because the series earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy series. I probably judged too harshly based on one episode, but I will say that it did challenge a whole wheelbarrow full of race issues in America in the course of 30 minutes. Darn, now that I look back on it, it seems that the show really showed a fair representation of Blackness in just that one episode and to me, real and not contrived comedy is the best sort. So, to tell the truth, I probably would have like the series, had I been willing to give it a shot past the first episode. 

Brady

Week of Sept. 1-5

This week was great because we got Labor Day Monday off and it gave me a nice outlook for the rest of the week. Also, because we got into some reading with the opportunity for class discussion (haha). No, but this was the real first week of class, in which the class actually started to participate and not just stare towards the front of the room.

On Wednesday, we looked at the film Birth of a Nation (1915) and how this film, widely considered to be an early innovator in terms of editing and cinematography, and its KKK theme affirmed and built upon the stereotypes of African-Americans. With this, we attempted to connect the stereotypical portrayals of African-Americans in film to those of Mexicans and/or Mexican-Americans. Some we discussed were: the buck, mammy, uncle tom, the coon and the jezebel/mix-race. Many of these same stereotypes apply to portrayals of Mexicans in film. I feel like we talked about this in regard to the Alamo reading, but we just didn't delve far enough into the topic for it to be pertinent and as I have only a small amount of notes on this reading, we must not have deemed it too necessary or interwoven with the story of African-Americans. But also, I remember there being a problem with everyone having this particular reading, so we must not have focused on it because not everyone (including me) got the article before class. 

Also this week, we talked about the Chon Noriega piece on stereotypes surrounding Latin-Americans (meaning those citizens of the United States with Latin ancestry). His piece centered on the need for 'stereotypes to die' and the campaign that several Chicano groups around the country launched in order to attempt to stop the onslaught of overtly racist advertising that contained stereotypes about Latin-Americans. Basically, the onslaught of media and advertising was being allowed to proliferate and feed on the cultural need for difference in the society. The brown face caricature that advertisers were painting has probably affected an entire generation of people, even those who would identify themselves as Latin-Americans. Also, we talked about the Arizona minutemen article. This article also talks about Cesar Chavez and how he was no more tolerant of illegal immigration in his day than the minutemen are nowadays. I was shocked to find this out as I had always thought of Chavez as a revolutionary who called for equal rights for his and all races in the United States. He still remains that, but it turns out that he also, reportedly, called immigration officials whenever there was an illegal immigrant found working in the fields (Chavez was president of the United Farm Workers Union). It even seems that he helped to organize a 'wet line' to stop illegals from coming into the U.S. This turned bloody and violent and seems to echo through past as a reminder of what can happen when those not OFFICIALLY appointed to a position will handle the power (coughMINUTEMENcough). We also watched Los Trabajadores (2001), which explores the topic of illegal immigration and day laborers in Austin, Texas, through the story of two of them, Juan and Ramon. 

Brady