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