The student in the video brings up an interesting point about the popular television show South Park. She mentions how a group of Muslims threatened the creators of South Park because of the Mohammed reference that was made. I have not seen the episode, or many South Park episodes for that matter, but I know that the show makes fun of many different types of people. I saw an episode that targeted Jews, and no one heard about a group of Jews threatening the creators of the popular television series.
If South Park was known to just make fun of or poke fun at Muslims then I would understand the reasons for the group of people to get upset about the show. However, this is not the case. The show does not target one specific group; it has a variety of targets and just tries to be humorous by enhancing stereotypes about certain groups of people.
It is true that many Americans fear and hate all Muslims because of a select few of terrorists that are Muslim. This fact would be there regardless of the show being aired. I do not believe that a person saw the episode and all of a sudden developed a fear or hatred for Muslims. The goal of the show is not to hurt people and make them upset; it just has the intent of making people laugh. I am sure that people have been offended by the show, and they possibly stopped watching the show. There are also people that probably get offended but just laugh it off because this person knows the lack of seriousness that the show consists of.
Sam mentioned that he is a fan of this show. This does not surprise me. Sam is all about speaking your mind and he does not believe in political correctness. The first day of class he told us that political correctness does not exist in his class. South Park is by no means anywhere near politically correct and some people do not like that. The people that are offended or insulted by the material on the silly cartoon should realize that it is a show that does not “follow the rules”. It takes a level of maturity to watch these parody television programs. I know that when I was younger my parents would not let me watch these shows and it is understandable. A little kid watching the crude humor might get the wrong idea and take the show seriously and believe everything that is stated on the episode. I believe that the group of Muslims that were offended by the episode do not understand the concept of South Park and if they saw other episodes that made fun of several other groups of people, then they would not be threatening the creators.

I agree with the student’s statement in this video clip. There is so much more to women than what they look like. A skinny, model-like girl who is extremely pretty would automatically be targeted as “dumb”. Why? Because people do not see deeper than looks. There is no reason why the beautiful girl cannot be a 4.0 student with exceptional credentials. Like Sam said in class, less than one percent of genome is what a person physically looks like on the outside. Looks should not matter as much as they do in the world, but unfortunately they do.
Women are in a way pressured to look a certain way based off what society thinks as “right”. Who decided what was right and why do so many people follow it? This question is difficult to answer, but in reality it does not matter why; it just matters that it is the way it is and it is wrong and upsetting. In Laurie’s play, the girl wanted to reduce her breast size because that was what society was pushing for in the play. Hooters girls were mentioned to be flat chested and the girl in the performance wanted to be like the girls that get all the guys and be flat chested as well. This is a perfect example of society sculpting how women perceive their body images. The play showed the silliness of how easily influenced girls are, and showed how body images change depending on what is considered to be “acceptable”.
So many women struggle with body image and I believe that Hollywood is at large to blame. In the video clip, the student mentioned that all types of women are portrayed in Hollywood films. I do not agree with that statement. Yes, there are some larger women in movies and television shows, but more times than not, the bigger actresses are targeted with ridicule in one way or another in the certain Hollywood production. Has there ever been a girl that did not have a “perfect” body on a Cosmo magazine? I do not think so, and if the company ever did publish a bigger girl on their cover, there would without a doubt be articles all about how it’s “okay” that she is a bigger girl and that she is comfortable with it. But why would that have to be pointed out?
Main stars in a Hollywood film, along with the actors who are not the center of the attention, are all usually extremely attractive. That is not real life. Hollywood does not portray real life people, it just makes real life people think that they should live up to and look that perfect at all times. I believe that Hollywood is the reason to blame for distorted body images because there is no reason for so many girls to feel less superior than those on the big screen.

I think that the question of anyone changing their opinion is answered differently for everyone. There will always be people that are too stubborn or too narrow minded to take Sam’s points into consideration; there will also be those people who do not think for themselves and accept Sam’s ideas for their own without second thought. Personally, I would not say that Sam changed my views or feelings towards race, but he definitely made me open my eyes and realize certain things that I do. Before I took this class, I never realized the extent of “white supremacy”. I never realized that my white skin gave me so many benefits in life. This fact probably has a lot to do with the area I am from. I am from a predominately white area so the “advantage” of my skin never really stood out or was a factor in my life. On the other side of being raised in my area, I do not look at blacks differently or negatively just because I did not grow up around people of the race.
Besides white supremacy, another big topic that stands out to me from class is the slavery issue. I have heard of the children working to make Nike sneakers, but I admit to buying Nike sneakers, and even wearing them now. As I type I realize the hypocrisy and wrongness in supporting the company. There is nothing I can say to defend my actions; I know it is wrong but unfortunately I also know that I will probably buy another pair of these sneakers. Walmart is another company that I heard about using cheap laborers to make supplies. Besides what I heard about child labor, I never heard it be called slavery. It never crossed my mind that the children were actually slaves. This is a huge issue that is pushed aside and not discussed. It is something that more people should be aware of, but is silenced and avoided by people, therefore not educating people of the horrible issue. Awareness needs to be spread about this. People are too ignorant to believe that it is actually occurring, or they are too insensitive to even care.
Disposable People is probably one of the most educational and heartbreaking books I have ever read. It really opened my eyes to what is going on in the world today, and made me realize that slavery was not abolished hundreds of years ago, but it actually got unimaginably worse. I do not know what I can personally do about the situation, but I recommended the book to all of my friends and family to read. I brought it home over spring break for my family to read and see what is going on. Awareness about the issue is a step in the right direction and hopefully we can take it from there to improve the situation even more.

For this blog I was a little bit confused by the posted video. I was not quite sure what the student meant when she asked if we can ever “win”. First of all by the girl asking if “we” can win, I am assuming she meant black and brown people since she is that race. By this question, what is she trying to “win”? Win blending into white society? Win individuality? Regardless of what was implied or meant by this question, it is for sure that people will have issues with anything that is the least bit controversial. By using the word “controversial” I am not claiming that black people in the LLBean catalog is controversial, but that some people just look for something to be offended by and jump to accusations and conclusions. Why can’t black people wear LLBean without there being uproar? It is just another stereotype out there. A stereotype that black people dress “ghetto” and not preppy, like in the catalog.

When Sam first pointed out the catalog, I immediately thought of the 90s sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Carlton’s character. Carlton is a black character that dresses very preppy and not “ghetto” like his cousin Will. He constantly gets made fun of for his choice of clothing. This is because of the stereotype. There is no reason why a race should have a certain way they are supposed to dress. The black models in the catalog should not be considered “questionable” people of color. That is absolutely ridiculous.

People are commenting negatively on LLBean for having black models in their catalogs since the brand name is traditionally a white magazine and company. If the company did not have black models in the catalog, I am sure that people would be commenting on that fact, claiming that the catalog is being racist for not including black people in the catalog. This might be where the student’s question of a “win” came from. By “win”, it could mean pleasing everybody, which is obviously impossible. There are so many opinions and thoughts out there that somebody will always be offended.

Personally, I did not think twice when Sam first showed the catalog. I didn’t realize that the black people were “out of character” or “questionably” black for being in there. I am not sure what “stage” that puts me in, but I am sure that there are many people in class that had the same reaction as I did. I can understand why this student was particularly offended by the topic in class. She is a black girl being told how she should not dress. I do not mean that Sam is implying the stereotype, but he also mentioned how he never sees black people wear shorts, another generalization. If Sam mentioned that all white girls crave designer clothing, I would be offended because that is not me at all. You cannot generalize and group a race together as a whole, because everyone is so completely different, regardless of skin color.

“A Girl Like Me” was a shocking video. I never would have thought that the black children would chose to play with the white doll over the black doll. I assume that the black children had black dolls of their own at home, so I was very confused. I do not see black parents buying a white doll for their child to play with, so this study baffled me. I was thinking about it a lot and trying to figure out why this might have happened. In class, Sam asked around the room and some answers made it kind of make sense.
One black girl in class stated how she always wanted the white Barbie over the black Barbie. She mentioned how the white one had prettier features and better clothes. Was this done on purpose by the doll making company? Was the company trying to make the white doll superior to the black doll? This is a question that only the makers can answer, but it is something to think about in the back of your mind.
A boy in class stated how television Disney is somewhat to blame for the choice of doll color that was made. On the television, there are predominantly white princesses and heroes on all the children TV shows. Disney just came out with a movie starring a black princess this year. It took them years to finally do this. Again the question of racism can be asked just like in the Barbie doll case. Was Disney being racist in choosing to not develop a black princess until now? Was the successful company bombarded with angry Disney fans who wanted black children to have a princess that looked like they did? These are all very interesting topics. I personally do not believe that the corporations and companies did this act out of spite. The companies were started years ago in a white powered world. There were probably very few, if any, black people working for Barbie or Disney when it first started. This, however, does not hold true today now that the country is less racially divided. Due to this fact, it puzzled me why it took so long for Disney to have a black princess in one of their childhood movies.
What was the most disturbing about the video was that one little black girl was asked to picked “bad” doll and chose the black doll. Immediately after that question, she was asked to pick the doll that looked like her and she chose the same doll. This may imply that the little girl perceives herself as “bad” for being black. With segregation years ago, the first version of this experiment isn’t that surprising, but for the same results to happen this day in age is very disturbing. Hopefully in a few years this experiment is re conducted with less disturbing results.

I agree with the student talking about changing history books. I feel that if the history books and what students are taught at a young age are changed, then people will have a different perspective. I do not mean that the guilt will go away, but there will be a better understanding of what actually happened. Before I started taking Soc119 and Sam explained the history of race, I did not realize or even know that we are all on Native American land. It is a horrible thing and worst genocide in all of history. It is somewhat kept a secret. History books keep information out that should be in there. Are the teachers to blame to? I do not believe that the teachers are that much to blame. It is very possible that the history teachers have absolutely no idea of the mass genocide; they might know but do not realize the extreme of the situation.

Maybe whoever writes the history books has their own opinion about the things that happened in the past. Some history books could be biased to lean towards the author’s point of view. This bias may or may not be there. It is something I never thought about. If a Native American wrote a history book I am sure that the details about the horrible past would be expressed in the book.

When it comes to the idea of guilt, I believe that I do not have a reason to feel guilty. Personally, I did not contribute to the horrible things that happened in the past. By saying I do not feel guilty does not mean that I do not feel bad, because I do. I realize that being white I do have a kind of unearned privilege. Again, I do not feel guilty about this because I did not personally do anything to gain this “superiority”. I also do not walk around with the belief that I am better than other people of different races. I do believe that everything that happened in the past was very wrong and the consequences are completely unfair.

In the blog, Sam mentions the story of walking through a Native American reservation. The first people of this land are the poorest and are living in the worst conditions out of many people. They were completely taken over and kicked out of their territory, wrongfully and unfairly. If I walked through a Native American reservation, I would feel bad for the circumstances that they have to live in and the reasons of why they are in that lifestyle, but once again I do not feel guilty. Some people might think that me, as a white person, not feeling guilty is ignorant, but that is their own personal opinion.

I found this student’s video to be very intriguing. Before I watched the video, I never thought about the subject of the video. I never took time to note that most of the Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants are predominantly white. After I thought some more about the topic, I realized that singer Ray J, who is Black, has his own show where he is looking for a lifelong partner. On this show, Ray J’s contestants are predominately Black. The bachelors on these reality shows more than likely have a say in the contestants and potential partners for themselves. It is all about who he or she is attracted to. Although it may not be politically correct, I personally am not attracted to people outside of my race. This probably applies for the men and women starring in the silly reality show as well.
Does this attraction happen due to subconscious racism? Or maybe past racism that made it socially unacceptable for interracial couples? I think that it is a combination of both of these questions: a subconscious that it is socially unacceptable. For years it was looked down upon for a white and black person to be dating or married. Due to this, over the years people have been dating within their own race, therefore giving individuals a “type.” If racism never existed I truly believe that these reality dating shows would be a mixture of races and no one would have a problem with it.
The Bachelor and Bachelorette are reality shows on abc. This station has been around for years and has been broadcasting through racism years. The station as a whole as predominately white shows and even news anchors. The Black singer Ray J’s reality dating show is not aired on one of the “big” networks such as abc, nbc, and cbs. This particular show is aired on vh1, which has more so called “multicultural” shows on the station. It has more of a variety of shows and a more diverse audience. Younger viewers watch shows on vh1 and as people get younger; the more varied their tastes become because they are not surrounded by evidence of racism.
The question of “Are whites the only people willing to humiliate themselves?” seems inaccurate since the reality shows on other stations such as vh1 and mtv have people of other races on the shows where the contestants make fools of themselves. All of these shows are ridiculous and more than likely more scripted than actual reality. People of all races and backgrounds crave attention and the spot light of his or her five minutes of fame. Just because abc airs a show with all white contestants does not mean that only whites are willing to humiliate themselves, it just means that abc chooses to humiliate whites on its television station.

Some people that view racism and discrimination towards certain groups chose to stand up for the person, while others claim that “it’s not my place.” In class we watched undercover actors in a store. The actors performed a very interesting and thought provoking experiment. A Muslim woman went into the store and was denied service. Some other customers in the store stood up for the woman, while some agreed with the malicious act, however the majority just ignored the activity all together. I think that these people were caught off guard and were in a way in shock. I would not expect that to happen this day and age and to be honest I do not know how I would react in the situation. Obviously if I knew the event was occurring in advance, I’d do the right thing and say my beliefs on how wrong the matter was. The difficulty in this happening out of the blue is that it is so unexpected and requires fast action and thinking. While I was watching the clip, I was thinking, “How can these people not say anything to stand up for the woman?” I later thought more about this and do not think it is that easy to do when you are in the situation.
The first student in the video made a valid point when he mentioned the fact that “nothing’s our place until something happens to us or somebody close to us.” When a person does not experience a hatred act directly or indirectly to him or her, the person tends to not care or be as passionate about the malicious act because they did not experience it firsthand. Without an experience to relate to, a person cannot grasp what has happened, or at least I cannot.
In the second video, the girl talks about freedom of speech. This is what makes our country so great; we can say what we are feeling about a situation without fear of being punished. She also mentions the action of disrespecting people. What happened in the video clip was extremely disrespectful. This was exceptionally evident when the camera crew followed one man and he claimed that the girl was not American. In interviews, Muslim girls said how they were born in America and asked what she had to do to be “American” since being born in the country wasn’t enough for the ignorant man.
For those that feel it is not their place to say anything in defending a person being discriminated against, I believe he or she should think of how he or she would feel if he or she was the one getting discriminated against. I guarantee the person would want all the help and support possible from friendly strangers willing to help out another human being.

With each generation, people are becoming more accepting of lesbian and gay couples. The ridicule and outcast looks will probably never go away, but there is no denying that the idea of same sex couples is becoming more and more accepted. By the acceptance growing, it raises another question. What about children for the couples? There are people that are opposed to the idea all together and people that are all for it, along with people who support gay and lesbian couples, but do not believe that the couple should raise a child. In my opinion, I believe that the child would be ridiculed in school and think that he or she did something wrong or is different. My view on gay and lesbian couples is that I see it to be perfectly fine, but I do not wish to see the couples show any public display of affection. I am aware that that statement is not “correct” but it is how I feel. This is similar to my thought on the couples adopting children because it is not “correct” either. I know that everyone should have an equal opportunity at having the best life they can have, but I just feel that it is not fair to the child when he or she begins school.
Kids in elementary school all the way up to high school are nasty, selfish, rude, and inconsiderate. I do not believe that an innocent child should be put through that ridicule and embarrassment by his or her classmates. The child’s same sex parents could love each other a million times more than a classmate’s straight parents, but that would not stop the adopted child from being made fun of. It is possible that the child could stand up for himself and be strong enough to take the mockery, but the chances are slim. That is all very unfortunate and not fair to anyone, but life is not fair and people are very outspoken and strong on their beliefs, right or wrong.
It is sad that this is how the world is. With each generation and as time passes, same sex couples are being more and more socially acceptable, but I do not see discrimination towards it ever going away. Discrimination will always be there and people will always say or do hurtful things. Over the years, there will be less and less people that have a probljavascript:%20postComment(0);em with same sex relationships and these couples adopting children. Only at this time will the children that are adopted be able to take minimal scorn without a huge affect on the child’s life and emotions. It just seems that at this day in age if a same sex couple adopts a child, they are setting the child up for a life of disrespect and outcast.

The fact that everything is always brought back to race and color of a person’s skin is something that will probably never go away. Discrimination and hatred will never be completely eliminated. Both groups are to blame for this. Some black people bring up the color of their skin when they get blamed for something. In my discussion group a girl told a story about a black male that stole from a store, which is obviously not the right thing to do. The black male was complaining that him and his friends got in trouble due to their skin color. I find that absurd. Stealing is a crime and punishable regardless of a person’s skin color. Because some black people possess this attitude, the conversation is always about black and white.
Another reason of why the fact of one’s skin color is brought up a lot is due to the thought by some white people, or even subconscious thought, that they are superior to black people. This thought stems from past generations. Back when slaves were around and blacks were mistreated and controlled by whites the white population felt superior. This feeling inevitably carried on with each generation, only slightly diminishing with each following generation.
Laurie Mulvey mentions the Civil rights movement. She believes that this movement brought attention to the group and their struggle for equality. Her point that this movement is the reason why the other groups, such as Native Americans, do not have so much attention on their race is an interesting point. I never thought of it that way, but it does make sense. It always comes down to black and white because those are the two groups who have been publically battling for so long. The battle has also created a sense of pride for each race, but more black pride than white pride. It is more common to hear and see black people commenting on the fact of their skin color.
The fact that everything comes back to skin color starts at an early age. I remember in elementary school all the black kids would sit together at lunch. It was like they were “supposed” to be friends just because of their skin color. When a new kid moved to town and he was black, he automatically was welcomed by the black population of the school. I specifically remember when the new black student came to school, another black student high fived his friend and said, “We got another one.” This happened at age 12 which is bizarre to me, but proof that since this starts so young for people, there is even less hope of the battle ending as people grow up. In a sense it is a competition when it shouldn’t be.