Final Post

Overall, this class forced me to look at things through a difference lens.   I never really paid attention to all of the racial inequalities that still exist.  I suppose that might have something to do with being middle class and white (I’m Mexican too but it doesn’t look like I am).  Because I’ve never really experienced racial inequality, I guess I don’t really see it that often.  But this class has made me open my eyes to what other races might face in their everyday lives.  

What really interested me the most was the idea of colorblind racism and naturalization because I never thought of racism as not talking about race.  However, as I’ve learned in this class, not talking about it only makes it worse because that means that nothing is being done to try to breakdown any racial barriers.  All in all I’m really glad I took this class because it forced to think about race and racism, which is something I never fully thought about and discussed before.

The Four Stages

For our research on the role of race in television, Alex and I decided to examine Cedric Clark's four stages of minority representation. In doing so, we were able to identify clear examples of programs that incorporated aspects defined within the four stages. As I got to writing the paper, it became utterly clear just how many aspects of our society today fall under the stages of non-recognition, ridicule, regulation, and respect.

So rather than working on the paper (whoops), I began searching for other research that has been conducted on Clark's stages. As you would imagine, there's a decent amount. But one study really stood out - a study on Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail. Now I must admit that I've never seen any of the Madea films, but I do recall discussing Perry in class as we talked about Spike Lee. Anyhow, what was so interesting about this study was that the researcher, Theodore Harrison III, altered the original four stages in order to fit the portrayal of african americans in Madea. Keeping Clark's name for each stage, Harrison changed the definitions. For example, the respect stage was redefinied as a "Minority criminal characters in question are portrayed no differently than any other racial group in the criminal justice system, true disparity not always readily apparent."

Clearly by what we've talked about in class, our society has yet to arrive at this stage. Just flip on the news and you'll be guaranteed to hear a story about a black man who was shot with some type of details suggesting he was in a gang. But anytime a white man is shot, it's a breaking new stories with little to no emphasis placed on the reason for the shooting. 

It's just scary how these four stages, revised or not, are still applicable today. Clark theorized the four stages in the 1960s - a half century ago, yet we're still sitting here, many of us unfazed by the representation of minorities in pop culture. 

And all that Jazz

Classic jazz scholars argued that jazz created difficulties almost impossible for a white player to overcome.  They said it was impossible for a white man to get the heart of jazz. This has been disputed, but one thing remains clear; jazz was an interracial affair.  Jazz was accepted by both Caucasian and African American audiences which at the time was argued to reflect a decline of racism within US culture. I thought this was similar to how we talked about in class that since we have elected an African American president, scholars argued that we have become post racial.  After taking this class, I realize that we will never be a post racial society, and that's okay.  Race is a part of who we are, how we identified ourselves, and how society perceives us.  It is essential to recognize our differences in order to move past them.  When I say move past them I don't mean that we should forget about them, but we should embrace them, make them our own, and be understanding and accepting of others.  This is highly idealistic, and probably won't ever happen, but a girl can dream can't she? I leave you with one of my favorite jazz tunes.

Louis Armstrong, Hello Dolly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmfeKUNDDYs

Cross Road Blues

In David Brackett’s article Preaching Blues, he explains that blues was about the “cross roads” that evokes both the sin/ salvation dualism between early 20^th century African American South and religious practices. This is best seen in Robert Johnson’s song “Cross Road Blues”.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsB_cGdgPTo)  The song is about the perseverance of beliefs related to neo-African “cult” religions in the Mississippi Delta area.  Blues in this area tapped into the myths portrayed in this culture and gives us some insight into the decompartmentalized view of religion held by those in these communities.

When I listen to the song I hear the story of a man who's society does not see him.  This is because of his race and ethic back round.  He says that the dark is going to catch him and this can be seen as the shadow that is cast on African Americans in the US.  It has also been argued that he is speaking of the road in which young African American men traveled at night between places of work that was especially dangerous and perilous because of their race.

Music in slavery

In Leroi Jone’s book Blues People: Negro Music in White America, he explains that, “Africans were forced into an alien world where none of the references or cultural shapes of any familiar human attitudes were available is the determinant of the kind of existence they had to eke out here.” He explains that slaves retained some parts of African culture and the other part was sculpted by the weight of their situation in America.  He argues that this created a new race.  And this race wanted its own music.  It can be said that the new music reflected the transition of African slaves to African American.  From the beginning, African American music reflected changes in the culture and the culture’s perception of their race.  Their music was a way of giving them identity and demonstrates their reliance to society. Here is the PBS website that does an excellent job and breaking down the different types of slavery music and explaining it's significance in our society. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/education/feature.html

Georgia Tsiabas looking at The Black image in the white mind article

The cultural, economic and social gap between white and black exist still in America today is largely because most white people learn about African-American life through the media, particularly television. According, to Entman and Rojecki who set out to analyze perceptions of race by surveying a wide range of American TV shows in which race is represented, including news broadcasts, dramas and commercials, as well as in Hollywood films. They discovered that overwhelmingly negative portrayals permeate American television. Entman and Rojecki look at how television news focuses on black poverty and crime out of proportion to the material reality of black lives, how black experts are only interviewed for black-themed issues and how black politics are distorted in the news, and conclude that, while there are more images of African-Americans on television now than there were years ago, these images often don't reflect a commitment to the positive behanviors of this particular race but instead reinforces white mind driven stereotypes. Regardless of whether these authors believe in them or not, most people in U.S. society are well aware of the many visceral stereotypes and images surrounding black males. These negative representations of black males especially are readily visible and conveyed to the public through the news, film, music videos, reality television and other programming and forms of media. The typical roles are all too often the black sidekick of a white protagonist, for example, the token black person, the comedic relief, the athlete, the over-sexed ladies' man, the absentee father or, most damaging, the violent black man as drug-dealing criminal and gangster thug. Change can only happen though when the media decides to re-direct its focus of this race to a more positive one instead of creating and continuing the cycle of historic negative stereotypes that they choose to continue to make a false reality within the eyes of media consumers. Remember its not what you do with the media its what the media does to you.

bell hooks

In the “Choosing The Margin As A Space of Radical Openness”, hooks discusses how language shapes and forms who we are.  bell hooks states “it is no easy task to find ways to include our multiple voices within the various texts we create” (p 147).  We change how we speak in order to better fit in.  For instance, the way we talk at home and how we speak at work or school is usually different.  This is problematic because we are taught to believe that there is only one “correct” or “proper” way to speak.  Generally speaking, the appropriate form of communication is “sounding white.”  But we shouldn’t have to sound white in order to be successful.

So what does it mean to be marginalized?  bell hooks states “to be in the margin is to be part of the whole but outside the main body” (p 149).  But hooks sees this in a positive way, a space of resistance.  Because language can have such a huge influence on us, it is important to step away from “the main body” (popular culture) and critically analyze the ideas presented in the media.  Why does the media continue to portray stereotypes?  Why does society as a whole think it’s okay?   We can use various types of social media (YouTube, blogs, etc.) as a way to marginalize ourselves and speak out against these inequities.  It might not create immediate change, but at least it would spark a discussion and maybe get new ideas out there.