Cleveland Indian Post

This article and pictures is about how Native Americans and other racial groups get stereotyped. The Native Americans are made into mascots and “collectibles.” I remember hearing something about this and how the Native people were upset that their heritage is being used as symbols for colleges. There are many schools that have native team names. Miami University of Ohio used to be called the (Redskins) but then had to change their name to the Redhawks.

This article can be related to that of the movie that we watched in class called Ethnic Notions which describes the stereotypes and how blacks were depicted as characters. These pictures of the Indians are used to show all the different races. This kind of pictures and memorabilia is sold all over the country. You can see people wearing these logos on their shirts and it means nothing to them about Native Americans but only because it is their team. The Indians just feel that they are being made fun of and stereotyped. In Ethnic Notions the blacks were shown as dark, with very white lips, and savage looking and that is how the Native Americans feel they are depicted. All the mascots are dressed up as warriors and mean looking. It could also be more the moral value like I mentioned earlier about how very few if any people really wear the Indian logo because they care about what happened to them, but they just buy the merchandise to support their team.

I can see where the Native people are coming from. I mean people don’t really know why they wear the Indian logo just that it is their team and they support them. Personally, I am not a fan of a team that has an Indian mascot but I know plenty of people who are and I’ve seen plenty of their collectible items. I it will be interesting to see what happens in the future with this issue.

presentation plan

http://nmmstream.net/lccr/housing2.mov
The item I am using for my presentation is dealing with media #5. It is a commercial that is linked with the URL above. It is about discrimination.

Media #10

http://www.brookings.edu/articles/1999/spring_useconomics_sawhill.aspx
This article discusses whether or not America is still the land of opportunity. It talks about how income is less evenly distributed than it was 20-30 years ago. The author states “So the perceived fairness of the process is critical, and the rules governing who wins and who loses matter as much as the outcomes they produce”. This is a very good point. It is necessary that the rules are equal for everyone or we wouldn’t be the land of opportunity. If we made the rules different for each group then not everyone would have the same chance. Say that one group is only allowed to get the highest status of manager of a store, but another could be the president. It wouldn’t be equal or fair to have different expectations of one group over another. The land of opportunity needs to have equal opportunities for everyone who wants to come here.
An article that relates to the above article is by Loewen. The author states “stressing how middle-class we all are is particularly problematic today, because the proportion of households earning between 75 percent and 125 percent of the median income has fallen steadily since 1967” (203). Both authors agree that the income is falling. It may not be a good thing that the income distribution is dropping because that means more people are getting more money while other people are losing money. If we are the land of opportunity we should be a place where people can come to do what they want and make money. It may not be exactly what people want to do when they first come here, but there is work involved when someone wants to do something they want. The land of opportunity does not mean that people can sit around and do nothing. People have to work for what they want and it may not always be easy work. As a country, we have tried to provide jobs to many, many people, but may not have always succeeded because things do come up that create a problem, such as September 11th.
I think that we as a country have tried to allow jobs to many people. As much as I wish it could happen that we wouldn’t have to work for our money and could lie around, it most likely never will happen like that. It is hard work, usually, to get where you want to go and it’s important to keep trying and to never give up.

Media #9

http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_hate.jsp?id=603
This article is about how Target has recently put new items on their shelves. A man who had been shopping in the store was attracted to a pair of red shorts he found on the rack. He saw the “88” symbol on the shorts and was immediately shocked. He knew what the “88” meant and he was surprised to see them in Target. The symbol stands for “Heil Hitler”. The man immediately reported this to the store manager in Sacramento because they had not been so quick to pick up on what it meant. The manager just told the man that they keep whatever the head person of the company sends them, and that was that. When the man had sent a letter to the head of Target, he was disappointed. The head replied “We recognize not all of our guests will agree with our decision to sell certain kinds of merchandise,” wrote a Guest Relations employee identified only as “Eileen.””. She continued to say it was the guests’ choice to purchase the merchandise. This article is showing that the man who found the merchandise was offended because of what was written on the article of clothing.
A related article is the one written by McBride. It details why the author doesn’t like the company Abercrombie and Fitch. The author writes, “Abercrombie and Fitch has devised a very clear marketing and advertising strategy that celebrates whiteness- a particularly privileged and leisure class whiteness…” (66). It is interesting that the author would write this because it agrees with the man from Target. Both of them don’t like the idea that certain clothing is targeted toward certain people. Everyone should be able to wear what they want without feeling weird or different because they aren’t dressed like their friends. It is hard to keep up with fashion on all the time. With some people also wearing symbols on their clothing and not knowing what it means could hurt other people who do know what it means, like the shorts from target. It can be offensive to certain groups of people if another group is supposedly “wearing their clothes”. Yes, clothes do make a person who they are, but people should not b e put down based on what they are wearing.
I personally feel it is people’s choice to wear what they want to wear. I wear flat billed hats, which are generally targeted toward black people. I like wearing the hats and it makes me different from other people and I like it. There should be no discrimination against people who want to wear what they want and no certain clothing should be targeted toward a certain group.

media #8

http://0-proquest.umi.com.maurice.bgsu.edu/pqdweb?index=9&did=1238694771&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1206637284&clientId=3340
This article from Ethnic Newswatch talks about how there is a lot of violence going around in our schools. One interesting story that the article mentions is about how a teacher at a high school was beaten by a couple of his students. The teacher had recently taken away one of the students iPods during class. Both students then afterward beat the high school teacher up. After the beating, he was taken to the hospital with two broken bones in his neck and will need surgery to help correct the problems with his vertebrae. It is so interesting that a child, who had his iPod taken away during class, would do such a thing. The student shouldn’t have had it in class in the first place and the teacher probably took it away because he wasn’t paying attention in class. The article continues and talks about how people are being watched on video cameras and they don’t care because they still continue to do what is wrong even if they know they can get caught. The article states, “Serial robbers throw hot coffee in the faces of convenience store clerks in full view of video cameras, and get away with it time after time”. People continue to do stupid things and should not get away with it because it is causing harm to our society.
The article written by Kimmel and Mahler relates well to violence in schools. The article states, “using such an approach to interpret the various that led up to each of the shootings, we find that a striking similarity emerges between the various cases. All or most of the shooters had tales of being harassed…” (115). It is very true that most violence is caused from harassment. People want to get back at the people who caused them pain. No one wants to sit around while people make fun of them or put them down for something they believe in or do. There should be an outlet for these people to go to, so they can talk about their problems without hurting others. The people doing the harassing are not the only people who are harmed in violence because everyone around the violence is harmed. These two pieces of work agree that there is a lot of violence going on in our society. Something needs to be done about the violence because it is getting out of control.
I think that the violence could stem from video games or parents who are not paying attention to their kids. There is a lot of violence in video games these days and children who are younger and younger see this violence and think its okay. Parents also need to talk to their kids about things that are going on in their life. It would be beneficial if children knew they had their parents to talk to.

Media #7

http://www.blacksandjews.com/Top15Crimes.html
This article is about how blacks get blamed for things that they have not done or had no control over. It mainly talks about the top fifteen cases that blacks or a single black person has been wrongly accused or blamed, when in fact they were innocent and actually committed by whites. The article explains how ever since the white race has begun they have blamed the Black Man for their wrong doings or bad acts. The Boston Tea Party was used as an example where in fact white people disguised themselves as Indians which is not considered a black person, but the idea of pinning the white man’s actions on another race so we do not look bad.
This article can be related to Johnson piece that talks about blaming the victim. In Johnson’s writing he explains or writes the ways the white race blames blacks by saying “if they were only smarter or worked harder they would be ok” (110). To go back to what I was talking about earlier with the top fifteen some examples would be Scottsboro Boys in 1931, JFK’s Assassination, Central park jogger, and the Charles Stuart case. In the Scottsboro Boy’s case a women accused nine black boys of raping her and they were given a life sentence. She then confessed that they were not the rapist but her confession did not change their sentence. The fifteen cases are not the only ones in our history there are plenty more that have been both documented and undocumented. I guess you can say it is easy to blame the “black man” for a crime because in the public eye it is not unusual. People now days may not expect it but do not see it as a shock when a black man or a colored man is charged with a crime. The white race tries so hard to look as the superior and not ever doing anything wrong, that they will go to the extent of putting other people’s lives in jeopardy to cover their own. It is almost kind of said that our world has come to the point where we just care about the “me” and not the “we.” Our world or maybe just our nation is so self oriented that we will go to any extent to get ahead of the game or to stay out of trouble so that we can keep moving forward.
I felt this article to be very interesting and easy to relate to. I have seen this happen plenty of times on the news and also I have recently learned about this kind of behavior in sociology. We learned that people would do some violent acts for money and just blame a black person so that it would cover them up and it wouldn’t look like that big of a shock to the public eye. I have always felt that if you are going to commit a crime or deviant act that you should be prepared for the consequences and not try to let someone else who may be innocent take your punishment.

Media #6

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199908/student-stereotype
This article is about a man who went back to a college near where he went and gave a speech about stereotypes. He talked about how blacks are less privileged because of who they are. The author speaks “But virtually all aspects of underperformance—lower standardized-test scores, lower college grades, lower graduation rates—persist among students from the African-American middle class. This situation forces on us an uncomfortable recognition: that beyond class, something racial is depressing the academic performance of these students.” The author is referring to how black students aren’t doing as well as white or other races because there is something that deals with their race that is bothering them to not perform to their best ability with academics. Many blacks are given negative stereotypes before anyone gets to know them.
Loewen writes in the article Red Eyes about stereotypes. He refers to past times and movies that portray the olden days. He states “our textbooks do not teach against the archetype of the savage Indian that pervades popular culture. On the contrary, textbooks give very little attention of any kind to Indian wars. As a result, my college students still come up with “savage” when I ask them for five adjectives that apply to Indians. Like much of our “knowledge” about Native Americans, the “savage” stereotype comes particularly from Western movies and novels, such as the popular “Wagons West” series by Dana Fuller Ross” (117). These stereotypes don’t just relate to the Native Americans, Indians, and black people. Everyone is stereotyped in their own way. Chinese, Asians, and people of Middle Eastern decent are commonly seen as very intelligent. Mexicans are viewed as field workers, such as tomato pickers. People are given stereotypes even if they aren’t anything like where they come from or look like where they came from. I am Mexican and many people don’t know that and would not put me into that category because I am both Mexican and Caucasian and look Caucasian. Tiger Woods is also bi-racial. He is black and Asian, but most people do not realize this because he looks completely like a black person and no one would say he’s Asian if they just saw him walking down the street. People shouldn’t give other people stereotypes before have met the person.
I think stereotypes have caused a problem in society today. It prevents people from getting jobs and allowing them to do other things that may benefit him. People need to take into consideration who the person is as a person and not what they look like.

Media #5

http://nmmstream.net/lccr/housing2.mov
This commercial is about how a man calls an apartment complex realtor looking for an apartment advertised in a newspaper. He calls in different accents asking to rent the apartment, but is denied every time. The man then uses an educated, sophisticated white man accent and a traditional white man’s name. He is immediately offered the chance to come look at the apartment, but is shocked to notice he was denied every other time. The voice-over at the end of the commercial talks about if a person has been discriminated against while trying to get a new house, they should report it because it is illegal. It also gives information about where to call to report this violation.
Stigmas are placed on people who are thought to be different than the norm. Sometimes people are given stigmas even though they may not be true. Most stigmas are bad and do not benefit the person. Stigmas may prevent a person from getting the job they want, or in this case the apartment complex they are interested in renting. This relates to Rosenblum and Travis when they talk about stigmas. The authors state “those who are judged superior to virtue of their membership in some acceptable category are given more opportunity to prove their worth: those who are judged less worthy by virtue of membership in a stigmatized category have difficulty establishing their merit no matter what they do” (28). This quote goes along with what was said earlier. People are placed into certain groups because of who they appear to be on the outside. Stigmas can harm a person when they are trying to better themselves. Like in the commercial, the same man who used different accents was only given the opportunity to see the apartment when he used the traditional voice. It was the same man, but because he used a different voice, he was stigmatized to be someone bad. We as a society, look at people who are not like us as “outsiders” or potentially dangerous. Ever since September 11th we as a society have stigmatized more than we used to.
I personally feel that stigmas should be removed from people. Even though it is hard to not look at someone and judge them, we shouldn’t do it. It is better to get to know someone before we judge them because for all we know, they could end up being a great friend when at first we saw them as the enemy.

Media #4

This image is caricature of a black person and how they were portrayed by the media back in the old days. It gives you this sense that these people do not even look human. The features are blown out of proportion and they are made as like a joke. I chose this picture because it is an example of what Ethnic Notions the movie we watched in class explained.
This picture is an example of how black people were portrayed to look like “freaks” or non human. The blacks were depicted as something different and because it was always in the media this is how a person who maybe had never seen a black person thought of them this way. The sayings that go around this picture are kind of described in a lustful way as if this is how the black person was. Their features were always over emphasized such as; the eyes were always bulging out, their lips were usually some sort of color (white) to make them look bigger, their hair always seemed to be a mess, and their skin color was usually a very dark black. This can also relate to the slavery pictures and how they were always depicted as happy and cheerful. This was the case so people didn’t object to slavery. Also this occurred mostly for children but in this picture to, they are shown to be child like and savage looking. Cartoons such as my example were a big part and probably the most influential media of that time. Yes it may have made people laugh, but once they saw that everyday especially if they have never come in contact with a person of color they would begin to believe it. Most of the time we as humans take things for face value and especially on topics that we don’t know or are uncertain of. The cartoons could play a big role because it could either get people to object to something or favor it based on the way that subject was portrayed. I believe that some of the main reasons for these caricatures of blacks was to not only show that they were different but also to get people to believe that they were born to be slaves. When the slaves were shown as happy and joyful it made others think that maybe this is not such a bad thing for them and that we are actually doing them a favor.
I guess I can’t really say weather I like this picture or dislike this picture because of the way time has changed. I mean back then the designer of this picture knew what he or she was doing and the message they were trying to send, but today it can be taken that way but it can also be taken as a joke. I might not be right about that but that is how I feel. To go along with that I mean cartoons are ok as long as you keep things in perspective, but when you as the person know the meaning that you are trying to send and you put that out there it is wrong.

Media #3

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/NEWS16/802010384

This article was about how three former employees of the mayor of Toledo’s office got fired. There was this whole process and accusing, but it came down to the mayor firing a women because she was black along with two other people who supported her (they were also black). I chose this article because it fits with Johnson’s idea of deny and minimize, blame the victim.
This article is a perfect example of how a person denies the fact that he is laying off a three people because of their color. This lady was laid off because of her color and to cover up the mayor claimed that she was fired due to her siding with a case that the mayor strongly opposed. This article shows that this racial issue occurs everywhere and it is sad that it happens in the workplace. So many times you see someone not getting because of their color, where there from, where they live, or even what sex they are. People everyday people do the, deny and minimize thing because most of us are observers and we realize that it is there but we just watch it happen. Also some people or the privileged try to define for other people what is happening for them, as if they are in there shoes. Also what usually comes out of this is the fact that the people who do the firing because of color in the workplace try to find some other way to hide it and make it look like it’s not a big deal. There have probably be countless times where a person of color is fired and the boss may point out the smallest thing they do wrong and claim that as their reason of firing them so they do not look racist. Johnson calls this blaming the victim. Another way of putting it would be how someone gets off the “hook” because he or she claims that it is entirely the persons of color fault. Just to put this in perspective to I have experienced first hand that this denying of color can also go towards the whites to. I played football and we had blacks on my team and I loved them all like brother, but for some reason it seemed that our coaches who were all white babied them. It always seemed that they were not as hard on them as they were on the rest of the kids. Now when I heard a parent confront one of my coaches about it he denied the fact that color had anything to do with it. When in reality he felt sorry for them and believed they needed special attention. I also want to add that all of the black kids came from well off families so it’s not like they came from a bad part of town.
I found this article to be very interesting and true. So many times you see this happen in the work place and it is especially eye catching when you think the leader of your city who probably preaches about equality does it him or her self. It goes to show you that anybody is capable of doing it and it can happen at any level of work.

Media #2

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/men_and_masculinity/masculinity_stereotypes.cfm

This article is about how a mans masculinity is stereotyped by the media. Some examples are the joker, the jock, the strong silent type, the big shot and action hero. I chose this article because I believe it tells the truth about how men are suppose to look, act , and feel according to the media.

This article can relate to the movie Ethnic Notions that we watched in class not for the race issue but how certain people/sex is portrayed in the media. According to the media a man should be strong both mentally and physically. He should not have to rely on anybody else to solve his problems. This is a perfect example of how media can affect the way we are suppose to act and look. It is pounded into peoples a mans brain that if you do not live up to this certain criteria than you are not a “man.” You always see in commercials well fit men that are happy and they have a great life. The lives of men are almost placed in order for you as you grow up. Basically you should be a healthy man who makes a good living to support a family, someone who doesn’t show a lot of emotion, and the one who can save the day. Commercials make it look so easy but they forget the very important thing that alters our course daily and that is life. Life throws us a lot of curveballs and if we can not solve you can not solve them by yourself then you are looked upon as weak or not masculine. If a person is depicted as something and it is out in the media long enough, then people will start to believe it even though that might not be the case for everyone. I guess probably the most important thing that can change the way people look at you or to achieve masculinity is by being successful. We have to accept the fact that this country is based on how successful you are. If you have success or money than you can change the way your personal image is viewed. For example if you are someone in a wheelchair and live a normal or poor life than you are viewed as someone who can’t take care of themselves. But on the other hand if you achieve success than the disability factor is kind of pushed under the rug and you are viewed as a strong person because you overcame the odds instead of just feeling sorry for yourself. This view of masculinity can be very overwhelming and the bar is set so high that a majority of us fail. I believe that we should not be looked down upon if we lack a few of the characteristics because we are not the same; we are individuals who have different goals. I found this article to very interesting and true. There is such a high standard for men to succeed and you feel the effects of that on a daily basis. Men are not suppose to be emotional and if you do lack a certain quality society sees you as a weak person. I guess one of the biggest obstacles would be body image. A man should be a well fit and healthy man and society will let you know if you do not fit into that category and it hurts sometimes. This kind of pressure can lead people down a path of violence or cheating in order to achieve the goal.

Media #1

Abstract (Summary)
http://0-proquest.umi.com.maurice.bgsu.edu/pqdweb?index=0&did=348264411&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1203002367&clientId=3340

The article is about how blacks are portrayed in the media. The article states that blacks are shown as both people who have achieved success and those of deviance. And it attempts to show how we should use more effective ways to address the racial issues. I chose this article because it relates to the movie that we watched in class The Power of Illusion and the Rosenblum and Travis article. The power of illusion in its self creates an image to those who may not know the subject matter or because that certain material is in the media, people begin to believe it.

You can make many connections between this article and that of the movie The Power of Illusion because they both in their own way talk about how media affects the way people are perceived. Also it addresses the idea that race is an illusion because we think that people are different just because of what is on the outside. The movie states that there has to be some biological evidence that distinguishes between the races. Race is external not internal. Its perception is created by us and how we use it to separate certain types of people. In fact in the movie that we watched a teacher did this experiment with his class that would show that a DNA make up may not differ that much from one race to another. For example one of the white kids thought that he would be in most relation to another white person in his group when actually his DNA matched up closer with that of some other race. This is not to say that this is the case in everybody, but it puts it into perspective that there is no biological answer to this idea of race. This article can also relate to the Rosenblum and Travis article because in their article it talks about how a census is used to distinguish between races or stereotypes. For an example the census might say black, white, Latino, and Asian which in fact you might be more than one but what ever your outward appearance is, that is how you are seen by others. It also classifies people into large groups such as all of the people that live or were born in Asia are Asian, when in fact there are many different types of races over there that we have decided to clump together to form one giant race. And it does not just stop with that plenty of others are involved. Again it just shows that any type of media can influence people’s perception.

I found this article to be interesting and thought provoking. It makes you realize how much media can affect the way we see things. Especially as a young person when you take a lot of things for face value. It is embedded into your thought process that this is how things are and depending on your race these are your “privileges” or the behavior that you should have.