Afro-Native Americans

This week we were reading about Afro-Native Americans. Those are people who have a Native American blood, as well as African blood. There are a great number of people in America that fit this description, like Andre 3000 and Ludacris. Those are celebrities, but regular people that are a part of this group sometimes have a hard time because some tribes don't like if their are Afro-Native American people trying to join. They want everyone to have a certain amount of blood in them to be a part of the tribe. I don't think that is right and it should change. Everyone should be able to participate in their heritage if they want to.

Afro-Latinos

In class Dr. Diaz made us think of Afro-Latino celebrities. There are a lot and sometimes you can't even tell that they are of Latino decent. Some celebrities that are Afro-Latinos are Marion Jones, Mariah Carey, Zoe Saldana, and the list goes on. There are so many people in America that fit in this category. They have interesting live as well. They can relate to both sides of their culture and not a lot of people can do that.

Media Parallels

There are many parallels in the way the media portrays people. I turned on the television and there was a commercial on showing a Black women advertising a beauty product. Later, there was another commercial about a beauty product, but this time with a Latina woman. Both of the women had full lips and were advertising something about making them look more radiant and not dull. At that point I realized that there are many similarities between the way that Blacks and Latinos are depicted in America and by the media, specifically in television and film. Those two commercials were just one of the many ways that the media uses to portray the minority cultures.

Everyday information provided by the media is subconsciously put into the minds of the millions of viewer. One is supposed to trust the media to enlighten them on issues currently going on in the country and harmless entertainment. With that trust people put in the media, they are more inclined to believe everything that the media feeds them, negative or positive. In today’s society, the media pretty much raises the youth, so whatever the media portrays is getting carried on to the next generation automatically. The media has been influencing the population about ethnicities for years now. They tend to make it seem like all of the minorities are inferior and have negative traits. It seems like they are promoting racism by saying all of the minorities are negative in society. With all of the power the media has, it results in making all but the European culture seem lesser in society. All of the information needs to change from what it is currently projecting. The similarities are seen throughout television and movies. They want to put all the minorities in the same category, which is just a way to hold them down and make the European culture superior.

Critics of this would say that the media doesn't portray minorities in a negative light because of shows like Roots and The Cosby Show. Also their are movies that make fun of whites as well and not just blacks. There still is a hidden agenda for sure though. I don't think this is a good thing at all. The media shouldn't be this way because it is deceiving and giving the wrong impression about cultures in America. All minorities are not the same and every one's history and culture should be celebrated. The government or someone should stop this immediately because this is teaching society the wrong things and everyone is important to America.

Sources:

Balkaran, Stephen. "Mass Media and Racism." Yale University. Web. 8 Feb. 2012. .

"Television and Family-The Portrayal Of Family On Television." Television and Family. Web. 8 Feb. 2012. Family-Portrayal-Family-on-Television.html>.

Native American Culture

Another reading that we read was about Native Americans. They talked about the Disney film Pocahontas. It was telling about how the Disney movie was very different from the real story. In the Disney movie, Pocahontas falls in love with the white man. In the real story Pocahonatas was a young woman that saved the white man and he ended up raping her. That is a way people change history. Also in the reading they talked about a man that dressed up his kids in Native American outfits and stood outside of stores with them for money. He made enough money to send them through college. I don't know if that's a good idea, but that goes to show you the stereotypes of how America portrays Native American's and how ridiculous it is. I think that everyone in America should learn about the real history and culture of Native Americans and start to recognize it for what it is.

Source:

Bird, S. Elizabeth. "Introduction:Constructing the Indian, 1830s-1990s."

Black Culture

We read a piece by Stuart Hall about Cornell West's essay. The main point of the essay was how need to find our black identity and learn our culture. Black culture is how we the music we make, our writings, the way we dress, where we come from, and just overall how we present ourselves. He says that there is no better time than now to do it. America is not just comprised of European culture because every race has some influence on the culture.

We are in a period of post racism so people get the impression that all ethnicities are the same now or try to weed out the differences so that is why we have to know our identity as blacks. Cultural hegemony is the enemy that is against us learning about our culture. Which means the superior European culture wants their culture to be the popular one. As black people we need to look past that and learn our culture and not the European culture that America really presents to us. Also America tries to neutralize all of the cultures in America.

So Cornell West says we need to learn what the American government has tried to keep us from knowing about our culture because it is very important to know yourself. If you don't know yourself than you won't know how to progress and move forward as a people and that is also one of the reasons the American government tries to keep it from us.

Source:

Hall, Stewart. "What is this "Black" in Popular Culture?"

Extra Credit

I went to see the movie Pariah staring Adepero Oduye and it was very interesting. It was about a teenage lesbian girl Alika and all of the troubles she encounters because of she is a homosexual. Throughout the movie Alika is faced with problems that ranged from trouble with her self-identity to issues with the marriage of her parents. I couldn’t really relate to this movie that much, but it was still a good and interesting story. Even with all of that I still found the plot to be capturing. It wasn't hard for me to pay attention to the movie. I would recommend this movie to anyone. Especially if they have any trouble with confidence or their identity.

Banned Book

In Tucson, Arizona the book Rethinking Columbus was banned by a school district. The Tucson Unified School District ordered that teachers remove the book from their classroom as a result of a vote by the school board's vote to abolish the Mexican American Studies program. This was very surprising because Rethinking Columbus is Rethinking Schools' top selling book and over the years many school districts from cities around the United States have purchased the book for their students. It offers teaching strategies and readings that teachers can use to help students consider perspectives that are often silenced in the traditional curriculum.

I don't know why this school district would ban this book or try to abolish Mexican American Studies altogether because it is important for everybody to know about their history. There shouldn't be people dictating what someone has a right to learn about. It would be like the equivalent of getting rid of any other history in schools. It is not the right thing to do. The only reason I can even imagine the school district doing this is because they think that Mexican American Studies is not important to learn and they could use that time to teach something else. In my opinion history is just as important as any other discipline and we all could benefit from learning not only the history of ourselves but others as well.

In conclusion, it is not a good idea to get rid of this book and Mexican American Studies. Everyone was a right to know about his or her history and someone should not be able to regulate that. Everyone's history is important and it makes you think that maybe they are trying to cover something up. From a psychological perspective it could raise their confidence to know about their culture. What ever they are trying to accomplish by removing this program from the schools I don't think it is the smart thing to do.

African American Borders

I think that Gloria Anzaldua's theory of borders can apply to many different situations and groups of people, including the African American community. Anzaldua says that borders are set up to define places that safe and unsafe. She also said, do not enter, trespassers will be raped, maimed, strangled, gassed, shot. I am from Chicago and this really reminds me of how the black communities are there. If you are in the neighborhood where you grew up, then you are safe and you are made to believe that every other community is unsafe or worse than yours, whether it is true or not. So if you are from one neighborhood and enter another one, it may be unsafe because nobody knows you. So essentially there are borders throughout the black community in Chicago. It is not just like that in Chicago, it happens in black communities all around America.

Also borders can be crossed in an ethnical way. For example, Barack Obama and Mariah Carey are half black and white, but have not really claimed an ethnicity. They both are closer with the African American community. The media treats both of them like they are African American. They are both married to African American people. As a result they are seen as black. So there are borders that can be crossed in the African American community.

In conclusion, there are many borders that can be crossed. I doesn’t matter who you are or what ethnicity you are, there is always some type of border. These are just a few ways that borders affect African Americans.

Source:

Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera