Marger

For my last blog post, I wanted to address the Marger text. Personally, I was not a fan of the text. It was too "textbook-y" for the class. I think this class is one that would operate more sucessfully with selected readings. Caucasia and the White Privilege books did MUCH more for me than Marger's chapters ever did. I also really enjoyed the readings you were giving out at the beginning of the semester. Readings with a more artistic sensitivity (not as dry) offer far more insight and are more powerful to us as the reader, and evoke a much more emotional response. The more emotional we feel toward the subject, the more we connect to it and can learn from it. Basically, I don't believe Marger's textbook allowed us to connect with our topics on as deep a level as our other reading had.

See you Friday

Canada

I want to elaborate on the point I made in class regarding Canada. I really do believe one of the chief reasons we don't learn a lot about Canada is due to its progressive nature, especially as far as race relations go. America does not want to seem inferior to Canada in any way, so it is purposely removed from standard curriculums. I guess I understand their reasoning behind this, but what is the cost? All it does is breed ignorance throughout America. We should know more about the nations that share our boarders!

Along with this, I'm curious as to what a nation would actually look like with more progressed race relations. What kind of environment does this create? How is it different than what we live in? Personally, I think America is heading in the right direction. While we still have many who want to keep this country for the white men only, I think a majority of us are loioking for change, and a push toward multiculturalism.

Pres Obama Speech on Osama

I think that he went about it the right way as many i have heard agree. He made sure to clarify that it is not a war against Muslims and that he was not a Muslim but a mass murderer of Muslims in his country and abroad. What he said really helps because for many years we have heard that Osama and al-Queda have and other Islamic extremists have been giving all Muslims all over the world a bad name. It is just those few extremists that participate in acts of terrorism that give all Muslims this negative name.

Canada

I will admit just as many of us in the class have that I do not know really much about Canada as you think we should considering that they are our neighboring country. I have been there before a few times when I was younger. I have family in Plattsburgh, which is about 45 minutes to an hour away form the border. I have had minimal interaction with English or French speaking Canadians mostly just on ski trips up there sitting in the lodge. I have heard about the conflicts among those French speaking and the English speaking Canadians. The city of Quebec I know is French speaking and they are afraid that if they do not allow French to be spoken there it may be lost all together in the future and only English will be spoken. I think that it should continue to be spoken in the country especially because it is their own version of French that they have developed and its part of their culture and the country itself.

Genocide

In class on Thursday the topic we mainly discussed was genocides. I found it interesting how much we as a society do not learn about them. Most of the ones that were presented I have never heard of. The ones that I have were because I took an African history course last semester and we discussed the Rwanda genocide, and the Darfur one. If it wasn’t for that class though I wouldn’t of heard of any of the ones he brought up. It is just so bizarre that these horrors are taking place and so many people are ignorant of them.

The sad thing is that our society is a society based on visuals. If on the news they talked about a genocide, sadly I think that most people would not have strong feelings about it. But if that same news station started showing pictures of the horror happening, then we would have something to say. With pictures it draws an emotional response from people, meaning that they will respond more strongly when there is a picture involved.

Canada

Like a couple of the other comments I can sadly say I did not know much about Canada. I honestly do not think I have ever really learned anything about Canada. I also have never thought or realized how much I do not know. I could tell you dozens of facts about Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and even Europe. I would probably have difficulty before this class even coming up with three about Canada.

I enjoyed the presentation on the Inuit people’s sled dogs being killed. I have always found it interesting how people justify certain things. It is no different with what happened to the dogs. I do not believe that they were justified in killing so many of them. From what I know about sled dogs, they are normally well trained. So I do not see them being these un-tamed, mean dogs, which have to be killed. I feel that it’s terrible what people subject others to, just to get an end product. Which in this case was to get the Inuit land by means of killing there sled dogs.

Visualization, Sara Ceraso

Today we discussed the idea that images being shown to the public are used to help further understand what is going on in the world and to evoke some type of emotion.

I believe someone argued that these photographs were strictly just mean to document these situations to inform the people.

I have to disagree with this statement. The way I have been brought up viewing photographs is that there is no such thing as a "documentary photograph." I must argue that every photographer has an opinion on the photographs he takes, whether it is a strong one or not is another story. Unless a photographer is snapping shots with their eyes closed they still make the conscious decision to snap a photo at a certain time, of a certain moment and depicting it in a certain light.

I agree with the fact that photographs should circulate and be out there for people to see. But I can't see how these photographs could strictly be documentary.

Canada

I never really knew anything about Canada before, which is pretty depressing since I live right in Buffalo. The only thing I knew about was the conflict with the French-Canadians. I've always seen Canada as an extension of the states. I've also always seen Canada as being better and somewhat unable to make mistakes, but after reading the chapter and seeing the video/presentation on Canada and the issues with the aboriginal peoples I realize that no country is ever going to be perfect.

I do think we can take a few notes on how Canada runs and how they present themselves in international relations.

Canada?

In class Tuesday we all began to admit how little we actually know about Canada. I can sadly admit that even though I grew up with Canada as my next door neighbor, (literally, I can see Canada from my street corner) I knew very little about its history until I read the Marger chapter and did my presentation. Along with the idea we discussed in class of how side by side Canada is much better then the United States and that is why it is often not taught in the the United States, I also have another idea of why it is not taught. It seems to me that people just expect that because Canada is so close to us that, naturally we would know their history, the same way we would know our own. I also know that for myself personally I never had much interest in learning about Canada because it was not a foreign place to me. Canada was a quick walk away and not some exotic foreign land, that I was interested in learning about. Because Canada is so close to us, we just take it for granted that they are not another country and that they are exactly the same as us. I think the United States school systems should begin to start including Canadian history in their curriculum.
-Ryan Fleming blog post # 25

The "Voice" on NBC

Has anyone else watched this show lately? I saw it for the first time last night. My daughter told me I should check it out specifically because of this class. The judges all sit with their backs turned to the singers (think American Idol) and listen to them perform so they can just focus on their voice and not make any preconceived notions about their appearance. I just thought it was very interesting considering i'm focusing on the Racial Formations and Racial Fantasies in Caucasia right now.

Here's just a clip of an audition The Voice

Backlash of the code name "Geronimo" used for Bin Laden

Very interesting article right here. This is exactly what i thought of when i heard that Osama was called Geronimo by the milatary. It speaks on the fact that like Geronimo, Osama was very hard (almost impossible) to find, but it still is insulting to one of the greatest Native American leaders of all time. Also speaks to the Native American image and how the US media and perception has twisted it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_bin_laden_geronimo

Obama's speech

After listening to Obama's speech last night I appreciated how he went out of his way to make it clear to the American people that bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. I think many Americans too quickly associate terrision with Islam and that is not the case. For those who missed it, Obama's statement goes as follows:

"As we do, we must also reaffirm that the United States is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam. I've made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity."

I think it is important to go beyond just being politically correct. Sure, no political leader calls Muslims terrorists, but some tend to associate them as such. Therefore, by going out of his way to reinforce to the American people that bin Laden, al Quieda, and the War on Terrorism are in no way a war on Islam, Obama did a great job speaking.

The Boars

At first, after listening to the song we heard in class, I was a little torn on my opinion. After what people in South Africa have been through with aparthied I understand where this radical anger is coming from. However, that does not justify the killing of a group of people as the song promotes. Personally, I do believe the song should not be sung in public because it promotes that type of action. Their are plenty of songs lashing out against one group or another but this does take it a little over the line. I think that Bono was so shy to stand up fully against it because he does sympathize with the victems of aparthied and tries to help them. I think Bono was just caught in a tough situation so he made a statement that would stir up the least amount of backlash. Although, I do realize his statement caused a considerable amount of backlash, I think it could have been worse for him so he stuck by what he said.

People in Support of Bono?

In Thursday's class, Jeff asked if I found any comments of people in support of Bono's comment. I've looked around and haven't yet found people who flat out support what Bono said, or who agree that this song should be sung in public, but there seem to be some people who believe his words were taken out of contents. One person commented saying:

"The headline is a bit misleading. I think he backs the sentiment that you should be allowed to sing struggle songs, but also said that there are rules for when and where you should sing such songs. I don't think he agrees with singing songs for the purposes of tempting genocide like Malema does at all".

I agree with this comment. It is obvious through all the activism and speaking out against genocide that Bono has done throughout his career, that he doesn't mean any harm to people, or support genocide, when he made that comment. I think it was a mistake and that his words were taken in the worst possible way by many. I think Bono just had one of those "foot in mouth" moments, and I think people are too quick to forget all the good he has done in his career. When you are in the spotlight and have such a "loud" voice, you are bound to slip up, and everyone is going to hear you when you do. I think people have the right to be angry at Bono's comment, however I don't think it is right to just completely forget about all the good things he has done.

-Brigit May, Post 24

Boer a metaphor for Apartheid

I agree, and I also do not buy into the idea that "shoot the Boer" is a metaphor for ending the apartheid. The fact of the matter is that this song carries so much attached anger and very real violence that is being experienced in South Africa today, which is why it strikes such a chord, and also why it is being used to evoke even more violence. The song would not be made illegal to sing in South Africa by the South African courts if they didn't believe this song was sung in a hateful way, and dangerous to the lives of white farmers.
Malema trying to justify the song by saying it's a metaphor for apartheid, is like saying that the reason 3,000 white farmers in South Africa have been killed in the last 16 years is because they are trying to "kill the apartheid". It's not right in any way, and using the word Boer as a metaphor for the apartheid still doesn't make the song right, and still puts these farmers lives in danger. If people start to make white farmers the symbol of the apartheid, then of course the violence will continue to happen, and people will continue to harm the farmers. No matter what way you look at it however, it is very clear to me that, even though the apartheid ended 16 years ago, the issues stemming from it are still very much alive. I think South Africa has a long way to go before the race relations there become more peaceful, and I think it is important not to turn a blind eye to these issues that are still very much in existence.

Brigit May-post 23

The Boer Song

I believe that the song which talks about killing boer's can not be viewed as tradition. The case can be made that the song may be used by elements to incite anger and perpetrate violence against farmers in South Africa. I can't really see myself buying into the idea that the lyrics represent Apartheid. After seeing the clip that was presented in class and listening to the backlash that Bono received as well as reading some other sources about it I understand why there was backlash against the song.

re: you can't be south african, you're black!

I have just recently found out that I am going to see Dave Matthews Band at a festival in New York City this coming August, along with this I discovered that Dave Matthews is from South Africa.  Dave Matthews was born in Johannesburg, however he is considered a white musician.  I find a connection between Dave Matthews and Birdie because they both have difficulties with their identifying factors.  While Birdie passes as caucasion but is bi-racial, Matthews is white but is from South Africa.  I would have never guessed that Dave Matthews was from South Africa because his music is not influenced by typical African sounds. It seems as thought they are both stuck inbetween worlds that can not be defined in a specific manner because of race, and the racial fantasies that one holds.

Folk Song

After listening to that song again I feel from my standpoint that it has no place. I just feel like there is no way to sing it that it doesn't come off as racist and hatred. I know that many people say that it is a tradition but when so many people are dying, I believe over 16,000 farmers somebody said, that is crazy and I think that its most certainly a smart move to make it a crime to sing that song. If there were no deaths links to the song it would be a different story, but since they are singing it right after people are dying its wrong.

Pete Ferguson

Racism Video

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

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

A previous post discussed how a truth commission was established in South Africa. It was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It began in 1995. It was created to help promote understanding and not vengeance. It was suppose to promote reparations and not retaliation. It was established as an informal court, a forum for victims and perpetrators crimes during apartheid. Many people had no idea what happened to family members that disappeared during apartheid. If a person came to the forum and told the truth and could prove that their crime w as politically motivated, they could be granted a type of pardon. But if a person did it out of hate, they could be taken to prison. There was a lot of resistance to this and people had a hard time forgiving people and letting them get away with murder. On the other hand though some people got closure and had the power to forgive. The country had to face it together, so it was able to prevent something more serious from happening.

#24

Environmental Racism

I’m also in the same Environmental History class as Ryan. Going along with what she said about environmental history and racism. Before that class I never tied the two together, even when we started reading about it, I did not realize how the two were interconnected. The part I found the most interesting was looking at African Americans and the environment. First it talked about slaves having to work the land for their owners. Then it went into land ownership. Forest reservations came about, that reduced the amount of land that people could live on and work. The land that was still available was given to the white groups of people. Also in the West land was given to whites for free, yet in the south ex-slaves were expected to purchase land, with money they did not have. Also Indians were seen as dirty and polluting the natural environment. Blacks were also seen as dirty and evil. They were seen as polluting the cities and making them places of pollution and disease.

#23

Past Racism

I have been reading a book about Reconstruction for my Civil War class, and it is crazy to think about how much blunt racism actually used to exist in our crazy. During the 1868 election, the democratic vice president candidate, Francis Blaire, embarked on a speaking campaign riddled with blatant hate. He accused the Republicans of placing the south under the rule of "a semi barbarous race of blacks who are worshipers of fetishes and poligamists" and longed to "subject the white women to their unbridled lust." Turns out these beliefs stemmed from his interpretations of Darwin's Origin of Species. He felt as if racial intermixing would reverse evolution, produce a less advanced species incapable of reproducing itself, and destroy the vast improvements of society.
I understand that this took place close to 150 years ago, and it would not happen today, but it is definitely important to look at what life used to be like. Even when this campaign was going on, it was extremely controversial and resulted in a lot of votes going to the republican ticket. I just thought that it is interesting tid bit, and something to think about.

Meredith Cotter #24

Biracial Couple Scienfeld Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5G2nWP3xY&feature=related

This is a link to a couple scenes of an episode of the t.v. show Seinfeld. In this episode Elaine is dating someone and she cant figure out if he is black or not. She makes it seem as though it doesn't matter, and that she doesn't NEED to know, but it is obviously clear that she is really interested in racially categorizing him. It seems as though she does this in an effort to be more PC, but covering up the fact that race does matter to her (as it does almost everyone). She tries asking her friends' opinion. George suggests that maybe he is "mixed" and whispers it like it is something unknown, or taboo. After a while he will just say 'we shouldn't be talking about this' which shows how this is such an uncomfortable topic, and it is just easier to exercise silence rather than start a conversation.As it turns out, while she was thinking that he was black; the boyfriend was under the impression that she was Hispanic. This definitely shows how prevalent racial ambiguity is. At the end they figure out that they are just a couple of white people (pretty boring), and they loose their zest and decide to go to the Gap. This also shows how 'white' people pretty really don't ethnically identify with anything -- so they succumb to commercial, instead of cultural, endeavors.

Meredith Cotter, Post #23

Hate speech trial

The discussion about Bono and his comment in South Africa made me want to look into the topic further. Currently the leader of the African National Congresses youth chapter, Julius Malema, is on trial for hate speech. Due to his popularization of the chant "Shoot the Boer". There has been serious conflicts about weather this song is allowed under free speech or if it crosses the line into hate speech. The man trying Julius Malema claims that by popularizing this song he is advocating for a genocide against the white South Africans. While Julius Malema claims that the song is simply a metaphor. While on trial Malema has been attempting to promote legislation that would take land away from white farmers without compensating them and nationalizing the mines in South Africa. Though on trial for Hate speech Malema seems to be using the majority of his time during the trial to promote himself and his ideology.

Black in Latin America

Recently Henry Louis Gates, Jr, A Harvard professor has made a PBS documentary called Black in Latin America. He decided to make this series after learning about how only 450,000 Africans came to America out of the staggering 11 million who were sold during the Slave trade. The vast majority of these slaves were sent down to Latin America and have had an important impact upon the culture of these countries. Brazil alone received 5 million slaves. This incredibly high number allowed slave owners to take even worse care of their slaves than American slave owners since slaves were so easily replaceable in Brazil. Thus far the episodes that have aired have focused on Haiti, The Dominican Republic, and Cuba. One of the upcoming episodes highlights racial tension in Brazil as well.
The already aired episodes can be viewed here http://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/ along with educational interviews with Henry Louis Gates, Jr

South African Folk Song

I feel that this song does indeed have a place. It is a very violent and hatefull song and could in rage someone to go out and murder someone. However some groups in the US like the KKK and the westburo baptist church (?) preach only hatred and killing. This song was formed becuase of racism and a system of racial hierarchy and was a rally cry for the oppressed.

Race in other countries

Before this week i never really thought about racila tension in other countries. I have always believed that the US is begind the rest of the world when it comes to accepting other races and this is true in many ways. Europe had ended slavery and had civil rights before the US and many countires still criticize the US for not being progessive enough with race. But obviuosly other countries are far far behind America. I feel that the US and other nations should assist countires such as South Africa and Brazil more in regards to Civil Rights. America and Europe have experience in Civil Rights legislation and i feel it would help these countires to gain influence form them.

South African song

The song that was played in class on Thursday left me feeling confused. On one hand, I felt like it just encouraged violence and that could not be a good thing. But I also think that by banning it, they might have just inflamed the song even more. I do know that South Africa still has a long road ahead as far as race relations go. There has been so much animosity and a history of abuses in this country it would be hard to move on. The UN established a truth commission in order to make public those abuses so those in South Africa can move on. There is a good summary of those proceedings on this website. It is actually very interesting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/truth_and_reconciliation/203134.stm

Staci Becker Post #25

Biko and Peter Gabriel

Ok so again I decided to do some more research on the subject. As Cassie mentioned in class the song didn't do very well for Peter Gabriel but it did have a " profound effect on Gabriel, however, and it led to his commitment to World Music and to various political causes." He called the song, "a calling card announcing I was interested and prepared to get involved." It also stimulated other artists to get involved including Steve Van Zandt heard it in a Los Angeles movie theater in 1980 and began wondering what he could do to help the cause, which led to him organizing "Sun City." Bono of U2 asked Gabriel to join the Amnesty International Conspiracy Of Hope tour in 1986, which played 6 shows and raised $2.6 million.

The song itself wasn't actually allowed to be played in South Africa until 1990 and it was in the early 90s that apartheid ended. Gabriel also performed the song live for Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday in Wembley Stadium in 1988.

Jennifer Graham

First Hand Exposure Blog Post 24 Frank DiMaria

So, before this class I was not really aware of the idea of a institutionalized white privilege system. And, though I think the term is misused sometimes, I saw an instance of it at a comedy club the other day. I became aware of it and I think learning about it actually helped me to identify it more. I was in Williamsville watching a comic speak and he said a joke that was really racially offending about Blacks. No one really laughed and you could tell that people were off put by it. I knew it was bad and I didn’t like it, but to make matters worse the comic said, “what are you people not laughing for, this is rich Williamsville, it’s not like there are black people around.” I was appalled to say the least and I can confidently say that I saw racism first hand. I didn’t say anything, perhaps exercising my own white privilege of silence, but the fact that this happened really proved to me that white privilege is real. Its really sad to say that this is happening, and to see even today that a white comic is still being racist against an assumed ‘poor’ nonexistent Black audience.

Re: Mariah Carey Continued

As I was reading the lyrics to this song I realized that many of the lyrics went along with many of the things we have been talking about in class.

*"Niether here or there, Ambiguous" We have been talking about the ambiguity of biracial people.  Their race can be interpreted in many different ways. They could be considered one race over the other, but very seldom to people identify biracial people as actually being biracial.  

*"You’ll always be somewhere on the outside."  Since her outside appearance is leaning more towards looking "white" she has a place in the white community.  This also goes along with the fact that based on outside appearances people categorize others as being one thing or the other.  So on the outside one can belong in a group, but on the inside many biracial people are confused and feel like they can't identify with one specific group even though they are expected to.

*"Standing alone, eager to just believe it’s good enough to be what you really are." This lyric is speaking to the fact that you have to try and convince yourself you are "good enough" when you are biracial.  Since there is such emphasis put on placing people into categories, one may feel that if they are split between two categories that they may not be good enough to fit into any category but are left alone.

*"Falling in between, and it’s hard to be understood." This reminds me of how Birdie felt like she was between two lives, her white one and her black one.  She felt as if no one could understand the person she was because if they were white they wouldn't be able to understand her black side and vice versa.  She falls between the lines of being black or white, she feels as if she can't be both and be understood by all.