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.

Steve Biko and Disney

The first time I remember hearing about Steve Biko, I never really understood the story. It was in a Disney channel movie, The Color of Friendship. The story revolves around 2 young girls, one of them a white South African named Mahree, and the other a black American named Piper. Mahree's father is a police officer who is pleased to hear that Steve Biko was arrested. Their family benefits from the system of apartheid. Steve Biko plays a large part in the movie in explaining how the girls get along. This was an excellent movie for children and it raised many issues of South Africa. I was surprised when I remembered Biko from this movie.

Staci Becker Post #24

Arguments over Affirmative Action

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/28/sally-kern-affirmative-action_n_854936.html

Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern believes we're past the need for affirmative action. She says "minorities earn less than white people because they don’t work as hard and have less initiative.

“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”"

It's good to know the people in our government refuse to recognize white privilege and just how detrimental years of oppression can be for minorities.

Victoria Rader Post 22

Transgender Woman attacked

I don't know if anyone has heard anything about the attack on a transgendered woman at a McDonalds, but here's some information about it.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-mcdonalds-beating-20110423,0,6955035,full.story

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2011/04/transgender-victim-of-brutal-attack-at-mcdonalds-restaurant-speaks-out/

Just a note: the following video is rather disturbing. It shows the actual altercation as well as the woman having a seizure. Followed by some random guy talking about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMe2-Cf9Cxc&feature=player_embedded

I know my posts as of late haven't been specifically related to race or ethnicity, but I figured the reasons behind racism and sexism share some common roots.

Victoria Rader Post 21

Pakistan allows transsexuals to have own gender category

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13192077

"Pakistan has taken the landmark decision to allow transsexuals to have their own gender category on some official documents.

The country's Supreme Court has ruled that those Pakistanis who do not consider themselves to be either male or female should be allowed to choose an alternative sex when they apply for their national identity cards"

Victoria Rader Post 20

Race is just an illusion..

As Jeff had said in class on Tuesday, the parents in Caucasia are really frustrating to whoever reads the novel, and I have to agree. Just as Sandy contradicts herself, Deck does this as well. For example, Deck claims race is an illusion, and then he exclaims that Cole needed a black mother who would know how to style her curly hair, so I guess that's where Carmen comes in.

- Josh Steffen

Mariah Carey Continued...

This song goes along with my presentation on the Caucasia novel and discussing Mariah Carey as my outside source. It's called "Outside" and it is about Mariah's growing up biracial, feeling that she had no one to relate to:

It's hard to explain
Inherently it's just always been strange
Neither here or there
Always somewhat out of place everywhere
Ambiguous
Without a sense of belonging to touch
Somewhere halfway
Feeling there's no one completely the same

Chorus

Standing alone
Eager to just
Believe it's good enough to be what
You really are
But in your heart
Uncertainty forever lies
And you'll always be
Somewhere on the
Outside

Verse

Early on, you face
The realization you don't
have a space
Where you fit in
And recognize you
Were born to exist

Chorus

Standing alone
Eager to just
Believe it's good enough to be what
You really are
But in your heart
Uncertainty forever lies
And you'll always be
Somewhere on the
Outside

And it's hard
And it's hard
And it's hard

Bridge

Irreversibly
Falling in between
And it's hard
And it's hard
To be understood
As you are
As you are
Oh, and God knows
That you're standing on your own
Blind and unguided
Into a world divided
You're thrown
Where you're never quite the same
Although you try-try and try
To tell yourself
You really are
But in your heart-uncertainty forever lies
And you'll always be
Somewhere on the outside

- Josh Steffen

Brazil and Affirmative Action

The Brazil discussion today was interesting because it seemed to be different than many of the countries we have looked at. As mentioned, Brazil seems to ignore their race issues, and say they’re an accepting society even though they have huge racial problems. The question was brought up about affirmative action and whether or not it would help in Brazil. I think that it would help, but may cause problems like in the United States. I think with any kind of quota system or affirmative action, people feel resentment towards the people who are being helped. Because of this, I don’t know if these programs would help the racial issues in Brazil or hurt them even further. If people feel that these groups are having an advantage (even though the whites already do) they may not be inclined to go for this sort of thing. As mentioned in class, I think Brazil needs more work on other areas of racial issues first before tackling affirmative action.

Laura Kalinowski Post #25

Bono and South Africa

I really liked the discussion we had today about Bono in South Africa regarding the “Shoot the Boer” song. I agree with what was said in class today about him not taking sides on the issue. It’s really hard for a celebrity to please everybody when they’re asked questions regarding political issues. Regarding the issue itself, I think that there shouldn’t be songs such as this because they’re only influencing more racism and awful behavior, however, in the United States; this is protected under our free speech. I think that people should be allowed to express their opinions or thoughts, but not if it’s going to go too far and start killings such as with the farmers South Africa. I don’t think Bono was advocating for songs with this kind of message, but rather expressing that people should be careful of what they say, how, and when they say it.

Laura Kalinowski Post #24

Environmental Racism

I’m currently taking an environmental history class this semester that I have referenced before to how some of the material relates to race and ethnicity. I just read an article for this class that actually covered the topic of race and environmental history. The relation between race and the environment has recently become a more commonly studied subject than in previous years. The main reason I am referencing it though is because I found a lot of what the article covered to be very intriguing information that I was previously unaware of. The article discussed how Native Americans were removed from their homelands because they were seen to be unclean and to wild for the wilderness. National parks were created on the lands of the Native Americans for white tourists to be able to experience the wilderness without having to be threatened by the dangerous and negative Indians. The article also discussed the locations of toxic waste dumps, landfills, pollution, etc. and how they are all located in impoverished minority areas (Niagara Falls can be seen as a perfect example of this, being the location of a landfill and toxic waste dump). The article went into detail discussing these main ideas and that’s just the basics, but I thought it was an interesting article that gave a different look at environmental racism.

-Ryan Fleming blog post# 24

James Cameron Response to Avatar

I wanted to dive in a little deeper after our discussion regarding Avatar in class. I did a search on Google and came up with a few things that he was criticized about on the movie. One was smoking, because its not a good role to give to kids, one was that he was stealing from another movie. Again it seems if you make a movie someone will think of a way to either slam it or pick it apart piece by piece by piece.

The main point of the movie though was about environmentalism. He talks about it a bit in this interview with MTV.

The Unknown Effects

As I stated in class last week, I am not biracial. I have never had to deal with the so called "choosing" that many biracial people do face. This topic truly interests me especially because before these past few classes I never really thought about what decisions biracial people have to make. I couldn't imagine what that is like having to even consider choosing, being forced to choose, or even not choosing. Which brings me to my next point...when it comes to choosing, is it easier to not choose or just to choose? I like hearing the opinions and stories of people in class that have been in this situation or dealt with situations like these because it gives me more insight on the topic. By talking about this subject for the past few classes has opened my eyes to something that is quite frequent in today's society but I had never really took the time to think about it. Not knowing the effects of being biracial certainly makes it not at the top of my list to consider but having the opportunity now to think about it is very interesting.

-Mary

Response to Stephanie's Post Frank DiMaria Post #23

 

I can obviously see why there is so much wrong with a father threatening to kill any students regardless of race, but there was a comment on the interview that kind of struck me as strange. The mother said that, “if a black man threatened students more action would be taken.” Now, I am not saying that this issue has nothing to do with race, but lets face the facts here, there is nothing to back that statement up. Not to mention an audience already goes into this situation with certain connotations, I mean come on white guy threatens black kids in Alabama. Of course we can see the white guy being wrong, but once again I play devils advocate. I feel like, as we have learned, that race and therefore racial issues are created by society. With that in mind I feel that there is a certain bias created in the scenario and I am not saying that the father was in any ways right, he wasn’t he is stupid for his actions, but I feel that perhaps a racial tension is created by the media in this one. The father said, “I am gonna kill you,” to the students, not, “I am gonna kill you black kids.” He could have just been upset that anyone was talking to his young daughter, but considering already generated stereotypes and a general media influence, I feel a plausible xenophobic ideal is generated.

Comments on Stephanie's Post

After reading the article Stephanie posted I am a little shocked. First of all, the instance itself shocked me. But, what shocked me even more were the comments made by a reader’s right below the article… I do not know what to make of this. Some readers seem to think that the father was in the right by lashing out as he did. People just astound me. One reader prides himself on being non-judgmental but all he did in his post was judge a certain group on things he thinks they do. It drives me crazy when people claim not to be racist and then make statements like these and the ignorance just astounds me. Do these people not know they are extremely offensive? Also, notice neither of these comments had much hardcore evidence… therefore their comments are extremely uneducated. What do you all think?

Choosing vs. Not Choosing

Today in class we were talking about choosing to identify with one race or another when you are bi-racial, or if you can just not choose. Being that I am not bi-racial, I have never had to deal with identifying myself with one race or another, however I have seen many people I know deal with this issue. I personally think that regardless of whether or not a bi-racial person chooses to identify with a particular race, society will do it for them. I have seen many bi-racial people choose to not identify with one race in particular, yet other people see what they want and identify them according to what they choose to see. A perfect example of this is a bi-racial friend of mine from high school, in high school seeing that we had a large amount of bi-racial students, he was seen as bi-racial and not just black or just white. This friend of mine ended up also going to Fredonia with me and I have noticed how, now being here, he is viewed as the "black guy". I think because Fredonia is so predominantly white, that regardless of how my friend identifies himself, society here has identified him as black because he stands out more than others. This just goes to show that no matter how you choose to identify yourself, society is always going to make their own identifications for you.
-Ryan Fleming blog post#23

Racial Tension Erupts in Small Alabama Town

http://www.local15tv.com/mostpopular/story/Racial-Tension-Erupts-in-Small-Alabama-Town/Ch9rkBT4XESdp6FpswHyPw.cspx

Crazy.

Caucasia Discussion Questions

2. The sisters use of Elemeno ia an indicator of how both sisters are looking at the world from auniques biracial perspective different that of there parents and others. Elemeno represents their biracial identity as beign their own not subject to the same influences that affect blacks and whites specifically. It is one thing that brings them together thus helping them to form a trong bond with one another.

5. A key theme in the book is the fact that Birdie really doesn't have a name. It helps to substantiate the idea that Birdie has a conflicted sense of identity. From a early on she has a murky, nuddled sense of being and she is in conflict with this throughout the novel.

15. I don't think race is a complete illusion but I do think that an argument can be made for supporting the statement. If you look as race as simply being something that is a product of how you perceive yourself based on how people in your environment perceive you to be a case can be made that it is an illusion. If one were to look at numerous examples in history, ancient societies divided people based on things such as religion and societal status as opposed to physical differences. Birdie is viewed by people based on what they think someone of her physical characteristics should be defined as not based on what she really is.

16. The consequences of choosing one part of ones racial identity over another can have a profound impact on the psyche of the person in question. The biracia person that chooses one part of their identity over another is essentially alienating a part of themselves which makes them who they are. Theya lso risk cutting themselves off from friends and family and aspects of their culture.

17. I think Birdies black imagined history shapes her identity just as much as her white one. Knowing ones identity gives a person a basis for acting and behaving a certain way. If we learn about our family through oral and written histories we may act based on how others in our family act. Everything that Birdie goes through seems to be directly related to the conflict between her black identity and white identity.

18. Deck's theory about mulattos in America functioning as canaries in a coal mine is a very pessimistic way of looking at things. The idea that Birdie's life is one that is subject to testing the potential dangers of interracial relationships and what comes of them is an idea that I don't agree with. Given the setting of the book and the city that it takes place in it makes sense that he would make that statement. I just don't think it applies in this day and age. Birdie's fate will be one where she will be working out issues of her identity for the rest of her life.