Week of 2/10 Post 2

As I mentioned in my introductory post, most of my exposure to race and ethnicity as a child was through the media. Sadly, I cannot think of many instances where I have seen positive images of other races through the media when I was younger. I am not saying they do not exist. I am, however, suggesting that the media downplays the roles of minorities who achieve higher status yet highlights the cases in which minorities fall into the normal stereotypes. For example in the years since 9/11, I have really only notices Middle Eastern people being portrayed as a people from a backwards culture. I know this is not entirely true; however, the media coverage I can remember includes, most obviously, 9/11, the Lackawanna 6 and the Hassan trial. I am not saying there has not been any positive media coverage about peoples from the Middle East, but the negative coverage happens to be the most attention grabbing. So, I have a question for everyone: Does the media hold any responsibility here? Should they try to balance out bad media coverage on a specific race or ethnicity with positive media coverage? I am absolutely positive that all this negative exposure has enforced or reinforced prejudices, but is the media to blame? Or is anyone to blame?

Mary Daloia, Post # 3

In class last Tuesday I feel like we hit a really interesting topic with the discussion of stereotypes. When a person is viewed by other people, they are eventually put in to a certain group that the viewers think they should be in. It seems that grouping people due to our first impressions of how they act or what they may look like has become somewhat habitual for society today. I can admit that this is something I am guilty of doing every so often but at the same time it is something I don't even realize I'm always doing. This idea of not knowing that I am stereotyping people when I meet them makes me definitely wonder about things. Can we actually stop ourselves from categorizing people when we first meet them?
I feel like this would be an extremely hard thing to do, especially due to the fact that personally I don't even realize when I'm doing it at times. Then there is the fact that at first, majority of the time only you know what you are thinking about the person you are stereotyping. The only way in which it would be known that you categorized the person is if you were to take the next step and act upon your thoughts. Regardless if it was a good thing or bad thing, it could be told by the way you treat the person. That brings up another question..is it always bad to categorize a person?

Everything's Black and White

I got a lot out of Tuesdays discussion and wanted to go back and discuss it again. The idea that we as a society have come up with a stereotype of the black person. Yes we have done it with many other ethnicity's but I want to focus on this one. For some reason people have put a label on what the common "black male" looks like. This is wrong in more ways than one and has become something of a common statement for people. When a white male dresses with a big shirt and baggy jeans people do not think well maybe they are hand me downs and he can't afford new clothes or maybe that is just the way he likes to dress, no instead people say " o he is trying to look black". We have put a way people dress into a category and people will judge them without even getting to know them based 100% on how they dress. Think about in a school when a teacher sees a kid with baggy clothes and jeans most would automatically assume " ok that is going to be a problem student". This is sad because that's how our society is we base judged on looks and throw people into a category of who they are based on what they are wearing. Its the same way when you flip it around, a black male dresses in a polo and khakis and speaks a certain way, and people may say he is trying to be white. It is sad that we have come up with such a way to focus on this aspect of people and instead of seeing them for who they are we judge them before we know them. I believe slowly we may be able to make a change in this area, I know it will never happen in my generation but maybe others. People need to get passed this barrier and see people for who they are not how they talk or dress, everybody is unique and is a bit different from the next, so maybe we can start learning who people really are instead of who we think they are.


Peter Ferguson Post #4

Samuel Roux; Post 2 (Venus Hottentot)

In our discussion of the poem and movie about The Venus Hottentot, one major thought kept going through my head. This was my thoughts of the overabundance of similar reactions. I think we focused far too much on the treatment of Sarah Bartmaan and the cruelty of it all, and not enough on when it was taking place. This was the turn of the 18th Century. Europe was on a quest to discover. What they saw in the Khoi-Khoi was something they had never seen before. This concept is completely unknown to us, we're a part of a completely different world where everything is at our fingertips. We've learned beyond these primitive ways, but at the time they were startled. These explorors saw a different breed of human, of course they were interested in examining them! This one Khoi-Khoi women offered Europeans a great deal of knowledge, and to not realize this is a great shortcoming. Putting yourself in the era of your study is truly the best way to understand all points of the study.

Samuel Roux: Autobiography

My name is Samuel Roux, I'm a junior. My personal ethnic and racial heritage is a mix of French and Italian. Both my Grandmothers are mostly Italian, while both my Grandfathers are mostly French. Normally when I identify myself I say exactly what I just typed out above, although I never feel the need to do so unless it is asked of me. When I was a child, I was as oblivious as could be to racial issues. I always recognized people as different colored, but I never would have been able to understand all the stereotypical agendas that were behind these colors. It wasn't until Middle School where I started to understand these concepts, mostly through television. My parents and teachers have always preached about respect and diversity, and I have learned a great deal from them and agree with their outlook on race and ethnicity. My views have greatly changed over time, and I believe they will continue to change as I experience life. As I meet new people, I start to lose these preconceived notions that i've gained through growing up and I'm a lot less judgemental of a person because of it. Of course i've experienced racism, I experience it everyday. On the news, in the classroom, everywhere. It's hard to break away from the need to classify everything in your life, but it is essential for a better life.

Sara Ceraso, Post 3

After yesterdays discussion on how people are "expected to act," my mind immediately jumped to instances of black and white people. I figured because we already stated that in class I would try and break off of that.

I am from Long Island. So I would definitely fit in on the Jersey Shore? No. Or I am definitely part of a gang because I live so close to the city? No, absolutely not. I remember my freshman year someone actually asked me if people were scared of me when I met them. When I asked them why they thought that, they said it was because I lived near Brooklyn. I honestly just laughed. I wanted to ask her if she had ever even been to Brooklyn. I have been hearing this stuff for three years now, ever since I got to Fredonia. Now I don't act different at home than I do at school, but up in Fredonia, the second I speak people often automatically place me in a category and start making assumptions. Which is fine with me, get to know me and I bet all of those assumptions will disappear. Since I am from Long Island, I am expected to fit a certain stereotype. It doesn't offend me really, it just makes me think how close minded and media influenced everyone, including myself at times, can be.

Over the Summer I worked at Forever 21. I was one of 2 white people out of the 150 employees to work there. Didn't bother me at all. But I did notice something. Some of my friends that I had there were hispanic. Mostly everyone spoke a different language, most times I just sat trying to pick up any bit of information, it never worked. Well one friend would act a certain way in front of his other friends who were also hispanic. The way a hispanic "should act." And then when he came up to me, did a complete 360 and had a totally different personality. It is just sad that he felt the need to do that.

Ryan Fleming Post#3

Our discussion in class today really got me thinking about my experiences in high school. The topic of how there is a stereotype for how each ethnic group is supposed to act and stepping outside of those characteristics can cause disapproval is something I have witnessed multiple times. In high school one of my best friends was african american and was often called the slang word an "oreo". Meaning that she was "black" on the outside but acted "white" on the inside. This term while most people used it carelessly as a joke was still very offensive. Who my friend was as a person had nothing to do with her skin color. She was not acting "white" or "black" she was just being herself and the fact that we place personality traits with ethinicty seems ridiculous. The constant comments got to my friend and I noticed a change in her personality. Whenever she was around people who normally criticized her she began to act the way society expected her to act, rather than be made fun of. It was really upsetting to see my friend change who she was around certain people just because of what people expected from her. Many of my peers along with my friend were criticized for acting "black" or acting "white", but who decides these specific ways to act based on race? It is such an awful concept that we give into everyday and cannot hope to see change if we keep acting the way society expects us to.