Question J

The documentary Freeheld Free, portrays the life of Laurel Hester and her fight to pass her benefits on to her domestic partner. It appears the county had the right to allow this to happen, but refused. Cases of prejudice like these occur all across the country. When one case happens it is another step backwards for civil rights. We as a country need to recognize that freedom and civil rights are not based on gender, race, or religion. If courts continue to be blinded by their own biases we will not grow as a nation. Humanity is better of because of people like Laurel and her partner Stacy. The six counties in New Jersey believed in her cause and recognized that benefits should be allowed to be left to domestic partners.

     In reality most of heterosexism comes from fear. The belief that gay marriage is different or threatens the sanctity of marriage is pure discrimination. When politics becomes involved in governing who we can love and what marriage is, we not only turn away from the beliefs that America is the land of free, but we step on the ground paved by Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Susan B. Anthony.

     It is people like Laurel Hester who lived to see her benefits passed on to Stacy, but did not live to see the Supreme Court on New Jersey rule that all homosexual couples will have the same rights have heterosexual couples, that we need to thank. Our country needs to continue to fight against the fear of homosexuals in order for us to protect the civil rights of all minorities.

Tough Guise

The documentary Tough Guise portrays the plight of men’s struggle to live up to societies expectations of a real man.  From birth boys are given “real man” things, from a Patriots mini football jersey, a ninja turtle doll, superman pj’s, which then leads a Star Wars laser gun. I could really relate to the scene of tough guys guns growing, from Bogart’s pistol to Schwarzenegger’s weapons of mass distruction. As the films leading men grew, so did the expectations of men to live up to them.

As a child I lived in this culture. Joining baseball, soccer and football.  These sports teach violence through the guise of winning. I grew up watching violent tv shows and movies that showed me what it was like to be a man. Today’s youth faces the same struggles. The entertainment world is creating a greater expectation for males with each block buster tough guy movie. Children see the movies, buy the video games, posters, action figures, and strive to live up to the image of toughness.

The documentary explains how boys from the hood, are only living out the expectations of their surroundings shown through the media. Which in turn led to m white males mimicking them.  When you talk tough, wear the right clothes, carry and knife or gun, you become a man. You are powerful. 

Another key point brought out is the fact that the movies, talk shows, and commercials give men the view that it’s okay to hurt women as long as they're staying true to their tough guy image. They are below them, and in turn the numbers of rape continue to rise.

Disturbing thing flashed on the screen as I was watching the Tough Guise documentary; a advertisement for a new EA sports video game called Losing Everything. It's actually a boxing video game where you play someone in jail and have to fight your way out of it. The trailer made me sick that this is what they are advertising to our youth. Fight, be in jail, that is cool. We wonder why theres so much violence and abuse in our society.

Question H

The documentary Divided We Fall: America in the Aftermath portrays life in America after 9/11.  In true documentary form it show the treatment of people from India in America in reaction to the 9/11 attacks. The wearing of turbans is a religious symbol, but now “turban equals terrorist”. Many Americans feel they need to change others to fit their belief of what is the correct religion. Since most are ignorant to unknown religions, they feel it is wrong or dangerous.

            The Sikhs have many traditions that are strange to Americans. Valarie Kaur’s search for understanding examines the hidden world of hate brought upon by misunderstandings.

            The traditional view of America the Free, tolerant, and full of constitutional rights was no longer visible after 9/11.  The New Hampshire view I was raised on “Live Free or Die”, was erased. People were no longer ignoring or accepting religious differences they were becoming blind to what is real and what is perceived as a threat. Tolerance became a thing of the past.  It was disturbing to watch the interviews of the treatment to anyone wearing a turban. Young or old, no one was spared. Where was the land of the free? The home of the brave?  If you resembled the terrorist in anyway, you were targeted. Hate crimes were reported daily. How sad it must have been to be afraid to leave your house for fear of retaliation by ignorant people.

            What was most amazing was listening to the victims of these hate crimes. Most were still peaceful and understanding, allowing Americans time to heal and not pressing charges.

Since I was only 13 at the time, I wonder would I have felt the same if I came upon a person wearing a turban? Would my beliefs of treating others fairly have changed?

video treatment

Video Treatment

The “-ism”:

The -ism I will examine is racism. I plan to show how the media influences peoples thoughts of racism and stereotypes. 

Story: Before 9/11, my knowledge of Muslims was little to none and my fear non-existent. Since the attacks on the World Trade Center Buildings on Sept. 11, 2001, I have been taught to not only live in total suspicion, but have a keen sense of fear for the otherwise peaceful Muslims. It is because of the power of the dominant group (white males) who use the media to mislead us in to believing the stereotype that all Muslims are dangerous to our country. When in fact there has been more terrorism done in this country by white males in the past 25 years, than Muslims have ever done.

Software: Using power point I will show images of villains created by the media verses who we should actually fear, the white males. I will include statistics of white male terrorism, and show media reactions to these crimes. 

Research: I will do research extending from the point Tim Wise brought up in his lecture,  Using the Video the Pathology of Privilege: Racism, White Denial and the Cost of Inequality, on the treatment of Islamic people in America. I will research terrorist crimes by white males and Muslims in the past 25 years. I will examine how the media treated these incidents.  I would like my video to show clear examples of racism through our fear of Islamic people since 9/11. 

Time Line: 

Wed: Create sketch of power point outline

Thurs: Research media clips from terrorist acts and reactions to them

Fri: Create power point rough draft

Sat/ Sun: add pictures and music, post to blog or youtube.

Take Away Message: I want people to understand that the stereotypes that the  media portrays of whom is evil and who is good is an extension of the racial profiling committed by the dominant groups who are blinded by their white privilege.

Question G

I first become aware of my class when I was around 8 years old while visiting my grandfather on my mother's side in Florida. We were out to dinner and most every time I had been out to dinner with my parents since I was little my sisters and I had been given a budget of how much we could spend on our food. This never really affected me in a negative way because I always listened to my parents and it was just something that was understood when we went out to eat. However, my grandfather is actually very wealthy so we did not have a budget on our meal because he was paying for it all. I was confused later of why he couldn't just pay for all of our meals and my dad had to explain to me the family differences on my mother's side. Not to go into too much detail about that but I realized then that my family and I were apart of a different class even from my grandfather.

It's interesting to think about now because class is something that we have to deal with every day and probably something that most of us don't think about consciously even though we are confronted with it on a daily basis. From the clothes we wear, to the cars we drive or buses we take, to the food we eat all says something about the class that we belong to.

Question F

Blue vs. Brown 

The Eye of the Storm

Conducting this experiment in 2011 would be highly unethical. However, in 1970 the world was a different place. Children were raised differently. This experiment was not only effective in raising children’s awareness of racism, but it helped them to become aware of hierarchy. Students were able to achieve a feeling of power that they might not have had before. Whether it was right or wrong, it did teach a lesson.  The addition of having the “lower race” wear a collar so they will be easily distinguished from others, added another stigmatism to the children. The suggestion from a child to use a ruler to keep the brown eyed children in line, shows that they were making assumptions that the brown eyed children would become out of hand due to their level in society. The blue eyed children were able to for see the need for discipline based on their prior knowledge of how blacks in their society were treated. Also, many blacks were marching and protesting, in non-violent and violent ways against whites during this time.

Do they ends justify the means? Watching some of the children's faces during this experiment was very difficult. Many were about to cry, while others seemed to glow with power. But, after watching the follow up interviews from the adults I was pleasantly surprised to hear their insights and reactions to how they grew from their experience. As adults they were now using their experiences to raise their own children with their eyes open to all different colors.

Question E

Reading chapter 8, Getting Off the Hook: Denial and Resistance, honestly got my blood flowing and watching the powerful lecture The Pathology of Privilege by Tim Wise made me even angrier. Honestly am baffled by I feel like the amount of truth that I was just slapped in the face with it. The blame game, I'm one of the good ones, mislabeling, denial, assumptions, and plain ignorance (the sick and tired section), all strategies that the dominant groups for generations have been using to minimize the oppressed and further the cycle of oppression in our country. The sick and tired section really pissed me off because what kind of nerve do these dominant groups have to say their sick and tired of hearing about race? Tim Wise stated correctly that we the privileged created "race" almost four hundred years ago. When Johnson persisted these people more you come to find out that in reality them hearing about it all the time comes down to "enough to make me look at what I don't want to look at, enough to make me feel uncomfortable." Unbelievable really.

Whether it involve race, the disabled, or gender the dominant group seems to love the strategy of putting the blame right back on the oppressed.  Simply minimizing the blame on themselves and directing the guilt right back onto the victims while the privileged remain invisible. Saying that they are one of the good ones, a strategy admittedly I feel I have used before, is simply saying that if I do nothing and am nice to everyone I'm not at fault. As Johnson said, at every moment, social life involves all of us. Our blindness to situations does not excuse us from our obliviousness to the realities of life. Wise and Johnson both put it nicely that the dominant group has these unburdened feeling of race that the oppressed suffer from.

I loved what Wise said in his lecture about if there is unprivileged then by simple grammar there has to be an over privileged. Yet that's not a word that you hear a lot because it really doesn't exist. It's just the dominant group and then the underprivileged. Unprivileged is a created word by the dominant groups to label everyone under them. As Johnson wrote for example, when people of color call attention to the divisions caused by white privilege, they're often accused of creating those divisions, as if racism isn't a problem unless you talk about it. Simply ignoring and then blaming the problem back on the victims seems to be our go to plan as a dominant group. And yes I am including myself in the dominant group because I am a white male from a working class, which as Wise stated in his lecture is still better off financially in the long run then a middle class person of race who has four times the income of me, scary thought.

The dominant group, and human beings in general nature can be quick to jump to their own defense when their morals are being questioned. However, when it comes to these types of issues of oppression the dominant groups have to stop the ignoring and rise up to the responsibility and opportunity. In Wise's lecture he said for hundreds of years, every generation members of the dominant group have said there is no problem and in every generation without fail we have been wrong. White denial has to stop for us to make any progress.