Recently in Discrimination Category

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who, during his studies at the university, discovers the principle behind life and how to apply this principle to give life to previously non-living matter. He creates a Being, but immediately upon seeing his deformed appearance, he feels revulsion and abandons his creation. The Being is left alone to wander in a world where every human being feels revolted by his appearance, considering him a monster and excluding him from society.

The story is a good example of the psychological processes associated with stigma, defined as the devaluation of a person as a consequence of an attribute that indicates that person is different from what is considered normal. People perceive stigma and experience very strong affective reactions. In the case of the Being created by Frankenstein, his deformed appearances makes people afraid and revolted, and they avoid or attack him, even his creator.

An important message of the book concerns the possibility of a self-fulfilling prophecy associated with discrimination: the Being becomes angered by constant rejection and decides to take revenge on mankind, actually becoming the monster everyone thinks he is. As Percy Shelley wrote when describing the novel: "Treat a person ill, and he will become wicked".

Black Like Me

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Black like me is a very interesting read. You almost start the novel off on the wrong foot, questioning if he is really serious about his endeavor. The process he goes through is almost surreal, as I found myself really wondering what type of benefit he would recieve from doing all this. He dyes his skin and shaves his head in an attempt to be accepted into the black culture of the south. He seems to wobble during his balancing act of playing a black man in the beginning, but begins to achieve a sameness or feeling of comfortability with many individuals of the African American race.

You don't go into this book expecting sunshines and rainbows, and if you do you are headed for a disasterous awakening. The book was almost meant to shock you to a point of no return. This is an account of real life, and certain actions that are said an done to Griffin cannot be taken back. Yes...this is happening at a time where discrimination was more prevalent and in your face and yes this is happening in the South, but it still existed and it was Griffin's chance to tell the story. His story will be cemented in time, and will be viewable to all of those who pass it or give it a second glance.

While the visuals are there, it is sometimes hard to imagine the hate that he experiences in his travels. We can all say that we know what discrimination looks like, but to feel it is a different matter. Reading about someone getting the death glare is less painful than getting the death glare itself, but Griffin translated his feelings in the best way that he could. This makes the book hard to relate to at times, because you cannot really empathize to the extent that he may have wanted you to, but you can get the general idea.

The main point of the book was in fact to point out discrimination, but I feel like the parallel idea to the story is the idea of identity. He has an identity crisis at multiple times throughout the book, questioning who he is and where he fits into this society. He is a wolf in sheeps clothing and can't find a way to undress. Trying to be on both teams does not work to his advantage and puts him in a group all of his own. This tug-of-war between who he sees and who he is ultimately leads him to stop his experiment and change back to what he feels is who he really is.

I had always wanted to read this book, but had never gotten a chance to. In school it was offered to me, but I ended up with The Color Purple instead. Now that I have read it, I am glad that I did. This story is one that needed to be told, and it is one experiment that you don't get too see replicated often. Griffin got a chance to take on the South as its enemy, and survived. He knows what it is like to shed his skin and become a new person, and I think he was bettered for it. I could say lots more about the book, but it would take far too long. I would just recommend that people read it, so that they can have their own take on this interesting read.

Instead of an actual article or something of that nature I actually have to report an incidence that affects me personally...or rather my sister. My sister is 11 and goes to Meredith Middle School. For the most part it is a pretty diverse school for being in Iowa (granted it is in Des Moines). Anyways... She is 11 but she still understands the concept of discrimination, whether or not she understands the actual term. There is a group at her school called the "Sisters for Success" that gets the chance to go on field trips and do little fun projects as a group. It is sort of a club that recieves special priveleges if you are a member. My sister, naturally, wanted to join. Who wouldn't want to go on field trips? They turned her down because she was white. They told her that this was a group only for African American girls. Disappointed, she told me about it. I find this very interesting. I know that there is an understanding that groups should unite and band together to celebrate who they are, but she obviously wanted to join this group. From what she told me, it doesn't seem like they are actually doing this in the first place. They mostly just meet to be friendly, not necessarily to talk about race. I could just be bias (given that this did happen to my sister) but I feel like this is wrong. She is 11 and she does understand what is going on, but what are your thoughts on the subject? Is this type of thing a problem?

...also.. when we talked about this she said the most interesting/adorable thing she probably could have, "actually... I feel kinda bad for the boys....they don't have any sort of group for them."
Here's the link to the article and blog from CNN: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/28/dems-call-for-overturn-of-arizonas-immigration-law/

Since we mentioned this in class, I thought I should post an update about it. I saw other people have posted about it, but this article is talking about the federal government's response to the law.

Also, check out some of the comments posted on CNN's blog about it. Some of them are pretty unbelievable, but I guess that depends on what party ideology you identify with.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100428/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1831

 

I just got through reading this little slice of heaven and it is infuriating. Republican Tim James, who is in the gubernatorial race in Alabama appears in a campaign add where he promises to give the state's driver's license exam in English only. His reason?: it will be a cost-saving measure...um, ok? I fail to comprehend how getting rid of the existing non-English versions of the exam will cut costs. He goes on to say: "This is Alabama, we speak English. If you want to live here, learn it".

This topic always gets my blood boiling. I have been all over Mexico and I have yet to see an American make an attempt at speaking Spanish. Also, whenever people do make an effort at speaking English here in the U.S., they get discriminated against because they'll speak it with an accent. This happened to my mom the first time we went to Chicago in 2003. We were in an elevator at the Sears Tower and some people were being rude. My mom made a comment about it in English so that the men would understand, and I see an employee of the building give my mom a dirty look and rolled his eyes...My claws came out at that point. I said, "You got a problem there cheif?"...he denied he had a problem..."So why are you rolling your eyes? You think every Mexican that comes here doesn't understand English or speaks with a heavy accent? Are you that ignorant?" ...he profusely apologized and said I was right in calling him an ignorant moron. I doubt he was sincere but it gave me great pleasure to call him out in front of a large group of people. I've seen this type of crap all the time.

Not only do people have to speak English while they're here but they also have to speak it without an accent as well. Otherwise they're some kind of simpleton who don't know anything.

This proves the point I was trying to make yesterday in class while discussing Cassie's book Black Like Me. Although people are a little more open minded than what they once were, there are still a lot of places in this country, particularly the South, that continue to be overtly racist.  

What do you guys think of this idiot's campaign?

Campus Christian Case

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36648454/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

There has been recent lawsuits against a christian club on the campus of Hastings in San Francisco.  A homosexual student wanted to join the Christian club, but wasn't allowed membership due to their sexual orientation. 

"A federal judge threw out the Christian group's lawsuit claiming its First Amendment rights of association, free speech and free exercise had been violated, a decision that was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a two-sentence opinion in 2004."

There have been heated debates on if this should be allowed or not between the people in power.  There have been previous rulings on interracial dating beliefs.  There has been past troubles with the Christian Legal Society and them having members join, who didn't, at least what they thought, have the same beliefs as their own. 

Their are many arguments in the article for both sides.  I think that if someone is a Christiam they should be able to join the group, especially if they are a college funded group, people who go to that college should join.  In not having members of the college join, who do believe in the Christian faith, they are creating discrimination on the campus, and it is letting students discriminate against one another based on either race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, etc...

Resegregation in schools

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36660242/ns/us_news-washington_post//

 

This article discusses the semi-recent resegregation in two Mississippi schools.  In Tylertown Mississippi, a predominately black town, there has been a majority of white students throughout the years moving to the Salem school district,  a predominately white town.  Where Tylertown is looked at as the "black school" and Salem the "white school."  That idea really hit home here in teh Cedar Valley, where in waterloo, East and West are split into the "white" and "black" schools, with the intention that the "white" school is better than the other. 

In the article, they discuss that there has been some recent legal actions taking place.  They are investigating into the "segregation" for reasons based on race.  They are also looking into whether minority students are being treated differently than the white students in the schools.  They go on discussing how resegregation has been a recurrent trend since the 1980's. 

In this school district, they ahve had separate homecoming courts based on race and proms have been been separated based on race in the past as well. 

After reading the article I couldn't believe that this is still going on.  I have heard of having the better schools and that being based on race, which is still shocking to me, but the idea of having separate homecoming courts and proms within a school surprised me, even though it is in the south. This article both stigmatizes the black people in that town and the white people.  In recent news, the white people in these towns have been labeled the "hillbillies of Mississippi."  There has been a lot of negative press towards the white people in this town and they have all been greatly stigmatized. 

Image: Albert Snyder

 

I came across the following article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36449471/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts about a man named Albert Snyder. His 20 year old son was killed in Iraq four years ago and now he is in a legal battle against the Westboro Baptist Church. Church members picketed his son's funeral with signs reading "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "You're Going to Hell". The church, which is mostly comprised of the Phelps family, has targeted several soldier funerals and claim that "military deaths are the work of a wrathful God who punishes the United States for tolerating homosexuality." This is completely perposterous to most people, but the question becomes: When do we draw the line when it comes to freedom of speech? It is illegal for someone to yell "Fire!" in a public place, but it is perfectly legal to express such hatred towards others because of their sexuality, race, ethnicity, and the like. I have a serious problem with this. Next week the U.S. Supreme Court decide whether or not the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church are protected by the first ammendment. What do you guys think? Where do we draw the line in terms of freedom of speech?

AUSTRALIA

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecmSh8oKzr0

 

I recently watched Australia, and was very supprised by the content of the movie.  The trailer that I just linked makes it look like a love story that happens to take place in Australia, but that is really a second story line. Without giving away to much, the film is told from the perspective of a mixed race child, and the main story line is about race relations in Australia before and during WWII.  It is very simmilar to the way we treated Native Americans here.  The film is very long, but it provides a great social commentary on how the aboriginal people of Australia were treated.

Straight-Only Prom

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/constance-mcmillen-fake-p_n_525856.html

 

above is a link to an article talking about a girl who was not allowed to take her girlfriend to prom. The prom was canceled when they found out she wanted to do this, but she fought for it to stay and the prom happened anyway. Her and only a few people showed up to the prom. Apparently, the rest of the school attended a "secret" prom which she was not invited to.
What do people think about this? School is already a place where people feel insecure about themselves, but this sort of thing is only adding to the feeling of being out-of-place. Should this have been totally ignored, or was this really an issue?

She said that she had a great time at prom, but how is her transition back into school going to be?

Racism and Basketball

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March Madness just finished, but I came across this article regarding racism: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=jn-race040410 

 

Here's a short section from the article:

"Even though the race issue isn't discussed in polite company, it's been the subject of hushed conversations at the Final Four and will be obvious to anyone in attendance or tuning in at home. The subject is so taboo that even Larry Bird bristles when it's brought up."

 

What do people think about this issue? We have talked about it before, but I was interested in the issue being so "charged" that people don't even want to discuss it.

The 'queering the census' movement has gone viral.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/03/31/2010-03-31_somethings_queer_with_census__gays.html

You may have already heard about this, but this is an article about a movement for the U.S. Census to include responses for single gay individuals. This year's census had an option for homosexual married couples, but that was it. Does it surprise you that the U.S. Census, one of the most organized and expensive survey organizations, doesn't include something so socially salient on their survey? Shouldn't this be something that was identified as missing before the census was even close to being sent out?

In addition to this, the article talks about transgendered individuals being identified on the census. This year transgender individuals were told to check "male" or "female" according to which sex they most identified. They argue that a separate box should be included for this question. This is something that has, from my knowledge, hasn't been included on any other survey's I've come across. Do you agree with adding this box to the "Sex" question on the census? Is this something that would then need to be included on other official surveys or demographic forms?
"PORTLAND - About two dozen women marched topless from Longfellow Square to Tommy's Park this afternoon in an effort to erase what they see as a double standard on male and female nudity."



     Ah, finally, a movement I can support, and from the looks of it, they need all the "support" they can get!  Apparently the state in which this unorthodox event took place, Maine, defines nudity as "genitals only".  So, what's a girl to do when she can walk around topless?  Well, it seems she's going to...um....walk around topless.  

"The women, preceded and followed by several hundred boisterous and mostly male onlookers, many of them carrying cameras"

     Oh really?  No kidding?  You don't say?  A whole bunch of guys followed a whole bunch of topless women?  This sounds more like a bizarre bachelor party or Girls Gone Wild event than a social movement.  My favorite part of this story is the organizers' comments after the march:  

"Ty McDowell, who organized the march, said she was "enraged" by the turnout of men attracted to the demonstration. The purpose, she said, was for society to have the same reaction to a woman walking around topless as it does to men without shirts on."

Come on Ty, COME ON!  Sure, I suppose she can be enraged, but I think her position would have been more effective had she used this as a teachable moment.  What if she had said the following INSTEAD:  
      
     "The attention we received while marching today illustrates the divide between the social perception of men and women, and how we still have a long way to go before we reach equality.  I mean, if there were 20 topless men walking down the street, it would probably have looked like a ghost-town around here.  I think we have made some progress though, and I look forward to our next event"

Ty, you can lose your shirt, but lose the aggression too!  Have a sense of humor for goodness sakes, and realize that until internet porn is obsolete and Hustler and Playboy go bankrupt, naked chicks will remain totally sweet...

NOTE:  I felt it was my duty to maintain the normative male perspective on female nudity for the purposes of this entry.  Please don't think less of me, I really am a decent human being.  

God Hates Fags

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MRWqlf_8M8

 

This video comes from a supposed organization/church. Along with this video there are many other videos from the same guy preaching hate against gays. A lot of controversy has risen from the videos, because it is questionable if this is a joke or real. It is hard to say for sure, because the videos contain "humor" like referring to things such as back door or get on your knees, but then there is a full website dedicated to his "organization".

Do you think this is real, or not? I encourage people to look at his website that they show at the beginning of the video. If you think it is real, what are the implications? such as religion and how he is trying to "change" gays to straight. If you think it is fake, how is it that this type of thing is funny? what are the implications of this side?

"On February 4, the Fair Housing Justice Center (FHJC) announced the filing of a federal race discrimination lawsuit against a real estate broker, Amelia Lewis, and two housing cooperatives, Silver Beach Gardens Corporation and Edgewater Park Owners Cooperative, Inc., located in the Throgs Neck area of the Bronx, New York."

http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/


     Okay, So I'm not a Realtor, but I have worked in way too many sales jobs already to keep my head above water as a poor student.  I also know that in the last few years if you have to sell your house, GOD BLESS YA, cause its gonna' take awhile.

      With this in mind, how do things like this EVER happen?  Is it really possible that this is some kind of accident?  Lets see, with a name like the "Silver Beach Gardens Corporation", one might assume that this neighborhood co-op is composed of some pretty damn nice places.  Now, to have the means to purchase a nice joint you've either got to make a boat load of money, OR your parents made a boat load and gave you a good share of it.

     Regardless, lets assume that most of these people actually earned their money, which as research has shown over and over how education and income share a strong correlation.  This means that many of these folks must have gone to college, and were required to take some of the same courses you were.

     You'd think that SOME of these folks would think to themselves "Hey, you know what, our neighborhood is flippin pale, I wonder why that is?" 

OR maybe this is not the case, maybe it was a simple oversight, due to an antiquated protocol that overlooks such things.  But really?  Its safe to assume that many of these folks had to get the same 3 letters of recommendation from current owners to be able to purchase THEIR place, so doesn't that mean that this place is solely inhabited by all the "cool kids" from high school that still wear their "Senior Keg 1992" t-shirt while mowing the lawn?

This whole thing perplexes me...and I'm not sure how to best address this sort of issue?  I mean, what are you going to do, enforce affirmative action for buying homes?

Jeesh.... 

 

 













"Black Like Me"

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Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin is written using the journal entries kept by John Griffin (a white, middle class American from Texas) as he underwent treatment to temporarily become a black man.  Griffin, as a black man, traversed the streets of New Orleans, Birmingham, Montgomery, Atlanta, and various other cities in the Deep South.  Griffin provides a unique, up-close look into the prejudiced and racist south in 1959.  He is able to write from the mind of a white man but behind the eyes and experiences of a black man.

This book was a written hit to the funny-bone; it was some what painful to read but also uniquely enjoyable.  Growing up in the public school system, I learned with some regularity about the tragedies of the south up until the Civil Rights Movement.  If your average high school history text book and Black Like Me were sand paper, the text book would be a quick glance over with a table sander on low and Black Like Me would be an hour long elbow-greasing with a piece of thick grained sand paper.  Where the text book provides a technical, factual covering of the facts of pre-Civil Rights south, Griffin's book is one man's well written accounts of a black man's every day experiences. 

Some of the people he met and the things he saw made me wince with pitty, and I frequently found myself feeling shameful for the things my race has done.  I couldn't help but feel partially responsible for the horrendous treatment of my fellow man.  On the other hand, it was a real page turner.  Griffin is an easy to read author who is clearly well educated and opinionated but does a wonderful job at making this book a conduit by which to tell his experiences and not a platform to display his opinions and vocabulary.  I would recommend this book to any one wanting anything from an eye opening read, to a medium length page turner.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51g6dsllfGL.jpg

Author Tim Wise does an excellent job describing the state of racism in America (both before the age of Obama and during his 2008 presidential campaign). Wise's book is broken down into two main parts, or essays as he describes it. The first is an overview of racism and discrimination in America, citing both explicit and subtle forms of racism within the realms of employment and income, housing, education, criminal justice and law, health care, and even going into great detail of the inequality demonstrated during hurricane Katrina in 2006 and the 2008 presidential campaign. This portion of the book was mainly aimed at getting across the point that racism in America is still going strong, despite the fact that statistics show that most white Americans believe Obama's election as our president signals the end of racism in our country. Wise argues that although the election of a black man to our highest ranking position is a big step in the right direction, it does not mean that white people view black people on the same level they may see the president (he uses the analogy of Bill Cosby and the Cosby Show in terms of how white people view him differently because he does not fit the stereotype-consistent role of the "black man in America". Wise also spends a good portion of this part of the book criticizing Obama for his failure to address racism in a more direct fashion, stating that Obama has often side-stepped the issue of race in America and what needs to be done to promote more equality within the realms I mentioned above. My question regarding the first part of the book is: Is it really Obama's task to focus more of this effort on racism in America because he is our first black president? Because of the fact that he is our first black president, does it just come with the territory, whereas presidents before him were not "expected" to tackle this issue because they were old white men?

The second essay of the book focuses on what needs to be done to help alleviate modern racism (or racism 2.0, as Wise refers to it). In particular, Wise focuses on what white America needs to do in order to help promote equality in our country. He mentions five main goals for white America: 1) Take personal responsibility addressing racism and white privilege. 2) Listen to black people regarding racism. 3) Stop the denial of our disturbing history dealing with race. 4) Connect with anti-racist white culture to help promote understanding. 5) Speak up! - When you see racism, no matter how subtle, take action and make a difference.

Overall, I thought this book was a well organized argument for how racism is still a very big issue in our country and it can be seen where ever we go. Wise definitely did an excellent job getting the point across about how Obama's election to president does not mean racism is ending, it is simply not what it used to be....racism has evolved. Wise point out several instances of racism and discrimination in the book that relate to many concepts we have discussed in class, including stereotype threat, ingroup/outgroup biases, situational factors that bring out hidden prejudices, and institutional and modern racism. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good overview of where America stands in our battle against racism and discrimination.

To Kill a Mockingbird

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The Pulitzer Prize winner To Kill a Mockingbird is a timeless classic written by Harper Lee. The story takes place in the small southern town of Maycomb County, Alabama in the midst of The Great Depression. The narrator of this riveting story is a young girl named Jean Louise Finch, or Scout. Scout is not the typical delicate, shy, and ladylike child that society expects her to be. She is an outspoken, rambunctious and free spirited tomboy who wears overalls, plays in the outdoors alongside her older brother Jem, and is far more intelligent than most in her age group. She and her brother Jem are the children of Maycomb County defense lawyer Atticus Finch. Atticus can be considered an untraditional man in several respects. For starters he is a single father raising two children. He also encourages and stresses the importance of an education and egalitarian beliefs to Scout and Jem during a time when it was very unpopular to do so.

Throughout the text, Scout walks us through her childhood adventures in this conservative southern Alabama town alongside Jem and occasionally their best friend Dill. At first life seems simple. But when their father Atticus takes on the case of his life, they all begin to realize the severity of racial turmoil that defined American society during this time period.

  In the story, Atticus takes on the case of a Negro man named Tom Robinson. Tom is a young family man whose only crime is that he is African American. He stands accused of raping the eldest daughter of Mr. Ewells, an impoverished social misfit in Maycomb County. The Ewells are an unpopular family who live on the outskirts of Maycomb in the midst of the town's dump. They are known by everyone in the county for being aggressive, dishonest, uncivilized, unclean, and uneducated. Despite these facts they hold a great advantage over the most civilized and honest African Americans: they are white.

 Scout and Jem encounter dirty stares and insults by many of their fellow townsfolk because their father is defending a Negro. Through example however, Atticus teaches his children that the color of your skin does not define what kind of person you are. Everyone should be treated with kindness and respect. Scout and Jem manage to hold their heads high and support their father's cause. Despite the best efforts of Atticus however, Tom is convicted of raping Mr. Ewells' daughter and is sentenced to death. Scout and Jem learn the grim reality that justice for all does not exist in the ignorant and racist American culture.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful text to read when learning about stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Readers can get examples of all three of these elements throughout the entire story not just in the context of black versus white, but also society versus women, and poor whites versus everyone else. Some of the social psychological underpinnings of this novel deal with constructs such as categorization, Social Identity Theory, depersonalization and dehumanization, out-group homogeneity, social motives such as self-enhancement and control, and the list goes on.

Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful representation of the struggles experienced by generations of minorities as well as females throughout American history. From a social scientific standpoint, the novel gives social psychological novices a well rounded summary of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination along with solutions to such issues.

Can men be sexually harassed?

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This is a clip from Family Guy from an episode where Peter's boss is sexually harassing him at work. When he tries to bring it up to his family, they say that a man can't be sexually harassed.

Do you think this is true? Have you ever heard of a case where a man was sexually harassed? Do you think this happens more often than we think and just doesn't get reported because of this stereotype? Have any guys ever felt like they were sexually harassed?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100325/ap_on_re_us/us_prodigy_study_abroad

 

I thought that this was an interesting article when I stubbled upon it.  The article talks about this 13 year old boy who goes to college at the University of Connecticut, he had planned on studying abroad in South Africa for one of his majors, but college said that he was too young to go.  His mother and he were trying to make arragements where she could accompany him to South Africa so he could do his studies that were imparative for his future plans.  So him and his mother are claiming age discrimination against the college. 

 

I thought that this was a very interesting concept.  My relatives have a foreign exchange student staying with them who is in the 7th grade.  But the college wont let a student, who they have always treated like any other student, to go to South Africa to further his studies that he has worked hard to accomplish.  He has shown maturity to handle himself in college but now the college is making him into a sort of out-group because of his age.  Saying that he doesn't have the maturity to handle studying in South Africa.  He has tried to make accomodations so that he will be able to study.

Everyone should check out this website and the accompanying video! This has changed my entire view on the history of the United States in terms of racial relations between white people and black people. Is it possible that we have all been brainwashed through years of exposure to the superiority-inferiority of the two races? Would this explain why so many people still hold strong prejudices and/or are outright bigots?

http://www.stopthebrainwash.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIBQPORReWY&feature=player_embedded

I think that we, as a society, need to take a long look in the mirror and figure out where we have been in order to decide what we really are today. This does not only include the white race, but the black race as well. The perpetuating harm that is being done today through the media has ties to early advertising of slaves, mockery of black people, and early silent films. However, we do not even realize this because of how long this propoganda has been around. I don't know about you, but I totally buy into what Tom Burrell is getting at through this website. Check out Kim's post on Burrell's NPR interview if you want to hear more from him.

 



Paul Mooney is one of the Kings of comedy. He has written stand up comedy for Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Saturday night live and many other venues. He is mainly known for his active stance in confronting racism in America through Stand up Comedy and going on different talk shows to address these issues faced by society today. Paul has a strait forward or blunt approach he takes which makes most White people uncomfortable and upset. There are a lot of good youtube videos that go into greater detail with his views. Do you think by him being direct about these issues help or harm the message he is trying to portray?

 http://www.northern-iowan.org/ku-klux-klan-1.2188683
The Northern Iowan put this Article on the front page; the Thursday before spring break.  If there is truly an idea or an image that UNI is trying to preserve in saying Diversity Matters or UNI.  It starts with us as students speaking out against bigotry, racist ideology, discrimination, or being stereotyped.   I truly understand the 1st Amendment Right of "Freedom of Press/ Speech", but at what cost is that freedom really freedom. If it shows a bias towards homosexual or minorities, is it not an infringement on the rights of a people. We may not be seen what the administration is doing but the fact that they are standing and saying that these actions will not tolerated here on campus is a start, but this massage needs to be sent to all department heads, and down the line but mostly in the news paper where they feel that it is necessary to put this out to the public.

Now that it was put out on the front page, shows that there is an active KKK organization here in Cedar Falls/Waterloo but across the state of Iowa in ten different cities.  Now the subject and idea is actually out their instead of trying to deny it as they did in the past, it is up to the people to see where they want to go from here.  Here on campus for the first time in history a verity of different organizations our coming together never to fight and stand for a just cause.  We our tired of being underrepresented or feel that at times administration, is more worried about the mighty dollar rather than its students; and now we all have a voice as student who our standing against oppression.     

I found this article today about someone announcing over the intercom for all Black people to leave a Wal-Mart. They're unsure if it was an employee a customer, but it hasn't been the first time I've heard a story about an act of discrimination occurring at Wal-Mart.

Do you think this was a joke or a real bigot? Have you heard of anything else like this happening at Wal-Mart or other department stores?

This is a clip of a Hispanic guy going solo against a group of racist protesters. They keep telling him to go back to his country and he fires back saying he is indigenous to the continent and that they should go back to Europe. Their logic is flawed and they keep calling him a coward even though he's one man standing up to a group of people.

Would you have the guts to stand up to a group of people like this? Do you think his presence fueled their fire?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LCL2IqgjSc