Media item 10!!!!!

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/651160.html

When I read this artilce I thought I was reading somthing from the 70's. I would have liked to have thought that all of us have came along way from the early days of the KKK however that is not the case. This article starts off with Letty Brown, a black woman who recieve a piece of male that said "My dear WHITE friends and commerads." Clearly Brown is black and not a follower of the racist group. And attached to the letter was a flyer using the N word several times. The group that sent out that mail will be going to court. Later in the article was describe an incident that occured with one of the guys who was tied to the letter. He chased a black family down the street with his gun drawn. He said it wasnt a race issue that it was a family issue. However I don't know if I believe him because he clearly has ties to the kkk. This ties in with the theme of the class. This class deals with a lot of racism and the evolution of the united states. I feel in this class we have learned a lot about how racism began but i think this article ties in how racism is still prevalant today.

Media Item 9

http://www.sunjournal.com/gallery/gallery_view.php?storyid=199368&priority=1

This advertisement was printed in the Portland Press Herald twice in two weeks. This advertisment has offened many jewish people because the way the advertisement looks. The guy in the picture apperently is supposed to represent a Jewish man playing on many of the sterotypes of Jews. People feel that this picture is anti-semetic. The reason I chose this picture is because I feel as though it ties in with some of the articles that we read this past week. I beleive it closely relates with Brodkins article about how far Jews have came over the years. I think that anyone who isnt a WASP will always have to deal with some form of racism. In Brodkins artilce she talked about all of the hardships that jews face. They weren't able to get jobs like other white people and they were not admitted to universities because they were seen as the other. In Brokins article she writes about how the jews were reported on. Jewish people generally had jewish neighborhoods. When whites would go through thoes neighborhoods they I guess felt the need to write in the paper what they saw. Jews reported to be dirty people- which was not the case. Back then they were fighting subtle racism in advertising and they are now again. I think the person who wrote that article may not have though that was hurtful because it was in a joking manner but it is still offensive. People need to stop being ignroatnt of others feelings and need to realize how hurtful their actions can be. This advertisment ran in the Portland Press Hearald twice but because of all the promotion it stirred up it was removed. The paper apologized and everything was okay.

The picture of the slaves is to represent the material that we have read this past week. The text we read had deal a lot with slavery especially Kindred. So I guess this is an ode to Kindred. In the book Kindred a woman named Dana starts having dizzy spells and ends up going back in time to the slave period. I chose this picture because the caption beneath it says that it is from an actual plantation and was taken during the 1800’s. Dana because she was black was forced into slavery. She got a lot of criticism for “dressing like a man” and many people confused her because she wore pants. This picture shows salves whom are women dressed in full length dresses. I also chose this picture to help get a better visual of what slave clothes actually looked like. I am surprised that the slaves did not wear a lot less clothes than that only because it is so hot outside when they were working and especially being in the south. The one thing that makes my stomach flip is when I see this photo everyone looks so sad. Clearly I know that they don’t want to slaves and they endure a lot of work and pain but this photo makes me want to jump into my computer screen and rescue them. I just felt such a strong emotion when I saw this picture and I knew it had to be blogged. A picture is really worth a 1,000 words.

This picture is to help symbolize what happened after slavery. This picture to me is a representation of the Jim Crow laws. The message of the Jim Crow laws was separate but equal. I feel that this picture shows the Jim Crow laws because even though blacks were free they were still at the mercy of whites. Black were treated unfairly and when they did have jobs their white bosses would usually treat them horribly. The problem was that the government didn’t have a problem with the way blacks were treated because the president at the time. Andrew Jackson was the president and he basically halted the progress that the us was making. Jackson put laws into effect that made it very difficult for blacks to continue the progress they had been making. This was written the article written by Zinn. Also it relates to the other article we read that dealt strictly with the Jim Crow Laws.

media item 6

http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/menu.htm

I was typing in racism and media into a search engine and after about ten minutes of searching I came across this website. This website is a link to a museum filled with racist memorabilia. I still have mixed feeling on the website because I am not sure if I agree with keeping those artifacts. The man who owns the museum calls him self a garbage collector meaning that although he doesn’t approve of what he collects- he collects the items for historical value. Clearly we all can see how these items fit into our readings. However instead of me telling you about these items I think it would be a great idea for you to go on the website and explore for your self. That being said my first instinct for the museum if to burn it down because I think it is awful to keep such hurtful items but then I also believe that having this museum shows us how ignorant we used to be and therefore I think it is wonderful to have. I am still on the fence about the issue but I think the good out weighs the bad.

number 5

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070713/cm_csm/yhauser

This article describes a white woman [Emily Hauser]who becomes extreamly aware of her race. She lives in an area that is divers however once she crosses the street she becomes more fully aware of her race. One thing she writes about that really got my attention was she writes " Am I conflating race with poverty, poverty with danger, the unknown with, well, the unknow?" This reminded me of that Johnson says in I believe chapter 3 is that people will argue that they fear the unknown. However this is just the myth. People don't fear what they do not know, people fear what they think they do not know. Hauser then goes on to write about the different types of looks she recieves from people where she is considered out of place. Hauser descibes in her article the types of conversations she would hold with someone who was german or pakistani-- but never black. She then goes on to describe what she call soft-racism. I believe what she is saying here is that she is a bit of a soft racist because she is unable to treat blacks the way she treats others- and in being so open and honest. I think this article ties in with a lot of what we are studying and I think it is great for Hauser to put all of her feelings out on the table. Why is it that we all live in america yet as soon as we step off our block we become extreamly uncomfortable and blatently aware of our race? Will this ever change? I sure hope so-- but I don't think real soon.

Media Item 4

I found this article In USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-06-27-capitalism_x.htm The article is from June '06.

This is a news article that deals with capitalism. Capitalism was a predominate topic for this week. Capitalism was introduced by Johnson to show how racism and oppression formed.
This article talks about how Capitalism has spread freedom and have made America into this great place with plenty of jobs. This article reltates to what we studied this week becuase we learned about capitialism and how it spread oppression and racism. This article talks about how capitalism spread freedom and talks about capitalism as a positive thing. However I believe that Johnson talks about capitalism and a negative issue. This article doesn't even speak about all the negative issues that came with capitialism. The racisim and oppression. This article says that with capitalism came freedom. However I don't believe a person has freedom if they are being held captive by their job. Being locked into working long hours for little pay. I really didn't enjoy this article. I feel as though when you are a journalist you are supposed to be objective. I also believe that as a journalist a person should be aware of both sides of the topic. And I do not see both sides argued in this article. To have a soild argument one needs to state both sides of the article and refute it and this article doesnt do either.