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.

I found this cartoon on the internet. This cartoon is a representation of women being oppressed. The cartoon suggests that men should have all the great idea’s and women should just sit back and give men all of the ideas that they have.
This cartoon mostly relates to Johnson’s chapter 6. I believe that if closely represents “the path of least resistance.” This path that we are all guilty of taking can be extremely oppressive towards women. The reason for this is because when men in high positions select managers or give promotions the men in the high positions will choose the candidate who not necessarily who is most qualified but the one who is most like the man in the high position. This is choosing the path of least resistance and not necessarily the most qualified. That is why man men get the position and women are left in the dust. This cartoon also relates with Johnson’s Chapter 3 and capitalism. Capitalism is the reason that women are oppressed. Capitalism has put the idea in peoples head that white, heterosexual, males, who are not disabled are above everyone else. “Women’s supposed inferiority has also been used as a basis for the belief that much of the work that women do isn’t work at all and therefore isn’t worthy of anything more than emotional compensation.”(49) Discriminating against women and making them seem less valuable according to Johnson has been used as a tactic to pay women less and use them for cheap labor.
When I first saw this cartoon I was a little offended because it just seems that the CEO promoted that women just to be fair. It seems that the CEO doesn’t care about her even though she has a great idea. It also sends the message that when a woman has a great idea it is better coming from a man. Although this is a cartoon I feel it reinforces how men look and treat women.

beauty

So as you can see in my blog I was going to write about an article that discussed the removal of Columbus Day. Although I though it was an interesting news article I think that it has too much in common with the flag. I thought that I was going to be too repetitive so I decided to go with this picture of the hands. I believe that the picture of the hands best represents the article “How Our Skins Got Their Color”

This article to me embraced both the white and black skin colors. On the first pages Harris writes about how the main reason our skins are different shades is due to the melanin in our skin. The melanin is what gives our skin its color and helps protect our skin from sun damage. The article then talks about how as you move away from the equator the skin colors found gradually become lighter. This has to do with the weather and the amount of sunlight that skin is being exposed to. When I first went searching on the internet I wanted to find a picture or an article that expressed the differences in being white and black and being beautiful at the same time. I only found this picture that to me well fits in with black and white beauty. To me this picture is absolutely beautiful in its simplicity however it some how ties in the two races. This to me fits in with the article as white being beautiful and black being beautiful. Another reason I chose this picture is because when I was looking up black and beautiful on the internet I was unable to come across a dark skinned black person. I was using the keyword beautiful in my search and I believe that typing in beautiful had something to do with the fact that when I searched black and beautiful I only found light skinned images. This picture shows a darker skinned black persons hand which is what I was looking for. In the article white was beautiful because it was healthy and the lighter child was more likely to survive and black was beautiful because the darker skinned child was more likely to survive.

I really enjoy simple art like this picture. I feel like this picture truly does speak a thousand words. Something that came across my attention while searching for black and beautiful was the lack of dark skinned blacks that showed up in my searches. It seems that being black and beautiful means that you have the lightest skin color possible. That is a reason why I chose the hands is because it was the darkest skin that showed up in my searches. It boggles my mind how we used to be a society that put emphasis on the darker you are the more beautiful you are and the lighter you are the more beautiful you are. Now when searching for beauty you find tan white women and light skinned black women.

Media Item 2

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_5057891
A new name for Columbus Day?
By Julia C. MartinezDenver Post Editorial Board
Article Last Updated: 01/21/2007 02:45:17 PM MST

The ongoing battle over the Columbus Day Parade has moved from the street to the state legislature.
Democratic Sen. Suzanne Williams is considering legislation to change the Columbus Day holiday in Colorado.
Colorado was the first state to observe the holiday in 1905. It's now a federal holiday, which will be observed on Oct. 8 this year. American Indians have long protested Denver's parade celebration, saying Columbus did not discover America and was neither a hero nor a role model.
Williams is a registered member of the Comanche tribe of Oklahoma. She says the various factions of the American Indian community are "ready to move beyond protesting." Williams said she is talking with government leaders and studying options for legislation.
"One option is to change the Columbus Day holiday in Colorado," she said, which could "possibly" involve changing the name. "All Nations Day" has come up before. Another option is to change the "parade structure" to have an event "of many cultures." She hopes to engage the people of Colorado "as we look at the reality that Christopher Columbus did not discover America."
So far, Williams hasn't engaged the Italian-American community, which has been protective of the annual Columbus Day celebration. Pam Wright, state president of the Sons of Italy, said, "It's really sad that people have to rain on somebody's parade. It's a celebration of what our ancestors did."
On Columbus Day, Italian Americans celebrate their heritage and commemorate the day Columbus landed in the new world in 1492.

This week I focused mainly on the history of America aspect of what we learned. The reason I focused on the history this week is because I feel as though history is such a big part of our Education and it feels like such a slap in the face that what we have been taught isn’t really the truth. I literally went on google.com and typed in Columbus Day under images. This flag was one of the pictures that stood out. I chose it not only as a protest to Columbus Day but as an icon for most of the things we learn as history.

The flag reads; We live in a country founded by cheats, murderers, rapists, thieves, terrorists whom captured killed enslaved millions of Americans whom killed more natives than Nazis did Jews while the catholic church is behind the altar justifying molestation, god bless America. I believe that this media item closely relates to the article we read about Christopher Columbus because this image represents everything that we were not taught. In the article the first thing that reminded me of the words on the flag was the first paragraph on page five that was continued from page four. The article write how it wasn’t in face Columbus who discovered America but a man by the name of Rodrigo. This clearly show that Columbus being give the title of the founder, cheated Rodrigo out of the praise he deserved but the money he should have received also. Earlier on page four Zinn writes “Spain had tied itself to the Catholic Church, expelled all the jews, driven out the Moors.” This quote to me relates to the flag also because Catholicism was behind the coming to America and was behind watching many of the horrifying events in history take place. The last excerpt from the writing that I believe relates well to the image of the flag can be found on page eight. “But in the history books given to children in the United States, for generation after generation, it all starts with the heroic adventure-there is no bloodshed-and Columbus Day is a celebration.” This flag embodies everything that Zinn was writing.

I chose this image for my media portfolio because I believe that this flag has an extremely powerful message for everyone. I believe that the protestors really got their message across. After reading all about what a horrible person Columbus is I can’t believe that we still celebrate that day in October. I do however think that maybe instead of celebrating that day that we should re-write the history books. As a catholic I was a bit personally offended by the end of the flag where it says the catholic church is justifying molestation and watching all of this happen. Although the catholic church has been involved from the beginning, because all of the people who founded America were Catholic, I do not however feel we should place the blame on them but more on the history book writers and the educators of America. I do feel that if you are going to educate someone you should teach them the truth.