Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Racing Around the World, an Exhausting Feat

Trying to understand the idea of race around the world is almost as exhausting as racing around the world.  That's because race is a social construction so every culture or country has its own ideas about race and those ideas are changing all the time.Hopefully the Omi and Winert article that students read for homework illustrates this. Reflect on the Omi Reading.
                        1.What is the “one-drop” rule?
                        2.How is “race” different in Brazil?
                        3.How is this article an example that race is a social construction?

Building off the Omi article, read this vignette about travelling to Brazil:


It is hard to believe, but yes, the person's race changes as he/she travels to other countries.  Checkout how other countries classify race on each country's census.



When I was in Japan, a teacher told me that there are only 2 races: Japanese and everyone else.  But, I pressed the teacher further and found out that Japanese people have two different types of earwax among them: dry and flaky, and wet and sticky.  Historically, Japan was settled by two different groups that had these 2 different types of earwax so they see each as a subracial characteristic.  Americans would never think of earwax in this way, instead we are far more fixated with other characteristics.







Monday, December 3, 2012

Masculinity, violence and football

NFL player murder suicide is an example of the violent masculinity that our culture creates. Checkout this article.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Blue Collar Stereotypes


The movie People Like Us shows blue collar people being glamorized by middle classes. One example was the “Hun Fest” in Baltimore and another example is the Yuppies who go to working class bars in the city and they call them “dive bars.” Both groups claim to be romanticizing and appreciating the blue collar life. However, when it’s finished, they go back to their middle class lifestyle and do not interact with these blue collar people. Do you find this to be condescending? Are they really making fun of these people? Furthermore, one of the speakers in the movie said that although racial and religious stereotypes are no longer accepted publicly, class stereotypes are still acceptable. For example, you could freely use phrases like “You’re so ghetto” or “That’s so white trash” and you would not get into trouble. Why do you think class stereotypes and prejudices are still acceptable in America today?

For more blue collar stereotypes visit the blue collar TV website

or Jeff Foxworthy’s website.

Or, watch this video called "Class Dismissed; How TV Frames the Working Class" from mediaed:

Can you imagine a mainstream comedian getting away with these jokes in a racial or ethnic or religious way?