Stereotypes Extend into Television and the Video Age

At the start of Tuesday's class, our professor asked everyone to get in groups of three or four. The reason for this was to have an exercise among each other on discussing stereotypical ways that Hollywood portrays every cultural background. So, my group first thought about Black Americans/African-Americans. We viewed them as being loud, comical, strung out on drugs, living in a bad environment, being 'hood' as some say, having low income housing, being so aggressive towards themselves and others, not being too knowledgeable about life or situations that may come along, not making school a priority, etc. We thought about Latino Americans as being gang members, body tattooed up, having young beautiful females with a lot of children, fast talkers, etc. We thought of Asian Americans as people who are very smart, they all look alike, own many Chinese restaurants or  food businesses everywhere, very artistic, martial artist, etc. My group never discussed Caucasians Americans/White Americans, Native Americans, or even Arabic Americans because we ran out of time. The professor then had a few power point slides on cultural stereotypes in films from the first fifty years to this present day. She discussed the stereotypical ways on how Native Americans, Black Americans, Latinos, and Asians were viewed or seen in movies from then to this upcoming age and how things have change in some ways from a minority aspect. Meaning, how the color barrier has been broken in the film industry, how film made television so diverse with more minority actors having there own show and network, and changes with role playing has become a whole lot popular now, just from famous minority actors venturing out to different roles. If we think about Josephine Baker,Halle Berry, Bill Cosby, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr., Morgan Freeman, Gregory Hines, Lena Horne, James Earl Jones, Spike Lee, Eddie Murphy, Sidney Poitier, Richard Pryor, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Oprah Winfrey, and the list goes on and on, but we think about how these great actors and actresses have paved a way for so much and not just in the movie industry, just in life in general all around the world. 
 

The Roots of Racial Stereotypes in American Entertainment

In Thursday's class, we discussed the topic The Roots of Racial Stereotypes in American Entertainment, which we covered stereotypes (shortcut to character development, often prejudiced; negative towards a person or group of people based on comparison, and the different cultural groups that were discussed in the chapter). Our professor also showed videos and film clips of movies that gave examples of how stereotypical this world really is from different cultural backgrounds. As I reviewed the notes and checked out a couple of the film clips that she posted, I thought of the an interesting film that I have seen many times and have in my movie collection titled, Higher Learning. Just to give you a brief overview of this film, its about young people from different countries, races and social backgrounds were forced to integrate when they enroll in Columbus University, where West Indian Professor Maurice Phipps (Laurence Fishburne) teaches political science. The students have to deal with problems such as financial difficulties, harassment, personal safety, self doubt, sexuality, and racism. Already under pressure to perform in the classroom, in athletics, or in social settings, the students are strained to the breaking point by prejudice, inexperience, misunderstanding and their need to fit in. The three main characters are Kristen (Kristy Swanson), a white girl from Orange County who struggles with her sexuality; Malik Williams (Omar Epps), a black student who has to rely on a sports scholarship to pay his fees; and Remy (Michael Rapaport), a white student from Idaho who is unable to make friends at college and gravitates towards a group of neo-Nazi skinheads. I feel this movie was a perfect example of the notes and movie clips Dr. Horvath was explaining to us last week because the whole film stereotypes what not just Hollywood view different cultures, but how the world sees different races and how we are exposed as one nation with numerous races.

Here's a link to the trailer of the film Higher Learning below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4KVCVX1MrQ 
   
 

DIVERSITY IN THE LAND OF MAJORITY RULE

On Tuesday, we discussed the topic Diversity in the Land of Majority Rule, which we covered issues such as; What is a "minority"? (Small in number, Small in power, Umbrella term for non-white, and Can think of it as NOT THE DOMINANT GROUP), Useful Metaphors (The Melting Pot), Increasing Minority Population (Reasons, Effects, Implication for affirmative action education-entrance curricula, methods, etc., International Phenomena), and The Future ("Minority" will mean any subgroup, Nature of coverage, and More media and more people of color). With having this topic on mind and the issues that covered it, I thought about my own surroundings and how I am a minority in many ways here in this nation called America. For instance, I feel as a minority just being a black male when we are seen as criminals, gang members, "ghetto", "hood", ignorant, loud, baby-daddies, unemployed, drug dealers, settlers, and the list can go on and on depending on who you ask. I also feel as a minority as being a black male in college and even more as a minority at a four year institution. We are viewed as strange in some situations such as walking pass a female of another race in which she will clinch her purse as if we would want to steal it. In there minds, we are thieves no matter if we are dressed in professional attire or not. Another situation or issue that comes to mind, if we are shopping at stores, different assistance's of the stores follow us in uncomfortable ways which is racial profiling. They will act as if they are cleaning up an area, but in all actuality, they are checking to see if we are shop-lifting. These are just a few scenarios that do occur and that I've seen or been apart of within my twenty-five years being on earth.

FOOD NETWORK COMMERCIALS

In Thursday class, right before Spring Break, our class got together and made our professor a nice little baby-shower feast. There was shrimp pizza, chips and spinach dip, cakes, cookies, trail mix, and drinks. There was a dish our professor brought which was so delicious; it had black beans, cilantro, and avocado in it. I can't remember the name of this particular dish, but it was so, so good. I can truly go for some of that right now just thinking about it. So as class began, we were chowing down some of these great dishes that my classmates and professor brought in, but on top of that, we went into a class discussion about the Food Network and how its advertised. We covered the instructional genres, cooking instruction shows, techniques to create fantasy foods, the new domestic cooking shows, food and traveling, and the Avante-Garde cooking. From looking at these points and topics that we talked about, made me think about what's actually being viewed during commercial spots when these different cooking shows are not on air during those thirty seconds to a minute segments of the show. So, I Youtube a couple of cooking shows from the Food Network and discover that majority of the commercials are dealing with food. There was one commercial that stood out the most when I was searching for commercials titled, Alton Brown "egg" commercial Food Network, it was about some boys hiding behind some bushes and throwing eggs at cars, but they ended up throwing some eggs at the wrong van. The lady jumped out the van and chased one of the boys down as if she was going for a defensive football tackle...lol...but as soon as she caught one of the boys, she educated the young boy about eggs as he was looking at her so confused, and then she left...lol!!! You would of thought she was going to show him some sort of discipline act for throwing eggs at her van, but that was her method of discipline after tackling the boy. Other commercials were mainly about foods you buy at the grocery store so you and your family can enjoy a delicious home cooked meal. There was another commercial about Kodak films, but it showed the family at the beach catching lobster, then taking them back to their beach house to cook them. Then you had your basic commercials about different cooking shows, what each one presents differently, and the time its aired on the Food Network; from East Meet West with Ming Tsai, Iron Chef, etc. Then there was the commercials about Reynold's Wrap and how you can store your foods after your done cooking, so it can stay fresh the next day for left-overs. Basically, most of the commercials that are aired during these food segments are predominantly based on food; how you cook it, store it, eat it, prepare it in many ways, or what new foods are out there to try instead of what your use to cooking and eating all the time.         

SIR RICHARD BRANSON

In Tuesday's class, we continued the discussion on Reality TV and the Economy with the general term ideology; which comes from the political context, reinforced in media fantasy as a marketing force in TV. While in a class discussion on this, our professor then gave us three specific concepts that covered ideology which is entrepreneurship, self-reliance, and consumerism. Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods" (Wikipedia.com). Self-reliance is the reliance on one's own abilities or decisions (Dictionary.com). Consumerism is the concept that an ever-expanding consumption of goods is advantageous to the economy (Dictionary.com). After grasping an understanding of what these concepts actually meant, I thought of a famous individual who just may fit perfect into the stereotype of these ideas and notions of ideology. His name is Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson; a British entrepreneur, best known for his Virgin Group of over 400 companies. The way Sir Richard Branson express his entrepreneurship throughout the media, especially throughout his businesses is taking part in the Global Entrepreneurship Week which includes thousands of events for 10 million entrepreneurs, industry experts, policymakers and politicians in 102 countries. This movement celebrates innovation and creativity and helps entrepreneurs develop the knowledge, skills and social networks to help them grow sustainable businesses. Not only is he apart this great movement of entrepreneurs, but he partnered a school in South Africa called the Branson School of Entrepreneurship. From my own personal opinion, with having the title "Sir" at the beginning of your name shows that you declare some sort of self-reliance. He's a billionaire with so much drive, ambition, and has long-term goals in being so adventurous in things globally, it almost seems as if he has the right to make the decisions or specific choices as he please. The man has one of the worlds most impressive track records to where that's self-reliance within its own domain of achievements. Sir Branson uses consumerism in his everyday life are within this businesses and companies that he own to help the economy. From his first magazine when he was sixteen to give the people something to want to read, to the 70's starting his own audio record mail-order business turning it into a chain of record stores, to Virgin Records, then later becoming VirginMegastores, to the 80's with Virgin Atlantic Airways, and then expanding it the Virgin Records music label. This is not even the half of his businesses that he owns. This was actually something small that grew into global use that he invented to help the economy out. This dream of his has grown to a reality, which motivates other entrepreneurs around the world to do more in there businesses or organizations that they may have.       

In yesterday's class, we continued the topic on Ideology and the different sources that are used with it. Noted from the power point in regards to sources of ideology, media reflects norms of the moment. In other words, what we see and hear on television, movies, radio, newspaper, etc., has some type of affect on our everyday life in society as a whole and individually. From a the news media, if watched or read, this creates ways of how we look at our world in ways of wanting or not wanting to make a change in different aspects of not only your life, but family and friends, and also others around you. It may not always be for the good or the bad, but mainly what are settling for from what's being seen and heard in reality. From the movies media, we know everything isn't a fairy tale, but we use different genres of films to correlate with our personalities at times. It can be something simple as a message from some movie and we will run with it and apply it to something in our lives; this is something I do a lot as a individual who's a big movie buff. From the TV media, it was noted as it creates a window to other worlds, meaning, television shows are produced as not just being seen as one issue/problem/situation, but seen in many genres that life throws at you. For example, shows aired on BET, MTV, VH1, TLC, Life Time, Bravo, and etc. Then our professor went into Reality TV and the Economy. This explained how prevailing television has become over the course of two decades and the influence of reality television on ideology. One sitcom or television show that I feel fits this topic and lots of people tune into it will have to be The Game. This show has a tremendous buzz and its ratings are off the charts. People around not only the nation, but the world are really watching this show faithfully. If you read or watch news stories on this sitcom, it really has a huge influence on people around the world. The show digs deep into actual problems and traits that we as people portray in our lives daily; no matter if you have money or not, we all still go the same trials and tribulations at time.          

WORLDSTARHIPHOP/YOUTUBE

In class on Tuesday, our professor informed us on Ideology. This term means a body of ideas that reflects the beliefs and interests of a nation, political system, etc., and underlies political action. Its the set of beliefs by which a group or society orders reality so as to render it intelligible. This is a speculation that is imaginary or visionary and is the study of the nature and origin of ideas. As it was noted by our professor as a way of seeing the world in its appropriate roles, the stage of success its in, and the negatives such as criminal/immoral/wrong doings in society. In other words, how do we define success as a society. Going more depth into ideology, we really use the use of images to view how we are as a world in the media. For example, what are our worldviews from every point on earth (how America is viewed), our belief system (America feels we are the best), and Values (America's most precious and desired beliefs). When looked at as a group, the images that we give off are visible, common, and have power behind them. So, to sum this issue up from a media stand point, media is a major source of ideology which we are socialized into roles in terms of what we want to do and what we don't want to be in the environment we choose to adapt to. My reasoning of choosing WorldStarHipHip and YouTube because after looking into what ideology really is and how is actually exist in our world, these are two sources of media that is portrayed in our society and era today that I use daily for entertainment and news purposes on what maybe going on around me and the world  everyday. These media sources is something that can trace back from decades to this present time. Up-to-date visual aid is another important part of these cites because not only are you reading about a specific news story or some kind of good/violent/funny/sad act of such, your also viewing on what's going on. My opinion on these two specific media sources and how ideology is correlated with them, is that I see so much wrong doing on our side of the world in some random neck of the woods or cities. It's a lot of violence or criminal activity in America, but if you watch closely, lots of countries feed off our energy in doing such acts all the time. You may see these people from other forms of life dressing like us, dancing like us, listening to the same genre of music like us, or even try to run the same government as we do. There's really not much positive that occur in our media around the world. Like someone mentioned in class the other day, America is like the big brother of this so called "family-world" because every country on every continent looks up to us and tries to see what we are about to do or say next; follow the leader is what there doing and we're giving it in all shapes and forms. If this is what this world is coming to on a daily, then Barack Obama said it best, "Change needs to come, but its starts with us individually" and I agree with that quote 110%.