Entry 10

For this entry I'm choosing the movie "Remember the Titans." Because it is a very good example of affirmative action, and desegregation. The movie takes place at the time when T.C. Williams Highschool was integrating their school system, and this movie focuses on the struggles and criticism the team faced. Throughout the movie the boys on the football team face numberous racial factors that jeopardize their will and football season. But by the end of camp Coach Boone had shown the team that even if they didn't like each other, they still had to respect each other, and all the members of the team became friends. But once they got back from camp they realized that they were the only ones ok with the integration. Maybe it was forced upon them? or maybe they were just forced together and relized that eventhough their skin colors are different, they are not that much different as people.

This relates to the class material because of the affirmative action of the forced integration. Neither the black parents, or the white parents were happy about their kids going to school with each other, but the law said they had to. In Brodkins piece, the Jews and the whites did not necesarrily want to be living in the same neighborhoods, but once the war was over and Jews were living with the whites, they realized that it wasn't that bad and they weren't that different of people.

Entry 9

The 19th amendment gave women the right to vote, which is a form of affirmative action, where the law requires a group of people be able to do certain things they couldn't before. I chose this because I think its amazing that women didn't get the right to vote until the 1920's and even then they still were denied most of the time until women entered the workforce in masses during WWII.

This relates to course material because I feel this relates to Brodkins story of the Jews being able to move into white neighborhood because they were white. Finally in the 1920's women recieved the right to vote eventhough their male counterparts have been voting since the beginning of America. This fact comes as a surprise to think that white women weren't able to vote but black males (if they met certain stipulations) were able to.

Knous Entry 8

I chose this painting of the slave market in early times because I feel it shows a great deal of the agony and pain that went along with the slave market and trade. I found this photo online after a short google search. This painting shows how the African Americans were in a gloomy kind of mood beacuase of the harsh living conditions and lack of any type of luxury. You see the folks just simply standing around, to me this shows that the people in this painting are just waiting on something, but no one really knows what so they are just standing around with the nothing that they have in the New World. You can see a couple people bent over in either pain, or hunger or emotional pain, which also shows the pure brutality of the slave trade, possibly not even from being beat but the trade itself being so brutal it breaks the spirit of some people. One also can see some smoke arising from the behind a few people to me this comes off as that is smoke from a fire to keep warm, cook food, and possibly dry wet clothing. The picture in itself with the dark colors shows the gloomy times in which the slave trade took place. This relates to the material because the material shows how brutal slavery was in words, this picture shows a portion of how brutal slavery was visually.

Knous Entry 8

Knous Entry 7

For this week I am going to discuss how the movie 300 relates to the course material, in the form of brutality towards slaves. In the movie Xerxes was the ruler of the Persian empire who was trying to conquer the world. Xerxes had many "followers" who were whipped, beaten, tortured, even killed when they did not please Xerxes. His "followers" were portrayed in chains and tattered clothing all of which had facial expressions of distinct anquish. This relates directly to the material where the landowners would make conditions so hard on their slaves they would always have a look of distain on their face, only to break it in sarcasm when the salves started to sing to keep their moral from completely breaking. I selected this particular movie because when one thinks about the movie 300, they normally think about Larinitis and his brave men, but no one really thinks about the slaves Xerxes tortured and beat, just like the slaves of early America.

Knous Entry 7

Knous Entry 4

I found this cartoon online at cartoonstock.com and I selected it because I do enjoy humor in pictures. The cartoon is simply two men walking out of a coffee shop with a sign that says "milk, sugar, valium." One man says to the other "just don't let the old man get you down."
This connects to the material in the way of a person can be priveleged in certain ways but not feel it. These two men in the cartoon are both white, nondisabled males, and if one assumes they are both heterosexual, they would be a +4 in the matrix of privelage. Although being a +4 they are still walking out of a store that specializes in caffeine and anti-depressants talking about not letting "The Man" get them down. "The Man" referring to the system in which they work and live in and are obviously feel oppressed by. Judging these men by their clothes they have pretty decent jobs too. So, two white, nondisabled heterosexual men with jobs they presumable go to with suites on, one would think that these men would not be feeling oppressed what so ever, but by the caption they are. This clearly shows how simply because you can be privileged in all areas of the matrix doesn't mean you will feel privileged, as Johnson had stated.

Knous Entry 3

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/tay_zonday/chocolate_rain.html

This week I chose a song called "chocolate rain" by Tay Zonday. The link above is a link to the lyrics and a video of the song. Unlike most songs this one does not really tell a story, it more describes the "chocolate rain." I chose this video for the clear relation it has to the material. I orginially found this video on youtube that a friend had sent me the link.
I feel this song strongly relates to the material because it does state how some people can be a part of a "priveleged" class or an oppressed class but at the same time not feel oppressed. The beginning lyrics in the song are: "Chocolate Rain Some stay dry and others feel the pain Chocolate Rain A baby born will die before the sin." One can easily see how this song is explaining on how although someone may be in a priveleged or an oppressed class they may not feel it. The lyrics "A baby born will die before the sin" is not talking about death, its saying about simply because a baby was born into such conditions it doesn't have a chance to change the conditions. "Chocolate Rain The same crime has a higher price to pay chocolate Rain The judge and jury swear it's not the face." These lyrics show the racial oppression of being a minority and being commited of a crime there is higher punishment, eventhough the jury say its not because of the race. I felt this song is very closely related to the material, if the link does not work either google or youtube search it.

Entry Two

For entry two I have chose to analyze another episode of South Park where socailly constructed racial groups are over emphasized in the program.
In this episode a group of Persian folks bought a bar that a bunch of locals normally hung out, which enraged the locals because they thought that since the new owners were persian they would try to re-decorate their bar. When the folks from the bar finally approached the Persians, they found out what they thought was true, the Persians wanted to decorate the bar. Also, the kids did not want to do their homework so they hired a group of Mexicans to do it for them. But, it turns out the Mexicans took the childrens assignment in the wrong way and wrote a letter to their friends rahter than writing the kids essays. I chose this because it over emphasizes the racial grouping of Persians enjoying decorating and Mexicans willing to do any work but ending up doing the wrong job. The writers send a message in this with the folks from the bar becoming friends with the Persians over the course of the episode and the children learning to do their own school work, saying simply because of the group is of a certain race doesn't mean that they are trying to do the stereotypical thing (whatever it may pertain to).
I do enjoy this episode because it does have a good message in a round about way , not to judge a book by its cover.

Entry One

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii224/onpoint76/South%20Park/cartman-teacher.jpg

I have chosen to analyze an episode of the show south park for my first entry. In which Cartmen (a 3rd grader from a predominatley white suburb in colorado) becomes a teacher in an inner-city school. I chose this particular episode because of the over emphasism on the stereotypical social classes of race and oppression.

The show portrays this by having mostly all of the students from the inner city school being the stereotypical inner city race of African American and Mexican. The writers show how the students have been oppressed because as Cartmen takes control of the class he learns that none of the students have any hopes or dreams of becoming anything in life, but as Cartmen teaches he helps the students learn that there is more that they can do besides be "thugs." This relates to the material by showing that simply where the students have grown up has effected the way they think about their future because of the social opression of living in the inner city. The show puts a bigger emphasis on this because of the fact that Cartmen was a 3rd grader from a suburban area who didn't think that there was nothing for him in life, but was able to help highschool seniors from the inner city see that they could in fact be a "somebody."

Although the majority of the people who watch this program do not look at it in the sort of fashion to find a flaw in America, you can definately see how there is a message hidden behind all the crude language and racial jokes, in which points out the downfalls of America. In my opinion it is a shame of how some kids get poor schooling simply because they were born into a bad part of the city, or can not afford to get to a place where there is adequate schooling.