Michael Moore Clowning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfFfUxBDMDY&playnext_from=PL&feature=PlayList&p=052B3A0EA350BFA3&playnext=1&index=28

Someone sent me this video recently and i thought it was pretty amusing.

On a more... intellectual... level I thougt we could discuss the purpose of the vidoe. A lot of people in class seem to be searching for a sort of solution or a way to address this problems that occur. Here Michael Moore does some interesting things to shed light on the issue. So... here are some questions i was thinking about after i watched and i thought others might have an opinion.
Is Michael Moore's approach to this blatent racism at all effective?
At the end of the day does it mean anything to police, black people, Americans..?
It what ways does he, if he does, give up any priviledge that he has as a white man?

The Skit that Made Chappelle Quit

Chappelle's Show

Pixie Stereotypes - In-Flight Meal

Charlie Murphy Videos
Buy Chappelle's Show DVDs

Black Comedy
True Hollywood Story

Pertinent to the discussion.

1 more that I couldn't resist.

Chappelle's Show

Ying Yang Twins on MTV Cribs

Charlie Murphy Videos
Buy Chappelle's Show DVDs

Black Comedy
True Hollywood Story

The Sketch That Made Chappelle Say 'Enough'

News Type: Event — Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:28 PM EDT
entertainment, tv, humor, racism, black, white, comedy-central, hispanic, asian, dave-chappelle, race-relations, chappelles-show

By: Corey Spring

Dave fights the 'black pixie' that encourages him to feed into stereotypes.

Chappelle as the singing, dancing black pixie in black face with a cane and vaudville suit.

Chappelle in white face as the white pixie.

In May 2005, Time Magazine was the first to report that Dave Chappelle left his show in part due to one controversial sketch. In July 2006, friend and co-writer Neal Brennan also told Maxim magazine that Chappelle walked out after a crew member laughed condescendingly at this sketch. The sketch that made Chappelle say 'enough' will be aired Sunday night on the premiere of the second episode of Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes... but you can see it right now for what it is.

This video joins the sketch shortly after it has started (the end of this video has the beginning). Dave has just been asked by a stewardess on a flight if he would like to have the chicken or fish for dinner. Suddenly the 'black pixie' appears in front of Dave, tempting and chiding him to play into the stereotype of ordering the fried chicken. The pixie is a singing, dancing Chappelle painted in black face and wearing a vaudeville-esque suit.

The black pixie again shows up alongside the Ying yang Twins on MTV Cribs, saying "I never thought I'd say this, but even I'm embarrassed."

The show continues with a cocaine snorting 'Hispanic pixie' that tempts a Hispanic guy into buying leopard skin seat covers for his car, an 'Asian pixie' that plays on a man's inability to pronounce the name Lala, and a 'white pixie' that advises his counterpart on how to talk to his black friends.

The Time magazine article sheds light on Chappelle's own thoughts on the matter:

The third season hit a big speed bump in November 2004. He was taping a sketch about magic pixies that embody stereotypes about the races. The black pixie--played by Chappelle--wears blackface and tries to convince blacks to act in stereotypical ways. Chappelle thought the sketch was funny, the kind of thing his friends would laugh at. But at the taping, one spectator, a white man, laughed particularly loud and long. His laughter struck Chappelle as wrong, and he wondered if the new season of his show had gone from sending up stereotypes to merely reinforcing them. "When he laughed, it made me uncomfortable," says Chappelle. "As a matter of fact, that was the last thing I shot before I told myself I gotta take f_____— time out after this. Because my head almost exploded."

After a commercial break, the interim hosts of Chappelle's Show explain Dave's thoughts on the sketch, and as a result, their reluctance to air it, so they ask the audience for their thoughts. Responses were both positive and negative, with one young woman saying she felt the sketch was derogatory and played off the bad stereotypes of blacks and Hispanics, but played on the 'good' stereotypes of white people. More responses continue here.

So now, I pose the question to you, when are jokes like this acceptable and when are they not? When the person making them is the same race as the butt of the joke... when it's thought provoking and makes people talk? Or are some things just always unacceptable because of those that take it to heart?

Talk About Race? Relax, It's O.K.

For my post I read an article in The New York Times called “Talk About Race? Relax, It’s O.K.” This article was about how the election of Barak Obama has made it easier for people to bring up in conversation the idea of race. Also the article questioned whether it was naïve to think that “we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy.” Mr. Rice, the executive director of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, didn’t believe we could and that race is something in American history and life “that we’ve never really worked through.”
Barak Obama alone probably will not drastically change the perception and commonality of race; however, I do believe that what America does need to be exposed to more counter-stereotypical African Americans. I am so sick of turning on the television and seeing all these cartoons and reality shows exploiting racial stereotypes for human… and the saddest part is that people laugh at it. What makes Obama an extra-special counter-stereotypical African American is that he is President of the United States and perceived as a celebrity and star within the media. Can sheer the star-power of Obama do anything to improve race relations or even transcend race?
If anything Obama has given America an outlet to start to feel comfortable starting a dialogue revolving around race. Because of Obama’s perception as a star and how he is portrayed in the media, his role in American culture has already accomplished one great thing: Before Obama there was always this thing—“he’s a black president,” but now there is also, “he’s a president who happens to be black.”
The role of media and pop culture in America has the power to choose how to portray different people and situations. Television can manipulate the way Americans view things. The power of perception can be a powerful tool, and in the case of Barak Obama and starting conversation about race, the media has played a positive role. Getting beyond racial differences may not be possible through the single candidate alone, but with media and pop culture behind him, it just may be possible…

Official week 10

I did a little research, and from what I can tell Dave Chappelle did not quit just because he was tired of ignorant white audiences. A large part of his decision to leave was anger towards the network, and lack of control over his show. That’s good, because I really was disappointed to think that he would stop producing his quality social commentary because some of the audience doesn’t get it. We can’t just halt everything that can be misinterpreted in a derogatory way...because anything can be interpreted in a derogatory way. So what is the solution for situations like this?

Speaking of standup...in an earlier post people discussed the replication of racism through racist jokes. What is the harm of these jokes? are they always harmful because they reinforce stereotypes? Or do intent and context matter? How do stand up comedians fit into this? It seems like they can say whatever they want because they make fun of everyone. When does race matter here? How is this different from daily conversation among us little people?

And 2 of my cents on Monday’s class: American pop culture today is a culture of excess. Whites and blacks alike are showing their asses (literally and figuratively) throughout popular media. I think the best way to combat this is not through restrictions or moral preaching, but through making choices as individual consumers. Networks, publishers, etc., will do whatever makes money; and when Howard Stern and Flava Flav stop making money they will get cancelled. The second prong to the solution is creating alternative representations. I also think its necessary to look at the media culture as a whole, not just racially, in order to understand and fix its problems. Thoughts? 

Cornell University Report on Inter-Racial Marriage--About 3%

Here you go. As I noted in class the overall rate is up, but inter-racial marriages are less than 3 percent of total marriages. Thus, folks may date and have relationships across the color line, but these relationships are not translating into marriages.

This is a link to an interesting piece on Asian-White inter-racial dating and marriage from the San Francisco Gate.

@@@@

Interracial relationships are on the increase in U.S., but decline with age, Cornell study finds By Susan S. Lang

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Interracial relationships and marriages are becoming more common in the United States, according to a new Cornell University study.

The number of interracial marriages involving whites, blacks and Hispanics each year in the United States has jumped tenfold since the 1960s, but the older individuals are, the less likely they are to partner with someone of a different race, finds the new study.

Pat Cassano, assistant professor of nutritional sciences, and Ron Booker, associate professor of neurobiology and behavior, are an interracial couple who have been together since she was 19 and he was 20 years old, about 31 years ago.

"We think that's because relationships are more likely to be interracial the more recently they were formed, so younger people are more likely to have interracial relationships. This trend reflects the increasing acceptance of interracial relationships in today's society," said Kara Joyner, assistant professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell and co-author of a study on interracial relationships in a recent issue of the American Sociological Review (Vol. 70:4).

Although more young adults are dating and cohabiting with someone of a different race, the study found that interracial relationships are considerably less likely than same-race relationships to lead to marriage, though this trend has weakened in recent years.

To explore the changing patterns of interracial sexual relationships during the transition to adulthood, Joyner and her co-author, Grace Kao, associate professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the National Health and Social Life Survey, some of the first nationally representative surveys to collect information on sexual relationships.

"Studying trends in interracial sexual relationships is important because intimate relationships between different racial groups are viewed as an indicator of the social and geographic distance between racial groups, and a barometer of race relations," said Joyner. Unlike other studies, which typically look at marriage or cohabitation and sometimes at current dating relationships, this study looked at trends in these relationships over a 10-year period.

The researchers found that among 18- to 25-year-olds in 1990 and in 2000, interracial sexual involvement became increasingly common, with the greatest increase seen in cohabitating relationships, followed by dating relationships and then marriages.

Yet, interracial relationships declined with age within these two periods. In 1990, for example, about 14 percent of 18- to 19-year-olds, 12 percent of 20- to 21-year-olds and 7 percent of 34- to 35-year-olds were involved in interracial relationships. Roughly 10 years later, 20 percent of 18- to 19-year-olds and 16 percent of 24- to 25-year-olds were in an interracial relationship. (Information on 34- to 35-year-olds was not available for this period.)

While Hispanic is an ethnic group composed of both racial and ethnic groups, Joyner, like many demographers, uses the categories -- non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black (or African-American) and Hispanic (or Latino) -- to measure race.

In Joyner's study, Hispanics had the highest rate of interracial relationships: 45 percent of 18- to 19-year-olds and 33 percent of 24- to 25-year-olds were in interracial relationships in the early 2000s, compared with blacks (20 and 14 percent, respectively) and whites (16 and 12 percent, respectively). While Asians appear to be comparable to Hispanics in terms of rates of interracial involvement, age patterns for Asians were not presented in the study, Joyner said, because there were so few within some of the age groups in the surveys.

"In the analyses we did run, however, it looks like involvement in interracial relationships increases with age for Asians," said Joyner.

"Although interracial relationships were far more common in the early part of this decade than in the mid-1990s -- about five percentage points higher -- they still decline with age," said Joyner, noting that the fact that many young adults' transition to marriage is also a factor in the age decline. The rate of interracial marriage, however, is still relatively uncommon: in 2002, only 2.9 percent of all marriages were interracial, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

In a 2003 study, Joyner had reported that adolescents in interracial romances were significantly less willing to reveal their relationship to family and close friends than those in same-race relationships, suggesting that such relationships still do not receive whole-hearted approval by society.

The study was supported, in part, by grants from McGill University, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

OFFICAL week 7 (I think)

Read this article: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_74358.html

I want to focus on Race in sports, while this article only really focus's on the athletes, why is there also such a discrepancy in management as well....Few minority coaches at all levels and even less in upper administration...

I know the article is really just a preview of the author's book but it raises many of the stereotypes that exist in the minds of the average american (meaning average white joe plumber). How do these perceptions come to be and more importantly why have they seem to become more prevalent.

I asked friends of mine what they thought of the argument (they can be considered avg. white joe plumbers) and they unanimously agreed with it and tried to defend the article with comments ranging from: "well thats obvious look at the N.B.A. and N.F.L. today or they gave me interesting anatomical differences between whites blacks and asians that are commonly believed but not necessarily true.....

Our class has forced me to re-examine all my conceptions on race and sports (seeing as its been the near the center of my life for as long as i can remember) and i'd like to hear some other peoples ideas in any or all apects of it....

***OFFICIAL*** A Class Divided

I think that you all should watch the whole thin but I think that the Daring Lesson and Day 2 are the best.   By having one experience that makes you the "other" can that change your mindset for a lifetime? What are the real long term effects of an experiment like this? 

 click on the site... 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html

Journalist Julie justifies Jewish injustice

I am writing this letter in response to...

http://www.mlive.com/kalamazoo/stories/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1233984063217000.xml&coll=7

...where a recent political and social injustice representative of racist America was so nicely reduced to trivial child’s play by Julie Mack in her February 7th column, “Protestor protests the protest he caused.” And on a side note, I too would like to demonstrate my equal, perhaps superior, skill at crafting cute political alliterations.



Mack may be a self-proclaimed “free-speech kind of gal,” but she is clearly not an anti-racist kind of gal. She is a white kind of gal – the white kind of gal that is intimidated by her own white shame and white guilt. While this white kind of gal fails to acknowledge the race of the white male WMU DPS officers who physically assaulted me, and the race of the white male WMU students who defaced my property, she most definitely did not fail to mention my Muslim name. And she surely did not fail to mention “black crime” in her February 13th column. She seems to be working under the assumption that my Muslim name, of which I take great pride in, does not evoke a racist response in this political context. She seems to be working under the larger naive assumption that a group of bona fide, white, male, third-tier public university security guards did not internalize the beautiful milk-chocolate color of my skin, did not internalize my prominent and handsome ethnic features, did not internalize my intellectually-reasoned political dissent, did not internalize my Islamic faith, and lastly did not internalize me as just another brown, unshaven, big-nosed, American-hating, anti-Semitic Muslim terrorist.



Whether or not I was “looking to create a fuss” I have absolutely every bit of legitimacy in complaining about “the fuss that ensued.” Does breaking WMU’s “legal” ban on freedom of speech nullify racial victimization by a group of white male authorities? I was a fool to think the First Amendment was my permit to protest. And was the rabble-rousing Rosa Parks justly beaten for sitting at the front of that bus in Montgomery, Alabama? Rosa Parks was not a tired, old, black lady. She was trained by the NAACP to break the law and sit where she sat. She was trained to be arrested. Did that legitimize racist, white, male police brutality? After all, they were simply enforcing the law – making sure that justice was served. The Civil Rights Movement was professionally organized by black intellectuals and provocateurs – not by a group of underclass, jobless, uneducated free slaves. Does that legitimize the lynchings of black men by white America? Does that legitimize the legal rape of black women by white America? When did we forget Dr. King’s revolutionary theory on civil disobedience against unjust law? Probably when we were so preoccupied with painting him as just another hyper-sexual, black misogynist.



In an informal, e-mail interview with Mack prior to the publication of her column, she refers to my tactics as “doomed to failure” and “more intent on scoring points than having a substantial discussion on the merits”. I may have been “scoring points” in the paled opinion of this white kind of gal (and other white kind of guys and gals out there), but for us disruptive, tactless colored folk, scoring points is the daily lived struggle for freedom – freedom from the bondage and enslavement of white kind of guys and gals, like Julie Mack.



As an American-born Pakistani living in America, the mental and physical abuse I experience is justified in the name of patriotism and American nationalism. On the Web at mlive.com, what I assume to be another white kind of gal by the online handle “MarionGrace” responds to my January 17th viewpoint with “pity for Mr. Turk who is a citizen of a country, but who at the same time apparently has no respect or love for it.” Dear MarionGrace: 

save your pity for when another American building is destroyed by the innately hateful, war-mongering, Jew-despising, Quran-indoctrinated, Muhammad-worshiping, taxi-driving, Arabic-speaking Muslim terrorists. And when it happens, DO NOT ask why – that’s your duty as a good, silent (white) AmeriKKKan.

Race and the Human Genome Project

Here is a link to the conference proceedings on race, genetics, and the human genome project.

http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/dynapage.taf?file=/ng/journal/v36/n11s/index.html

Unofficial- Human Origins and Migration

These two documentaries trace the origins of humanity, human migration, and with Diamond's documentary, the roots of human inequity. Neither is perfect, and I find the "Journey of Man" host especially annoying, but they provide some interesting theories.

I've post the first videos for both and if you're interest you should be able to navigate the entire documentary.


I would highly recommend the book Guns, Germs, and Steel, it does a better job than the movie outlining Diamond's theory and addressing counter-arguments.


Guns, Germs, and Steel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgnmT-Y_rGQ




You can use the first video to get up through five. Here is six.






Journey of Man

This host is really frustrating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV6A8oGtPc4

UNOFFICIAL, but officially amazing!

Here's a special response to the "Tea Partay" music video by Smirnoff. 

I don't think my reaction is appropriate in an academic setting.

Unofficial-An Interesting Tidbit

From Democracy Now! 2-13-09:

NYPD Makes Record 530,000 Stop-and-Frisks

Newly released data shows New York City police officers made a record 530,000 stop-and-frisks last year. The city’s data shows over 80 percent of the people stopped and frisked were black or Latino. Only about ten percent of stops were of whites, who comprise 44 percent of the city’s population. Last year, the Center for Constitutional Rights sued the city, charging that it has a policy of conducting unconstitutional stop-and-frisks and singles out ethnic minorities.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/2/12/headlines

Unofficial- Music and Race

I think hip-hop music does a great job at addressing some very large issues on occasion. Both these songs go back to a week back or so. No need to respond but listen if you feel like it. There is gratuitous use of the n word so be warned. 

This Wale song does a great job confronting the n word. 

Wale- The Kramer

This Nas song is short but powerful. 

Nas- N***** Hatred

*Official* 6th week

I wanted to bring up something here that I did not have a chance to bring up in class about the reasons whites may have for giving up their white privilege.  It seems to be a tough sell to tell people to give up white privilege based on morality, and telling people it will improve society as a whole also seems not to receive much traction. Therefore, I think the strongest reason to deconstruct whiteness should be personal reasons. 

Historically, race has been constructed as a social divider. This was true at the foundation of whiteness and it is true today. These can be seen in historical examples throughout history, as wealthy whites, at the start of slavery, sought a solution that would separate the interests of poor whites and blacks, and this strategy was employed once more when unionization first began as working class whites were once again pitted against blacks. Race has been constructed as a difference that stands between what would normally be a more united working/middle class, but instead they are divided by a trivial difference such as race. (I say trivial in the sense that it is trivial in theory not in reality.) Considering that the greatest benefits of this racial state go to a small portion of wealthy whites I believe the argument to deconstruct whiteness would have significant benefits for many working class whites. 

In this sense, the deconstruction of whiteness among working class whites would prove to remove race a social divider among most of white America. Not only this, but without such a stark division by race and a more united working class, societal changes could be made not on race but instead on class. 

I think Obama is a good example of this as much of white America moved beyond an issue of race and voted for their personal interest. This same example can be applied to structures of power all over the country. 

Of course this surrender of white privilege does come at its cost. There is no longer that racial underclass that working class whites would always be above. But what will happen, as a result of societal changes that are sure to come from a more united working class, is an increased possibility for social mobility, for both whites and non-whites. 

The sell for upper-class whites is much harder. They will face increased competition from less class stratified society that would result from a more socially mobile middle/lower class. But they still will be upper class, which means they will still have money and as much a chance as anyone. It is capitalism after all so just compete. 

Official for 6th week

In what ways does what Tim Wise refers to as "White Bonding" (102-106) interact with Thandeka's concept of "White Shame" (12-13, etc.)? It seems to me that white bonding is the action which would cause the self to abandon parts of itself and to flee into whiteness seeking acceptance in a larger community. However, if this is how "whiteness" is formed it stands to reason that, just as operant conditioning requires occasional reinforcement, whiteness would require the same. Are instances such as racial jokes a form of reinforcement of the conditioned "whiteness"? Are they outlets for an individual to express that they are in fact part of that (white) community? Or do they serve both purposes, both representing and reinforcing that belonging?
Following the parallel to operant conditioning I feel that this experience of white bonding is the most likely suspect for the reinforcement of "whiteness" and from this follows that in order to break free from this racial conditioning is to confront it with punishment (either positive or negative) in order to bring about the extiction of the behavior.

Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 03 of 03 - The House We Live In

Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 03 of 03 - The House We Live In 1/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 03 of 03 - The House We Live In 2/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 03 of 03 - The House We Live In 3/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 03 of 03 - The House We Live In 4/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 03 of 03 - The House We Live In 5/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 03 of 03 - The House We Live In 6/6

Race the Power of Ilusion Part 2

Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 02 of 03 - The Story We Tell 1/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 02 of 03 - The Story We Tell 2/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 02 of 03 - The Story We Tell 3/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 02 of 03 - The Story We Tell 4/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 02 of 03 - The Story We Tell 5/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 02 of 03 - The Story We Tell 6/6

Race the Power of Illusion Part 1

Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 01 of 03 - The Difference Between Us 2/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 01 of 03 - The Difference Between Us 3/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 01 of 03 - The Difference Between Us 4/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 01 of 03 - The Difference Between Us 5/6



Race: The Power of an Illusion - Part 01 of 03 - The Difference Between Us 6/6

On that Race Minstrelsy Madea Meme

Here are some clips relevant to our talk today about race minstrelsy, Madea, etc. This has come up a few times so I thought some pieces on the range of conversation on the topic would be helpful.







Harmless fun?



Some articles/magazines pieces:

Tyler Perry: Representative of Black Womankind, or Minstrel in Panty Hose?

from Salon.com--The funny thing about black men in dresses: Why do black comedians like Tyler Perry, Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence don plus-size pantyhose and parade around as their feisty grandmas?

Interesting piece on Black Theater and Madea.

Next in line Experiencing the Madea effect

Madea Got a Dress on Point/Counterpoint

"some people"

I know this really doesn't directly have to do with race, but it comes back to that idea of using the phrase "these people" or "the white elite"; who are "these people" and what do they really feel?  I think this response from the Huffington Post to an Associated Press article fits well with the importance of defining terms such as these.  It's short, I'll admit, but I think it fits with some of the things we have been discussing in class.

AP: Obama "Seen By Some As Arrogant"

Racism and freedom of speech in Kalamazoo

Here is a viewpoint I wrote for the Kalamazoo Gazette last month:
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/columns-5/123216961878710.xml&coll=7

Here is a published response (with online comments) from today's Gazette:
http://blog.mlive.com/readreact/2009/01/in_response_to_hussain_turks.html

Last night I was forcibly detained, arrested, and escorted off of campus by white WMU Police Officers when I quietly brought a sign (that read: AmeriKKKa Funds Israeli Terrorism) to WMU's presentation of "Israel 101." Supposedly my "organized protest" (which consisted of me, a sign, and absolutely no speaking) was "offensive and disruptive."

When an older veteran (who happened to be black) told the white police officer who was holding me up against a wall (and who did not witness me carrying any sign, because my sign was stolen by a white WMU student) that I had done nothing wrong, the black man was given 5-seconds to leave or be arrested as well.

I am now officially banned from any WMU campus facility. As I was being escorted/forced off of campus (the bruise on my arm speaks for itself) I had a brief but interesting exchange with a white officer, sergeant Brian Alofs.

I told him "You know its racist bigots like you that make America full of hate."
The white sergeant replied "You're mildly retarded."

I think this exposes the intellectual caliber of the American social justice system.

The race game last week got me thinking about where my race fits in the racial hierarchy. I was born in South Korea, and my parents adopted me at a young age. My parents have always been open with me and while my Asian identity is not a big part of who I am, other people will perceive me to be a model minority.

We have been talking a lot in class about black/white binary and how each group interact with each other. It seems that all other minority groups seem to shape their identity around this binary. As an Asian American I enjoy some white privilege, but I want to explore how whites create minority groups to fit in a racial category, and how minority groups reproduce this image.

The model minority myth hurts Asians because it confines individuals to a certain sphere of acting. If they deviate outside of this box, they are questioned by whites. To what extent do Asians perform this myth to comply with whites? And what are other myths that different minority groups get labeled with?

For me, I do not fit in with many of the Asian stereotypes. I was raised in an affluent area, which was mostly white. My parents and sisters are white. I don't have much value placed on my "Asian-ness." However, people I don't know still expect me to act a certain way. What are possible ways to overcome these labels that often are forgotten in the black/white binary?

Propaganda: Black Colleges During War Time

This is a video from 1944 put out by the US War Department. It discusses how African-American Universities were contributing to the war efforts. I think it's an interesting contrast to what we read about the GI Bill, White Veterans and Black opportunity at the time, and it's produced by the government.

Discussion on Class as a Protection Against Racial Violence

We were talking about the Tulsa, Ok race riots in 1921 earlier today and how class is not a protection against racial violence and power inequalities. These two documentaries are very powerful and feature interviews with survivors of the race riots and the attacks on "Black Wall street."

Here is a clip on the East St. Louis, Race riots in the same period, where Whites systematically killed and murdered African Americans in order to "purify" their town--and how the Black community resisted.

The Flexibility of White Privilege

Over time in middle-school I shifted from being vaguely Christian to a militant atheist. In conservative, religious, Grand Rapids, Michigan this was not a popular belief. It was difficult knowing that some family members, friends, and strangers thought I deserved eternal damnation and would treat me differently. Now, I’ve mellowed in my beliefs, but I my religious convictions are contrary to those of many believers. However I would never equate the discrimination I have felt because of my atheism with the oppression of other marginalized groups. The discrimination I faced was usually short, mild, and well-intentioned. In almost every situation,I had to consciously expose my self to discrimination.

Many whites, especially middle to upper class whites, exercise control over the degree of privilege they experience. Whites can choose when to reveal or not beliefs or characteristics that conflict with Whiteness. We choose when to laugh at a racist joke and when to be offended. On one occasion we may protest against injustice and on another, because it is more convenient, we are silent.

However what interests me the most is when whites seek out discrimination Sometimes I would enjoy it when someone acted prejudicially towards me. It gave me a sense of uniqueness and lessened the guilt I felt for the privilege I did have. I came to enjoy the feeling of righteous indignation. Occasionally in conversation when I could tell things were going into an uncomfortable area, instead of steering things to safer territory, I would let it come out that I was an atheist. Then when the person I was talking to said or did something that offended me I would revel in my noble fury.

I have seen in my life and in the media many white Americans emphasize their anti-conformist/anti-whiteness identities to be different. However, be they goth, punk, leftist, what have you, it is often something that can be hidden if need be. While I don’t want to suggest that people shouldn’t be allowed to have whatever identities they choose, it is intriguing that some people consciously surrender privilege. Is the control of white privilege a form of white privilege? Furthermore when white people knowing give up their privilege or emphasize their anti-whiteness how does that relate to the effects of “white shame” and the “wages for whiteness” that Thandeka describes?

Race in Religion

This is an article I found on the Washington Post website. It's called "Obama Ushers In An Era of Inclusion." We haven't discussed the relationship between race and religion much, so I thought this might produce an interesting conversation. This article discusses Obama's choice in speakers for the invocation and benediction at the Inauguration. I think some interesting ideas to talk about might be how it is "safe" to broach the "race issue" under the umbrella of Christianity and why the author believes these choices that Obama made are a symbol of inclusion. (Not very religiously inclusive, in my opinion.) Rev. Lowery's final words, "all who embrace justice say amen" are also quite interesting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012303507.html

Introductions

Now that we are up and running. Two of you will be nominated to make the first posts for our blog. Those of you who don't post, should respond to the "discussion leaders" piece. These posts can consist of any number and types of items--be creative, but also be thoughtful. What would make for an interesting conversation? What ideas are you still struggling through from our in class discussions? How are our conversations speaking to "the real world" where politics and power intersect all around and through us?

Those of you who are not discussion leaders in a given week are responsible for responding to your peers' original posts. But, don't let this be a strict guideline: if you are not the featured blogger for the week, you should still post your questions, found news items, or links that you find interesting, compelling, or exciting.