just keep swimming

So I have been thinking of this paper, and I’ve decided I need to research some advocates trying to curb the spread of prejudice. This will help my project be more comprehensive in understanding the spread of prejudice through new media by offering expert knowledge. While this one (http://www.splcenter.org/blog/) features hate groups in particular, I want to also research more subtle ways prejudice can be created and grow. I think exploring sites like craigslist (Rants and Raves), Fox Nation, and others will help yield more information on subtle racism and prejudice. These sites are also really popular, so it will help show how prejudice can reach the main stream through the internet. I also want to research why it might be that the internet emboldens people to say prejudiced things. Is it because of anonymity, that they know there is no repercussions, and that is how they are really feeling, or because they just want to make people angry and the internet is a good venue to reach people?

woman king

On the topic of media influencing prejudice about females…Twilight….I think it is one of the most patriarchal creations of modern media, and the fact that teens are reading it in school is troubling to me. So I think one of the main themes is “you aren’t anything without a man”. At least that is what the protagonist thinks, and there is not really any negative reaction to her in the books. Yes, I’ve read the first three. Severe boredom. Anyways, the whole plot of the first book is basically how her life was soooo bad until she met the guy, and then, in the second, after he leaves her life is meaningless. She basically tries to kill herself so she sees visions of him so her life regains its meaning. I get it’s a teenage drama and with that comes melodrama, but I don’t know if that is the best message to be sending to impressionable kids. Also, another HUGE theme is abstinence until marriage. OK, I get that it is admirable to abstain until marriage, but the main problem I have with this theme is that the protagonist gives up her life about a week after she meets the guy. She wants to drastically change her life for her man…just to be with him…not for herself…a week into their relationship, yet having sex before marriage is evil? So you can completely alter your own life for a man, but having sex is not alright? It is alright to let a man control you but not have sex with you? He becomes very controlling and in the book, it is shown as a sign of love. Another thing I find really disturbing is the fact that one character is mauled by her boyfriend when he is turning into a werewolf (seriously, I’m not kidding) and it is dismissed as him “losing control”. The reason this bothers me is this is a common excuse used by those who commit domestic violence, and their partners stay with them. She stays with him and says it won’t happen again, something that advocates want victims of domestic violence to rethink. Another odd thing is the fact that another main character, in book 3, keeps trying to kiss the protagonist, despite the fact that she resists his advances. She basically tells him no and he forces himself on her. After this, she decides she loves him too. I don’t really have to explain why this message may be detrimental. Enough for now. Some day I will write I serious research paper about Twilight and its negative affect on teens, with works cited and everything, but I’m tired.

Fox, not Mulder.

I remembered the Tea Party movement being called racist in the White Power USA video I watched, so I googled “Tea Party Racist” and came to a link for Fox News. Some of the comments were enlightening about people’s levels of prejudice. I was surprised and upset over some of the comments about our president, which had obvious racial undertones. I think I will definitely use the Fox Nation website in my project, because it is a mainstream site. Despite being a mainstream site, it has little comment moderation, and I suspect comments are only deleted if they offend readers on the site, who probably share the sentiments of those posting offensive comments. Since the target audience probably won’t be offended by, or even agree, to some of the more inflammatory comments, they are not deleted, and prejudice is allowed to fester. The fact that one of the biggest news channels allows prejudiced comments on their website (despite the disclaimer that they don’t reflect their company) legitimizes their content. Because it is delivered on a forum of a source that is “fair and balanced”, not deleting the comments lends credence to them. People may associate the comments with “news”. I will definitely try to look into this further.

movies!

So I went to the movies today and tried to pick out some of the negative messages our media sends to us. This was most apparent in the trailers. I noticed a definite pro-patriarchy sentiment in a trailer for a movie called She’s Out of My League. In the trailer, the girl was relegated to simply her looks and the guy was actually given a personality. She was called a 10, an ideal woman, simply because she was skinny, white, and blonde. This furthers the notion that a woman is only good for her looks and it is okay for men to judge women on their looks rather than other elements, which helps men discount women as simple sex objects and allows the patriarchy to marginalize women’s achievements. It also seemed to be another film in a long line of film and tv shows where the homely guy gets the gorgeous girl. It never seems to be the opposite way. In this trope, guys can get the hottest girl because they have good personality, but it never seems to work the other way around, maybe reflecting an idea that women’s personality is second to their looks. This corresponds to my perception that male entertainers are given more leeway in the appearance department than females. Average looking males are allowed to play normal characters, whereas average looking females are relegated to character characters, not protagonists. I also was really surprised by the fact that the replaced Terrance Howard with another guy of the same race, who looks or acts nothing like him, in the new Iron Man movie. I suspect it was because he happened to be black. Maybe the producers needed a new actor or the show couldn’t go on or maybe it is an unconscious reflection of dominant culture’s views on the disposability of non-whites? I doubt they would replace Robert Downy Jr. with Stephen Colbert or Gwenyth Paltrow with Angelina Jolie.

inglourous basterds

So today I found out about a really appalling hate group site in my social movements class: nsm88.org . While it is a little biased, we watched an informative video: democracy now . These people are trying to expand white supremacist beliefs by reaching mainstream white Americans. They use legitimate grievances to draw people in (lack of jobs) and then indoctrinate them into their beliefs. I think the reason this works is because people are frustrated and angry and these groups appeal to their initial anger and then gain their trust to “teach” their prejudices. By reaching out to the internet, they can spread their neo-Nazi beliefs to other countries and to states without “chapters”, recruiting angry people and acting as an outlet, then furthering their racist agendas. What I found very interesting was the fact that the site mentions ACORN and their practices, which was also on FOX news. I found the mainstream Fox’s coverage of ACORN racially tinged, and the fact that coverage similar to theirs appears on a neo-Nazi website furthers my suspicions. I would say that FOX news uses fear and anger, just like the hate groups, to appeal to viewers, and then use that to further subjugation of minorities (ie Glenn Beck’s “Obama is a racist”). I was really surprised that the site actually took an anti-war in Iraq/Afghanistan stance. One more thing I found interesting was the fact that the group tried to legitimize themselves by doing a highway cleanup in Colorado.

paranoid android

So today I found out about a really appalling hate group site in my social movements class: www.nsm88.org . These people are trying to expand white supremacist beliefs by reaching mainstream white Americans. They use legitimate grievances to draw people in (lack of jobs) and then indoctrinate them into their beliefs. I think the reason this works is because people are frustrated and angry and these groups appeal to their initial anger and then gain their trust to “teach” their prejudices. By reaching out to the internet, they can spread their neo-Nazi beliefs to other countries and to states without “chapters”, recruiting angry people and acting as an outlet, then furthering their racist agendas. What I found very interesting was the fact that the site mentions ACORN and their practices, which was also on FOX news. I found the mainstream Fox’s coverage of ACORN racially tinged, and the fact that coverage similar to theirs appears on a neo-Nazi website furthers my suspicions. I would say that FOX news uses fear and anger, just like the hate groups, to appeal to viewers, and then use that to further subjugation of minorities (ie Glenn Beck’s “Obama is a racist”). I was really surprised that the site actually took an anti-war in Iraq/Afghanistan stance. One more thing I found interesting was the fact that the group tried to legitimize themselves by doing a highway cleanup in Colorado.

ok computer

So I started this blog to start a dialogue about prejudice and its origins. Most of the things I wrote are opinion-based, but I have tried to do research to stay informed. Please be respectful when commenting on this blog, and have an open mind. I tried to have an open mind, but also make persuasive arguments. Also, this is journal-style, so I wrote each entry in about 10 minutes, so forgive poor grammar. I should probably do better fact checking, so don't be afraid to enlighten me.

I tried to pay attention to the subtle things in media that help to shape prejudice or reflect a focus on white culture today. One thing I noticed was the fact that pretty, white, rich girl Natalie Holloway was still in the news. While her story is tragic, the fact that it gets press time over the hundreds of missing native women in British Columbia, the host of the Olympics, is notable. Also is the fact that the coverage of the disaster in Haiti seems to skirt over and ignore the colonialist policies and even more recent but just as detrimental, “free trade” policies that have helped make Haiti the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. I think the coverage of the Haitian disaster is inherently racist, because it depicts a country that was not able to help itself strength its society, and was already vulnerable when the disaster struck, rather than a country crippled by policies of rich, white nations. I also noted a news story on the (white) victims of a train crash in Florida. It made a point of mentioning that they were pretty. This seemed interesting because it seemed to show that ugly victims would not have been as tragic. Another thing I found interesting was the constant news coverage and reaction of police to a missing American actor in Vancouver. While sad, this seems to directly contrast the coverage and reaction to missing sex workers in the city, who mostly were native and numbered 500. I wouldn’t be aware of these missing women if it weren’t for a class in college. Also, the police have diverted numerous resources to finding a missing actor, but didn’t seem to care about the missing women, until they uncovered a mass grave at a white man’s home.