Tuesday 29 November 2011

Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible pt. 1




 This movie is about Whitness and is a good link to Peggy McIntosh´s essay "White Privelege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" and generelly about the historie. This movie makes me very thoughtful.

Women of Colour in University.



A.  Kobayashi argues in her essay “Now You See Them, How You See Them: Women of Colour in Canadian Academia” in F. Henry & C.Tator:  “Racism in the Canadian University: Demanding Social Justice, Inclusion, and Equity, that racism in university is an effect of systematic discrimination. The systematic racism is a result of the Andocentric and Eurocentric structure of the ‘old white boys’ network (Kobayashi 2009, p. 61). Her focus is on women of colour. “The visible minority of women of colour are much more poorly represented than their male counterpart.” (Kobayashi 2009, p. 61) 


Monday 7 November 2011

Racism and Stereotypes in Advertising


We spoke in class about Racism in the media, and I chose this video because you can see with this example the stereotypes and images that we have in our head, or images that the media puts in our minds.  There are some positive and some negative images.

George M. Fredrickson "Racism: A Short History"

"With a rare blend of learning, economy, and cutting insight, George Fredrickson surveys the history of Western racism from its emergence in the late Middle Ages to the present. Beginning with the medieval antisemitism that put Jews beyond the pale of humanity, he traces the spread of racist thinking in the wake of European expansionism and the beginnings of the African slave trade. And he examines how the Enlightenment and nineteenth-century romantic nationalism created a new intellectual context for debates over slavery and Jewish emancipation.Fredrickson then makes the first sustained comparison between the color-coded racism of nineteenth-century America and the antisemitic racism that appeared in Germany around the same time." in according of Amazon

Racism in Cartoons



I also found this video that is linked with Racism in the media, and it's so sad that little kids have to see and read comics with racist images. The comics which our generation has seen as little children could effect the way we feel about people of different races in our adult lives.

I couldn´t explain this better than the two following comments:

"Many idiots putting comments on here are saying,"Well I didn't see anything racist about it." LOOK at how these people are drawn, you morons. (if its not you posting these comments, don't be worried) How would you white folks like it if I were to draw you with a 20 foot nose with a disgusting carcass smelling stench coming from your body while calling you"An incestous peckerwood" btw I don't give a shit who gets offended by my comment because all I'm going to do is snap back!"

"Im gettin tiered of some of you who ware trying to play this off like its not racist. Its not the fact that they were putting black people in the cartoon its they way the depicted them in the cartoons. Let me put it this way: If I draw a white person with a pointy nose who is not athletic, cant dance, runs slow and puts mayonnaise on every thing he eats that would make me a racist right? But making black people way too dark and having big pink lips and making them eat watermelon is not racist?"

Black Men in America - Media Images



When we spoke in class about Racism in the media I found this video. It is a short documentary about the negative portrayal of black men in america in the media world. They are the roots for stereotypes and I feel very sad when I see this.

Racist Images On Bars Of Soap Being Sold At A Store


This is a story about bars of soap with racist images beeing sold at a store, but the owner does not acknowledge the racism. He argues that customers buy the soap, so he will keep selling it. This reminds me of the Topic "too blind to see racism".

Peggy McIntosh- Racism and the priviledges associated with skin colour



In this movie you can see some white priviledges.

Whiteness refers to our understanding of race. Whiteness is a socio-political idea rather than a word used to describe skin tone. ‘Whiteness-’a word used as a concept from the critical theories developed on racism. This article is directed less at those who experience racism, rather than on social structures and to those who have many social advantages when based on a majority/minority viewpoint. (ASA- Programm 2011, n.p.)


Critical Whiteness Studies emerged mid-80s in the U.S. and support
anti-racist and postcolonial theories. In essence they reflect on white privilege and challenge the oppresive idea of race. In order to reverse the motions that racist ideas put forward, and to reconstruct a more postive ‘white identity,’ we ‘white people’ need to analze the power imbalances found in a white hierarchal society.
(Lück 2011, n.p.)


Images of Indians and Cowboys


Michael Yellow Bird argued in “Cowboys and Indians: Toys of Genocide, Icons of American Colonialism” that “The colonizer’s falsified stories have become universal truths to mainstream society, and have reduced Aboriginal culture to a caricature.” (Yellow Bird 2004, p. 39.).

I began to deal with this argument by searching on the internet for the term “Cowboys and Indians”. In my searches I found a lot of media and sources (stories, lyrics, movies, comics, etc.), which showed not the real history of Indians and Cowboys, but only a distorted reality.  


Wednesday 26 October 2011

Race- The Floating Signifier


Stuart Hall argues in the documentary “Race -The Floating Signifier” that race is a signifier which has meaning in a culture, but the meaning of skin colour is not fixed. The significance and social viewpoint of skin colour changes between different cultures. In addition, the meaning of skin colour slides and floats on the scale of interpretation held by members of a society. (Hall, Stuart. Race the floatingsignifier)

Below I will support the theory of Hall and show in the historical context that has emerged as "Race" and how this concept changes over time.
Geben Sie Text oder eine Website-Adresse ein oder lassen Sie ein Dokument übersetzen

Thursday 6 October 2011

Les Back, John Solomos: Theories of Race and Racism- A Reader


This book is maybe a good extension to the concepts of racism which we learned in class.

"Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader is an important and innovative collection that brings together extracts from the work of scholars, both established and up and coming, who have helped to shape the study of race and racism as an historical and contemporary phenomenon. This second edition incorporates new contributions and editorial material and allows readers to explore the changing terms of debates about the nature of race and racism in contemporary societies. All six parts are organized around the contributions made by theorists whose work has been influential in shaping theoretical debates. The various contributions have been chosen to reflect different theoretical perspectives and to help readers gain a feel for the changing terms of theoretical debate over time. As well as covering the main concerns of past and recent theoretical debates it provides a glimpse of relatively new areas of interest that are likely to attract more attention in years to come." In according of Amazon

Alana Lentin: Racism- A Beginner's Guide

This book could be very interesting for our class. It's about meaning of racism and the effects in our society. In addition she wrote in this book also about the Islam.

"Despite the long struggle to eliminate racism, it is still very much with us. In fact, since 9/11, racism appears to be on the rise, making it more important than ever before to understand the meaning of race and the effect it has on society. Alana Lentin maps the emergence and development of ideas about race through political history right up to modern debates about multiculturalism and Islamophobia, and considers the implications of a 'post-racial' society at a time when science has placed genetics over culture. Provocative and intelligent reading for the newcomer and expert alike, this invaluable resource exposes the roots of racial thought and demonstrates why it has remained crucial to our everyday lives. " In according of Amazon


Girls like me


 "Girls like me is" a documentary, who explores the self-image of black children with a doll test. The experiment shows how many black children are trapped by low self-esteem. This video reminds me on the video of B. Sobaz "Race is a Four-Letter Word", when he standing with his friend in the front of the class. They ask the children what they see- commons and differents. I remember that they saw more commons. It's interesting that in this movie the children see a big different and connect this with "good" or "bad".

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Racism and Sexism






Robert Miles wrote in his essay about racism, that the ideology of racism, nationalism and sexisms characteristic overlap (Miles 1989, p. 87). He called this ideological articulation. To the extent this reflection brief, I will confine myself to an analyses of the connections between the ideologies of racism and sexism.