"Black" vs. "African-American"

I read Pepper's article about using either "black" or "African American" when referring to people. It contradicts what Lambiase said in class and leaves me a little confused.

I like to be politically correct when I speak, and so I've wondered also the best way to refer to people. I think if people truly are African American, that is, part African, part American, then it would be very PC to call them African-American. However, if they are not, and rather are many generations removed, then I almost think it ridiculous to refer to them as so. As Pepper stated, most people would rather be called "black" anyway. I think the people that get most offended by that are not even black/African American, but rather are other races that are scared to not be PC and offend people.

I guess what Lambiase said in class does make sense. She posed the question "why do we have to refer to people by their color/race/heritage anyway? Why don't we just describe them?" Interesting. Well, because it would be too difficult that way. Wrong or not, stereotypes do help us condense stories. Even when casually telling a story to friends, if we think saying the main person is black will help get the point of the story across, we'll do it. On the other hand, if the story has nothing to do with our ideas of how certain people act, we don't find it necessary to explain their race. (I'm not sure if this makes sense... I'm sort of processing it as I write it.)

All that to say, I just realized what it means when it is said that stereotyping makes things "simplex". It's very true. So the question is... is this terribly bad? I don't know that it is in every scenario, but feel free to prove me wrong.

Women in scary movies

I watched The Shining a few nights ago. There is a part when the woman is being chased by her crazy husband and she heads to the stares. "Oh great, she's gonna go UP the stairs," we all say. "Of course she is."

It's really strange that this action is so prevalent. Women in scary movies almost always run up the stairs. It's something we are all aware of (notice the fact that all my friends said the same thing and knew it was coming). If it's something the audience is expecting and sees as ridiculous, why do they keep doing it?

I also wonder what this stereotype is trying to say about women. I mean, there are obvious things like: women just aren't smart. However, that just seems a little too easy to me.

I think this may be the topic of my final project.

Objectification in ads

It's so weird how we don't notice everything that advertisements imply. Our talk about how many ads in fashion magazines have symbols of submission, objectificaton, etc. made me think of this. We so easily flip through these magazines and don't notice the subconscious messages that are being shown. That's what's cool (and important) about media literacy. Simply knowing and being aware of the way we are marketed to helps us notice it more. After we talked about it in class I really could pull out tons of ads that displayed stuff like this. Objectification, pornographic positions and symbols, etc.

Latino's in the Ken Burns documentary

I just read the article about Ken Burns' WWII documentary, and the complaints people had that Latino's weren't represented at all. I think this is ridiculous.

Sure, a big problem with stereotyping is the negative perception it creates of many people, but it has created an almost reverse effect too. Now, not only are people fighting against being viewed negatively, but they are going to the extreme's to make sure they have as many things out there that cause them to be viewed positively. In this way, they are putting themselves in a stereotype. Basically, people want to be individuals and free from stereotypes and groupings, then insist that their group is not represented well. This doesn't make sense to me.

Ken Burns was not trying to leave out Latino's, he was just telling his story like it happened. So what if a certain group wasn't acknowledged, inflated, emphasized. Not everything has to have an equal amount of "race representation". Are we always going to complain either that we are being negatively represented or not represented enough? We can't eat our cake and have it too.