Author and video: Tim Wise, B.A. -political science; between Barack and a hard place

First I must say that I am very happy to have seen this video. Tim Wise's speech was educational, enlightening, funny, and I felt he spoke a lot of truth. "But some of my best friends are black" or "I have many black friends so I can't be racist" is what many white people say when they are pressed about being racist. The poll from the 90s was very crazy to me that 75% of white people said that they have "many" black friends. Yet half of black people say that they do not have any white friends. I myself as an African American and Mexican American do not have any white friends, at least any that Tim Wise would define as a friend. I do not think that there is anything wrong if you do not have friends that are black, white or any other race. However I do think it is wrong if you try to say that you are not racist because you have a friend to of a different race.

I feel that everyone has had racist thoughts, sexist thoughts, and homosexual thoughts in their lives against another group or against their own group (male, female, gay, straight, black, and white). When he talks about the black pilots the he saw on the plane and how his first initial thought even though it did not last long was that I hope those two black pilots can fly this plane. We all have those thoughts subconsciously. To be honest I get worried on campus with the white males. I often wonder if one of them will shoot up the campus. I know this is wrong of me to group all the white males as potential threats that would shoot us on campus. But at the same time the history of school shootings are of where a white male is the one committing the shooting.

Tim Wise is correct about how black people are turned down for jobs because they have a “black last name”. My last name is Washington which is widely considered with Johnson, Williams, Smith, Brown, Robinson, Thomas, and Jackson to be black last names. This makes no senses to me because several of the names I just mentioned are in the top 30 of the most common last names for white people. My whose last name is Washington as well decided to put her maiden name Wasley which is a last name of Irish decent on her resume after she went nearly two years being unable to find a job. She has her degree in paralegal studies and she has experience with legal matters in several states. Most times she did not get a call for an interview or a call back after the interview and we thought that may be because the law firm wanted someone with different credentials. Once she put Wasley on her resume she received more calls for interviews. She received calls from law firms that she had previously sent her old resume (the one with Washington). She did not change anything on her resume other that her last name.

There was a very funny part to me in this video when Tim Wise discusses the two southwest white pilots that got naked in the cock-pit and had the flight attendance come in as a joke. He said that he knew they were white because no black pilot would ever think they would have been able to get away by calling some white flight attendances in to the cock-pit while they are naked. Tim Wise said that the two white pilots must have been thinking what the hell I’m sure they won’t mind, it will be great and funny. Dave Chappelle did a skit that relates to the two white pilots thinking in his “killing them softly” stand up.

This clip is a trailer of a movie that is out "Dear White People" I feel it relates to the Tim Wise video and other reading we have had

I ask everyone how many Black friends do you have? How many of your friends are of a different race? Last how many of those black and other race friends would turn and say that you are their friend?

Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us:

Linda Christensen

                “Early in the Unit, I show a Popeye cartoon, “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves,” that depicts all Arabs with the same face, same turban, same body and they are all thieves swinging enormous swords. At one point in the cartoon, Popeye clips a dog collar on helpless Olive Oyl and drags her through the desert. Later, the 40 thieves come riding through town stealing everything-food, an old man’s teeth, numbers off a clock-even the stripe off a barber pole.”

                I remember watching that Popeye cartoon when I was younger. I remember watching tones of cartoons that depicted some sort of racism or showed sexual dominance of men over women. When I was a child the most racist cartoons were in the loony tunes. Lonny tunes always depicted black people with having extra big RED lips and had ape like characteristics. In another cartoon “Scrub me mama with a boogie beat” they show the black people the same way as in the loony tune cartoons and more. The black people in this cartoon are shown as being lazy; the town they live in is even called “Lazy Town”. The fish shown in one scene are even lazy and also have over sized lips. Once there is music then the black people start to move but only to dance and sing. I have heard people say that black people are “musical people” and that black people often start to dance for no reason. This cartoon also shows a black man not just eating but devouring a huge slice of watermelon seeds and all, I eat the seeds in watermelon too but that is besides the point. Which uses the stereotype that all black people LOVE them some watermelon.

 In an old Flintstones cartoon I remember watching them depict Japanese people as having eyes slanted so much that they appear to be just a line on their face and that their teeth hang out like a bad over bite. This cartoon influenced me as a child. The impact was so much that when I was in 7^th grade at Martin middle school in East Providence, RI my classmates and I had to form groups and come up with some sort of skit. I do not remember what the skit was supposed to be about. What I do remember is that I played an Asian man. My character of an Asian man was of my imagination with the help of said Flintstones cartoon and several movies. I squinted my eyes as much as I could while at the same time still being able to see. I also stuck and hung my top teeth over my lower lip as much as I could. All the other students in my class thought my character was so funny. My teacher enjoyed my charter so much, that see had me and my group performed our skit for all the other 7^th grade class’ at Martin. As I got older I realized that I was wrong and ignorant in my depiction of an Asian man. Even now I get upset thinking how I thought my character was so good and funny. What is really upsetting and disappointing to me is that my teacher, the adult and the other teachers (which were all white) did not stop me.

 

Here are several links to show just a few of the racism in cartoons, and TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGgFJRTqpNQ  Loony Tunes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sls5H4xVHys  Lazy Town- Scrub me mama with a boogie beat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDfEbnDeqpI  Tom and Jerry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjtfjRIffkw  Dave Chappelle WB frog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4RhCy126RA  Flintstones

Name of Text and Author:Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the primary school: By Alexandra Allan, Elizabeth Atkinson, Elizabeth Brace, Rene’eDePalma and Judy Hemingway

        
       “Early on in the session, the boy had responded to the word ‘gay’ with ‘that’s minging’ (Very bad) and one of the girls had challenged him by suggesting that there was nothing wrong with being lesbian or gay. However, it was only later when Kate revealed her own sexuality that this girl mentioned that she had an aunt who was gay.”

          Teachers being open about their sexuality can be a positive thing for the children and for the teacher. The teacher will feel more comfortable going to work and not having to worry about someone finding out their secret. Teachers being open with their sexuality would not really do much for elementary students but would be an enormous help with some students in middle and high school. By the time students are in middle and high school they might already know or think that they may be LGBT. For the students that are dealing with this it would benefit them if they knew that they had someone to talk to who understands what they are going through.

          We all need to be realistic and understand that in every school there may be one or more teachers that are gay. Also that in every school (public, private, and religious) there are students that are gay. Times are changing, for the better I think where people are feeling free to express themselves. When I was in high school there were people that we thought were gay and it was not until years after high school that they felt comfortable enough to come out. In 2009 I worked at a high school in Tucson and there were boys that were, as they say flamboyant and girls felt very comfortable kissing their girlfriends in the hallways as the heterosexual students did. In the end we all need to be OPEN and understanding and allow people to be themselves. Imagine if you could not be who you are because of fear of ridicule. 

NAME OF AUTHOR AND TEXT:
HUNGER OF MEMORY (ARIA) BY RICHARD RODRIQUEZ

     "My parents would say something to me and I would feel embraced by the sounds of their words. those sound said: I am speaking with ease n Spanish. I am addressing you in words I never use with los gringos. I recognize you as someone special, close, like no one outside. You belong with us. In the family". 
      I am sure this is the same feeling that many children and adults that have English as a second language have. I feel that it is very important to teach them English because that is the main language that is used in this country, but at the same time it is just as important that we keep the strength of their natural language alive. My mother is Mexican, her and her siblings were in school during the fifties, sixties, and seventies. When she would speak in Spanish at school she would be looked down on, paddled and she was told that she needs to only speak English here at school. As a result my mother deiced not to teach me and my siblings how to speak Spanish. She did not want us to go through the same things she went through. She knew that things would be hard enough for us being black and Mexican. Richards grandmother and my grandmother have some similarities, they are both from Mexico and can not fully express their feelings across using the English language as they could using Spanish. People who have English as their second language unfortunately are seen by most as being dumb when they speak, when in actuality they are smarter than most of us because they know two languages compared to our one. So even though they you may not understand them all the time understand that they can for the most part get their ideas across in more ways then you.