Each night, around 6ish, families would gather around whatever medium--tv or radio depending on wealth--and listen to folks tell them exactly what was happening that day, that week, etc.
They would talk about it, form opinions, maybe argue, and then, when it was over, go back to their lives. But, they were informed.
For about an hour a day, without any thought to politics or sides or personal interests (which was only possible because there were no paying commercials back then to influence what anyone heard), people just listened to the facts as they happened, and somehow, some way, they were intelligent enough all on their own to make decisions about what they heard, and act accordingly.
What a time to be alive.
Alas,
this is not the case any longer (unless you listen exclusively to NPR which can get tedious after a while), and when we read about things--especially politically divisive things like BLM, or #metoo, or the Thin Blue Line--we are usually getting the facts from a slant.
This means that whichever network is delivering information is doing so from a selfish perspective--they have more at stake to show you this story rather than that story because that story will make advertisers not want to pay for a lot of commercials during the time slot. Switch channels and the opposite will be true.
Most of you get your news from media (social or news) sites. That is not a criticism--I do, too--probably just different ones. But they fall into the same trap I described above. And that is bad because in order to have a truly informed, truly intellectual conversation, we need ALL the facts. This is hyperbole and kind of a pipe dream--nobody really ever has ALL THE FACTS. Please remember that.
So, the best we can do is read vastly different perspectives on the same subject and see where we fall. So, for this week's blog we are going to do two things--which means there will be 2 due dates. Skkkkkkkkkkrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt.
Really, Bunj?
Yes. Sorry.
In addition to being informed and entering the conversation, this should also show us how different mediums present the same information.
So, I have copied a documents with several links related to 2 different topics. You choose which one you want to learn more about and read or view some of the links about that topic. Then, answer the following:
What did you learn that you didn't know before?
What did you find valuable enough to want to share with someone else?
What issues did you have with anything you read? What did you disagree with or feel passionately about?
Did anything make you uncomfortable?
Were there things you read that you feel you wouldn't want to talk about in a public forum? Why?
Any other comments or ideas or thoughts or opinions or questions you want to share?
THIS PART IS DUE WEDNESDAY, AS PER USUAL.
Learn More about Media Representations of Fatal Police Shooting of African Americans
OpEd: How the media smears black victims
When a police shooting victim is a white woman
The conversation we need on police shootings
Learning more about double consciousness, codeswitching, and negotiating multiple identities
Double consciousness from DuBoisopedia
Learning How To Code-Switch: Humbling, But Necessary
American Promise: Idris Codeswitches
Being Black—but Not Too Black—in the Workplace
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ReplyDeleteIf I’m going to be completely honest, I clicked this article because the bio med nerd in me came out.. I definitely thought this article was going to talk about Gene therapy and genomes. So as I continued to read I figured out that it definitely wasn’t that, or had anything to do with biology. I never knew what code switching was until I heard the definition. I’ve heard of it but never knew the term for it. I also never knew that “guys” was an offending term depending on how you use it. I find it valuable to share with people but I think if it was brought up in conversation or I saw it happening. I’m not gonna randomly be like “hey mom code switching is ...”. I didn’t have any issues reading this because it was very articulate. I do agree with what the author was saying. The author feels like you should be who you are no mater who you are talking to. People tend to put a facade on depending on who they are talking to which I don’t like. It’s different than having manners or respect for someone. I didn’t find anything to be uncomfortable just educational. If anything this subject made me want to talk to the public because it should be more known and spread.
ReplyDeleteI clicked on the links under the second topic about double consciousness, code switching and negotiating multiple identities because I am interested in things about the human body and mind. I barely understood what the things in the title meant so I decided to read and learn about it. I learned that code switching is switching between two languages or cultures in a conversation. It's something we do every day when we talk to different types of people. Something else that we use often is the word ¨guys.¨ I also learned in one of the links that using the word ¨guys¨ can be offensive. I found out a clear definition of double consciousness in the first link. WEB DuBois describes it as having more than one social identity which makes it difficult to develop a realization of one's true self. I didn't have an issue reading the links because it was nothing offensive. Something I found valuable telling others would be the discomfort of ¨guys¨ to some because it's something that a lot of us use on a daily basis. I agree with the authors of the links because I understand how different someone can be and the way they are judged influences them. Nothing I read made me feel uncomfortable so speaking in public about this topic wouldn´t be an issue with more supporting information.
ReplyDeleteI read the same article and thought the same exact things! I thought the article was going to be about something completely different than what it was and ended up learning a lot of interesting things. I'm actually really glad I read that article specially because it was about a topic that more people should be aware of.
DeleteThe article and video I chose about code switching didn’t really teach me anything new, other than the fact that switching the way you speak is called "code switching". I was kind of aware of it, but of course before I clicked on it, I thought it was about either computer code or something related to genetics. The article and video did, however, solidify the fact that there are some words that different people use more often and can be considered offensive when talking to different people. For instance, the one article talked about how the word “guys” resulted in a little boy getting scolded and questioned as to why he always said it. We code switch all the time though. It really depends on who we’re hanging out with at that moment. We don’t always necessarily have to hang out with them either since it could be your boss or teacher or some other professional. The article did not make me uncomfortable and, therefore, there wasn’t anything that I wouldn’t talk about in a public forum. I agree with the authors who wrote about code switching because your word choice is constantly judged by everyone at all times, even if the judge themselves doesn’t realize it. This results in a change of code, a change in the way you might speak to another.
ReplyDeleteCode switching is something I think people do day to day without even realizing it. Most people have a different tone depending on the person or people they are talking to. Whether it’s their teachers, friends or even parents. It’s interesting to me that the word guys can sound insulting to those of different ethnicities. Just as sticking the ring finger up means the same thing as the middle finger in the United States. Including how slurping your soup is a compliment to the chef in some countries but is perceived as having poor manners and being improper in the US. This article opened my eyes on understanding that American culture is in fact really demanding of assimilation. Being fully who I am while keeping in mind to acquire respect and being understood might be something to obtain but not impossible.
ReplyDeleteI chose to read the article about double consciousness because I had honestly never heard of it before reading this article. Double consciousness is a term used to “ describe an individual whose identity is divided into several facets.” This is the feeling of “looking at one’s self through the eyes of others” experienced by black people. The phycology behind it is because they were oppressed for so long, they feel divided from themselves. It is too conflicting parts of their soul, they want to express their culture and be proud of who they are, but it is difficult with all the oppression and racism in society. It is impossible for me to understand what this feeling is like because I’m not in a minority. This made me recognize that whites will never be able to fully understand the hardships blacks go through. Luckily most people are smart enough to recognize that all people should be treated equally, but racism is still prominent in society. I will never know what it feels like to be a minority, I can only try to understand. This is important for everyone to realize, that although they may think they understand, they will never know how it really feels to be a minority.
ReplyDeleteI chose one of the articles about Media Representations of Fatal Police Shootings of African Americans (more specifically the first one), and to be brutally honest with you, I wasn’t surprised by any of the information presented to me. To sum up the main focus of the article, several media outlets in New York City had reported on the death of an African-American man named Michael Brown, and had focused on his records rather than the assilaint’s. Considering the racism which had flowed through the country ever since its conception, I wasn’t surprised or phased by this information, because I see and read about similar incidents all of the time. What I was surprised though is how many people in newsrooms are black. Which is not all that many. Roughly five out of six people in newsrooms are white people, the remaining one of out six are any and every other minority in this country. Which is saddening, however explains why the media in New York did such a poor job on covering this story. Now of course I disagree about how the media treats the deaths of African-Americans, and of course I am internally outraged that news networks would choose to focus on the crimes the victim had done in the past and smear them for it. As an African-American man, I am petrified about these incidents, mainly because it could happen to me. I could be the next headline in the news, and that is most certainly unsettling. Therefore, this needs to be discussed, and I simply do not care where it needs to be discussed. Society needs to face the music and first accept that this problem occurs in America. Then, and only then, can they work on trying to fix it.
ReplyDeleteI didn't read this article but I hear about stuff like this all the time, I follow a lot of accounts on social medias that spread news that doesn't always get shown by the main news outlets. I completely agree with what you have to say and I think its disgusting that it doesn't get awareness in this country. I can't imagine how this makes you feel but I can recognize my privilege and make sure to spread more awareness on this subject.
DeleteI read about code switching and I learned about the term itself along with some other general information but it didn't surprise me because I knew about the idea already and it made sense to me. It's very similar to rhetoric, but just more specific to the situation. Similar to rhetoric, the words and phrases you use changes depending on your specific situation at that time and place. Rhetoric is more about the purpose and audience while code switching is based more on the environment and its culture. This is a little valuable to know, but most people already know of the idea of changing your language around certain situations. It was necessarily uncomfortable, but it was interesting reading about being black at a white workplace and learning what they deal with. I don't see why I wouldn't share this on a public forum; I just believe that code switching is universal. It's not a term for only specifically black and white cultures.
ReplyDeleteI chose to read about Media Representations of Fatal Police Shooting of African Americans because it's a topic that I want to know more about. The sad truth is that what I read was almost exactly what I had expected. It was made obviously clear that white victims were rarely seen as in the wrong. Just as the first link had sad, white terrorists or mass shooters are reflexively humanized and shown in shades of gray. But on the flip side, an African American victim such as Michael Brown "was no angel" like that was supposed to be a excuse. Brown was an unarmed teenager, but was shot and killed. I knew that when people of a different race were killed by police there would be a different reaction, but I never realized that only African Americans were given so many excuses for being killed. The second link brings to light the idea that black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent. I wish everyone could read that line over and over again because the thought of it makes me sick. Imagine having a son who is blamed for something that most likely was not their fault all because of their race. I hate that people are associating physical appearance and names differently when it's a lack man being shot rather than a white man. It makes me uneasy to think of all the racism and stereotypes being applied because it's unnecessary and forces people to separate good from bad. All of the things that I read need to be talked about. Everyone needs to know what has happened and is still happening, but I don't think I could make people understand. For the most part, I don't think that people would listen to a young white girl discussing this topic because I could never know how it feels to be discriminated in that way. It's very upsetting to think about, but our society has still not found the ability to really be accepting to everyone and at least try to have an open mind. I just want to know why we can't do that, why some people don't even try to understand. I want to know how we can mold society into seeing both sides, rather than having a one-sided opinion on such harsh topics such as the police shootings.
ReplyDeleteI decided to read the article about black people in the workplace. I was very shocked when I saw that black adults are often scared that they are looking to much like a stereotypical black person so they do things like working extra to try to get rid of that image. I thought that when I became older I wouldn’t have to worry about looking or sounding like a stereotypical black female, but come to find out there are people double my age that feel the same way I do. I also found out interesting that many black people weren’t very crazy about the diversity trainings. The fact that some people were getting stressed because “they perceived that their white colleagues could use these trainings to express negative emotions about people of color.” is very crazy to me. It was just really upsetting to read about black people feeling like they need to do more to prove a point. As a young black female it’s hard hearing these types of things because this it what my future holds. On the other hand there are also a lot of strong black people who are in the world that could care less about what is thought of them. I wish the article talked about these type of black people in the workplace too.
ReplyDeleteSomething I learned about that I had no knowledge of prior was code switching. I learned that code switching is a linguist term that describes the changing of tone, language, or accent to suit a group of people. Something that I found valuable was that people code switch all the time with out even realizing it. This struck me hard because I realized that it's something I do often. Depending on the group my attitude can change in big ways to the point of people describing me like they're describing two different people.
ReplyDeleteI chose the articles about code switching. Even though I had no idea what it was, the term sounded cool, so I was interested. Code switching was not at all what I thought it was. I figured it was something with computers and programming, but I was completely wrong. Code switching is changing your style of speaking and word choice based on your audience. When I learned this, I thought it was pretty funny since that is a big part of ap lang. Also, I realized that personally I do it all the time. The video featuring Idris really showed the sadder side to code switching. Idris felt pressured to change the way he talks to fit in with his basketball team so he wouldn’t get picked on. On the other hand, Eric Deggans article showed the more positive sides of it. It depicts code switching as a necessary skill to get your message effectively to people without offending them. I believe that both sides have right parts to them and didn’t have a problem with either of them. Code Switching is a very valuable skill that every person should know, but shouldn’t feel pressured to use.
ReplyDeleteI chose to read one of the articles from the double consciousness, code-switching, and negotiating multiple identities section. My attention was drawn to the code- switch article because I’ve never heard of that. When I first heard it I thought it had something to do with computers. I was surprised to find out that code- switching is when you switch words according to your audience. Most of us do this and it’s second nature but it wasn’t always like that. After reading the article, I would tell someone what it was like for people before code- switching was second nature. I had an issue with the fact that people felt the need to cancel plans because of a constant fear of offending someone or someone judging them. I believe that people focus on code- switching a lot, throughout the world because it doesn’t just impact us. Nothing in this article made me feel uncomfortable because code- switching in an something that impacts our everyday lives. I would talk about this in public because it is a topic that everyone can relate to and give feedback on.
ReplyDeleteI was drawn to the articles about how white victims and black victims are treated differently in situations like police shoots. For each race there is a different side to blame or a different person to point the finger at. I wasn't shocked by what I had read, it's very obvious in the media that incidents involving white people and incidents involving black people are reported and talked about different. The author touched on how we tend to feel more compassion for people of our own race, when hurricane katrina hit people were less likely to help with the clean up if it was someone who was different from them. I had never really thought about and realized that that's how people are, and it kinda made me question why we think that way, like why is that acceptable. It makes me uncomfortable that we as people are less likely to help someone in need just because they dont always mirror ourselves. I think that stuff like this should be talked about in an open and public setting because people need to see how this is the wrong way to live.
ReplyDeleteFatal police shootings grabbed my attention instantly, as they, sadly, have become a regular occurance in today’s society. When I proceeded to read the article, I had been overwhelmed, not with unknown content involving the subject matter, but rather with what I had already known. Each article made me equally as uncomfortable as the next, to say the least. While we would love to say that the open wounds of race relations have been healed, this most certainly is not the case. Young black men are being killed in staggering rates, and it is absolutely despicable that people continue to deny the presence of racism in our criminal justice system. My biggest issue with what I had read was involving the history of Timothy Caughman, a 66 year old black man that was stabbed in the chest with a sword by a white supremacist. When covering the murder of the elderly man, The New York Times stated, “[Caughman] has 11 prior arrests, including for marijuana, assault, resisting arrest and menacing.” By including this information, NYT was indirectly justifying the murder of Timothy Caughman, regardless of the fact that he had been randomly attacked while strolling on the sidewalk. “Smearing the victim”, as the Los Angeles Times puts it, has become frequently utilized in order to dampen the severity of these fatal killings in the eyes of the public. I don’t care how uncomfortable someone might get when this subject comes up; it needs to be talked about. Things will remain the same if we continue to sit on our asses and equate the loss of a human life to a passing blurb on a news channel. We must rebuild the cracked foundations that this country has been built upon, even if it means hurting the feelings of a few Fox news reporters.
ReplyDeleteThe topic I choose was the 1st one, how media represents fatal black shootings. I learned a lot of cases about fatal black shootings that I have not heard of before, but most importantly, how they were perceived by the media. One of the most valuable things I have learned is how one-sided and racist newspapers can be. The place where you get your information is giving you false and racist information. The second valuable thing I have learned is that unintentionally, when you see someone in pain of the same race you are most likely to feel more sympathy for them and try to help them more, but if you see someone in pain of a different race you would not feel as bad, that is just how the brain works. What I feel passionate about and 100% agree with is the case of Justine Damond, a white woman who was shot by a black police officer. White people did not understand the severity of police brutality until a white woman was killed. But the thing is in every headline they defined the black police officer by her race, ethnicity, and religion. She was Somali and Muslim, and when talking about this case every newspaper had to say that. To be honest, the articles did not talk about what really happened in the shooting so I can’t defend the cop, but it was not just in this case wherein a serious situation the media brings up either the past or the personal background. In almost every fatal African American shooting, media brings up the victims background or past. If the person went to jail or arrested of something before, they would bring that up and perceive the victim as dangerous, even though when he/she got shot they were not performing any dangerous activities. I actually want to talk about this in public forum, because I need to understand how someone could kill another person just based on their the color of their skin. But I also feel that white and black people avoid talking about this in public, and this is something that NEEDS to be discussed. Congressmen should even talk about this, to place limits on the police's actions and to give the victim's families rights, because by the looks of it they are not getting even basic rights.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest none of the websites seemed interesting to me, only one did, which is the Double Consciousness article. The title of this article is what grabbed my attention because I like reading things that are...deep? I think. After I finished reading this topic my first comment was, “wow, I was not expecting this” I thought I was going to read something about a person that has 2 different types of personalities (which I did read a little bit of in this article but in a different form or way) but I didn’t. The fact that the author demonstrated to his/her audience that not only individuals can have double consciousness, a whole society can as well. It reveals psycho-social divisions in the American society which is why I thought that this piece is worthy. Before reading this article, I’ve always thought that I knew what “double consciousness” means but after reading this I figured that I definitely don’t. I have always thought that double consciousness means a division in ones personality and that only a few people had this type of problem because it’s creepy, almost impossible and I always thought who the heck would have a division in his or her conscious? I was wrong. When I got deeper into learning what it means by reading this article I started believing more in it and I also started believing that many of us might have double consciousness. When we look at ourselves through the eyes of others, which A LOT of people do today, is considered double consciousness. When “Measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” is also considered double consciousness which again, a lot of people do today. I like how the author related this topic to events that happened in the US a long time ago, which is racism.
ReplyDeleteI chose to read about code switching, and while I did learn more about it from reading the articles, it did make me realize all the code switching I see all the time. I did learn more about minorities in predominantly white work environments and how they have to hold in their true emotions. Code switching isn’t only limited to minorities, it is used for everyone. To me, code switching is a way of changing your attitude and the way you present yourself through actions to fit into an environment in order to thrive in it, all while not changing your internal feelings and thoughts. I didn’t really disagree with anything, in fact I really agree that almost everyone changes how they present themselves to fit into an environment, and if you don’t then you either don’t succeed in the environment, or you are seen as an outcast. The thing I wouldn’t want to talk about in a public forum is about the code switching minorities have to do in the workforce, as being a white guy, no one would really take me seriously and say I wouldn’t understand it.
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ReplyDeleteI read the article about code-switching, which I found to be very informative and interesting. I had never acknowledged the switch of our behavior from culture-to-culture with a proper term. Other than that, I did realize that people tend to switch their style of speaking from one population to another, so this wasn’t a foreign topic to me; I’m guilty of this as well. I did not have any issues with anything that I read, but I agree that when people casually talk and hang out, they should not have to alter their accent or style of speaking because their friend is a different race. It made me slightly uncomfortable when the author mentioned a white kid not wanting to hang out with him because he was black, in addition to the way he spoke and his accent. I do not believe that someone should alter the way they are simply to please another person, though that may differ in a more professional environment. All in all, this article seems great for a public forum, as code-switching is a topic that should be discussed more often.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading through the list of topics and articles the one that sounded the coolest was about Code Switching. I thought that it was going to be about some technological advance or maybe something to do with DNA. But I was completely wrong and learned that code switching was something I already knew about just not by that name. Its explained as changing the way you act or speak around different types of people. I realized that this is something I do all the time, when I say different things at school then I do when Im at home and with my family. Reading the article along with watching the video about code switching made me realize that changing your ways of communicating with people can be hard, especially those who go to school with students of different cultures then there own. Overall the articles didn’t make me uncomfortable, and there was nothing in them that I wouldn’t feel comfortable about talking in a public forum.
ReplyDeleteI chose the article about the police shooting victim that is a white woman and while reading it, I learned things that happen in today's society that I and probably most of the people around me don't really know much about until now. Something I learned was that not everything gets broadcasted in the news. People today are so focused towards the Black Lives Matter movement when it comes to the police shootings but what most people don't know is that white people get affected too but it is put in a different perspective. The media portrays her as a "victim." If the story was different in a slight way, if the white woman was a black person. The story changes. That is what bothers me. If it was a black person that was shot, the media wouldn't portray that person as the victim. Instead, they will criticize his actions and make that person look like the bad guy in the scene. I believe that this just shows how the U.S portrays the power of race in its country. The issue has been going on for many years. For about fifty or more years, the problem between whites and blacks is still an issue in the country. The whites are treated differently than the colored people. Although America is known for its freedom, to this day, it still doesn't show it for all races.
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