3 posts tagged “ethnicity”

The media is not helping obama by referring to him as the "First Black President."  Even John Stewart referred to him as America's First Black President and I rely on him for the real news.  The media is also not helping Obama if they ONLY show working-class blacks as identifying with Obama - because guess what - OBAMA ISn't ONLY BLACK and It WASN't JUST BLACKS WHO VOTED OBAMA INTO OFFICE!

What about all the working class white people who voted for Obama?  And what about middle-upper class whites?  And all the Latinos who voted Obama? The Asians - well the asians we are totally absent from the story.  What about all the other minorities who together formed a large bloc of voters?

My point is that the media needs to give a more balanced coverage of voters who support Obama. Obama won because he is a unifier - he didn't JUST appeal to blacks.  ANd in his speech on Nov. 4th - he ackonowledged all the people from diff classes, ethniciteis and races who helped get him into office.

So please, call him bi-racial, post-racial, multi-culti, multi-ethnic, human, mixed - whatever- just stop calling him black - that's not helping him and it's alienating all the whites, latinos, asians and other minorities who worked hard to get him into office.

The media discourse needs to do a better job of reflecting reality and the kind of reality we want to achieve - one that is open to all backgrounds.

addendum: I posted on twitter 2 days ago: "today is one of those days I truly feel my country's joyful soul - we finally have our first CONSCIOUSLY bi-racial pres"   so I said "consciously" because there is such thing as only black or only white - especially in the US with america's history of slavery.

addendum #2 of a comment from facebook:
my friend wrote this comment to my post:

FRIEND:
'm not sure what to think about this. I see your point, but allow me to play devil's advocate: it also seems to me like insisting on identifying him as multi-racial advances a sort of biological-essentialist, where race is determined exclusively by parentage. What seems more important is that he fits the prevailing social conception of blackness, and to some extent embraces it. I doubt his white mother makes racists like him any more. In that sense, I think he's overcome just about all the obstacles he would have faced if she had been black, and to take note of his blackness is to acknowledge the magnitude of his accomplishments in overcoming them.

well and you knowI am the first person to agree with you that "race' is a very freaking problematic category - yes. but I was just giving some alternative "words' for the press to use- it's all problematic no matter what. obama himself insists that he is post-racial. i am simply echoing what obama himself has asked of us = which is to not refer to him as ONLY black, and to keep in mind everyone who voted for him

FRIEND:
Right. I do have a major problem with the fact that seemingly few people, even people within the media, have even stopped to give any thought to this.

ME
yah you're right.
I mean either way -if we talk about 'race itself" or of "social conceptions of blackness"- well its' just that - it's socially constructed - historically constituted - orally created - blah blah - I mean what is the "black experience" - to even single out one black experience ignores the diversity of blacks - like not all blacks are working class and etc .  so even to say "black" does not refer to a singular experience. this is not to say that people can't say he's black - or that someone can't just say "I'm black."  What is going on is that it's all complicated, socially constructed and messy - and when the media is as powerful as it is- it should be more concsious of how it frames a "person" as powerful as obama now - even Obama is conscious of it - he has asked us not to call him black - this is not to say that he doesn't think he's black or that he's not black or denying the a "black experience."

This is simply a matter of trying to figure out what is the best way to unite a country that has had and continues to have a diffcult time with race - so that is why I think he's asked us to consider him as "post-racial."  in no way am I denying the whatever kind of life experience obama has had - or what other blacks have had .  I just want the media to be more critical of how it frames obama and what kind of implications it has when it ONLY focuses on the happiness of black voters who can now identify with the president.  i think the media should also focus on how iraqis can now have hope this war will end, how soldiers can know that they were will be an end to this terrorism we have waged on the middle east, on all the undocumented migrants who can have a chance to become documented, on all the gays who can now have hope that on a federal level there can be more openess to equality - for latinos who have also worked their asses off to become citizens and many who just voted for the first time - also highlight those stories ALONGSIDE the 106  year old black woman who just voted for obama - a diversity of voices is reflective of our diverse country.

Differences, borders, lines, surfaces and boundaries do not really divide things from each other at all, they join them together. All boundaries are held in common.” Alan Watts

Natural wildfires regenerate the soil with nutrients and burn away potentially super-dangerous brush.  Some tress, like pines, depend on fires to spread their seeds in their cones! Stephen J. Pyne, an ex-firefighter and Prof. of Ecological History - is a specialist on the social mis-management of fires in the US.  He has written extensively about different societies over time have used actively used controlled fires to develop the land or to practice cultural rituals.   From national geographic: 

"Today's fires can grow unusually fierce because Smokey Bear went overboard. For decades, the well-meaning policy of suppressing all forest fires allowed too much fuel—dead wood, underbrush, small trees—to build up on public lands, especially in the fire-prone West. What might have once been a minor grass fire now turns cataclysmic, like last year's Hayman Fire in Colorado." 

 This is also a chance for us to think about how much control we have over nature - people build homes right in the middle of forests and lands that are prone to fires. Is there anything logical to that? When we don't let natural fire happen, suburban homes on the edges become the unnatural barrier.  I hope these San Diego fires get people  to think more about ongoing fire management than fire suppression.  


I took this picture this morning of the fire at UCSD  - 8am and it's fire sky already.  In the meantime - I am safe from the fires.  The air is just horrific though - my eyes, nasal passages and throat burns.  I worry about those who have asthma. 

You can read my other thoughts about the racial class politics of San Diego fires here, National news coverage of SD fires here,  distortion of wildfires here, emphasis of LA over SD here, and what a Sociologist would do during a fire here.    this was photo overlay was created by tim

Good writing is a like a drug  - it just makes you keep reading - paragraphs are not opportunities for breaks, but present a moment to soak in the words and immerse yourself in more amazing insights that are hinged on a beatiful bagel like cloud.

Adriana's post on Singy Kids, "From Karachi to Cannes: A Review of "A Mighty Heart",  truly shows off her ability to be a perceptive social commentator.  She has the capabiliy to weave together multiple strands of social issues into a one cohesive and penetrative essay.   The best social commentators have to be seamlessly multi-disiplinary in their knowledge, and I personally believe Adriana is one of the best I have read.   

For example, her review is the first and only piece of writing on Mighty Heart that successfully addresses the  uncomfortable yet difficult to articulate fact that Angelina Jolie is a white woman portraying a mixed woman, Marianne Pearl.   Adriana addresses this topic in logically and convincingly.   Here is an excerpt below on this issues, but by no way this is an excuse to read her essay in full,   

Both Jolie and Mariane Pearl wish for us to believe that the casting of Jolie as a biracial woman is not problematic.  "Aren't we past this?" Mariane retorted when asked to discuss the issue.  "I am Cuban, but I'm also Dutch. Should a Dutch person play me? It's not about skin color, it's about how a person behaves that matters."  If this was indeed the position of Pearl, Jolie and the filmmakers, then I wonder why they bothered with the considerable make up job they performed on Jolie.  Why not simply cast her as she is, without alteration, if indeed, only the person "within" matters?  In fact, why not cast the entire film without regard to ethnicity, race, culture and religion?

So you see, what I love most about her writing is that she writes about so many heavy topics so clearly!   She never loses her audeince -  her review grapples with race and ethnicity relations, literary interpretation, translation authenticity, film analysis, popular culture, and celebrity culture - but never does she belittle her audience with heavy academic jargon.  She gives one of the best summaries of the film,  it "had the opportunity to offer an inquiry and/or critique on this tension, present in Mariane's narration. Instead, it just reproduces it. "

Please write more stuff like this Adriana!!!!