Challenging Racism

I chose to pick out 3 quotes that stuck out to me while watching the second video with Tim Wise.

The first quote came from the opening speaker introducing Tim Wise. The opener stated “Today we live in a world where people are ignoring the issues at hand.” I feel people tend to ignore issues because they feel like they will just go away. If an issue is not thought of it just means it does not exist. Personally, I feel like this is the opposite. The more and longer people ignore an issue, the worse and harder it is to fix it.

The second quote came directly from Tim Wise. He states “So the fact that you have interpersonal relations with someone within that group does not say anything about how you view members of that group.” This quote is actually one of my favorites from the video. He uses the analogy of sexism with hetersexual males. He questions how a male can be sexist towards women but like women and find them attractive. People state they are not racist, for example, because they have friends of color. He says if this statement is true then the statement of "only gay men can be sexist towards women" must also be true. I really liked this analogy because I never thought of it that way before.

The third quote is also from Tim Wise and he states “Black women who have college degrees, good jobs, good incomes and good health care actually have higher rates of infant mortality for their children than white women who drop out of school after the 8^th grade, who are poor and do not have good health care."  Racial gaps are even at the top of the income spectrum. Generally, white people have better health than people of color.

In the Service of What?

In this article, the reader learns about different stories of students engaging in service learning projects. Immediately, I thought about a story on the Today Show about a local boy from Rhode Island who has already donated about 31,000 shoes to homeless children across the country. Here is his story:

http://www.today.com/news/teens-gotta-have-sole-charity-kick-starts-hope-homeless-kids-2D80544039



One day, his mom took him to a homeless shelter so he could see the reality of today's world. She did not want to shelter him from the harsh truth because he does live a comfortable life. His mom never thought his experience would turn into a life changing opportunity for her son.

He started donating his own shoes to local homeless children and his actions just spiraled from there. He now is in almost all 50 states and has an organization called "Soles4Souls".

I feel this is a very positive outcome of community service and it was not even forced upon him by his school or family. These actions were on his own and shows how service learning can have such a positive affect on both the giver and the receiver.

Unlearning the myths that blind us

I have always heard people talk about how Disney movies were racist and sexist but I did not realize how much negative content in the story lines there were. Here is a video link to a few examples of these 2 issues in Disney movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sju3yvta9o8 .

The first example is the movie Aladdin. There is a scene with people of color doing physical labor. The song they are singing is about how they are uneducated and being slaved. One line from the song reads "When other folks have gone to bed, we slave until we're almost dead". How is this okay to put in a movie let alone a children's movie?

Another example is whenever a Siamese cat is played, they have slanted eyes, buck teeth and broken English which is a standard stereotype for a Chinese person.

Sexism and how these movies portray women give these young children the wrong idea early in life and sometimes a lasting impression. The women need a man in the end to have a "happy ending". Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, and Bell from Beauty and the Beast are just a few examples of this. Here is a link of Disney movies that give young children the idea on how women should act and be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-57zKcmrT6M .



These women stereotypes are teaching young boys to think this way. Lying, beauty, wealth, fame and charm are just what you need to succeed in getting a women to like you or just want you. Men become superior to women and that is all that matters. The younger a child is, the more influential things become. Ironically, these movies are meant for children at a young age, so these images will definitely make some impact on them.