This past week, my class had to read an article entitled "Left Out", which argued why several prominent Afro-Latino baseball players should be inducted into the Negro Leagues's own award showcase. The author also stated why these players were left out in the first place, which was due to their skin color and mixed ethnicity. The players' behavior on and off the field, their accomplishments, and all of thier hard work were ignored, leaving them isolated from their counterparts; even their African-American teammates at times kept their distance. Afro-Lations still shared much of the suffering of African-Americans due to Jim Crow laws that were in full effect at that time, but ultimately had no real community to fall back on in times of desperation. Still, many Afro-Latinos did not let these burdens befall them, and played to the best of their abilities under all circumstances.
We also were told to view a poetry presentation by Willie Perdomo, who talks about his challenges with being an Afro-Latino himself. He summed up of both sides of his race were unable to accept that he was indeed a "mixture" of the two, but instead claimed that he was one or the other-- either a dark-toned Puerto Rican or a light-skinned black man. This ties in with a number of other articles we have read in the past. I particularly liked this poem due to its relatability. Everyone at some point in time has struggled with his or her identity, and society can also have an heavy impact on what to view someone as.
Works Cited:
Burgos, Adrian. "Left Out." Playing America's Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line. Berkeley: University of California, 2007. Print.
To piggy-back off of my previous blog, I have narrowed my classical argument paper about minority's portrayal in films and television to stereotypes that have been generated about Arabs and Muslims in not only media, but in society as well. Ever since 9/11, there has been an nation-wide generalization that most, if not all, members of the Muslim religion are secretly terrorists, or harbor anti-American sentiments. Degrading images of Arabs all across the media, (the internet, for example, has numerous pictures of cartooned-versions of Islamic terrorists screaming gibberish before exploding into a colorful burst of orange and red) offer devastating implications of the stereotypical Arab. Over time, these images have served to naturalize prejudicial attitudes toward Arabs and Arab culture in general. This has lead to many Americans creating a narrow and one-sided view of Arabs and their culture. Hollywood, and media in general, has inspired people from all over the globe to depict an entire race as hostile, unwanted, giving no warrants about the social, political, and basic human consequences of letting these stereotypes be.
A film, "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People," communicates to its viewers that change is necessary and that those who injustly stereotype a diverse and varied people such as the Arabs are only ignorant of the reality and richness of a country's history and culture. There re a few that may say that the creators of movies such as "Reel Bad Arabs" only pick-and-choose interesting antedotes meant to arouse entertainment value or sentimentality over more humanistic ventures. However, a movie's sole purpose should never be to enterntain. Movies, films, TV shows and other areas of media also harbor the ability to educate its audience. For those who may not know much about the Arabic people or any other minority, movies such as the one below can become a source of enlightenment.
For a paper that is due this week, I have decided to write about how minorities are often portrayed stereotypically in the media such as TV and films. I choose to write about this subject due to a case I heard about in class surrounding the movie Red Tails and how its creator, George Lucas, had to essentially fund his own movie. To be precise, $58 million of his own money. ("Red Tails") This was a result of Hollywood's refusal to fund a film featuring minorities (in this case, blacks) in a more befitting role than the usual background character slot or comedic side that is ultimately overshadowed by another more influential character. In some cases, minorities are depicted as the antagonist(s) of the story or, as the title suggests, either play yet another stereotypical role in yet another Tyler Perry skit or die from some unnatural cause before the story actually begins.
The fact that nearly every major movie corporation refused to support Red Tails due to its inclusion of an "all-black cast" is a major signal of society's trend of keeping certain ethnic groups in their place, and how far America has to go in order to truly provide "equal rights" for all.
Works Cited Page
This, Hide. "‘Red Tails’ Based on the Tuskegee Airmen Opens Friday - The Root DC Live - The Washington Post." Washington Post: Breaking News, World, US, DC News & Analysis. Web. 05 Feb. 2012. .
