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204561 Responseshttp://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/03/revisioning-the-revisioning-stage/Revisioning+the+Revisioning+Stage2010-03-31+15%3A17%3A00Sam+Richards to Revisioning the Revisioning Stage
When I grew up I also was surrounded by a lot of people from different ethnicities and culture. It definitely helped me learn more about them since I was so young and innocent. As I grew up and went to high school and college I met a lot of people who didn’t have the experience I had and seemed not as up to beat as I was when it came to different cultures and people. I don’t know if it was because I was at a young age and had different experiences then others but it seemed to help me meet others who were different than me.
i agree with what you are saying. the more i grew up the more African Americans started to come into my neighborhood and town and i thought it was great. it helped me to learn about different ethnicities and different backgrounds and to see if they were different and things like that. i think that it is very important for a child to experience this at a young age because i think that it definitely prepares them for a better future for their social life and it also helps them learn more about other cultures and to see what is out there in the world.
It is funny that this is how you handled the experience of many cultural groups moving into your neighborhood. I agree with the way you handled it but I have seen a very different situation. My friend grew up in Kensington, Philadelphia and as African American people started moving into his neighborhood the Irish people (including his family) moved out of the neighborhood until almost all of the neighborhood is black besides a small group. Because of this my friend is pretty racist because he chose to handle the situation differently than you did. Its a shame and he and I have gotten into many arguments over race but I just find it interesting how two people can handle a situation so completely differently.
I agree with you on this, when I was growing up my high school was 75% African American and I was the only white kid on all the basketball teams combined. Even though I didn't know it at the time, that experiences prepared me and opened my eyes much more to the lives and the struggles of races and cultures that were different than mine. Many of my white friends also figured out very quickly what many of the African-Americans had to go through on a daily basis and the discrimination and prejudices many people had about them. When I moved to Pennsylvania in 11th grade I realized that there were so many people out there who were blind and ignorant to the race relation problems of our society. I have tried to share my experiences and open peoples eyes to the problem but I feel like you have to experience it to know the problems our society has.
I grew up in a very diverse town unlike the state of Pennsylvania and Penn State. I have always been in classrooms with people of different races, backgrounds, and ethnicities. My two best friends growing up were both multiracial. I guess I feel like I was thrown into the revisioning stage faster than others. Coming up here, I definitely took notice that the campus was mostly white; in fact, it was one of the first things that I noticed. I was extremely surprised because Penn State advertises itself as being very diverse and the lack of diversity was very evident upon my arrival here.
I am from central New Jersey and in school I was in class with many different types of races as well. Besides whites, my town consists mostly of families from Asian countries. I was exposed to many different types of cultures as a result of this. I have actually spoken about this with a number of my friends up at school and it was obvious that we had very different experiences. Many of them are from different parts of Pennsylvania. They told me that this school seemed very diverse to them and that they had gone to school with mostly white people.
I think that I am fortunate to have had such an experience because I feel that I am much more accepting and understanding of other cultures. I have an appreciation for it that I don’t think you can get just by reading and learning about how people of different backgrounds do things. One of the major differences that I found was in my friends’ parents. It was so exciting to grow up with friends whose parents were immigrants and being able to experience first-hand how they were different from my parents.
I think that it would be great if everyone could have an experience like this growing up because it certainly has a different effect when you are younger. I think that being younger, you are less likely to notice the obvious differences in people and you can actually get a feel for how different cultures and ethnicities behave. I feel that when you are older and come from a place where everyone looks the same you are more likely to look at people of different races from a different perspective. You are probably more likely to assume the stereotypes and act in a less open manner. I am not saying that everyone is like this but I do find that talking to people who have never lived in a diverse area act in such a way. I think that classes like this along with discussion groups and the race relations project are great ways to go about eliminating this. It is great to be able to talk about it in a safe atmosphere and learn about the experiences of others and how they are different from our own.
You only get thrown into the re-visioning stage if you allow yourself to be, or you can just be conscious that some people have a different culture. Just because you grew up around black people doesn't mean you went straight to the re-visioning stage. Its basically necessary for each person to go through each stage even if not immediately but it does take some time to progress through each. The young have a easier time adjusting but some people who say 'yea I'm comfortable around black people, i grew up around tons when i was young' do not always remain that way. There becomes a psychological switch that makes some people start to conform to the norm whatever it may be. But if she's here at Penn State chances are she has not remained true to the fact that she was thrown into the re-visioning stage otherwise when hanging around people you see that she still hangs around people of the same culture or ethnicity as those she was friends with back home. Most likely she has conformed to people a group of white people that she hangs out with most of the time. Everyone is different.
First of all, it seems that you don't know what you are talking about. I am thinking that you grew up in an environment that where almost everyone looked like you? Don't automatically jump to conclusions about a person, she could be here at Penn State many different reasons. She could have black and white friends. Remember she grew up in a community with all black people so maybe she is just trying to be around people who look like her so she can truly find her place. This doesn't mean she hasn't "stayed true" to anything.
As a kid in pre-school and kindergarten, I was surrounded by a variety of people, like Blacks and Hispanics. I never thought anything about it. When I went to grade school, I only was surrounded by white kids, not because the school only accepted whites it is just my neighborhood was predominantly white.
Then I went to high school, which so happened to be built within walking distance of my grade school, but because it was a high school, it brought people of all color and background there and still I never thought much of it. That is not saying I was ignorant to anything, it is just I treated everyone the same despite what I had learned in my history lessons in school. I gradually learned over time that not everyone was not as equal as I thought, financially speaking not regarding the color of their skin. By the end of high school, I knew somewhat well how everyone of different color, race, or ethnicity acted and partially understood why they acted the way they did. Of course, that knowledge has only increased since then.
I grew up in a small town in north Jersey where it was predominately white. Although there was only two black kids in my elementary school, one of them was one of my good friends through school. When I moved to Pennsylvania my school was very diverse as many of the other students were moving there from the city and other parts of jersey. I accepted this very easily as I already had encounters with other cultures but I also began to encounter racial issues and identity. Many kids and parents that had lived in the area for a long time were bigoted and I heard a lot of racial comments daily. Even racial fights erupted sometimes which was more of an issue. Through all of these experiences I have probably jumped through the stages that Sam has defined multiple times. I know I went through re-visioning and reversal and then up to pseudo and back because of different experiences but I'm not sure I ever reached humanitarian because I still focus and hang out with mainly my race which is white. In my frat, though, there is a fair amount of diversity and I'm going to be living with them next year which will be a good experience since Penn state is predominately white. This class has taught me a lot about being myself around people of other races and opening myself up more, instead of following the typical white politically correct path in race relations. Hopefully I can move into the humanitarian stage soon enough, I think I'm on the right path.
I grew up in a predominately white town that didn’t have many minorities in it. I wasn’t even aware that different races existed until I was about 7 years old. When I was 7, a new neighbor moved in next door. She was my age and before long we became best friends. It wasn’t until we started school together did I realize how different she really was. All of my other friends were white, but she was Puerto Rican, which made her brown. When people compared her to other people it really hurt my feelings. I believe this is when I fully became aware of different races. I didn’t understand why people called her “brown,” to me; she was the same as my other friends. I began to see her differences and began to ask myself if we couldn’t be friends anymore because we were so different. I remember asking her one time why she was brown and I was white, she acted like she didn’t see any differences between us. To her, we really were the same. Because of her thoughts and actions, I learned that it was okay to be friends with different types of people. Because I had such an experience with race at such a young age, I think it made it easier for me to accept people who are different than me. Although I might be apprehensive at first, I always give people a try. I try not to think of stereotypes before meeting someone. I want them to show me who they truly are and not base my assumptions on stereotypes that are almost always false. Also, I didn’t realize that the Lion King was even set in Africa until I was much older. I think Disney took the easy way out in making a film about Africa by only including animals. Many of the animals “talked” like white people, I had no idea that the movie was based in Africa. I think that companies such as Disney, who are geared toward younger children should start instilling the idea of race into their heads. It’s hard to be aware of something when you’re so young if it’s not directly given to you. I think that Disney should have used real people, to make the story more realistic. I also think it’s completely unfair that Disney choose to just now release a movie with a black princess. It’s really a shame that Disney couldn’t put certain priorities first and realize that every child should learn from an early age the different races in the world. If more people were comfortable with different races earlier on in life, they would have less trouble accepting different people in the future.
How could you have not known it was set in Africa?! And kids love animals that talk, its fantasy, not a documentary about Africa. As I recall, James Earl Jones, a black man, does the voice for Musafa. Whoopie Goldberg was a voice, Cheech Marin was a voice. The whole cast is actually quite diverse if you check it out. I don't think Disney was in the wrong at all by making it all about animals. The animals in Africa are exotic and new to young children, especially in the U.S. I think this Lion King argument is kinda weak in terms of finding racial inequality.
I actually attended a high school where the student body was divided up into equally among Hispanics whites and blacks with the only real minority being Asians. Even though the school was so diverse it was still weird because the majority of people tended to be friends with their race/ethnicity. There were only those who participated in sports and other extracurricular activities that really had friends of other races and didn’t mind the color. Many times though it seemed that because of the division among races there was also some kind of altercation among those who hung out with strictly their race.
So i thought that this post was pretty interesting, and the comments written above also spoke to my experiences with the revisioning stage. Like many of the rest of you , I too grew up in a predominantly white town. While we had asian students in my classes through elementary school, it wasn't until 5th grade that I really was awakened and began to revise myself. In fifth grade a new student moved to our town, and was going to be riding the bus with me. He was black (Well actually mixed races, his mom was white and his dad black, but people would lable him as black if they saw him). I still will never forget the fact that I told my friend (whom I had previously been sitting with), that I was excited to get to know him because he was black, and I had never had a black friend before. Wow, haha, still feels weird to think I said that. However, we became incredibly close. We've since gone our separate ways attending different colleges, but we became best friends.
I really got to understand what he was going through — moving away from a home that used to offer some diversity, starting over in a new town which was predominantly white and not always friendly to differing races, and the prejudice that he faced from a school district with some ignorant children in it. I really used his experiences to revise myself, learn how i felt about races issues and how I could be better about it. I think I was fortunate to get the chance to entire the revisioning stage as early as I did, it has really shaped me to be who I am today.
I also think it is interesting to consider the LL Bean ads we looked at the other day, even though i know this isn't the appropriate blog i guess. My friend and his family were very successful, and honestly very wealthy. They were far better off than my family was growing up, and the always dressed in nice clothing — such as what would be offered at LL Bean. In fact, my friends father always dressed very nicely, and him and my friend wore shorts all the time (which is why I was confused about that comment in class) because they saw no point in being hot. It just struck me as funny to realize that some people would call them a "white" black family. Yes there were "white" tendencies they had, but that was because my friends mom was white. My friend and his dad certainly held onto their black culture (my friend liked to have an afro and even corn-rowed it a few times), loved listening to what is categorized as "soul music" and enjoyed things that are typically labeled "black." But they were just themselves, they were bigger Philadelphia fans than anything, and would identify stronger with their love of the eagles and phillies than their color as an indicator.
Overall, my experiences helped me to enter revisioning, despite being in a poorly diverse town. I learned that labeling someone as a "white" black person is foolish, its just who they are, who they choose to be.
In my hometown, a good percentage of the population were of Asian decent. A lot of my closest friends were white when I was growing up, however, once I got into high school I became really close friends (and still am) with some Asian students. I do not know if anyone else agrees, but I still did not feel any different from these kids. I identified that they were Asian, because they obviously were, but they were just like me (which is why I assume we became friends in the first place).
I have to comment on your comment about “The Lion King.” That was a fantastic movie, and I do not really understand why it upset you. I understand that we are in a class about race, and race is a very important part of life, but not EVERYTHING is about race, all the time. Why can you not accept it for what it is?
I am white male and i grew up in a city that was dominantly black. The city was probably a 65/35 percent black to white, so i have associated with black people my whole life. needless to say im not sure i was ever in the pre awakening stage because of the fact i grew up with other races. I cannot remember the first time i saw racism on the black community, but it did happen because of the white community, there were alot of older people who remembered the city when it was safer and more multi cultural, but this was when the steel mills were booming. They had troubles with being able to go with the times. So i did see racism at a young age, but never from myself.
I do think that i have been through most of the stages to where i saw the racism and inequality, tried to make a connection to better understand the sides of my friends, and then been pushed away because i am white and cannot understand. Also i have had black people use racism on me, in which i was thought to myself "how am i to help if they dont want it from white people and just become racist to us?" But i still understood that not all black people were like this due to knowing many black people who werent that way. Plus my parents always raised me to understand that everyone is the same, deserves a chance, and nobody is below me, i am not better than anyone else, and we are all equal.
Growing up, my main group of friends were white, but that wasnt because we did not want black people around, we always called everyone to play baseball, basketball, football, whatever, and sometimes they would accept, sometimes not. There were tons of kids, through little league and other friends, that i would see, they would be of another race, and we would get along great because we never saw color, we just saw each other. When i got to Penn State, i never thought to myself "There is a ton of white people" because i never cared to look at color. I noticed alot of asians due to i didnt grow up around many, so that was cool to see more cultures like that, but in the end, i never cared to look at color, because i never judge a place like that. So i believe some people can have a head start on the stages, and yes some can fall back, but by the time i got to Penn State, i had matured enough to where color was not a matter for me, and i tried not to see things in color, but to just see things as they are. This campus could be dominantly black, i would still walk around with a smile, being polite to everyone i see, and going about my day.
I am glad this question came up. I am black and I have lived in a white community ever since I was in the third grade. So obviously my school experience, from elementary through college, has been a bit different for me. I was forced to confront race at a very young age. I was always insecure with myself and had a really hard time liking the color of my skin, I just wanted to fit in and look like everyone else. Let me put it this way, I would have been one of those your girls to pick the white doll instead of the black one.
It took me a long time, actually college, to finally accept that it was okay to not have liked my skin color at one point. I felt ashamed that I once thought black was ugly and white was beautiful. It makes perfect sense now that I think back on it why I would have thought that way. I actually didn’t know until Soc 119 that other black people had the same feelings I once had; I thought that it was just me.
It was also hard for me to not have anyone to relate to or talk about my feeling when it came to race, when I say “all white school” that’s what I mean. I haven’t ever had a black friend, unless you count my older brother. It was hard and stressful at times to grow up and constantly try to stick up for myself and black people in general. I was comforted with racism all the time and I had no one to help me out. For me it was white all day everyday all the time. My best friends where, and still are, white, my crushes where white, my teachers where all white, and the people I fought with were white. I think it would have been nice to have people, or at least one person around, who looked like me. Friends told me that Penn State had a bunch of black people, so I came with high hope that maybe I could make some black friends, I now realize this school is almost just like my old one except with a bit more pepper in the mix.
Nonetheless, I believe growing up in a place where so many people looked like me really helped open my eyes to certain issues. I am a very open-minded person, whether it is race relations or gay marriage and I think a lot of it had to do with me growing up in the white community. I think that if people would get out of their “comfort bubble” and put themselves in other people's shoes, like I had to, they wouldn't be racist or hate gays. People would be so much more open-minded about things if they had to opportunity to live with people who were different than them, whether it is race, culture, gays, etc.
Although I was forced to live with people who didn't look like me, I know it shaped who I am today. Sometimes people need to be put in a different environment to be able to truly see that we are not all that different after all.
I grew up in a predominantly white suburb of Philadelphia. One town away is a town called Chester PA. Chester PA is probably 95 percent African American, and almost every resident is below the poverty line. Since I came from a predominantly white town, I started off in the pre-awakening stage. Right now after two sociology classes, I would say I am in the revisionist stage. If I had grown up in a predominantly African American town, or any other town where white people are the minority, I believe that I would have not started off in the pre awakening stage. I think I would have started off in the awakening stage as a child, but I think once I had reached high school I would be in the revision stage. I think its perfectly normal; growing up in the place that you did, to see and experience the white guilt. It is weird though, because when I was real young my best friend was from Guatemala. I never really noticed a difference between his race and my race until we were older. I guess that’s the point when I started in the awakening stage. When you’re a young kid you just do not realize the harsh reality of some things like you do when you are older.
Now switching to your comment about Disney, I don’t feel upset that the first movie they made in Africa was about lions, they are a business. They want to make the highest profit they can, so they cater to the audience that is the majority. If black people or brown people were the majority, then the main characters in every Disney movie would most likely be the color of the majority race. Although, I do not know if anyone has heard of a Disney movie called Song of the South? It is a Disney movie that came out in 1946. This movie is where the ride splash mountain originated from, as wells as many of the characters such as briar fox and briar rabbit. It has never been released in the USA for home video because there are many racially insensitive scenes. I think everyone should watch it because it will show you how far we have come in the struggle for equality, and it will also show you a dark time in America’s history when African Americans were portrayed as slaves/ servants to wealthy white people. When the film debuted in theaters, the actor (James Baskett) who played Uncle Remus was not able to attend the premiere in Atlanta, Georgia because Atlanta was still a segregated city. Its pretty crazy to watch the film and see how black people were portrayed back in the day. They were portrayed as slaves to the white people.
Although I grew up in a primarily white region—New England is somewhat known for being the majority white—I was thrown into a stage of awareness from early on. Since my parents have found it a necessary part of my education to travel to different parts of the world, I started at a young age immersing myself into different cultures. I rode a camel in Portugal, bargained in Tunisia, etc. I understood a somewhat difficult concept in the most basic sense: these people were different from me—I didn’t know why and I didn’t exactly understand how, but I knew they were. As I got older, I began to further develop my questions (as well as answers) when I began to realize the complete lack of diversity in the schooling system of New Hampshire. From first to sixth grade, I believe I had maybe at most 10 black people in my school. From seventh to twelfth grade, I had even less—perhaps 5 black people maximum. I remember asking questions to my parents in seventh grade about why I didn’t have any people of color in my school. Their answers were always somewhat broad and I would occasionally get a speech from my dad. He talked about how the north often sees themselves as elite and open-minded, as well as accepting of everyone—though there are no black people. My dad, who grew up in Alabama, had many black friends and went to a primarily black high school. I knew maybe two colored people in the north, where he knew and was friends with a good number, in the south. It was really then that I started to question more and more about race relations. In high school, we had a discussion in our ethics class about “black people” (like they were some far off fairytale characters) and almost all the people in the class said that the north is the most unbiased and accepting of blacks—yet, with the two black kids in my school one was referred to as “fresh off the boat” and the other one was referred to as a kid who is an “oreo”—black on the outside, white on the inside. I gave the example of my father’s high school experience and got shut down with “they’re all racist down there.” Honestly, although I was not thrown into the revisioning stage at a young age (though I did travel and immerse myself in different culture in other ways), I did get thrown into a sort of awakening stage that only progressed from sixth grade on—questioning the lack of diversity instead of questioning the diversity within my schooling career. It was a backwards sort of way to go about the different stages, but I’m glad I did it this way because it gave me a keen understanding of diversity over my high school peers, and obviously, now that I’m in college, I have found my transition into a more diverse community easier than I would have normally.
Why the Lion King? Would you not agree that lions do in fact live in only Africa and a small part of India, thereby limiting their choice of setting? I think that might be digging a little too deep. I mean, especially when you have so much other racist shit from Disney to choose from. Let me explain.
Take for example the crow gang from Dumbo. Some might say that the jive talking BLACKBIRD gang is digging a little deep, despite their clear representation of black stereotypes. How about the fact that the leader of the gang is named Jim Crow, or that they are all voiced by a white guy told to do his best black impression? Still digging deep?
Or how about the Indians from the Peter Pan movie? Check out the scene if you don’t know what I’m talking about -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_at9dOElQk&fe...
Yes you heard them right. The reason that Native American Indians say “how” is because they demand knowledge. While extremely ignorant, I guess it’s really not that offensive. But then comes the moment where they explain the “Red Man” skin tone. A normal white person was kissed by a girl and he blushed. And it fucking stayed that way. Yes indeed, the only reason that Indians have a different skin color is because SOMETHING CHANGED IT. Nice Disney.
Let’s not forget the long lost book Mickey Mouse and the boy Thursday. Mickey Mouse opens crates from Africa, and what do you know, he finds a bonafide African inside. Unfortunately the Crate-African (hereby referred to as Thursday) does not understand Mickey’s ways and responds by sticking spears in things and shooting arrows at Mickey. Then along comes this gem of a line “Poor little guy! He just makes mistakes. He doesn't know any better. I'll just have to be patient and teach him the right way to do things” spoken by the master mouse himself. If you’re going to make fun of Africans, this is the way you do it. Not with pussy lions.
Finally, have you ever watched Aladdin? I mean really watched Aladdin? Because if you did, there is no way you did not notice that Aladdin was a bit different then his fellow townsfolk. I am referring, of course, to the fact that Aladdin is a big ‘ol white cracker straight out of the Midwest, accent and all. Did you also notice anything about the man that is trying to Kill Aladdin, Jafar? Like, oh I don’t know, the fact that his ethnicity is so exaggerated he looks like a fucking space alien?
So to sum it all up; until a pride of lions swim their asses over here and start a colony of Non-African lions, I’m going to continue to preserve my childhood love of the Lion King.
I grew up in Rockville, Maryland and all around me there were different kinds of races such as whites, Hispanics, Latinos, Asians, blacks, and so on so forth. As I was in elementary school, the concept of race and issues of inequality in American society never crossed my mind. Soon as I grew up and entered in a scene whether social status and race mattered. I first experienced it in middle school – a starting point of where you eventually hang out with a group of people constantly for the rest of your grad school. Asians hang out with other Asians, preppy people (which were mostly white) hung with each other along with the athletes and jocks. Blacks hung out with blacks and so did the Latinos and Spanish. I did not why the things were the way they are at first but eventually through my own personal experience and witnessing others I soon came to understand why and eventually entered the stage of "re-visioning"-the concept of racial inequality. I first to experience through exams and tests. One day our teacher showed us the states of our test scores and as i looked into the categories- it was divided into several groups based on race- Asian, black, white, Hispanic, other. So I saw that blacks were considerably low and whites were relatively high. This was in middle school so i did not know why or how social factors contributed to the scores at first. In my area., people who were categorized as colored were often in a family setting that was in poverty and were influence to work instead of study. Students that were white had families where education brought their family success and in life of wealth and fortune. I did not know why it was like that or why it was meant to be. Soon i started to see many differences, even though they were clear as day to spot, my eyes just suddenly opened as though i was covered in a black cloth and finally it was taken away and i was able to see many difference in race. I soon realized the social status, welfare, job status, and difference in culture in different races and soon realize that we are all different in many ways not just by simply appearance but also by our cultures, life status, way of life, beliefs, and influences. I soon realize it in the media and at a time i too felt the guilt that should be put in whites. I grew in anger and hatred at a time but eventually knew that was not case that all the guilt should be put on white nor the whites today should feel guilty of what some of their ancestors did in the past. From that point on i moved in the stage of Awakening and soon wanted to stop the issues of inequality and start something where again i can see past the difference and issues in our race and one day maybe combine together to be one.
Growing up, I did not feel like I was thrown into the revision stage, so I cannot really comment on that. However, she does bring up an interesting point about Disney. It does seem strange that the first movie based on Africa had animals as characters. Was that intentional or a coincidence?
Now that I am in college, many of my classes are starting to relate to each other and intertwine. This semester I am taking the Art of Theater. Yesterday, we were talking about African American Theatre and how racism was a major issue from its beginning. African American Theatre started in 1776 as a result of the creation of a Christian society and slavery. Slavery was not an acceptable concept in this Christian society, so they developed the theory that blacks were “sub-human.” They were not categorized as animals. To establish their theory that blacks were sub-human, the United States counted African Americans as 3/5th s human. One of the only ways for whites to understand African Americans was through theatre. One of the first types of African American Theatre was minstrelsy. They were basically ridiculous and offensive plays with white actors who painted their faces black and would speak in bad English. For example, they would say “I is” instead of “I am” to mock the fact that African Americans could not speak English correctly (very stereotypical). After the Civil War, African Americans were searching for identity, dignity, and humanity especially through the arts. Many became amazing actors, dancers, singers, and musicians. Ira Aldridge, an amazing African American actor, was praised by audiences. On the posters advertising the shows he was in, they did not indicate that he was black as they would for any other actor of color. Over time though, African American artists became widely accepted and praised by their audiences. After hearing about African American Theatre in class and reflecting on my childhood experience, I do not think Disney’s intentions for Lion King was to make Africans seem like animals. I think that Disney wanted to make a movie about the animal kingdom and the African Safari and bring those characters to life with human qualities. As a child, I loved learning about animals and was fascinated by the African Safari. Disney wanted to make an animated film to fulfill an average child’s imagination of what animals would be like if they could talk. I do not believe that Disney wanted to make the characters animals because they thought of Africans as animals. They made the characters animals because many people associate Africa as a place that is the habitat for many animals of the animal kingdom. If Disney decided to use people instead of animals in the Lion King, wouldn’t the context of the movie change? Would it stir up controversy? Recently though, Disney released the Princess and the Frog which featured the first African American Disney Princess from New Orleans. I do not think Disney has racist undertones and that Lion King is referring to Africans as animals. I think it is over-analyzing it.
I am going to respond to the disney comment. I think that Disney has a tendency to not only be racist, but be just outright offensive. They place things in their movies for adults to see that are completely inappropriate for children to view. I don't understand why they think this is funny. But I too think it is ridiculous that the first movie they made with a black person was in 2009. Like really? That is completely racist and crazy. They could have thought of that a long ass time ago. And now they think they are redeeming themselves? hell no. Disney just sucks.
I was born in Baltimore, so I was immediately exposed to a greatly diverse environment. Albeit, I did not reside in the city (I lived in the county); however, I had many white friends and many black friends, the best of which was my next-door neighbor, who became my best friend for the first 14 years of my life. I am not going to really address the stages much because I still do not know what the hell they mean, but I will say the environment you are raised in has a colossal effect on how you view things and how much you are informed about other cultures. If you grow up in a predominantly white town with little interaction with people of color, you may be at a disadvantage for being enlightened about their customs. However, just because you are born into a diverse environment, this does not mean you automatically are more educated either. For example, even though my best friend—and someone who I spent multiple hours with every single day (including his family)—was black, I do not know what it means to be black. How could I? I am not black. And my friend does not know what it means to be white. That does not mean that we cannot be more enlightened about each other’s culture though. Growing up in Baltimore, I still saw many racists, black, white, and those representing other races/colors/whathaveyou. Thus lies proof that growing up in a diverse environment does not simply catapult you into the “Revisionist” stage. Life is what you make of it. You will educate yourself and immerse yourself in other cultures to better understand people’s values and beliefs only if you want to. I wanted to. Therefore, I came to such a great relationship with my friend that we could each poke fun at our races for common stereotypes.
As far as addressing your side rant on The Lion King. That was a great fuckin movie, pardon my French, and if you honestly are bothered by the fact that no Africans were used in it, please do yourself a favor and calm down. That’s taking a lighthearted topic to the extreme and probably making something out of nothing. As far as I know, that movie used no people in the actual film, yet many of the voices were prominent black figures i.e. James Earl Jones. I am not one to ever pass judgment on other people because I have no idea who they are, or where they come from, but every once in a while I am perplexed by someone’s viewpoint. And your negative and extremely sudden, random outburst at a Disney classic produced over a decade ago just strikes me as a bit absurd. Everyone loves that film. I mean…Lion King kicks ass.
I have to wonder, if you grow up somewhere where you, as a white person, are a definite minority, do you still use the same steps or is it perhaps reversed? Either way, I would have to say that I both did and did not have an experience like this girl’s. I actually spent my youngest years growing up in London. There I remember there being a number of Indian families living not far from where I lived, inevitably I ended up playing with the few kids my age. So in that sense I was able to at a young age experience interaction with a group of people whose race differed from my own and that of my parents. However, still quite young, my family moved back to the states. Back here in PA things were, quite different to say the least. Honestly, I don’t think I met a black person my age till my junior year of high school. That would mean I went near a decade surrounded by nothing by other white people. For them of course the story was not much different. We all group up with the same people in the same isolated part of Amish country. Growing up I remember that the use of derogatory racial slurs and racist jokes were hardly uncommon among my friends. Personally I never really did anything like that myself, but less out of respect and more out of a neurotic fear of being caught. At the time we didn’t think anything of it, none of us considered ourselves to be racist, we were just making jokes. Obviously this wasn’t done out of any particular spite towards a particular racial group, but it was out of sheer ignorance. None of us really knew anyone who could be considered a minority, so we never felt the need to take their feelings into account. It’s a shame it had to be that way, but it was unavoidable.
For this person, I wonder if things were that much different. The reason I was so ignorant was because I only ever really had the views of my fellow whites to learn from and observe. But I can’t imagine that the polar opposite would be any kind of improvement. It seems to me, based on what we’ve been learning that race relations is like a giant puzzle. And that no one group has all the pieces. So I wonder if growing up as a white person in say, an all black neighborhood, would really make one more prepared to handle race related issues. Certainly I can see benefits in terms of understanding the thoughts and feelings of the other groups, as well as being able to avoid jumping to conclusions about these other groups. However I wonder if growing up in a black neighborhood would have a major impact on the whole white guilt aspect. Though I’m the neighborhood would ever go out of their way to make a person feel guilty, just by way of growing up surrounded by a group your race historically exploited would certainly make me feel worse.
I also grew up in a neighboorhood that was multiracial and I was always questioning things about race in my head. I never knew how to talk about race when I was younger so I just ignored it I would never act rude to a person of color I actually had two really close friends that were sisters and I hung out with them all of the time. It never bothered me at all, but other kids had different feelings and I think that is because of the way their parents raised them. My one very close friend does not like black people she is always commenting on certain things and that is because her parents are racist. THis is not the the extreme other wise I would not consider her a close friend, but I do try to make her think a little more when she does stereotype. However, taking this class has really opened my eyes about how I should talk about race. It is still hard for me but I personally really want to break that boundary. I hate feeling white guilt more then anything. It is a terrible feeling, because I want to feel comfortable in a room and I don't want to feel hat tension anymore. however I do feel that I am reaching my goals. I am able to talk about race without hesitation. I think hesitating is what is also keeping me down. instead of saying what I feel I think about it to much and then in my head I feel white guilt. White guilt is causing my hesitation which then keeps me silent about racial issues and topics. But, like I said I am trying t change that and I want to go through these steps so I am concious of this world that we live in so I am not stuck in the bubble of PSU. As for the Lion King that was def out of the blue. lol. I do agree I think that it is very rude however the lion king is an amazing movie. AND I think it is better then the Disney princess movies! You are right though, it is kind of sad that Disney did not include other races earlier on. Think about the Princess and the Frog though…..I think that was an amazing movie as well! I know many people where annoyed that she was a frog most of the movie, but it really incorporated alot of southern black culture, and they did not portray her as a stereotype. Some of the animation for songs where inspired by Aaron Douglas who is a famous black artist, and it also showed her home which was a traditional shot gun house. It was really an amazing movie because she was a hard working girl trying to make her dreams come true. It wasn't about a princess falling in love hopelessly for a prince it was really about her and making her dreams come true and finding love along the way. Honestly it has the best storyline out of any of the Disney Princess series. ANyyways yea I love that movie and I can't wait to buy it!!! haha okey so yea thats my blog for the week.
Thank you for asking this question! I am the same exact way. As the lone white girl from Baltimore in the class, I too was thrown into the revisioning stage at an early age, I believe. I grew up with white and black and brown people around me pretty equally. I never saw a difference between my black and brown friends and my white friends and it wasn’t until I grew up and people started talking about the issue did I really understand what they were talking about. I honestly can say that I grew up for a while not seeing color. I realized that we all lived different lives at home, but black and brown families did the same activities and ate the same food as me and my white friend’s families. I think that a lot of people don’t believe me when I say that I honestly don’t see color, I see the actions of people first. I have never judged a person based off their skin color and I think it had a lot to do with my upbringing. I’m very fortunate that my parents had me grow up in an environment where I wasn’t inundated with only one skin color around me but that I was able to grow up with a diverse view of my peers.
I grew up in quite the opposite situation: a small rural town in PA where 95% of the population was white. But for some reason i always felt like i didn't quite fit in with everyone else. When i was younger, there was racism everywhere and i just didn't really realize because i didn't really know what racism was. I am a bit embarrassed to admit that even my family was at times, lets say, more critical of people of culture. I am not proud of that. Since i was little, i have never understood why skin color can make such a difference in how you perceive a person. I think i was always past the first stage and this class kind of flung me into the revisioning stage after many years of begin right on the tip of it.
I think that this reaction and the revision process getting stepped into as the first stage is more of a common trait that happens with Whites today because I think the world is more of a diverse place. There are still a number of Whites that live in isolated areas away from the minorities of the United States of America. However, the increasing number of minorities and the rate at which minorities inhabit the United States is growing as well. As a result, there is much mixing and diverse neighborhoods that are springing up in this country. Whites are thus learning early about the difference and similarities of the White and various minority cultures. I think that this is a great experience and concept that is starting to occur. I think that this phenomenon is sparking the overall understanding of various cultures. It is causing Whites as well as minorities to ask and question each other for the good. Questions regarding hair, clothes, music, and food need to be asked and understood because then the people and the cultures will come together at an even faster rate. I think that in the United States we are faced with an extreme problem of people who are unable to understand and take an empathetic approach to life. Because of this new mixing of people we are now moving beyond the stage where we have to tell people what is happening. They are now realizing the differences themselves as they grow up through life and through the interactions with these various cultures.
I think that we as a whole need o be in culturally diverse cultures and around various people. The girl in this video has already realized the benefits of being around people outside of her race because she has learned from them as they have learned from her. Here at Penn State, I have tried not to focus my life and my attention on one group of people or race of people. Because I have been able to balance my friendships and opening myself up to many different people it has helped me to understand the many different ways of life in our world. The world is such a big place and there are so many people that I think it is ignorant as a human being not to try and get to know about as many people and cultures that exist on this globe. The fact is that once we live and work in the same environment on a day to day basis I feel that the barriers begin to fall and that people begin to understand that people are all people regardless of skin tone and color. I am happy that this point was brought up in the comments because it is a reality and concept that is happening a very fast rates.
I grew up with about half of my friends being white and half being black, Mexican and Puerto Rican. So I was a little behind you and was still in the awakening stage when I got to this class. Then I quickly moved through the Awakening stage and am on into the Revisioning stage. Through Sam’s lectures, I have definitely begun to see the racial inequality that exists in the criminal justice system, the workplace, college admissions, etc. I also see the white privilege that I have experienced in life such as getting every job that I have ever wanted, and getting into the first college of my choice even with a high school GPA of about a 3.7 and average SAT scores. There are a lot of people of color in the United States that I am sure have higher SAT scores and GPAs than I do, and applied to Penn State but did not get in. I know there are other things that I have benefited from by being white that I haven’t even noticed. Maybe even when I only got a traffic violation for not following the traffic signals when I was speeding in a school zone, going 36 when the speed limit was 15 because the school zone signs were flashing after school, I may have experienced white privilege as oppose to someone of color who had gotten a ticket and points on their license for doing the same thing. This leads to white guilt seeing as how I benefit from these things solely because the color of my skin, even though others are much more qualified than I am. Then begins the anger towards white people who take advantage of these things, think that they deserve them just because they are white and show racism towards people of color. It really outrages me, especially when people in this very race class say racist things over the text program that Sam has enabled. Also, as Sam has said that it was just pure luck that white people were born into the family that they were and were born with white skin. Why does this make white people, particularly Americans, think that they are superior to all? I think this has to do with the fact that people are ignorant and don’t care to learn about the marvelous people and places from all over the world.
I think the whole observation about how the first characters from Africa were lions and not people in Disney’s the Lion King is due to the fact that Walt Disney and many of the first writers of the Disney movies were white and in many of the movies where people of color were involved, white people were taking over their land for the most part. It is very sad though but hopeful that there is now a Disney movie with a black princess and hopefully there will be many more to come.
I actually am the complete opposite. I criticize my hometown for being strictly white. I went to my public high school which was home to students, 92% of which were white. I always claim that in a way I wished I went to school with more diversity. Granted my high school has outstanding academics and was voted #1 high school in Hartford county, but sometimes academics isn’t all about life. One needs to interact with diversity so they can be prepared for the real world, because I know 92% of people in the world isn’t white. I may never be put in a situation where white isn’t the majority, but I do wish I grew up in a more diverse community.
Its interesting that you bring this up. As for me, I was brought up in an entirely opposite community. I went to a predominately white school in a predominately white town. We didn't have much diversity in my school in particular because we were mostly suburb and a rural community. I feel like I was sorta held back in my stages of how we view race because I was not able to get enough experiences with the people who were of a different race than me. I mean I knew that people of other races existed but because I was brought up in a really white area I just saw white people as the dominate group, even most of the television shows I watched were composed entirely of white people. The reason why I took this race relations class was because I was interested in learning about other races of people and trying to get past what had been instilled in my mind as a white person. The only experiences that I did have with people of a different race was when we would go on vacation or go to the city where there was much more diversity in the people. One might think that because of this I would have become really racist because most of of my experiences and memories with white people but honestly it made me have the utmost respect for people of color I believe. I think it was because of my lack of experience with people of color that I began to want to know more, even though I did not go out of my way to seek out and become friends with these people I did want to learn. Through this class I have finally been able to see how bad race issues can sometimes be. In all honesty, I didn't even really know about race issues such as in the criminal justice system and so forth until I took a sociology class in high school. I feel sorta bad that It has taken me to long to become immersed in people of other races and ethnicities, but I mean there was nothing I could really do about it when I was younger. I feel like I am still a little behind everyone else in the stages that Sam has been talking about because I really wasn't given the opportunity to gain insight into people of other races world. I don't know if I will ever live in a community that is not predominately white, maybe I would be a little uncomfortable with it at first but at least I know I could be accepting and get used to it. I'm sure that if I had been brought up in a more diverse community, I wouldn't even have these thoughts about what my childhoods "whiteness" so to speak would have impacted me. I'm glad to hear the perspective of someone who has grown up white in a mostly multiracial community. To be honest I think thats better than being forced into a society where white is the only thing you know. Because at least you have a understanding about people of other races. I wish I could say that I had that, I might be a better person if I had… but I can't say because I don't know. And about the lion king thing, I have to say that I loved the Lion King. I don't believe that Disney is trying to be racist when their movie was about animals rather than people. Its a children's story, to be honest kids are more easily able to relate to animals sometimes than other people. Why do you think that kids after watching that movie wanted to be lions themselves? I see what you mean about the it being sad that their first one from africa was about animals and all, but disney is very children oriented. They are good wholesome movies for the whole family and since the lions were the main character, the humans would have been bad guys. An because most of the people who live there are dark skinned they would have been seen as the bad guys. Why would they want to instill in little kids heads that the "dark skinned" people were the bad people? But whatever, just my opinion.
i am probably the exact opposite and born into an all white hometown and area. this at first wasn't a big deal because we lived next to a big city where there is a lot of colored people, but i never got that exposure that i should of and probably didn't hit the re vision stage till college. Also, taking this class made me realize how i thought all through high school about some colored people were wrong and very off. i am just glad that not just this class, but this school made me realize the truth and glad that i learned it now, before i got into the real world and made some really stupid mistakes
I agree with what a lot of people are posting about how where you grow up makes a huge difference as to how you view people of color as a young adult (and eventually through your adult years). I didn't necessarily grow up in a city but my town was fairly diverse and my high school had plenty of black and brown people. Through middle school and high school my best friend was black and I had other black friends that I hung out with a lot, although looking back I can honestly say a large part of that had to do with me being on the sports team and being able to have that exposure. I think its important that black and brown people really consider the fact that as young whites growing up in this generation, things have changed substantially since our white parents were around, and I think overall the racial thought process is not nearly as offensive as it used to be. I think unfortunately black and brown people try to assume while growing up that white people just innately arent going to like them or want to hang out with them as much and thats simply NOT the case. The kids in our high school that were racist were not only not popular but disliked by not just black/brown people but most of the other white population as well.
It is really interesting that many people have had experiences living with people of other races. I wish it was the same case for me. I grew up surrounding with people of the same race as me, so I never really paid attention to color or race. I mean, of course I have seen people of different races. However when I came up here, there are people from so many different races, even though I never seen I as a problem, I always wanted to know if it is ok to associate yourself with people that are nothing like you. Although, I have seen pretty “weird” thing that people of other races do, I have never questioned their methods, I was always like, well it is their lives, their cultures, and they do whatever they please. It is also a good thing that she mentioned the Disney problem, I have never realized that. Like seriously, that is some messed up stuff.
I see where you are coming from with the fact that you were sort of “launched” into the revisioning stage at a very young age because you lived in a society where most of your friends were not white. I also grew up in a similar fashion living abroad in several countries as my parents worked overseas. Thus, at a very early age (around 6 years old), I was starting to experience some of the race issues that Sam talked about with regards to the revisioning stage. These issues were obviously at a much more subtle level and were not fully understood by me since I was so young. However, looking back at those experiences, I can say with confidence that they were invaluable in shaping my character and personality today. Having experienced other cultures and peoples, I have a greater sensitivity to and understand people that are different than me, especially non white people. I think that is critical in this world, because so many people are racist or hateful or feel superior towards people of other colors and/or ethnicities/backgrounds because they don’t truly understand them, and have never spent a day in their life getting to know them before jumping to their prejudged ideals.
it is very interesting to sit here and read everyone's post about the way they feel towards situations. I grew up in Philadelphia my entire life. I never questioned race. Especially since, i went to school with a pretty "diverse" class. Yet that ended in the 2nd grade when i moved from Northeast of philly to North. My mom still has videos of my kindergarten graduation ( please dont ask me why) and when i watch them i can see that it was truly diverse. When my mother and i moved to north philly, not only was the living conditions different so was the level of diversity. it completely changed. my mother and i moved into the predominantly "latino" neighborhood. Everyone around me was latino, with occasional black people. So because of my transition was so early on, i learned to adjust. when i ask my mom about my childhood, Since for some reason i cant remember a damn thing ( and apparently everyone else can) she always says the same thing, "you never worried about skin color mija." My mother made it a priority of me knowing that i was Puertorican and to be proud of it. Throughout highschool i guess "immersion" was the stage i was in along with my fellow classmates. My highschool predominantly puertorican participated in the annual puerto rican parade, and always had the flag near us. Whether i was at my families party or at a friends party, everything was similar. our culture is vibrant around this neighborhood. Here at pennstate, its lack of diversity is ridiculous, yet i knew this before even applying to this university. my first semester here, i felt alone because i could not find the piece of "home" (my culture) resound in this place. yet i have found that.
to reply about the disney comment, i must say that i am a huge disney fan, and watch the disney channel literally all the time. "im a kid at heart" and might i say that people are just too damn touchy about this race issue. Now dont get me wrong it is a shame and disturbing to know that most of the disney princesses are white and just a few months ago disney released its latest disney princess who so happened to be black from New Orleans. but i must say that people read in to too much abut what race they portray. Disney is a place where children have their "childhood" to hold onto. and unfortunately our youth is growing up a bit faster than before. I look back on the classic disney movies that i love, and the first thing that goes through my mind is how happy i remember feeling when i watched these movies. not, "Oh damn cinderella is white, how racist is that? comeon seriously. it's for children! And for what i can remember i never ever thought of race in anything.
The lion king? seriously? wow.. i have to chuckle on that one. I just dont think that it was their intention to even demoralize or demean anyone by making a movie about africa refer to lions. i dont personally know what "disney's" true intention was, but for what i see i dont feel that in any sense. and all this complaining but i havent seen no damn LATINA princess either. But noone worries about that.?
honestly its ridiculous to even think that disney is corrupt, for anything i feel that it is literally one of the only things that help keep children's childhood innocent as much as they can.
I grew up in a mostly white area, but I had friends who were of different ethnicity. If I were to have grown up in a area where I had mostly back friends and some white friends I really don't think it would've changed who I am and what i believe.
To go on with your comment about Disney, I don't think they intentionally tried to put African Americans in a group of "lions". I do believe though that they know that their audience is mostly white so they try to make characters that are the same skin color as who they are trying to reach.
I, like many others, am happy this question was asked. Although I grew up in a predominantly white community, my first friend (which became my best friend for very many years) was black. I was so young and although was aware of the obvious (that she was black and I was white) race never played any part in our relationship. I am so fortunate and grateful looking back on my relationship with my friend because I feel that it helped to cultivate me into a more accepting person subconsciously. When we were younger I acknowledged our differences but never linked it to racial attributes. Frankly, I was jealous that Tina (my friend) would get her hair braided; I always wanted my hair to look like hers. It would take her sister Rosemary 6 hours to braid her entire head and I would sit right next to her while we watched movies the whole day.
We took a vacation to the Bahamas together and I finally got my chance, I got my hair braided. For the rest of the trip Tina and I referred to each other as sisters because our hair matched. We were not ignorant to the fact of our physical differences but ironically far more mature at a young age to realize that these differences do not determine the love you feel for a friend. Like many others have stated, the innocence of childhood should show us that racial issues become far more volatile and hurtful as we enter adulthood. I wonder why this innocence ever leaves us. To talk about the stages Sam provided the class with…I find it problematic that they seem to ascend as if leaving racism behind must follow this type of path. Rather than look at these “feelings” as stages I believe they should be regarded as different frames of mind, and even more so that we cannot even generalize them into these broad categories. Why does the humanitarian stage seem to be the “highest” or least racist?
I believe that our daily experiences are so varied and rich in diversity of individuals that we cannot denote ourselves in a fixed stage. All in all, I am extremely thankful for my childhood experiences and interactions with different peoples and cultures. I can owe most of my gratitude to my mother who values travelling over many other things. I had seen much of the world before entering middle school. These travels across the globe gave me a first hand look at the variety of cultures which our world holds. We all think we are “right” and that we do things the “right way” when in reality it takes the conglomeration of all our practices to make the go round (corny and untrue metaphor).
This is a great question and it is something we talked about in my race discussion the other day. I am a white, irish catholic, female from the suburbs of New York and yet I have always had a very real sense of race, religion, sexuality, and so on. I was raised in a predominately white area, however many of my friends were not white. They were a mix. Everything from Catholic to Jewish, Italian to Asian and Hispanic. I believe I was really awakened to race early on and got past those early stages of race relations before I was even old enough to understand what the stages meant.
I was also raised to love and treat everyone the same. Despite, how corny that may sound, it is incredibly true. I grew up in a family that is accepting of everyone. I was raised around many different kind of people. Some were gay, some straight, some were jewish and some were muslim. In my mind it really didn’t matter and to this day it still doesn’t.
We were also discussing interracial dating in my discussion group the other day and I know my parents would be okay with whom ever I decide to date. I think it would by wrong first of all for many reasons but also because I have an uncle who is black and a cousin who is a mixed race. So for my parents not to accept, say me bringing home a black guy I think would be wrong. I also think it doesn’t matter. For me they are my cousin and my uncle, not my mixed cousin and black uncle. They’re my family and I don’t care what they are because it wouldn’t make me love them any less.
I know it sounds like I’m just saying all this to say this, but I was raised to see people for who they are not what they look like. Which, I guess in a strange way makes me a little blind to the problems that some races and people face. I know that there is racism that occurs and I know some of the hardships any race that isn’t white can face, I guess I just never realized how hard it can be. I guess I assumed I was, in a way, getting by with the race issue by being friends with those of other races. However, I don’t think I ever took the time to realize the problems they may face. So, I guess I can say that this class has reawakened me in a way.
This is very interesting to me because I grew up in a neighborhood where the majority of people were white and mostly Jewish. This is ironic because Jews are a huge minority in the world, but to me growing up it seems like most people around me were just like myself; white and Jewish. Also, there are many people of Asian or Middle Eastern decent, but VERY few African Americans. However, since coming to college I have become friends with a variety of different types of people with different backgrounds. I am curious how my neighborhood, and even my own family would react if people different from us starting moving in to my town. However, knowing how I’ve approached relationships in college, I don’t think it would bother me. Race and religion have never been factors to me in why I would or wouldn’t pursue friendships with certain people.
I went to a predominately white high school. Maybe one or two black kids, a couple Asians, and.. that’s about it. While I was not fully aware of the black/brown or white issues, I feel like I was thrown into a revisioning stage about my religion. I forgot to mention, my school and area where I live is also predominately Catholic. I felt different from the very beginning about being Jewish and certainly got my fair share of hurtful things said about me in regards to my religion. This however, once I got older and saw the world in a more diverse way, helped me to understand all of the problems between people racially.
When we were first learning about the stages that white people go through and people of color go through, I thought it was really interesting. I did not realize that there were actual stages that we go through towards the direction of getting rid of racial issues. To me the revisioning stage can happen whenever. It all depends on where you grow up and the people you are around. There are different influences for everyone. I know for me that I already went through the revisioning stage. However, in class I definitely revised the revisioning stage. I think for someone who has already been through it you don't really think about it. When I was little, I was in classes that were equally mixed. When you’re that little I feel like you do not think about race, especially if you’re taught that everyone is equal. Also, when you are that young, you are not told about stereotypes and you do not realize that race is an issue.
I am a white person and when I was younger, most of my best friends were black. I did not think about it twice. To me this was how it should be. You see everyone equal because truly everyone is. It was not until I was in I think middle school. This is where I started hearing about race relations problems. I think this might have been the revisioning stage for me. This is when I started to think about race and saw how we were all different. I only really saw everyone different because of their skin color. However, that still did not change me. There were some people that I saw that started to fit the stereotype that I started hearing about, but it was not that often. Just because you do not have the same skin color as someone, it does not mean that the other person should be treated in any different way or that they are in any fact truly different than you.
I grew up with a variety of friends, as well. I had a lot of diversity exposure at a young age and I am very thankful for that. I think it helps me understand other people’s perspectives better. I do not have a hint of white in me, but I somehow experience the feeling of white guilt. I guess that could be a result of feeling like an American, and not a visitor to the country.
In response to the Disney comment, I do not think Disney intended to make a negative reference to Africans. Not all of Disney’s characters are human. Ariel was a half fish, and the Beast was…well, a beast.
I do believe that this video post brings up a really good point. I believe that how and when people come about the re visioning stage is dependent upon the person's environment as well as personality. If someone grows up in a diverse community and it surrounded by colored people then they will probably go through he re visioning stage before others who grow up in a predominantly white community and rarely interact with people of other races. I also think that is depends on the person's personality. If someone is a very open person that is open to talking and interacting with all different people then they will probably go through the re visioning stage sooner than those people who are close minded or maybe just shy and do not like interacting with people that are different than themselves.
this is really relating back to a little last week and into this monday – i forgot to post this last week and still feel "some kinda way" about it. This topic was uncomfortable for people for many reasons. The men don’t understand it and don’t really need to – I get that it’s a natural part of life like sex and reproduction and that without it life would virtually stop and natural means of reproduction would fail to exist, but in a class focused on race relations I don’t see why it was necessary and for the life of me can’t even remember what the transition between our subject and periods were or if there even was a transition. I know a lot of people left and although it could be seen as disrespectful, it also was embarrassing for many of the women in the class. Although sam argues that it shouldn’t be awkward and I guess that’s why he was talking about it, IT IS. And I think it can even be a little disrespectful for sam to be talking about it so openly at all when he was just saying that he can’t know what it’s like to be a minority because he isn’t one – yet he went on and on about a woman’s period although he has no way of knowing what it’s really like or all about because similarly he isn’t a woman. I’m going to take the next few sentences to see if you guys actually read this. Right now I’m eating some multigrain fiber crisps that I got free at the gym. They’re ok – there’s not many in this little pack and they taste really sugary, not so much like blueberry. I got a piece stuck in my tooth and it’s uncomfortable. I think that that class was both an example of something we should be talking abut (not so much the topic but rather having a discussion on something that makes us uncomfortable, being forced to react to a situation many of us are unfamiliar with yet are forced to deal with in our everyday l ife), yet also very contradictory as he was taking a position on somehting he can’t understand. Maybe he feels a sense of “male guilt” because he thinks its mens’ fault that women get hormonal and sensitive during their week or so of menstration, their lives a living hell already and then being forced over the edge by the insisitivity of their signifigant other. I got the little piece of food out. It was strenuous on my tounge. And then he puta clip of Laurie in a play dicussing “bleeding,” which he writes “is her word, not mine.” That’s different, still. One, she's a woman, and two, it’s a play. Those are not actually her words but rather the words of the person that wrote it, who is probably a woman, and if she isn’t a woman then it is a work of fiction. Anyway we probably won’t be discussing that anymore.
I feel like I was in a similar situation. I lived overseas and experienced something along the same lines. I was constantly surrounded be people from all over the world, literally. The school was diverse and people, for the most part, befriend others of different racial and cultural backgrounds. The school was unique for that fact and we had the opportunity, that we all took advantage of, to meet others with different experiences and cultures. I was exposed to a lot of different things and many different people. There was a lot to take in and even more to question.
I grew up with a family that has always been pretty open to race and we have done a ton of traveling. I have become very open to different cultures through my travel experiences and it has made me very comfortable with many races of people. When I was 2 my family moved to Hong Kong and my first real memories were at a school that was an international school. My best friends were from everywhere including Korea and Japan and I didn’t really think twice about it. Dance classes as well were totally mixed and I was just that much more focused on the class itself when I was younger as opposed to the people that were actually in my class.
When I have talked to a lot of people, they seem to think that there is no way to talk to children about different race issues. I however feel that when children are younger, they are simpler and they take things at face value rather than judging what is going on. Even though kids do ask a lot of questions, they are still more ready to accept different situations than adults problems. When I was younger even though I registered that a lot of my friends were different than me I didn’t question that I should be friends with them. Children have an innocence that although I don’t think you should take advantage of a child’s innocence, it might be a good time to at least introduce them to race topics that they can take at face value.
The main topic that I feel could be introduced to children at a younger age is the topic that we have learned about in regards to the native Americans in the U.S. I never realized that they Native American’s had it that terrible during the present. When I was younger I learned about the French revolution and things like that but I never realized that the racism of that nature was still carrying over to the present times. I don’t know exactly how you can introduce to our younger generations without it getting very graphic and harsh but I think it is possible.
When I grew up I was aware of slavery, I didn’t understand however the extent of it. I could understand that you don’t want to introduce the harshness and the horror that occurred with slavery but I don’t know exactly you could introduce the topic of the native American issues without scaring children. However, I feel like there has to be a way to prime kids for the topic so that they can get to high school or college and at lease be aware of what is going.
When I grew up I also was surrounded by a lot of people from different ethnicities and culture. It definitely helped me learn more about them since I was so young and innocent. As I grew up and went to high school and college I met a lot of people who didn’t have the experience I had and seemed not as up to beat as I was when it came to different cultures and people. I don’t know if it was because I was at a young age and had different experiences then others but it seemed to help me meet others who were different than me.
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mattmcgloin Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 12:28 am
i agree with what you are saying. the more i grew up the more African Americans started to come into my neighborhood and town and i thought it was great. it helped me to learn about different ethnicities and different backgrounds and to see if they were different and things like that. i think that it is very important for a child to experience this at a young age because i think that it definitely prepares them for a better future for their social life and it also helps them learn more about other cultures and to see what is out there in the world.
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Kyle_Rosenthal Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:12 pm
It is funny that this is how you handled the experience of many cultural groups moving into your neighborhood. I agree with the way you handled it but I have seen a very different situation. My friend grew up in Kensington, Philadelphia and as African American people started moving into his neighborhood the Irish people (including his family) moved out of the neighborhood until almost all of the neighborhood is black besides a small group. Because of this my friend is pretty racist because he chose to handle the situation differently than you did. Its a shame and he and I have gotten into many arguments over race but I just find it interesting how two people can handle a situation so completely differently.
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TorreyLFranklin Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:03 pm
I agree with you on this, when I was growing up my high school was 75% African American and I was the only white kid on all the basketball teams combined. Even though I didn't know it at the time, that experiences prepared me and opened my eyes much more to the lives and the struggles of races and cultures that were different than mine. Many of my white friends also figured out very quickly what many of the African-Americans had to go through on a daily basis and the discrimination and prejudices many people had about them. When I moved to Pennsylvania in 11th grade I realized that there were so many people out there who were blind and ignorant to the race relation problems of our society. I have tried to share my experiences and open peoples eyes to the problem but I feel like you have to experience it to know the problems our society has.
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I grew up in a very diverse town unlike the state of Pennsylvania and Penn State. I have always been in classrooms with people of different races, backgrounds, and ethnicities. My two best friends growing up were both multiracial. I guess I feel like I was thrown into the revisioning stage faster than others. Coming up here, I definitely took notice that the campus was mostly white; in fact, it was one of the first things that I noticed. I was extremely surprised because Penn State advertises itself as being very diverse and the lack of diversity was very evident upon my arrival here.
I am from central New Jersey and in school I was in class with many different types of races as well. Besides whites, my town consists mostly of families from Asian countries. I was exposed to many different types of cultures as a result of this. I have actually spoken about this with a number of my friends up at school and it was obvious that we had very different experiences. Many of them are from different parts of Pennsylvania. They told me that this school seemed very diverse to them and that they had gone to school with mostly white people.
I think that I am fortunate to have had such an experience because I feel that I am much more accepting and understanding of other cultures. I have an appreciation for it that I don’t think you can get just by reading and learning about how people of different backgrounds do things. One of the major differences that I found was in my friends’ parents. It was so exciting to grow up with friends whose parents were immigrants and being able to experience first-hand how they were different from my parents.
I think that it would be great if everyone could have an experience like this growing up because it certainly has a different effect when you are younger. I think that being younger, you are less likely to notice the obvious differences in people and you can actually get a feel for how different cultures and ethnicities behave. I feel that when you are older and come from a place where everyone looks the same you are more likely to look at people of different races from a different perspective. You are probably more likely to assume the stereotypes and act in a less open manner. I am not saying that everyone is like this but I do find that talking to people who have never lived in a diverse area act in such a way. I think that classes like this along with discussion groups and the race relations project are great ways to go about eliminating this. It is great to be able to talk about it in a safe atmosphere and learn about the experiences of others and how they are different from our own.
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You only get thrown into the re-visioning stage if you allow yourself to be, or you can just be conscious that some people have a different culture. Just because you grew up around black people doesn't mean you went straight to the re-visioning stage. Its basically necessary for each person to go through each stage even if not immediately but it does take some time to progress through each. The young have a easier time adjusting but some people who say 'yea I'm comfortable around black people, i grew up around tons when i was young' do not always remain that way. There becomes a psychological switch that makes some people start to conform to the norm whatever it may be. But if she's here at Penn State chances are she has not remained true to the fact that she was thrown into the re-visioning stage otherwise when hanging around people you see that she still hangs around people of the same culture or ethnicity as those she was friends with back home. Most likely she has conformed to people a group of white people that she hangs out with most of the time. Everyone is different.
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Cxmaddox96 Reply:
April 1st, 2010 at 7:12 pm
First of all, it seems that you don't know what you are talking about. I am thinking that you grew up in an environment that where almost everyone looked like you? Don't automatically jump to conclusions about a person, she could be here at Penn State many different reasons. She could have black and white friends. Remember she grew up in a community with all black people so maybe she is just trying to be around people who look like her so she can truly find her place. This doesn't mean she hasn't "stayed true" to anything.
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As a kid in pre-school and kindergarten, I was surrounded by a variety of people, like Blacks and Hispanics. I never thought anything about it. When I went to grade school, I only was surrounded by white kids, not because the school only accepted whites it is just my neighborhood was predominantly white.
Then I went to high school, which so happened to be built within walking distance of my grade school, but because it was a high school, it brought people of all color and background there and still I never thought much of it. That is not saying I was ignorant to anything, it is just I treated everyone the same despite what I had learned in my history lessons in school. I gradually learned over time that not everyone was not as equal as I thought, financially speaking not regarding the color of their skin. By the end of high school, I knew somewhat well how everyone of different color, race, or ethnicity acted and partially understood why they acted the way they did. Of course, that knowledge has only increased since then.
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I grew up in a small town in north Jersey where it was predominately white. Although there was only two black kids in my elementary school, one of them was one of my good friends through school. When I moved to Pennsylvania my school was very diverse as many of the other students were moving there from the city and other parts of jersey. I accepted this very easily as I already had encounters with other cultures but I also began to encounter racial issues and identity. Many kids and parents that had lived in the area for a long time were bigoted and I heard a lot of racial comments daily. Even racial fights erupted sometimes which was more of an issue. Through all of these experiences I have probably jumped through the stages that Sam has defined multiple times. I know I went through re-visioning and reversal and then up to pseudo and back because of different experiences but I'm not sure I ever reached humanitarian because I still focus and hang out with mainly my race which is white. In my frat, though, there is a fair amount of diversity and I'm going to be living with them next year which will be a good experience since Penn state is predominately white. This class has taught me a lot about being myself around people of other races and opening myself up more, instead of following the typical white politically correct path in race relations. Hopefully I can move into the humanitarian stage soon enough, I think I'm on the right path.
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I grew up in a predominately white town that didn’t have many minorities in it. I wasn’t even aware that different races existed until I was about 7 years old. When I was 7, a new neighbor moved in next door. She was my age and before long we became best friends. It wasn’t until we started school together did I realize how different she really was. All of my other friends were white, but she was Puerto Rican, which made her brown. When people compared her to other people it really hurt my feelings. I believe this is when I fully became aware of different races. I didn’t understand why people called her “brown,” to me; she was the same as my other friends. I began to see her differences and began to ask myself if we couldn’t be friends anymore because we were so different. I remember asking her one time why she was brown and I was white, she acted like she didn’t see any differences between us. To her, we really were the same. Because of her thoughts and actions, I learned that it was okay to be friends with different types of people. Because I had such an experience with race at such a young age, I think it made it easier for me to accept people who are different than me. Although I might be apprehensive at first, I always give people a try. I try not to think of stereotypes before meeting someone. I want them to show me who they truly are and not base my assumptions on stereotypes that are almost always false. Also, I didn’t realize that the Lion King was even set in Africa until I was much older. I think Disney took the easy way out in making a film about Africa by only including animals. Many of the animals “talked” like white people, I had no idea that the movie was based in Africa. I think that companies such as Disney, who are geared toward younger children should start instilling the idea of race into their heads. It’s hard to be aware of something when you’re so young if it’s not directly given to you. I think that Disney should have used real people, to make the story more realistic. I also think it’s completely unfair that Disney choose to just now release a movie with a black princess. It’s really a shame that Disney couldn’t put certain priorities first and realize that every child should learn from an early age the different races in the world. If more people were comfortable with different races earlier on in life, they would have less trouble accepting different people in the future.
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kenthethird Reply:
April 1st, 2010 at 7:31 pm
How could you have not known it was set in Africa?! And kids love animals that talk, its fantasy, not a documentary about Africa. As I recall, James Earl Jones, a black man, does the voice for Musafa. Whoopie Goldberg was a voice, Cheech Marin was a voice. The whole cast is actually quite diverse if you check it out. I don't think Disney was in the wrong at all by making it all about animals. The animals in Africa are exotic and new to young children, especially in the U.S. I think this Lion King argument is kinda weak in terms of finding racial inequality.
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I actually attended a high school where the student body was divided up into equally among Hispanics whites and blacks with the only real minority being Asians. Even though the school was so diverse it was still weird because the majority of people tended to be friends with their race/ethnicity. There were only those who participated in sports and other extracurricular activities that really had friends of other races and didn’t mind the color. Many times though it seemed that because of the division among races there was also some kind of altercation among those who hung out with strictly their race.
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So i thought that this post was pretty interesting, and the comments written above also spoke to my experiences with the revisioning stage. Like many of the rest of you , I too grew up in a predominantly white town. While we had asian students in my classes through elementary school, it wasn't until 5th grade that I really was awakened and began to revise myself. In fifth grade a new student moved to our town, and was going to be riding the bus with me. He was black (Well actually mixed races, his mom was white and his dad black, but people would lable him as black if they saw him). I still will never forget the fact that I told my friend (whom I had previously been sitting with), that I was excited to get to know him because he was black, and I had never had a black friend before. Wow, haha, still feels weird to think I said that. However, we became incredibly close. We've since gone our separate ways attending different colleges, but we became best friends.
I really got to understand what he was going through — moving away from a home that used to offer some diversity, starting over in a new town which was predominantly white and not always friendly to differing races, and the prejudice that he faced from a school district with some ignorant children in it. I really used his experiences to revise myself, learn how i felt about races issues and how I could be better about it. I think I was fortunate to get the chance to entire the revisioning stage as early as I did, it has really shaped me to be who I am today.
I also think it is interesting to consider the LL Bean ads we looked at the other day, even though i know this isn't the appropriate blog i guess. My friend and his family were very successful, and honestly very wealthy. They were far better off than my family was growing up, and the always dressed in nice clothing — such as what would be offered at LL Bean. In fact, my friends father always dressed very nicely, and him and my friend wore shorts all the time (which is why I was confused about that comment in class) because they saw no point in being hot. It just struck me as funny to realize that some people would call them a "white" black family. Yes there were "white" tendencies they had, but that was because my friends mom was white. My friend and his dad certainly held onto their black culture (my friend liked to have an afro and even corn-rowed it a few times), loved listening to what is categorized as "soul music" and enjoyed things that are typically labeled "black." But they were just themselves, they were bigger Philadelphia fans than anything, and would identify stronger with their love of the eagles and phillies than their color as an indicator.
Overall, my experiences helped me to enter revisioning, despite being in a poorly diverse town. I learned that labeling someone as a "white" black person is foolish, its just who they are, who they choose to be.
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In my hometown, a good percentage of the population were of Asian decent. A lot of my closest friends were white when I was growing up, however, once I got into high school I became really close friends (and still am) with some Asian students. I do not know if anyone else agrees, but I still did not feel any different from these kids. I identified that they were Asian, because they obviously were, but they were just like me (which is why I assume we became friends in the first place).
I have to comment on your comment about “The Lion King.” That was a fantastic movie, and I do not really understand why it upset you. I understand that we are in a class about race, and race is a very important part of life, but not EVERYTHING is about race, all the time. Why can you not accept it for what it is?
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I am white male and i grew up in a city that was dominantly black. The city was probably a 65/35 percent black to white, so i have associated with black people my whole life. needless to say im not sure i was ever in the pre awakening stage because of the fact i grew up with other races. I cannot remember the first time i saw racism on the black community, but it did happen because of the white community, there were alot of older people who remembered the city when it was safer and more multi cultural, but this was when the steel mills were booming. They had troubles with being able to go with the times. So i did see racism at a young age, but never from myself.
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I do think that i have been through most of the stages to where i saw the racism and inequality, tried to make a connection to better understand the sides of my friends, and then been pushed away because i am white and cannot understand. Also i have had black people use racism on me, in which i was thought to myself "how am i to help if they dont want it from white people and just become racist to us?" But i still understood that not all black people were like this due to knowing many black people who werent that way. Plus my parents always raised me to understand that everyone is the same, deserves a chance, and nobody is below me, i am not better than anyone else, and we are all equal.
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Growing up, my main group of friends were white, but that wasnt because we did not want black people around, we always called everyone to play baseball, basketball, football, whatever, and sometimes they would accept, sometimes not. There were tons of kids, through little league and other friends, that i would see, they would be of another race, and we would get along great because we never saw color, we just saw each other. When i got to Penn State, i never thought to myself "There is a ton of white people" because i never cared to look at color. I noticed alot of asians due to i didnt grow up around many, so that was cool to see more cultures like that, but in the end, i never cared to look at color, because i never judge a place like that. So i believe some people can have a head start on the stages, and yes some can fall back, but by the time i got to Penn State, i had matured enough to where color was not a matter for me, and i tried not to see things in color, but to just see things as they are. This campus could be dominantly black, i would still walk around with a smile, being polite to everyone i see, and going about my day.
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I am glad this question came up. I am black and I have lived in a white community ever since I was in the third grade. So obviously my school experience, from elementary through college, has been a bit different for me. I was forced to confront race at a very young age. I was always insecure with myself and had a really hard time liking the color of my skin, I just wanted to fit in and look like everyone else. Let me put it this way, I would have been one of those your girls to pick the white doll instead of the black one.
It took me a long time, actually college, to finally accept that it was okay to not have liked my skin color at one point. I felt ashamed that I once thought black was ugly and white was beautiful. It makes perfect sense now that I think back on it why I would have thought that way. I actually didn’t know until Soc 119 that other black people had the same feelings I once had; I thought that it was just me.
It was also hard for me to not have anyone to relate to or talk about my feeling when it came to race, when I say “all white school” that’s what I mean. I haven’t ever had a black friend, unless you count my older brother. It was hard and stressful at times to grow up and constantly try to stick up for myself and black people in general. I was comforted with racism all the time and I had no one to help me out. For me it was white all day everyday all the time. My best friends where, and still are, white, my crushes where white, my teachers where all white, and the people I fought with were white. I think it would have been nice to have people, or at least one person around, who looked like me. Friends told me that Penn State had a bunch of black people, so I came with high hope that maybe I could make some black friends, I now realize this school is almost just like my old one except with a bit more pepper in the mix.
Nonetheless, I believe growing up in a place where so many people looked like me really helped open my eyes to certain issues. I am a very open-minded person, whether it is race relations or gay marriage and I think a lot of it had to do with me growing up in the white community. I think that if people would get out of their “comfort bubble” and put themselves in other people's shoes, like I had to, they wouldn't be racist or hate gays. People would be so much more open-minded about things if they had to opportunity to live with people who were different than them, whether it is race, culture, gays, etc.
Although I was forced to live with people who didn't look like me, I know it shaped who I am today. Sometimes people need to be put in a different environment to be able to truly see that we are not all that different after all.
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I grew up in a predominantly white suburb of Philadelphia. One town away is a town called Chester PA. Chester PA is probably 95 percent African American, and almost every resident is below the poverty line. Since I came from a predominantly white town, I started off in the pre-awakening stage. Right now after two sociology classes, I would say I am in the revisionist stage. If I had grown up in a predominantly African American town, or any other town where white people are the minority, I believe that I would have not started off in the pre awakening stage. I think I would have started off in the awakening stage as a child, but I think once I had reached high school I would be in the revision stage. I think its perfectly normal; growing up in the place that you did, to see and experience the white guilt. It is weird though, because when I was real young my best friend was from Guatemala. I never really noticed a difference between his race and my race until we were older. I guess that’s the point when I started in the awakening stage. When you’re a young kid you just do not realize the harsh reality of some things like you do when you are older.
Now switching to your comment about Disney, I don’t feel upset that the first movie they made in Africa was about lions, they are a business. They want to make the highest profit they can, so they cater to the audience that is the majority. If black people or brown people were the majority, then the main characters in every Disney movie would most likely be the color of the majority race. Although, I do not know if anyone has heard of a Disney movie called Song of the South? It is a Disney movie that came out in 1946. This movie is where the ride splash mountain originated from, as wells as many of the characters such as briar fox and briar rabbit. It has never been released in the USA for home video because there are many racially insensitive scenes. I think everyone should watch it because it will show you how far we have come in the struggle for equality, and it will also show you a dark time in America’s history when African Americans were portrayed as slaves/ servants to wealthy white people. When the film debuted in theaters, the actor (James Baskett) who played Uncle Remus was not able to attend the premiere in Atlanta, Georgia because Atlanta was still a segregated city. Its pretty crazy to watch the film and see how black people were portrayed back in the day. They were portrayed as slaves to the white people.
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Although I grew up in a primarily white region—New England is somewhat known for being the majority white—I was thrown into a stage of awareness from early on. Since my parents have found it a necessary part of my education to travel to different parts of the world, I started at a young age immersing myself into different cultures. I rode a camel in Portugal, bargained in Tunisia, etc. I understood a somewhat difficult concept in the most basic sense: these people were different from me—I didn’t know why and I didn’t exactly understand how, but I knew they were. As I got older, I began to further develop my questions (as well as answers) when I began to realize the complete lack of diversity in the schooling system of New Hampshire. From first to sixth grade, I believe I had maybe at most 10 black people in my school. From seventh to twelfth grade, I had even less—perhaps 5 black people maximum. I remember asking questions to my parents in seventh grade about why I didn’t have any people of color in my school. Their answers were always somewhat broad and I would occasionally get a speech from my dad. He talked about how the north often sees themselves as elite and open-minded, as well as accepting of everyone—though there are no black people. My dad, who grew up in Alabama, had many black friends and went to a primarily black high school. I knew maybe two colored people in the north, where he knew and was friends with a good number, in the south. It was really then that I started to question more and more about race relations. In high school, we had a discussion in our ethics class about “black people” (like they were some far off fairytale characters) and almost all the people in the class said that the north is the most unbiased and accepting of blacks—yet, with the two black kids in my school one was referred to as “fresh off the boat” and the other one was referred to as a kid who is an “oreo”—black on the outside, white on the inside. I gave the example of my father’s high school experience and got shut down with “they’re all racist down there.” Honestly, although I was not thrown into the revisioning stage at a young age (though I did travel and immerse myself in different culture in other ways), I did get thrown into a sort of awakening stage that only progressed from sixth grade on—questioning the lack of diversity instead of questioning the diversity within my schooling career. It was a backwards sort of way to go about the different stages, but I’m glad I did it this way because it gave me a keen understanding of diversity over my high school peers, and obviously, now that I’m in college, I have found my transition into a more diverse community easier than I would have normally.
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Why the Lion King? Would you not agree that lions do in fact live in only Africa and a small part of India, thereby limiting their choice of setting? I think that might be digging a little too deep. I mean, especially when you have so much other racist shit from Disney to choose from. Let me explain.
Take for example the crow gang from Dumbo. Some might say that the jive talking BLACKBIRD gang is digging a little deep, despite their clear representation of black stereotypes. How about the fact that the leader of the gang is named Jim Crow, or that they are all voiced by a white guy told to do his best black impression? Still digging deep?
Or how about the Indians from the Peter Pan movie? Check out the scene if you don’t know what I’m talking about -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_at9dOElQk&fe...
Yes you heard them right. The reason that Native American Indians say “how” is because they demand knowledge. While extremely ignorant, I guess it’s really not that offensive. But then comes the moment where they explain the “Red Man” skin tone. A normal white person was kissed by a girl and he blushed. And it fucking stayed that way. Yes indeed, the only reason that Indians have a different skin color is because SOMETHING CHANGED IT. Nice Disney.
Let’s not forget the long lost book Mickey Mouse and the boy Thursday. Mickey Mouse opens crates from Africa, and what do you know, he finds a bonafide African inside. Unfortunately the Crate-African (hereby referred to as Thursday) does not understand Mickey’s ways and responds by sticking spears in things and shooting arrows at Mickey. Then along comes this gem of a line “Poor little guy! He just makes mistakes. He doesn't know any better. I'll just have to be patient and teach him the right way to do things” spoken by the master mouse himself. If you’re going to make fun of Africans, this is the way you do it. Not with pussy lions.
Finally, have you ever watched Aladdin? I mean really watched Aladdin? Because if you did, there is no way you did not notice that Aladdin was a bit different then his fellow townsfolk. I am referring, of course, to the fact that Aladdin is a big ‘ol white cracker straight out of the Midwest, accent and all. Did you also notice anything about the man that is trying to Kill Aladdin, Jafar? Like, oh I don’t know, the fact that his ethnicity is so exaggerated he looks like a fucking space alien?
So to sum it all up; until a pride of lions swim their asses over here and start a colony of Non-African lions, I’m going to continue to preserve my childhood love of the Lion King.
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I grew up in Rockville, Maryland and all around me there were different kinds of races such as whites, Hispanics, Latinos, Asians, blacks, and so on so forth. As I was in elementary school, the concept of race and issues of inequality in American society never crossed my mind. Soon as I grew up and entered in a scene whether social status and race mattered. I first experienced it in middle school – a starting point of where you eventually hang out with a group of people constantly for the rest of your grad school. Asians hang out with other Asians, preppy people (which were mostly white) hung with each other along with the athletes and jocks. Blacks hung out with blacks and so did the Latinos and Spanish. I did not why the things were the way they are at first but eventually through my own personal experience and witnessing others I soon came to understand why and eventually entered the stage of "re-visioning"-the concept of racial inequality. I first to experience through exams and tests. One day our teacher showed us the states of our test scores and as i looked into the categories- it was divided into several groups based on race- Asian, black, white, Hispanic, other. So I saw that blacks were considerably low and whites were relatively high. This was in middle school so i did not know why or how social factors contributed to the scores at first. In my area., people who were categorized as colored were often in a family setting that was in poverty and were influence to work instead of study. Students that were white had families where education brought their family success and in life of wealth and fortune. I did not know why it was like that or why it was meant to be. Soon i started to see many differences, even though they were clear as day to spot, my eyes just suddenly opened as though i was covered in a black cloth and finally it was taken away and i was able to see many difference in race. I soon realized the social status, welfare, job status, and difference in culture in different races and soon realize that we are all different in many ways not just by simply appearance but also by our cultures, life status, way of life, beliefs, and influences. I soon realize it in the media and at a time i too felt the guilt that should be put in whites. I grew in anger and hatred at a time but eventually knew that was not case that all the guilt should be put on white nor the whites today should feel guilty of what some of their ancestors did in the past. From that point on i moved in the stage of Awakening and soon wanted to stop the issues of inequality and start something where again i can see past the difference and issues in our race and one day maybe combine together to be one.
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Growing up, I did not feel like I was thrown into the revision stage, so I cannot really comment on that. However, she does bring up an interesting point about Disney. It does seem strange that the first movie based on Africa had animals as characters. Was that intentional or a coincidence?
Now that I am in college, many of my classes are starting to relate to each other and intertwine. This semester I am taking the Art of Theater. Yesterday, we were talking about African American Theatre and how racism was a major issue from its beginning. African American Theatre started in 1776 as a result of the creation of a Christian society and slavery. Slavery was not an acceptable concept in this Christian society, so they developed the theory that blacks were “sub-human.” They were not categorized as animals. To establish their theory that blacks were sub-human, the United States counted African Americans as 3/5th s human. One of the only ways for whites to understand African Americans was through theatre. One of the first types of African American Theatre was minstrelsy. They were basically ridiculous and offensive plays with white actors who painted their faces black and would speak in bad English. For example, they would say “I is” instead of “I am” to mock the fact that African Americans could not speak English correctly (very stereotypical). After the Civil War, African Americans were searching for identity, dignity, and humanity especially through the arts. Many became amazing actors, dancers, singers, and musicians. Ira Aldridge, an amazing African American actor, was praised by audiences. On the posters advertising the shows he was in, they did not indicate that he was black as they would for any other actor of color. Over time though, African American artists became widely accepted and praised by their audiences. After hearing about African American Theatre in class and reflecting on my childhood experience, I do not think Disney’s intentions for Lion King was to make Africans seem like animals. I think that Disney wanted to make a movie about the animal kingdom and the African Safari and bring those characters to life with human qualities. As a child, I loved learning about animals and was fascinated by the African Safari. Disney wanted to make an animated film to fulfill an average child’s imagination of what animals would be like if they could talk. I do not believe that Disney wanted to make the characters animals because they thought of Africans as animals. They made the characters animals because many people associate Africa as a place that is the habitat for many animals of the animal kingdom. If Disney decided to use people instead of animals in the Lion King, wouldn’t the context of the movie change? Would it stir up controversy? Recently though, Disney released the Princess and the Frog which featured the first African American Disney Princess from New Orleans. I do not think Disney has racist undertones and that Lion King is referring to Africans as animals. I think it is over-analyzing it.
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I am going to respond to the disney comment. I think that Disney has a tendency to not only be racist, but be just outright offensive. They place things in their movies for adults to see that are completely inappropriate for children to view. I don't understand why they think this is funny. But I too think it is ridiculous that the first movie they made with a black person was in 2009. Like really? That is completely racist and crazy. They could have thought of that a long ass time ago. And now they think they are redeeming themselves? hell no. Disney just sucks.
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I was born in Baltimore, so I was immediately exposed to a greatly diverse environment. Albeit, I did not reside in the city (I lived in the county); however, I had many white friends and many black friends, the best of which was my next-door neighbor, who became my best friend for the first 14 years of my life. I am not going to really address the stages much because I still do not know what the hell they mean, but I will say the environment you are raised in has a colossal effect on how you view things and how much you are informed about other cultures. If you grow up in a predominantly white town with little interaction with people of color, you may be at a disadvantage for being enlightened about their customs. However, just because you are born into a diverse environment, this does not mean you automatically are more educated either. For example, even though my best friend—and someone who I spent multiple hours with every single day (including his family)—was black, I do not know what it means to be black. How could I? I am not black. And my friend does not know what it means to be white. That does not mean that we cannot be more enlightened about each other’s culture though. Growing up in Baltimore, I still saw many racists, black, white, and those representing other races/colors/whathaveyou. Thus lies proof that growing up in a diverse environment does not simply catapult you into the “Revisionist” stage. Life is what you make of it. You will educate yourself and immerse yourself in other cultures to better understand people’s values and beliefs only if you want to. I wanted to. Therefore, I came to such a great relationship with my friend that we could each poke fun at our races for common stereotypes.
As far as addressing your side rant on The Lion King. That was a great fuckin movie, pardon my French, and if you honestly are bothered by the fact that no Africans were used in it, please do yourself a favor and calm down. That’s taking a lighthearted topic to the extreme and probably making something out of nothing. As far as I know, that movie used no people in the actual film, yet many of the voices were prominent black figures i.e. James Earl Jones. I am not one to ever pass judgment on other people because I have no idea who they are, or where they come from, but every once in a while I am perplexed by someone’s viewpoint. And your negative and extremely sudden, random outburst at a Disney classic produced over a decade ago just strikes me as a bit absurd. Everyone loves that film. I mean…Lion King kicks ass.
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I have to wonder, if you grow up somewhere where you, as a white person, are a definite minority, do you still use the same steps or is it perhaps reversed? Either way, I would have to say that I both did and did not have an experience like this girl’s. I actually spent my youngest years growing up in London. There I remember there being a number of Indian families living not far from where I lived, inevitably I ended up playing with the few kids my age. So in that sense I was able to at a young age experience interaction with a group of people whose race differed from my own and that of my parents. However, still quite young, my family moved back to the states. Back here in PA things were, quite different to say the least. Honestly, I don’t think I met a black person my age till my junior year of high school. That would mean I went near a decade surrounded by nothing by other white people. For them of course the story was not much different. We all group up with the same people in the same isolated part of Amish country. Growing up I remember that the use of derogatory racial slurs and racist jokes were hardly uncommon among my friends. Personally I never really did anything like that myself, but less out of respect and more out of a neurotic fear of being caught. At the time we didn’t think anything of it, none of us considered ourselves to be racist, we were just making jokes. Obviously this wasn’t done out of any particular spite towards a particular racial group, but it was out of sheer ignorance. None of us really knew anyone who could be considered a minority, so we never felt the need to take their feelings into account. It’s a shame it had to be that way, but it was unavoidable.
For this person, I wonder if things were that much different. The reason I was so ignorant was because I only ever really had the views of my fellow whites to learn from and observe. But I can’t imagine that the polar opposite would be any kind of improvement. It seems to me, based on what we’ve been learning that race relations is like a giant puzzle. And that no one group has all the pieces. So I wonder if growing up as a white person in say, an all black neighborhood, would really make one more prepared to handle race related issues. Certainly I can see benefits in terms of understanding the thoughts and feelings of the other groups, as well as being able to avoid jumping to conclusions about these other groups. However I wonder if growing up in a black neighborhood would have a major impact on the whole white guilt aspect. Though I’m the neighborhood would ever go out of their way to make a person feel guilty, just by way of growing up surrounded by a group your race historically exploited would certainly make me feel worse.
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I also grew up in a neighboorhood that was multiracial and I was always questioning things about race in my head. I never knew how to talk about race when I was younger so I just ignored it I would never act rude to a person of color I actually had two really close friends that were sisters and I hung out with them all of the time. It never bothered me at all, but other kids had different feelings and I think that is because of the way their parents raised them. My one very close friend does not like black people she is always commenting on certain things and that is because her parents are racist. THis is not the the extreme other wise I would not consider her a close friend, but I do try to make her think a little more when she does stereotype. However, taking this class has really opened my eyes about how I should talk about race. It is still hard for me but I personally really want to break that boundary. I hate feeling white guilt more then anything. It is a terrible feeling, because I want to feel comfortable in a room and I don't want to feel hat tension anymore. however I do feel that I am reaching my goals. I am able to talk about race without hesitation. I think hesitating is what is also keeping me down. instead of saying what I feel I think about it to much and then in my head I feel white guilt. White guilt is causing my hesitation which then keeps me silent about racial issues and topics. But, like I said I am trying t change that and I want to go through these steps so I am concious of this world that we live in so I am not stuck in the bubble of PSU. As for the Lion King that was def out of the blue. lol. I do agree I think that it is very rude however the lion king is an amazing movie. AND I think it is better then the Disney princess movies! You are right though, it is kind of sad that Disney did not include other races earlier on. Think about the Princess and the Frog though…..I think that was an amazing movie as well! I know many people where annoyed that she was a frog most of the movie, but it really incorporated alot of southern black culture, and they did not portray her as a stereotype. Some of the animation for songs where inspired by Aaron Douglas who is a famous black artist, and it also showed her home which was a traditional shot gun house. It was really an amazing movie because she was a hard working girl trying to make her dreams come true. It wasn't about a princess falling in love hopelessly for a prince it was really about her and making her dreams come true and finding love along the way. Honestly it has the best storyline out of any of the Disney Princess series. ANyyways yea I love that movie and I can't wait to buy it!!! haha okey so yea thats my blog for the week.
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Thank you for asking this question! I am the same exact way. As the lone white girl from Baltimore in the class, I too was thrown into the revisioning stage at an early age, I believe. I grew up with white and black and brown people around me pretty equally. I never saw a difference between my black and brown friends and my white friends and it wasn’t until I grew up and people started talking about the issue did I really understand what they were talking about. I honestly can say that I grew up for a while not seeing color. I realized that we all lived different lives at home, but black and brown families did the same activities and ate the same food as me and my white friend’s families. I think that a lot of people don’t believe me when I say that I honestly don’t see color, I see the actions of people first. I have never judged a person based off their skin color and I think it had a lot to do with my upbringing. I’m very fortunate that my parents had me grow up in an environment where I wasn’t inundated with only one skin color around me but that I was able to grow up with a diverse view of my peers.
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I grew up in quite the opposite situation: a small rural town in PA where 95% of the population was white. But for some reason i always felt like i didn't quite fit in with everyone else. When i was younger, there was racism everywhere and i just didn't really realize because i didn't really know what racism was. I am a bit embarrassed to admit that even my family was at times, lets say, more critical of people of culture. I am not proud of that. Since i was little, i have never understood why skin color can make such a difference in how you perceive a person. I think i was always past the first stage and this class kind of flung me into the revisioning stage after many years of begin right on the tip of it.
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I think that this reaction and the revision process getting stepped into as the first stage is more of a common trait that happens with Whites today because I think the world is more of a diverse place. There are still a number of Whites that live in isolated areas away from the minorities of the United States of America. However, the increasing number of minorities and the rate at which minorities inhabit the United States is growing as well. As a result, there is much mixing and diverse neighborhoods that are springing up in this country. Whites are thus learning early about the difference and similarities of the White and various minority cultures. I think that this is a great experience and concept that is starting to occur. I think that this phenomenon is sparking the overall understanding of various cultures. It is causing Whites as well as minorities to ask and question each other for the good. Questions regarding hair, clothes, music, and food need to be asked and understood because then the people and the cultures will come together at an even faster rate. I think that in the United States we are faced with an extreme problem of people who are unable to understand and take an empathetic approach to life. Because of this new mixing of people we are now moving beyond the stage where we have to tell people what is happening. They are now realizing the differences themselves as they grow up through life and through the interactions with these various cultures.
I think that we as a whole need o be in culturally diverse cultures and around various people. The girl in this video has already realized the benefits of being around people outside of her race because she has learned from them as they have learned from her. Here at Penn State, I have tried not to focus my life and my attention on one group of people or race of people. Because I have been able to balance my friendships and opening myself up to many different people it has helped me to understand the many different ways of life in our world. The world is such a big place and there are so many people that I think it is ignorant as a human being not to try and get to know about as many people and cultures that exist on this globe. The fact is that once we live and work in the same environment on a day to day basis I feel that the barriers begin to fall and that people begin to understand that people are all people regardless of skin tone and color. I am happy that this point was brought up in the comments because it is a reality and concept that is happening a very fast rates.
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I grew up with about half of my friends being white and half being black, Mexican and Puerto Rican. So I was a little behind you and was still in the awakening stage when I got to this class. Then I quickly moved through the Awakening stage and am on into the Revisioning stage. Through Sam’s lectures, I have definitely begun to see the racial inequality that exists in the criminal justice system, the workplace, college admissions, etc. I also see the white privilege that I have experienced in life such as getting every job that I have ever wanted, and getting into the first college of my choice even with a high school GPA of about a 3.7 and average SAT scores. There are a lot of people of color in the United States that I am sure have higher SAT scores and GPAs than I do, and applied to Penn State but did not get in. I know there are other things that I have benefited from by being white that I haven’t even noticed. Maybe even when I only got a traffic violation for not following the traffic signals when I was speeding in a school zone, going 36 when the speed limit was 15 because the school zone signs were flashing after school, I may have experienced white privilege as oppose to someone of color who had gotten a ticket and points on their license for doing the same thing. This leads to white guilt seeing as how I benefit from these things solely because the color of my skin, even though others are much more qualified than I am. Then begins the anger towards white people who take advantage of these things, think that they deserve them just because they are white and show racism towards people of color. It really outrages me, especially when people in this very race class say racist things over the text program that Sam has enabled. Also, as Sam has said that it was just pure luck that white people were born into the family that they were and were born with white skin. Why does this make white people, particularly Americans, think that they are superior to all? I think this has to do with the fact that people are ignorant and don’t care to learn about the marvelous people and places from all over the world.
I think the whole observation about how the first characters from Africa were lions and not people in Disney’s the Lion King is due to the fact that Walt Disney and many of the first writers of the Disney movies were white and in many of the movies where people of color were involved, white people were taking over their land for the most part. It is very sad though but hopeful that there is now a Disney movie with a black princess and hopefully there will be many more to come.
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I actually am the complete opposite. I criticize my hometown for being strictly white. I went to my public high school which was home to students, 92% of which were white. I always claim that in a way I wished I went to school with more diversity. Granted my high school has outstanding academics and was voted #1 high school in Hartford county, but sometimes academics isn’t all about life. One needs to interact with diversity so they can be prepared for the real world, because I know 92% of people in the world isn’t white. I may never be put in a situation where white isn’t the majority, but I do wish I grew up in a more diverse community.
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Its interesting that you bring this up. As for me, I was brought up in an entirely opposite community. I went to a predominately white school in a predominately white town. We didn't have much diversity in my school in particular because we were mostly suburb and a rural community. I feel like I was sorta held back in my stages of how we view race because I was not able to get enough experiences with the people who were of a different race than me. I mean I knew that people of other races existed but because I was brought up in a really white area I just saw white people as the dominate group, even most of the television shows I watched were composed entirely of white people. The reason why I took this race relations class was because I was interested in learning about other races of people and trying to get past what had been instilled in my mind as a white person. The only experiences that I did have with people of a different race was when we would go on vacation or go to the city where there was much more diversity in the people. One might think that because of this I would have become really racist because most of of my experiences and memories with white people but honestly it made me have the utmost respect for people of color I believe. I think it was because of my lack of experience with people of color that I began to want to know more, even though I did not go out of my way to seek out and become friends with these people I did want to learn. Through this class I have finally been able to see how bad race issues can sometimes be. In all honesty, I didn't even really know about race issues such as in the criminal justice system and so forth until I took a sociology class in high school. I feel sorta bad that It has taken me to long to become immersed in people of other races and ethnicities, but I mean there was nothing I could really do about it when I was younger. I feel like I am still a little behind everyone else in the stages that Sam has been talking about because I really wasn't given the opportunity to gain insight into people of other races world. I don't know if I will ever live in a community that is not predominately white, maybe I would be a little uncomfortable with it at first but at least I know I could be accepting and get used to it. I'm sure that if I had been brought up in a more diverse community, I wouldn't even have these thoughts about what my childhoods "whiteness" so to speak would have impacted me. I'm glad to hear the perspective of someone who has grown up white in a mostly multiracial community. To be honest I think thats better than being forced into a society where white is the only thing you know. Because at least you have a understanding about people of other races. I wish I could say that I had that, I might be a better person if I had… but I can't say because I don't know. And about the lion king thing, I have to say that I loved the Lion King. I don't believe that Disney is trying to be racist when their movie was about animals rather than people. Its a children's story, to be honest kids are more easily able to relate to animals sometimes than other people. Why do you think that kids after watching that movie wanted to be lions themselves? I see what you mean about the it being sad that their first one from africa was about animals and all, but disney is very children oriented. They are good wholesome movies for the whole family and since the lions were the main character, the humans would have been bad guys. An because most of the people who live there are dark skinned they would have been seen as the bad guys. Why would they want to instill in little kids heads that the "dark skinned" people were the bad people? But whatever, just my opinion.
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i am probably the exact opposite and born into an all white hometown and area. this at first wasn't a big deal because we lived next to a big city where there is a lot of colored people, but i never got that exposure that i should of and probably didn't hit the re vision stage till college. Also, taking this class made me realize how i thought all through high school about some colored people were wrong and very off. i am just glad that not just this class, but this school made me realize the truth and glad that i learned it now, before i got into the real world and made some really stupid mistakes
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I agree with what a lot of people are posting about how where you grow up makes a huge difference as to how you view people of color as a young adult (and eventually through your adult years). I didn't necessarily grow up in a city but my town was fairly diverse and my high school had plenty of black and brown people. Through middle school and high school my best friend was black and I had other black friends that I hung out with a lot, although looking back I can honestly say a large part of that had to do with me being on the sports team and being able to have that exposure. I think its important that black and brown people really consider the fact that as young whites growing up in this generation, things have changed substantially since our white parents were around, and I think overall the racial thought process is not nearly as offensive as it used to be. I think unfortunately black and brown people try to assume while growing up that white people just innately arent going to like them or want to hang out with them as much and thats simply NOT the case. The kids in our high school that were racist were not only not popular but disliked by not just black/brown people but most of the other white population as well.
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It is really interesting that many people have had experiences living with people of other races. I wish it was the same case for me. I grew up surrounding with people of the same race as me, so I never really paid attention to color or race. I mean, of course I have seen people of different races. However when I came up here, there are people from so many different races, even though I never seen I as a problem, I always wanted to know if it is ok to associate yourself with people that are nothing like you. Although, I have seen pretty “weird” thing that people of other races do, I have never questioned their methods, I was always like, well it is their lives, their cultures, and they do whatever they please. It is also a good thing that she mentioned the Disney problem, I have never realized that. Like seriously, that is some messed up stuff.
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I see where you are coming from with the fact that you were sort of “launched” into the revisioning stage at a very young age because you lived in a society where most of your friends were not white. I also grew up in a similar fashion living abroad in several countries as my parents worked overseas. Thus, at a very early age (around 6 years old), I was starting to experience some of the race issues that Sam talked about with regards to the revisioning stage. These issues were obviously at a much more subtle level and were not fully understood by me since I was so young. However, looking back at those experiences, I can say with confidence that they were invaluable in shaping my character and personality today. Having experienced other cultures and peoples, I have a greater sensitivity to and understand people that are different than me, especially non white people. I think that is critical in this world, because so many people are racist or hateful or feel superior towards people of other colors and/or ethnicities/backgrounds because they don’t truly understand them, and have never spent a day in their life getting to know them before jumping to their prejudged ideals.
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it is very interesting to sit here and read everyone's post about the way they feel towards situations. I grew up in Philadelphia my entire life. I never questioned race. Especially since, i went to school with a pretty "diverse" class. Yet that ended in the 2nd grade when i moved from Northeast of philly to North. My mom still has videos of my kindergarten graduation ( please dont ask me why) and when i watch them i can see that it was truly diverse. When my mother and i moved to north philly, not only was the living conditions different so was the level of diversity. it completely changed. my mother and i moved into the predominantly "latino" neighborhood. Everyone around me was latino, with occasional black people. So because of my transition was so early on, i learned to adjust. when i ask my mom about my childhood, Since for some reason i cant remember a damn thing ( and apparently everyone else can) she always says the same thing, "you never worried about skin color mija." My mother made it a priority of me knowing that i was Puertorican and to be proud of it. Throughout highschool i guess "immersion" was the stage i was in along with my fellow classmates. My highschool predominantly puertorican participated in the annual puerto rican parade, and always had the flag near us. Whether i was at my families party or at a friends party, everything was similar. our culture is vibrant around this neighborhood. Here at pennstate, its lack of diversity is ridiculous, yet i knew this before even applying to this university. my first semester here, i felt alone because i could not find the piece of "home" (my culture) resound in this place. yet i have found that.
to reply about the disney comment, i must say that i am a huge disney fan, and watch the disney channel literally all the time. "im a kid at heart" and might i say that people are just too damn touchy about this race issue. Now dont get me wrong it is a shame and disturbing to know that most of the disney princesses are white and just a few months ago disney released its latest disney princess who so happened to be black from New Orleans. but i must say that people read in to too much abut what race they portray. Disney is a place where children have their "childhood" to hold onto. and unfortunately our youth is growing up a bit faster than before. I look back on the classic disney movies that i love, and the first thing that goes through my mind is how happy i remember feeling when i watched these movies. not, "Oh damn cinderella is white, how racist is that? comeon seriously. it's for children! And for what i can remember i never ever thought of race in anything.
The lion king? seriously? wow.. i have to chuckle on that one. I just dont think that it was their intention to even demoralize or demean anyone by making a movie about africa refer to lions. i dont personally know what "disney's" true intention was, but for what i see i dont feel that in any sense. and all this complaining but i havent seen no damn LATINA princess either. But noone worries about that.?
honestly its ridiculous to even think that disney is corrupt, for anything i feel that it is literally one of the only things that help keep children's childhood innocent as much as they can.
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I grew up in a mostly white area, but I had friends who were of different ethnicity. If I were to have grown up in a area where I had mostly back friends and some white friends I really don't think it would've changed who I am and what i believe.
To go on with your comment about Disney, I don't think they intentionally tried to put African Americans in a group of "lions". I do believe though that they know that their audience is mostly white so they try to make characters that are the same skin color as who they are trying to reach.
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I, like many others, am happy this question was asked. Although I grew up in a predominantly white community, my first friend (which became my best friend for very many years) was black. I was so young and although was aware of the obvious (that she was black and I was white) race never played any part in our relationship. I am so fortunate and grateful looking back on my relationship with my friend because I feel that it helped to cultivate me into a more accepting person subconsciously. When we were younger I acknowledged our differences but never linked it to racial attributes. Frankly, I was jealous that Tina (my friend) would get her hair braided; I always wanted my hair to look like hers. It would take her sister Rosemary 6 hours to braid her entire head and I would sit right next to her while we watched movies the whole day.
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We took a vacation to the Bahamas together and I finally got my chance, I got my hair braided. For the rest of the trip Tina and I referred to each other as sisters because our hair matched. We were not ignorant to the fact of our physical differences but ironically far more mature at a young age to realize that these differences do not determine the love you feel for a friend. Like many others have stated, the innocence of childhood should show us that racial issues become far more volatile and hurtful as we enter adulthood. I wonder why this innocence ever leaves us. To talk about the stages Sam provided the class with…I find it problematic that they seem to ascend as if leaving racism behind must follow this type of path. Rather than look at these “feelings” as stages I believe they should be regarded as different frames of mind, and even more so that we cannot even generalize them into these broad categories. Why does the humanitarian stage seem to be the “highest” or least racist?
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I believe that our daily experiences are so varied and rich in diversity of individuals that we cannot denote ourselves in a fixed stage. All in all, I am extremely thankful for my childhood experiences and interactions with different peoples and cultures. I can owe most of my gratitude to my mother who values travelling over many other things. I had seen much of the world before entering middle school. These travels across the globe gave me a first hand look at the variety of cultures which our world holds. We all think we are “right” and that we do things the “right way” when in reality it takes the conglomeration of all our practices to make the go round (corny and untrue metaphor).
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This is a great question and it is something we talked about in my race discussion the other day. I am a white, irish catholic, female from the suburbs of New York and yet I have always had a very real sense of race, religion, sexuality, and so on. I was raised in a predominately white area, however many of my friends were not white. They were a mix. Everything from Catholic to Jewish, Italian to Asian and Hispanic. I believe I was really awakened to race early on and got past those early stages of race relations before I was even old enough to understand what the stages meant.
I was also raised to love and treat everyone the same. Despite, how corny that may sound, it is incredibly true. I grew up in a family that is accepting of everyone. I was raised around many different kind of people. Some were gay, some straight, some were jewish and some were muslim. In my mind it really didn’t matter and to this day it still doesn’t.
We were also discussing interracial dating in my discussion group the other day and I know my parents would be okay with whom ever I decide to date. I think it would by wrong first of all for many reasons but also because I have an uncle who is black and a cousin who is a mixed race. So for my parents not to accept, say me bringing home a black guy I think would be wrong. I also think it doesn’t matter. For me they are my cousin and my uncle, not my mixed cousin and black uncle. They’re my family and I don’t care what they are because it wouldn’t make me love them any less.
I know it sounds like I’m just saying all this to say this, but I was raised to see people for who they are not what they look like. Which, I guess in a strange way makes me a little blind to the problems that some races and people face. I know that there is racism that occurs and I know some of the hardships any race that isn’t white can face, I guess I just never realized how hard it can be. I guess I assumed I was, in a way, getting by with the race issue by being friends with those of other races. However, I don’t think I ever took the time to realize the problems they may face. So, I guess I can say that this class has reawakened me in a way.
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This is very interesting to me because I grew up in a neighborhood where the majority of people were white and mostly Jewish. This is ironic because Jews are a huge minority in the world, but to me growing up it seems like most people around me were just like myself; white and Jewish. Also, there are many people of Asian or Middle Eastern decent, but VERY few African Americans. However, since coming to college I have become friends with a variety of different types of people with different backgrounds. I am curious how my neighborhood, and even my own family would react if people different from us starting moving in to my town. However, knowing how I’ve approached relationships in college, I don’t think it would bother me. Race and religion have never been factors to me in why I would or wouldn’t pursue friendships with certain people.
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I went to a predominately white high school. Maybe one or two black kids, a couple Asians, and.. that’s about it. While I was not fully aware of the black/brown or white issues, I feel like I was thrown into a revisioning stage about my religion. I forgot to mention, my school and area where I live is also predominately Catholic. I felt different from the very beginning about being Jewish and certainly got my fair share of hurtful things said about me in regards to my religion. This however, once I got older and saw the world in a more diverse way, helped me to understand all of the problems between people racially.
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When we were first learning about the stages that white people go through and people of color go through, I thought it was really interesting. I did not realize that there were actual stages that we go through towards the direction of getting rid of racial issues. To me the revisioning stage can happen whenever. It all depends on where you grow up and the people you are around. There are different influences for everyone. I know for me that I already went through the revisioning stage. However, in class I definitely revised the revisioning stage. I think for someone who has already been through it you don't really think about it. When I was little, I was in classes that were equally mixed. When you’re that little I feel like you do not think about race, especially if you’re taught that everyone is equal. Also, when you are that young, you are not told about stereotypes and you do not realize that race is an issue.
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I am a white person and when I was younger, most of my best friends were black. I did not think about it twice. To me this was how it should be. You see everyone equal because truly everyone is. It was not until I was in I think middle school. This is where I started hearing about race relations problems. I think this might have been the revisioning stage for me. This is when I started to think about race and saw how we were all different. I only really saw everyone different because of their skin color. However, that still did not change me. There were some people that I saw that started to fit the stereotype that I started hearing about, but it was not that often. Just because you do not have the same skin color as someone, it does not mean that the other person should be treated in any different way or that they are in any fact truly different than you.
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I grew up with a variety of friends, as well. I had a lot of diversity exposure at a young age and I am very thankful for that. I think it helps me understand other people’s perspectives better. I do not have a hint of white in me, but I somehow experience the feeling of white guilt. I guess that could be a result of feeling like an American, and not a visitor to the country.
In response to the Disney comment, I do not think Disney intended to make a negative reference to Africans. Not all of Disney’s characters are human. Ariel was a half fish, and the Beast was…well, a beast.
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I do believe that this video post brings up a really good point. I believe that how and when people come about the re visioning stage is dependent upon the person's environment as well as personality. If someone grows up in a diverse community and it surrounded by colored people then they will probably go through he re visioning stage before others who grow up in a predominantly white community and rarely interact with people of other races. I also think that is depends on the person's personality. If someone is a very open person that is open to talking and interacting with all different people then they will probably go through the re visioning stage sooner than those people who are close minded or maybe just shy and do not like interacting with people that are different than themselves.
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this is really relating back to a little last week and into this monday – i forgot to post this last week and still feel "some kinda way" about it. This topic was uncomfortable for people for many reasons. The men don’t understand it and don’t really need to – I get that it’s a natural part of life like sex and reproduction and that without it life would virtually stop and natural means of reproduction would fail to exist, but in a class focused on race relations I don’t see why it was necessary and for the life of me can’t even remember what the transition between our subject and periods were or if there even was a transition. I know a lot of people left and although it could be seen as disrespectful, it also was embarrassing for many of the women in the class. Although sam argues that it shouldn’t be awkward and I guess that’s why he was talking about it, IT IS. And I think it can even be a little disrespectful for sam to be talking about it so openly at all when he was just saying that he can’t know what it’s like to be a minority because he isn’t one – yet he went on and on about a woman’s period although he has no way of knowing what it’s really like or all about because similarly he isn’t a woman. I’m going to take the next few sentences to see if you guys actually read this. Right now I’m eating some multigrain fiber crisps that I got free at the gym. They’re ok – there’s not many in this little pack and they taste really sugary, not so much like blueberry. I got a piece stuck in my tooth and it’s uncomfortable. I think that that class was both an example of something we should be talking abut (not so much the topic but rather having a discussion on something that makes us uncomfortable, being forced to react to a situation many of us are unfamiliar with yet are forced to deal with in our everyday l ife), yet also very contradictory as he was taking a position on somehting he can’t understand. Maybe he feels a sense of “male guilt” because he thinks its mens’ fault that women get hormonal and sensitive during their week or so of menstration, their lives a living hell already and then being forced over the edge by the insisitivity of their signifigant other. I got the little piece of food out. It was strenuous on my tounge. And then he puta clip of Laurie in a play dicussing “bleeding,” which he writes “is her word, not mine.” That’s different, still. One, she's a woman, and two, it’s a play. Those are not actually her words but rather the words of the person that wrote it, who is probably a woman, and if she isn’t a woman then it is a work of fiction. Anyway we probably won’t be discussing that anymore.
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I feel like I was in a similar situation. I lived overseas and experienced something along the same lines. I was constantly surrounded be people from all over the world, literally. The school was diverse and people, for the most part, befriend others of different racial and cultural backgrounds. The school was unique for that fact and we had the opportunity, that we all took advantage of, to meet others with different experiences and cultures. I was exposed to a lot of different things and many different people. There was a lot to take in and even more to question.
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I grew up with a family that has always been pretty open to race and we have done a ton of traveling. I have become very open to different cultures through my travel experiences and it has made me very comfortable with many races of people. When I was 2 my family moved to Hong Kong and my first real memories were at a school that was an international school. My best friends were from everywhere including Korea and Japan and I didn’t really think twice about it. Dance classes as well were totally mixed and I was just that much more focused on the class itself when I was younger as opposed to the people that were actually in my class.
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When I have talked to a lot of people, they seem to think that there is no way to talk to children about different race issues. I however feel that when children are younger, they are simpler and they take things at face value rather than judging what is going on. Even though kids do ask a lot of questions, they are still more ready to accept different situations than adults problems. When I was younger even though I registered that a lot of my friends were different than me I didn’t question that I should be friends with them. Children have an innocence that although I don’t think you should take advantage of a child’s innocence, it might be a good time to at least introduce them to race topics that they can take at face value.
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The main topic that I feel could be introduced to children at a younger age is the topic that we have learned about in regards to the native Americans in the U.S. I never realized that they Native American’s had it that terrible during the present. When I was younger I learned about the French revolution and things like that but I never realized that the racism of that nature was still carrying over to the present times. I don’t know exactly how you can introduce to our younger generations without it getting very graphic and harsh but I think it is possible.
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When I grew up I was aware of slavery, I didn’t understand however the extent of it. I could understand that you don’t want to introduce the harshness and the horror that occurred with slavery but I don’t know exactly you could introduce the topic of the native American issues without scaring children. However, I feel like there has to be a way to prime kids for the topic so that they can get to high school or college and at lease be aware of what is going.
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