Watch this short clip about the Happy to be Nappy Series I mentioned in class today (disregard the other videos linked to it, as many are not appropriate and viewing is not condoned):
Then, use this space to discuss today’s challenge or your reactions to the clip. Have you ever noticed how some advertisers target audiences based upon race or perceived socio-economic (how much money a particular group is thought to make) status? Was it harder to participate in today’s challenge for fear of appearing racist yourselves? Explain.
BE SURE TO PROOFREAD, SPELL CHECK and USE COMPLETE SENTENCES.
24 Comments
February 9, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Today’s challenge was rather difficult, and being racist really is the stereotypical way of viewing a culture. I have noticed how advertisers target audiences based on race or amount of money they are expected to make. For example, for one part of today’s challenge, Gray came up with the fact that in most articles that advertise an expensive product, only light skinned people that are mostly American are viewed in them. The African Culture is one that magazines tend to not use in the expensive ads, because Africa is viewed as “poor”. By watching the clip, it helped me to realize that kids of all ages are picked if they are different. When I was their age, I was horrified at the thought of people being really mean to other people, and the clip demonstrates that the world thinks alike, and we all come from the same earth. No one likes being picked on, but some people demonstrate verbal abuse that is horrible to other races. In today’s challenge, I really did not want to seem racist, but doing a challenge like that with the stereotypes of races really felt horrible to be labeling cultures like that.
February 9, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Greta I agree with you (and Gray) that ads for expensive products use mostly very American looking people because we are a rich country, and not as many people from other races because their are not viewed as “rich” like ours is.
February 9, 2009 at 4:59 pm
The clip was really cute, but it was also powerful. It shows that teasing is so bad that even little little kids recognize it, and they don’t like it either. And the little boy who was teased because of how he talked not because of his appearance shows how mean some kids can be. When the girl said that her wish to a fairy would be no more teasing, that showed that she was really against teasing and hurting others.
February 9, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Today’s activity was very hard. Mostly because now, there is still racism out there, but I myself am not really exposed to it, so I found having to give examples of it hard. I think that though there are still those who are racist, the number may have decreased from say 50 years ago. I also found the challenge hard because I did not want to be viewed as racist and today’s challenge was basically labeling others by race or money.
February 9, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I also thought the ballon metaphor correctly described the feelings of those being teased.
February 9, 2009 at 6:12 pm
I found the “happy to be nappy” video extremely sad. I thought all those children were very cute and that they shouldn’t be ashamed to be different. Also that anybody that is racist about peoples hair is just a little crazy. Some people are raised to be racist but its still wrong.
February 9, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Casey I totally agree because the kids shouldn’t be exposed to racism and they probably will think that there is something wrong with them. Instead of just knowing that they are great because they are unique.
February 9, 2009 at 7:19 pm
That video was emotional because some of the kids said that they felt sort of like “outsiders” just because they have different skin, hair, voices, from their friends. Like Julia said before, some people are just raised to be a little racist, but it’s still wrong especially for young children. Yes they still don’t fully understand the “real” world, does that mean they have the right to be cruel to others about stuff they never even knew about? NO. My point is, don’t really blame the kids, blame the parents! (not the good ones) Sorry if that was a little confusing.
February 9, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Julia- I 100% agree with you on the racist comment. Not just because I used it in my paragraph before, but that some kids in America were just raised by the parent(s) to be racist to others.
That people, is called being a BAD parent.
February 9, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Racism is bad, we all understand that. The problem is getting rid of it. Think of it like a disease. We can build up an immunity to it, but getting rid of it is as hard as heck. It is spread verbally, from parent to child. If the dad says “I bet them blacks killed that shopkeeper”
the kid’s gonna think all blacks kill all shopkeepers.
February 9, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Oh and here is a list of stereotypes for everyone to think about (don’t call me racist, because I’m not):
1)Blacks and Hispanics are gangsters
2)White people are fat and lazy
3)White people are rich
4)[People of Color] are poor
5)Africa (the continent) is a war torn poor place
Just think about those and comment on them
February 9, 2009 at 7:52 pm
This clip made me feel bad because of thinking of how these kids feel, especially the one who didn’t want to go outside because of how the other kids made him feel, even his friends, they don’t sound like friends to me.
February 9, 2009 at 7:57 pm
David I think some people believe those because they have grown up their entire lives believing them and spreading them to others and their children. So you have one racist guy in a town and in ten years you have a racist town
February 9, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Yep. Well that is all I can post today folks see you
February 9, 2009 at 8:13 pm
David- I like all of your stereotypical comments, but I think that the stereotypical examples are not always correct. I have met so many people that are not stereotype for their race.
February 9, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I think that the clip was really sad and that it shows that people today are still racist( as many of you said) but that it has gotten a lot better.I was surprised that they didn’t show many african americans in the clip.
February 9, 2009 at 8:28 pm
About what you all are saying, I do not think children should be exposed to racism either, because they might come to believe that the stereotypes are true and become racist due to what the people around them are saying. Julia is right, children should definitely not be exposed to racism because it is wrong and we are not that different. I also agree with David that racism is extremelly hard to get rid of, and Ellie is also right that most people from a country are not like the stereotypes. for example, people view America as being fat, and our whole seventh grade class is the opposite because they are all skinny, and our city is a pretty athletic one.
February 9, 2009 at 8:32 pm
I understand how those kids feel, and I know it feels bad to be teased and stuff. One time, when we went to mountainside, one of my buddies was playing the ‘man, bear, camera’ game, and she lost, and another kid laughed at her. And she got really upset! With little kids, they laugh and tease a lot, but only sometimes do they take it seriously. A lot of people tease me about lots of things, but I always know they’re joking (most of the time) and I just laugh with them. The clip was pretty sad because they were all hurt, and just because you have different hair, or skin, or how you talk, shouldn’t give kids a reason why to not like you. People do that sort of thing, but their reason isn’t really that great. With racism, people act differently then before. Obviously, there’s still racist people in the world, but today for example; most of us were probably I little nervous talking about how society views different races and such. I think lots of people these days are more wary of that sort of thing, and avoid it as much as possible. Racism is still there, and hard to complete remove, but it’s certainly died down a bit.
February 9, 2009 at 8:40 pm
With what Greta was saying about Julia’s comment, I agree that kids shouldn’t be exposed to racism. My mom had to go to elementary school in an all blacks school, because they were trying to integrate all the schools to remove segregation. She said it was a bit awkward, but it was only a few years, and she wasn’t treated bad. But I think some kids realize that racism is, and maybe think about it. A few years ago, I even thought about this. I realized that we are different, but that it doesn’t matter. We should all be treated the same. This kind of reminds me of religion, in a way. Lots of ancient wars were started because of different beliefs and such, and they weren’t treated the same. Jews, in the Holocaust, were definitely treated differently. But lots of people at school I didn’t know are a different religion, and before and after, I never treated them any different. An easy way to solve this thing would be make everyone the same, but we can’t do that (I suppose we could if we really tried, but it’d take a lot of work). So we’ll just have to settle with who we are and who everyone else it, and treat everyone the same, with race, looks, how they act; everything!
I guess that was a weird analogy, but I think it might have worked.
February 9, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Greta, with what you said about America being viewed as fat, yet how we are all ’skinny’, I agree with you on all of it. But I found a website on Thompson Gale, (http://find.galegroup.com/ips/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale(en%2C%2C)%3AFQE%3D(ke%2CNone%2C6)health%3AAnd%3AFQE%3D(TX%2CNone%2C21)what+does+health+mean%24&sgHitCountType=None&inPS=true&sort=DateDescend&searchType=BasicSearchForm&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&searchId=R2¤tPosition=10&userGroupName=colo93476&docId=A160756345&docType=IAC&contentSet=IAC-Documents) and it says that lots of things in our country have changed. And that the typical American day is spent inside with electronics, not playing outside. They think that all this new electronics is looking good now, but it’s seriously affecting the nation’s children’s health. I’ve seen lots of examples of this with my friends. Some kids are completely for video games and stuff. Others sometimes play video games, and sometimes just play around with stuff inside. Some are for video games and playing outside. And finally, some are completely for playing outside. I ordered them from most common to least (from what I’ve seen), but the majority were all relatively healthy. I guess this is drifting off racism over to health, so I’ll stop here, sorry.
My apologies.
February 10, 2009 at 6:48 am
Ya racism is a really bad cause and should not be introduced to people at such a young age. The kids already have a lot of sad emotions by getting teased according to that trailer and racism would just be a lot worst and would definatley not be appropriate at all for them.
February 10, 2009 at 6:50 am
ya damon i agree as well. seeing all those kids getting teased is terrible and no one wants to think that it is happening but people have to realize if they are teasing they need to stop because words can go a really long way
February 10, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I’m not really positive where tonight’s blog homework goes-so I’m just going to put it here.
Based on today’s challenges, it is simple to see why advertisers advertise specific elements to go with health foods and medicines. My group came up with the idea that health advertisements use sports in their ads. We thought this was because of the whole idea that if you eat their product, you will be as athletic and healthy as they are in the picture.
Also, adding on to last night’s comment, we are all different and we need to respect that. It is a complicated world, and many people’s backgrounds are more interesting than we could ever imagine. We process thoughts differently and speak different languages, but really, we are all the same. Racism is horrible because people are placed into catagories that they may be the exact opposite of, and the insults hurt people and make them feel like they are from another planet. If everyone was the same, the world would not be interesting.
February 10, 2009 at 7:26 pm
gavin i agree with you. I think that when kids are around racisism at such a young age that that becomes all they know. When kids get teased, they have to learn it from sonebody, and i think that most of the time they get the negative behavior frome the childrens parents.