My battle with stereotyping

The issue of stereotyping is one that is very close to me because it is something that I struggled with early on in life. For a young black man who's parents were middle class I constantly battled the question of who I was and what it meant to be black. I had all kinds of friends from the white kids I went to school with (my senior year I was the only black person in my high school) to the black kids in my neighborhood and who I played ball with. Both groups had their own idea of what a black person was. Since I played ball it allowed me a link with most of my black friends because even though our fathers had grown up together we were essentially from different backgrounds, the fact that I was an athlete granted me passage in a circle that was hard to crack if you weren't from that background. Because of that I was always looked upon by my black friends as an Oreo because of how I spoke and where I went to school. They saw themselves as the disenfranchised black youth typically personified in the rap music videos of the day. Since they came from a similar background of the people in those situation I chose to accept the views because they seemed real. So that became my idea of what a black man was. The white kids saw me as the Sydney Poirtier type described in the reading by Jack Nachbar, I was a good athlete, well spoken and reasonably intelligent. My inability to discern between the two added to my difficulty with the subject growing up. What I had to realize is what eventually everyone must realize, that even though there are people who personify certain aspects of a race or an idea of a race or group of people, ultimately the individuals themselves must decide their own fate and be who they want to be. It was easy for me to play roles when I was around certain people because that was what they expected, but in order to stay true to myself I had to decide what was best for me and not allow a stereotype to define me as a person.

stereoypes/videos

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Stereotypes

You can check out my post about stereotypes on my blog.
http://peterneudel.blogspot.com/

New Posting

I just posted my reaction to the article "The Meaning & Significance of Stereotypes in Popular Culture" Go to my blog to check it out! http://denaeanalyzingmedia.blogspot.com/ :-)
-Denae-

Spring2007Media

I recently completed Digital Destiny by Jeff Chester. To me it is extremely disturbing to learn about how the media industry has expanded its power and scope while at the same time reducing the number of owners withing the industry. It further appalls me that the FCC and congress has and continues to allow media giants to usurp what should be public airwaves and digital media broadband access.

Spring2007Media

Blog Archive
▼ 2007 (1)
▼ February (1)
Media and Blogging Illiteracy

Mediadud

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Creating a blog is something new and terrifying. I do not have a clue. I suppose that there are all kinds of things one can do, but here again, I do not have a clue!
Professor Johnson wants us to list our media activity or keep a media log. I have no idea how detailed it has to be, but I will tell you some of the media elements that I do access.
I rarely read a newspaper. Ocassionally one of the guys at work will give me a copy of the Metro and I will read it during work.
I also log onto the web at work. I will sometimes check my personal emails on msn, I will play solitare of freecell, I will check my 401k balances and I will use the link on the intranet to access the merriam webster website and try to do the crossword puzzle of the day. I rarely am able to complete it, I am not that smart.
At home we have a DVR which allows me to watch TV shows that I would otherwise miss because I work second shift and do not get home until well after midnight. I can then watch Survivor or CSI and sometime Law & Order.
I also read some books. I do not read as much as I would like to, 'cause I just do not have the time. I seem to be having some difficulty reading anything of any length or depth anymore. It seems as though I am not able to concentrate as well as I once could. This of course creates a problem when I am supposed to be reading textbooks or other types of edifiying material assigned for a particular class.
Mediadud Feb. 23

Posted by mediadud at 4:26 PM 0 comments



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Media Consumption Blog

In the past two weeks I haven’t physically written down the exact time in which I interact with different types of media, but I have kept a mental log of my “media habits” in my head. I’m not sure if they have changed in the past weeks due to classes and becoming more aware of the impact that all different types of media have in my life; Or if I am just becoming more aware of these habits because of the assignment. I think it is safe to say that it is a combination of both.

I have also been unsure of the best way to express my media consumption in a public blog so that it makes sense to other.

My train of thought throught out this process went something like this.

Media Consumption Log- What different types of media do I consume everyday?
Myspace, Facebook, GMail, The Boston Globe, The Metro, CNN, NPR, The New Yorker, The 10 O’Clock News, The Phoenix, etc.

I also realized when and where I consume different types of media on a day to day basis. Depending on what my schedule looks like for a certain day or what I am planning for the next few days I digest different forms of media.

For example, I usually work on Thursday mornings. I have to be in by 9 A.M., so I usually wake-up make a pot of coffee and grab the Globe from the doorstep and read it while the coffee is brewing. Seeing as though it is early I usually just do a quick scan through the big headlines. I always start with the front page story. Then go to the business section followed by the city section. I save the Arts and Entertainment for last because that is generally the section I read with my coffee once it is done.

I take the subway to work and usually read the Metro on the way. I have grown very fond of it over the years. It is kind of like a “Cliff-notes” version of the newspaper; which I like because of time reasons. The Metro I can read front to back on one train ride and feel like I have gotten just about the gist of what is going on in the world, while listening to my IPod on the crowded subway.

Being a hostess at work and being one of the first to arrive in the morning I generally get to choose what channel to watch on the television set until the bartender gets in at 10:30 and claims his domain (which includes the T.V).

My Work Choices:
CNN is my first choice most days with a cup of coffee from the kitchen, restaurant music playing in the background, as I fill out the floor plans for the day and manage the phone lines. However, between taking reservations and transferring calls I usually just get updated based on the visuals.

Besides that I flip through the weather channel to find on how busy we are going to be based on the weather, and what is going on locally rather that nationally. I check out MTV videos and then VH1 which is usually showing re-runs of the Surreal Life.

Home is where I get most of my through reading and watching done. I personally like reading the newspaper out of habit and the overall feel that comes from actually reading the paper. I favor the Globe because most of all. And usually read it during or after dinner at the kitchen table.
In the past two weeks specifically I have read the newspaper much more than watched the news out of frustration with the whole Anna Nicole issue that has seemed to be overtaking every station there is. I get frustrated with the amount of publicity that she has received everywhere when there is just so much more going on in the world. Newspapers have had articles on her as well, but at least with a paper I can sort through to find the articles that I find much more interesting.