Tim Wise speaks about colorblind racism
Tags: health/medicine, inequality, prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, colorblind racism, health care, housing discrimination, institutional racism, racial profiling, tim wise, wealth, 21 to 60 mins Year: 2011 Length: 55:57 Access: Vimeo Summary: In this speech Tim Wise offers an incisive critique of colorblind race logics in US politics. To be blind to color, he argues, is to be blind to the consequences of color, making it impossible to effectively address racial inequality. In the talk Wise points to employment discrimination (18:00, 32:00), racial profiling (11:00), wealth disparities (13:00), housing discrimination (22:00), and health care disparities (42:00) in a nice explication of institutional racism, and he counters the popular notion among white Americans that the United States suddenly became post-racial following the election of President Barack Obama in 2008. While this clip is rich with information on racial inequality generally, it is particularly useful in broaching the topic of colorblind racism. After watching it, students can be engaged in a discussion about the consequences of denying the existence of race, which remains a central principle of social organization irrespective of whether people talk about it or not. Note that Wise explores the topic of colorblind racism in his book Colorblind: the Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity and in a nice pair of essays he wrote (here and here). Submitted By: Lester Andrist
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Tags: gender, media, prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, colonialism, hip hop, pigmentocracy, representation, socialization, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2010 Length: 20:10 Access: Vimeo Summary: This film by Nayani Thiyagarajah, Brian Han, Leanne McAdams, Derek Rider, and Vanessa Rodrigues addresses the topic of shadeism, which the filmmakers describe as "the discrimination that exists between the lighter-skinned and darker-skinned members of the same community. This documentary short looks specifically at how it affects young womyn within the African, Caribbean, and South Asian diasporas." Through the testimony of five women and one little girl, the film explores a number of issues surrounding shadeism, including the practice of skin bleaching, media representation, the legacy of colonialism, and resistance to shadeism through hip hop culture. At about twenty minutes in length, the film is unable to explore any of its topics with any real depth but works well as a means of setting up a discussion on shadeism. In particular, the film might be a nice way for instructors based in the United States to engage students in a discussion about racial logics operating elsewhere. Submitted By: Lester Andrist
Jay Smooth discusses "no homo"
Tags: discourse/language, gender, lgbtq, sex/sexuality, fag discourse, homophobia, hip hop, Identity politics, masculinity, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2008 Length: 2:58 Access: YouTube Summary: In this clip Jay Smooth of the Ill Doctrine remarks on the emergence and popularity of the phrase "no homo" in hip hop music. Smooth first notes how the term "no homo" was popularized by Cam'ron of New York's Dipset Crew, he critiques the term, then discusses whether it can even be used ironically as a critique of homophobia. The clip would work as a nice follow-up to C.J. Pascoe's Dude, You're a Fag, which argues that through a "fag discourse" boys effectively police the boundaries of masculinity. Students can be asked to consider how "no homo" might be a part of this discourse. Note that this clip works well in tandem with a second short clip from Brian Safi of "That's Gay," which similarly draws attention to the emergence and use of the phrase "no homo." Submitted By: Jessica Holden Sherwood Tags: discourse/language, gender, lgbtq, sex/sexuality, fag discourse, homophobia, hip hop, Identity politics, masculinity, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2009 Length: 3:37 Access: YouTube Summary: This clip presents witty commentary from Bryan Safi about the emergence and popularity of the phrase "no homo" in hip hop music. Safi takes aim at artists like Cam'ron and Lil Wayne and suggests that their need to use this phrase in order to establish themselves as heterosexual men is ridiculous. The clip is a nice follow-up to reading Dude, You're a Fag, where C.J, Pascoe argues that through a "fag discourse" boys effectively police the boundaries of masculinity. Students can be encouraged to consider how the phrase is deployed as a part of an interactive process between men which renders homosexuality an abject identity. Note that this clip works well in tandem with a second short clip by Jay Smooth, which similarly draws attention to the emergence and use of the phrase "no homo." Submitted By: Jessica Holden Sherwood Tags: discourse/language, gender, sex/sexuality, doing gender, fag discourse, social norms, socialization, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 3:17 Access: YouTube Summary: This humorous clip comes from a series called “Tales of Mere Existence” by Lev Yilmaz and seems to depict Yilmaz's experience in middle school. In a monotone voice, Yilmaz explains that he was never able to carry his books "correctly," or at least in a way that satisfied the boys who bullied him. I see this clip as being useful in a class on the sociology of gender or sexuality in a couple of different ways. First, one could certainly use the clip to open a discussion about West and Zimmerman's notion of "doing" gender. The clip is rather effective at demonstrating that gender is not simply ascribed, nor is it only achieved through overt presentations; rather, it is embodied in seemingly mundane acts like carrying books. Second, at about two minutes into the clip, Yilmaz explains that he began carrying his books against his chest by wrapping both arms around them. He soon learned that "there seems to be an unwritten but nonetheless common knowledge that this is the way that girls carry their books," but then in the very next sentence Yilmaz explains that this made him "the least heterosexual person of all time." Students can be directed to reflect on the ease with which Yilmaz moves from what is ostensibly a reflection about his gender presentation to one about his sexuality. I would argue that this easy slip from talking about gender to sexuality highlights the way in which these socially constructed categories are tightly intertwined, and it reveals the way that gender actually organizes one's sexual identity. Thanks to Sociological Images for suggesting this clip. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: consumption/consumerism, environment, externalities, production, sustainability, waste, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2008 Length: 20:30 Access: YouTube Summary: Through an animated cartoon, narrator Annie Leonard discusses the story of our stuff through the stages of extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. The video includes discussions on the role of corporations and government, limitations to the ecological cycle, externalized costs, globalization, planned obsolescence, advertising, happiness, health, equity, and points of intervention. It offers a variety of statistics to support the relationships it depicts. Additional resources, including other videos and information for sections of this video, can be found on the official website. When I used this in my social problems class, I also asked students to calculate their ecological footprint before coming to class, and facilitated discussion about their own work and consumption activities as it related to this process, and the sustainability of those activities. Submitted By: Paul Dean A scene from Social Class in America, 1957 Tags: class, gender, intersectionality, race/ethnicity, achieved status, ascribed status, horizontal mobility, intergenerational mobility, intragenerational mobility, stratification, vertical mobility, subtitles/CC, 11 to 20 mins Year: 1957 Length: 14:50 Access: YouTube Summary: This sociology documentary from the 1950s demonstrates how long social class has been a concern of sociologists. The film follows the lives of three men from different social classes and explores concepts, such as horizontal mobility, vertical mobility, achieved status, and ascribed status. The obvious omissions of gender, race and other socially constructed categories that matter to analyses of inequality are glaring from a contemporary perspective. Following the film, students can be encouraged to discuss what difference it might make to critically examine how gender or racial inequality varies by social class. What would an intersectional analysis look like? Also, how is it that gender, for example, was completely overlooked in this sociological documentary? The film nonetheless illustrates how class works as an intergenerational phenomenon, as well as how class status can change depending on geography and place. This film's outdated look often proves entertaining for students and can become an ice-breaker for an otherwise reluctant class. Submitted By: Daniel Williams Encountering with the "Other" in Cameron's epic film "Avatar" Tags: media, race/ethnicity, colonialism, culture, othering, representation, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 5:00 Access: YouTube Summary: The caption below this YouTube video remix by Craig Saddlemire and Ryan Conrad describes it as highlighting " the overplayed racial tropes of Hollywood cinema using James Cameron's multimillion‐dollar epic Avatar as its visual anchor." The clip works as a " media literacy tool for deconstructing how whiteness and Other-ness are portrayed in mainstream films about humanitarian crises," and I would add, colonialism. The clip draws footage from seventeen different films, all of which tell the same narrative about a white protagonist's encounter with the "Other." It would work well as a means of beginning a class discussion on media representations and especially those which pertain to race and ethnicity. By taking footage from so many different films, the clip is able to give students a sense of how ubiquitous and deeply resonant the representations associated with this narrative are. Instructors can encourage students to consider that the story is consistently told from the white colonizer's perspective, and in each story, a "native," or person of color, plays the so-called "magical negro" role. This is a character in fiction, typically woven into the story to further the self-discovery of the white protagonist. The magical negro can be seen as a variant of the much older ideal of the "noble savage." Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: bodies, health/medicine, political economy, health care, pre-existing conditions, political economy of health care, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2007 Length: 19:50 Access: YouTube (clip 1; clip 2) Summary: This clip from Michael Moore's Sicko tells the emotionally-charged stories of several Americans who have struggled to get adequate health care from private, for-profit health insurance. It weaves their stories with private interviews with former workers within the industry and official testimony from industry insiders who have spoken out against the industry. Before showing the clip in my Social Problems class, I facilitated a debate on whether health care is a privilege or right, then asked students to pretend they were a business executive for a for-profit health insurance company, asking them how they might maximize profits in their health insurance plans when health care is treated as a commodity. Finally, after showing the video, I asked the class: what techniques were used to increase profits? Does the problem stem from individuals working in the health care industry or from the health care system itself (linking it back to notions of health care as a right or privilege)? I put this in the context of the three health care models (national insurance, social insurance, private insurance) discussed in James Russell's (2006) "Social Policy in Health Care: Europe and the US" (excerpted in this Social Problems book). Submitted By: Paul Dean |
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