Tags: inequality, intersectionality, lgbtq, prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, sex/sexuality, homophobia, racism, systems of power, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2014 Length: 2:02 Access: YouTube Summary: In a recent interview with Arsenio Hall (start 3:33; end 5:35), RuPaul provides a pithy explanation of how power, privilege, and inequality operate by similar logic structures across different social and historical contexts. After referencing football player Michael Sam's recent decision to come out as gay just prior to the NFL draft, Arsenio asks RuPaul to reflect on homophobia in the black community. RuPaul responds by reframing the discussion to take on a more systemic perspective of how power works, drawing parallels to the oppressions faced by black and queer people. Arsenio plays "devil's advocate" by evoking (though not explicitly referencing) black people's history with slavery, a history never experienced exclusively by gay people. RuPaul replies by explaining how racism, homophobia, and other systems of oppression rely on the same logic structures, in that they all revolve around "the ego needing to strengthen itself through putting someone else down. That's the similarity. And that's the same for people who have been oppressed for religion or race or sexuality." While sociologists might use slightly different vocabulary (for example, focusing less on "the ego"), sociologists draw attention to the same insight, illustrating how, as Allan Johnson argues, different forms of oppression all rely on systemic "patterns of exclusion, rejection, privilege, harassment, discrimination, and violence" (697). For the full interview between RuPaul and Arsenio, click here. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp
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Tags: class, food/agriculture, health/medicine, inequality, race/ethnicity, rural/urban, food desert, food justice, poverty, racism, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2010 Length: 13:58 Access: Vimeo Summary: Poor diets are a result of the structural inequalities that limit access to healthy food, not individual behaviors. Hungry for Health: A Journey through Cleveland’s Food Desert documents a day in the life of Willa Sparks, a woman living without ready access to fresh and affordable food. Instead, she must rely on corner stores, fast food restaurants, and gas stations selling processed and frozen foods. By most accounts, Sparks is a statistic. She lives in an economically deprived and segregated urban area. She is also single and raising a child. However, Sparks is not portrayed as a victim in Hungry For Health. Members of minority groups, including women, are more likely to be in poverty and living in food deserts; thus, they are more likely to suffer from poor health. While residential environments do shape racial health disparities, the film focuses on Sparks’ efforts to combat social inequalities. Denied the fresh vegetables and fruits needed to maintain a healthy diet, Sparks suffers a heart attack and is diagnosed with diabetes. The doctor warns her to change her eating habits or die young. Sparks rises to the challenge learning the nutritional knowledge she lacked and overcoming the first hurdle to accessing fresh foods for her family. Proximity, income, and mobility also influence her accessibility to a healthy diet. Sparks doesn’t own a car and can’t afford a taxi, so she must rely on public transportation to go to the market. At the store, she carefully selects her groceries, spending wisely and shying away from cheaper junk food. Her tight budget forces her to consider her bus pass as part of her daily expenditures. Because she’ll spend time outside waiting for buses and walking to destinations, she must always be prepared for inclement weather. There’s no direct route to the store, so Sparks spends the good part of the day traveling to purchase food before returning home to start preparing it. The process is slowed by her health and poor mobility. She walks with a cane and carries home as many grocery bags as she can lift. Viewers gain both a deeper understanding of food deserts and a new reverence for the people living in them. For more information about the film, please contact the filmmaker at theresa.desautels@gmail.com. Submitted By: Mary Barr, PhD Tags: discourse/language, education, immigration/citizenship, inequality, nationalism, prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, social mvmts/social change/resistance, theory, microaggressions, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2013 Length: 5:06 Access: YouTube Summary: Microaggressions are something that happens every day, but which not many people really understand. This is a five-minute video about microaggressions featuring Professor SooJin Pate, who received her Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota. In the video, she explains microaggressions with a couple of every day examples along with a personal anecdote, and then goes on to give advice for interrupting microaggressions. This is a great piece for helping students understand microaggressions and contextualize how they can interrupt them both as a microaggressor and a victim of microaggressions. Many students find SooJin Pate's radical approaches of kindness and activism to be an empowering way of understanding their role in achieving social justice. It is great both as an introduction to microaggressions, for students just becoming familiar with the topic; and also for students already familiar with concepts like Critical Race Theory and the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, as another perspective on the interruption of discrimination in their daily lives. Note that The Sociological Cinema has also explored the concept of microaggressions in an earlier post. Submitted By: Macalester College Department of Multicultural Life Tags: inequality, media, prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, individual racism, institutional racism, internalized racism, interpersonal racism, racial justice, structural racism, systemic racism, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2014 Length: 4:38 Access: YouTube Summary: In a recent report by Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice entitled "Moving the Race Conversation Forward," researchers compiled nearly 1,200 articles from major news sources and identified seven "bad habits" that the media falls back on when talking about race. In this video, Jay Smooth focuses on just one of these bad habits, which is the tendency to focus on individuals at the expense of systems. In order to nuance the conversation, Smooth reminds viewers that it's important to recognize that there are different levels of racism, and he outlines the properties of four different types: internalized, interpersonal, institutional, and structural. Delineating across types is important, as it allows Smooth to explain how some forms of racism are easier to focus on and recognize than others; namely, the individual forms of racism--internalized and interpersonal--are among those more obvious types. The systemic forms of institutional and structural racism, however, are more covert and less readily visible. Smooth defines institutional racism as "the racist policies and discriminatory practices in schools and workplaces and government agencies that routinely produce unjust outcomes for people of color" and structural racism as "the unjust racist patterns and practices that play out across institutions that make up our society." Race Forward's report documents how news outlets fail to adequately talk about these systemic forms of racism in their coverage of race-focused media, thus resulting in an incomplete picture about racism and racial justice. As Smooth says, "When we constantly focus on individual stories it distorts our sense of how racism works." The report offers recommendation strategies for talking about racial justice in a more holistic way. After watching the clip, viewers can be encouraged to think of examples of each type of racism. Given the salience of colorblind forms of racism in the contemporary context, viewers might challenge themselves to think of examples of colorblind racism for each of the four types, thus illustrating how colorblind forms of racism can transcend both individual and systemic domains. Viewers can also reflect upon why, if at all, it is easier to come up with examples of some types of racism rather than others. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp Tags: culture, discourse/language, knowledge, marketing/brands, media, race/ethnicity, charity, stereotypes, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2013 Length: 3:27 Access: YouTube Summary: This clip comes from the creators of Radi-Aid, which is a group that seeks to draw attention to the problematic ways charity media campaigns often represent aid recipients from Africa. As was vividly Illustrated by Invisible Children's Kony 2012 campaign, many charity and relief organizations manufacture images of Africa that foreground extreme instances of poverty and dependency. Images of malnourished children and primitive housing are propped up as the monolithic representations of the entire African continent, and more often than not, a white Western aid worker is shown interacting with black, African children, delivering her compassion with a warm embrace. The above video begins with what seems to be a poor black child walking along a rural dirt road, At first, it appears to be just another fundraising video, but then a director yells "Cut!" The child is revealed as an actor, and soon it becomes clear the video is actually a spoof of the fundraising campaigns aimed at a saving Africa. All joking aside, the video works quite well as a means of drawing attention to the fact that when well-meaning charity campaigns deploy stereotypical imagery to gain the sympathy of Western audiences, they may be doing more harm than good to the African communities they depict. Organizations like Invisible Children claim to be concerned about the well being of millions of Africans, but it is arguably just as important to consider the message these campaigns promote to millions of people in the West. To be blunt, the images of starving and dependent Africans in these fundraising campaigns may trigger sympathy and donations, but the campaigns do not cast the Africans they claim to represent in a dignified light and leave viewers with a lasting impression that Africans lack agency. In contrast, whites are depicted in the campaigns as compassionate saviors, and as I wrote in an earlier post, it is truly an unearned privilege for Western whites "to be able to wade through the media pool each day, soaked by the various incarnations of this narrative, a day full of subtle reminders of one's intrinsic goodness and extraordinary abilities." Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: art/music, culture, race/ethnicity, cultural appropriation, memes, popular culture, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2013 Length: 4:13 Access: msnbc Summary: In early 2013, YouTube videos of people dancing to a track called the “Harlem Shake” went viral (see an example here). At the height of this meme’s popularity, thousands of videos from users across the globe were being uploaded every day. In this clip, Melissa Harris-Perry responds to the viral video phenomenon, arguing that labeling the videos as the “Harlem Shake” constitutes cultural appropriation. She provides a quick overview of the history of the Harlem Shake, which emerged in urban New York in the 1980s, arguing, “when communities create original art, they have a right to some creative control over its interpretation.” This clip also includes responses from Harlem residents who are surprised and in some cases offended by the viral videos. Harlem residents also offer their reactions to the videos in this longer clip. Harris-Perry concludes the segment with a performance by a Harlem dance troupe demonstrating the complex dance moves that make up the original Harlem Shake. The viral “Harlem Shake” videos can be used as an example of how effortlessly, and unintentionally, cultural appropriation can occur in popular and internet culture. Although the appropriation here may seem innocuous at first glance, Harris-Perry’s segment and the responses from Harlem residents suggest that cultural appropriation, even if casual and misinformed, has consequences. Instructors can have students consider: What are other examples of cultural appropriation in mainstream/popular culture? Why is cultural appropriation so prevalent? What are the consequences of cultural appropriation? How can we identify and/or respond to cultural appropriation? Submitted By: Anya M. Galli Tags: children/youth, crime/law/deviance, discourse/language, gender, immigration/citizenship, inequality, intersectionality, media, prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, sex/sexuality, stereotypes, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2008 Length: 8:50 Access: YouTube Summary: Star Jones briefly hosted a live talk show from August 2007 until February 2008, and in one of the show's segments she covered the story of Kelsey Peterson, a 25-year-old teacher who sexually assaulted her 13-year-old student, who happened to be an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. The above video features a telephone interview, where Jones asks Peterson's attorney, James Martin Davis, whether he believes it is possible for a 13-year-old child to give consent. Martin responds, "I resent the word 'child.' You're baby-fying this kid. This kid is a Latino machismo teenager...Is there anyone in the world who has a higher sex drive than a teenage boy." Jones admonishes Martin for his casual racism and ends the interview. In a follow-up segment, she invites the attorney for the victim, Amy Peck, and scholar Marc Lamont Hill to discuss the racist exchange, as well as the impact of racial thinking on the case. Although Star Jones and her guests largely frame the interview in terms of race, this video offers a nice foray into a larger discussion about how multiple dimensions of inequality intersect to shape the way people experience the criminal justice system and whether victims of crime become the recipients of public sympathy. Jones suggests a useful thought experiment by asking people to imagine that the race and gender of the participants are reversed. The question can be usefully posed: How would the story be discussed and reported by the media and interested parties if the victim was a young white girl and the perpetrator an older Latino man? Also, what difference does it make that the teenager was an undocumented Mexican immigrant, and how might the current discourse surrounding Mexican immigrants shape sympathy for the victim? Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: culture, race/ethnicity, sports, american indian, cultural representation, football, native american, racism, washington redskins, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2014 Length: 2:00 Access: YouTube Summary: Just before the 2014 Superbowl, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) released this PSA targeting the use of the name "Redskins" for the famed NFL franchise. The video moves through a great variety of images of American Indians with words that they use to describe themselves (e.g. proud, forgotten, Navajo, Blackfoot, survivor, patriot, Sitting Bull, mother, father, son, daughter, chief, Apache, etc.). The final words from the narrator are: "Native Americans call themselves many things; the one thing they don't ..." and the video ends by focusing on a Washington Redskins football helmet, and refers the viewer to Change the Mascot. For a full analysis of this specific topic, see the Washington Redskins Name Controversy. But more broadly, and like many other posts on this site, this debate begs the question: who has the right to represent whom? For example, Adrienne Keene, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and author of the Native Appropriations Blog, insists that it must be "the right of the community to represent themselves" (see our full analysis of an interview with Keene). While proponents argue that the mascots of professional sports teams are forms of appreciation, Keene counters that the such representations are actually "a continuing form of colonialism and oppression." Like the NCAI, Keene argues they are racist depictions of Native Americans and that they "shrink an extremely diverse community of over 565 tribes in the United States alone down into one stereotypical image of the plains Indian." Viewers may also be interested in our other videos examining depictions of American Indians in Hollywood films, Native appropriation in a parade, or this satire from South Park. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: art/music, culture, media, race/ethnicity, bell hooks, cultural appropriation, othering, popular culture, racism, representation, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2013 Length: 3:33 Access: YouTube Summary: The music video for Miley Cyrus’ hit 2013 song “We Can’t Stop” is full of hip-hop tropes, from beats and backtracks to the twerk dance move for which Cyrus became infamous. Instructors can use this clip as a touchstone for classroom discussions about cultural appropriation and representations of otherness in popular media. Instructors can direct students to watch the video while keeping an eye out for how Black women are represented. Black women appear in the video, but only as a backdrop for Cyrus’ twerking along to the line “all my homegirls here with the big butts.” Cyrus' performance at the MTV Video Music Awards also featured Cyrus performing on stage with all Black female dancers around her. Although the use of hip-hop and Black culture by white musicians isn’t anything new, Cyrus’ performance functions as the appropriative practice bell hooks calls “eating the other.” In hooks’ terms, ethnicity serves as a spice or seasoning to give more flavor to an otherwise bland and mainstream/white performance. In the context of mainstream consumer culture, otherness is commodified and used as a way of adding value to a product. For example, when Cyrus was asked about the song, she said, "I want urban, I just want something that just feels Black.” Instructors can have students consider: What does it mean for something to “feel Black” in the context of popular culture? Is Cyrus’ appropriation of twerking problematic? Why or why not? Submitted By: Anya M. Galli Tags: prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, internalized racism, respectability politics, stereotypes, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2013 Length: 6:35; 4:43 Access: YouTube (clip 1; clip 2) Summary: In the wake of the Trayvon Martin case, media debates about crime and problems in African American communities were especially prominent. In the first clip, CNN anchor Don Lemon responds to these discussions with his own ideas about how young Black men can improve their communities and raise their social standing. He suggestions include: “pull up your pants,” stop using the “N word,” “respect where you live” by not littering, “finish school,” and “just because you can have a baby, it doesn’t mean you should.” In the second clip, blogger Jay Smooth responds to Don Lemon’s comments, breaking them down as part of a “politics of respectability.” According to Smooth, Lemon’s comments serve to implicitly blame young Black men for their problems, helping more privileged members of the Black community ameliorate the shame they feel as a result of internalized racism. These clips are useful for class discussions about race, internalized racism, and how racism persists in the context of colorblindness. They are particularly useful for introducing the concept of respectability politics. In the words of Tamara Winfrey Harris, “respectability politics work to counter negative views of blackness by aggressively adopting the manners and morality that the dominant culture deems ‘respectable.’ The approach emerged in reaction to white racism that labeled blackness as ‘other’—degenerate and substandard—with roots in an assimilationist narrative that prevailed in the late-19th-century United States.” Questions for classroom discussion might include: What are other examples of respectability politics that students have observed in communities of color? How does respectability politics function in other minority groups such as immigrant communities, the LGBT community, and people with physical or mental disabilities? What are the consequences of respectability politics (social, political, institutional etc...)? Submitted By: Anya M. Galli |
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