Media Post 3

I wanted to take the opportunity we had with this media portfolio to do something different that what we learned directly about in class. I read an article titled “Islam and its misrepresentation”; the article itself can be linked to so many things we have talked about, learned about, and watched in class. “Islam and its misrepresentation” is written by Federal Agent Mark Briskey whose first sentence got my attention “The reality is that the target of our endeavors (efforts) is but a small minority who, through their disproportionate acts, affect equally disproportionate views of Islam and Muslims”. The article continues to talk about the portrayal of Islam’s and Muslims after September 11th and years before. Briskey talks about how the media gives us the worst portrayal of these people and it is everywhere, we as Americans count on the media whether it be for entertainment or news. Most of us do watch T.V. at night or pick up popular magazines. I guess I will ask it this way and maybe it will be easier to understand because we don’t see negative images anymore (although after September 11th they were everywhere for a while) everyday but when is the last time that you can think of that you saw a Muslim portrayed positively? Briskey describes in the article how the media does expose us to the bad of the Muslim and Islam people he states, “Even conventional news magazines distort views of Islam to sometimes significant degrees. Time magazine has, over the years, unfortunately published articles which, although relatively benign content wise, almost subliminally support Islamic generalizations through the accompanying images they present. The following relatively recent historical examples are proof that this distortion has been evident well before September 11, 2001. A 1998 feature in Time Australia titled Stalking Satan, featured an eye-catching double-page picture of President Khatami in his clerical robes against a clearly defined and superimposed backdrop of militant young men in camouflage aged military fatigues raising their clenched fists. This image, by presenting the combination of a clerically-robed President Khatami and military-garbed, defiant young men presents a clearly distortive representation, which, instead of focusing on some of the liberal measures President Khatami was trying to Promulgate, preferred to depict an image which could easily be construed as that of a militant, bloodthirsty and devious Muslim population” (Briskey 2). The article continues, it is not only in magazines, but movies such as Rules of Engagement, Navy Seals, and True Lies. Briskey says America also categorizes Islamic Fundamentalism as a shorthand metaphor for terrorism, oppression and as a redundant and medieval way of living. As it continues the article talks about what is being done today to try and abolish such stereotypes. The AFP which tries to reduce counter-terrorism, and keep productive, harmonious relationships with Muslim nations, their values include respecting diversity and in no way will subject to aspersions of any bias whether ethically, sexually, or religious. So far the AFP has been successful in using these ideas to maintaining and producing relationships with the Muslim countries of South Asia and the Middle East. Briskey describes moves like these to be good for our countries future as well as others, if we can all work together to get rid of such negative images and ideas. This article can be tied into movies we have watched in class such as Ethnic Notions and Race: The Power of Illusion because we are all alike and anyone could have done terrible things to the US but it happened to be the Muslims and now they are ALL categorized as terrible people, when only few did those terrible things. Also this article could be relevant to the articles we have read in class dealing specifically with how Columbus thought the Indians were savages. I think this was a really good article; it pertains to issues that are newer but can date back to the 1970’s. I feel like Muslims are portrayed poorly and it is a really sad thing. I am ashamed to say that even today when I fly on a plane and someone is wearing a turban or speaking in a different language that I think can be related to Muslim heritage, I get nervous. Of course, it is for relevant reasons, September 11th, but the media does have a huge influence in our society, not all Muslims are bad, or wish to harm us (America). But from what we are given to work with in our society and what is presented to us about other cultures and beliefs it is no wonder that this has become a problem and will continue to be for a long time.
This PDF can be found at http://www.afp.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/3593/islam.pdf

Media Post 2

The second item I chose for my media portfolio is a movie called American History X. I chose this movie because it tells the story of someone who is extremely smart and talented and how he got dragged into a neo-Nazi way of life, pretty much because of his father’s critical views on black culture and affirmative action. After his father is killed by a black drug dealer, things spiral down for Derek. Derek (main character) becomes the second in command to a local neo-Nazi gang. Doris (Derek’s mom) doesn’t really see what is happening to her son until she has her Jewish friend Murray over for dinner and Derek freaks out on him for his open views and liberal thinking and shows him the swastika tattoo on his chest and says to Murray, “You see this? That means not welcome”. That same night three black men drive up to Derek and surround him. Derek ends up shooting at them. He kills one and wounds another, the third man drives away. Derek does end up killing the wounded man by telling him to “put your mouth on the curb” and stomps on the back of his head. Unknowingly, Derek’s little brother Danny is watching the whole time, and is horrified. The movie is actually based off of Danny’s flashbacks, I am just telling it in summary. Derek goes to prison for three years (which is good because if Danny testified it would be life imprisonment). Surprisingly in jail Derek alienates himself from the white gangs and makes friends with a black inmate named Lamont. He is released from prison early because his honors English teacher vouches for him, and he realizes that he is living wrong and is fearful for Danny. Derek comes home to Danny molded just as he was before prison, and maybe even worse, Danny wrote a paper for school about how Hitler should be considered a civil rights hero. Derek returns to the gang leader and his fellow friends to tell them that he will no longer take part in the gang and he threatens them to stay away from his brother, Danny. Danny is at first mad at what his brother has done, because he thinks that he is so different than before he went to prison, but when Derek explains to Danny what happened in prison they decide to change together, they go home and rip down the neo-Nazi signs in their bedrooms. The next day Danny goes to school with his new report and walks into the bathroom where he is shot several times in the chest by an African American boy who had previously had an altercation with him. Derek arrives and holds Danny realizing that his old ways of life killed his little brother. Then the movie ends with Danny reading his new essay on the beach with the famous quote by Abraham Lincoln "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies”.
In my opinion this movie is a good portrayal of what we have read in class. It really gives the message that although times have changed, people necessarily haven’t. In a way this movie reminds me of Johnson Chap 6 and Chap 8 and even though we haven’t read it yet, the very beginning of Chap 9. In these three chapters it can be summed up that we need to change our ways, although we were taught to discriminate hundreds of years ago, because it starts with one person. Think about it in the sense that if Danny and Derek’s father hadn’t taught them to hate their lives would have been dramatically different. Besides the fact that the story is fiction, things like this do happen in real life and children do pay for their parents actions.

Link to Trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=jXaZENPQrsw

Media Post 1

First I decided to go to the grocery store to look at products that represented different races of people. I choose to do this because I thought it would be a good way to see how people are portrayed today in comparison to the movie we watched in class, Ethnic Notions. I have to admit though, even though I do go grocery shopping and am in the store every week I never noticed until after the movie the way people were actually being portrayed in our everyday life, so I thought this would be interesting for this assignment because it is applying what is presented to us in class to life. The products that I chose to analyze for the assignment are Uncle Ben’s Rice, Land-o-Lakes Butter, Aunt Jemima Pancake mix, and Little Einstein’s Fruit Snacks. When I looked at the Uncle Ben’s Rice container, I didn’t see anything that portrays African Americans the way that the movie did. Uncle Ben looks respectable, and is in a suit. One ad I found online even puts Uncle Ben in an office setting. I could though say like in the movie, Uncle Ben can be portrayed as an African American would at the time, he does not look like he would threaten anyone, and he is older and in that sense not being portrayed as a sexual being as the slaves would be (I remember it being said that there was denial to the fact that there were affairs). Uncle Ben also looks happy, and in one ad at the bottom it says “Uncle Ben knows best”. In comparison to the movie slaves were portrayed as happy like Uncle Ben, although he is not a slave, and the “Mattie” was portrayed as the controller and always knowing what was best. I think that in comparison to the movie, Uncle Ben is not a bad portrayal of African Americans.
I looked at the Land-o-Lakes Butter and the Indian women on the front. The box makes the Indian women look welcoming, like they were when Columbus first landed in America. To me though she is kind of in a serving position, she is kneeling holding the butter out to us making it look like she is a servant. Also behind her is all land, no development or even other people. I am not even sure the girl on this box is an Indian. She is wearing makeup which I doubt the Indians had and Columbus had noticed that one of the only things that the Arawak Indians had were tiny gold ornaments in their ears which of course led him to believe there was more. The only pictures that I have seen of Indians have led me to believe that this is a bad portrayal because they hardly had any clothing and had a very developed agricultural system which I think would be present in the picture, besides that what about other Indians? In our reading it said that they lived in villages together. I also don’t think that the Indians at that time would have made processed butter.
I also looked at Aunt Jemima pancake mix. Different from Uncle Ben I think that Aunt Jemima may actually be portrayed as a “Mattie”, just a new age one. She looks very nice and happy and I would have never thought twice about it except when I came home I looked up other images of Aunt Jemima and found some that have Aunt Jemima with a bandana covering her hair, she is fat in others and she is talking in slang on some of the ads. I even found one ad from 1991 with both Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben is still in his suit and Aunt Jemima looks like she is going to clean the floors, not make pancakes. Comparing ads from even as recently as the 90s to now I can say that I feel they have come a long way.
Lastly, I looked at fruit snacks (which are a show) called Little Einstein’s. I chose this because there is one boy on the show who is African American. I have watched the show before because I have younger cousins that I baby-sit in the summer and I have only seen one episode where the kids have gone on an adventure and it could be taken offensively if someone were to look for it. In the episode the kids have a “Mississippi hoedown” and Quincy (the African American boy character) is in drab by clothes (as are the others) and his is playing a banjo looking instrument. Otherwise in the show one of the only differences between him and the other characters is that he is afraid of the dark. I was happy when I saw that the show Little Einstein’s portrayed all the characters in a good manner, teaching the children who watch the show that everyone is the same.
Overall I was surprised at what I noticed when I went to the store. Normally I wouldn’t look to interpret the butter or rice that I picked up off the shelf, and I think that some ads that do portray different races poorly only get away with it mainly for that reason; I just don’t feel as if people are looking for it. If everyone were to interpret the ads presented to us, maybe things would be different.