Group 6 Blog Post

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/05/world/saving.aesha/?hpt=hp_c2

Commonplace Essay Sharing

Post your outline as a comment to this blog.  Then, reply to the comments left by others in your blog group about (1) specific things they may want to think about in terms of how timely, relevant, or compelling their topic is, (2) other ideas for how they may employ ethos, pathos, and logos, and/or (3) other ideas for how/why this topic might matter to college students.

As a reminder, the blog groups are as follows:

John
Jamie
Matt
Cantus

Demoye
Lindsey
Craig
Kristen

Scott
Xindi
Brian
James

Mason
Danielle
Danny
George

Sammy
Sijia
Tim
Kyle

Eric
Kayla
Daron
Corey

Group 5 White Privilege

http://ecolocalizer.com/2011/07/23/cartoonist-keith-knight-too-funny-to-miss/keithknight/

Sijia Song:

This picture portrays a scene in which three people of different races are watching the TV news about a race unknown criminal. I think this picture is interesting because though the three people in the picture are watching the same news, they have different reactions. The black man and the Middle Eastern man are worried and they hope the criminal does not belong to their races. However, the white man does not worry at all and says “Ha! They’ll never catch me!! ”. They react differently because of their different races and how the public see their races. Since white is regarded as “norm”, white people seem impossible to be criminals and do such horrible thing. But colored people “deviate” from “norm” and are treated not the same. They are judged from their race, more or less, but not from whom they really are. Sometimes color people are regard as bad guys just because their color. Although the black man and the Middle Eastern man in the picture may do not have any relationship (without race) with the criminal, they might be critiqued by others because they might be in the same race with the criminal. This picture shows the white privilege and racism.

Samuel Lloyd:

As I look at this picture, I find that it exemplifies pretty much society as a whole and how it treats different races as a whole. One thing I noticed about the picture though was that he made it kind of obvious that the three men weren't that different. They were all the same age, all were at the same place, and weren't wearing too different of clothing. I found that interesting because in spite of the fact that all of these men were "the same" in many aspects, two of them still had fear just based on where they or their ancestors came from.

Timothy Noe:

I think the most interesting aspect of this cartoon is the responses that each person in the cartoon makes. They are all watching the news and the two minority groups are hoping that the gunman is not of their race. I find this interesting because whenever something bad happens to someone of a certain race their entire race gets looked down on for their action. After 9/11 everyone began to stereotype people who looked to be of middle eastern descent as terrorists. In our society if the group of terrorists were white males no one would stereotype all white males as being terrorists. Whites have privilege in the United States simply because they are the majority group and that is not fair. Only individuals should be held responsible for their actions, not entire groups or races.

Kyle Sherman:

This cartoon is a perfect example of how white privilege works. Three people of different races are watching a new story about a gunman in their town. The African-American does not want the gunman to be a black guy because people may then judge the African-American race as whole, even though he had nothing to do with the shooting. Likewise, the Middle-Eastern man hopes that the gunman is not of his race, because people will may then look negatively upon all people of Middle-Eastern descent, although he also had nothing to do with the crime. On the other hand, the white man has nothing to worry about. His race is the dominant race in America, and even if the gunman is white, it will not cause people to judge the Caucasian race as a whole. The cartoon simplifies white privilege, and exemplifies the advantages that white people have only because of their race. An ethnicity should never be judged based on one person of that race’s actions, and it is immoral that non-white people in America must fear that the actions of others will cause them to be stereotyped.

Tweets put focus on racism, hockey and Boston

Hate travels fast in the age of Twitter. No sooner had Joel Ward's shot found the back of the net late Wednesday than racist rants began spewing on the Internet.

• 
  By Greg M. Cooper, US Presswire
  Washington Capitals right wing Joel Ward scores the game-winning goal against the Boston Bruins.

Enlarge

By Greg M. Cooper, US Presswire

Washington Capitals right wing Joel Ward scores the game-winning goal against the Boston Bruins.

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Web sites such as Chirpstory and BlackSportsOnline collected dozens of the vile tweets. Most used the n-word modified by the f-word. A few issued death threats. And some combined both: "That (n-word) deserves to hang."

"Shocking to see," Ward told USA TODAY Sports, "but it didn't ruin my day."

• MORE: Ward comments on racist tweets

• BLOG: Racist tweets follow game-winner

Ward, who was born in Toronto of parents from Barbados, heard about the tweets while on theWashington Capitals' flight back from Boston after his Game 7 overtime goal knocked out the defending champion Bruins. Teammate Jeff Halpern showed Ward some of the tweets and apologized that he had to see that.

"Halpern just took offense that people weren't talking about the goal, (but rather) getting into racist remarks," Ward said. "I think he was telling me he had my back."

So did Caps owner Ted Leonsis, who attacked the haters on his blog, Ted's Take: "What these people have said and done is unforgivable. I hope they are now publicly identified and pay a huge price for their beliefs."

The NHL issued a statement that called the comments "ignorant and unacceptable" and said the people who made them "have no place associating themselves with our game."

Some Twitter users attacked the racist tweets. By Thursday evening, 31 of the 40 tweets highlighted on Chirpstory.com had been deleted and 17 of those accounts deleted. One tweeted an apology, saying he was 16 and had made a stupid mistake.

"I think it is just kids," Ward said. "It has no effect on me whatsoever."

Some of the tweeters indicated they were Bruins fans, though it is hard to know how many are from Boston, a city with a fraught history of racial tension.

"Social media gives a voice and prominence to a bunch of idiots," said author Richard Johnson, curator of The Sports Museum, which is adjacent to TD Garden, where Ward scored his game-winning goal. "This is probably going to dredge up a lot of bad stuff about Boston."

Four decades ago, Boston produced indelible images of racism — the stoning in whiteSouth Boston of school buses carrying students from black neighborhoods. Boston Celtics' Hall of Fame center Bill Russell once called the city a "flea-market of racism."

Dan Lebowitz, director of Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society, said that as soon as he saw the goal, "I knew the backlash was coming." But he said he didn't think such reaction is unique to fans of hockey, a largely white sport (the NHL has 38 minority players, 18 of them black), or of Boston.

"If this had happened to a team in New York or Philly or any other city, or in another sport, we'd have seen a lot of the same reaction," he said. "The problem isn't limited to sport, or to the Internet. It's a comment on our society."

A complicated history

For much of the last century, said Thomas Whalen, a Boston University political historian and the author of several books on Boston sports, "Boston was as segregated as Birmingham, Ala. It's still very segregated, like a lot of cities."

Sport and race always has been a combustible pairing in Boston. In the 1970s, when Russell was coaching the NBA's Seattle Supersonics, he said that as an African-American he'd rather be a lamp post in Seattle than the mayor of Boston.

Perhaps reflecting the racial attitudes of owner Tom Yawkey, the Red Sox were the last major league team to sign a black player (Pumpsie Green, in 1959). Years earlier, the team held a tryout at Fenway Park for Jackie Robinson and other black players, a charade designed to placate a liberal member of the city council.

But the historical record is complicated and, in some respects, exonerates Beantown. In 1958, Bruins winger Willie O'Ree became the first black player in the NHL. The Celtics were the first NBA team to sign a black man (Chuck Cooper in 1950), the first to start five black players and the first to name a black head coach — Russell.

Northeastern University athletics director Peter Roby said it is unfair to blame Boston for Internet racists who can be found in any city.

"There's been too much progress made here," he said. "That doesn't mean there are not still pockets where people are being discriminated against or made to feel less than welcome, but there is no way I'm going to let a couple of people who don't see the world the way they should spoil the way people look at the city of Boston.

"There is no excuse for this because it suggests we can only see people in regard to their ethnicity or their origin instead of giving them credit for being a professional, skilled and talented athlete. That's what I take offense with the most."

Ward did his best not to take offense. "I'm definitely getting a lot of support," he said. "There have been a lot of Boston fans who have supported me, which is very cool to see."

An instant forum for expression

"How would you like to be Danny Ainge today?" asked Whalen, author of books on the Red Sox and Celtics. He was referring to the Celtics' president of basketball operations, who faces a summer of trying to sign free agents, most of whom will be African Americans and who may already harbor some reservations about living in Boston.

"This puts the word out there — Boston is still inhospitable for athletes of color," Whalen said.

Joseph Reagle, a Northeastern communications professor who studies Twitter and other online platforms, said such incidents are to be expected in forums such as Twitter. They start out small and intimate with relatively like-minded users. But that changes as they get more popular and attract more users, to the point where — after incidents like last night's — people will call for filters.

His take: the explosion Wednesday night was less a deliberate expression of racism by Bostonians, or hockey fans, than an accidental, unmediated expression of biases that might otherwise go unprofessed. He distinguished between what he called "purposeful racism" and some of Wednesday's tweets, which he said were probably inadvertent revelations of racism — people writing in a virtual stream of consciousness to what they think is a small community of readers. Twitter offers an easy, instant forum for expression, he said, "and (tweeters) forget that the whole world gets to look at it."

Still, as former Red Sox pitcher Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd said: "People that are talking like that, feel like that. That's the scary thing. A lot of things haven't changed. It's just bad, bad, bad."

The most diverse sport

African-American NHL player agent Eustace King represents several players of color. "I look at the NHL as being the most diverse of all of the big sports," King said. "We have Russians, all other Europeans, Canadians, Americans, and people have gotten along well."

He finds it disheartening that Washington players who should be celebrating an important win are dealing with this issue instead.

"This is not what they signed up for," King said. "I think the league has to pursue these individuals just to send a message that says we are here to protect our athletes. Maybe it wouldn't amount to anything from a legal standpoint because people can say what they want, but the league takes a stance that fans should stick to a certain etiquette or face repercussions."

A fan threw a banana on the ice in London, Ont., during an NHL exhibition game last September when Philadelphia Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds, who is black, was attempting a shot during a shootout. The 26-year-old fan got a $200 fine on Jan. 9 for provincial trespassing after police decided there wasn't enough evidence to file charges for a hate crime.

Simmonds heard about the Ward case Thursday. "Obviously, things get said. It's the Internet. They can say whatever they want and they don't have to show their face. It's disgusting. I've had things like that happen to me before."

Simmonds and Ward are from Scarborough in suburban Toronto. Ward is 31 and Simmonds 23, but they've become close friends since meeting four or five years ago, workout buddies back home over the last two summers.

"It's sad in this day and age that it continues to happen," Simmonds said. "People can be as gutless as they want and they don't have to show up. They just throw a comment out there on the Internet."

The one black guy in the room

Ward said he has always felt comfortable in an NHL dressing room and on the ice.

"There is no lying about it. … I'm definitely the one black guy in a room with 20 white guys," he said. "There are definitely some cultural differences, such as taste in music, but I've never heard anything derogatory."

Teammate Matt Hendricks put it this way: "He's the only black guy on the team, but do we look at him like that? Not all. We look at him like he's part of the family."

Leonsis, the Caps' owner, said in his blog: "There should be zero tolerance for this kind of hate mongering. Their messages should now stay glued into the algorithms to place a forever warning and a mark upon these people and their actions. They shouldn't be able to escape their keystrokes."

Peter Cooney is Ward's Boston-based agent. He watched Wednesday's game with his fiancée and they cheered for Ward all game. One Bruins' fan tapped them on the shoulder mid-game to ask if they were Ward's parents."

"We're white," Cooney said. "We laughed and explained that I'm his agent. And when Joel scored the winning goal that fan congratulated us and wished the Capitals luck. The Bruins do not have bad fans. There's a small percentage in any city."

Cooney said he talked to Ward on Thursday to ask if he needed him to come to Washington for support.

"And Joel said, 'What, you're going to be my bodyguard?' And he laughed. He said, 'Peter, I dismiss all that. My focus is to play hockey for the Washington Capitals.' "

A difficult town

Arizona Diamondbacks hitting coach Don Baylor played 16 seasons in the majors, including one with the Red Sox in 1986-1987.

"It was a difficult town," Baylor said. "I think everybody looks at it by team, more than anything else. If the team is doing well, they don't care who is out there performing at the time. But individually, out on the street, you know what it is. It's Boston. Going there my entire American League career, you could always sense that. You experienced the same thing in South Florida a lot of times. You could always feel your color in Boston and Florida. …

"You always had players, maybe not as much today as back then, say certain things that were happening. I know Oil Can was always saying about things that happened to him. He was a bomb ready to go off every day. Here's a kid going from Mississippi to Boston, and it was a tough experience."

Boyd said he didn't experience much racism in Boston himself. "I was very open about showing my blackness and how proud I was," he said. "Fans loved me and the city loved me." But he knows all about the city's past.

These comments about Ward make it "look like Boston itself hasn't changed — like South Boston has risen up again. That ain't the city, fool. That's not the city. You ain't gonna tell me that.

"Boston is a very diverse place, a melting pot. "

Darnell McDonald, an African-American outfielder in his third year with the Red Sox, said: "I've had the n-word written on my car, in Boston. It's individuals, man. Racism is everywhere; I'm not just going to say Boston. It's just unfortunate that people are that ignorant."

Tommy Harper, 71, is a former Red Sox outfielder and coach. "We're never going to eradicate that kind of thing, so why worry about it?" he said of the offending posts. "Like any African-American, if I were to respond to every idiot in the world, you could never have a day."

Contributing: Mike Dodd, Seth Livingstone, Tim McGarry, Randy Miller of the Courier-Post and Bob Nightengale

George: This article describes the racist tweets that Joel Ward was faced with after scoring the winning goal for the Washington Capitals last Wednesday night. Joel Ward is African American and succeeds in hockey at the NHL level, where prominently white males succeed. The article tells of the people who tweeted racist comments about the game had deleted their messages and accounts after the media brought them to the public. This shows that people use Twitter and other types of internet networking to say things they wouldn't say to someones face or on the t.v. for everyone to hear. These people are immature and disrespectful, but is there really anything else anyone in society can do to stop these actions. The internet allows for people to display hateful acts easier, as they face no repercussion from their computer screen. The article also portrays the city of Boston as having problems of accepting diversity in the past, but i don't think people can relate those acts to the tweets of the fans, as these were younger immature kids and racism does occur worldwide in every city.

Mason Hughes:This article addresses several racist tweets directed towards Joel Ward, hockey player for the Washington Capitals. I find it shocking that people these days still maintain racist views, despite all the progress society as a whole has made. However, I think it to be unfair to bring up Boston’s shameful racist past when a select few post racist comments, not even necessarily Boston fans upset about the loss.  The NHL takes up a good position to not tolerate these sort of outbursts from their fans. If we as a whole continually condemn these actions, then maybe we will eventually live in a world truly equal.

Daniel Nemeth: Threats through Twitter are the absolute worst. One message can be spread throughout the world in a matter of seconds. I have a Twitter and barely use it because I think that everyone just complains about their life and how "bad" it is. I have also witnessed "Twitter-fights", where people post rude comments about "anonymous” people. Most people can’t say the things they tweet to the person’s face because they have no guts. Racism is obviously a problem here in this story but so is how people are expressing their extreme anger over a hockey game. I know there are some diehard fans out there but nothing so vile should ever be sent globally. I think this happened because hockey is a predominately white sport. In the article it says that out of 38 minority players, 18 are black. Having only 38 players that are not white is a problem in society because some of those diehard fans so not understand why another race is good at “their” sport and use racial slurs to try and oust the minorities. Ward didn’t take the words hurtfully. He just thinks it was a bunch of kids angry that their team didn’t win and took out their anger by using racism. But that is a HUGE problem. Associating racism and aggression can cause enormous tragedies. Especially when these kids are so young as 16. It could scar them from ever wanting to make friends that are different from them and even make them aggressive towards other races when older. I could be a serious problem and needs to be fixed immediately.

Group 3 Blog Post

Scott:

I found this picture to be very interesting. The picture of the pandas was meant to target racism and help put an end to it. With all the racist acts taking place recently, I thought discussing a photo reminding us of how stupid racism is would be good. There is no room for it in society. The comments even though I did not like them, raise another issue. Pandas are currently an endangered species and are moving towards becoming extinct. I too find pandas to be very interesting and more needs to be done to ensure they do not become extinct.

Xindi:

In the picture, two pandas are laying lazily on the branches. The comments are a response to the picture of the two pandas. And the words at the bottom of the first picture: "Dude, racism is stupid. I'm White, Black, and Asian". It indicates that no matter what your skin color is, you are a human being like people with other colors. We have no differences; we share many traits and share the earth together. Racism is stupid. To the comments, I don't think we need to be that negative. Though pandas are in danger of extinction, we are trying to protect them. And the results have been satisfactory so far. I believe we can also conquer racism only if we find a good way.

James:

I find the first picture to be extremely entertaining. The two pandas are just relaxing in the forest with no cares whatsoever. The last thing on their minds are to judge, hurt, or isolate one another. Whereas we as humans, judge, isolate, and sometimes even hurt each other merely because we look different or are from different places. It’s pointless because all it does Is hurt people and divide us as humans. I wish everyone could take a look at this picture, laugh at it, and then take it to heart. Regarding the second picture, it is a shame to know that such a beautiful and awesome animal is on the brink of extinction. Hopefully there will be a way to fix this and save them.

Brian:

The first picture shows two pandas laying on a branch talking about how stupid racism is. This picture attacks racism in a curious ways. Primarily it says “Dude, racism is stupid” but it also says it in a comical way so that it doesn’t seem as threatening because it’s coming from a panda instead of a person. I think that if everyone against racism took a more relaxed, or comical approach to fighting racism, it may do more good than being forceful or cruel to racists.



'Hunger Games' and Hollywood's racial casting issue

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/28/showbiz/movies/hunger-games-black-actors/index.html

Lindsey: Being a fan of the Hunger Game Series and reading the books multiple times, I was shocked to see Hollywood’s response to the actors in the movie. I admit when I saw Rue in the movie for the first time I was a little surprised but only for a little before I realized they had described Rue as dark skinned in the book. What I found most interesting about the article is the concept that the reader projects themselves onto the character, so even though it is printed in the book Rue is dark-skinned the readers' mind overrides this when they are picturing the book play out in their heads. Even though Cinna’s or Thresh’s race were never specified neither was Gale nor Peeta’s, but it is the othering formed by society that sets the Caucasian race as the dominant and expectant one. Analyze each book, story, or article you’ve read, and think about what you pictured the characters’ and authors’ physical appearances to be, did they look like you?

Kristen: When I first saw the movie, I admit that I did not exactly picture those actors portraying those characters. But on taking a minute to think about it, what is the problem with having black actors play those roles? There isn’t one. I must have fallen into the trap of identifying those characters with my skin color while reading the book, as the article stated that many others do too, but the book does in fact describe two out of the three of them with dark skin. I think that regardless of their skin color they were all great actors and played their parts very well. It confuses me though that people wouldn’t be happy with actors of black skin playing roles that correspond to the book, while other movies let a white actress play an Egyptian queen.

Craig: I think the article “'Hunger Games' and Hollywood's Racial Casting Issue” by Stephanie Goldberg speaks the truth. I personally don’t care whether a character is black, Asian, Latino, or white. If the actor has the skill set and is the best person for a part I feel that said actor deserves the role. The only exception to this thought though, is if the movie is based on a book and the book describes a character a certain race. People can be too closed minded about what they think and they just need to be more open.

Demoye: I did not know that there was racial tension within Hollywood of that magnitude. I understand that sum people are upset in the fact that white actors have the opportunity to play black role, that is very controversial. Why cant they give it to black actors? is like there are implying that a white person can portray a black role as good as a black person could. This idea i think is offensive in anyway, you never see black actors playing white role in the movies? And the roles black people get are either portrayed as being slaves, gangsters or involved in some type of criminal actions. We as a society is involved with this issue ourselves, we are quick to racial profile someone based on their name pertaining to Rue the actor in "The Hunger Games". Just because they hold a certain name does mean we should start throwing this racial discrimination or the word "race" into it, Hollywood can choose whoever they want to act in their movies but we as movies critiques and movies goers cannot turn it in a racial debate. But i for myself also believe that actors should play the role within their ethnicity, because i have seen movies that they play Jamaicans in, they way Jamaicans are portrayed in those films makes me upset because for one we do not act or speak that way, for example "cool Running". Myself being a Jamaican, i have never acted that my or spoke that way in my entire life. But society as a whole, we need to eliminate these racial thoughts and actions.