Tag: Culture

Who Gets To Be A Superhero? Race And Identity In Comics

In artist Orion Martin’s project, X-Men of Color, he reimagined this famous X-Men cover by recoloring two characters as brown. This cover comes from a storyline in which mutants are being rounded up and exterminated by the government.

The X-Men comic franchise is a story of a minority group struggling with discrimination due to their superhuman mutations — a sci-fi allegory that  illustrates the troubles of real people dealing with bigotry regarding race, sexuality, health and a host of other social issues. However, many readers note that the comics fail to actually depict the people that face real-life discrimination, and instead include mostly straight, white men.

Neil Shyminsky, an academic who’s written about the X-Men‘s complicated relationship with real-life racism:

[He] argues persuasively that playing out civil rights-related struggles with an all-white cast allows the white male audience of the comics to appropriate the struggles of marginalized peoples … “While its stated mission is to promote the acceptance of minorities of all kinds, X-Men has not only failed to adequately redress issues of inequality – it actually reinforces inequality.”

Orion Martin reimagined several iconic X-Men covers, recasting the superheroes as people of color. The move sparked a discussion on race in comics, both on the page and in the writers’ rooms.

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Click here for the rest of the NPR article.

More about Race & Racism in Marvel Comics

 

Are People Racist against Black Pets?

“Black Dog Syndrome” the phenomenon that dark-furred canines are less likely to be adopted and more likely to be euthanized than their lighter-furred counterparts. Animal welfare experts believe that the discrimination arises from a combination of factors, from being easily overlooked in the shadows of a shelter, to a superstitious, negative cultural association with dark pets.

Click Here to read more.

Malala Yousafzai and the White Saviour Complex

“Malala’s message is true, it is profound, it is something the world needs to take note of; education is a right of every child, but Malala has been used as a tool by the West.”

This Huffpost article examines Malala’s rise to international recognition as part of a history of the institutionalized, racist narrative that has been used by journalists and politicians to quell the guilt of the white man and justify the West interfering in other countries. Part of this narrative is the demonization of the non-white Muslim man, who is portrayed as a savage without the capacity for reasonable negotiation,  leaving the West with no choice but to resort to violence, war, drone strikes, etc.

Click here to read the long form of the article.

This article resonated with me because, while I admire Malala’s spirit and message, it always bothered me that she was getting immense amount of Western attention when there are hundreds of thousands just like her who are overlooked. Why was this one girl singled out? What about the others that have undergone similar abuse, not only by those we mark as enemies and extremists, but by our own soldiers? Why does we choose to focus only on the brutality of the Taliban, but not on our own nations’ contributions to the conditions by entering into war and destabilizing the regions and making them vulnerable to groups like the Taliban?

Aziz Ansari on Acting, Race and Hollywood

From left, Mr. Ansari, Noël Wells, Lena Waithe and Eric Wareheim in the Netflix series “Master of None.” Credit K.C. Bailey/Netflix

The hilarious Aziz Ansari recently wrote an article for NYTimes about the lack of opportunity for PoC actors in the entertainment industry. He notes that even when the rare non-white character is available, the challenges of casting tend to lead to either a white-washing of the role or to the casting of a white actor in black/brown/yellow-face.

“Even at a time when minorities account for almost 40 percent of the American population, when Hollywood wants an “everyman,” what it really wants is a straight white guy. But a straight white guy is not every man. The “everyman” is everybody.”

On Facebook, Ansari calls for more effort on the part of producers to cast non-white actors to represent diverse roles: “We are all more sophisticated, compelling, and interesting than our ethnicities, accents, and stereotypical jobs. Let’s see that on TV and film.”

Click here to read the full article.

 

Ansari’s been on a roll tackling Race in America; during his Tuesday night interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, Ansari pointed out the rare 50% percent diversity rate of​ a white guy and an Indian guy sharing the stage… “an all-time high for CBS!” ???

Shining a Light, A Concert for Progress in Race in America

Artists of different races and ethnic backgrounds will come together to perform once-in-a-lifetime duets and collaborations. The 2-hour special program will broadcast from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Friday, November 20 at 8pm ET/PT across A+E Networks and 150 iHeart radio stations. The concert will raise funds for organizations and individuals (through a sponsoring organization) that are working for racial justice and reconciliation.

Lineup

Zac Brown Band, Eric Church, Andra Day, Jamie Foxx, Rhiannon Giddens, Tori Kelly, John Legend, Miguel, P!nk, Jill Scott, Big Sean, Ed Sheeran, Sia, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Pharrell Williams & more

Click here for more info!

11 Types Of Racists

If there’s one thing to know about racism, it’s that racism (and race) is incredibly complex. Many people think racism means one group of people hates another group of people. However, racism manifests in all kinds of subtle and insidious ways. It operates on both a micro and macro level. For this reason, it’s so hard to talk about racism, or even recognize it when it’s going on.

So sorry, just because you’re not burning crosses on some black person’s lawn doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not part of the problem. It’s important that we recognize the different ways racism exists in the world, because being aware is the first step in fixing the problem. The fact of the matter is, there’s no one specific kind of racism or racist. There are many types of racists, and they come in all forms, from the blatant to to the inconspicuous. Below is a list of just a few of the different kinds….

Click here to read more.

VIDEO: How Racist Are You? with Jane Elliott

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“For this Channel 4 documentary Jane Elliott, a controversial former schoolteacher from Ohio, is recreating the shocking exercise she used forty years ago to teach her nine year-old pupils about prejudice.

Elliott is asking thirty adult British volunteers – men and women of different ages and backgrounds – to experience inequality based on their eye color to show how susceptible we can all be to bigotry, and what it feels like to be on the other side of arbitrary discrimination.

Does Elliott’s exercise still have something to teach us four decades on and in a different country? Presented by Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the exercise is observed throughout by two expert psychologists, Prof Dominic Abrams and Dr Funké Baffour, who will be unpicking the behavior on display.”

Video: How racist are you?

Questions:

What do you think about this social experiment?

Are we all more racist than we realize or would like to admit?

 

New Zealand All Blacks

The All Blacks are New Zealand’s national rugby team and the most successful international rugby side of all-time. With a winning percentage of 76.4 over 526 Tests (1903-2014) they are noted as one of the most prolific teams across any sport. It’s interesting to see this wholly positive association with the color black. Also, the team just won the World Cup of Rugby today!

Click here to read more about the team.

Click here to see their fearsome Haka.

 

Solving the School Discipline Gap

Joseph C. Phillip frames the debate in terms of students’ family life and single vs. two parent homes, rather than bigotry in school disciplinarians. He thinks that focusing only on race-talk on this issue will lead to unsatisfactory solutions that institutionalize the idea that there is something inherently different culturally that leads to black children misbehaving.

“A 2006 study claims Seattle school teachers discipline black students more than their white peers. How about a solution that doesn’t involve pulling the ‘race card?’ […] We can either march forward under the illusion that a discipline gap exists because teachers are a bunch of racists, suspending black children more than white for no other reason than the color of their skin. Or, we can finally realize that a breakdown in the traditional family structure, and an embrace of the destructive social behavior and attitudes that have accompanied it, is playing the devil with our children.”

Click here to read/listen to more.

Questions:

Do you agree of disagree with Phillip’s interpretation of this issue?

Do you think that solutions should be focused on race or family life? Another related factor? A mix of these?

Delinquent. Dropout. At-Risk. When Words Become Labels

Sidney Poitier (right) and Glenn Ford (standing) in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle.

Much of our recent reporting, especially from New Orleans, has focused on young people who are neither in school nor working. There are an estimated 5 1/2 million of them, ages 16 to 24, in the United States.

But what do we call them?

And does the nomenclature matter?

Click here.