Tim Wise Blog

I really enjoyed watching this video. Tim Wise speaks about this issue so eloquently. He is very straightforward in making his points and yet he manages to not seem like he is being forceful. He is very realistic and while he talks about how far we have to go before erasing racism he does not sound pessimistic and also talks about how far we have come. Unlike many people Tim Wise realizes and is able to admit that racism is still a problem in America. In this interview he says "I'm cautiously optimistic and I mean I like to be hopeful but it's important that we deal with what's real". I think that this is a great way of thinking. With Obama being elected president I think a lot of people just thought this meant the end of the problems we have been plagued with but in reality it is not. It is okay to be optimistic about what Obama's election means to black people/minorities but at the same time realize that the problems did not automatically end at his inauguration.

There were a few things that stood out to me that Tim Wise said during this interview:


"We need to be on the lookout for the potential success of racism 2.0 or enlightened exceptionalism which essentially is the kind that allows folks to support Obama because they view him as so many said they did, as transcending race as different from the black or brown norm. And my fear there is that if the black and brown norm is still considered in a negative light the fact that we can carve out exceptions for certain people of color that make us comfortable is not going to get us the whole way towards racial equity- it's a start but we obviously therefore have a lot to do"

This quote really made me think- I myself have heard people refer to Obama as 'transcending race' and I think this is meant to be a positive statement for Obama but essentially, after hearing what Tim Wise says about this issue, it is not. The fact that Obama is said to transcend race from the black or brown "norm" is, I think, actually pretty negative. This is actually saying that there is a "norm" for all colored people, essentially stating that there is a 'normal' way that all people of color act. The fact that Obama is an 'exception', in many people's minds, to the way people of color behave is evidence how how far we still have to come towards erasing racism. This shows that many people view African Americans, and other minority groups, as a race where only a few people achieve greatness, like Obama has 'even though' they are black, not because they are simply great politicians, leaders, and individuals.

It is as if Obama has become president DESPITE the fact that he is black because of the negative stereotypes that still exist. If we flip this situation around however, Preside Bush (in my opinion) was able to speak like a complete buffoon throughout his presidency but his poor leadership was not looked at to exist despite the fact that he was white, in the same way that if Obama were to speak poorly his speech would be attributed to the fact that he is black.

This point also all goes with when Tim Wise said "We as white folks can be really articulate or really inarticulate and still be president".

Interviewer: "You have to be truly exceptional to break the glass ceiling"
Tim Wise: "The proof of racial equity will be the day when people of color can be a mediocre as white folks and still get hired"


I think what they both say in these two lines, and in some of the dialogue that follows, is really important. Why is it that a white person can be just mediocre while a black person needs to be exceptional in order to get any recognition? It's a double standard that I think a lot of people are not fully aware of. We've come very far in treating people of all races the same but I think a lot of people are blind to the fact that regardless of the progress made, it is still so much easier for a white person to climb to the top of the ladder.

This part of the interview is not only important for people of color to realize how hard they must work, but as Tim says, it is important to aspire to that standard (of Obama). It is also important, as Wise says, that we do not place a standard on people of color, that they must be as articulate as Obama in order to have something to offer because we may be missing out on some people who could contribute great things.

There is a close relationship between this contemporary issue and Brown v. Board of Education. The ruling of Brown v. Board ended segregation in schools legally, ut this change did not happen overnight. It took years for some schools to actually become integrated, both because it was difficult to do so and because some areas still did not want integration to occur. The same holds true when looking at Obama's presidency. the fact that a black man could become president just 50 years after segregation was legal says a lot for how far we have come. This does not mean that racism is no longer a problem. we have made yet another step in the right direction, but we still have far to go before racism is no longer present in America.

In The Service Of What? The Politics of Service Learning: Kahne and Westheimer

1. "Service learning can advance other priorities, such as the acquisition of vocational skills."

This quote states that there are many things to learn from Service Learning. By volunteering we learn what it is like for other people, to have compassion for those who are less fortunate, we learn who we are and how we fit into this world, service learning helps develop life skills, and as this quote says service learning helps us acquire vocational skills as well. I feel that this reason, along with many others is why service learning should have a place in all schools, especially high schools. I know many of my classmates in high school had no idea what they wanted to do "when they grew up", I think this is mostly because we are never given the opportunity to really try our hand at an occupation until we are finally forced to decide what we want to major in in college. This is why so many people end up changing their majors after paying thousands of dollars, because they simply had no idea what the career that they chose was actually going to be like. If service learning was a part of high schools students would not only get the chance to help their community, and learn all of the above things that I already mentioned, service learning would give students the occupation to perhaps select to volunteer in a position related to the field they are interested in going into and thus would also get a chance to see what that career is like all while learning vocational skills that would help them later on should they select this career. This of course is also true in college as well as we all have begun our service learning projects. I think it is great that we get a chance to see what it is like in the classroom setting early in our education program at RIC because it gives us a chance to see if this career is really the right choice before it is 'too late'.

2. "For example: a music director at a middle school we studied wanted her suburban upper-middle class students to perform at a nearby elementary school in a poor neighborhood. Some of the middle school parents objected, saying that they were concerned for their children's safety. In a written evaluation, the students said that they had imagined "horrifying children running around on a dirty campus." they had expected them to be "rude, tough, noisy, and very unfriendly." They had even thought they would be "mean, gang-related blacks." One of the students wrote, "I was scared because my mom had told me it was a bad neighborhood and to careful."

This quote most certainly reminded me of how many of the people in our class reacted to having to go to Providence Public Schools for their Service Learning placements. The children in this article were all scared of going to the school for the same exact reasons our classmates were: we were scared of what we had heard, we were scared of the mental picture we had created of these schools based on the rumors we hear about urban schools. Like the middle school students who performed at the urban elementary school we have all found that our initial assumptions about what these schools would be like have been proven completely wrong. The thing I think is important to remember about urban school districts is that the crime rates, for example, are a reflection of the adults living in this area and not the children going to school here. When we think of a poor urban neighborhood many of us tend to think of words such as "rude, and dirty", as the kids in this middle school did, it is important to remember that being from a poor area has nothing to do with how friendly someone is or what the school campus looks like. This quote shows that Service Learning teaches us that our assumptions based on what we have heard are often false.

3. "Democratic politics," Benjamin Barber writes. "has become something we watch rather than something we do."

This quote really struck me because it is just so true. A democratic government, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, is a government "of the people, for the people, and by the people" and yet, sadly, politics, as this quote says, have turned into a spectator sport. People have no problem sitting there and criticizing how our government works but very rarely do they make the effort to actually change what they don't like. Service Learning is one of the many ways that citizens can take an active role in being a part of our democracy rather than just watching it.

This article, honestly, was probably my least favorite so far. I did however find some of the material interesting; I liked reading the part about how the middle school students and parents reacted to going to an urban school, it was interesting to compare their reaction to the way members of our class reacted. I also liked how the article showed the different ways service learning is used in the classroom, such as in Mr. Johnson and Ms. Adams classes, along with the different lessons that can be gained from service learning. I thought that as a whole this article was hard to get through simply because it is written so blandly. Besides when I read the few examples that were given I often found my mind wondering throughout the article and had to keep reading the same parts over and over because I would lose my focus. This article was certainly not a page turner.

Talking Points #4: Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

1. "Kenneth noticed that people of color and poor people are either absent or servants to the rich, white, pretty people"

This quote reminded me of the Carlson article when he talks about how homosexuality is never mentioned in the classroom, and when it is, it is that they were the first group to be diagnosed with AIDS. If homosexuality is only talked about in a negative way, as the group of people who have a horrible disease, than children, unless told otherwise, are only going to think of gay people only in this way. Cartoons have the same, if not even more an affect on children's lives because they are so prevalent. If a white child was to be brought up on these types of cartoons they would only see one representation of people of color, and assume that people of color are the servants of society. These cartoons also have a negative affect on children of color as well. If a African American child is only seeing their race represented as servants to white people what kind of message is that sending to them? They are not being taught that they have every opportunity to succeed and do great things, only that they are doomed to a life of waiting on others.

2. "Both these tales [Cindy Ellie and Cinderella] leave young women with two myths: Happiness means getting a man, and transformation from wretched conditions can be achieved through consumption- in their case, through new clothes and a new hairstyle."

While reading the new version of Cinderella, Cindy Ellie, that this article included, I found it ironic that it is supposed to be "A Modern Fairy Tale" and yet it is essentially exactly the same story, just told using different vocabulary. The original Cinderella story takes place a long time ago, a time where women were treated and thought of as inferior, belonged to their husbands, who were their happiness, and because they really could not move up in society their only means of improvement was a change in personal style. This is certainly not the case at all today, and yet as the quote says the "modern" version of the story still teaches the same ancient lesson. It is as if the author of Cindy Ellie thought that by making Cinderella a black girl, instead of a white girl, and making the setting more modern that that would be enough to make it "modern". It is made evident by this example of a modern fairy tale that modernizing cartoons/fairy tales isn't simply about changing the main characters race and way of speaking, it is about completely changing the mindset of the characters and the lessons that is set forth for the reader.

3. "Women's roles in fairy tales destroy reality- from Jessica Rabbit's six mile strut in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? to Tinker Bell's obsessive vanity in Peter Pan. These seemingly innocent stories teach us to look for our faults. As Tinker Bell inspects her tiny body in a mirror only to find that her minute hips are simply too huge, she shows us how to turn the mirror into an enemy...And this scenario is repeated in girls' locket rooms all over the world."

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was one of my all time favorite movies as a kid, and I can honestly say that the only thing I remember about Jessica Rabbit was always thinking that her dress wasn't very nice, probably because of the extremely high cut slit and excessive amounts of cleavage showing. I don't think I took much notice to those types of things in the film, I was more concerned with the comedy of it but I think this is because of the values my parents taught me.
Anyways, back to the quote, thinking about these things now, it is no wonder why so many girls suffer through eating disorders and poor self image when we are told from the second we're old enough to watch TV that we must be a size 0 to fit in and be beautiful. I think most of us think of things such as magazines and regular TV shows/commercials as being to blame for teen girls (and adult women) having such a poor self body image, but this article made it clear that we are made to believe these things long before we are even old enough to pick up a magazine.

I found this article to be extremely easy to read. It was amazing to see just how much the media, even something that just seems to be a simple childish cartoon, can shape our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves and those around us. This article made it clear that children's entertainment needs to change. We are all trying to move towards an equal society, regardless of sex, age, gender, race, etc. but how can we expect that to happen when our future generations are still be taught old ideals through the shows that they watch on television?

I must say however I didn't necessarily completely agree with everything in this article. For starters, I don't think all Disney films need to be banned from our children, like some of the students in this article thought. Do we need to make children's entertainment more diverse, and represent reality? Yes, of course. But should the movie Cinderella be taken away from every little girl in America? No. The article also talks about how the girls in the class wanted to change the race of the actors but not the "class or underlying inequalities" of characters such as Cinderella, Ariel, and Snow White, I think this is because while you can can change the race of a character by simply having a actor of color play the part, but how can you change the class of these characters without completely changing the story? Cinderella's story is based on the fact that her rich father has died and she is left with no money from her evil step-mother/sisters. Ariel is the daughter of KING Triton, changing her class would completely change the story. I could go on and on but I think you get my point.

I think it is important to make children aware that these fairy tales take place a long time ago, when things were different and make sure they are exposed to a wide variety of different kinds of cartoons that accurately represent different races, classes, etc. I think some of the more offensive cartoons should certainly be kept away from children. It is clear from this article though that what children are seeing is having a negative affect on them and a change needs to occur.

Talking Points #3: Carlson

1. "English literature anthologies still go out of their way to avoid acknowledging that certain famous writers were gay, such as Gertrude Stein, Walt Whitman, or James Baldwin. This cleansing of gayness from the literary canon is often defended as an effort to maintain the reputation or "good name" of authors by not "outing" them. Yet such concern is, of course, another way of affirming that being gay is cause for a loss of respect"

As I read this particular quote I felt torn on how I feel about this issue. While I think it is very important to make young people (and all people for that matter) aware that some of the greatest literary geniuses were gay in order to provide gay youth with strong and talented role models as well as to provide an example to all people that sexuality does not affect what one can achieve at the same time I feel like it should be irrelevant. It is not as if an English text book would explicitly state if an author was straight (not in an English text book I've read in school that is). What matters is that the author is/was a PERSON that is/was a talented writer. This quote reminded me of how African American authors/ any black author is always described as a 'black author' but never do you ever hear of someone being referred to as a 'white author'. In the same way that race should not be regarded as a factor that effects a person's talent as a writer, neither should sexuality. As I said before though, I am torn on this issue. By not making people aware of the fact that such great writers were gay and being silent on the topic it reinforces the idea that the topic of homosexuality is taboo to talk about and wrong.

2. "To the extent that gaynes is recognized in the curriculum, it is likely to be in the health curriculum, where it is associated with disease. For example, one of the most popular health text on the high school market is Health: A Guide to Wellness, which mentions homosexuals or homosexuality once in acknowledging that "the first ground in the United states diagnosed with AIDS we male homosexuals."

Until I read this quote I never really realized this, but as I began to think about it, it is so true. Although I feel my high school was/is extremely accepting of homosexuality compared to the stories I've heard about how gay people are treated in other schools, the only time homosexuality was really ever talked about formally in school was in health class when we learned about AIDS. My health teachers made sure however that we were always made aware that while AIDS is more prevalent in the gay community it is not a 'gay person's' disease, that we all must take the necessary precautions to protect ourselves from contracting HIV and that just because a person it gay, it of course does not mean that they have AIDS and that you could catch it by simply being in their presence. As I began to think about this quote I thought about how if a student did not have teachers like I had, and was only taught what their health book said. That student would only view homosexuals as the first group in the United States to be diagnosed with AIDS. If another group was only refered to in this way, for example if white Americans were only referred to in a history book as being the first people to own African slaves (for lack of a better example), there would be outrage but yet homosexuality is only taught in schools in one negative way and nothing is being done about it.

3. "...homosexual teachers were presumed to be lecherous and develop "ridiculous crushes" on students"

I was nothing short of outraged when I read this quote, along with all of the other points that Carlson includes from Waller. This quote could be nothing further from the truth; just think about any time you have heard about a student-teacher affair happening on the news. Every account I can remember was of a straight teacher having an affair with their student. Though this is the case you don't have people fearful that every straight teacher will develop a crush on their student and while it is generally straight teachers who are the offenders of this crime I highly doubt that any administrator would be wary about hiring a straight teacher.

Though the beginning of the article was a bit more challenging to read than some of the other authors we've read, I found Carlson's article to be extremely interesting, and was by far my favorite piece we've read so far. I wrote a paper last semester for my Writing 100 class about the representation of homosexuals/homosexuality in the media, on the show Will & Grace in particular, and this article would have been a very valuable resource to use for my research. While reading Carlson's article I was constantly being filled with a variety of different emotions, I found myself shocked and angered while reading the negative beliefs of Waller, and enlightened when Carlson would bring up a point that I had never really gave any thought to before.

Carlson's article really brought together many of the points that all of the other author's we've read have made, especially Johnson. Carlson, just like Johnson, believes that we need to talk about homosexuality and the problems that exist rather than silence and ignore them. Throughout the last century we have made great strides in securing rights for gay people, but in order to guarantee equality for the members of the gay community we must first start by properly educating our nation's youth in the classroom about homosexuality.
How do we begin to educate elementary school children about accepting homosexuality when they do not yet understand sexuality?