Educating The Simpsons : Teaching Queer Representation Of Contemporary Visual Media Essay

African Americans are fighting for their lives in a war that they do not even know exist. In Ralph Ellison’s short story, “Battle Royal,” this idea is made clear by the narrators struggle to be seen as an equal among the white men in the story. Ellison uses a white woman, a blindfold, and an electric rug as symbols to illustrate the struggles African Americans face.

"Battle Royal" gives the reader a frightening look at just how society looks at blacks. In the

Exploring Chapter 1, allowed me to view the way different cultures took advantage of not only African Americans, but Native Americans as well. Native Americans were invaded by Spanish settlers, taken into slavery and forced to live with harsh living conditions. Settlers exposed them to a vast number of diseases, and tricked other Native Americans into agreements, in which they were starved, made to live in the cold, and which ultimately led to the death of many of them. Native Americans were resistant to being

Racism is an issue that blacks face, and have faced throughout history directly and indirectly. Ralph Ellison has done a great job in demonstrating the effects of racism on individual identity through a black narrator. Throughout the story, Ellison provides several examples of what the narrator faced in trying to make his-self visible and acceptable in the white culture. Ellison engages the reader so deeply in the occurrences through the narrator’s agony, confusion, and ambiguity. In order to understand the narrators plight, and to see things through his eyes, it is important to understand that main characters of the story which contributes to his plight as well as the era in which the story takes place.

“Battle Royal” provides a realistic portrait of the difficulty of being a black person in a

Racial diversity is something that is often discussed on college campuses. As a student who self-identifies as a minority in more ways than one I often feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the subject of racism and race. However, often times when these issue are discussed I learn something new; this was the case when reading the articles this week. This week’s articles examined the issue of race from different perspectives. This allowed me to re-examine the issue in a fuller manner; it also allowed me to question some of my own notions that I hadn’t really challenged before.

A lack of self-awareness tended the narrator’s life to seem frustrating and compelling to the reader. This lack often led him to offer generalizations about ““colored” people” without seeing them as human beings. He would often forget his own “colored” roots when doing so. He vacillated between intelligence and naivete, weak and strong will, identification with other African-Americans and a complete disavowal of them. He had a very difficult time making a decision for his life without hesitating and wondering if it would be the right one.

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, is a six-part Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television series that chronicles the African-American experience beginning with the origins of the transatlantic slave trade, journeying to the inauguration of the first African-American president. It recounts the African American history, exploring the African-American people, including the diversity of cultural institutions, political strategies, and the religious and social perspectives they have developed- establishing their own culture, history, and society all while traveling a journey of unimaginable odds. In addition, this series travels through 5 centuries of historical events and struggles, ending with the present- detailing the strides African Americans made towards resiliency, a sense of community, social connections, social networks, social support, and connections of faith.

Within the content of this paper, I will be describing the four theories learned from the readings this week. The theory’s that will be covered are Racial Identity Theory, Social Capital Theory, Critical Race Theory, and what Cultural Competency is. I will also provide examples of each theory along with a brief video and movie clips to further demonstrate my comprehension.

These battles are directly represented by the barbarous fighting by 10 boys in a ring, being witnessed by whites in high social standing. Totally engrossed by the fighting these men yelled cruel things and became frenzied. This is representative of the how our nation’s white population treated African Americans for many years. Often they took a stance of authority, feeling superior to the black minorities. This belief is portrayed by the men’s angered actions toward the boys.

Of the four panelists in the C-Span Panel Discussion on “Who is Black” I am going to focus on Tiya Miles and Deborah Grey White’s presentations on the topic. Tiya Miles is professor of African and Native American history at the University of Michigan, and a main point of her presentation is the idea that the African American community and culture share many similarities with the original inhabitants of the Americas. Miles gives detail to the significant historical interactions between Native Americans and the Africans brought to their lands, and how this allowed for the absorption of native culture and ethnicity into the African American population. For Miles, African American identity is fluid, sharing many ethnic, religious, and cultural

Like the characters in “Battle Royal”, African Americans have to fight each other in real life because whites leave them so little (Brent 2). The white society sees itself as superior; therefore, it does not provide for African Americans. Blacks are then forced to compete within themselves in life. To

Focusing on this unique feature, many media scholars have discussed how racial issues are portrayed in the artificial-but-actual apparatus and what particular implications we can draw (Bell-Jordan, 2008; Boylorn, 2008; Orbe, 2008; Squires, 2008). Several studies on reality TV criticize the genre fails to offer broader context to grasp the complicated and serious social issues (Andrejevic, 2004; Bondebjerg, 1996; Kraszewski, 2004; Syvertsen, 2001), and depends on the pre-established framework about race by casting its participants who fit into racial stereotypes (Tyree, 2011) or by emphasizing the stereotypical facets of the participants (Bell-Jordan, 2008; Kraszewski, 2004). Several reality TV shows, MTV’s Real World, FX network’s Black.White., CBS’s Survivor: Cook Islands, have ambivalence in promoting and dramatizing racial conflicts between different raced

Bisexual. Gay. Lesbian. These are all words that in today’s society are becoming more and more common to hear. Although just a few years ago hearing these words might have shocked some and angered many, they are becoming a part of today’s norm. People are broadening their views on sexuality and the possibilities open to them. Being bisexual, gay, or lesbian is slowly becoming accepted. On television a few years ago, a comedic sitcom Ellen attempted to make gays even more accepted by casting the main character as a gay woman. Sadly, Ellen failed because viewers weren’t ready for gays to be seen in a comfortable TV setting. The idea was too new and the show was before

The depiction of transgender women characters in mainstream television has been offensive, insulting and derogatory. An article from GLADD called “Victims or Villains: Examining Ten Years of Transgender Images on Television”, examines 102 episodes and storylines on mainstream television that contained transgender characters since 2002. Of these, more than half were characterized as containing negative representations of transgender. In 2007 only 1% of television series had a recurring transgender character, which has slowly increased to 4% in 2013.