Essay On Race And Culture

One key concept to understand when trying to face oppression is that oppression isn’t just one general issue. Oppression comes in many different forms and is a problem on many different levels.  The three different levels oppression can appear in is individual, cultural and institutional. (Robinson, Handout “oppression

or the other is not looked upon as politically incorrect or wrong-minded. However, it allows

Because of this portrayal of Asian women, many Asian women feel that they are being approached by men in a bad way. The submissiveness and weakness of these characters have angered many. Western dramas have portrayed Asian women as submissive and

There are some who may argue that oppression is a concept of the past and that it does not exist in our modern society; however, oppression it not always an overt power one person or group exerts over another. It can come in more subtle forms, many of which that have become such normative aspects of our society that some oppressors and oppressed individuals alike may not immediately recognize its impact. In

In past century, optimists have predicted the post racial utopian after new technology brought in virtual lives online, however, in “ Inequality: Can Social Media Resolve Social Divisions?” Social media scholar Danah Boyd argues that social media has not erase the social or racial divisions that are deeply rooted in our physical schools and communities, on contrary, it extends offline social divisions including racism and bigotry virtually online. Boyd develops her idea by in-depth interviewing numerous teenagers with different racial and social backgrounds and analyzing various sources regarding social networks and their effect on teens lives. She shows concern and frustration towards the fact that race-based dynamics of

In Western culture, people seldom realize the amount of cultural appropriation that occurs around them. Westerners are blinded by cultural mockery and cultural appropriation without realizing its offensive effects to minority groups. During the Halloween holiday, in Western culture, people of all ages dress up in a variety of costumes such as horror themed, fairy tale themed, job themed, cultural themed and much more. Harvard University members have argued that a cultural themed costume is a form of cultural appropriation. Also in Western culture, in the music industry, white artists have utilized and exploited aspects from minority cultures to boost their fame. Costumes, props, ideas, music, and others considered as cultural appropriation is often overlooked but it is apparent when closely examined.

University of Michigan professor, Lisa Nakamura’s work entitled Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet examines how different races are represented online. The Internet, according to Nakamura, is a place where ‘race happens’ (p.xi), and the stereotypes that are found on/offline define Cybertypes. These Cybertypes lay out the unique ways in which the Internet ‘propagates, disseminates, and commodifies images of race and racism’ (p.3)

Utilizing a virtual world online enables people to become whomever they want. People utilize online social spaces and virtual worlds to escape the reality of our actual world for various reasons. In addition, colorblind racial attitudes are viewed by many as the excuse that is given by members of the majority that suggest that the systematic discrepancies that exist in our society are justifiable. This is mentioned within the article; however, it is not directly tied to the overall relevance of the entire experience, as it should be. The fact that an individual can be prejudice to another individual or group of people without directly exposing it to the world makes the method used to conduct this survey practically insignificant. To support this idea, the author mentions that all of the research on colorblind racial attitudes has relied on self-reported behaviors. Colorblind racial attitudes are extremely hard to replicate in a scenario that doesn’t involve physical interaction amongst people or the explicit statement from an individual themselves stating that they have a colorblind racial attitude. Once more, the ability for a person to use the term “colorblind” to hide the truth that they may be prejudice towards other races is the key flaw of this

In today’s mainstream media, there exists a visible lack of Asian American representation. When they are given roles in film and television, those roles often maintain the stereotypical ideology which has been dominant for decades. Asian American stereotypes in these media range from hard-working and servile to masters of the martial arts and often put forth a misguided or exaggerated impression of what Asian Americans are like as a group. I argue that these stereotypical representations of Asian Americans manifest themselves in viewers’ minds and affect the way they view the minority group far after the they power off their television sets. These stereotypes are challenged when individual Asian Americans emerge and do not fit the mold that Hollywood has created for them. The quotes “looking at independent media artifacts, we can see the difficulties of self-representation, the potential for changing and configuring problematic images from Asian American and the media”(Ono) gives us a understanding to what independent media is to Asian Americans. Along with the quote “Inspires the creative expression of “Asian Americans who have felt excluded by particular forms of racialization”(Ono). These quotes will illustrate the shifting paradigm within the media from mainstream media to independent self produced work becoming the norm and how it can change Asian American lives demonstrated in these two films WHITEWASHING & ASIAN REPRESENTATION | Diversity Speaks - 2017 LA Film

Asian and Latino women, are also ethnic minorities who are predominately portrayed in mainstream media as sexualized and or exotic (Brooks, 2006). Particularly in film, Asian women are frequently represented as passive characters, whose sole purpose is to be of service to men, especially White men. Asian American’s have been described as being the ‘model minority,’ and are often portrayed as nerdy or associated with technology (Mastro, 2015). Once more, the racial representations of Asian Americans influence audiences’ perceptions and can take misinformation about the group or culture as the truth (Brooks, 2006).

Cultural appropriation is shown in many ways among the public. When a member of the majority takes an element of a minority culture and attempts to make it their own, they are appropriating the minority’s culture. Appropriating a culture is disrespectful and can lead to loss of valuable meaning of cultural practices. This is shown in many ways, such as the use of blackface or wearing a significant piece of Native American history as a fashion accessory. Each of these elements is an example of appropriation of a minority culture and is never acceptable and needs to be stopped.

Society plays a major role in classifying people race, ethnicity, and social treatment. The definition of race can be put into two categories biological and sociological factors. Race is an ideology that people use to describe the physical and genetic makeup of an individual. A person racial construction greatly impacts an individual’s identity. This is look as the person skin color, facial bone structure, eyes, and hair color.

these ideas originate from. The media needs to stop glorifying these celebrates and see that they are being extremely offensive to these cultures.

The television shows that we watch daily reflect the currents or past events that occur in our nation, and/or history. Specifically, in America TV shows portray society through the lens of a Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory is a framework in which the topic of power and oppression all intertwines on race, social class, and gender. Moreover, Critical Race Theory parallels with Master Narrative and Counter Narrative. Master narrative is a spoken or unspoken narrative that is presented and defined under a superior perspective. Unlike, Counter Narrative that challenges Master Narrative and presents a narrative through the lens of a less dominant view. An example of the Critical Race Theory vividly present is the TV show called

As stated in “Politics and Ethics in Social Media”, “…The use of such media is now intrinsic to contemporary political, social and identity forming processes…” The second perspective provided in this same chapter is “culture of prejudice” which “refers to the theory that prejudice is embedded in our culture. We grow up surrounded by images of stereotypes and casual expressions of racism and prejudice…” (237). It would be difficult to determine the magnitude of influence these labels and terms have had on our sociological imagination.