Blackface

Sitting beside his grandmother, Patrick listens to her recount the life her ancestors lived before coming to America, the Land of the Free. Every word that fell from her mouth expressed such passion, a passion for her family history. He heard the pride in her voice as the story continued. He learned his family was built on strength and kindness, characteristics that still remain. Listening to this story for years, the boy grew up with the same pride in his Irish family that his grandmother…

Films that we watch and enjoy present racism that is subtle and strategically positioned that allows audiences to believe there is no racial aspects that affect blacks and whites from having a relationship. This hegemonic idea allows audience to enjoy racists films, with some extremely degrading ideas flying over their heads. Lee Antz presented some great insight on black and white buddy films in “Hegemony in Black and White: Interracial Buddy Films and the New Racism" and their attempt to…

For a number of reasons, culture is significant to a variety of ethnicities all around the world. When people think about culture they tend to think of traditions, values, and beliefs. We often gain a sense of knowledge about culture from our family, friends, the education system, and media. Thanks to the many forms of communication surrounding us, it is almost impossible for people in a certain culture to be unaware of cultures outside of their own. When learning about other cultures an…

Black Women 's Assimilation in 1950 In the 1950s, African American women assimilated to the European beauty standard because they wanted to be seen as beautiful in the eyes of white Americans. White people thought black women were ugly because of their “unattractive” natural hair texture and their darker complexion. Because of this, African American women ceased wearing their natural hair because of the continuous judgment of African characteristics and adopted a new type of beauty. Some…

and the sense of community we have at Long Reach. The longer I’ve been there the more this sense of community and togetherness has grown on me, even through challenging times that faced us all. Supporting Point: When an Atholton student posted a blackface picture, frustration erupted through the halls of our school. This anger is not misplaced, it’s 2016 and we still have to deal with homages to minstrel shows of the 19th and 20th centuries? When this happened, our principal Josh Wasileski was…

The worldwide phenomenon that is music is known to have a strong emotional impact on people, tugging at their heartstrings when influential lyrics emphasize the spectrum of personal to ubiquitous issues such as the Civil Rights Movement. Despite this movement occurring several decades ago, the issue regarding racism and discrimination still permeates in societies today. In an effort to address this issue, many artists have decided to write and spread their songs for the world to listen to. John…

The term “Tokenism” is maybe something the average person has never heard of. Tokenism is defined as “ the policy and practice of making a perfunctory gesture towards the inclusion of members of minority groups” If you look at any television show you watch or even movie for the most part you will always find at least one use of tokenism. There 's a token black guy who either acts like he is from what people have deemed the ghetto or he is soulful and acts like he’s from the south.There 's…

Theatre is something that can transform the lives, beliefs, and ideas of many people. Whether it be a small local theatre performance or a Broadway musical, it will impact each and every audience member in some way. Theatre can be controversial, but that makes it generates discussion and brings new issues to light. Controversy causes people to discuss topics and issues in ways they never have before. By having one controversial piece of performance art or one controversial moment in a play can…

Cultural appropriation is defined as the adoption of elements of one culture by members of a different cultural group especially if the adoption is without the consent of the originating culture. The dominant group is usually always the one to exploit the less privileged group, without having any prior knowledge of the items or piece of culture in question that are being appropriated. There are so many Halloween costumes out these days people can literally be anything they want from a fairy to…

Before the modern forms of media were invented, misrepresentations of disabled people existed in countless amounts of works of literature. Although the ableism in television and film is incredibly prevalent today- it is built off of the hundreds of years of creative work that depicts people with physical, mental, and cognitive disabilities as an object used to produce certain emotions from audience. It is a common practice to tell a person offended by this ableism to not read, watch, or listen…