Brown v. Board of Education

Each member of this group should do the following:

1. Provide a brief summary (in your own words) of your topic.

2. State what you want your audience to understand after they watch your performance.

3. Identify your best source for primary source material thusfar.

Vinny- Avatar a racist movie?

Many of you may know the movie avatar. The movie takes place on a distant planet that is populated by aliens called “Na'vi”. The Na’vi are blue skinned and have no idea about human technology. A disabled Marine, played by the Australian actor Sam Worthington, is sent to study their ways until he develops feelings for them. He then helps them fight against the “White invaders”. The members of the Na’vi tribe are played by black actors such as Zoe Saldana and Laz Alonso.

A columnist writing in the New York Times, David Brooks says "Avatar is a racial fantasy par excellence ... It rests on the stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic. It rests on the assumption that non-whites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades. It rests on the assumption that illiteracy is the path to grace.” Some people compare the ruthless treatment of the Na'vi has been interpreted as a metaphor for the plight of American Indians.

In the 1970s a movie that also had the “White Messiah” lead actor were big. The movie was called “A man called horse,” which is about a man captured by souix Indians and becomes their leader. David Brooks says that this movie and Avatar have the same racial concept, that the colonial victims need the white mans help.

Annalee Newitz, editor-in-chief of io9.com, a sci-fi website, said: "The main white characters realise that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, aka people of colour ... then go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed. When will whites stop making these movies and start thinking about race in a new way?" Cameron denies any racism saying his movie “Avatar” "asks us to open our eyes and truly see others, respecting them even though they are different, in the hope that we may find a way to prevent conflict and live more harmoniously on this world. I hardly think that is a racist message."

The movie still managed to rake in 1 billion dollars in tickets the first 17 days and became the second highest grossing film of all time behind “Titanic”

Question- Do you believe that this movie has a racist message? By that I mean, do you think the lead actor is a "White Messiah" and the Na'vi are almost like the Native Americans? Why or why not?

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/6968020/Avatar-hit-by-claims-of-racism.html

Racism in Soccer

The title of my article was "UK Legislators to Investigate Racism in Sports." The main idea is that high profile racism is currently starting to show up in soccer in the UK. Many are very surprised that this is happening because the UK has a very good record of having good race relations. John Whittingdale, the chairman of the culture, media, and sports committee, says "The hope that racism on and off the pitch in football was a thing of the past has been shaken by some of the incidents that have occurred."

English Captain John Terry will be put on trial February 1st, and Liverpool Striker Luis Suarez has an eight-match ban and a $62,000 fine. Terry is charged for racially abusing a black opponent, Anton Fertinand, during a Premier Leauge match. Suarez also directed racial abuse towards Patrice Evra from Manchester United, by calling Evra "Negro" seven times.

Source:

http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/articles/2012/01/10/uk_legislators_to_investigate_racism_in_sports/

Question: Why do you think racism in this country is starting to show up now all of the sudden? Are the punishments too harsh, or should more have been done?

City Council Candidate denied chance to run because she doesn't speak good English

Adam Aucoin

Current Event

The title of my current event is “Judge: Candidate’s grasp of English is too poor for her to run for office.” I got the article off of cnn.com. The main idea of the article is that Alejandrina Cabrera, a female politician is being disallowed for running for public office due to her not speaking very fluent in English. She was running to be a member of the San Luis city council in Arizona. The judge at Yuma County Court declared that her English was not proficient enough to run for office. The city of San Luis is heavily populated with Hispanics. 87% of residents speak a language other than English at home and 98.7% of residents are of Hispanic descent, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Cabrera told the New York Times, “You go to the market, it’s Spanish. You go to the doctor, it’s Spanish. when you pay the bills for the lights or water, it’s Spanish.

With all the talk about Spanish being prominent it can be tough to see why it is such a big deal she is running for city council. Although when it comes to politics, it is a different story. You need certain language skills to function in that setting.

Juan Carlos Escamilla, the mayor of San Luis, had major doubts about Cabrera’s ability to do that job with her lack of English proficiency. He went on to file a lawsuit wanting the courts to decide if her language skills were adequate. The fight became intense when opponents tried to block her from running after she tried to remove Escamilla from office. People were wondering at this point how much English is needed to run for office. Cabrera told the New York Times, I speak little English. The newspaper said it was said in a very heavy accent.

Yuma County Superior Court Judge John Nelson made is ruling after a series of testimonies by linguistic experts and Cabrera. Cabrera is a US citizen and was asked where she graduated from, where she was born and what her name was. She was able to tell her lawyer her name and where she was born but struggled to say where she graduated. She was asked that questions 3 times, but couldn’t answer in English. The judge then made his ruling against Cabrera. He said it wasn’t an intelligence issue, but rather a lack of proficiency in English.

Cabrera and her lawyers weren’t satisfied so they argued in court that the ruling was unfair and unconstitutional. They believed that there aren’t any specific standards for proficiency of a council candidate.

This pressing issue has been a part of GOP debates this week, where many believe that English should be the official language and the only one taught in schools. Many believe that this should be the truth and that within our government everyone should speak English, but others think different. A Altino Elected Officials executive director, Arturo Vargas says, I think it should be up to the yvoters to decide what kind of representative they want. I think it doesn’t serve our democracy well when people are not given all the options that they have.

The historical significance of this article is that it brings up many key issues that regard English possibly being our official language. This debate continues to heat up as 30 states already have passed laws making English the official language there. In the end though, passing such a federal bill would go against the Civil Rights act of 1964, that prohibits discrimination against any race, ancestry, national origin or ethnicity. It also would corrupt the diversity that has filled our country as long as it has been around. Looking back at the history of San Luis’ city council and government as a whole, it is clear that since the origin of this city many of their city officials have been of Hispanic descent. In a political sense, it is tough debate to decide what amount of English a candidate needs to be able to understand. In the end though it comes down to the voters and who they think will represent them the best.

Question: Do you feel the judge had the right to deny this women the chance to run for city council? How well must a candidate speak English to consider electing them to office? Do you feel like English should become the official language of the United States?

Avoid Ghetto App created by Microsoft

          Microsoft recently outed their new app for GPS's and cellphones which allows drivers to steer clear of unsafe neighborhoods. A lot of people have been calling it the "avoid ghetto" app in which the unsafe neighborhoods are defined by high rates of crime and weather. But, many critics are debating that this new application is racist.

          The use of the word ghetto dates back to about 1600 in Venice. In a time when some areas of Europe were expelling their Jewish population, Venice opted to allocate a part of the city to their Jewish population to isolate them from the "regular" population. This enabled the citizens of Venice to use the services of the Jewish merchants, bankers and doctors, but still have them isolated. In the 1890s the word, which originally referred specifically to an area which Jews has to live by law, was expanded to denote any run-down urban area inhabited by an ethnic minority. Since the 1960s this use has become widespread.

          In the presence of this new app, many soccer moms and traveling salesmen are taking grasp of the idea, because they do not want their kids to be in danger, or their clients. However, Cleveland Councilman, Zack Reed, believes the app is a very bad idea. He believes that it discriminates against neighborhoods where many good people are trying to make a living. He gave an example about driving down the road you live on, but the app says to avoid that road, therefore the app is telling you that your neighborhood is not safe. Reed believes that by the app saying his neighborhood is not safe, the opportunity to create jobs and economic opportunities won't be the same. Sarah Chinn, the author of Technology and the Logic of American Racism, thinks that the app is appalling. She said that crimes happen in all kinds of neighborhoods and that there are perpetrators of domestic violence, drug possession, fraud, theft, and rape in every area. Many observers believe this new technology to be racist in the sense that high crime rates are often paired with African-Americans. This application is set to be for Windows cell phones coming this year.

Question:     Do you believe that this new technology is racist? Why is there so much controversy over it? Would you buy this app, why or why not?

Sources: 

http://www.wtam.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=122520&article=9615793

http://www.woio.com/story/16519136/avoid-ghetto-app

http://theweek.com/article/index/223122/microsofts-avoid-ghetto-app-racist

Should Racism Be Called a Mental Illness?

Two years ago Buford O. Furrow Jr. went into a Jewish community center in Los Angeles and shot the center up. His excuse for the shooting was that he did it as a "wake-up call to America to kill Jews." Furrow was a member of a white supremacist group and extremely racist. A year before the shooting, he attempted to check himself into a mental hospital because he constantly said "he wanted to shoot people and kill himself too." With the shooting taking place, a debate re-opened as to whether or not racism should be considered a mental illness. The argument against it would be "it would open a way for violent racists to plead insanity to avoid punishment for their crimes." Currently, The American Psychiatric Association (APA) doesn't list racism on its list of mental disorders. However, most psychiatrists only see racism as a cultural and social problem. APA President Daniel Borenstein said "Brutal, violent hate crimes are usually committed by mean, not sick, individuals and groups. We must not provide the convient excuse of mental illness for those who are not genuinely ill." The prosecutor in Furrow's case highly doubts that having racism classified as a mental illness will allow racists to escape punishment. In Furrow's situation he wounded five people and killed one in the shooting, he ended up facing the death penalty after pleading guilty. The question that still remains is whether or not racism should be considered a mental illness by all.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=128799&page=1#.TxW6Am-XRI4

Nobel Peace Prize

Three women who fought injustice, dictatorship and sexual violence in Liberia and Yemen received the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in the Norwegian Capital. The three women were Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee who also lives in Liberia, and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen.

The United States started Liberia. The last woman to win the Nobel Peace prize in the United States was in 1997 and was Jody Williams.

These three women represent the struggle for “Human rights in general and women for equality and peace in particular” There has not been a women or sub-Saharan African to win the prize since 2004.

Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia in 2005 and won the re-election in October. She helped her country emerge from a bad civil war.

Gbowee campaigned for a long time, for the rights of women and against rape. In 2003 she led hundreds of female protesters through Monrovia to demand swift disarmament of fighters, who continued to rape women; event thought they had the peace deal that ended the civil war.

And Karman won the prize because she was the leader of the human rights group Women Journalists without chains. She was the first Arab women to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the youngest she is 32. They are hoping since she won that many more women will go out and protest against the leader of their country who people want to get rid of.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/10/three-women-accept-nobel-peace-prize/

Question: Why do you think that a woman winning the Nobel Peace prize was such a big deal? Why do you think more men have won this prize then Women?