Blog 5 Successful Black Man memes

The reading from our text last week--"A Dozen Demons" by Ellis Cose--reminded me of some memes I'd first seen a few years ago such as this one: http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/440068-successful-black-man. 

The memes are supposed to work in the following way: you view the text at the top, in this case "I'll take you to my dealer," and then you view the picture of the black man in a suit. The fact that he's black implies that the text at the bottom will have something to do with a drug dealer or something illegal--this is a racial stereotype. The text at the bottom actually says "I'm sure he can fix you up on a deal for a new car." The fact that the text on the bottom doesn't match the racial stereotype we expected to see is what supposedly makes the meme funny. 

The idea that this meme format--there are thousands of "successful black man" memes that use the same picture from the meme cited above with the text altered--is supposed to be so funny highlights the extent to which racial stereotypes persist today--specifically in our generation of internet-users. The expectation one has after reading the text at the top of the meme and seeing the picture of the man seems to parallel the Low Expectations that Ellis Cose discusses in "A Dozen Demons." According to Cose, "Conrad Harper, former head of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and a partner in Simpson Thacer & Barlett, said that throughout the years he had seen plenty of young associates 'bitterly scarred by not being taken first as lawyers...but always first as African Americans...' If someone's competency is consistently doubted, ‘the person begins to question his own abilities’” (601).

The double-consciousness that a black person experiences in a white collar work environment is likely exacerbated in light of these memes because “black” and “successful” are presented as two supposedly mutually exclusive characteristics. To be/have both defies expectations in a way that is apparently funny.

I realize these memes are supposed to demonstrate a lack of racism; the fact that racism is hinted at and expected seems to indicate some level of racism actually existing. The very idea that viewers of these memes expect them to be racist says something about the viewers themselves, and thus it says something about the expectations people have about black people regardless of their class or their level of achievement in the work world. How can a black person who is a lawyer, for example, expect to be taken as seriously as a white person who is a lawyer when meme’s like the above one are all over the internet? 

Blog 3 Ignore the Westboro Baptist Church

This past week has resulted in much contemplation with regard to the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). I am going to refer to them as a church because that is what they claim to be—I believe they are a cult but I can hardly make a strong case for that argument in 300 words given everything else I want to discuss. The beliefs of WBC, according to its members, hold that homosexuals and people who don’t believe in God (the God that WBC members believe in) are going to hell, and that God hates America because of America’s treatment of homosexuality. These beliefs about people of particular sexualities and religions (or religious beliefs) are learned from early childhood as exemplified in part one of the documentary we watched in class. I think the reason why WBC members hold their beliefs so strongly can be explained via enculturation. WBC members live and interact with each other on a daily basis; the home life of each member consists only of social interactions with other members. I wonder if WBC members would remain so immersed within their belief system if they—especially those between the ages of 10 and 18 because I think this is largely when people begin to think for themselves as to what they should believe independent of what their parents believe—had a home life fully removed from the church.

The extent to which WBC members’ belonging to their church affects their behavior is demonstrated every time they protest via picket signs. I actually think that belonging to WBC requires certain behavior—the church seems to exert some control (implicitly, not through use of force) over its members. I am skeptical of the beliefs of the members of WBC. They claim to be spreading a message to try and warn the rest of the world about God’s hatred of America and of homosexuals and yet when pressed they tend to answer with contradictions. Why warn the world if God has already designated who is going to hell and who isn’t? Why spread this message in such an offensive manner? Many of WBC’s members have a college education and they have lived amongst other American citizens long enough to know that spreading a message of hate—offensively—will not change anyone’s mind. WBC members really only aim to piss people off and turn heads. They have a sensationalist agenda—the media only adds fuel to the flames which this article argues: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-03-10/news/bs-ed-funeral-protests-20110310_1_funeral-protests-westboro-baptist-church-fred-phelps

 

Here’s a video that serves as an example of the media giving WBC the attention they desire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yES1izpdf0

Sorry for the poor quality.

Blog 2 Living as a Deaf person in a hearing world

I found the following Ted Talk on youtube.com given by Rachel Kolb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKKpjvPd6Xo

In her talk, Rachel discusses many of the troubles she faces as a deaf person living in a ‘hearing world’ (hence the title of the talk). In the Rossenblum and Travis reading [Ethnicity, Ethics, and the Deaf-World by Harlan Lane] I was initially skeptical at the claim that Deaf people should be thought of as an ethnic group. Certainly, I thought, not being able to hear is a limitation by definition and thus Deaf people should be thought of as disabled. Personally I may be even more biased than the average person simply because of the extent to which my life revolves around music—I can’t conceive of a world in which I can’t listen to music. However, the collective values, feelings of community, history, social structures, and (of course) the common language amongst Deaf people—as outlined in the reading—communicated to me that defining Deaf people as an ethnic group might be appropriate.  

In the video Rachel says, “Society has a tendency to focus on disability rather than ability, and certainly my abilities are different than many other people’s abilities” (3:45) which outlines the idea that society wants to treat Deaf people as people with disabilities—they ignore the other abilities the Deaf people may have and focus on their inability to hear. More specifically, and this struck me, Rachel cited the following fact: “Deaf children born to deaf parents are less likely to develop fluent written English than children born to deaf parents” (the citation is in the video). This largely supports the idea from the text that Deaf parents hoping for their children to be Deaf isn’t necessarily a bad thing; in fact, it turns out that Deaf children are more likely to learn signing at an early age if they are born to Deaf parents, and the earlier a language is learned in a person’s life, the more likely they are to learn that language more fully and thus be more able to communicate.

The text and Rachel Kolb’s ted talk both left me with many questions, but I will focus on one here. If Deaf people are an ethnic group, to what extent can they seek out resources that help them in a ‘hearing world?’ The text discusses how we shouldn’t think of Deaf people as people with disabilities and also that we shouldn’t think of Deaf people jointly as an ethnic group and as people with disabilities. It becomes difficult to allocate resources for people who can’t hear when they want to be defined purely in terms of an ethnic group. The text further admits that Deaf people have secured accommodations in the past due to their classification as people with disabilities. This leads me to wonder if simply defining Deaf people as an ethnic group that communicates visually will allow them to secure any accommodations that may be required outside of those that can be obtained by ethnic minorities.