cstemm's blog

This image is a good example of what we talked about in class today. In todays society racism is still very present, but it can go both ways and people can pre- judge based on race. In this cartoon an African- American women is getting ticketed by a white cop and she is punching him and calling him a racist. She is using the fact that she is African American to try and blame the white guy in this situation. In todays society African Americans may be targeted more by the police for discrimination, but by jumping to the conclusion that all white people are racist and try to keep African Amricans from succeding is also racist. Although white is the majority they are still discriminated against and have to face stereotypes. Today minorities as awhole out number whites. People now may be racist is some places toward some peopl, but as a whole white people are not racsist. I think that today it is just as easy for a black person or any other minority to be racist toward whites based on their ancestors opinions and actions toward minorites. As a whole I think that America is full of people, and in some places and situations race my matter but it s not weighted toward one group all of the time. Although no situation or reason should drive someone to display racism, but it happens and now it is not just whites VS. Minorities. One day these situations will not be present. When people relize fully that nothing but color seperates us from being exactly the same as any other person . They may have a family or be a student, a buisness man, or president, but their color should not drive how they are treated.

“Daryl Cagle.” MSNBC.com. Web. 22 Oct 2010. <http://www.cagle.com/news/CynthiaMcKinney/images/cagle00

http://images.chron.com/blogs/artsinhouston/dr-seuss-fifth-column-1943.jpg

I found this image by Dr. Suess. This shows all of the Japanese-Americans on the west coast lining up to get bombs and one is waiting for a signal from Japan. This cartoon was done by a man who lived during world war two and this is what he thought of the Japanese. In class we talked about if it was right or wrong, or ethical to have put the Japanese-Americans into internment camps. Clearly in this cartoon you can see that Dr. Suess did want them in the camps and thought they were a threat, as did many Americans during this time. Having a home land attack from Japan while citizens of Japan were in the country would have been a hard thing for the government to deal with. I personally do not think that the camps were ethical or the right thing to do, but I am just a person looking back on it. During the war with japan it would have been very dangerous for Japanese Americans to be living in America. They would have faced more discrimination and hate crimes then they ever had. Although the camps were not fit to hold people in some cases they were a good concept of separating the American people who felt threatened and the innocent Japanese Americans. One of the governments worst fears at this time was the spread of communism and if Japan already had many citizens in the US and they started to fight the US it would have been much easier for them to spread communism. Although that was not their goal, the American government had never faced a problem such as this. I do not think in any way what the American government did to the Japanese-Americans was ethical or right, but from their point of view from that time I do not believe they had many other options.

“Waiting for the signal from home.” Arts in Houston. Web. 18 Oct 2010. <http://images.chron.com/blogs/artsinhouston/dr-seuss-fifth-column-1943.jpg>.

I chose to write on this cartoon because it is a good example of history repeating its self. This is a parody of today’s immigration problem. People from Mexico and other countries are constantly coming across the American borders and taking jobs and bringing diseases and other things that the American nation is trying to deter. If you think about it an American now is a person who was born here or someone who has to take a test some people may consider them to be white people. In the beginning the people who were here were the Native Americans and the white man were coming into their land and bringing diseases and problems that the natives had not yet faced. What right do we as Americans now have to build fences and say that this country is ours and ours alone when we took it over just like the Mexicans and other immigrants are doing now. It seems like every time you listen to the news or any thing dealing with congress you hear something about the growing problem of immigration. I do understand that there is a major drug problem that comes along with the immigrants, but when the white man came to America they brought the problems of war and disease that killed far more over the years than the drug trafficking in Mexico. In class we are talking about Indians being pushed off of their land and getting little in return for it. What makes the Mexican people any different than the immigrants that kicked the Indians off of their land, and brought disease to a nation. I thought this was a good cartoon to put things into perspective when talking about immigration today. Why do we as Americans today have the right to close the country. I do think that any person who works here and lives in America should have to pay taxes and follow our government, but I don’t think that truly hard working people should have an easier way to become a citizen.

I found this picture and I thought it fit well with what we have been talking about in class with Irish immagrents in America. This picture shows an African American and an Irish man on a set of scales. The scales at the top say north and south. North points at the Irish man and the south points at the black man. I think that it kind of says that the irish man was on the same leval of the black man in the north. This cartoon is a visual display of the dicrimination of both the blacks and the Irish people. One of the only things that the Irish man had going for him was the fact that he was white still and was able to blend in, in the north. even though the scales seem to be balanced the people on them seem to have diffrent things that indicate their social status. The Irish man has shoes on a coat, and the black man has no shoes and is wearing just a shirt and pants. This also shows sterotypes of black and Irish men in the 1800’s. The irish man is depicted to look like a leprecan with a monkey face which was a common way for poeple to see Irish people. Also the black man is drawn with big lips and the sterotypical black man. Most people understand the fact that African Americans were heavily discriminated against not as many understand the degree that Irish immagrants were also discriminated. This picture may even show the fact that the Irish were considered lower that blacks. I think that this picture is a good way to show people how poorly Irish were treated in some places. Giving the comparison of Irish to black people can comprehend because they can compare what they know about African American discrimination to the fact that the Irish man is depicted as equal or less than the black man in the photo.

“The Sterotyping of Irish by Christine Haug.” Victoriana. Web. 24 Sep 2010. <http://www.victoriana.com/Irish/IrishPoliticalCartoons.htm

I chose this cartoon to talk about because it shows what so politicians and bosses of companies say and what some of them actually mean. This cartoon gives you a look as to some people still think today. This shows some of the controversy that can come with getting a job as a minority and some stereotypes. I also thought this cartoon was a good representation of how people acted towards “free” and “equal” black men after slavery was abolished. We talked in class about the black codes and the discrimination that in some ways got worse after the slaves were freed. In one place you have documents that say that slaves are now free and equal and on the other hand they are not aloud to go to certain places or do certain things. In his cartoon the man is saying yea we are all equal and we do not discriminate unless you are a black male. People all over this country contradict themselves a lot. In some cases it has been tested that if a black male and a white male apply at the same school or job with the same credintials it is more likely for the white male to get the job over a black man. In this cartoon you can see that from early times until now the same stereotypes still apply now it is just more politically done and not as much open discrimination. I do not believe that all politicians and CEOs look at race as a big deciding factor in who is chosen for a job, but it does play a role a lot of the time. In class when we talk about blacks not being aloud to work as sales persons or some other jobs and only being aloud to work as blacksmiths and farm hands. It still seems today that jobs are dominated by different races as a stereotype. Many African Americans have made it in the corporate world but it seems as if white males dominate the corporations. You can see faint signs of how things used to be on a much smaller scale now and not as publicly announced. It is sad to think that we have so many documents and have gone through so much in history to make all men equal and still we revert back to using skin color to base who should get a job. In my opinion this cartoon shows the rules of the past applying to today’s society and it is not right at all. I believe that all jobs should have to base there choice for a position based on credentials and qualification and not the color of someones skin. Our ancestors fought to end slavery and make all en equal, and yet people still look down on other races because of stereotypes.

“Power And Light District.” Judges Opinion. Web. 18 Sep 2010. <onlyaerik.blogspot.com>.

I found this cartoon on CartoonStock.com it is called Native Head gear. This Cartoon is a white man and a black man who for the most part look to be around the same financial class. This caught my eye because it was very basic but can be taken in many different ways. You can look at it as a cartoon showing the problem of famine in third world countries. Or the fact that the African American has a look of envy or anger toward the white guy. But the reason I chose to use this cartoon was because I think it shows the idea of white privilege. When we talk about white privilege in class we talk about people who are supposed to be seen equal are not. In the cartoon I see two men who are dressed similar and visually to me looked equal other than the few things which I see as white privilege. One is the bones in their hair which is one of the most noticeable differences. The white man has a full ham and bone in his hair while the black man has an empty bone. Like in the white privilege, it is the small things that no one thinks about which makes white privilege. The ham can be seen as just food, or you could look at it as land ,money or just social status. I think that the fact that both of these men appear equal except for their skin color shows that just because the one guy is white he gets the spoils. Another thing that stuck out to me was that the white guy is wearing sun glasses and a collared shirt. This may not be something the artist ment to e taken as anything, but i took it as the white guy being of a higher status. This is another thing that shows white privilege. The white man in the picture just seems to be more relaxed and not worried, while the african american seems stressed or depressed maybe angry. In the white privlage Peggy McIntosh talks about minorities having to worry about things that a white person would take for granit. When she says “I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasent to me”(McIntosh 2). I think in this picture you can see the fact that the white man is not conserned with how he may be treated, but the black man seems concerned to what the white man will do or say. I think that this cartoon has many ways of interpritation. To me white privlage is a relevent theme to this picture. I think this cartoon is a good suttle description of white privlage. looking at the picture I looked at it as the privlage of whites over all minorities in the past and up to today. The ham could represent land and the black man could represent Native Americans. They were here first and we took all of their land and shared very little. The white man in the cartoon has a full ham and the black man has none and he shows no intrest in sharing. I may have looked too deep into this drawing, but this is what I took away when I was looking at it.

I found an article about a school bus driver refusing to stop for Muslim girls who wear the traditional head dresses. The drivers want to avoid the confrontation of other kids showing prejudice against the girls so they drive right by the girls. This is an example of prejudice do to someone’s ethnic background or race. These girls follow what they believe and do what they are told by their religion which in America should be tolerated because this is the land of freedom of religion. It is very prejudice and racist of the bus driver and kids on the bus to make fun of or to ignore the girls for their ethnic heritage. The public school system should promote diversity but to see an adult like a bus driver showing prejudice every day toward people of another race instills in young kid’s minds that it is okay to disregard a person strictly on their race or religion. In this account the police were contacted and the bus driver was punished for his racism, but many times prejudice goes unseen or people look the other way. People in America and all over the world need to look past the stereotypes and begin to accept every one. America is a place for all races to come and find opportunity there should not be a dominate race or a group that primarily controls. Small acts of discrimination like the one in this article just goes to show that even though we have a African American president does not mean that racism and discrimination. Some people believe that racism is dying but I honestly believe it is just not as focused on one or two groups anymore. There are many different ethnicities that are in the U.S and there are still ignorant people that will base their thoughts on someone purely on what they look like. This bus driver passing up these Muslim school girls is just one example of the spread of races that are discriminated against.

Driver,Carol.Mail Online. Febuary 26 2010