Chocolate or Vanilla?

In a recent class I learned one of my classmates is bi-racial, having a white father and black mother. I have had classes with this young lady, but I have always operated under the assumption she was fair skin African-American. This semester we both share the same torturous Tuesday-Thursday schedule and we have grown closer as a means of survival. I'm not sure what difference it would have made if I knew she were bi-racial, but now this new knowledge has opened up a lot of new

 material for me to joke about with her.
During class she told us of an incident that happened to her in kindergarten. In honor of Fathers 

Day her teacher assigned the class to create a card representative of their fathers. According to her there were two piles of construction paper, "a chocolate pile"and a "vanilla pile," students were instructed to "take a sheet that looks like your father."
Of course she went to the front of the class and took a vanilla sheet and all things representative of her white father and this little black girl was prepared to make a blond-hair, blue-eye, vanilla-face representation of her father.Instead of leaving her alone, the teacher tried to force the little girl to take the supplies that she assumed an African American girl should have. This supposed professional went so far as to call this child a liar, belittling her until she eventually cried.
I mention this story because in our multi-ethnic class I have learned it is not always the other man that hates on you, sometimes it's the brother man. Journalist are people and carry the same baggage as anyone else, life experience can not only color our perception of other tribes but also the way we view our own.

Obama=Monkey...?

Although undeservedly, I have come to be known as opinionated and outspoken person which caused a few of my classmates ask [not ax] for my thoughts on this controversial comic published in a New York newspaper. I heard a lot of clamour on the news about a controversial comic that not only insulted the president and African Americans but also offended all sensible and God-fearing Americans.

Up until the point I was asked about my views on the image I had not seen the actual comic. I searched for a few minutes on Google of course and found nothing but a bunch of angry people, white, black, yellow and other who felt outraged that in the new age of King Obama that such hatred could grace the pages of a prominent newspaper. But finally, when my search was done and I looked at the comic I too fell in line with all the other upset people who flooded the net with their rage for fear of choking on their anger.

But why was I so angry?

I saw two white cops execute a monkey, excuse me chimpanzee, with a caption that read: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." Two cop bullets, a dead monkey, 12 little words and one iconic president later, created a controversy the likes we have not seen since Thomas Nast's pictorials of Boss Tweed that help put an end to corruption in New York City. 

As I looked at the comic I echoed the same exact sentiments and opinions as the television reporters and online bloggers. When I realized that my views fell in line with the masses I stopped to think, were my views an honest reaction based solely on the content of the picture or were they a honest reaction based on the opinions and added information I was fed by the television and Internet.

So I then I asked myself a few more questions:

1. Did the president write the stimulus bill?
2. When I see the president do I think of a monkey?
3. When I see a monkey do I think of the president?
4. Is  the monkey a representative or symbol for black people?
5. If I never heard any other commentary would i still react the same?
6. Is there another plausible explanation for the characters used in the comic?

I answered these questions and arrived at my own conclusion, which may be different than yours, but then again our democracy relies on contrasting ideas and it is precisely our ability to agree to disagree that separates us from the monkeys.

Thought Process

Everyday I sit back and reflect on all the things I've learned or should have learned that particular day. I then follow up my thoughts with some profound question, usually with no definite answer, an exercise in futility to strengthen the muscle between my ears. And much like our illustrious professor, I too suffer from an attention disorder that could at any given moment withdraw me from the conscious world and entangle me with thought and conjecture within my own mind.
One said occasion happened as I flipped through the various news channels yesterday, I noticed each network was covering the exact same story at the exact same time. Normally this would not bother me or attract my attention, but as I listened to other students in Wolfe Center I quickly noticed that a majority were talking about that particular story.
And even more puzzling many students without hearing any other facts echoed the same exact sentiments of the broadcasting reporter. I find this particular troublesome because even when attending church, as the pastor would quote and interpret scripture I would take notes and later double check them for accuracy before I accepted them as truth.
This whole-hearted acceptance of many future journalists displayed the true power of our medium, the ability to condition viewers to believe whatever is reported during the news program of their choice.
Which led me to question whether the news tells viewers what to think or what to think about. Simply by choosing what to air, news outlets dictate all topics of conversation. And though it may be cliche, stories not chosen for broadcast or print are out of sight and therefore out of mind. But even more troubling than the power to control a viewers focus, news has the uncanny ability to persuade and dissuade viewers from taking a particular stance or action on an issue.
I wondered how the media's powers of influence can be applied to our multi-ethnic class and realized the ability of news to broadcast one consistent message to viewers undermines our ability to discriminate fact from opinion. Unknowingly, we categorically accept everything said on the news as truth. And in relation to race and ethnicity we begin to believe the constant repetition of ethnic stereotypes that over time become second nature to us. These subtle stereotypes become common and when something a story is contrary to our accepted perspective we immediately label it as rare.
Black people are illiterate, unintelligent, welfare-wanting, pants-sagging, crime-committing, chicken and watermelon eating burdens on society. So when an individual like President Obama is introduced, people perceive him as a rarity, a circus freak on display for upstanding citizens to gaze at an remark, "wow he's so articulate," as if he was the first, last and only black man blessed with the ability to speak coherently.
And even more troubling, these views are not forced upon us, we crave them, we gravitate to the information that is consistent and reinforces our beliefs. And as we consume the rhetoric and stereotypes spoon fed to us by commentators, editors, and reporters, we sit back and ask questions like "is America ready for a black president," or "what if he's Muslim and not see the problem with answers or the fact the question was asked.

Gay for a Day

Well, I finally made it inside of Score Bar and to be perfectly honest I was a little surprised by what I found. The bar was stylishly decorated and filled with people. But the thing that I found strange was the lack of women. When I thought of a gay bar I envisioned hot-drunk lesbians pouring beer on each other and casually licking it off as uninterested gay men danced with each other. But what I found in the bar was nothing like any of the cheap pornos I watched as a child.

The club was filled with shirtless men of all shapes, shades and sizes, chasing each another while carrying bright colored drinks in pretty glasses. I stood awe struck, because I had never seen so many men together without women or sports being involved.

The majority of the men in the club were white or Hispanic, but African Americans, though the minority refused to be outdone. Two black males about 6'3" and about 300 pounds respectively, pranced about the club with the same enthusiasm as the white males half their size. I looked at these men that resembled me and felt uncomfortable, as though by them being gay validated the possibility of me being gay. Which could or would never happen, not that anything is wrong with being gay, but the lifestyle is just not for me.

I sat and waited for Tony to show up, after waiting an hour I left. I go on my first gay date and the guy stands me up, no call, no text, nothing. I guess gay and straight guys are a lot more alike than I thought.

Two Pea's in a Pod

After speaking with Tony I realized the two of us were not actually that different. My classmates thought I was ignorant for not thinking that gay men loved sports and other activities that bond my friends and me. And to be perfectly honest, it is not that I never expected gay guys to like sports, I never really gave it much thought. 

To my knowledge I have no gay friends and my world would be completely heterosexual except for occasional glimpses of “Will and Grace” and trips to South Beach. But amidst my testosterone-driven world I found a gay guy who enjoys a lot of my favorite things, basketball games, the New York Knicks, the Dallas Cowboys, going to the shooting range, mixed martial arts, “21 Jump Street,” “Thunder Cats” and he finds all female celebrities I like attractive, but he’s gay. 

Tony is openly gay, but he does not have that stereotypical flamboyant flair mistakenly associated with gay men. I am not sure if his style stems from that fact he was not always gay. He has an ex-wife and a son living in New Jersey and only “came out” two years ago. 

“I always knew that I liked boys with a dept that I never felt towards a woman, not even my ex-wife,” Tony said. 

I sat back in my chair and reflected on his statement. 

“How did you know you were gay,” I asked. 

“The same way that you found out you were straight,” he replied. 

We argued back and forth whether a person “is gay” or “becomes gay.” Tony believes that to say someone “becomes gay” is to signify some sort of choice. I believe that everything in life is a choice. We never arrived at a conclusion and had to end the conversation, but not because a gay and straight man couldn’t see eye to eye, but because two strong-willed men in their twenties decided to agree to disagree.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Know No Evil?

I posed the question yesterday, can an individual who has never experienced racism or discrimination identify or understand what the victims of both must endure.

Discrimination and racism are so sneaky these days, sometimes neither the victim nor the doer has any inclination of wrongdoing. Both are prevalent in today’s society, but time and complacency have lulled many of us into thinking that neither may exist.

I would like to inform those who now relish in the Obama era, those who believe we have conquered the racism and bigotry of yesteryear and those who believe that color no longer matters: wake up.

Hatred has evolved, discrimination has become subtle, compact and elusive, time has bred a new slave master equipped with new weapons to demean and oppress the new age slaves. This new generation of slaves is no longer connected by race, but is now linked by economics and class, a true Marxian society.

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist," said Al Pacino in the Devil's Advocate.
Because of this illusion I think it is very possible for people to grow up and live life never knowing the bitter taste of racism because the new recipe is no longer as blatantly offensive as it once was.

Then again, I have lived my entire life as black male being followed in stores and serving as a constant reminder to good people to lock their doors, clutch their purses, double check their car alarms, to avoid those different than you and most importantly I provide a face for crime and all things wrong within a city.

But what about those who have never experienced what I have, can they see discrimination as I see it.