Click HERE for a summary of the issue
Since the course is about ItAms, you are more than welcome to direct
your attention to this tribe, but if your knowledge about them is limited, you can choose any tribe/class/minority (except your own) for your examples:
Give two examples:
1) how the dominant class represents a subordinate class -- REMEMBER, we are not talking about individuals, the object is large groups of people in society (classes, tribes, minorities of any kind.)
2) using the same subordinate class/tribe, give an example of self-representation.
REPLY to at least one comment that you found particularly insightful.
I believe that Muslims and Islam itself portrayed by the mass media as violent and bloodthirsty nation. People are witnessing and become victims of horrible events like 9/11 and the recent bombing in Boston that involves Muslim people, and then people trust the sophisticated mass media and misunderstand the Islam itself. Prejudice towards muslim people is growing day by day. Media is a successful and powerful tool to change people's opinion on Islam through numerous campaigns against it. Campaigns targeting Islamic radicals who changed the meaning of the words in holy book and covering their action saying that they are carrying out the mission of the religion by killing innocent people. The image of Islamic Terrorism is imprinted in public minds.
ReplyDeleteAs A person who converted into Islam many years ago, I learnt my share on Islam and its pillars. The word "islam" itself means "peace" and requires people to live in peace. I don't think, nowadays, Muslims are capable of changing their "image" that was built by media. It would take a lot of time and effort for nation to come together and fighting it back.
I do agree with you on the image of Muslims, as someone with ties to families who are Muslim. Doing something simple like walking to the store with those family members is frowned upon.
DeleteI previously wrote a post on how three different groups can do the same crime but the news will portray is differently. If a white person commits a crime they are mentally ill, if a black person does it he's a part of gang violence, and if a Muslim does it he's a terrorist.
DeleteInstead of portraying ItAms as hard-working, close-knit, family oriented and fine eating culture it once stood for, U.S. society has relegated ItAms to the gel using, crime involved tomato sauce consumer. Shows such as the Sopranos, Jersey Shore and Mob Wives along with typical De Niro, Pacino or Pesci films exacerbate the negative stereotypes. Pure integration whether self induced or forced by society has resulted in a diluted culture and perversion. Also, whereas ItAms were once considered “black” and now Caucasian it suddenly “acceptable” by the media to make fun of them as it’s not “racist”. This is what gives birth and perpetuates negative stereotypes. Even though there is nothing for example wrong with one being for example a fireman or policeman and in fact it is in my opinion an honorable and respectable position to work for your government in service of the people when you are saving lives, suddenly none of today’s ItAm youth wants to enter such jobs as it became a negative stereotype because “oh that’s an ItAm thing”. By stereotyping everything into negative the preservation of positive as heritage to be passed down from generation to generation has been impeded.
ReplyDeleteItAms should have put their foot down when shows such as the Jersey Shore or Mob Wives were being filmed. I personally watch it because it takes place where I live so I am curious but I rather it wouldn’t be on at all because whenever anyone from outside of NY hears I live in Staten Island, the first thing they ask me is “OMG, do you know any of the Mob Wives?” I know they must think that all Italian men on Staten Island are in the mafia.
Leora, I agree with everything you said in your post. Much like other tribes mentioned, I feel that it will be difficult, if not impossible, for ItAms to eradicate their gel using, Mafioso stereotype. You’re right when you say that the media has no objections insulting ItAms since it’s supposedly “not racist” anymore. I just recently saw an episode of Two and a Half Men when someone asked Charlie Sheen if he was a Dago. I think the fact that we really are, as you call it, a “hard-working, close-knit, family oriented, and fine eating culture” will sadly never be the dominant interpretation of ItAms.
DeleteIn response to your comment as well as Joseph's post about how Italians came to little niches etc. and then moved away: I may have mentioned in one of my other posts or responses how I grew up in Brooklyn right outside of Bensonhurst in what was once almost completely an Italian neighborhood. My parents bought their house (#1445) from an Italian couple whose grandchildren lived next door (#1447) and 2 doors down (#1449) lived their children. As they were quite old, they moved in with their children. (at #1449) I was in pre-school at the time and became best friends with the great-grandson Joey who was my age. By the time I was in 6th grade, Joey's great-grandparents passed away, his grandparents moved in with him and then the whole family moved away to Long Island. I have many memories of my years spent by their house - and I won't go into all the Spaghetti alla Carbonara I would scarf down at their house because my mom who is Jewish refused to cook with pork and I had a weakness for Joey's mom's cooking ... but whenever I would eat Spaghetti in my own home, my mother would say "you better change before eating, you aren't Joey" and she always said that that Italians were impeccable with anything having to do with food etiquette and she always made us feel as if it was a shame we weren't Italian. Until this day, whenever I visit my parents, the last original Italian on the block who must be well into his 80's gives me figs from his fig trees because he remembers that as a little girl that was my favorite fruit. My fiancé and both of his brothers and his father wouldn't even know what to do with gel if someone gave it to them as a gift but every one of those boys can cook better than my own mother.
DeleteCoincidentally, I happened to write my post about Mexicans before finding out that the previous post was also written about them. So I apologize if this may be somewhat repetitive.
ReplyDeleteImmigrants are constantly being discriminated against whether they are legal or "aliens" as America seems to call them. However, one class that seems to experience extreme discrimination are Mexicans. Many U.S. citizens believe that while Americans have worked hard to sustain a living here, Mexicans have illegally found employment in America, and usually work for less, hence taking away jobs from the market. The media even represents Mexicans in a negative light, such as images that show a large group of them crammed into one car or even racist pictures of them, such as a man being carried by Mexicans with the caption saying, "I was abducted by aliens." Besides the media, there are many other ways that Mexicans are represented by Americans. However, Mexicans represent themselves as hard working by attaining a job and making a living for themselves to help support their families. Some even start their own business and attend college, to go against the stereotype placed on them. So even though it seems that Americans are constantly bringing down Mexicans and making snide, racist comments about them, this only motivates them to try harder to go against the stereotype and prove that they can be successful in America.
It is true Mexicans have been poorly represented in our media. They work very hard, I do not believe they steel our jobs, a lot of times they are willing to do the jobs that we as Americans deem to beneath us. It is sad that we view that way
DeleteI concur. I actually heard of the whole bunch of Mexicans being crammed into an apartment long before I heard of the Italians being crammed together which I actually just heard of in our first class! Different age, same story.
DeleteI agree with Aletha and the comments above. And as they say actions speak louder that words, and anyone who has work with a Mexican (new immigrant) will immediately notice their work ethic. I say new immigrant because I think these attack are directed at that population, although it affects the entire tribe.
DeleteWhen learning about Italian Americans in other classes at Brooklyn College, I was taught about their rise in America, and their settlement in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island, but the conversation dissolved after that. It seems that Italians were once on their way to becoming a dominant class through their progression in American society. First Italians migrated to America and had to face prejudice from the Irish and German Americans that were already settled and middle-upper class members of society. As time went on, Italians began to fill niches in society such as creating areas in Bensonhurst, Little Italy, and other areas of New York. Unfortunately, it seems that the Italian American areas of New York were affected by the dominant class (economically) raising housing prices and the cost of living. As a result, many Italians broke up and separated from their areas, thus not having a strong ethnic connection to one another.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this lack of homogeneity in the class of Italian Americans allowed the dominant class to create and profit off of the negative stereotypes of the Italian community. Originally, Italian Americans were represented by the dominant class through crude and demeaning cartoons as they were new to the country. As time went on, they became more recognized, but the growing separation of the Italian American ethnic group led for modern day Italians to represent themselves based on what the dominant class popularizes. Thus, the idea is formed that to be a modern Italian is to be a "guido".
African-Americans are still marginalized in the U.S and I think that it's a topic that has become "taboo" to discuss because we are supposed to have come a long way from secession and segregation. Sure, our times are not what they were in the 1950s but we can clearly see the socio-economic injustices and discrimination that African-Americans still face today.
ReplyDeleteWe can see that with President Obama in office, there has been an influx in racist cartoons portraying the President in an offensive manner. This is reflective of the discomfort so many Americans have against the President due to his being part African-American. Through these cartoons we see stereotypes of African-Americans: Obama is always portrayed as a cartoon with prominent monkey-like features and big lips. We even saw in class a cartoon with a watermelon underneath a wooden box, propped up with a stick. The caption read something like, "How the C.I.A will trap Obama."
When I say that African-Americans are marginalized in the U.S, I'm talking about those living in impoverished neighborhoods lacking access to a good education. I have experienced this in junior high in San Francisco. I also lived in a poor neighborhood and in my district school, the majority of the demographic was African-American. Our education was okay at best. I saw how much we were deprived of when I went to a college-preparatory high school and there was a clear juxtaposition of the education received by someone from my school and the education of someone who went to a nicer school in a nicer neighborhood.
In summation, I feel that the way our society is set up makes it in such a way where the dominant class has access to areas that a minority group does not. A common stereotype of African-Americans is that they have welfare and use food stamps. This is an unfair stereotype because I don't feel that one "chooses" this lifestyle. I feel that this lifestyle is imposed upon oneself by the society in which they live.
When mentioning the self-representation that African-Americans have reached today, it is difficult not to mention the milestone in history achieved when President Obama was first elected into office. I was studying in Paris at the time and I had sent in an absentee ballot (for Obama, no less) and there was palpable tension throughout the city. If you were American, anyone and everyone would approach you asking, "Who are you voting for?" So it wasn't a breakthrough only in the U.S, it was an international feat.
I recommend that you read this posting by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It really provides a very useful interpretation of data about the creation of a permanent underclass (we used this term a lot in the 1980's) and the distribution of wealth in America.
Deletehttp://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/the-conservative-case-for-doing-nothing-about-the-wealth-gap/276396/
Carrie,
DeleteThose are some good points you made there. The issue of dominant/subdominant relations in this instance is also complicated by a case of exceptionalism. One member of a subdominant group achieving a breakthrough in society does not automatically mean that the entirety of that group has attained parity.
I think that Jews, both religious and liberal (I would have used tribe but there are so many sects and variation on religion and religious practices) fall under two categories of dominant vs. subordinate. I would say that they have become socially harmonious with the dominant class and sometimes part of the dominant power, as they have influence in politics, the media, and the hold some of financial power both in industry and commerce. I think that they control their own self representation as a religious group, as opposed to other religions namely Muslims. Recently, Muslims have been in the media very often because of terrorist acts against Americans and now cannot be stirred away from any representation but of being terrorists.
ReplyDeleteThe other category of subordination, I would say exists in the more religious sects of the Jewish people. The more religions faction adheres to ancient practices that was the foundation of the religion itself. The Orthodox Jews for instance, even though they are a small community maintain traditional practices as expected by religion, norms and values. The men in that instance, are the dominant power of that society.
When I think of a dominant class one particular group comes to mind. Throughout history it has been the white population that has been the largest dominant group of people. I know this covers many subgroups and there are "class systems" through out the white population. However, I am referring to white people who came to the"new world" in the late 15th century and sought to dominate the natives and continued to persecute them all the way until the 19th century. They believed their way of life was better so they tried to "civilize" them that is to say make them white. The white population oppressed African Americans turning them into slaves all the way up until the 19th century. Unfortunately some white folks still see themselves as inferior to black people, which is sad. When it comes to a group of people oppressing another and believing themselves superior the white population as a whole is the worst.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the years our country has had many voices of freedom for the oppressed. Martin Luther King is the one who comes to mind first fighting for equal rights and fair treatment for all African American people. That one voice represented the repressed group and helped lead them to true freedom and now look how far we have come now we a black president.
The earliest tribe in America still struggles with their self-representation and the representation imposed on them by the dominant class. The dominant class imposes several stereotypes upon Indians in America. First of all, it was the dominant class which coined the term ‘Native Americans.’ These so called ‘Native Americans’ call themselves Indians, but it was the dominant class which imposed upon them the term Native Americans. The dominant class also associates Indians with scalping, etc. In many Western films, Indians are portrayed as the enemy of the white people, when in fact all they wanted was to live in harmony.
ReplyDeleteIndians portray themselves in a peaceful manner. They strive to be separate from white people, yet live in harmony. Indians are closely tied with nature and natural Americana. Indian families are close knit, and this can be seen in tribal paintings, etc. Indian self representation vs. the representation imposed upon them can best be seen in the film Broken Arrow (1950). The white army despises the Indians because they feel as if they are primitive savages. But when one white man (Jimmy Stewart) is rescued by the Indians, we get to see how the Indians represent themselves – a peaceful people, close knit, and in tune with nature.
The impact of the dominant class on Native Americans is still seen today! There's been a modern epidemic occurring on Indian reservations in America where non-reservation people will go onto the reservation land and commit a crime (sometimes even rape or murder) against the Indian population. Unfortunately due to the status of reservations being separated from American land, these crimes that are committed against Native Americans take a long time to make their way into the US legal system because the courts on reservations are separated from the courts in American states. This phenomenon started with a Supreme Court case Oliphant v. Suquamish (as detailed in this article http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/02/on-indian-land-criminals-can-get-away-with-almost-anything/273391/).
DeleteAdditionally, Native American suicide rates are at an all time high as many teenagers feel disenfranchised with society and they believe that they cannot integrate into American culture. It is really a sad event to see how history took its toll on the Natives, and even today we see those everlasting impacts of prejudice and segregation.
I agree Will, Native Americans have been severely mistreated and continue to be misunderstood in this country by the dominant class. This factors into many of the problems Native Americans are suffering from, such as extreme poverty, alcoholism, and as Joe mentions high rates of suicide. Since I know you are a film buff, Native American spirituality has been represented as demonic and evil through its representations in horror films. The best example I can think of is the cliche haunted house that was built on a Native American burial site.
DeleteI agree that the homosexual tribe has come a long way in U.S history and an example of their self-representation is the formation of the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer) activists throughout the States. Their activism for equality contributed to the success of legal gay marriage in several states.
ReplyDeleteStill, to be LGBTQ, it is still "safer" to be self-expressive in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. For this particular tribe still faces on-the-surface discrimination and abuse more widely in places that are more conservative. Though being gay has been accepted and represented in the media, many face struggles in the day-to-day.
The Ali Forney Center non-profit organization is a place where LGBTQ who have been forced into homelessness-due to being disowned or from running away from abusive environments-that provides housing and jobs so that homeless LGBTQ can get on their feet here in New York.
One way that the dominate class represents Italian Americans as a subordinate class is by taking a look at the media and how they are portrayed. Starting with the most recent assignment and research, The Italians, The New Orleans event and the anti-Italians cartoons. The anti-Italian cartoons painted this image of how violent and lay they can be. This stereo type was created decades ago and still exists today. In the Italian they portrayed Beppo as only capable of being a shoe shiner (too lazy to do anything else). The New Orleans event showed how under represented and oppressed the Italians were. All of the previously mentioned events showed how the dominant tribe viewed this tribe and want to continue to keep this notion alive, leading into today pop culture to shows that my peers mention, Mob wives and Jersey Shore. These shows as mentioned do not depict the true image of what Italian Americans are all about.
ReplyDeleteWhether the Italians coming from Italy, or the ones already in America, regardless, they were the subordinate. Like you mentioned in New Orleans, this xenophobia of Italians led to the local papers posting slanderous images and articles. So when an Italian actually broke the law, it was easy for the public to take to those very anti-inflamatory Italian rhetoric and judge the entire nationality as a whole. Similarly today, following the premiere of The Soprano's, again people had a reaffirmation that again, all Italian's are some way connected to the mafia.
DeleteTo take the Italian heritage back, following the years of misrepresentation, many pro-Italian groups formed to ensure that the Italian heritage wouldn't be subjugated to these stereotypes in the media.
Hm, I see the comment I posted last night didn't get uploaded. My apologies if this is brief; I'm working from memory.
ReplyDeleteOne minority population that is represented by the dominant class in America is Asians. First and foremost, Americans typically over-generalize who is "Asian," so many different ethnicities become deformed in this convergence of stereotypes. Somehow, "Asian" becomes a substitute for ALL of the very different identities and cultures that should properly be recognized as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, etc. American culture also creates crude stereotypes about Asian people; they are mocked based on assumptions that they all have bad English and pronunciation, that they are geniuses in math and science, and that Asian parents do not tolerate failure by their children.
It is very hard for "Asian" people (and I realize that I'm making the same generalization here, but I want to make the point that this affects all the tribes that are encompassed by the "Asian" generalization) to self-represent in American culture. Overall, I'm not entirely sure that they have yet. In TV shows and movies, overcoming the "Asian" stereotype of having strict and education-focused parents often becomes a trope for Asian characters. I suppose Ken Jeong could be considered an example of this group's power to self-represent, since he made the career change from physician to comedian when he decided he wasn't satisfied with his job and wanted instead to do something he loved and that made other people laugh. However, this is only one individual, and when it comes to self-representing this is not enough.
I completely agree that the LGBTQ community has moved forward immensely in their ability to self-represent. That being said, though, they still have a long way to go. Part of the tension they face now is because many LGBTQ people do not want to achieve gay marriage. The legalization of gay marriage forces gay people to be okay with "mainstreaming," in that they can only receive legal rights and recognition by doing what "straight" people do. Many LGBTQ activists argue that this shouldn't be necessary, because it severely limits the power to self-represent, and to break down patriarchal and heteronormative standards.
ReplyDeletei wholeheartedly agree with the stereotypes presented of Mexicans in the State, but something to consider, especially when it comes to drugs, is the fact that many of the stereotypes come from Mexico itself, not their behavior when they come to the U.S. In Mexico, much of the land is ruled by the cartels, many of the governments are ruled by the cartels, and many of the cities are actually dirty and unhygienic. I don't believe that this gives people the right to generalize, but occasionally the stereotypes can be on point when looking outside of our own culture.
ReplyDeleteThe first group that came to mind were Mexicans, but since Alethia and Michael already did, I will choose Latinos as a group.
ReplyDeleteMovie roles for Latinos are usually criminals, uneducated, and female roles are usually maid, unintelligent and temptress roles. Latinos are often shown as homogenous group when in fact there are huge differences from one Spanish speaking country to the other in terms of culture.
Here is an example of Latina author Alisa Valdez who wrote a book about Latina professionals and their lifestyle in big cities, she sold over 400,000 copies and was turned down by producers when she demanded that the characters remain consistent with the book. They often wanted to change the characters to maid or use the script with non Latino actresses.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/538278432/the-dirty-girls-social-club-movie-project
Alisa Valdez, we can say is an example of how Latinos are taking actions into their own hands. She's trying to produce her own film.
I agree usually the Latinos in movies are the drug mules or the ones who do not speak English in the community. They are the outcasts and the ones who will do almost any labor for any price. They are viewed as desperate immigrants and "easy." The men are doing manual labor and the women are doing household work. Funny how even with minority groups the sex roles in society remain the same.
DeleteLeslie, I agree that Latinos are often depicted this way in movies. But it is often Latinos themselves who are making the movie. It should be the job of the Latinos making the movie to remove the stereotype. Look at any single Robert Rodriguez movie for example. The same goes for certain ItAms as well, like Scorsese who is hung up on gangster films.
DeleteMichelle, I don’t think that sex roles are evident in minority groups. In fact, I think that certain minority groups can eradicate sex roles completely. Latinos are one of them. Yes, many Latinas are depicted as maids etc, but this is more of a class issue. For Latinos/Latinas in the same class, the woman is usually in control over the man. The guy can’t get a word in edgewise. This is true of many tribes nowadays, I think.
DeleteOne group that has not been mentioned as an example of subordinates who do not often control their representations in media is the lower class. Regardless of what ethnicity they belong to, the working and lower classes in most global societies do not actively have a hand in how they are presented to the mass audience.
ReplyDeleteThis is a situation that has remained largely unchanged throughout the modern era. While working and poor people do have increased access to modes of mass communication in the present day, they are often not in positions of power that would allow them to directly present their experiences as they see them. For the most part, their stories are mediated by journalists, filmmakers and television producers. The final products depicting their lives may not accurately reflect who they are and what they believe.
I heard an interesting quote yesterday at a BBQ I went to for Father's Day. The man said that politicians such as Bloomberg only care about the rich or the very poor. So I actually believe that the middle class is discriminated against the most and has to suffer the most. They are left out, forgotten, and only remembered when they are forced to carry the burden of paying more taxes and things like that. Unless you have money, or don't have any money you are out of luck. Silly right? But true.
DeleteI am not sure if I am fully answering this question, but I want to go off on a similar tangent. I see many people are repeating the use of some groups and I cannot use my own ethnciity... so I want to talk about something called "home verses guest." Such as in a baseball team, there is a visitor team and the home team. This works well for what the United States is composed of. We have the home team (anyone born here "true American"), and there is the visitor or guest team (people who came into the country "immigrants"). This is true for many groups: Chinese-Americans, Polish-Americans, and Italian-Americans. The result is that they create their own little areas where they feel comfortable and do have to participate much with the rest of the "home team." Just look at Brighton Beach in Brooklyn with its Russians, or Bay Ridge in Brooklyn with its Chinese and Italian populations. The store names are written in their language and the business people can communicate with them in their dialects. This is what America has become, although we are unified we still separate into our own spaces to call "home" within the home of America.
ReplyDeleteDespite being a “melting pot” and a land of opportunity, immigrants are not always treated well when they come to the United States. Throughout history, immigrants have almost always been confronted with some sort of discrimination. This often includes them having to take the hardest, worst paid jobs, and have difficulty assimilating entirely into society. It becomes hard for them to assimilate when many of the players of the "home team" do not want them there. Ironically enough, these same players of the "home team" (the real Americans) get angry when they do not speak English. However, I know there are programs and aid to immigrants who are willing to learn and be a part of the American culture. I still think though that there is some discrimination and a lack of representation for these immigrants from the Americans.