May 9th 2011

Today was the last day in the class. We took our final at seven tonight. We watched DodgeBall, and had to explain the American Dream that the movie was portraying and of course we had to tie in race,class, and gender. It was a easy writing assignment, we had to only write a page. I thought the assignment was easy as a whole because I love that movie so much. I felt the hardest part was tying in the race. I did not think that the movie dealt with the race factor a whole a lot. It was more we are perfect and you are not, everyone should kill their selves to look like us. They also down play the power of females in this movie too. I hit on that in my paper.Thank you this was a wonderful class!

May 2, 2011

Today we did not have class, instead we went to listen to Rebecca Skloot, the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. She is a lot more famous then I thought she was. Her book is going to be made into a movie produced by Oprah. Is was interesting listening to her stories that had been produced by hanging out with the family. It was really interesting to find out how long it took her to be accepted by some of the members. It is crazy to think that she still today has not gained all of the famlies trust. She was a very easy person to listen to speak. Her story was good. I thought that she was going to be boring and I dreaded going, but it was well worth it.

April 25

In class today we got out early. This was a first due to our teacher never lets us out early lol. We have one week until our paper is due. We have to type a twelve hundred word paper on the book, The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. We have to pick out one of the major themes whether it be race,class, or gender. We have to have two outside sources. This should not be a hard assignment. I find myself angry when i think of the things that happened during this time period of the so called "separate but equal." It was anything but that. She had to be admitted to the colored ward at the only hospital in Baltimore to accept African Americans. Only two weeks left of school its grind time.

April 18

I was not in class today due to my finger.I had to have my finger sewed back up. I got the assignment and it was to watch Bamboozled and answer the questions. This was an interesting movie be Spike Lee. I felt that white people were made to look like the bad people on how white people portray blacks in the media. I think it was a good assignment and it was interesting to see how it all panned out.

April 4th

Today in class we discussed and view d videos of comedians making jokes about races other than their own. The one video we watched was Gabriel Iglesis. He was making jokes that referred to the African American race. The problem that was brought up was the fact that he was Hispanic doing African American jokes. To many people that is not offensive, but to others this could be highly offensive. In his skit he played a joke on another comedian where he made a basket filled with stereotypical African American objects. So we broke up into groups and we were assigned a different race and we made a basket for that race. It was easy to see after going over the different objects of the baskets the amount of stereotypes that are portrayed with each race. i find these tings to be very funny, but i know when it is crossing the line.

March 28

Today in class we went to the computer lab to look for pictures that themed race, class, gender, or economic status. It was a fun assignment because it put us in groups and I love being in groups. It makes the work easier and more fun because I would rather work with friends then by myself. That is just what kind of person I am though. It was a fun project looking for pictures though. The internet is a crazy thing and people are not afraid to offend someone with their posting of these bizarre pictures. Even though there were some bad ones our group managed to find some funny ones to present in class.

March 7th

Today in class we took our midterm exam. I guess I was a little unprepared for this test because I was unaware of the style of the test. The test itself was not that bad because I did know the topics discussed in class. I did know and understand the topics. My favorite part of the test was when we got to watch an episode of NCIS. I've said this in other posts before but you do not realize how race, class and gender issues are portrayed in everyday television shows until you actually take time to look for this topics. I guess really you could do that part of the exam on any television show out there. This is the first time I have done anything like this on an exam but it fits the class and make me more aware of race, class and gender issues that are being discussed on everyday TV shows.

Feb. 28

With how popular television and music it is easy for stereotypes to spread. Women stereotypes are spread this way also. For example if a woman has a buzzed hair cut, she is seen as a lesbian. If a girl dresses nice everyday, she is considered rich or a prep. Cheerleaders are seen as stupid and slutty that are groupies of the sport teams. All of these are not true all the time but in most cases that is how they are seen. I think when people will see on instance of the stereotype that they automatically believe that everyone is like that. I also think it is funny when someone accuses someone of a stereotype and are wrong and in the end look stupid their self.

Feb. 21

Today we talked about ideas of gays and lesbians back in the day compared to today. This topic kind of hit home because I recently had a friend come out of the closet. It took him 23 years to do this and he said it was the hardest thing he has done. Today gays and lesbians are more accepted then years ago. People are more open on the idea. It still is not extremely popular but like I said it is more accepted. It helps tremendously that people are backing this lifestyle. One name that pops to my head immediately is Lady Gaga. She recently just dropped her singles off of her new CD, Born This Way. The title itself shows her support. She voices her opinions often through her music and through rallies that are put on around the United States about this topic. In the past people have not been that willing to put their opinion out there like that. People say that gays and lesbians won't go to heaven and this idea is still around. They use to think that being gay or a lesbian meant that you had a disease or made you a pedophile, which is not true. I am glad that people can come out and still live a decent life. There still is room for improvement.

Feb. 14

We watched the pilot of Veronica Mars. If I was to watch it outside of class, I would not think to much about anything other than the plot. Since I was in class while watching it, our assignment was to look between the lines. We got in groups and discussed the ideas behind how they set the plot and used race, class, and gender. One thing we noticed is that the "gang" was black Mexicans. There were no white people in the gang. The setting was a rich neighborhood where everyone was rich or they were poor. There was no middle class. The rich white kids drove expensive cars, had snotty attitudes and dressed nice. It was clear and cut who people where and their social and economic status. It was typical American view of the world today. Veronica was kind of looked down upon because she is a girl and tries to be respected. A lot of the people don't respect her because she is a girl and it is not her social role. I like watching shows now with the mind set of reading between the lines. It makes shows a lot more interested.

Feb. 7

Super bowl commercial are my favorite part of the super bowl. It blows my mind that a company would spend 3 million dollars on a thirty second add during the game. Then I see the stats of the game, the viewing stats. The 2011 super bowl was the most watched television program in history. Then it seems like that 3 million is probably a pretty good marketing strategy. The bad thing about the high cost is the smaller businesses really have no shot of getting an add during the game. It is one thing for Coke or Doritos to fork out 3 million, but for a small business 3 million is a lot. The commercials sure are funny though.  The classes are divided up in my mind as poor, getting by, and rich. The rich can go on vacation whenever they want. They drive the nice cars and have the big houses. Getting by is my middle class, blue collar working class. If they want to take a vacation, they will need to save and plan. They have a nice house and they got rid of their bigger cars and trucks and got something with better gas milage. I don’t really know how to describe the poor class. When people think poor they think homeless. I guess sometimes when I think of poor I think of people who barely can pay the bills and are normally late when they do. They don’t take vacation because they don’t have the money. That is why education is so important now days.

January 31, 2011

In the world today, I do not believe your economical status really hinders your friends our click you hang out with. I am not saying that this is true a hundred percent of the time. I have seen people not accept people because of their money situation. More times than not, it does not affect your friendships. There still are clicks, but now it is more involved with interests and beliefs. My high school the clicks that stood out were the jocks, Goths, preps, and skaters. We were all not rival gangs, and at my high school all the groups got along for the most part. I did not feel hatred for any of the other groups. I might of thought they were weird, but it never stopped the groups from hanging out together. I also think that it has a lot to do with how small our town was. Everyone knew everyone when we were growing up. So by the time we hit high school people started finding new identities and not all of them were the same as before. So our group of friends didn’t de-friend you for going goth or becoming a skater. Once a friend always a friend, unless you try to steal a girlfriend.

January 24, 2011

People buy the American dream. Everything has a price even the ideas. The American dream is an idea or an image that people want to display that they have or that they are living. The world is ran off  of making money and selling people ideas. That is how jobs are created and money is made It is an idea of freedom, an idea of being a man. It is being independent and living the good life. It is portrayed by celebrities, movies, billboards, it is everywhere. Companies make bank off selling people the American dream. Everyone wants to be rich and have the best life possible for their selves. So I feel people buy things that portray "the dream." I think that fancy clothes make people feel secure about their selves. I also feel that people buy nice cars to help them feel the dream. Having the newest gadgets like the iphones, blackberries, ipads, and macs make people feel successful or like they are living the good life because they have the newest technology. I personally don't buy things to live the American dream. I try to live it by traveling, going out with my friends, working a honest job, and getting an education. I don't like to be held back in life and people who are really living life don't get held back.