Reflection Post

Racism in Disney

Disney is a company famous for creating movies that kids love. While young children most likely don't notice the subtle racial nuances, older people certainly do. In many of the Disney classics, the villains are blatantly of a different race. Even in a film like Aladdin, which exclusively features an Arab population, racism is present. Aladdin is a fair round faced boy, and Jafar, the evil Sultan, has dark skin and pointy features.

The lack of diversity in Disney movies is fairly appalling. With over 25 movies to date, the Disney film studio has not really strayed away from the racial depictions. In the film Dumbo, a group of crows have heavy African American accents, and the leader of those crows is in fact named "Jim Crow." Isabel's lecture has pointed also pointed out that homosexuals have never been portrayed in the Disney movies. While the reasoning behind that is that they do not want to expose young children to homosexuality, some can still contend that such a practice is quite prejudiced. Regardless of that, however, Disney has had a history of portraying racist characters in many of their movies.

Reflection Post

"A Day Without a Mexican"

I feel that this film shows how important the Latino population is to the United States. While it presents a fictional situation, it portrays a very real theme. Racism masks the importance of immigrants, and it is sad to know that many Americans are indeed forgetful of their importance to the US economy.

The movie uses comedy to exemplify its points. The odd disappearance and the pink fog that surrounds California are unrealistic, but help to prove how hard life would be for many people if Latinos were not around. In fact, in the movie, the entire state's telecommunication was disrupted because of their disappearance. The temporary governor, who was ardently anti-Latino, had to do everything he could to bring back the people he once had prejudice for.

The movie, while comedic, presented a very important point, and truly shows how Latinos impact the US. In states like California, Latinos make up a hefty percentage of the population, and as such, are very important to many people's livelihoods and the infrastructure itself. Even for people who live in states with smaller Latino populations, they still make a difference.

Response to "A Day Without A Mexican"

I thought that the film "A Day Without a Mexican” was an interesting and powerful way to present the issue of immigration and the racism and prejudice that exists in the United States. I think one of the most important points the film makes is how integral immigrants are to the functioning of the economy, and it seems that many Americans forget this as they are blinded their prejudice.

While this film portrays a completely fictionalized situation, I think it really speaks to US citizens who think that we should rid the country of immigrants and what a disaster it would be. Sometimes humor can be a great way to enforce a point. I think that this is the case in SNL skits where we are presented with a completely unrealistic situation that contains an important message at its core.

I also think that the “supernatural” disappearance of Latinos in the film makes an important statement about how immigrants are treated in the US. Not only are immigrants often invisible when it comes to legislation, but many times are treated inhumanely. We need to remember that immigrants are human too.

Before Night Falls

I really enjoyed the film on the life of the Cuban writer/poet Reinaldo Arenas. Although I truly admire Fidel Castro and his communist way of life in Cuba, I was definitely appalled to realize some of the realiities of the treatment of homosexuals. However, aside from that aspect of the movie, I found Reinaldo Arenas' story to be horrific and in many disturbing to see how the United States and many societies internationally treat HIV/AIDS victims. Until Magic Johnson overcame an epic battle with this virus, it seems as though our society up until the 1990s was very one-sided and mistreated victims of a terrible disease. Beyond these social realities, I also liked what was read of Arenas' works, and I thought his writing was very profound too.

Response to "A Day Without A Mexican"

I thought the movie was entertaining and did an effective job of conveying the importance of Mexican immigrants to the American economy and way of life. The statistics and anecdotes really demonstrated what a loss it would be if all Mexicans suddenly disappeared. However I felt that the movie represented an extremely liberal view. Clearly Mexicans are essential to our country and there is no arguing with that, but undocumented citizens do use social resources without financially contributing through taxes. Without some sort of border patrol/documentation system there would be chaos. I don’t think we should be too restrictive of who is allowed to enter the country, but I think its naïve to claim that allowing undocumented immigrants free access is ok.

Reflection Post: Q&A Lecture

The last class touched a little bit on a topic I found very interesting, the "Latino/a Paradox". The “Latino/a Paradox” is loosely defined as the surprising health of many Latino/as despite contradictory predictions for higher mortality and disease rates.

The video below does a good job of describing the paradox conceptually:



Though we talked in class about the possibility that immigrants move back to their country when they are seriously ill, I think the fact that many studies have proven to be statistically significant is enough evidence for me to believe in the Latino Paradox.

I’m interested to see what other people think – do you believe in the ‘paradox’?

Multicultural Literature (12/5 discussion)

In response to the discussion regarding whether or not children should be exposed to multicultural literature through the media at an early age, I believe that they should be shown these things. This is a topic that kids will face at some part of their lifetime, so it's important that they learn of these issues earlier than later. I feel as though it is a travesty to paint a pretty picture in the mind of a child and tell him/ or her that life is always like that; even though, it's not. Considering that this is aimed at 4 or 5 year olds, it is important to explain it using language and examples that they would be able to understand. This should only be taught by their parent/guardian.