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.

Hate Crimes

Ecuadorian Dies From Attack That May Be Treated As Hate Crime
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/nyregion/10assault.html?ref=nyregion

I thought I should share this article with the class since Professor Cotera has made a point of making us aware of the hate crimes committed against Latina/os that have occured recently. It seems that hate crimes against Latina/os have been escalating dramatically as well as media coverage on this issue. This article was especially alarming to me because this occured in my own city, which I always thought of as a diverse and accepting place. This goes to show that these crimes can happen anywhere and are truly becoming a major problem in this country.

Health Care

I think that the Tuskegee trials that were mentioned briefly in class shows how people of minorities often are not treated with respect medically. The Tuskegee trial was a syphilis trial done in the south on black men. These men were left with syphilis even when a cure (penicillin) was discovered. Instead of being treated and cured, subjects were left to unnecessarily live out the course of the disease. The experimenters used these men just because they wanted to know what happened to a person when the disease takes over someone's brain. These men could have been cured and able to go back to living normal lives, but instead they were not seen as equal people to the white men running the trial. These men were treated more like animal subjects.
I think something needs to be done to make healthcare treatment equal for people of all races and ethnicities. It is not fair that even if two people with insurance go into a hospital, the one that is not a minority might be more likely to be given better treatment. The United States is not rated very well when it comes to health care and I hope with a new health care policy of the president elect can enact some positive changes.

Multicultural Literature

I have to admit that ever since I came across an introduction to a Christian children's book which stated that the events of Noah' Arc were scientifically proven, I have been sceptical of any social messages in children's literature. I would like to think that, because youths are so impressionable, children's literature could serve as a safe ground where politics should be avoided. However, if any message is to be present in children's literature I would side with multicultural democracy over assimilationist pluralism. I do believe that it is important for children to understand inequities in power especially since stereotypes and inequility are so prevalent in what children see on TV and in movies. For this reason it is important to have some source which attempts to counteract the messages in mainstream media. I also agree with the author that introducing multiracial democracy in a "safe" way into children's literature will better-prepare them for what they will encounter in adulthood.

Latinos and HIV Radio Broadcast

On World AIDS Day I listened to the radio broadcast that Professor Stern recommended. The interviewee was a man by the name of Joe Zamora who became an activist for gay Latinos and people with HIV in the Los Angeles area after he found out he was HIV positive at age 17. However, a year ago Zamora discontinued his work in the Latino community when he began to see that people he had worked with were purposely having unprotected sex. He spoke of "sex parties" where negative and positive people go to a party and have unprotected sex. The negative individuals go to these parties with the purpose of becoming HIV positive. These people say they do it so that they can take advantage of social services provided by the government, such as social security disability, housing funding and receive free medication. With all these services provided to them, they don't have to work. I was horrified when I heard this. How can people do that to themselves? Do they really think that living with HIV will be better than the life they have now? I am in favor of the government helping those who have been infected with HIV and I think these services are extremely important yet I also believe that those who have knowingly contracted the virus should not be rewarded with these services. It is also very disheartening to hear that an activist that was so passionate about his work for 20 years gave up due to this kind of behavior. Latina/os have made so much progress and are capable of doing so much more. To sit back and abuse social services provided by the government is immoral as well as a step backward in my eyes.

Literature

Although I think it is definitely necessary to present children literature of all kinds at a young age, I think that children also need to learn certain things through experience. There are specific learning curves in education with science or math, but the dynamics of racial and social issues are much more complex than school work. At the same time, kids learn too much from misguided television networks that emphasize stereotypes, especially news channels that focus on the negative attributes of specific racial groups. I certainly don't think there are any right answers in regard to this question, but I do believe changing society as a whole can be the only way to cure such problems, and obviously we are decades away from there. In the meantime, however, I think more focus needs to be paid to addressing racial/social conflicts at an early age.

Multicultural Literature

The discussion of multicultural literature versus mainstream literature I think was very interesting. I personally think that it is important for all children to be exposed to different cultures and to understand that although people might look different or have different traditions that people are all people. This discussion reminded me when I used to work in a preschool. The books that were available for the kids to read talked about all different cultures, religions, and different types of families that may exist. I noticed a trend in the children choosing to have me read books to them that were about cultures or people that were different than they were. I was surprised by the trend but it made me happy to be able to see that children were accepting of people different than they are. Although, the children were only 4 or 5 years old they were showing values and an attitude that is important for people of all ages to have.

Saludos Amigos

I was particularly interested in the U.S. Foreign Policy, Disney & Latina America portion of Isabel's lecture because I was able to connect to the material immediately. The clips we watched in class made me a bit uncomfortable and I was surprised at the fact that this feeling was not unfamiliar to me. When I was in middle school, I would often watch Saludos Amigos with my younger brother. I remember watching the film and feeling like there was something wrong with Disney's depiction of the characters. The character that bothered me most was Goofy as an Argentinean gaucho or cowboy. He had no idea what he was doing with the equipment, was constantly hurting himself and pronounced Spanish words with the thickest American accent that even as a bilingual speaker I sometimes had no clue as to what he was saying. As a kid I couldn't figure out why this bothered me so much. It was after all supposed to be funny. However, watching the clips in class and reanalyzing the images made me realize that I was right in feeling uncomfortable because the depictions are completely inaccurate. The film is full of stereotypes and faulty information. I couldn't believe that these films were made in an attempt to create "positive" images of Latinos, for Latinos. Did Disney really think that Latina/os would not see the inaccuracies in characters like Panchito Pistoles, Jose Carioca, Goofy, etc? Even at a young age I was able to see these errors. I'm interested in learning more about how these films were received in countries like Mexico, Brazil, Peru and Argentina and what their interpretations of the films were.

HIV/AIDS Among Hispanics and Latinos Act Up Questions

HIV/AIDS

1.) How were most Hispanic men exposed to HIV? What about Hispanic women?

2.) What percentage of Hispanics have HI/AIDS?

3.) How does the Hispanic population in the U.S. compare to the AIDS population in the U.S.?

4.) What cultural values contribute to the denial of HIV/AIDS?

5.) Why might some Hispanic women be reluctant to ask their partner to use a condom?

Latinos Act Up

1.) What does ACT UP stand for and which two groups did it unite?

2.) What was ACT UP dedicated to doing?

3.) What was the common theme between the HIV/AIDS epidemic in NY and Latin America?

4.) What were the three steps that the Latino Caucus took?

5.) Why did the Latino Caucus and ACT UP shrink by 1996?

Before Night Falls

In my opinion, the small clip of the movie that we watched today during Professor Stern's lecture spoke greatly about the horrible condition of our health care systems. The scene where Reinaldo was sleeping in the hospital bed spoke to me in particular. Upon comparing Reinaldo with the man in the hospital bed next to him, there were some shocking differences. First, the white male had a clean hospital gown and a bed with blankets whereas Reinaldo was left in his own dirty clothes curling up for warmth. Secondly, the white male had some sort of breathing apparatus attached to him (a sign of medical/doctor attention & care). Reinaldo on the other hand, showed no visible signs of being treated or cared for. The only sign was the wheelchair that was offered to him upon his leaving, and even then it was brought to him by a black nurse.

I think that this just reinforces latino/a distrust in our health system. I mean, even if they manage to gather up courage to seek medical attention, that still get shortchanged on proper treatment and care which ultimately is going to prevent them from trying to come again.

Cross-Border Feminist Solidarities

Hello everyone! I'll be discussing Rosa Linda Fregoso's article on Cross Border Feminist Solidarities this Friday! I have some questions for you all:

First off, what did you guys get out of the article? I found that it was very informative, but left me asking myself many questions. It's interesting how different aspects of culture can effect each other. It seems that every part of our culture is brought about by other events or situations.

What exactly is the 10 commandments of Marianismo? What is the 9th commandment? What do
you think about this rule? Do we find that this idea is prominent in many cultures today?

Do you think that problems with domestic violence have risen due to the 9th commandment?
Do you think it has risen more from the racism male minorities face? (pg. 33)

Do you agree that talking openly about domestic violence might cause a rise in racism or
stereotype?

What year was the National Coalition against Domestic Violence founded? (1978) (pg 34)

What makes domestic violence between Chicanos different from that of the majority race?
(Not that it happens more often, but that there is less activism in stopping it because
of the female commandments)

In the story of Paulina, what forms of abuse does she experience, and from who?

Think about these questions, and I'll see you guys on Friday!

Discussion Questions: Multicultural Children's Literature as an Instrument of Power

1. Which statements in the first excerpt (see below) might the author disagree with? Why would the author disagree with such statements?

Mama explains about rioting. “It can happen when people get angry. They want to smash and destroy. They don’t care anymore what’s right and what’s wrong.”

Below us they are smashing everything. Windows, cars, and streetlights.

“They look angry. But they look happy too,” I whisper.

“After a while it’s like a game,” says Mama.

2. Define Assimilationist Pluralism and Multiracial Democracy. What are the differences between the two? Which does the author prefer and why?

3. Do you agree with the author on the “power of the Word” and it’s implementation into children’s literature?

Disney

I was particularly interested in Isabel's lecture. I mentioned this in class, but one of my childhood friends was not allowed to watch Disney movies. I never understood why this was and her parents were a bit cooky so I just thought they were being weird. Now I understand that they were a bit smarter than my young 2nd grade mind may have realized. The only Disney movie they were allowed to watch was Mulan. Mulan stands out against other classics like Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and Cinderella. First of all it stars a minority character and secondly it shines a different culture in a good light instead of as a villain type, thirdly it embraces women as strong and powerful. Although it may not legally be Disney's responsibility to think about every character they choose to put in their films and how they portray them, you would think that they would want to embrace and utilize this power. Disney is one of many companies that has a strong influence on young children and they should be happy to teach positive lessons to children.

The whole idea of race and ethnicity being portrayed in Disney films has been discussed before. An issue Isabel mentioned is that of sexuality and the lack of diversity. As Isabel said, everything is heteronormative. It is assumed that there is a mom and a dad, and assumed that no one is gay. Disney has improved over the years with its image of different races, such as in movies like Mulan or Lilo and Stitch. However, there has yet to be one that brings to the table the reality of homosexuals in our culture.

Discussion questions on "STERILIZED in the Name of Public Heath"

1. What was the criteria used to sanction sterilizations?

2. What contributed to the longevity of the sterilization laws in California?

3. What was some of the reasoning used to justify compulsory sterilization?

4. What were the modifications to California's sterilization program that resulted from the amendment in 1952 and the bill in 1953, and what were their effects on sterilization rates?

5. What was the punitive model and what were the rationalizations used to employ it?

6. What were the arguments and ruling in the Madrigal v Quilligan case, and what were the consequences?

HIV and Labeling of Sexuality in Mexico

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/world/americas/07mexico.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=hiv%20mexico&st=cse

The link above is to a NY times article I read about a year ago that I believe pertains to this class, especially the lectures on Latino sexuality and the current lectures on Latino health. The article, titled Vulnerable to H.I.V., Resistant to Labels, discusses how labeling of sexuality in Mexico affects HIV testing and treatment. As we discussed in class and in lecture, the label "gay" is only applied to the "receiver" in a gay relationship. The man who "inserts" does not consider himself gay under the guise of machismo.

The NY Times article continues to discuss the problems that this form of labeling creates in Mexico. Because many men who have sex with other men do not consider themselves gay, they also do not believe that they are at risk for HIV. To address this problem, many believe that the health care system should change it's discourse from describing "gay men" as more susceptible to HIV to describing "men who have sex with men" as being more susceptible to HIV. This issue is very important in Mexico as recent statistics show that around 15% of the population of men who have sex with men have HIV. This problem also exists among Mexican-Americans in the U.S.