Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Cavemen
In the "Caveman" episode we watched in class on monday, we saw many different cultural myths. One of the cultural myths that was prevalent throughout the episode was that of the conception of cavemen as being primitive beasts. Through your own experiences or the experiences of others, have you encountered any type of misconceptions because of your race or gender? How did that make you feel?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
Well I come from a school that's called the "Redskins" and if we ever had to change our name, our town would really be upset about it. We pride on our athletics, and the Redskin is what we are honoring. I don't think we make Indians out to be savages at all. But in Caveman, they made him out to look like a beast, and that isn't what we do at my school. I'm not really sure what my feelings are on the subject, because I don't believe in degrading other cultures, yet I love my school mascot and hope it never changes.
I have never encountered anything like that personally. I'm not sure if this ahs much to go with the topic, she looks like she is Mexican, but she is really Nicaraguan. Everyone though always just referes to her as mexican though. I feel that if I was her I would get upset sometime because just because of how she looks people just assume her background. So now because of my friend I try not to judge people before learning more about them.
I never really encountered anything like a mascot issue in the episode, but as a female I have encountered certain situations that were sexist. I was working on a presentation witha boy one time and our teacher was asking really hard questions to make sure we knew what we were talking about and he answered as many as he could without letting me get a word in. Later he almost expected a thank you out of me for "rescuing me from the hard questions". The issue of stereotypes is all around us all the time.
It seems like other cultures think all white people can financially support themselves. That is not true in some cases. Also some people see being white is an advantage and I do not nessarally think that. What they did to the Caveman is what happends in society everyday. It is human nature to stereo type but that doesn't mean we can't work on it.
My school, like in the Caveman episode, had a mascot that was controversial. We were the Redskins at one point and it offended some people so we had to change it. Most of the kids at my school were upset about it because they were proud to be a Redskin and didnt really get why someone could be offended. The mascot was changed about four years ago and it was such a big deal that people still talk about if it should have been changed and how much they think we should have stayed the Redskins. As for me personally I dont think I have been discriminated against that much, usually I try to not let it get to me if I am. The biggest thing for me was probably just having to prove that I can play sports and I'm not helpless just because I'm a girl.
I have never personally encountered anything like this, but I know that it does exist. Many of the high schools I faced playing sports had controversal mascots as well. Some of them seemed to be pretty incorrect, however I don't believe that the team should have to change their mascot unless it is extremely degrading, such as in the Caveman episode.
In 7th grade i attended a predominantly Hispanic school. Being Caucasian i was a minority there. I experienced a lot of good and bad in that situation. I did my best to get along with everyone and it worked well for the most part and i made a lot of friends and learned a lot from them. On the other hand, I had a lot of bad first encounters with people i didnt know who just wanted to give me a hard time because i was white. They also would speak spanish around me so that i would have no clue what they were saying. This was a bit intimidating but easy to brush off. Also once i got to know more people and joined a group of friends i didnt get anymore criticism.
I work as a cashier and I have felt discriminated against many times because I'm a more feminine guy. I like to wear girls khakis becaue they are tighter fitting to my body then mens. My manager told me that I couldn't wear girls khakis because they are offending to customers. I like to wear bracelets to work. One time a customer asked if a certain song was on the cd she wanted and I told her I didn't listen to that genre of music and she looked down at my bracelet and rudely said of course you don't. I've heard customers in line say I'm not going to that fag's register. The fact that some people aren't the sterotypical macho men isn't accepted by a lot of people, sadly.
Discrimination and stereotyping is every where in society. Many are so use to it that they see it as being funny, comedians use stereotypes to make people laugh. Sure some people get offended because they are being judged without really knowing them, but they have to understand that its not done to offend them but to bring some joy. I know that sounds bad but it is how it is. I guess what I'm trying to say is that stereotyping and discrimination can only go so far. It has its line that should be avoided to prevent the feelings of others getting hurt. They can be funny as well as hurtful.
I have encountered a lot of stuff like this just because I'm Mexican. Sure, I don't look Mexican but I am and people would ask me questions like do Mexicans do this or that...at first it bothered me then I realized through their ignorance you can make them look really stupid and I've been making people look stupid ever since
Because of my race people have assumed that I do not speak English, or when they ask me about my ethnicity, they assume I am Mexican.
As for the mascot incident, my high school used native Americans and we were known and the Lane Tech Indians. The only thing about our mascot that might have been seen as derogatory was our newspaper name known as the Lane Tech Warrior. There was a time in the beginning of my high school years where the idea of changing the them of our mascot came up but the idea was set aside.
Post a Comment