Tracy Morgan Faces Discrimination?

I was watching E! News and heard a story about 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan writing a memoir. Normally I wouldn't think to relate writing a book to a TV minorities class, but one thing that caught my attention was that in the book, Morgan claims that some of his former fellow Saturday Night Live cast members were not very friendly to him during his days on the show. He calls out Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri specifically, and mentions that they always looked at him differently than some of the others on the show at that they treated him as thought he was beneath them in some way. I mean, obviously, their opinions of him could have stemmed from anything... maybe they didn't like his personality, or maybe they just aren't friendly people by nature, but I couldn't help but wonder whether race had anything to do with the sense of discrimination that he felt from two of his peers. I don't know if I would have even considered the possibilty that race might have been a factor, had I not signed up for this class, but after I saw the story, I was kind of curious as to what Morgan was referring to with his comments. Any thoughts?

Hispanic Students & College Education...

So the supplemental article sent out that pertained to the subject matter of our class, titled “Hispanic Students Aspire to Higher Education but Face Barriers”, talked about college age students of Hispanic descent and some of the potential reasons why Hispanic students are not as likely to follow through with a college education. The article mentions that many of these students believe that having a college degree is not only something they are interested in, it is something that they feel is essential in having a solid career later on in life, yet not as many students actually finish their degree. The possible reasons for this were described as a lack of involvement in the process of advancing education from students’ families, as well as some hesitance to sacrifice being able to provide for their families in order to afford a college education.

While this has obviously been shown to be true of Hispanic students in particular for this article, I think the same struggles often apply to people of other ethnicities as well. I know a couple of people that are different races who have left college because they could not afford to pursue their education and support themselves or their families at the same time. I also know someone who put off going to college for years because they did not have help from their family. The difficulties discussed in the article are significant and seem like things that people of any race can relate to in one way or another.

Chicano History and I Am Joaquin...

Okay, so last week, we started reading the Noriega text and watched the short film version of I Am Joaquin. I have to say that one of the biggest things that I took away from last week was the fact that I really knew nothing about Chicano history, nor had I really even heard much of the term “Chicano” before. Based on the discussion boards, many other people in the class seemed to feel the same way, which I thought was kind of interesting. It seems a little strange that with all we are taught growing up about racial issues in this country (the civil rights movement, for example), that we have no real understanding of Chicano history. I think that this is in some way due to the fact that when we think of the term “minorities”, we automatically assume that it is in reference to African Americans. We don’t think as much about some of the past struggles faced by people of other ethnicities, which seem to be just as important. Getting into the new textbook and hearing the powerful words in I Am Joaquin has made me more aware of the fact that I need to pay closer attention to other race related issues that I had not given much thought to before.

Good and Bad Hair / Burn, Hollywood, Burn...

So… I will admit that I am a bit behind on the blog posts, so I’m going back a couple of weeks with this, but some of the screenings that I thought were kind of interesting were the music videos, specifically Good and Bad Hair and the outspoken Public Enemy video for Burn, Hollywood, Burn.

Good and Bad Hair was really eye-catching because it manages to tackle subject matter that is somewhat race related and can be a personal and sensitive topic for people, but did so in a lighthearted manner. The type of hair a person is born with is part of who they are and should not be something that people are judged on. Nobody should have to feel insecure or self conscious about their appearances or personal characteristics so to see the topic presented in such an upbeat, good natured manner was interesting.

Taking a bit of a different approach, Burn, Hollywood, Burn showcases a hostile opinion of portrayals of African Americans in Hollywood. It references the entertainment industry’s representations of African Americans as slaves, butlers, maids, etc. and shows white actors on screen applying black face paint to portray African American characters, showcasing an obvious disgust with Hollywood and its handling of race related issues on screen. The funny thing about the video is that one of the featured rappers is Ice Cube, who as I’m sure everyone knows by now, has made quite a career in the entertainment industry… A little ironic? I think so.