Lupe Fiasco and the American flag

Choosing not to pledge allegiance to the American flag had rapper Lupe Fiasco make headlines in the course of last month.

On September 25th was released Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1, Lupe Fiasco’s fourth studio album. In "Strange Fruitition", first song of the album, Lupe sings: 

"Now I can't pledge allegiance to your flag/'Cause I can't find no reconciliation with your past". 

Being the young, Black hip-hop artist that he is, coming from a Muslim family, it just seems logical for him not to pledge allegiance to the flag. That decision has earned him criticism from the media and blogosphere, as well as his lyrics, questioning U.S. politics and putting emphasis on socio-economic inequalities.

Having also once called Obama a terrorist and refusing to vote on November 6, Lupe has been called unpatriotic and anti-American by many people and his influence on young Black men has been brought up. What if he encourages the Black community not to vote?

I understand Lupe Fiasco’s decision to not pledge allegiance, because I think this whole pledging thing is done according to values that might not represent all Americans – including Lupe himself. Once it is done in a way that all different cultures within America can relate to, I think he probably will… but there’s a long way to go. Even though I disagree with the idea of not voting to make a statement, I don’t think we should put the blame on a single person for influencing a whole community. Yes, he is a public figure, but he still has the right to make choices for himself and express these choices in his music and media appearances without having to censure himself.

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Being the First Black President

Over the past four years we have witnessed what some may call a radical change or a sign of progress--the first African-American president. In an article entitled Walking the Tightrope of Race: Social and Emotional Effects of Being the First, Dr. Terence Fitzgerald explores the implications of Obama's race in the last four years during his presidential term and in the current reactions to his recent presidential debates.

Fitzgerald relates the manner in which Obama has been graded and depicted by political pundits, so called newscasters, and the general public on idiot blogs over the past four years to a conversation he had with his mother when he was in the seventh grade. Fitzgerald recalls how he was publicly humiliated at school once when his name and others were called, announcing their honor roll placement for the semester over the school PA system. Fitzgerald told his mother of his feelings associated with the backhanded compliments from unsupportive white peers and ridicule from a segment of his own racial group. He felt isolated and alone.

Fitzgerald felt that this was especially true because he was one of just two African-American children announced. That alone carried many issues and concerns. Nevertheless, his mother simply said, “Sometimes being a person of color is like walking a tight rope above folks waiting to see the blood spew from your fall.” She told him that on one side, non-Blacks will think you are still beneath them and cannot wait for your fall. On the other side will be some of your own who hate that you are in a better position than they are. For those reasons, they will at times subconsciously wish for your demise. This introduced Fitzgerald to the idea of division among Black America. Today, we can witness an increasing division among Blacks due to socioeconomic status.

To Fitzgerald, division seems to become louder and wider as one begins to occupy spaces that have traditionally been denied due to skin tone. When one is seen as “the oddity,” the air of subjugation, fear, and at times hatred becomes thicker and psychological stressors can affect the emotional and physical statuses of the individual. It can create strife within the formation of an identity.

Fitzgerald goes on to talk about how the president has been depicted.

"I have seen in print and within the context of news stories within the 24-hour news cycle that have painted him as 'too Black.' On the other hand, was it that he has forgotten Blacks and their plight? I have seen others note that the president is not aggressive enough and not acting like a 'stereotypical scary black man.' During the second presidential debate, I received an automatic shock to my brain every time someone coined his approach to his political appointment as, “angry.” Whites have often deemed him as an illegal alien, monkey, Hitler, and other derogatory figures."

In the end, Fitzgerald feels that we as a nation have, for four years, viciously watched in excitement a political tragedy. The essence of racism, as seen during Jackie Robinson’s rise, is still prevalent as the president continues to move along the racial tightrope. The effects on race are truly boundless. In fact, he believes the thought that race within this presidential election is absent, is credulous at best.

I believe there is much truth in what Fitzgerald has to say. Just like Jackie Robinson, there has to be a few 'game-changers' before the stigma behind a radical change, such as race, can start to subside. However, I believe that because race is still a big issue in parts of the world it can only subside so much. Like his example from his own life about being one of a few Black students on the honor roll, it is hard enough to be president and then on top of that the first Black president. Perhaps its something to take into consideration when we make up our minds on who to vote for next month.

Barriers to understanding and acceptance

The only way to reduce racist behavior and racial profiling is to identify it, then identify the reasons why it occurs and provide explanations and solutions. Racist behavior comes from differences between cultures and ethnicities as well as the lack of understanding and open-mindedness of people involved in cross-cultural interaction. Once we identify the barriers of understanding and acceptance between cultures, it is easier to go around them in hopes of getting to better intercultural communication and tolerance.

Assuming similarity instead of difference

One of the great barriers we face is assuming similarity instead of difference. This concept is simple: one tends to behave as they would in their own home culture when they interact with someone from a different culture, assuming it is the same or it is very similar to their own. One’s behavior, which is coherent with the values and customs of their culture, is the only behavior they would consider possible. Obviously, this can lead to important misunderstandings and frustration between people of different cultures interacting with each other. I have once met a guy from Berlin, Germany, who was travelling to Montreal (where I’m from). Hoping to enjoy a nice hot summer day, he went downtown, bought a big can of beer and started walking while taking sips of his cold beer. Eventually, two police officers caught him and asked him what he was doing. Convinced that he was doing nothing wrong, as it is legal to drink alcohol in public areas in Berlin, he replied that he was just walking and enjoying the nice weather. The officers took his answer as complete arrogance and got mad at him… At one point both parties realized that this was a misunderstanding coming from cultural differences and things worked out fine, but the point is that my German friend could’ve avoided this situation by not assuming similarity instead of difference when coming to another country. Wherever you go, whomever you meet, you should never assume that they would have the same cultural standards and behavior as yours. You should have no expectations and be prepared for similarities as much as differences.

Ethnocentrism

Another important barrier is ethnocentrism.  Ethnocentrism – or cultural relativism, as it is also called – is negatively judging another culture based on the standards of one’s own culture. What it means is that one will automatically see their own culture as superior to others. Here is a definition and historical examples of ethnocentrism. Let’s take the example of the German drinking beer on the street in a country where it is prohibited and see it from an ethnocentrism point of view. That guy could easily get frustrated because he is used to having the right to drink alcohol in public in is country, and judge this new country’s culture based on his own cultural standards. From his point of view, drinking on the street is totally acceptable and logical. Therefore, he could have a negative judgement on Canadian (and North American) culture and think of his own as better. Or, he could just think of it as different, in a neither positive nor negative way. For example, when Americans talk about the English driving in the “wrong” lane, why wouldn’t they just refer to it as the “left lane” or the “opposite lane as Americans”? 

Not being ethnocentric can be something really hard to do, considering the fact that our culture is the only one we are used to apply in our everyday life, and it can be challenging to face different cultural standards without comparing them to our own. At least being able to recognize and identify the barriers to cultural understanding and acceptance is a very good start towards eliminating those barriers with the right behavior. 

For more details on those two barriers and even more, such as anxiety, stereotypes and prejudice and language problems, I suggest you visit this very interesting and complete blog post. 

Indian Mascots Still Racist!

There is a new trend on the Stanford University campus, and it could be racist. I am talking about the pre-1970's Stanford Indians' Native American mascot. Native Appropriations blog writer Adrienne K., a resident Stanford student and person of Native American descent, finds the image blatantly racist.

In her article When offensive Indian mascots hit too close to home, K. explains how Stanford was the "Stanford Indians" until 1971, when student activists stood up against it. She explains she is not a savage in loin clothes, with a big nose and wild eyes. K. explains how using Native peoples as mascots depicts these them as mythical creatures, which, in effect, erases their humanity.

In defense, some people say that the image honors Native peoples. Adrienne's friend M. wrote a post on Facebook which she believes sums it up beautifully:

We would like to be honored by seeing our culture taken down from the shelves of costume shops. We would like to be honored by being consistently included as a whole racial demographic in social and scientific research. We would like to be honored by not being accused of taking some other student's place at Stanford simply because we're Native (even though we're often accused of not looking Native enough). I, and so many others, would be honored if we could - someday soon - stop explaining why we are so deeply offended.

 I, too, find the image racist. It is just as racist as a cartoony depiction of an African-American or Asian-American person. Its almost as if they are saying "We own your culture because we conquered your people."

Peer Groups 2

Racism Today

I have not been able to find information about the author other than his name is Mike.

The author posts content from other sources such as news broadcasts and articles from news websites. He includes a link to the original source at the end of each post. The posts are unbiased as he seems to post articles from credible news sources as long as they have to do with racial injustice.

I was unable to find an "about us" page on the blog however it seems clear his interest is to spread news about specific instances of racial injustice happening in the country.

Mike posts articles several times a month.

I have read the comments and most of them seem to be by users who also want to share articles about racial profiling with the author.

The only links I see related to social media is through a floating toolbar with icons to share over the different social networking sites.

Equity Blog

Equity Blog is produced by PolicyLink, which is a national research and action institute dedicated to advancing economic and social equity.

The content of the site is a mix of news and commentary, highlighting important events happening in the media that are bettering the community as well as commentary on social events dealing with strengthening sustainability. There may be a bias in the fact the site publishes posts that are in favor for their organization PolicyLink, although this may not be a bad thing considering the organization's goals.

The producers' interest in making this content is to promote and show the interest of the organization, what kinds of things the organization is in favor of and also to share commentaries on other economic and social equity events.

Equity Blog posts on average of 2-3 posts per month.

The comments also give a "thumbs-up" on the article, sharing their thoughts about the people in the stories and praising the good that is being done.

In the right hand column there is a box that displays how many "likes" their parent organization has on Facebook, giving the option of liking, as well as displaying some of the profiles that "like" the page.

Disney Racism

The only authors I can find on this tumblr are named Sarah and Kate.

Some of the posts have a little commentary but most are left up to the reader to speculate.

Their interest in creating this content was for a school project, perhaps the same one I am doing right now!

I believe there is some bias because they are activiely looking for ways in which characters or a scene in Disney cartoons could be considered racist. I believe there might be some but I don't think all were made with that intention.

There are 30 posts that were done in February and that is about it.

Most comments are "likes" on Facebook  or reposts on Tumblr.

The authors do have a link to their Facebook page titled "Fighting Racism in Disney."

Anti-Racist Action

This sites content is produced by the ARA, an international network of people from all walks of life who are dedicated to eliminating racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination against the disabled, the oldest, the youngest, and the most oppressed people.

The content of the site is solely about the issue we are dealing with in question, racism today. The content is mostly news related, posts dealing with new breakthroughs in the fight against racial injustice as well as news stories about racial discrimination or hate crimes.

The authors' interests are to continue to give hope to the rest of us that change is being brought about in the world about racial discrimination as well as inform us about incidents where race has been an issue.

New posts are presented a few times a month.

Unfortunately, there are no comments on this blog but there are links to the admin's blog.

The website does not have any social media presence other than share buttons.

Peer groups

Racism Review 

Racism Review is produced and maintained by Joe R. Feagin (Texas A&M University) and Jessie Daniels (CUNY- Hunter College). Its many contributors/bloggers are various researchers and scholars from sociology and other social science disciplines.

This blog is totally related to the present social issue – racial profiling and racism – because it is its main and only subject. In a mix of news and commentary, leaning a little bit towards commentary, bloggers publish their own original work but highlight or link to others’ work too. Since there is a lot of commentary, we can say that the content of Racism Review is somewhat biased, but because its contributors are scholars and researchers, arguments are generally well built and supported by facts.

Racism Review is a source of evidence-based research and analysis on race for journalists, students and the general public.

Content is published twice a week or more, at irregular intervals. Comments are well written and articulated and bloggers answer the readers’ comments and engage in good discussion with them.

The site has a Facebook page with only few fans, but every article has the "like" option.

Resist Racism

The blogger behind Resist Racism is anonymous, but comments tend to reveal that it might be a group of people instead of a single person.

This blog is made of posts in reaction to different articles, news or events, mostly in the US, that present different forms of racist behavior. In each of the blog’s posts, there is a link to the original article/news/event it was inspired with. The content of Resist Racism can be biased because it is mostly commentary and argumentation, but supported by facts and evidence.

The purpose of Resist Racism isn’t revealed on the website, but I am guessing it is in the bloggers’ personal interest and for the good of the general public that they are writing on this subject. The blog says it is "for the good of your immortal soul".

Content is published almost everyday but doesn’t get a lot of comments. Comments that are posted are well written and not angry or offensive.

The site doesn’t have any social media presence.

Colorlines.com

Colorlines.com is a daily news site produced by a multicultural team of writers who cover events and stories from a community perspective, in a mostly neutral way, even though some articles are a little bit biased because of the author’s opinion input.

The purpose of Colorlines.com is to unite with racial justice instead of dividing by racism. It focuses on naming problems and finding solutions by investigative reporting and news analysis.

Colorlines.com publishes news almost everyday – or every two days. It is common to see posts of 3 or 4 paragraphs in the comment threads following articles on Colorlines.com and most people answer to each other’s comments.

Colorlines.com is very active on Facebook – it has a page and even an app – and Twitter and has almost 30,000 fans/followers on each of those two social media.

Racialicious

Racialicious is a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture that posts updates on the latest celebrity gaffes as well as critique of questionable media representation of race. It is produced by Latoya Peterson, owner and editor, and her team of managing editor, associate editor and special correspondents.

Posts are published everyday, and most of them are highly biased : they are based on the author’s opinion over events or news, and content is not written in a way to make you believe it is neutral, journalistic work.

There are not many comments on the site’s content, but there definitely is a lot of sharing on social media : Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. Racialicous also has a Facebook page and Twitter account itself.