Farai Chideya presentation

In her speech at the Stone Center for Black Culture and History, Farai Chideya spoke about diversity in the media and the rising popularity of the Internet as a means of communication for those who have previously lacked a unified voice in society. With the growing popularity of social networking sites and digital communication, Chideya explained that the current state of communication has become a hybrid of personal, face-to-face interactions and digital contact.

Chideya spoke about the Jena Six and www.barackobama.com, using those case studies to showcase how minority groups called attention to their grievances and motivations and promoted change through a unified, online voice. Chideya reiterated that the Internet is a free market, blind of discrimination.

The internet is bringing the world together in and is giving voices to those never before heard. The hybridization of communication between personal and digital is an exciting process and will serve as a powerful tool to unite people from all corners of the globe.

Portrayal of women in video games

Describe how you would “redesign” women in a video game of your own creation so that they are not trapped by sexist stereotypes.

To be completely honest, I could probably count on two hands the amount of times I have played video games. When I stop to think about it though, I have two very distinct visions of generic female video game characters: one is a very distressed princess, waiting nervously for her prince to come to her rescue; the other, a scantily clad, fierce bombshell, saving the world from one bad guy at a time. If nothing else, it is interesting to note the enormous disparity between the two portrayals of women—they are polar opposites, and yet both still manage to perpetuate demeaning stereotypes of women.

While I am certainly no video game expert, I definitely see a need for a more accurate portrayal of women in games. As far as I know, typical women do not wait patiently in their rooms, waiting to be “saved” while their boyfriends ward off enemies in neighboring kingdoms; nor do they run around doing back flips, defeating their enemies with roundhouse kicks while dressed in skin tight leather bodysuits. For representations of women-- animated or not-- to be fair, they must be realistic. I don’t see a huge problem with women being portrayed as beautiful and/or thin, due largely to the fact that beautiful/thin women DO exist. What I do have a problem with is that video game designers assign women characters to unrealistic roles that either perpetuate the thinking that women are subservient, docile and dependent on men OR that they powerful and fierce because due to their intense sexuality.

Women are athletes. Women are scholars. Women are housewives. Women are employees. This is the reality of society and should be what is portrayed through all avenues of media. If I were to design a video game, I would showcase women in one (or a few) of these roles as strong, independent women capable of supporting themselves without relying on an overtly sexualized appearance.

James Arthur Ray's sweat lodge retreat

The repercussions and aftermath of James Arthur Ray’s sweat lodge retreat illuminate the simple fact that he was not equipped to emulate an intricate custom based on Native American culture. His decision to host a retreat costing participants $9,000 for a weekend based on a purification and detoxification process used by Native Americans calls attention to the unabashed and inappropriate exploitation of indigenous customs and cultures for capital gain.

It is painfully obvious after the death of three sweat lodge participants’ untimely and preventable deaths that Ray was not capable, nor well-versed enough on the custom that he was emulating, to host the retreat and promote the “benefits” of the traditional practice. It is unfortunate that people seek to gain financially from traditional Native American rituals, customs and practices and it is even more tragic when those practices are not executed properly, causing harm to bystanders and, in this case, innocent participants. The fact that Ray was an unfit and negligent leader in this situation aside, prior knowledge and understanding of the traditional detoxification process would have resulted in a much safer experience for participants. His lack of respect and disregard for fully understanding the process proves that he was only trying to benefit financially from the sweat lodge retreat and was truly exploiting Native American culture in order to do so.

Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names

I find it morally reprehensible that hotel owner Larry Whitten would require his Hispanic employees to anglicize their names. I find his actions offensive for two primary reasons: (1) Names are the keystones of personal identity. Stripping someone of their name is, in essence, denying someone of their culture, personal history and individuality, and (2) Taos, New Mexico is a city engrossed in Hispanic culture, history and language. Mr. Whitten’s request for his employees to change their names is a violation of personal identity as well as an attempt to homogenize a city rich in heritage where divergent cultures are juxtaposed and enjoy a harmonious balance. His assumption that the hotel would be more efficient and successful with employees with typical Caucasian names insinuates that the hotel was doing poorly because employees had Hispanic names and spoke Spanish amongst each other. While I could see how business would be hindered if Spanish was the only language spoken at the hotel, I cannot subscribe to the fact that Hispanic workers in a town embracing Hispanic culture and heritage had anything to do with the hotel’s initial downfall. Simply changing employees names will not change the fact that they are Hispanic and have their own culture and heritage that they bring to the town of Taos.
I would really like to believe that Mr. Whitten is not a racist. Perhaps, as Juanito Burns Jr. intimates in the article, Mr. Whitten is just a Taos outsider, ignorant of the cultural landscape of the city.