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Post by Ceci on Apr 20, 2007 14:00:35 GMT -5
Paula Zahn on CNN had a very interesting interview with an Asian-American journalist and student this afternoon concerning the coverage of the Viriginia Tech Shooting. One of the fascinating aspects of the interview explored the notion of "guilt", "pride" and "shame" within a given community. I wonder if the same thing went on in all communities of color when the news first went down on Monday. I had read the entries of several Black bloggers saying the same thing when they first heard the news. They had written (to paraphrase), "Please don't let the shooter be a Black man". This was especially written when the media first announced that the shooter was "male". Does this awareness have to do with the stereotypes that mar our communities? Or is there something more to this whenever there are images that have to do with a community of color that feature negative news? I also wonder if Black folk had the sense of the same thing when Don Imus said his comments about the Rutgers' Women's Basketball team. I'd be interested to hear everyone's perspective on this topic.
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Post by truthseeka on May 9, 2007 23:01:41 GMT -5
Hey Ceci, Good to see you have your own forum going. Honestly, when I first heard about this, you couldn't TELL me this wasn't a white dude. My fault if that's stereotyping, but for real. Nearly every time someone kills a bunch of people they don't know, it's a white dude. But it's all good, I guess. Whenever it is a white dude, his race is NEVER an issue. Go figure...I guess.
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Post by Ceci on May 9, 2007 23:21:27 GMT -5
Hey Ceci, Good to see you have your own forum going. Thanks a lot. It's nice to see you here as well, my friend. It's because of the profile. When we think of school shooters, everything goes back to Columbine. But I remember early that morning of the shooting, there was a female student who called in saying that the shooter was Asian. And then, right after her call, the MSM tried to downplay it. Well, they tried not to make it an issue with Cho. But you know something, they had to take his culture and race into consideration when the families of the victims started to pull their interviews after the second day. And then, that's when they started having Korean Psychologists and other spokespersons from the Asian community on. But, I still think that this was a case that the MSM did not know how to handle because Cho did not represent the "typical" shooter.
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SeventhSeal17
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Post by SeventhSeal17 on May 9, 2007 23:21:39 GMT -5
I don't think it is an accident that people don't fuss whenever a white person does something like this.
In fact, I find it a little backwards that the media feels the need to place people into race groups.
It is nothing but contradiction. One the one hand they are telling us that racism is bad, and people are people. One the other hand they feel need to say "Korean-American Male mows down 30 people". Why not just "Shooting today at VT"? Does it honestly matter the race of the gunman? No.
It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
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Post by Ceci on May 9, 2007 23:31:16 GMT -5
I don't think it is an accident that people don't fuss whenever a white person does something like this. It has to do with perceptions of the larger society as well as racial make-up of who owns the media. There's a long explaination about this, but in short, you're right. It isn't an accident. The way the media portrays race is not on the aspects of diversity. It's point of view deals with elitists and how they not only themselves, but people of color. It does, when it has to do with the MSM and the larger society. And that's because there is history, society, social norms and values behind such a perception. You're correct. But, perceptions of race in the MSM have not been adequately dealt with. And the problem is that when someone of color is portrayed on television, they are still being scrutinized in the same way as they are in RL.
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SeventhSeal17
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Post by SeventhSeal17 on May 9, 2007 23:35:39 GMT -5
True. All good points.
I suppose I am something of an idealist. I see the things the way they should be, rather then the way they are.
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Post by Ceci on May 9, 2007 23:48:18 GMT -5
Don't lose your idealism. Just tweak it with new knowledge and continued discussion. The world is filled with endless possibilities for learning. I'm a big proponent of this. And even with difficult subjects, one always walks away with much needed ideas that can nuance their view of society. Not everyone is going to see things the same way. But when it comes down to it, imho, people have to open their mind to the differences of perspective that paints how various cultural groups in society are portrayed.
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SeventhSeal17
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Post by SeventhSeal17 on May 10, 2007 8:55:23 GMT -5
I am really big into philosophy for that reason. It's like a sandbox of a perfect world to test ideas on.
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