"Who's a looter?"

“Who’s a Looter?”
This article by Tania Ralli shows two different pictures both taken of hurricane Katrina survivors. One picture shows a young black man carrying food and pop with a caption underneath that suggests he was looting a grocery store. The second picture shows a white couple also carrying food and drink but the caption under this photo says they found bread and water. When I started reading this article, I immediately agreed with the bloggers who thought that the difference between the two captions was a purposefully made racial statement. To me, the young black man and the white couple were doing the exact same thing; they were both in the middle of a crisis and were doing what they could to get the resources they needed to survive. It is kind of ironic that the caption under the black man had more of a negative vibe to it than the caption under the picture of the white couple. As I continued to read, I realized that the two photos came from completely different agencies. I then agreed that the negative statement under the picture of the black man probably wasn’t meant to come across the way it did when compared to the same type of photo from another agency. The two agencies claim to have different standards on how they write their captions, which makes the incident seem even more unintentional.
Many times things that are not truly racial issues tend to be portrayed as racial issues by critics and/or society. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes certain situations are racial issues and need to be dealt with, but I’m not sure that is the case here with this article. This article controversy reminds me of that shooting that happened in Lima a year or so ago. There was a somewhat of a huge uproar about whether it was a racial issue or not. I never saw it as a racial issue and I know many people, black and white, who felt the same way. At times, a situation is what you make it out to be. Would there be the same level of questioning with these photos if the caption under the white couple claimed that they were looting, and the caption under the black man had more of a positive connotation? I think sometimes people make a big deal out of something that is not intended to be such a big deal. I think it would be awesome if people could just see people as people; not white or black or Mexican or any other ethnicity. If people could look at one another through a colorless lens, I think the world would be a very different place.

"Land of the Lion King"

The author of the story “All is not well in ‘Land of the Lion King’” seemed to have really misunderstood the children’s movie. The main point in her story is that Disney purposefully made it so that certain animals would have a certain status in the story. For example, hyenas with their dark fur and “ghetto” habitat are seen as the “bad guys” in the movie. Lazarus is proposing that the “Lion King” has a negative underlying message of stereotypes. I am saying that Margaret Lazarus looked too far into detail in this children’s movie.

First of all, Lazarus makes reference to the hyenas as being “dark-mostly black” she says. She also points out the fact that the voice for one of the hyenas is played by Whoopie Goldberg with inner-city dialect. Lazarus refers to the place where the hyenas live as “clearly the ghetto.” When you think of hyenas you don’t think of sunshine, happiness and bright colors. Hyenas are not pretty animals; they don’t live in nice looking territories so why would “The Lion King” producers make them that way. They made them exactly as they should be represented. She also states the fact that in the movie they are black or else really dark. I looked at pictures on the internet of hyenas and no, most of them are not black. However, I think that Disney pictured them this way because they are like the “bad guys” in the movie. Typically when a person thinks of bad or evil they picture darker colors. I don’t think it has anything to do with underlying stereotypes of people.

She also mentions that Scar has a seemingly gay caricature; to who? I have not once noticed him and being gay. I think Margaret looked too deep into this children’s story and tried to make it something that it is not. I don’t think I have ever heard one black person mention the fact that they were offended by the hyenas in the movie “The Lion King.” I still see “The Lion King” as a good, worth-watching movie.

"The Struggle to be an All-American Girl"

The writing by Elizabeth Wong called “The Struggle to be an All-American Girl” describes one girl’s struggle with her own natural heritage. The girl’s mother wants her to learn the Chinese language while she, the young girl, would rather be playing on the playground with the rest of the students in public school. The issue, however, is not that she wants to play instead of learn; it is more that she is almost ashamed of the Chinese culture and language and doesn’t want to learn it. Although it may have been unnecessary for the mother to force the 10 year old to learn the difficult Chinese language, the girl should not be ashamed of her own heritage.

Whether the girl likes it or not, she is Chinese. It is good for her to learn more about where she originated from and the culture of her ancestors. I am not saying that she has to like her culture over the American culture, but she should not be ashamed of it. That is who she really is. She should be proud of who she was made to be. Although at the time she would rather be playing with other American children than learning the Chinese language, I think that it is very important for her to learn the language. I think that as she grows older, the girl will realize that it was a good decision to sacrifice some playing time in order to learn more about the culture she originates from. There could end up being a situation in the future where she has to communicate or connect with an ancestor of hers and her previous knowledge of the culture and language would help her do so. Also, the fact that she is Chinese by blood means that it is very important for her to know more about who she really is. There are many people today who do not know anything about whom their ancestors are or where they come from. Elizabeth actually has an awesome opportunity in front of her to be knowledgeable about her own culture where many people are not. I think in the long run, Elizabeth will be grateful that she took the classes about the Chinese language and culture.