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At DiversityWorks we encourage discussion and engaged dialogue. There
are so many important events happening in the Bay Area and throughout
the world that impact global justice. We offer this web page as a place
to call certain events to our attention and for youth and adults to
express written opinions about these current events.
We want to hear from you. Take time to write a response on any of the current events posted here. Responses can be from 50-350 words. Email your opinion to us!
Check it out. Below are several pieces written by youth involved
in DiversityWorks.
A WOMAN'S BEAUTY | YOUTH VIOLENCE
| MODERN
DAY MINSTRELS | LOVE MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND
| GLORIFICATION OF WHITE SUPREMACY THROUGH MOVIES
A Woman’s
Beauty
Zakiya Osivwemu, 16
A woman’s beauty has been interpreted in only one type of way in
the media. In magazines, T.V, movies, etc, women are portrayed as thin,
voluptuous, light-skinned, tall individuals. Let’s examine this
further through reality TV shows such as America’s Next Top Model.
The UPN reality show stars supermodel Tyra Banks who selects--with a
panel of judges--a certain number of women to compete for one spot as
America’s Next Top Model. The beauty in this show is demonstrated
in every aspect of these young girls’ lives during the course on
this show: how they should dress, walk, look, and act. When millions
of people see this time after time every week, their perception of beauty
will be sculpted to the idealized standards of this show. If this is
the "ideal" beauty young women across America will imitate
what is shown…and along the way spend hundreds of dollars on clothing,
make-up and accessories to get the Top Model look. Most fashion models
are thinner than 98% of American women and the media pushes this unnatural
body type, making it difficult for us to accept our natural beauty.
So if you’re not ‘Next Top Model’ material (and you can’t
imitate it either), the media encourages you to do whatever it takes
to achieve it—you might even kill to get it. An example of this
is the Fox reality show, The Swan, where a couple of females labeled
as "ugly ducklings" undergo plastic surgery to compete in
a beauty pageant. What type of message is this sending? That if you
don’t look like a Top Model, you need to pay hundreds of dollars
disfiguring your face to look like a swan? The media constantly surrounds
our lives and influences our perceptions. And this is detrimental to
a woman’s idea of ugliness and what they will do to themselves
to not be that. Women, in fact, are killing themselves not to be labeled
as that. Over one person's lifetime, at least 50,000 individuals will
die as a direct result of an eating disorder, often fed by the fear
of ugliness.
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Youth Violence
Cindy O’Day, 18
Today is April 12, 2004. Marina, Moses, and I just got back from a DiverseCITY
workshop at the Covenant House. Last week there were like 40 people
there and this week there wasn’t even half that. In fact, only
one kid was there.
Jamil was sitting in the room when we walked in. He was eating chips
and cookies and drinking caffeine-free diet soda. It’s spring break
so I wasn’t too shocked that no one was there because everyone
was feeling us during the last workshop but I just didn’t understand
why only one person was there. Galen brought up that Easter was yesterday
and that families might be together and Jamil said, "one of the
kids in the program got shot on Saturday." He said it so much like
it was a regular thing that happens all the time. Well, in Oakland,
it does. Many of the people getting shot are youth. The kid from Covenant
House, who got shot, was 15. What was he doing to get in the position
to get shot?
Jamil said that Thomas was just in the wrong place at the wrong time
but that’s what I usually hear about youth shootings in Oakland.
I want to know what really happened and why. Who shot Thomas? Where
did this person get a gun? Was the gun bought from a gun store? Or was
it bought on the streets somewhere? Was it a registered gun? Did the
person who shot the gun mean to shoot Thomas? Why? What was it about?
Why are shootings such a normalized concept in Oakland? Was Thomas really
in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or did someone mean to shoot him?
If someone meant to, then what was it about? Drugs? Money? Or some other
personal beef?
People get pretty pissed off about a lot of shit. It just seems like
Oakland is becoming more and more of a place where this type of shit
goes down. Stupid shit like shootings, fights, police brutality and
just a whole bunch of bull that doesn’t need to be going on. But
why? I need answers.
Why is Thomas dead? Who did it? And how did they get access to the weapons
they needed to do it with? I want to know the whole story. Youth shootings
are more and more frequent. This is the second person my age that I’ve
met or known that was murdered by a person with a gun--and I live in
a sheltered community, where people aren’t really into gang violence
and fights don’t happen that much.
I wonder if it was a kid that shot Thomas. Are these kids with guns
in school? What do they do in their spare time? Do they have any after
school programs available to them? Do they take advantage of them? I
really want to know what’s going on. And why?
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Modern Day Minstrels
Alex Jenney, 16
At the turn of the 20th century, the most popular musical show was the
minstrel show. A minstrel show was when a white person, or even sometimes
other Black people, would darken their faces with burnt cork to satirize
people of the black race. The performers would act as the stereotypical
Black person. This includes: eating chicken and talking as if they were
buffoons. Our generation today most definitely recognizes these minstrel
shows as a negative impact on the community. However, there are many
parallels between minstrel shows and television shows today that generally
star Black people.
The Parkers is a popular show among youth in Oakland, and I imagine
in other cities as well. This show is accepted by most people as a realistic
representation of Black people in the US. This is not the case. Kim
is an exaggerated and stereotypical image of a Black woman. The Black
people on shows such as The Parkers, especially Kim, are depicted as
unintelligent and loud.
Often times, there are television shows where there is only one Black
character. These characters have been branded the "token Black
person." On a television show called Degrassi, a teen drama, there
have been no Black characters. Recently, they added a young Black person
to the series. Of course, the only Black person on the television show
is a DJ, dresses in baggy clothing, and is very hip hop oriented. Am
I the only person that finds it strange (or offensive) that the only
Black person on this TV show is a DJ, and not a lawyer or doctor or
scientist.
Our society is one that is media influenced. People buy into the messages
and themes that are expressed on television shows—and then replicate
those in their daily lives. So as long as these messages are inaccurate,
we all continue to be hurt.
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Love Makes the
World Go Round
Jena Perry, 17
Love makes the world go around. Sadly, the United States of America
is standing still. Not only do the youth in America face an epidemic
of violence, the most controversial topic is now going to test the true
colors of American society: gay marriage.
For many, the two words are a symbol and a threat. According to Pastor
Randall Leskovar, gay marriage is "another step to tearing down
and redefining marriage." Like the past, history has a way of repeating
itself, especially when it comes to radical changes being made or brought
to the surface that question the very "normal" foundation
society bases its traditions upon.
For example, during slavery, it was illegal for a white person to marry
an African American in the United States. And to cite an even more recent
event, just in 2000, the city of Atlanta, Georgia passed a law making
interracial marriage legal. The same arguments used to oppose interracial
marriage are being used to fight gay marriage: it’s not natural,
immoral, and challenges the structure of our society. President Bush
proposes that the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage is the
way to "protect the sanctity of marriage".
Yet within heterosexual marriages, 50% of marriages end in divorce and,
according to the bible, divorce is highly frowned upon in the eyes of
God, so isn’t that violating the sanctity of marriage?
The arguments around this issue are ever-changing and contradictory.
Former president Bill Clinton, opposes President Bush’s move to
create a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, although Clinton
signed the Defense of Marriage Act making it legal for states to ban
gay marriage. The view of the former president is that of the old, traditional
way of settling the matter and that is of letting individual states
decide the law instead of the actual American government banning it
all together. But when did a society of mostly old, mostly white, mostly
Republican and Democratic men become the final say in love? And not
only love but whether or not two people in love can get married? What
is the actual fear one has with same sex marriage and gay marriage and
what does it actually threaten?
I could ask a thousand questions that provoke some actual thinking on
ones part, but I would like to propose my theory of why the banning
of same sex and gay marriage is so important in the government: homophobia.
Homophobic fear has given many people a defense and reason, and lets
them forget all compassion and fairness on this topic. Many religious
groups, such as Catholics, use the Bible and God in their attack on
same sex and gay marriage. Yet even, in that sense, the Bible teaches
compassion and love for all. Doesn’t that apply to the queer community
also?
The decision of marriage should be between the two getting married and
all the privileges of marriage should be available to all. The debate
and arguments around this are like adults arguing over a teenager’s
future, which should be the teenager’s own decision. Same sex and
gay marriage does protect the sanctity of marriage exactly by being
a symbol that love is always universal, compassionate, and non prejudicial.
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Glorification
of White Supremacy through Movies
Damien McDuffie, 18
When I was asked to write an article on an issue of my concern, I was
initially dumbfounded. There are so many issues that need dealing with
in the world that my decision should have been an one. But after seeing
the trailer of the new Touchstone Pictures film "The Alamo,"
I knew I had my issue. You might ask what I might find wrong with a
film that portrays the defenders of the Alamo as people who fought for
"liberty" and "freedom" and--as their noble commander
says in a film clip-- to "show the world what patriots are made
of." Nothing is wrong with that--except when it is a lie. The perpetuation
of this myth of the Alamo is a dishonest exploitation of our history.
The fact is that the defenders of the Alamo fought for white supremacy
and slavery. Yet, another glorified film version of the story of the
Alamo is about to descend on a movie theatre near you.
Much in the tradition of past highly publicized historical films, The
Alamo inevitably falls into the category some people like to refer to
as White Man Movie Fiction. WMMF, as it is more commonly known, does
not allow a non-white actor in a movie unless the character is a servant,
a comedian, or a criminal. The result is that the white man is always
the central focus of whatever action or event is being portrayed, regardless
of historical fact. These movies also portray the white man as hero,
the non-white man as the bad guy. If the white man dies, he dies for
a good cause; if the person of color dies, fuck ‘em. Native Americans
and Mexicans routinely fall into the "fuck ‘em" classification.
We know that in the Old West trail drives, at least one out of every
five cowboys was black. Yet hardly any black characters have been portrayed
in the thousands of western films made during the past 100 years. Have
you seen any black guys on horses with Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John
Wayne, Jimmie Stewart, or Gary Cooper? What about television serials
like Gunsmoke and Bonanza? Is this just a coincidence?
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