The new wave of conflicts

     One of the most controversial acts of racism that occurred in the United States was the House Bills the recently passed in Arizona. In particular, HB 2281 was an act that was passed to ban ethnic studies, Mexican American studies in fact. So why is the so called "freedom" country experiencing racial issues in particular states? The State Government agreed upon many other different bills as well, such as constricting the flow of immigration, and the alienation of foreigners by the use of asking about immigration status without any consent. Can anybody tell me why?
     First off, the perception of race and ethnicity is a fluxuating ideology. One may define oneself as where they are from, but not by the way they protray themselves and what their physical traits may be. Race is defined as a classification system used to categorize humans into large and distinct populations or groups. Race is really the physical traits you inherit. Your gender, and the perceptions of society norms fall under this category as well. Now if you think about it, law enforcement in Arizona use this concept of race, and use this to utilize their "criminals" by the way their physical characteristics, and other protrayals to choose who to enforce. In society, racism as been around since the early beginnings of our colonization. Although we have come a long way and advanced in ways we could never imagine in the past, we also adapted new modern ways of racism that future generations will face as well.
     Have you ever stumbled upon answering a question that goes along like, "what are you"? Well if you are cultural like me, this is a common question that will pop up your whole entire life. The way you answer can truely show who you are by the attitudes you express, and the roots you carry with you. Ethnicity is defined as the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has common cultural and national tradition. So does this mean that I am Korean? Or does it mean that I am Korean-American? Or maybe even Korean-Chinese because I enjoy chinese food? In modern society, the way you adapted with attitudes and cultural beliefs determine the ethnic values of your moral beliefs. Which is easy if you think about it because anybody with authority can racially depict an individual by the way they look and turn that analysis into the attiudes and cultural beliefs and morals to target specific ethnicities.
     These, and many other racial issues will be the curruption the future generation will experience and will ultimately have to overcome. America has come a long way when it comes to segregation and racism. Although there is truely no way to stop society norms and the way others characterize themselves and others. But it starts with the individual to understand these differences, and see the true beauty of different cultures, attitudes, and lifestyles.

The Truth Behind "Oriental"

Oriental. Merriam Webster defines oriental as follows: of, from, or characteristic of East Asia. So why has this term become extremely derogatory and offensive?

Orientalism was coined as the East conquered the West, through their “Manifest Destiny.” Edward Said said orientalism is the ideological mechanism by which the West (Occident) has naturalized and justified the domination of the East (Orient). So what is oriental? Oriental has political and historical connotations. Oriental reinforces negative stereotypes to the people of Asia. By saying someone is oriental you are effeminizing them. Oriental has a very gender associated meaning, calling someone or a group of people feminine. You are saying they are naturally easy and ready to be dominated, and in other words, enslaved. Orientalism was the discourse that causes the hegemony of the East having power over the West. The system between the Asian’s and the Americans was definitely that of unequal power, and the Asian’s consented to it.

So why is this bad? The East was only fulfilling their god given title of expansion. Well, orientalism was used to describe the peoples of the West as easily conquerable. It then became known to mean exotic. Different. Sexual. Outside the norm. Unusual. All these meanings are demeaning toward the Asian’s immigrating to the United States. The United States brought the Asians to the U.S. not for the fortune of a better life, but to be their slaves. To be separated from their families. To work tirelessly on the railroads. The United States was imperialistic. They just wanted to spread the mother country, impose their practices on new territories, and create dominance while spreading power. They set up economic systems that served the powerful mother country, while exploring land and natural resources.

In summary, when you call someone oriental, it is highly offensive. You are telling them they are a weak female, who is easily dominated. You are sexualizing them when you call the oriental, because it has the connotation of exotic. They are just as American as you or I, and yet you are telling them they are outside the norm and different.

Why is this important? Many people are uneducated about other cultures and do not realize what could be offensive to them. As Americans, it is hard to know what is offensive to other people. In schools we are taught primarily about black and white supremacy, however they leave out what happened to the people of the Asia. Many Americans don’t know that the United States brought Chinese into America for cheap labor. Many Americans do not realize when calling someone of an Asian race, that it is highly offensive and derogatory. It is important to know, so that the word will become extinct and the few instances of unknown racism will be extinct. 

Identity Crisis!

In many nations around the world, modern society has been placing a lot of interest on the issue of personal identity. We question who we are, who others are, and who the both of us should be. It’s a conversation that doesn’t seem to have a right answer, but one that is nevertheless discussed and debated till the point of ad nauseam; perhaps the largest topic of all –and the topic of this blog post- being the issue of gender roles and their societal implications. But before we can begin to question the rights and/or wrongs of such a matter, we must first question something else:

What does all of this even mean?

            First off, what exactly is identity? Ask a random person this question and you will undoubtedly be met with various responses. People may tell you their job or their ethnicity or their marital status, or maybe just tilt their head out of confusion on the topic. No matter the response though, they are pretty much correct, as Identity is really just explaining who you are as a person; I am white, I am male, I am Batman (but don’t tell anyone), etcetera, etcetera. Identity encompasses a lot of subjects, and within those subjects you will find both sex and gender. Now, these two terms seem to cause a lot of confusion in society, as often they are used interchangeably. However, the two have rather different meanings that must be discussed before further analysis. On the topic of sex, the term is rooted in human biology and anatomy, your ‘equipment’ defines whether you are a male, or you are a female. Gender, on the other hand, is more related to ideas of masculinity and femininity, and is what is known as a societal construct.

Now, by construct, this refers to ideas of what is masculine as opposed to what is feminine in society (think of boys with Hot Wheels and the colour blue as opposed to girls with My Little Pony and the colour pink).The traditional viewpoint holds that men should be masculine and like cars and things that go boom, and women should be feminine and like activities such as baking or knitting. But as of late, there is a trend going on that greatly disagrees with such statements, and says that men and women do not necessarily have to like such things; that masculinity and femininity should not be defined by ones’ interests. Accordingly, I can be a female who likes cars, or I could be a male who likes My Little Pony, and society shouldn’t have any problems with either. But alas, society does have its problems with it, and the wheels of discussion and debate keep on turning.

So in a topic where there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong, what’s the takeaway here? Well, the takeaway is really up to your belief system and whether or not you feel that ‘men should be men’ and ‘women should be women’. It’s really all relative here. But even so, there’s one thing that should stay the same regardless: Respect. Someone may not look like you, think like you, or have the same interests as you, but what matters the most is that we maintain our respect for one another, regardless of what it is that we all believe.  

Race and Ethnicity by Christian Cruz

Race and ethnicity have become two very difficult words to understand. We live in a society where we revolve around these two words constantly. When filling out government documents you are asked, what is your race and/or ethnicity; you answer one with the intent that that is probably what you think you belong to. If asked what the meanings of these two words mean, the answers would probably confuse the person, “wait isn’t this one almost the same as this one.. but this one sounds very similar to what I've said for the other one..” It is no surprise if these questions come up when defining race and ethnicity.

            Race is defined as the distinction in ancestry with distinctive combinations of physical characteristics such as skin color, hair color, bone structures, eye color etc. Ethnicity is defined as the distinctions between behavior and culture along with biological and physical characteristics. Though both are have to do with what you supposedly are and where you came from, these two were both socially constructed words which were imposed by political structures to help categorize the people with in the population. They are both known to be variables instead of fixed and stable like for example numbers themselves. Meaning they can both be changed to give the political structures the outcomes they would like to see.

            These two terms are meant to categorize the human population into certain categories which were set by political agendas. When something is usually categorized it can have a nominal or ordinal affect. Nominal means only relating to the name itself such as woman and man, there is no better or lesser, just simply the name gives it a category. Ordinal means the position where the name is at persisting to the series. Such as 1 is less than 2 but 10 is the most one can get. Ordinal on a subconscious level is used for these two categories. There is a hieratical structure imposed to categorize the level of impact that group has for the population. For example, here in the United States, the Caucasian group is seen as the majority group or dominant group. Any other groups are put into the minority group, some can say minority means there is less than and others say this gives them a somewhat derogatory meaning.

            I had a hard time understanding these two terms and still do, they overlap with each other and when I see them on documents.  They say RACE/ETHNICITY so I thought for a while they meant the same thing. One is supposed to relate groups based on culture while the other one is directed to where your family came from. It still is somewhat difficult to understand.

This is America, No Foreigners Allowed! by Amanda Garcia

The Superbowl is so idolized that it is treated as a patriotic holiday, no different than the Fourth of July. You would think that this country has become open-minded after so many years of racial equality; however, this was not the case for a good portion of Americans who watched the Coca Cola commercial aired during the Superbowl XLVIII. In this commercial, “America the Beautiful” was sung in other languages to signify America’s plethora of racial groups is what truly makes America beautiful.

Many bombarded social networking sites about the commercial. Tweets such as “This is America, speak English” surfaced Twitter just moments after. My personal favorite, “F you coke the national anthem wasn’t made for your gook and Mexican talking. STFU!!! Speak English” really exposed the level of ignorance in America’s vision. Not to mention that some Americans think the national anthem, with the aforementioned tweet, is “America the Beautiful”- our national anthem is the Star Spangled Banner for those wondering.  The following are some of the tweets that were uploaded to Twitter:

            Some went as far as boycotting Coca Cola beverages because the commercial was not American. But what does it really mean to be an American? Is it a race? Does it mean white superiority? Being American pertains to an ethnicity, a culture containing traditions and values with which we identify; we collectively have rituals and ways of life that can be traced to certain racial backgrounds. We have practices that are widely diverse and for the most part accepted. So then why are people still attaching a racial association to the term American?

            Race-thinking has been deep-rooted in our minds for ages. It was once believed that race was a biological difference or rather a defect. We as Americans need race today because of an identity crisis still present. There are so many customs integrated in the country that there is no distinct identity. Thus, race is needed to make sense of differences and we use this ideology to sometimes stigmatize those differences. According to certain theorists, racial identity is a social construction, a figment a society has made up to inconsistently group people on a hierarchical basis. It is also based on geographical and skin color differences such as White or Asian. Being American was seen as predominately White because of the European settlers, who by the way were not the first on U.S. land.

            Although it does not necessarily look the same as it did in the early 1900's, racism is used in a contemporary way to justify itself, meaning racism has transformed itself to stay alive today. Race is a part of our identities as we can never do away with the concept. Years and years later, this concept shows up in a racial project from Coca Cola in 2014. Race is still viewed negatively, especially for racial minorities. What many people fail to understand is that racial minorities are used as scapegoats for the bad things that go bump in the night and are still labeled “minority”; however, racial minorities are not the only bad people in America, in which Whites are just as capable. As a result, race-thinking and the ever-so ingrained concept of race blurs the image of what being American means.

            It is American to sing “America the Beautiful” because it is part of American ethnicity to be patriotic; but somehow it is not American for different racial groups to sing it in another language even if it comes from a patriotic place in their hearts; it is only seen as being disloyal to the American people. We speak English but it is not the only language spoken. A language is a mode of communication, not a race. It is a part of an ethnicity, particularly American ethnicity to be so diverse in language. White Americans want so badly for other ethnic groups to assimilate and be American, but when they lose their sense of native culture, it still is not good enough; they are marked forever as non-American and foreign. One can still be American by holding American traditions and at the same time holding Vietnamese or Polish traditions. America is comprised of many racial groups, but as a whole it takes on its own ethnicity of being multicultural. 
Click here to view the Coca Cola commercial

The War on Drugs: Racial Discrimmination

How would you react if you were thrown into prison for committing the same crime as another man and realizing that they aren’t getting the same consequence as you are based solely upon your skin color? President Richard Nixon's declaration of a "war on drugs" according to the American Civil Liberties Union has cost about $1 trillion. The war on drugs is a war on communities of color. The racial disparities are staggering. People of color are far more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, prosecuted, convicted and incarcerated for drug law violations than whites. No one seems to realize that whites engage in drug offenses at a higher rate than African-Americans.  African-Americans are incarcerated for drug offenses at a rate that is 10 times greater than that of whites. With drug usage rates mostly equal among all races, why are there 3 blacks for every 2 Hispanics for every 1 white incarcerated for non-violent drug related offenses? The drug war has produced profoundly unequal outcomes across racial groups, manifested through racial discrimination by law enforcement and disproportionate drug war misery suffered by communities of color. Some argue that the reason blacks and Hispanics are being incarcerated for drug offenses are simply because of their drug use and their incapability to abide by the law. Higher arrest and incarceration rates for blacks and Hispanics are not reflective of increased drug use , but rather of a law enforcement focus on only urban areas, on lower income communities and on communities of color. The fact that these innocent people have to endure so much more punishment is unbelievable. They have to endure lifelong consequences. The lifelong penalties that follow a drug conviction have created a permanent second class status for millions of Americans, who may be prohibited from voting, being licensed, accessing public assistance and any number of other activities and opportunities. The drug war’s racist enforcement means that all of these exclusions fall more heavily on people and communities of color. The fact that the war on drugs disproportionately harms members of a racial minority that was long subject to official discrimination in this country is additional cause for concern.  The war on drugs isn’t even targeting the drugs anymore.  We need to stop the racial discrimination and really focus on ending this war. It’s time to end the unjust and unsuccessful war on drugs.