Current Stories of Race in the Media:

The Jenna 6
I first heard about the Jenna 6 when I was stalking...er...reading the news feed on facebook. I noticed that my roommate had joined a group: Free the Jenna 6. I clicked on the group to see what it was about and I was shocked. I didn't even know that places like this still existed. A place where even though they were "integrated" they were still separated and community members weren't even phased by it. I thought stories like this could only be found in archives of old magazines and newspapers or in movies on Turner Classic Movies such as To Kill a Mockingbird.

But here in the town of Jenna, six black students were being charged with attempted second degree murder by beating up a white student. The events started when black students asked the school's vice principal if they could sit under a tree that normally only white students sat under. The next day, hangman nooses were dangling from the trees. The students at fault were set to be expelled, but the school board over turned the punishment and changed it to suspension. Eventually, it escalated to whites assulting the group of six until the night that they beat up one student. That same student was later seen at a party that night, but the group of six men were charged with attempted second degree murder!

Don't get me wrong, the boys need to be punished for they did beat up the white student, but definitely not to this extent. They were charged with trying to kill the student and they were going to be tried as adults even though they weren't old enough. The main issue with the Jenna 6 is that the justice was unfair in that the white students barely got a slap on the wrist for threatening the black students with nooses from the trees; yet, the black students get sent to jail for fighting.

I am glad that people went to Jenna, LA to fight this injustice. Over 15,000 went to march in Jenna for the injustice. Many were people who were born in the wrong generation and only hear stories from their grandparents and parents about the Civil Rights marches and the great leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. It was also interesting that people were donating money for bonds to free the final member. It was great to see people like David Bowie of all people donating $10,000 to the Jenna Six Legal Defense Fund. The final member of the Jenna Six, Mychal Bell, was just release yesterday with a bail of $45,000 instead of the original $90,000.


Ken Burns and the Latinos:

In a time where Latinos are growing in numbers, you would think that Ken Burns would include them in his 17 hour documentary about WWII. Somewhere? In 17 hours, not even 5 minutes? Nope. His original documentary included no stories or interviews about Latinos or Native Americans fighting for the war. I heard that somewhere that he didn't include them because he was having difficulty getting veterans of those cultures to come forward with their experiences. Seriously? My grandpa missed fighting for WWII by three years, but he is always very prideful about his experience with the air force. I even remember him taking me to air shows at the base and showing me the ships and airplanes in Copus Christi. How can his and other great men of the Latino community not be able to tell their story?

At first, members of Defend the Honor Campaign were worried that PBS would aire his documentary as it is for artistic indepence and because based on history with PBS, they normally didn't appeal to the Latino community's opinions. They did cooroperate with the Latinos and Native Americans by including two Latino veterans and one Native American veteran at the end of three segments.

"He [Ken Burns] doesn't know if that will mollify the critics, but he's put a positive spin on the brouhaha, on how they hadn't pressured Latino filmmakers to tell this story. "No, no, no - it has to be Ken Burns," he says. "In a way, all of this was an extraordinary compliment." (http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-fftv5382202sep23,0,2620347.story)

Are you serious? So should Latinos bow down and sing your praise because at the last minute we finally convinced the great and powerful Ken Burns to include our veterans into his 17 hour documentary? Excuse me if I forgot my kneeling pillow. I think he should have made sure that he got everyone's story from Latinos to Native Americans to Japanese-Americans (the way the article made it sound was it included only bad things about the Japanese-Americans and Japanese). If he's as amazing as everyone claims that he is, he needs to make sure he includes everyone story, especially if this is about history. You can't write someone out of history.

Look what I just found, Ken Burns. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/exhibits/ww2latinos/
A site from University of Texas at Austin that is all about Latinos/as in WWII. It includes a symposium they had in 2004 and four volumes of narratives from 1999-2004. Maybe you should have read these before you finished your documentary.

Week 4: People with Disabilities


I agree with the first article you posted in that usually people with disabilities are only put in the news when they have overcome their challenges, medical stories or updates. That I can recall, the only time on broadcast news that they have interviewed handicapped people was when there was a story about them or a story about what they are doing to adapt to regular life. They are never used as just regular sources on regular stories, but instead are only used when the story is about them. People with disabilities shouldn't be used just for special stories where they are a subject or a category instead of real, individual people. Whether it's a story about politics, new buildings, the economy, society, ectera they should have an equal chance to get interviewed like any other citizen.

Most of the time, people with disabilities are viewed as helpless and dependent on others to help them with their lives. On the other hand, I am constantly amazed by the blind here on campus. There is no way that I could do what they do. They have took their lives and ignored their disabilities and concentrated on things that they do have. I couldn't imagine memorizing the entire campus, knowing how many steps between the building and where everything is located on their mental map.

Another amazing person I know is my friend, Crissy, who cannot walk without the aid of crutches and she usually has to use a wheelchair. She is not even phased by her disability at all. Instead she makes jokes about it and whacks my friends with her crutches whenever one of them makes her mad. She's just like me: short, loves Turner Classic Movies and always wants to watch musicals. She's constantly singing and I never notice that she walks slower than the rest of us because I walk slow with my little legs right next to her.

Week 3: Research Day

As I stated in my paper, I am shocked when I realized that I used a stereotype right from the start. I thought that a southern newspaper, The Atlanta Constitution, would be filled with stereotypes, especially if I concentrated on the 1950s and 1960s. Boy was I wrong. Little did I know that the editor and publisher of the newspaper, Ralph McGill, was a known for his anti-segregation views shown by his daily column on the front page. The day I chose, July 4, 1956, included an article on the front page about the House passing a bill to cut off school funding if the districts didn't integrate their schools. The article included both sides of the argument and the only questionable word was the use of "negro."

I talked to my Grandpa Borrego in San Antonio about racism when he was growing up and at the time of this article. One of the best things I think he said was that there wasn't that many problems with racism that he could recall because Texas has six flags flying over it with people from all over the world living here. In San Antonio, there weren't that many blacks living there, although he does remember that when he was in high school, they were in a different school. He recalls that "negro" and "colored" were words constantly used and were the proper way to identify blacks unlike today where some even get offended with "African-America." By the time my grandpa joined the air force in the early 1950s, he said that they were already integrated and he went through the same basic training as everyone else.

With Hispanics and Latinos in San Antonio, he said that since they were the majority, they didn't really have any problems. They were considered with the whites and could go almost everywhere the whites did. The only place they couldn't go were a few exclusive clubs such as the San Antonio Country Club where the rich, old money of Alamo Heights would only let them work and never have membership. Even now, it still can be difficult for Hispanics to get membership, but nothing can change as they are a private club. My grandpa said that with the Germans in the Hill Country north of San Antonio, the Hispanics, the blacks and any other culture, it created a melting pot in San Antonio that had little to no problems integrating and remaining that way.

Week 2: Images of women and minorities in the media

When everyone brought their magazines to class, it was interesting to see what articles were included and who they were directed to. If they were women's magazine, they focused on fashion, beauty, health and sex. For once, I would like to see a women's magazine that doesn't focus on the latest innovations of make-up, but had fashions and beauty for REAL women and not just photo shopped models. I would also like to see more women's magazines that have interesting articles about strong women outside of our stereotypes. Girls need strong role models growing up, women that they can inspire to be. They don't need to be informed every second that they're fat and ugly, but if they buy this miracle make-up or expensive blue jeans, they will be instantly changed.

One thing that I can't stand are women's magazines like Cosmo, who always includes articles of "how to please your man" or "how to keep your man interested." Seriously? I mean, I may be naive, but I don't think that women should have to do things out of their comfort zone or contort their bodies into pretzels to keep their man sexually satisfied and to keep the guys from leaving them. If that's what it takes to "keep a man" and to prevent him from cheating or leaving, I don't want any part in relationships and I'll just convert to Catholicism and become a nun. Ha ha.

I brought Vogue magazine, which was filled with articles discussing the latest fashion trends from all over the world. The only other type of stories it included were how the trend for Hollywood women was to get pregnant and start a family and it also included an article about how some men (ie: Jude Law) were cheating on their wives with the nanny. I thought it was interesting that Vogue made it seem like the "in" thing to do to have a family as it highlighted Gwyneth Paltrow, who at the time of the article, just had her first child. They made her seem glamorous as mom instead of the normal stressed and hectic new mom.

It's interesting to see that men's magazines gear towards cars, electronics, the latest technology and barely clothed women while women's magazines gear towards beauty, fashion, health and sex. I would like to see the magazines change and include informing stories and include women and men who are role models to society, but at the same time those magazines wouldn't sell. I guess sex sells.

First Week of Race, Gender and Media:

I start off every morning by watching the Today show at 7 am to get the top stories of the day. I also get online to read the popular wire stories on yahoo.com followed by reading the main stories of the Dallas Morning News. It sounds like a lot, but it takes me awhile to wake up. When I get to school, I usually read the Quick and the NT Daily. The only time I intentionally seek out the news is when I wake up so that I'm connected to the world and know what's going on. The other times are when I have time between classes in order to not be bored.

I agree with the articles we have read and the movie that we watched in that the stories are skewed with race and gender. I went to an event last year sponsored by the Spanish Media and RTVF. The guest speaker (I'm currently blanking on his name) discussed his research of Latinos in the media that I found extremely interesting. His found that only one out of 100 new stories on national news channels were about Latinos. Of those stories, almost all were either about immigration, violence or gangs. The stories rarely put the Latino community in a good light or talked about their success. On the PRSA e-newsletter there are frequently stories about how advertisers and other people in the field are trying to put Latinos in their target audience. I want to know why they are only starting now and haven't done enough in the past. Here in Texas, we are the majority, but you couldn't tell by the news unless we committed a crime or tried to cross the border without permission.