Freedom isn't just a word. It's an action. We live in a country where we have many freedoms. Freedoms such as being able to speak out and say what you want to say. The freedom to worship and believe as you choose.
For instance, often times just because a younge boy is a darker skin toned Mexican, a Caucasian boy might ask, “So do your parents sell oranges for a living?” Most often, this causes individuals to marry within their own minority or dominant group. The more individuals are exposed to discrimination; they tend to build a sense of identity among minorities. This creates a feeling of “we-ness.” In often occurrences, a sense of common destiny appears. People in dominant groups poses greater power, privilege, and social status. Like the minority groups, dominant groups share cultural and physical traits.
Italians love to keep close bonds with their family and friends, and like to make as many memories with them as they can. For example, more recent generations have adapted the ways of their parents and grandparents, such as mothers in today’s society cooking huge family dinners and inviting everyone over, making sure everybody feels welcome and leaves full of good food and good memories. Italians have continued their love of music and brought it to Canada. They originated playing music at holidays,
“Culture for Sale” The book How to Rent a Negro by Damali Ayo is an instruction manual on how to use one’s culture, in this case black culture, as a means for income. Ayo contends that over many decades, black culture has been misappropriated by white individuals without permission, leaving blacks to feel exploited for their contributions to society. She points out that this practice, dating back to slavery, is still very much thriving in what is to be considered a post-racial society. Her solution to this problem is for blacks to start charging a fee for this misuse, also allowing whites to continue this behavior, as long as they are willing to foot the bill. She considers her concept of “renting” a person of color as a means to “bring these two groups together in the spirit of harmony and free enterprise” (Ayo 2).
From reading this story, I sensed a major theme of representing one’s self as an individual opposed to giving into what society wants you to do. This idea is obvious in the personality of the narrator along with the stripper who attends the battle royal. She is too a victim of lacking an identity to voice her own opinion. Ellison’s in-depth descriptions of his characters make this story a really genuine source of understanding one minority’s struggles through a time of discrimination and failure to establish identity. Ralph Ellison's nameless protagonist in "Battle Royal" is a young African American struggling to find his place in society in the early twentieth century American South.
Cofer also talks a little about how the movies portray Puerto Rican and Latin Woman. It’s the main reason why we Americans automatically stereotype Puerto Rican and Latin women; it’s all we have seen, in the movies, so we don’t really know what the Puerto Rican or Latin culture is really like. The other main point Cofer makes is that even though she had a hard time when she was growing up she still became successful and that any one can do the same. We just have to turn all the negative into a positive and keep on living. I liked this article and I strongly agree with it.
Whether it was Israeli Dancing on the basketball courts on Friday nights, with my buddies, learning about what it means to be a Reform Jew, or sharing a rustic bunk with ten other girls, Eisner has truly enriched my life. However, the most incredible thing that Eisner does for a camper is give them the unmistakable feeling of community. Campers eat, sleep, study, dance, sing, pray, run, climb and live together in a for a summer surrounded by people who have embraced the essence of Judaism. At Eisner, I have participated in the most spiritually moving worship services. I have stood on the tables in the Chadar Ochel, the dining room, arm in arm with my friends singing during song sessions.
The film, “The Soul of Black Girls”, candidly showed how these thoughts are still embedded in the minds of African-American women today. This film opened my eyes. Along with the history of the black race the film proves that many of the beauty treatments and rituals black women endure today are a reflection of that European standard of beauty. The Euro standard of beauty is just about every image we see in the media today: long straight hair, light skin and eyes, slim noses, fair skin, and thin lips. The unique history of African-Americans subconsciously affects what black men and women consider attractive.
Early depictions of African American men and women were confined to demeaning stereotypical images of people of color. Even the roles for African Americans that were deemed positive such as loyal servants, mammies, and butlers, reinforced a belief that the proper social position for Blacks was that of a servant who was unswervingly devoted to his/her White masters and to upholding the current social order. From the mid-1910s to the 1930s a few film companies (some of them Black-owned) were established with the sole intention of putting on “all-colored cast” productions that included positive and diverse roles for the actors and actresses. I do believe over time, there were more dignified roles characterized for African Americans. Some of those films were movies such as “To Sir with Love” with Sidney Portier to a most recent film entitled “The Butler” with Forest Whitaker and Oprah
That's exactly what Madonna attempts to do when she appropriates and commodifies aspects of black culture. Needless to say this kind of fascination is a threat. It endangers. Perhaps that is why so many of the grown black women I spoke with about Madonna had no interest in her as a cultural icon and said things like, "The bitch can't even sing." It was only among young black females that I could find die-hard Madonna fans.