Picture This

Before leaving for college, I saw something my little sister got in the mail, and it really made me think.  It was a brochure for an all girl’s private high school in Louisville, Kentucky.  On the front was a picture of an African American girl, an Asian girl, a tan girl with dark brown hair, and a girl with pale skin and flaming red hair, all sitting together on a field, wearing their plaid skirts, and laughing.  I myself attended an all girl’s private high school, and I can tell you with full honesty that this is not what those schools look like on the inside.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved my high school experience and everyone that was a part of it, but this depiction is quite inaccurate.

               

My graduating class (and the graduating class of this brochure’s school as well) was made up of primarily upper-middle class, blond-haired, white girls.  And while I grew up with the label “basic white girl” for attending such a school, I was able to concede that the people saying this weren’t necessarily wrong.  With only three Asians and five African Americans in my graduating class of 235, I pretty much existed in a solely white world.

                

So, this makes me wonder why these advertisements work to make the school look as those it is racially diverse.  I remember my friend Rachel, whose dad is Asian and whose mom is white, telling me that she was asked to stay after school one day for a photoshoot for a pamphlet cover.  After asking around, I discovered my friend Tarryn, whose parents are both immigrants from Nicaragua, was also asked to stay.  I was curious as to how they decided who would represent the school in these photos, and I remember thinking both Rachel and Tarryn are extremely smart, well-rounded students.  They, however, had a different theory.  “It’s because I’m Asian,” Charlotte said, “It happens to me all the time.  They just want to make the school look diverse.”  She didn’t say it in a way that was bitter at all, but you could tell she knew exactly what was up.

It makes me wonder: why are schools, institutions, and businesses hiding behind photographs? Why are they using people of other races to make them “look” integrated instead of actually integrating themselves?  Representations should be just that: accurately representative of the whole.  If a place is filled with predominantly blond-haired, teenage girls, isn’t that what the photographs should depict?  If photographers and people in advertising are going out of their way to make it seem like there isn’t a problem with diversity, then they obviously realize that the problem exists.  Instead of trying to blanket over it with inaccurate photographs and representations, I say they go out there and do something about it.  Make those photos a reality.  Picture this: a world where integration doesn't solely exist in staged photographs.

The Ballad of Birmingham

I recently watched the movie Selma in my FYS class.  This movie opens with Martin Luther King Jr. winning his Noble Peace Prize, a black woman struggling to earn her “right” to vote, and a church bombing that resulted in the death of four young girls.  Immediately, I was reminded of a poem I studied in my senior year English class.  The poem is called “The Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall, and I printed it below for your convenience.

“Mother dear, may I go downtown

Instead of out to play,

And march the streets of Birmingham

In a Freedom March today?”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,

For the dogs are fierce and wild,

And clubs and hoses, guns and jails

Aren’t good for a little child.”

“But, mother, I won’t be alone.

Other children will go with me,

And march the streets of Birmingham

To make our country free.”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,

For I fear those guns will fire.

But you may go to church instead

And sing in the children’s choir.”

She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,

And bathed rose petal sweet,

And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,

And white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know her child

Was in the sacred place,

But that smile was the last smile

To come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion,

Her eyes grew wet and wild.

She raced through the streets of Birmingham

Calling for her child.

She clawed through bits of glass and brick,

Then lifted out a shoe.

“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,

But, baby, where are you?”

This first time I read this poem, I remember getting chills.  My entire high school classroom was sitting there in silence, just thinking, letting what we read sink in.  This incident, the bombing at Birmingham, was only 53 years ago.  This may seem like a long time, but I know plenty of girls whose dads are 53 years old – or older.  This amount of time – 53 years – really isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things.  I’d like to say that racism has lessened since this incident, but has it really?  Innocent lives are still being taken; blacks are stick forced to pay the price for the color of their skin.  Hopefully it won’t take another 53 years for a difference to be made.

What Would You Do?

My junior year of high school, every student was required to take a class on social justice.  We spent time discussing every controversial topic you could possibly name: abortion, euthanasia, the LGBT community, and (of course) racism.  I honestly haven’t thought about it much about this class since then.  However, something recently brought it back to mind.

In my FYS class over the issue of Race in America, we learned the definition of the word micro-aggressions: the everyday verbal and/or nonverbal slights and insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.   And it was this word – this definition – that took me back to my junior-year self, sitting in my social justice classroom, watching a documentary on this very topic.

In this documentary, children from age 10 to age 18 were placed unknowingly into situations where they would face racial injustices.  I remember one instance in particular quite clearly.  It was a staged talent competition, called “The Next American Teen Singing Sensation”, and two young teens thought they were simply going to join a panel of judges.  Well, they were placed on the panel, but on either side of them sat actors – actors who were told to be slyly racist toward one contestant in particular.  The contestants, too, were actors, and everyone was aware aside from the two teen judges (ages 14 and 16).

The competition started, with two white competitors and one Latino.  Although the Latino contestant was clearly the best singer (the other two had been told to intentionally mess up by the directors), the judges that were hired as actors said things such as “How can we trust he isn’t lip singing?” or “Is he really even American?  He is probably just another illegal” in order to convince the two teens to vote him off.  What really got me was this: one of the actors, in their private discussion between judges, said “He can’t be the face of this show, because he simply doesn’t look American.”  The only thing worse than this comment was the fact that the two teen judges (who were not in on the ploy) agreed with the actor and voted out the Latino because he wasn’t “American” or “white” enough to fill the role.

Now, these two kids would probably claim that they are not racists.  I am sure they would have said, prior to going on this show, that they would have stood up for someone being discriminated against in a blatant fashion.  They would have thought of themselves as brave enough to fight back against the crowd.  The problem is, racism in the form of micro-aggressions isn’t always blatant, and it isn’t always easy to call out and put to an end.  I guess the question is: what do you think you would have done?  And then ask yourself that again, because clearly, it isn’t always as easy to do the right thing as it seems.  Let’s all think about that next time we are in a situation similar to this.

Interracial Relationships, as Seen on TV

                I grew up on Disney movies, and I can honestly say (without any shame whatsoever) that I’ve seen at least 95% of them.  Thankfully, though, I also grew up with parents who told me that I could date anyone from any race or ethnical background that I wanted.  Otherwise, I certainly wouldn’t have learned that lesson from Disney.

I remember, oh so very clearly, sitting in my unfinished basement with my mom and two-year-old sister, watching High School Musical for the very first time as it premiered on Disney Channel in 2006.  I sat there watching as Troy and Gabriella fell in love, and as all of their friends paired off as well.  Back then, I didn’t think anything of how these couples paired off, but after my exposure to my Race in America class, as well as the book Racism without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, my point of view has drastically changed. 

What I’d like to point out about High School Musical (which is a movie I love and hold very dear to my heart, don’t get me wrong) is the blatant separation between races.  Troy Bolton, the main character and protagonist of the film, is best friends with Chad Danforth, who just so happens to be African American.  Gabriella Montez, Troy’s love interest and fellow protagonist, becomes best friends with Taylor McKessie, who is – you guessed it – also African American. 

Now, one may see this and believe that this represents integration of the races, as the two main characters are both good friends with someone of a different race.  However, Troy and Gabriella fall in love, as do Chad and Taylor, and this instead represents segregation in its simplest form.  And, sadly, it serves as a representation of our society today.  According to Bonilla-Silva in Racism without Racists, out of all marriages in 1993, “only 0.4% were black-white unions” (36).  How are we ever going to break the cycle if we don’t have any examples set before us?  How are kids ever going to believe that interracial marriages are okay and acceptable if nothing every changes, either in the media or in real life?

The Disney movie Prom falls into this same trap.  Another movie about high schoolers, Prom is about just that: prom.  It tells the story of high school juniors and seniors getting ready for their big night, and it follows the stories of all of the power couples in the school.  This movie, even more so than High School Musical, is blatant in its separation of the races.  There is the athletic power couple – Jordan and Tyler – who are both African American.  Then there is the smart, been-together-since-middle couple – Mei and Justin – who are both Asian.  And lastly, there is the mismatched, cliché, good girl and bad boy couple – Nova and Jesse – who are both white. 

Taking it a step further than High School Musical, the movie Prom not only pairs off these couples based on race, but also labels them with the general stereotype of that race.  Blacks are often seen as being good at sports, whereas Asians are considered smart and dedicated.  Lastly, the white couple takes on the cliché seen in so many movies: the nice girl makes the misunderstood “bad boy” go good.  While many youngsters watching this film may not look into this issue very deeply, the seeds are planted in their brains: you can only date people of your same race.  And, taking it a step further: people of your same race tend to be similar to you and carry certain stereotypical qualities.

This is a serious issue, one that wouldn’t even be that difficult to change.  If more interracial couples are shown as being successful in movies and on television shows alike, kids will grow up with the idea that these relationships are normal and acceptable.  Currently, kids all over America are growing up with the unconscious belief that interracial marriages don’t exist.  While these relationships may not be as common as relationships of the same race, they do happen.  And, if the mindset of people can be altered by a change in what is represented in the media, I would venture to say that interracial relationships would become more prevalent in our society today.