I be tossin, enforcin, my style is awesome

SO I was listening to NPR in my car the other day, like any good liberal minded undergrad with limited cassettes for her outdated stereo system, and who is being interviewed?

THE RZA



fresh air, always good radio.

so my man, the rza, is talking about all sorts of crazy shit, like how his idea for the Wu started in a porn theater that was showing old kung fu movies. and about his spiritual journey, and how he needs to meditate every day.

but one thing he said, that i thought would be pertinent to this class, was that the reason he, and the rest of the clan, embodied eastern culture and philosophy, was because of the positive message of these old kung fu movies. rza was sayin that he didn't have many positive black role models to look up to on tv. "mostly slaves and whatnot" was i think his phrasing. so they took another culture, one that still strayed from popular culture, and chose to model themselves after the positive message of of eastern movies and the tao te jing.

and NOW, the wu theyselves are positive role models for young people. well, kind of. they've cleaned up their act for the most part, and their rhyming is off the hook. good enough for me. and NPR!

mighty racist power rangers

so power rangers used their opaque visors to hide their true identity, but the race oriented color choice in their costumes is rather transparent.

did anyone else notice this as a kid? or later on in life maybe? i'm going to do a run through of the original cast, cirsca 1993, just to give you an idea of what i'm talking about.



first up, mr red ranger. the alpha wolf, in many ways. red is a symbol of aggression and power. not nessecarily race related, but certainly a deliberate color choice



then there's billy. your standard nerd, glasses and all. blue has a tranquil quality to it, and is so redolent of the blinking blue lights at power rangers HQ. technology and tranquility are what comes to mind when i think of this power rangers jumpsuit!




oh kimmy. this color is pretty straightforward. might as well have slapped a big bow on her helmet. note the skirt. and yet? that costume addition has not been made for our next character...



you got the shaft, trini, i'm afraid. no skirt, no pink, and yellow? not a very feminine color. why did they pick yellow? it doesn't seem like a coincidence that she is of asian descent. i mean, mighty morphin was a spinoff of a japanese childrens show, and the american version still involved martial arts, so i would like to think that these color choices were not made because of skin color. but then? there's...



zack! really? could they be any more blatant? did they just not know what crayola color went best with black skin? everyone else is so brightly colored. black? really? come on.


i know these observations may seem like a stretch, but color choice, clothing choice, of different races in the media are something to think about. what people wear makes you think differently of them. and the power rangers, albeit a childrens show and one i remember fondly at that, is guilty of reducing their characters to crayola stereotypes.

sexicans

okay, so much negative talk about chicanos represented in the media, and rightly so. negative images of latinos have been passively filtering into our brains via television for years. but i don't want to go away from this conversation without mentioning the most interesting man in the world:



granted, a positive stereotype is still a stereotype, but come on! this is clever advertising that gives mexico, and mexican beer, a classic sort of sex appeal.

its a strange as because this bear appears to the younger college crowd, but chooses an older gentleman as it's spokesman. I think it's kind of jumping on the chuck norris bandwagon, that showcases classic masculinity and strength, and with this commercial, maybe mixes in a james bond element as well.

also, he shows restraint. he "doesn't always drink beer". nothing at all like tony the tiger, who is constantly cracked out on sugar cereal, or the similar minded feline with sunglasses on the cheeto bags. and CERTAINLY nothing like mr frito bandito there.

i personally love these ads, they're well thought, and in my opinion, unoffensive.

maybe i just had the opening to annie hall on my mind

I read Lauren's post today about George Lopez. On the flip side, he talks about Latinos that do not have the upper hand at fast food restaurants because of the communication barrier. Hispanic frustration seems to be a theme in George Lopez's stand up, and often portrays Latino's as curt or hostile. But hey, it gets laughs. Self deprecating humor, like Woody Allen and his characterized persona of the neurotic New Yorker Jew, can be a way of showing understanding for a cultural group. In some ways, learning about the humorous complaints of people within a certain culture can be a way to bond like minded individuals and enlighten people from different cultures with poignant observations.

diversity in beer pong

okay, totally random and non academic social anomaly that i have observed:

you're at a house party. it's bumpin. there's a game of kings at a table, and you're in the zone. someone nearby flips a ten, and if you're not a freshman, you know this card means "categories". The flipper of the card says "names of famous black people".

has this ever happened to you? usually, it's an interesting category, because it will go on for a while. someone will go with the standard oprah, or p diddy, or our man barak. w.e.b dubois will come up sometimes.

then the next person with the 10 might try and jump on that bandwagon and say. "famous hispanic people" or "famous asian people"

... and sure enough, there are crickets after a short while and someone has to drink.

sure, this girl may come up..



or this dude, if you can remember his full name...


or this beautiful successful woman...


but let's face it. asian people haven't had much time in the modern american limelight.

neither have hispanics, really.

thats all. what do you think? is there starting to me more diversity on television?

peace prize controversy.

So, Barak Obama won the Nobel Peace prize, as I'm sure you've seen. We still have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, so there are many editorials out there that criticize this award as coming too soon.



Me and a friend were talking about why Obama deserved the award and the argument came up, "because he's not Bush". In many ways i think this looks like a slap in the face to the Bush administration, and showing gratitude that America believes in a democratic president.

I thought this bit of information about the voting process was interesting, found here:

Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, the peace prize is given out by the five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Like the Parliament, the panel has a leftist slant, with three members elected by left-of-center parties and two right-of-center members. Jagland said the decision to honor Obama was unanimous.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/obama-wins-nobel-peace-pr_n_314907.html

I don't think this is as much an issue of race, so much as a way of acknowledging other liberal minded people. maybe that's liberalism? I'm not complaining. I just hope Obama lives up to the hype Norwegian Parliament has created.

laaaaame i'm fiending

perhaps you've heard that there's a ban on flavored cigarettes now. in america. like, the whole country.

not only is this detrimental to my addiction to clove cigarettes, but i believe it to be racist.

okay, so the FDA says they're banning cigarette flavors (except menthol! i'll get to that) because they appeal to children. get this, not only is marlborough the number one brand preferred by young people (second only to menthol!), but clove smokers make up only 1 percent of the smoking population.

why are menthols still legal? two reasons.

1) they are made in america - djarum, the leading maker of clove cigarettes, is based in indonesia. menthols are made, taxed, and regulated in america.


2) young inner city kids smoke them. Heres a quote from a blog:

Philip Morris’ reasons for this stipulation are as clear as the numbers. Menthol cigarettes, which add up to 28 percent of cigarettes purchased in the United States, are used by a significant number of teenagers and an even more significant number of minority youths.

so minority youths mostly smoke menthols, and youths don't usually smoke clove cigarettes.

if they can sell bacardi raspberry and mikes hard lemonade, i have no idea why they can't sell flavored cigarettes. its much harder to mix a flavored cigarette than a drink... :(