#4 - Family Guy - "Peter Griffin: Husband, Father... Brother?"

For my next media portfolio item I chose to write about an episode of one of my favorite shows Family Guy. Most people are at least aware of Family Guy but for those who haven’t seen it I’ll just say that it’s about a dysfunctional Rhode Island Family that has many problems one of which is that the father of the family, Peter Griffin, is completely ignorant. He makes asinine sweeping generalization about all races, both sexes, religions, any group that you can imagine and in turn the fact that he is so ignorant it is a reflection of average middle-class white males. In the episode that I chose, “Peter Griffin: Husband, Father… Brother?” Peter finds out that he has a black ancestor that was actually enslaved by his wife’s rich family. This discovery causes many problems with his in-laws but it also causes Peter to make stereotypes about himself and his newfound “brethren.” I chose this episode because it is full of racial stereotypes and because Family Guy is one of my favorite shows and it’s something that is around me all the time.

This episode, as I explained, is based on Peter’s assumptions and learned stereotypes of African Americans. When he first finds out, he’s not sure what to do because he doesn’t know how to be “black.” So he explores the community and winds up winning over all of the African Americans of the area by giving a Martin Luther King-esque speech about popular television shows that star black characters. Also there are many cut-scenes throughout the episode that show Peter’s ancestor Nate Griffin escaping from the plantation and having a family with the slave-owner’s daughter. I feel that all of these things reflect what Johnson says about oppression because it’s because of Peter’s white privilege that he doesn’t know anything about black culture. He’s never had to pay attention to it to fit in. Also I have to say that the writers of this show definitely don’t take the path of least resistance, because they write a lot of things into the show that are controversial and offensive that many people don’t want to hear, but they say it anyway because it’s something that exists in our culture rather we want to admit it or not.

Many people are disgusted by shows such as Family Guy, which target groups of people for cheap laughs (South Park and American Dad are other examples). In a world of political correctness, it’s taboo to say anything left of acceptable and can be punishable by law. But as Johnson said at one point in his novel, oppression and privilege will never end if we never talk about it and bring those problems to the fore-front of everyone’s attention. By ignoring that stereotypes still exist, no one is fixing the problem. By ignoring them, no one is changing. Without change, there will never be progress (change is really the definition of progress). I feel that shows like Family Guy can and do get away with some of the things they say and show because they make fun of every culture. While the writers are looking for laughs at the expense of a group of people, they don’t oppress only one group, or one group more than others really. Family Guy has made fun of Rednecks, Jewish faith, the Catholic Church, Native American casinos, African Americans, sex fiends. If you can categorize a person into a group, he or she has been the butt of the joke at some point.

#3 “New Sources of Diversity Critical to Our Future” Article

“New Sources of Diversity Critical to Our Future” can be found at http://0-proquest.umi.com.maurice.bgsu.edu/pqdweb?index=17&did=1343427981&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1191840865&clientId=3340.

The next piece that I chose for my media portfolio is an article I found on the Ethnic NewsWatch database. The anonymously written article is titled “New Sources of Diversity Critical to Our Future” and it appeared in the Jacksonville Free Press between August 9 and August 15. It details the slow abolishment of affirmative action in the admissions processes of secondary schools around the nation. How universities are choosing to attempt to create diverse campuses without directly looking at race at any point in the acceptance process. I chose this article because I had heard early this fall about how admissions in Michigan had changed in recent years and having this project seemed like a reason to look into it a little more.

This article can be explored using a lot of the ideas presented by Johnson in his chapters involving privilege and oppression. Because of the oppressive cycle, affirmative action was created in order to give qualified people better opportunities to get positions that they deserve in life over people that may not be quite as qualified but belong to a privileged group. For example, there was a time when women were not seen to belong in the workplace, so as women started working there was a backlash from men who still felt that they should be a home. The male bosses in charge of hiring would purposefully and sometimes overtly discriminate against the hiring of women for certain positions deemed “man’s jobs.” In an attempt to end the cycle of privilege and oppression, affirmative action made it illegal to discriminate on almost any term other than qualification and it also require certain numbers of employees to be of a minority group. In the case of these schools, they feel that due to affirmative action’s constraints, students who deserve to attend are unable to get in because they have to allot certain numbers of acceptances for different groups.

I think it’s good that some schools that are noticing that the policies meant to keep admissions boards from discriminating against racial groups are, in turn, causing discrimination against other students and they are now trying to correct the problem. The only downfall to their plan may be that in abolishing affirmative action, they may fall back into old habits and begin discriminating (maybe not based on race, but maybe financial status) against those who were originally oppressed. Like Johnson said, it is the social system and all the individuals that participate in it that cause privilege to exist, which leads me to believe that affirmative action laws may be the only thing keeping certain numbers of those individuals fair about their admission choices. I’m not saying that no progress has been made in recent years and I’m sure that thanks to affirmative action college admission boards are more diverse now, meaning that they would be less likely to lean toward one subset of people, however like I said earlier students could still be oppressed based on social status or financial status or even a poor high school education that resulted from parents not being able to get good jobs which could perpetuate through their child. You can deny all you want but I first learned in my sociology class last semester and have thought about more as I’ve typed this response, oppression/poor living conditions really are perpetuated by society. You have to have money to get out of a low social class, but the conditions and opportunities of a low social class usually prevent the next generation from making more money and therefore moving up in the world. Affirmative action helps fix this problem.

#2 - Christopher Columbus Mock-Journal

“The Journal of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea” can be found at http://library.thinkquest.org/J002678F/columbus.htm.

The second media item that I chose is an elementary school class project, entitled “The Journal of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea,” that I found on the internet based on the life and journeys of Christopher Columbus. The Bartlett Elementary school class put together a mock-diary of Columbus, explaining in “his” thoughts about what was going on around him. I chose this piece because it’s a very good example of the sides of the discovering of America story that children are taught from a young age. The final line of the journal is even, “At least I can retire a hero!” which just proves that none of the terrible contributions that he made to the native inhabitants of this country are ever mentioned.

This piece relates to the very first piece we read for this class. Zinn felt that because the Columbus story is never told from the side of the Native Americans, that it was his duty to fill in any misconceptions that readers may have about the great “hero.” Zinn acknowledged that schools teach that the Natives cooperated and they shared what they had with the explorers and they were all chummy. As continually educated adults, of course, know that this is largely and almost completely untrue, but this journal project confirms that children are being fed falsified (or extremely P.C.) versions of history. For the same reason this media item also ties into the first Takaki reading that we did.

What makes us feel that children should look up to and put Columbus in the role of a hero? Is it because despite his greed, violence against a peaceful native people and his attempt to enslave them, and the atrocities that his crew (and probably he himself) committed, such as the rape of native women; he did (after all) set up the first settlements on this newly “discovered” piece of land that would someday become America? I have a slight feeling that even the teachers that are teaching these watered down versions of history, know very few of the true facts surrounding the past and how America came to be the way it is today. They, themselves, have either never learned the actual occurrences, or have convinced themselves (through teaching the material) that would is found in the textbooks must be true. But why make gruff, hardened, greedy men like Columbus out to seem like a saint? I have two theories on this. The first is that it is a ploy to create unity among Americans. Like so many other American stories, the ones taught to children about Columbus, embody many of the qualities that we want (someone wants us) to believe that American represents; courage, determination, sharing, ambition. To have pride in your country and the people who founded it brings everyone together under a common bond, this bond can later be used against us when our patriotism is used to coerce us into situations that aren’t so nice (war). The second is that we as a country truly don’t want to believe, or maybe just remember, that our country has been created through many terrible happenings and institutions. We don’t want to walk around daily thinking about how we probably wouldn’t be where we are today if Columbus hadn’t, by coming here, unconsciously caused the deaths of nearly all of the native peoples that live here, if Native Americans hadn’t been forced onto reserves of undesired land after the majority of them had been killed, or if our founding fathers hadn’t enslaved a people and used them to better this country.

As a final thought, I just think it’s a little ironic that this is due on Columbus Day.

#1 - Bugs Bunny - "Fresh Hare"

This video is located at Archives.org, which has many archived media items available. http://www.archive.org/details/merry_melodies_fresh_hare

Due to some technical difficulties, I've since embedded this video from YouTube.

This first media piece that I chose to look at is a Bugs Bunny (Merry Melodies) cartoon produced by I. Freeleng called Fresh Hare. The cartoon was created in 1942, but ran as recently as the mid/early-90’s because I remember watching it as a child and it actually being one of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons. In this episode, Canadian Mounted Policeman, Elmer Fudd, is looking to catch Bugs “dead or alive.” Throughout Elmer Fudd chases the beloved rabbit through the snow, and almost catches him several times only to be thwarted by superior wit. The whole episode is innocent until the very end. After being asked if he has any last wishes Bugs breaks into the song “Camp-town Races” and before you know it all of the characters are represented in black face singing happily and bouncing to the song. I chose this media item because, like I said, it was one of my favorite cartoons as a child and now the ending doesn’t mean the same thing to me that it did then. Once it was just a funny song, sang by brown-faced characters. At that time I didn’t know what “Black-face” was nor had I encountered much diversity what-so-ever.

This piece relates to a couple different class pieces to me, some more directly than others. The main piece that it really represents is the Ethnic Notions video that we watched. Not only were Bugs, Elmer and the others shown in “Black-face” which has a negative connotative effect on black culture itself, the characters are also perfect examples of the “happy Sambo” explained in Ethnic Notions. I also feel that this piece sort of ties into the chapters of Johnson that we read dealing with privilege. At 6/7/8 years old, it was because of white privilege that I had never encountered (or at least consciously encountered) racism before. I was allowed to be innocent and take scenes such as this Bugs Bunny one in and think nothing of it. However, now, looking back on it, I feel that my watching it as a child helped build up an immunity to racial issue.

Although one could argue that the cartoon is in no way making fun of Black culture, that it was only representing popular entertainment outlets of its time (as some viewers on its review board at Archives.org have posted), the fact that the scene really doesn’t tie into the story at all, and isn’t even prompted by anything in the end to explain its appearance, says something about the writers intentions. As I started to allude to at the end of the last paragraph, I feel that adult writers put these sorts of scenes into cartoons (because let’s face it, this is not the only discriminatory cartoon watched by children) to build up the next generation of children’s tolerance for such bigotry and to even help them form negative opinions about other races. For example, watching this clip may cause a young child to form the opinion that because Bugs looks funny in “Black-face,” black people look funny and break into song nonsensically. Many of the same reviewers of the message board, ask more offended authors to “lighten up” because the cartoon is just “entertainment,” but is entertainment at the expense of another group of people (especially entertainment aimed at very impressionable young children) really to be looked at with a blind-eye? This cartoon is a very good indication of the views of the day and how adults had no convictions about starting discrimination in their children early and through whatever means available.