Weekly Blog Post

Many people believed Sisa Abu Daooh was a man until several weeks ago, when she revealed her 42 year secret, she is a woman. Perhaps surprisingly in a society where many hold conservative notions of gender roles, Ms. Daooh’s announcement was greeted not with condemnation but with curiosity and a flurry of mostly positive reactions from local news media and officials. In an interview last week, Ms. Daooh said she began dressing as a man as a practical matter, to escape restrictions on women’s employment in a patriarchal culture and earn enough to support her daughter, Hoda. This article was very interest because of how gender roles are today. The fact that a woman pretended to be a man for 42 years because of women's employment, that just crazy.

Monday Media Report: Nation

Three and a half decades after calling for homosexuals to be stoned, former Bob Jones Ill has apologized.When he made the comments, Jones was part of a group of ministers who went to the White House with 70,000 signatures on a petition opposed to extending provisions of the Civil Rights Act to homosexuals. "I cannot erase them, but wish I could, because they do not represent the belief of my heart or the content of my preaching"-Bob Jones. This article shocked me when reading it. The fact that it is 2015 and we claim we are accepting of Homosexuals is a lie. There are thousands of people just like Bob that have these beliefs and preach them too. I agree with everyone has their own opinion, but being a homosexual does not mean that you are a bad person or makes anyone else superior. 

Weekly Blog Post

 President David Boren has said he wanted to expel or discipline the fraternity members. Eugene Volokh, UCLA law professor, told MPR news that the Constitution is on the students' side.

"I don't think it's justified for him to expel students for what is after all the expression of their views," he said. "Hateful views and views that the rest of us rightly hate, but views that are protected by the First Amendment. The First Amendment protects all viewpoints: It protects communist advocacy, it protects advocacy supporting Hamas or the Islamic State or al Qaeda."

This article really shocked me. In class yesterday we watched a short video about how the racist people that claim they are not racist cause these issues. However, when a black person does something bad everyone blames that person. When a white person is in the wrong, we justify it with "its their expression of their views."  

A-Z Taxonomy

Alcohol
Black People
College/chant
Discrimination
Expelled
Fraternity
Greek
Hanging
Insensitivity
Judgement
KKK
Law
Media
National
Offensive
Punishment
Questioning
Rasism
SAE
Tradition
University
Violence
White
Xenophobic
Youth
Zoo

Selma Article Analysis

NY Times

This article was about President Obama's speech and the main points hemade in Selma, Alabama commemorating the 50 year anniversary of the events that took place there. The one thing I definitely agree with is when Obama said “racism is not over in America, and unfortunately it will take a lot of effort- big and small- to overcome.” 

White House article:

This article gave a closer look into the things President Obama mentioned in his speech. However, I think that they needed to revise what they were saying about the Voting Rights Act and how they brought up Ferguson. What really intrigued me was that the Congress were almost going against what President Obama was saying. 

Star Tribune:

Star Tribune talks a lot about the history of the events that took place in Selma 50 years ago. The article also talks mostly about how racism and discrimination have been improved in the last 50 years. However, the article didn’t just talk about the improvement of our nation but how “we” still have a lot of work to get to the point that we want to be in. 

Monday Media Report

A Canadian tourist was killed after a small inflatable tour boat collided into a whale of the coast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The victims name was Jennifer Karren, dead at age 35. Two other people aboard were injured, however, after seeking medical help survived the accident. When the whale and the boat collided, Jennifer fell into the water and was rescued by the skipper of the boat. The tour companies general director expressed regret that one of it's guests died, despite receiving first aid and being transported to the hospital. I thought that this article was very interesting yet scary. The fact that a whale collided into a tour boat frightens me for the next time I'm on the ocean! I think that in the future the boats should be more durable than an inflatable boat. Changes like that, could've possibly saved a life.

Weekly Blog Post- Black Rights Today

"Although times have changed, the conditions facing black Americans today are just as daunting as the fire hoses and billy clubs of four decades ago. Today we think our society is close to equal. You only have to compare the lives of black and white children." The average black child is:

• one-and-a-half times more likely to grow up in a family whose head did not finish high school.
• twice as likely to be born to a teenage mother and two-and-a-half times more likely to have low birthweight. 
• three times more likely to live in a single parent home.
• four times more likely to have a mother who had no prenatal care. 
• four-and-a-half times more likely to live with neither parent. 
• five times as likely to depend solely on a mother’s earnings.
• nine times as likely to be a victim of homicide.

This part of the article really stood out to me because I thought our world was improving a lot more than I thought. The fact that studies show that black people are nine times as likely to be a victim of homicide makes me sick. What I question is "will we ever be equal or is it impossible?"  Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr spoke for African American rights and how the world needs equality. Our society needs to wake up and realize that even though we are all technically equal, certain races are still being discriminated. 

Selma Essential Questions

Yes voting matters. Without the chance to vote our society would be corrupt. Black Citizens risked their lives to vote because saying that they can't basically means that their lives don't matter. As well as their voices don't matter in our society. Few people exercise this right because as the years pass, our world changes a lot. Years ago hitting your children was discipline. Now a days, if you hit your child you are send to jail or fined. People are too scared to stand up anymore.
In order to end deeply ingrained injustice you need political voicing. Someone that the people can trust and respect their decisions.

POST-VIEWING QUESTIONS:
 Why were adults hesitant to join and students weren't? 
Adults were hesitant to fight because they were scared of losing their lives. Students saw how badly their parents were being treated and they didn't want that for them or themselves.

What kind of planning,organizing and communication are required to take action and bring about change? Is participation enough?
 They would drink out of white fountains on purpose and disobeyed all the White Laws. They would host meetings and plan out how they are going to protest and where. Participating is not enough. You need to participate and make it known around the whole city/everywhere you go what your purpose is and what you are fighting for.

Does voting still matter? If so, why do so many people not exercise the right to vote?
 It does still matter, however, since voting is legal for all races and gender now a days, I feel like voting isn't as appreciated anymore. The saying "you never know what you have till its gone" applies to this because if we had the right taken away from certain people again, it would be a huge issue and we wouldn't take the opportunity to vote for granted.

Monday Media Report

Last week the DECAfé was closed on Monday, it was because a group of second graders visited, wanting to obtain some advice. The second grade students are coming up with their very own imaginary businesses. They had the DECA students explain what DECA was and how it relates to business. They also got an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour, seeing the inventory of the shed, and hearing about some upcoming and past DECAfé promotions. The eager students were excited to learn all of the different working parts of the DECAfé, and were inspired to add some similar touches to their own businesses. 
I thought that this was a great thing for EHS to offer to younger students because they can get a preview of what business is like. They can also take the advice from the DECAFe and apply it to their project at school. Also, I think they should offer an elective in middle school that teaches students about business. So, that if the elementary students like the idea of starting a business, they can start learning the advanced material sooner. 

Miss Representaion

POST-VIEWING QUESTIONS

1. Do you feel that our ideals of femininity and masculinity are learned or natural? Why?

I feel like our ideals of femininity and masculinity are learned. We are taught as a child that playing “house” would be mostly a girl game. However, “doctor” or “investigator” games would be mostly boy games. It took a group of people to stand up and teach our society that women have equal or more potential than a man.  

2. What are some stereotypical stories media tell about women? What are some stereotypical stories media tell about men? Give some examples of each.

Women stereotypes:

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/11/geena-davis-institute-women-girls-are-stereotyped-sexualized-hollywood

Men stereotype stories:

http://mediasmarts.ca/gender-representation/men-and-masculinity/common-stereotypes-men-media

3. How do the messages in advertising counter or undermine social change? (Use space on the back.)

Advertising helps to reinforce the ideas that people are pushing to change. However, the social change needs to be more effective or the advertisement will still be effective.

Parks and Recreation announces "Final Season"

"This is not what I wanted to be feeling right here, right now, as I prepare to say goodbye to what has been, for most of its seven-year run, the sitcom I’ve loved the most. The endgame stakes aren’t terribly high—at least not for Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler)". Parks and Recreation has been showing on NBC for almost seven years, airing two episodes per week. Parks bold moves have been executed timidly. It’s typical of shows in their final stages to return characters or relationships to something close to their original factory settings for the sake of making a closing statement. However, Parks and Recreation hasn't been doing so according to Entertainment Weekly. 

When critiquing this article I was very intrigued. I was a huge fan of Parks and Recreation, and having them announce their "final season" made me upset. However, after reading Entertainment Weekly's article on "5 reasons why 'Parks and Rec' is under-delivering" I could somewhat grasp the idea on why they are not continuing Parks and Recreation anymore. The show has played it safe for the past seven years, and they reviews were good just not good enough to continue.