Obstacles-Racism and Sexism

In my mind, I never thought that women had gone through that much pain to have their voices heard by others.  I always assumed women are very intelligent and smart.  They are always capable of doing big business and hold important conference and meetings.  However, being in this class made me figured there are a lot of problems which still remains in the society, racist and sexist are the most important thing that is hindering us.  I believe once people get over these two major problems, no discrimination what so ever, the society would eventually be more prosper.

In the beginning of the course, we talked about women journalism and how they eventually became successful women due to the World War II.  However, after counting how many women were on the cover on the newspaper in today’s class, I was very worried.  After almost a decade women still haven’t gain their position in the society.  Why is that?  I acknowledge that women have a really emotion side, however I think they are capable of doing what men does.  Such as in Hong Kong, most of the famous lawyers are usually men.  It is because they believe women judge would put their emotions towards the case and judge it because of how they feel more than what the person should deserve.   I really hope the issue of racism and sexism does not happen and we should not live by our history.

Racism

I never consider myself as a racist person.  I went to an all girls boarding school in Maryland for my freshman year in high school.  There were a lot of black people in that area and I was very tight with them.  I never thought it was a problem living with people who has different races and ethnicity.  I was actually adopting their cultures because my tight friends are part of the black people’s group.

After going to that boarding school for a year, I transfered to  another boarding school, Berkshire, in Massachusetts.   I figured there was a huge difference.  Firstly, people in the second high school are much wealthier and most of them has a high social status.  It was a school which has 400 students and it’s 4 times bigger than the previous school.  There were a lot of asians… accentually I was hanging out with the people from Hong Kong because I feel more comfortable being with them.

Here in that school, the same racial identification and grouping happens in the dining hall. Walk into the dining hall on any day, or at any meal and look around. You’re going to see the same people sitting together, in the same areas, almost every time. Some people may not realize it, but our dining hall is the most segregated place on campus and we, the students, make it that way. Everyone sits with people that they feel they have the most in common with. The freshmen, the “emo” kids and the “geeks”, the football players, the hockey jocks, and the infamous table 40; they all have their own tables. Berkshire has students from over twenty different states and over twenty different countries. And we’re all mixed together on this 500 acre campus. But go into the dining hall at any one time and see how we’ve managed to separate ourselves right back into those groups; like we’re all our own different little countries. There are the Asian tables and the table where the kids from the Spanish countries all sit together, and we actually complain about not being integrated enough, when we’re the ones segregating ourselves.

I often see the real world as my boarding school, because there is where I gain my independence and reputation.  Being in a boarding school makes me figure it’s not as bad as it seems to be with Black people.  I do not understand why racism even occurred.

I took maths class in SMC and one of my classmate asked me do I consider myself as a racist.  (Most of them were Black people or people from Mexico)  I told them I don’t think I am at all. Then one of them asked, ” Would you feel comfortable when a Black person follows you into an alley?”  This question made me thought for a long while.  I of course would feel uncomfortable having people following me, it wouldn’t make a difference if it’s a Black or a White person.  Then I thought what if an Asian was following me, I would think he/she might be lost and wanted some help. Am I racist?  I never wanted to say yes because I still believe everyone is equal.  I feel like if I made some ridiculous comment about race in class, I would offend some of my classmates and they might not feel comfortable.  Now that I’m in the society, dealing with actual matters, I wouldn’t want to judge someone by their cover.  I wish being in a different race would not be a problem.  world peace (:

Girl Lady Woman

During class, we talked about what are the difference of girl and woman.  In most of the dictionary, girl is a female child, and a woman is an adult female.  I wonder what lady is then.  I have just turned 19.  I remember the day I turned 18, my uncles and aunts called me a young lady.  They even wrote on the birthday card, ” You’re a grown up young lady now!”  Well a little information of myself, I came from Hong Kong and I went to a boarding school in Massachusetts.  I go back to Hong Kong during long breaks, such as summer and Christmas.  In Hong Kong everything is legal when you turn 18.  Driving age and drinking age is at 18.  18 in Hong Kong is like being 21 in the states.  It makes me wonder, if I’m a young lady because I turned 18 then should I be called a woman when I turn 21 ?  At the same time, I struggled thinking if I’m in the states I should still be called a girl because I’m not 21 yet.  I figured you cannot call a female human being by her age.  You never know someone’s age without knowing her.

I thought about Britney Spear’s song, “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman”.  There’s one verse which has the definition of girl and woman:

I’m not a girl,
There is no need to protect me.
It’s time that I
Learn to face up to this on my own.
I’ve seen so much more than you know now,
So don’t tell me to shut my eyes.

My conclusion is that a girl is a female who dresses very childish and thinks in a very innocent way.  A woman is a grown up female who has ability to protect herself from danger and could take care herself.  Last but not lest, a lady is a female who dresses mature, however she does not have full ability to take care of herself, a person who is in between girl and woman.

Corrected Shack Commercial

There’s a new version of Joe’s Crab shack commercial.  This time it does not include the father saying saying oh sh*t, then the little son repeated. I feel this ad is more appropriate since it doesn’t seem like the father was teaching his children inappropriate words.  Moreover, by the end of the commercial there was a picture taken, which was the mother covering the son’s ears.  In the first commercial, there was a photo which has the little kid covering his mother’s ears.  Some people think this commercial is really cute because of the repetition of sh*t is being said by the little kids.  As I mentioned in the previous post, I think it is very inappropriate to catch audiences’ attention because the audiences may include little children.

Another way of thinking this commercial, is that the producer uses a very smart way to attract the audience and people’s attention.  He first uses foul languages which are seen on the 1st version of the commercial, then had a corrected version of the same commercial. He knew people would say the 1st commercial has violated some kind of rules, so he could get people’s and the media’s attention.  This way, Joe’s crab shack has more publicity than other commercials on television.

FB Ads

I’m not sure have you guys wonder the ads on facebook are actually related to what you put in your profile.  I think it is pretty interesting, and I think it is a very smart idea to persuade people.  Instead of a whole bunch of nonsense ads, facebook categorizes your profile, interests and status to determine what ad they should show you.

Recently, I put my relationship status as engaged (not that I”m really engaged), and there are a lot of ads, which are located on the right side bar, are related to wedding photographer, places for honeymoon, free makeup samples etc.  Most of them are related to things people should be planning to do when they are really engaged.  Moreover, my interest on facebook was playing tennis, they gave me bunch of ads about tennis.

I think this is a very smart way to advertise an product or service.  Based on what I have inputted on my profile, I could have a board view of what my interests could lead me to.  I think ebay or other websites like twitter or even wordpress should have their advertisements based on what I’ve searched for or what I have written about.  Well that’s just a little thought

Does sh*t and shack really rhymes?

I’ve recently watched Joe’s Crab Shack ‘s commercial on MTV and Bravo channel.  In the beginning, I have no idea it was Joe’s Crab Shack’s commercial.  I got attracted to what the characters in the commercial said, “sh*” or “beep”.  Without knowing the restaurant Joe’s Crab Shack, I found it very inappropriate to have little kids say the word sh*t in a commercial.  Although this commercial is not being played in children’s channel, I think there will be a possibility that when adults were watching TV kids might be around.  I think it is a very bad influence for little kids. We do not want kids at age four start saying sh*t or foul languages.  It would be sad if sh*t is the first word our children would learn to say.  Moreover, ask yourself, do you want to live in an environment where foul language is used constantly?  What if people get used to expressing themselves in foul language, then how would they express their anger?  Will this cause more violence ?  I will stop thinking right here, because I’m sure there could be more worse outcomes.

In the other hand, I was thinking in the view of Joe’s Crab Shack.  They had a commercial having little kids and parents saying sh*t because it sounds like Shack.  The repetition of the beep sound in the commercial attracts people to watch it.  The main characters in the commercial was a typical happy family, consisting parents, girl and a boy.  Joe’s Crab Shack wanted to show that it is a place where family could be happy together eating crab.

Personally I think there should be another way to advertise Joe’s Crab Shack.  It does not need to consist the bad words in it.  I am sure there is another way to let the audience remember Joe’s Crab Shack.