Stone Center forays

The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History is located not terribly far from where I work at the Rare Books Collection at Wilson Library. As such, I decided to pop over there one day after work for a look around.
The last time I had been to the Stone Center was freshman year, when I had women's studies 101 and my personal fitness lectures there. (Both classes were equally gruesome in their own special ways.) Having never seen much of the building beyond the auditorium, I decided to look around other areas as well.
I stopped by the Brown Gallery, though I didn't stay there for too long--I've never been much of an art person. Then I went to the library, which was much more interesting for me at least. I love libraries. And the fact that the Stone Center's library has over 10,000 volumes relating to Africana and African American life is really interesting. I wonder if there's an equal or larger sized collection elsewhere.
All in all, a pretty cool building. I really like how it's so many things--a cultural center, a museum, a library and an educational center all rolled into one. There's a palpable sense of pride in black culture there, and it was refreshing to experience that.

How has this course shaped views, etc.

I actually feel that most of what we learned in this course could be described as common sense. I came into this class knowing that the media doesn't always portray minorities equally and/or respectfully. And that's pretty much what I got out of this course. It's a shame, but that's how it is.
Looking through my undergraduate bulletin, I noticed that this course used to be entitled "Minorities in Mass Communication." I have to wonder why the title was later changed to diversity, because essentially all we focused on in this course was minorities. That's what our final projects were, and that's about all we talked about in class. Granted, we did mention women and homosexuals briefly, but that probably took up about one day of class time overall. In order to truly call this a "diversity" course, it seems to me like we should have addressed diversity in all its many forms: religion, political views, socioeconomic status, etc., rather than simply talking about blacks, Asians and Hispanics and Native Americans. Sure, that's diversity, but it's only the tip of the metaphorical iceberg.
In all, I would have probably learned a lot more from this course if we explored diversity in its many, many forms as opposed to simply focusing on race. Racism does still exist, and it is good to be aware of that and seek ways of changing that. When it comes to the media especially, however, it's imperative that one be aware of bias and prejudice in other areas besides race.

Unsung Founders Memorial

This is one of the stupidest articles I have ever read. Really.
I'm on the staff of UNC's satirical magazine, BoUNCe, and we once considered publishing an article that was entitled: "Unsung Founders Memorial supports the weight of history, my ham sandwich." I know people who have jokingly referred to the memorial for a very long time as the "slave table." We didn't publish the article for whatever reason, but it was a brilliant idea for an article because it addresses so many of the things over which this poet is boo-hooing.
1. "There was a lovely white family eating lunch." So? I've eaten lunch at that table before. I'm white. Lots of white people eat there. Sure it's laughably ironic--that was the point of the BoUNCe article--but is this a bad thing? Should only black people be allowed to sit at the table? Sounds an awful lot like the '50s to me, when whites and blacks had separate designated eating spots. This is honestly one of the dumbest things I have ever heard a person say.
2. Silent Sam is much taller. This is true. Silent Sam has also been here much longer and is something of a University landmark. It would have been foolish for the memorial design team to consider building a 20-foot-tall table in order to make it on a level with Sam. As for the location, seems to me like this is something that the committee should have thought of before they plunked the table down where they did.
3. There weren't that many black artists considered for the job, and the person that was eventually selected specialized in "miniatures.". . . . .Well, it seems to me that the table has many miniature figures around it, so it seems like they made a pretty good choice to me! Really guys. It shouldn't matter whether a white, black or green artist was chosen to create this table, so long as the final product conveys the message that you want it to. And I think it does. I really do--it's a pretty powerful structure if you stop to look at it closely.
In conclusion: C.J. Suitt needs to get over himself. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to enjoy a ham sandwich at the table.

Racial gap

I'm actually kind of surprised that this is the case. In today's world, where "politically correct" is the buzzword for many, you'd think that companies would be scrambling to hire blacks to fulfill racial quotas at the very least. I can understand how this might be an issue though, especially among companies which are headed by older, white executives. It's entirely possible that such people would be thrown off by the names Laqwanda or D'shaun appearing on a resume. What I did find surprising was that Asian and Hispanic managers also tend not to hire as many blacks as they do whites. This just goes to prove the immortal words of Avenue Q: everyone's a little bit racist.
So, how best to go about solving this? Dunno. I've always thought that affirmative action, whether in schools or the workplace, is a stupid idea. People ought to be hired or accepted to school on the basis of achievements and skill, not because this university really needs to find a few more Hispanic students to reach its designated percentage. Granted, there are disparities in quality of education among different races. Why not take the money that would otherwise be spent on affirmative action programs and instead use that to provide better schools and technology for students that might not have access to such?

Video game design

Tough one. Questions like this always bother me because I really, truly have no problem with supposedly sexist video games. I truly don't care that Lara Croft's body proportions are entirely designed for an ogling male audience, nor do I find it disturbing that female Mortal Kombat characters kill by blowing kisses. . .or something. Maybe this is a cause for concern, but I don't think so. This article reminds me greatly of a women's studies 101 course I took freshman year. What I took away from that class is that feminists need to lighten up. I've never been so thoroughly annoyed with women than I was after I took that class. Seeing as I am a woman, that says a lot. The feminist movement has value, but I get a little disgusted with just how much they read into things.
But let's assume that I do have to design a video without sexist messages. I guess my character would have to be very plain looking. Any emphasis on physical beauty or attractiveness would likely rile the feminists into saying that I'm creating a stereotypical media-constructed image of a woman. Fair enough. So we've got our plain female protagonist (with normal sized breasts and sensible clothing). What does she do? Well, seeing as it's a video game, I suppose she kills things. I can't really think of a popular game that DOESN'T involve killing things. I actually liked the bit in the article that talks about Lara Croft solving puzzles and riddles, etc. So I think that I would like to play up my protagonist's intellect and not just her skill with a machine gun. A nice balance of the two would be an appealing game, I think.
Honestly though, going back to the appearance, I think that's the real problem. Lara Croft was applauded because she was the one doing the ass-kicking, but feminists had problems because of her considerable. . . .err. . . .physical charms. So I think if you had a female character that was doing ass-kicking but had some practical armor rather than too-small shorts, there wouldn't be an issue.

Rituals and customs

I personally don't see what the problem is with using rituals and customs from another culture. The article chosen to illustrate the question is a poor example, in my opinion. This isn't so much a case of somebody disrespecting another culture so much as an example of gross medical malpractice. Frankly, who cares whether the doctor was treating the custom of the sweat lodge with the proper respect when the real issue is that he seems to have absolutely no idea how to conduct himself as a medical professional. By all means go to a sweat lodge if you're not a Native American. I'm sure it's quite physically and mentally cleansing. Just be sure that your host has, oh, SOME idea what he's doing.
In general, I think it's perfectly fine to participate in rituals from another culture. By that account, people shouldn't be able to learn Asian martial arts if they're not of Asian descent. Nor should non-Jewish people attend a seder, even if they are invited to one, as my family was a few years ago. It's stupid. Learning about other cultures is a great way to become more worldly, and participating in holidays and rituals is a good way to do that. Just be sure that, if it's an event/ritual of some religious or otherwise deep significance, that you behave in a respectful manner. And that you don' go to a sweat lodge hosted by a quack doctor.

Hispanic hotel workers

I think we can all agree that Larry Whitten's probably racist. More importantly, he's stupid. If this was another region of the United States (let's say Nebraska), then his decision would be no less wrong, but I think we could agree that it might be a little justified. Folks in the good ol' white bread Midwest might have a little more difficulty adjusting to the Hispanic names and such. But this is New Mexico, for crying out loud. Now, I'm not an expert on New Mexico, but it seems to me that the population there comprises a good chunk of Hispanics. You would expect guests to be used to Hispanic culture and to Spanish being spoken in their presence.

In short, I think what we have here is one man shooting himself in the foot with his personal preferences. His logic for doing this is misguided, and frankly, I don't think that customers are going to care whether they have to say "Mar-teen" or "Martin." This is America. Some people have ethnic names. Get over it.