Fall 2010 AFRS Courses Post Extra Credit Blogs Here
The instructions are on the ilearn extra credit forum. I recommend not posting here, if you have not edited your composition. Remember to cite course readings according to the style guide of your choice. Put your name and your course on your post.
Many people often critize Tyler Perry's work, claiming that he rarely ever represents blacks and their families in a positive way. In majority of his movies, it has been said that most of his cast members, who are majority of Black decent, are portraying negative sterotypes. For example, in "The Family that Preys", the sister who was on top and more successful became greedy and not willing to help those who weren't as successful as she. In Perry's, "Madea's Family Reunion", he showed how Black families are not entirely capable of standing as one. He showed that many family are highly capable of being dysfunctional. Yet to mention, how some of his audience may feel about his caricuture, Madea, who is often loud, obnoxious, and violent. However, I believe that Tyler Perry's audience often misses the message he is trying to send through his art of writing and direction. I have witnessed, as a true Tyler Perry fan that he, most of the time, finishes off his movies with a happy ending, and if not, he paints the real picture of "what you get, is what you deserve". On the subject of his new release, "For Colored Girls", I believe it was well written and directed. "For Colored Girls" is originally a story told from Ntozake Shange's book, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf". Tyler Perry showed his audience the struggle intertwined with pain, as well as joy that some women deal with in the real world. Tyler Perry did not focus on any major sterotypes or gender roles of women. He presented several stories from several perspectives that not only one, but many young or old women would and could relate to. In the media, it is often given the impression that women can be very weak minded and for example, if a woman is raped that she asked for it. But in this film, Tyler Perry showed the truth behind why certain things happen to women the way they do. On the other hand, some negative things about "For Colored Girls" is that Tyler Perry did not have a large cast of males in this movie. And all the ones he did use to help tell the stories on these women, only one of them was actually a good guy. All the other males he used in the movie were violent and abusive to women, reminding me of Black Rambo. I also thought that Tyler Perry portrayed women as a being always longing for that male figures in their life, such as a boyfriend or a husband. I do not believe that women are as weak as he created them to be in the movie, although he had to work with the material in Shange's book.
Lorna Dee Cervantes helped open the foundation for Chicana writers in the United States. Growing up she struggled with contradictions in her culture which resulted in her making it imperative to find authors that were women of color. As a young women she was inspired by the African American author Phyllis Wheatly. She discussed how “we are members of the perceiver” meaning that the minority group are the members of how they are portrayed in society, “our power is in the perception and nothing else”, Cervantes quoted. In her discussion she talks about the four “I’s” she was inspired by from Professor Cordelia Canderia. The four eyes include “I”, the personal “I”, the “eye” is the physical social exposure that you learn, the “Ay” the word that expresses the pain you feel, and the last “Hay” is the there existence. Professor Canderia’s concept of the four “I’s”relates to Stuart Hall’s notion of the “Encoding and Decoding” process. These two concepts relate because Hall describes how encoding messages from media has a purpose and its up to the decoder to interpret there own personal thought behind the idea, while us the decoder processes the information just like the “eye”(social exposure) and continues on to decode our meaning of what we have been shown (Hall 1993:93). In Cervantes concluding lecture she talks about poetry being the art of language being an emotion at a particular time. Language also corresponds to poetry and divided as personal and private, as well as social and communal. The idea of language is similar to the concept of language we talked about in my AFRS225 class in the result of both ideas having similar beliefs that human beings encode their experience of the world and communicate with one another through language.
I chose to attend “A Day in the Life of a Diplomat” in the Rosa Park room in the Cesar Chavez center. It happened midday from 2-3:30, and it was surprisingly very interesting and I found myself more interested in the information than I would have expected. The panel had diplomats from England, the Philippines, Australia, Greece, France, and Russia and the moderator was SF State Professor and former diplomat David Fischer. The speakers spoke about what the title as a diplomat means and what their job entails. The job of a diplomat is centered around language “a diplomat can tell you to go to hell in a way that makes you look forward to the trip”, said Fischer jokingly. What I got out of the conference was that diplomats get their countries nationals out of “sticky situations.” The conference had a lot of useful information but what stood out to me and related back to the class was that the diplomats have to use technology in their job almost every day. The diplomat of the Philippines says that he would send mass txt message blasts to communicate with the people because in the Philippines not everyone has a computer to check email but everyone has a cell phone. The diplomat for Russia said that when Medvedev, the president of Russia, visited Obama he made a twitter account. Greece said they use Facebook to contact the citizens and foreign nationals. This made me think about when Nelson et al said,"technology have become ubiquitious in our everyday lives leaving very few sectors untouched" (Nelson 2007).
I attended the event "A Day In The Life Of A Diplomat" in the Rosa Parks Conference Room of the Ceaser Chavez building on November 18th. The event consisted of diplomats from Australia, Greece, Italy, the Phillipines, and Russia speaking what it means to be a diplomat. The event was mediated by former diplomat and current SFSU staff and Ambassador David Fischer. The panel discussion was very interesting as I never really understood what the roles of a diplomat were. I think Fischer said it best, " a diplomats' s job is centered around language. A diplomat can tell you to go to hell in a way that makes you look forward to the trip." Essentially the diplomat's job consist of mastering the art of persuasion and using it to help the people of your country in their various endeavors and emmigrations to other countries. The discussion got even more interesting when the diplomats were asked how they use technology and social networking sites are used in their line of work. Among the many answer's the diplomat from Russia's account of President Medvedev creating a Twitter account on his visit with President Obama who had recently created on himself to share information with the vast multitude of twitter users who may not otherwise hear about important issues in today's world. Another interesting factoid is that the Phillipines uses mass text messages instead of email and they to use Facebook and Twitter as a form of mass communication in case of an emergency, crisis, or breaking news. Finding this out reminded me of a quote from Nelson et al(2001:4) "technologies have become ubiquitious in our everyday lives leaving very few sectors untouched" and it is so true because even in diplomacy there is a huge need for the help of technology.
I was recently watching an episode of Conan O'brien's talk show when a friend of mine mentioned that he had made a mock commercial to attract a more "diverse" audience. Here is the link to the Huffington Post article posted about a month ago which includes a clip of the commercial: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/17/conan-black-commercial_n_784813.html
I thought it was interesting at how the "commercial" could be seen as either funny or just another example of how the media can perpetuate certain stereotypes regarding the African American community (classified as de cardio racism.) For example, all the party-goers are wearing white - an ode to P.Diddy's annual "all-white party." Also, whenever the attendees laugh at a clip of Conan, it shows him jumping around or making exaggerated gestures - this could be considered by some as Conan poking fun at himself, but could also be taken in a way that would make it seem that the viewers only laugh at things that are "slapstick" comedy, as if to say "black people only laugh at silly things." And finally, the commercial ends with the show's logo transforming from Conan's signature coif into an orange afro adorned with a pick. Again, all of these things could have been created with the intention of being a "harmless" joke, but because of the popularity of the show in widespread media and the different methods of decoding done by the audience, this "commercial" could be seen as yet another method of perpetuating stereotypes of the African American community. Just an interesting example that I found and thought I would share!
Donald Lacy’s “Colorstruck”teeters between the comedy and drama behind racism- making fun of stereotypes being reinforced, yet discussing the impact society has placed on an individual’s understanding of race. Lacy talks about the influence of racism in his early life, where it was a continuous battle for him between both whites and blacks in proving his blackness due to his light skin. Lacy uses his light complexion, cultural customs and notion behind good/bad hair as tropes in discussing institutionalized racism within the black community. He also talks about Frances Welsing’s “Cress Theory” as the evolution of white superiority, whites adopted as their ideology to conceal their true feelings of intimidation. Though Lacy’s play was full of laughter, it carried mixed emotions: It was a heart-felt and sad look back at history and the exploits due to racism; an eye-opener that ‘history’ never left, and that this ‘post-racism’ color-blind utopia we claim to live in is still pending; and an inspiring obligation to change unjust policies still in play today. Donald Lacy quotes W.E.B du bois statement, “the problem with the twentieth century is the problem of the color line”. Our society circles around color, making skin color being a determinant to people’s status and the concept of ‘race’ appear to be real. Dr. Fischer’s triag of the intersections of research, popular culture, and policy came to mind where, in AFRS 256, we talk about hip hop being an ongoing movement towards demanding change, putting the middle finger up to main stream in keeping those in power powerful, with the remaining harnessed to oppression. Hip hop also fights for the respect it deserves, and the erasure of the negative attitudes attached to the art due to its origins being from black and brown people. We must continue to educate ourselves and others to change policies and remove the stigma placed on people of color. As Lacy questioned, "what color do you choose?"
On February 17, 2011 I attended Donald Lacy's rendition of Colorstruck. When I first looked up his biography, I was under the impression that Donald Lacy was a Caucasian man. Then I thought to myself what could a Caucasian man possibly tell me about the struggles of colored people. I was suprised that the show was presented in such a comedic manner, even with the sbject matter being addressed. Donald Lacy openly spoke about issues surrounding racism, ethnocentrism, and prejudice in politics. I really enjoyed how he was able to maintain the audiences attention by joking around, but his jokes still related to real life issues. For example, although Donald joking around about how he was mistaken for a terrorist at the airport, and having a Caucasian woman shaking in her boots as he sat next to her is funny, it can really open one's eyes to the level of prejudice and stereotyping that takes place in our society. The most memorable part of the show for me was whe Donald Lacy pointed out the fact that he is a very light skinned black man. He said something along the lines of "I might a well address this now, because I know a lot of you have been staring...yes I am black. My mama is black and my daddy is black too." Since I too am a fair skinned black young man, I was abe to relate to his comments about not being recognized by certain groups of people. Although I am not nearly as light as Donald, and I am bi-racial, I could still easily relate to the concept of not knowing where I belong at a younger age. I also found the last few moments of the show very interesting in which Donald showed graphic images of lynching, burning, and killing of African Americans during the the Jim Crow era. My father had that same book of images as well that Donald used to put his presentation together, and he would make me look at it all the time so that I would be aware of the type of world we live in.
I walked into Colorstruck having no idea what to expect. As I walked into the auditorium, being one of the few white people attending, I was greeted warmly by the elder attendees of the show. I felt very welcomed by the Oakland natives all asking me questions about my feelings toward the show and my views on life. As the lights dimmed and the show began, a woman came on stage and sung a beautiful song that lifted engaged the entire crowd. When she came out and did this piece, I assumed the entire show would be a compilation of artists, but boy was I completely wrong. Next, Donald Lacy came out. As a graduate of SFSU’s acting program, he easily grabbed the audience’s attention by taking the role of a disc jockey at a radio station talking to his viewers behind images of historic African Americans. He then came out and proceeded to talk to the audience as a stand up comedian for hours. His humor was widely based on personal experience growing up in a racist society, at the heart of the Black Panther movement, Oakland, California. He tied in many of the topics we have been discussing in “Hip Hop Workshop”, such as hip hop and race, the role of the disk jockey, dancing, stereotypes, hip hop artists, and much more. While the majority of the show was funny and lighthearted, the tables would turn and become extremely deep at certain points, bringing up topics from lynching to police brutality. At the end the audience was given a delicious meal and we were able to ask a group of extremely intelligent people questions about the show and anything else. This show really opened my eyes to the world around me.
In "Color Struck", Donald Lacey described how racism can occur within an ethnicity through his personal experience growing up as a light-skinned African American. He was seen as an outsider by members of his own race because his skin was not considered dark enough. Mr. Lacey drew upon music, visuals, humor, drama, dance, and spoken words to entertain and enlighten the audience of his message about institutionalized racism. I can relate to some of the pictures he showed of Hurricane Katrina that revealed how African Americans were essentially left to die after the disaster since they didn’t receive assistance for 5 days. However, I personally saw a constructive side of the aftermath through the eyes of a young African American girl while I was down in Mississippi helping with post Katrina repairs in spring 2006. The girl’s eyes didn’t harbor any hate or fear, but were filled with spirit and hope in spite of what had happened. Participating in programs like Alternative Spring Break gave me experiences that allowed me to further relate to Donald Lacey’s moving performance.
In "Color Struck", Donald Lacey described how racism can occur within an ethnicity through his personal experience growing up as a light-skinned African American. He was seen as an outsider by members of his own race because his skin was not considered dark enough. Mr. Lacey drew upon music, visuals, humor, drama, dance, and spoken words to entertain and enlighten the audience of his message about institutionalized racism. I can relate to some of the pictures he showed of Hurricane Katrina that revealed how African Americans were essentially left to die after the disaster since they didn’t receive assistance for 5 days. However, I personally saw a constructive side of the aftermath through the eyes of a young African American girl while I was down in Mississippi helping with post Katrina repairs in spring 2006. The girl’s eyes didn’t harbor any hate or fear, but were filled with spirit and hope in spite of what had happened. Participating in programs like Alternative Spring Break gave me experiences that allowed me to further relate to Donald Lacey’s moving performance.
10 comments:
Many people often critize Tyler Perry's work, claiming that he rarely ever represents blacks and their families in a positive way. In majority of his movies, it has been said that most of his cast members, who are majority of Black decent, are portraying negative sterotypes. For example, in "The Family that Preys", the sister who was on top and more successful became greedy and not willing to help those who weren't as successful as she. In Perry's, "Madea's Family Reunion", he showed how Black families are not entirely capable of standing as one. He showed that many family are highly capable of being dysfunctional. Yet to mention, how some of his audience may feel about his caricuture, Madea, who is often loud, obnoxious, and violent. However, I believe that Tyler Perry's audience often misses the message he is trying to send through his art of writing and direction. I have witnessed, as a true Tyler Perry fan that he, most of the time, finishes off his movies with a happy ending, and if not, he paints the real picture of "what you get, is what you deserve".
On the subject of his new release, "For Colored Girls", I believe it was well written and directed. "For Colored Girls" is originally a story told from Ntozake Shange's book, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf". Tyler Perry showed his audience the struggle intertwined with pain, as well as joy that some women deal with in the real world. Tyler Perry did not focus on any major sterotypes or gender roles of women. He presented several stories from several perspectives that not only one, but many young or old women would and could relate to. In the media, it is often given the impression that women can be very weak minded and for example, if a woman is raped that she asked for it. But in this film, Tyler Perry showed the truth behind why certain things happen to women the way they do.
On the other hand, some negative things about "For Colored Girls" is that Tyler Perry did not have a large cast of males in this movie. And all the ones he did use to help tell the stories on these women, only one of them was actually a good guy. All the other males he used in the movie were violent and abusive to women, reminding me of Black Rambo. I also thought that Tyler Perry portrayed women as a being always longing for that male figures in their life, such as a boyfriend or a husband. I do not believe that women are as weak as he created them to be in the movie, although he had to work with the material in Shange's book.
Lorna Dee Cervantes helped open the foundation for Chicana writers in the United States. Growing up she struggled with contradictions in her culture which resulted in her making it imperative to find authors that were women of color. As a young women she was inspired by the African American author Phyllis Wheatly. She discussed how “we are members of the perceiver” meaning that the minority group are the members of how they are portrayed in society, “our power is in the perception and nothing else”, Cervantes quoted. In her discussion she talks about the four “I’s” she was inspired by from Professor Cordelia Canderia. The four eyes include “I”, the personal “I”, the “eye” is the physical social exposure that you learn, the “Ay” the word that expresses the pain you feel, and the last “Hay” is the there existence. Professor Canderia’s concept of the four “I’s”relates to Stuart Hall’s notion of the “Encoding and Decoding” process. These two concepts relate because Hall describes how encoding messages from media has a purpose and its up to the decoder to interpret there own personal thought behind the idea, while us the decoder processes the information just like the “eye”(social exposure) and continues on to decode our meaning of what we have been shown (Hall 1993:93). In Cervantes concluding lecture she talks about poetry being the art of language being an emotion at a particular time. Language also corresponds to poetry and divided as personal and private, as well as social and communal. The idea of language is similar to the concept of language we talked about in my AFRS225 class in the result of both ideas having similar beliefs that human beings encode their experience of the world and communicate with one another through language.
Paul Anthony
“A Day in The Life Of A Diplomat”
I chose to attend “A Day in the Life of a Diplomat” in the Rosa Park room in the Cesar Chavez center. It happened midday from 2-3:30, and it was surprisingly very interesting and I found myself more interested in the information than I would have expected. The panel had diplomats from England, the Philippines, Australia, Greece, France, and Russia and the moderator was SF State Professor and former diplomat David Fischer. The speakers spoke about what the title as a diplomat means and what their job entails. The job of a diplomat is centered around language “a diplomat can tell you to go to hell in a way that makes you look forward to the trip”, said Fischer jokingly. What I got out of the conference was that diplomats get their countries nationals out of “sticky situations.” The conference had a lot of useful information but what stood out to me and related back to the class was that the diplomats have to use technology in their job almost every day. The diplomat of the Philippines says that he would send mass txt message blasts to communicate with the people because in the Philippines not everyone has a computer to check email but everyone has a cell phone. The diplomat for Russia said that when Medvedev, the president of Russia, visited Obama he made a twitter account. Greece said they use Facebook to contact the citizens and foreign nationals. This made me think about when Nelson et al said,"technology have become ubiquitious in our everyday lives leaving very few sectors untouched" (Nelson 2007).
I attended the event "A Day In The Life Of A Diplomat" in the Rosa Parks Conference Room of the Ceaser Chavez building on November 18th. The event consisted of diplomats from Australia, Greece, Italy, the Phillipines, and Russia speaking what it means to be a diplomat. The event was mediated by former diplomat and current SFSU staff and Ambassador David Fischer. The panel discussion was very interesting as I never really understood what the roles of a diplomat were. I think Fischer said it best, " a diplomats' s job is centered around language. A diplomat can tell you to go to hell in a way that makes you look forward to the trip." Essentially the diplomat's job consist of mastering the art of persuasion and using it to help the people of your country in their various endeavors and emmigrations to other countries. The discussion got even more interesting when the diplomats were asked how they use technology and social networking sites are used in their line of work. Among the many answer's the diplomat from Russia's account of President Medvedev creating a Twitter account on his visit with President Obama who had recently created on himself to share information with the vast multitude of twitter users who may not otherwise hear about important issues in today's world. Another interesting factoid is that the Phillipines uses mass text messages instead of email and they to use Facebook and Twitter as a form of mass communication in case of an emergency, crisis, or breaking news. Finding this out reminded me of a quote from Nelson et al(2001:4) "technologies have become ubiquitious in our everyday lives leaving very few sectors untouched" and it is so true because even in diplomacy there is a huge need for the help of technology.
I was recently watching an episode of Conan O'brien's talk show when a friend of mine mentioned that he had made a mock commercial to attract a more "diverse" audience. Here is the link to the Huffington Post article posted about a month ago which includes a clip of the commercial: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/17/conan-black-commercial_n_784813.html
I thought it was interesting at how the "commercial" could be seen as either funny or just another example of how the media can perpetuate certain stereotypes regarding the African American community (classified as de cardio racism.) For example, all the party-goers are wearing white - an ode to P.Diddy's annual "all-white party." Also, whenever the attendees laugh at a clip of Conan, it shows him jumping around or making exaggerated gestures - this could be considered by some as Conan poking fun at himself, but could also be taken in a way that would make it seem that the viewers only laugh at things that are "slapstick" comedy, as if to say "black people only laugh at silly things." And finally, the commercial ends with the show's logo transforming from Conan's signature coif into an orange afro adorned with a pick. Again, all of these things could have been created with the intention of being a "harmless" joke, but because of the popularity of the show in widespread media and the different methods of decoding done by the audience, this "commercial" could be seen as yet another method of perpetuating stereotypes of the African American community. Just an interesting example that I found and thought I would share!
Donald Lacy’s “Colorstruck”teeters between the comedy and drama behind racism- making fun of stereotypes being reinforced, yet discussing the impact society has placed on an individual’s understanding of race. Lacy talks about the influence of racism in his early life, where it was a continuous battle for him between both whites and blacks in proving his blackness due to his light skin. Lacy uses his light complexion, cultural customs and notion behind good/bad hair as tropes in discussing institutionalized racism within the black community. He also talks about Frances Welsing’s “Cress Theory” as the evolution of white superiority, whites adopted as their ideology to conceal their true feelings of intimidation. Though Lacy’s play was full of laughter, it carried mixed emotions: It was a heart-felt and sad look back at history and the exploits due to racism; an eye-opener that ‘history’ never left, and that this ‘post-racism’ color-blind utopia we claim to live in is still pending; and an inspiring obligation to change unjust policies still in play today. Donald Lacy quotes W.E.B du bois statement, “the problem with the twentieth century is the problem of the color line”. Our society circles around color, making skin color being a determinant to people’s status and the concept of ‘race’ appear to be real. Dr. Fischer’s triag of the intersections of research, popular culture, and policy came to mind where, in AFRS 256, we talk about hip hop being an ongoing movement towards demanding change, putting the middle finger up to main stream in keeping those in power powerful, with the remaining harnessed to oppression. Hip hop also fights for the respect it deserves, and the erasure of the negative attitudes attached to the art due to its origins being from black and brown people. We must continue to educate ourselves and others to change policies and remove the stigma placed on people of color. As Lacy questioned, "what color do you choose?"
-Marissa Lucky
AFRS 256
spring 2011
On February 17, 2011 I attended Donald Lacy's rendition of Colorstruck. When I first looked up his biography, I was under the impression that Donald Lacy was a Caucasian man. Then I thought to myself what could a Caucasian man possibly tell me about the struggles of colored people. I was suprised that the show was presented in such a comedic manner, even with the sbject matter being addressed. Donald Lacy openly spoke about issues surrounding racism, ethnocentrism, and prejudice in politics. I really enjoyed how he was able to maintain the audiences attention by joking around, but his jokes still related to real life issues. For example, although Donald joking around about how he was mistaken for a terrorist at the airport, and having a Caucasian woman shaking in her boots as he sat next to her is funny, it can really open one's eyes to the level of prejudice and stereotyping that takes place in our society. The most memorable part of the show for me was whe Donald Lacy pointed out the fact that he is a very light skinned black man. He said something along the lines of "I might a well address this now, because I know a lot of you have been staring...yes I am black. My mama is black and my daddy is black too." Since I too am a fair skinned black young man, I was abe to relate to his comments about not being recognized by certain groups of people. Although I am not nearly as light as Donald, and I am bi-racial, I could still easily relate to the concept of not knowing where I belong at a younger age. I also found the last few moments of the show very interesting in which Donald showed graphic images of lynching, burning, and killing of African Americans during the the Jim Crow era. My father had that same book of images as well that Donald used to put his presentation together, and he would make me look at it all the time so that I would be aware of the type of world we live in.
Andrew Muzac
AFRS 256
Spring 2011
I walked into Colorstruck having no idea what to expect. As I walked into the auditorium, being one of the few white people attending, I was greeted warmly by the elder attendees of the show. I felt very welcomed by the Oakland natives all asking me questions about my feelings toward the show and my views on life. As the lights dimmed and the show began, a woman came on stage and sung a beautiful song that lifted engaged the entire crowd. When she came out and did this piece, I assumed the entire show would be a compilation of artists, but boy was I completely wrong. Next, Donald Lacy came out. As a graduate of SFSU’s acting program, he easily grabbed the audience’s attention by taking the role of a disc jockey at a radio station talking to his viewers behind images of historic African Americans. He then came out and proceeded to talk to the audience as a stand up comedian for hours. His humor was widely based on personal experience growing up in a racist society, at the heart of the Black Panther movement, Oakland, California. He tied in many of the topics we have been discussing in “Hip Hop Workshop”, such as hip hop and race, the role of the disk jockey, dancing, stereotypes, hip hop artists, and much more. While the majority of the show was funny and lighthearted, the tables would turn and become extremely deep at certain points, bringing up topics from lynching to police brutality. At the end the audience was given a delicious meal and we were able to ask a group of extremely intelligent people questions about the show and anything else. This show really opened my eyes to the world around me.
In "Color Struck", Donald Lacey described how racism can occur within an ethnicity through his personal experience growing up as a light-skinned African American. He was seen as an outsider by members of his own race because his skin was not considered dark enough. Mr. Lacey drew upon music, visuals, humor, drama, dance, and spoken words to entertain and enlighten the audience of his message about institutionalized racism. I can relate to some of the pictures he showed of Hurricane Katrina that revealed how African Americans were essentially left to die after the disaster since they didn’t receive assistance for 5 days. However, I personally saw a constructive side of the aftermath through the eyes of a young African American girl while I was down in Mississippi helping with post Katrina repairs in spring 2006. The girl’s eyes didn’t harbor any hate or fear, but were filled with spirit and hope in spite of what had happened. Participating in programs like Alternative Spring Break gave me experiences that allowed me to further relate to Donald Lacey’s moving performance.
In "Color Struck", Donald Lacey described how racism can occur within an ethnicity through his personal experience growing up as a light-skinned African American. He was seen as an outsider by members of his own race because his skin was not considered dark enough. Mr. Lacey drew upon music, visuals, humor, drama, dance, and spoken words to entertain and enlighten the audience of his message about institutionalized racism. I can relate to some of the pictures he showed of Hurricane Katrina that revealed how African Americans were essentially left to die after the disaster since they didn’t receive assistance for 5 days. However, I personally saw a constructive side of the aftermath through the eyes of a young African American girl while I was down in Mississippi helping with post Katrina repairs in spring 2006. The girl’s eyes didn’t harbor any hate or fear, but were filled with spirit and hope in spite of what had happened. Participating in programs like Alternative Spring Break gave me experiences that allowed me to further relate to Donald Lacey’s moving performance.
Tom Nguyen
AFRS 256
Spring 2011
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