...Native American Culture: The European Influence One theme that rings throughout many of Leslie Marmon Silko’s writings in the book ‘Storyteller’ is the Pueblo relationship with the White Man, their ability/inability to comply with each other, and the destructiveness of contact between cultures. Throughout the book, it is made known that the European presence in American Indian culture is real. The first thing one can notice when flipping through this book is that it is loaded with photographs. These photographs give visualizations of the influence the Europeans have had on the lifestyle of the native people. Unlike what one might picture, most people in these photographs are not covered in traditional Indian clothing. They wear bowties, blue jeans, shiny shoes, and button-down shirts tucked into their pants. Some of them wear glasses and some wear wide brimmed hats. They pose for family photos, they pose in front of automobiles, and they pose with complex gadgets like cameras and firearms. In the introduction to this book, Silko is sure to make the reader aware of the white man’s system to force the assimilation of the Indians. She states that “in the early twentieth century the Pueblo men and boys who were caught participating in the religious activities of the Kiva were arrested and imprisoned by the authorities. (xxiii)” The lack of male presence caused severe hardship for families and many of the very young and the elderly died of starvation. This severely affected...
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...head: RACIALIZED REPRESENTATIONS OF FEMALE BEAUTY 1 Racialized Representations of Female Beauty in Popular Culture (Name) University of New Mexico RACIALIZED REPRESENTATIONS OF FEMALE BEAUTY Racialized Representations of Female Beauty in Popular Culture 2 For the past 22 years People magazine has composed a list of the 50 most beautiful people. The list typically includes movie and television stars, musicians, British royalty, models, and television personalities. Every year the magazine crowns the year’s “most beautiful” and features them on the cover. Of the 22 most beautiful 19 have been women and out of the 19 women 16 have been White. This signals to People’s readers that beautiful means White and everything else does not equate beauty. However, this is not unique to People or even magazines like it, but instead represents a larger trend that is present in all forms of Western popular culture. In the various mediums of popular culture, ideologies about female beauty are exceedingly prevalent and constantly managed and reproduced. These ideologies carry with them the notion that in order to obtain ideal female beauty one must be very thin, young, have long hair, and wear expensive or revealing clothing (Stern, 2004). In addition to this there is also a raced definition of beauty, which predominates Western popular culture and dictates that White women with light hair and eye color can only attain true beauty. By looking closely at fashion magazines, television...
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...How does the history of American education provide a context for multiculturalism? Throughout the years the education system has had problems and the issues are still being address. In the 1800’s and 1900’s the school were intended for rich white students. Women were not allowed to attend schools as they were prepared to their role as a wife. As education changed, so did the multiculturalism within the schools. Students from all walks of life were provided an education. Education was now provided to woman as well as men. In the 1960’s the African Americans started a movement to receive the same quality of education as white students. The African Americans were bus to other white schools to integrate the school system and make universal system. In the beginning this was feared and white students voice their opinion against the union between the two cultures. Over the next decade the school system found a large number of Spanish speaking students attending the school system. The school system consists only of English speaking school and had to adapt to students that will use English as a second language. The school started programs and classes for Spanish speaking classes and hired Spanish speaking teachers. This country is a large melting pot that includes many cultures. It was always a difficult task to bring all of these cultures together the way the city neighborhoods were segregated. The movement to have students bus to school to integrate the schools was used to mix the...
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...this right has been denied to African Americans throughout history because of the color of their skin. Black people were looked at harshly in society because of their race. W.E.B. DuBois was considered one of the most famous and influential civil rights activists during the twentieth century. DuBois was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He contributed to African American literature with his literary works. Through his literature, he coined the term “double consciousness.” Double consciousness was first explored in DuBois’ book, The Souls of the Black Folks. “Double...
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...Final Project Diversity affects the lives of the American people in many different ways. Some ways that diversity is considerably noticeable is when it becomes the obvious and is displayed in the public eye. An example of diversity is the increasing number of different ethnicity populating the United States. Although some smaller communities in the United States may have fewer Hispanics, Blacks, Japanese, Chinese, Indians and American Indians than in the many Cities, the average number of their populations are considered in the statistical averages for that State and the United States. Considering the statistical averages documented in the United States White Americans make up over 70 percent of the population. The different ethnicity bring unique beliefs, ideas, and means of survival for life. One commonality that all ethnicity have is religion, however almost all ethnicity have different beliefs when it comes to religion. The different religious beliefs tend to create havoc with all American people regardless of race, sex or ethnicity. Observations of conversations in a University of Phoenix’s Ethics 125 class were clearly disagreements of many beliefs, topics as well as ideas of how to communicate them. In the class there was a multitude of different cultures and ethnicity which were shared and learned by all. After discussions in the classroom every student learned many different facets of life, ethnicities and cultures. “If current trends continue, the demographic profile...
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...population is white, religious, and conservative something that tends not to lend itself it a culture of many different people but that trend is changing at a rapid pace. I was born at St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center in the North End of Boise ID and have stayed in the North End for most of my life, this area is a bastion of liberalism in Idaho and in my opinion it is the most culturally diverse in the state. Because of the vast lacking of real cultural diversity I have also chosen to interview Jin You who is of Chinese ancestry and moved to Boise from the Sichuan province. Boise is a beautiful city known to many as the City Of Trees but there is a lack of cultural diversity that was apparent to me at a young age. I remember that throughout my childhood I grew up around people like me the same skin color, culture based on European ancestry, and family life which tended to be the standard nuclear family unit. I grew up in a relatively normal household and being the only child I was given the opportunity to attend Catholic school since the fifth grade. I found that I was like everyone else (except for my religious views) there was no one who really stood out as different other than the jocks, nerds, and cool kids. It wasn’t until high school at Bishop Kelly that I first had my trial by fire into understanding other races and ethnicities and although the vast majority of students were still Caucasion there were a few African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans that I...
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...Race and my Community My name is ****** and I am a 33 year old white woman. I live in a very small city called *******, we are located just outside of the *** *****, ** city limits. Our city has a population of 4,660, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Although our city is only one square mile, we have many diverse groups of people that live here. While we may not be a large city by any means, we are rich in culture. Our racial break up is listed as such: 71.82% White, 6.09% African American, 0.22% Native American, 15.72%Asian, 11.46% Hispanic, 3.24% from other races, and 2.81% from two or more races. 0.10% Pacific Islander. While the majority of the community is white, we do celebrate other cultures. We as a community try and make sure that we stay as diverse as possible. I have lived here most of my life, and have never had any kind of racial issues. Even in the high school that I went to, which was mostly Hispanic and African American, I cannot recall ever having a racial issue with anyone else. In my community we have a mayor, and a city council. As of today, all of the members on the city council are white males. Our race might be the only thing that we have in common. While I do not agree with a lot of the things that our city council is doing right now, I plan on trying to change some of that by running for council myself. I am going to attempt to get myself on the ballot for 2013. I would like to see some of the other minority people in our community step up...
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...African American Slavery In this essay I am explaining why the African American has more African-ness the Nigerian Americans. I will examine the origin and the different aspects of the African American culture. I will also examine how the African culture is so rich in the American world and changed many aspect of the everyday life in the new world. Slavery predates back to the 18th century from when African Americans were enslaved. People of color were bought, sold, and used to work on farms, and in the household of their white masters. The progression of African American culture has progressed by leaps and bounds since the1800’s. It took a long time for slaves to be given their freedom. Although they were free, the reconstruction plan was a starting point, which in turn allowed former slaves to become freedmen. Freedmen who were allowed to own land and become upstanding citizen just like their white counterparts. The freed slaves went on to become prominent business owners and family men. They were still some racists who were appalled that they were allowed to go free. Slaves were not allowed to learn how to read and therefore could not read the bible. It was a way for the salves masters to protect themselves from the slaves getting a silly notion of equality from the bible. Religion became a big issue within the African American community. Black churches were established to allow them to come, worship, and not be segregated from their white counterparts. Even...
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...there have been robust conversations about how to improve the K-12 educational experience for students of color, African American students in particular. Most of the studies that were conducted showed that African American students (and students of color) lagged behind their white counterparts in both mathematics and reading. The Coleman Report in 1966 gave rise to future discussions regarding gaps in achievement between African American and White students. Such conversations about disparities in academic achievement between African American and White students were generally from cultural deficit perspectives, meaning, students of color, were blamed for the gap in achievement between...
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...diversity of its people. With different cultures, ethnicity, and race all being intertwined in one country, the definition of a melting pot has been formed. Over the years, the United States has matured from being a white supremacy country to a diversified country that gives every racial person born in the United States a chance to lead its people. This historic moment happened in 2009 when Barack Obama became the first African American President in the United States. But even with all the progress we have made, there is still prejudice, discrimination, and idealistic beliefs that have overshadowed a cultural movement that is trying to free this country from a divided line of beliefs. As a result, we must look into the meaning between culture, race and ethnicity to understand the world we live in. “Culture is that unique characteristic that separates the human from the rest of the world of living things.” (Naylor 3) According to Naylor, culture is the basis of human thought and behavior and gives us a sense of identity. He also states that culture makes all humans basically the same, yet it also makes them different as each human group creates and develops its own version of culture designed to respond to their own particular needs and wants, and because of the choices they make. (Naylor 3) The author states that culture is different for each individual and that the environment that one lives in, has a major effect on how they define culture. . With each experience the individual...
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...much blurred, the individual person has his or her own identity that she relates to but when viewed as a whole in today's society people get lumped together with all the same “people” whether that be race, class, gender or status. The first article I will talk about is Tim Wise’s "Preface" and "Born to Belonging” in this article Wise talk about being born to belonging and what he means by this is that white people that are born into white homes don’t usually have to work that hard to get far in life such stated in this quote “We, are unlike people of color, born to belonging, and have rarely had to prove ourselves deserving of our presence here” (Wise 3). What this quote talks about is that the white race is generally seen as the better race, and because of this white people won’t have to work as hard to get good jobs and have a good income. This is a social identity that he presents here and this is one of the examples that I think make social identity a bad thing. It classifies certain people and either being good or bad. Wise also talks in his article about African Americans and how they have constantly been held back in society “by 1860, three years after the supreme court, in its Dread Scott decision announced that blacks could never...
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...Acting and performing arts can be found in every culture around the world. Compared to the cultures that have participated in theater for centuries now, American Theater is one of the newer traditions agmonst us. Theaders have evolved from countries all over the world. “From the African roots of Greek tragedy to contemporary Shakespearean plays, the diverse enviorment is what created the power behind stage production. During the start up of American Theater, it reflected the lives of namely white, property-owning, Christian men”(Kertin p5). As time pasted, the popular dramas came from Europe. In the 1820's Black artists were creating, staging and performing for both black and white audiences, performing both existing and original work. “The first theater company to attempt the performing arts production from an African American perspective was, The African Grove Theater in New York”(Abel p1). In 1820, an African American man named, William Brown and a West Indian man named, James Hewlett created the African Grove Theater. “Both of these men traveled by ship throughout the Caribbean, where story telling, performance, dance and music were essential to the culture and survival of the slaves working on sugar cane and tobacco plantations, salt flats and mines. The company performed tragedies and comedies from Shakespeare to American playwrights”(Welsher p2).The African Grove Theater was the first African American theater in the United States. Full playrights were presented on...
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...for a crime because they have issues with that particular culture, and other racial issues have been written about, made into movies, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Lynchings in Duluth and Prom Night in Mississippi and perpetuated by those who are scared. Racial tension is as prevalent in today’s society as it was one hundred years ago, which perpetuates...
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...I have always identified as a heterosexual African American female. With my grandparents trying to recover from what was taken from my Granny, my family considers us as lower middle class. My family is simply made up of white-collar workers that have excelled in their positions despite their cultural identities. I typically struggle with my racial identity because there are no societal efforts to show African Americans in positive light, especially African American females. I have always felt that it is definitely harder to be an African American female versus a white female. Today, most African American females are seen acting like buffoons on reality television or as struggling single mothers, while white females are typically on shows as doctors or happily married females. These identifications affect the education of students because it affects the way they learn, but also in the environments in which they learn. Schools reflect these notions by their geographical location, their student population, and most important...
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...how he is treated as an outsider because he is Black. The two poems tell a story about being black in a White Man world and how strong our Black Culture is during The Harlem Renaissance. I, too sing America and We Wear the Mask are two very strong poems that describe our Black face toward White America and how determined the Black Culture was to become a part of America. Our Black Culture was mistreated for many years by White America. White America could not except the fact that Black America is a very strong race that was determined to become a part of America. For many years White America destroyed everything that Black Americans touched like Knowledge, Power, and Freedom. They tried to block the Black Culture out and Discourage our Black Culture but they could not let it go on for that long. The more White America tried to hide our black...
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