#comment6

[uwengl591]

Response to "Why I'll Never Aologize for My White Privilege" by Marina

Joshua,

As other classmate's have said, thank you for sharing your story, and thank you for writing on this piece in particular. I too read the article and I was conflicted with how to approach the situation. On one hand, I understand the reasoning behind his argument and the obstacles his family faced with the Holocaust. I cannot nor will ever understand the feeling he relates too because of the atrocities his family as well as yours had to endure. However, I am Croatian and the war that broke out between the Croats and Serbs became very violent and to this day there is animosity between the two nationalities. I have family members who had to leave their home and sense of life in Croatia to make a new life elsewhere in a different country. Where I'm coming from with this is that I don't feel like I am "entitled" to say that I can attribute my life to their struggles for how I was raised and the environment from which I came. I can acknowledge the struggles and hardship they endured, but I will never know what they faced.

I think that you did a great job juxtaposing your viewpoints on both sides of the argument and for a class setting, it definitely can be addressed. For living in a predominantly male-lead society, he may feel that he shouldn't have to apologize for being a white male, which he is right, he shouldn't, however by alluding to the fact that people have asked him to "check his privilege" tells me that he is embodying the stereotype which he is trying to say he isn't. Examining racial social constructions and how people are still mistreated in the work place (gender and race wise) would be my best advice to this young man.  

[uwengl591]

Response to The Nancy Grace Effect by Matt Kulju

Comment by Sara Lawton

Matt, I enjoyed your post and liked that you presented a very controversial argument. I think you hit the nail on the head with regards to why Wright portrayed Bigger as he did. However, I disagree with your claim that the media is to blame for propagating these negative stereotypes: newspapers would not publish those racist headlines if people did not buy them.

It is important to remember that the media is not 100% at fault here, although they arguably have much more power and influence as an entity than your average citizen, the world is driven by consumers, and the public as a whole directly influences what headlines these newspapers publish.

I believe that the media does not set out intentionally to manipulate the public’s opinions. However, when they notice what gets the public’s attention, they will continue to produce that material. If many more people buy a newspaper with the headline “NEGRO RAPIST,” that newspaper will continue to publish papers featuring similar headlines. The media is not out for the good of the public, and has no interests other than its own: to earn money. They would not publish the “NEGRO RAPIST” headline it if it didn’t sell. Newspapers will publish more headlines like that to keep the money coming in. The public at large is just, if not more, at fault for the propagation of these negative stereotypes against black males. When people buy these newspapers, they are supporting that headline. When people watch that news station, they are supporting that news station; when they read that controversial link online they are supporting the blog on which it is posted.

If you were going to expand your post into a paper, I would like to hear your counterarguments on what I just posted. I would also be interested to see statistics on how often black male violence against white female bodies actually occurred. I think that this would benefit my understanding of several themes in the course as well, since we have been told by many authors in the course now that this violence does not occur as often as it did, but logically, it would not have become so common without at least some incidences of its actual occurrence to start the trend. (I am not trying to argue that that is true, I am just explaining why I find the topic difficult to understand).