In Living Color

In Living Color is a blogging attempt showcasing digital media's relationship with people of color, created by Tyler Harris

[tylerrharris]

Bill Cosby: No longer the face of Black America?

When I was growing up, there was a multitude of black shows showing us as regular people and families (Moesha, Hanging With Mr. Cooper, Bernie Mac Show, The Proud Family, The Parkers, The Steve Harvey Show, Martin, The Jamie Foxx Show, Living Single, etc.). Even though these shows were popular, none had not made the same mark as the Cosby show in the 1980s. This was one of the first shows where the black characters did not play into the stereotypical roles designated for black actors then. This show depicted an upper middle class family with a father who was a Doctor and a mother of five kids who was also a lawyer. Although this wasn't a representative of all black families, it gave America a new and positive image of black people, which I am still appreciative of today. 

2014: Bill Cosby has been accused of sexual assault by 20+ women. Although this wasn't new news to me as I heard about some of these complaints over time, I am more shocked about how the black community is reacting to this. Before these incidents were brought to the press, Bill Cosby was one of the faces of black America. His show was a success and birthed a popular spin-off, A Different World, and he donated thousands of dollars to keep Historically Black Colleges and Universities afloat. For a lot of people, this is more important than the alleged sexual assaults. Some of the response have been that white America is trying to end Bill Cosby's career and reputation, and others have his television identity mixed up with his real identity. Either way, something wrong is going on here. 

In the last two days, both Camille and Bill Cosby have spoken about these recent events. Camille believes that these are all false accusations, and Bill wants black media to remain neutral...I have conflicting feelings about this. It does hurt to see one of black Americans icons in a time like this, but we also have to pay attention to the victims of this situation. For once, it's not about race, but listening to these stories being told. 

[tylerrharris]

Artists Explore The Many Influences Of Ebony And Jet Magazines

"Think about the fact that since the 1940s, Ebony has been published, every month, and continues to be," explained Lauren Hayes, curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, in an interview with The Huffington Post. "It's about taking stock...

[micdotcom]

#AliveWhileBlack is the heartbreaking response to #CrimingWhileWhite

The hashtag #CrimingWhileWhite became a platform to illustrate what often happens when white people engage in criminal activity. It was a powerful moment, as white people openly acknowledged that they don’t face nearly the same punishment or brutality experienced by their black counterparts. But despite the good intentions of those who participated, many others felt like the hashtag detracted from conversations about the value of black lives.

In response to that first trending hashtag, Jamilah Lemieux, senior digital editor for Ebony magazine, started #AliveWhileBlack.

[tylerrharris]

Ferguson & Media: What's next?

2014 has been an extremely painful year for African-Americans. After witnessing and experiencing countless injustices, people took to social media to voice their disdain for these unfortunate trending events. Taking advantage of the power of social media, many supporters organized successful rallies and protests all over the country. However, a war on social media began when the prosecutor of the Michael Brown and Darren Wilson case proclaimed that social media led to misinformed and biased protestors (a bold statement that quickly backfired). Since then, the hashtags "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" and "I can't breathe" have become popular over various social media interfaces and have also resulted into more marches and protests until justice is served. 

Although, I love seeing this kind of solidarity, what's next? What can be done to change race relations in this country?

Honestly, I don't know.

People aren't going to change the way they think about others unless they want to. Media also has a large role in this. Since the summer, with all the killings of black people, the media worked really fast to vilify and dehumanize the victim, instead of worrying about the larger issue: someone taking away another's life. There is power and thought in these images and portrayals they show on the news; they are used to produce a certain emotional response, which is fear-mongering . The news companies say they only act to serve the people and feed them information that they need to hear, but at the same time, they are reinforcing dehumanizing stereotypes. Because of this bias, we should continue to use social media to share news and our voices. It has arguably been more productive than most mainstream news sources during this time of turmoil.

[kingrudegyalchina]

SIGNAL BOOST !!

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/nyregion/grand-jury-declines-to-indict-officer-in-death-of-unarmed-youth.html?ext=1418309267&hash=AcnO4-iZM8LtHLpeTopc6h5Ez89yzuqEX9ivSaCAsLPtHQ&_rdr

[toastoat]

#tokyo4ferguson

[jadebrieanne]

Wow,

[sadesmoothoperator-deactivated2]

this gave me goosebumps

[tylerrharris]

This is why I love social media. It allows me for to see things like this that the news shows won't. #solidarity

[tylerrharris]

Social Media: A tool to call out the racists?

After recent events, black people and allies have had enough of racism. Instead of ignoring racist comments from people on social media, people have started to expose their racists online, and ultimately getting them fired or suspended from school. For example, the new Tumblr blog "Racists getting Fired" publicly shames Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr users expressing racist sentiments by reposting them publicly online. I think it's an interesting method to keep people aware of the issues highlighted by Ferguson. 

I want to hear from you all. Is this a productive way to eradicate this sort of thinking?

[tylerrharris]

Four Lessons From The Media's Conflicted Coverage of Race

After grand jury decisions not to indict police officers in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, NPR TV critic Eric Deggans notes media missteps in discussing race.

I came across this article on NPR's Code Switch. This article talks about all the right things and looks at the steps that we need take in order to move forward. Not to sound like an extremist, but a social, cultural, and political revolution is among us -- Just look how people are taking to the streets and social media to show their disdain about race relations in this country. The media is way behind the actions of the masses, (I guess in order to stay unbiased, but look how that's working out), but because of the accessibility to other interfaces, people are taking actions and receiving information on their own without having to strictly rely on the news media.

[justice4mikebrown]

December 13

[tylerrharris]

I was always skeptical of social media, but after recent events, I have appreciated what it can do for marginalized communities. I love seeing this type of solidarity!

[thechanelmuse]

What Am I? (AfroLatino)

Honduran sisters Victoria and Sophia on a mission to diversify Latin American media and get more representation of Afro Latinos in a positive portrayal, hoping to end discrimination on Latin American networks such as Telemundo and Univision.

Reblog the hell out of this until people get it.

[faemahadia]

Love this! Will blog the heck out of this!!

[tylerrharris]

People of color making an impact in new media and technology

I found this gem while looking for other blogs/websites that highlight minorities in media! This blog include different forms of media and has different contributors. This blog is what I want my blog to evolve into! Check it out!!

[tylerrharris]

Random Blurb: my Collection and Inspiration

So I've been collecting tumblr posts on how People of Color are perceived on social media and other media outlets. If you can remember, my first version of this blog was merely a collection of these posts until I transitioned into this version. Anyway, I always wanted to shared why I thought of this particular topic. In my first post, I explained my reasoning behind my decision to pick this topic, but not really my Inspiration. On my personal blog Feminiousity , I would tend to reblog a lot of posts regarding various topics within African-American culture. It wasn't until I've taken my Writing for the Web class that I started making a connection between African-American culture and digital media. As I continue to work on this blog, I definitely want to share with you some of the pieces that inspired me to create this blog. I admit that this is a difficult and narrow subject to blog about, but I do think that looking at a POC's relation to digital media is just another way that we can teach digital literacy in different ways!

[tylerrharris]

I discovered this series online while looking for videos that discuss POC and media. It's from these students' perspective, but check it out! 

[tylerrharris]

Adventures In Multimodality!

Since my blog focus on POC's representation & relationship in Media, I decide to venture in the field myself by making a comic...starring ME! 

Before taking my Writing for the Web class, I had no idea what multimodality was. At first glance, I thought it was something about that motor of a computer (close enough). This strip was created for a multimodal composition project for this class to show the multimodality of a text. Making this comic furthered my understanding of multimodality; therefore I want to share it with you all so you all can learn a little something about multimodality, specifically how comics are multimodal!

Enjoy!

[tylerrharris]

The Digital Divide

I was just reading a John Hopkins University selection from the The John Hopkins Guide to Digital Media and it referred to the interesting relationship between race and technology, known as the digital divide. First, I believe that the more technology becomes embedded into our society, the more it will be able to help marginalized groups like the poor and people of color in terms of education...if they have access to it. With the access of smartphones and social media sites, it should help marginalized groups be on the same page with other groups, but because of digital media's bias towards connecting with others, it connects us to show how these other groups live, but not in a way to put us in the position to help them (does that make sense?). I don't think it is about access to sites/technology, but I think it's about each group understanding technology; however, we cannot be naive to think that increased digital literacy among these groups will help them overcome other structures of inequity embedded in our culture. 

Here is an excerpt from the reading: 

"In the early 1990s and early 2000s, activists and thinkers concerned with social justice feared that inequities would be amplified when access to computing technologies became requisite for social mobility among undeserved populations, including the poor and people of color. Other emphasized that access to computing technologies would not be enough to eliminate disparities that are perpetuated through multiple avenues of society."

Once again, this book is titled The John Hopkins Guide to Digital Media. This section is available on Google books, so check it out! Also tell me how you feel about digital media's affect on marginalized groups. It's the whole point of my blog, but I want to hear what my readers think!

[tylerrharris]

Heart of Darkness

The outbreak of the Ebola virus has become the bulk the of news lately. Personally, since the reporting on Ferguson, I have become skeptical of what the media reports, so my knowledge of Ebola is almost non-existent. But I noticed that the media has a part in creating the frenzy. Although it is not absurd to worry about a global epidemic in our interconnected world, but most of people's reactions seemed to be fueled by fictional thrillers, such as the zombie apocalypse and civilization-destroying plagues. 

But I noticed that our fear towards the virus also showcases Xenophobia and cultural narcissism. Political hysterics and media personnel who are most worked up about Ebola are likely to view various African societies as primitive and dedicated to bringing down the United States by creating this virus *face palm*.  

The American media culture is unarguably dysfunctional and driven by fear. Our media can only perceive Ebola as an exclusive American problem, as if the different African countries affected by this virus on a daily basis doesn't matter. They matter because they pose a threat to "superior" way of American life. 

[tylerrharris]

Social Media: a good or bad thing? Part II

Social Media: a good or bad thing? Part deux.

More recently, there has been an increase a prank videos that focus on sexual assaulting women and young white males going into the “hood” and messing with people they know they shouldn’t. 

But on this edition of social media: a good or bad thing? I’ll focus on hood pranks. 

Hood prank videos are all similar in structure: white boys venture into predominately black (or latino) neighborhoods and do something purposefully to antagonize a group of strangers. You see where the comedy comes from, right?

Usually these videos in end the pranksters getting beat up (good for them). These pranks aren’t even close to being funny. These videos is just another form of harassment that exploits the inner city, and only films minorities, fueling the stereotype that they are more aggressive. 

Nothing is worse than laughing at someone who has less than you.