You may remember that our course is called “Language, Identity, and Representation.” We have talked a lot about language, and we’ve talked a lot of identity, but we haven’t addressed representation yet. By representation, we mean the ways that individuals, groups, and experiences are depicted, written about, and presented to us. To begin thinking about representation, I would like you to find a piece of media whose representation of a particular identity strikes you as being exactly right, totally problematic, or somewhere in-between, and be prepared to share it in class on Wednesday. The term “media” is very broad; your selection could be an advertisement, a music video, a television show, a meme, a newspaper story, a comedy routine, a film, a character in a novel, etc…. Think about something you’ve seen that you have had a strong reaction to – either because it handles representation in a way that you really like and appreciate or because you found it offensive or troubling. In advance of class, please create a new post and share the piece of media you have selected. If you have selected something long like a tv show, please select and share a short clip that would illustrate what you have in mind. Explain your choice in a few sentences. What have you selected? What representation are you highlighting? What do you find noteworthy about the representation? Your selection must be posted by noon on Wednesday.
6 thoughts on “Homework for Wednesday, October 26th – Representation”
Blackfishing is a term used to describe people who are not Black, trying to “pass off” as Black. This type of representation bothers me because instead of letting Black artists have the spotlight, non-Black artists take it away by.
This is an article about Kanye West and his problematic history
Recently Kanye West got cancelled (term used on the internet which means to stop supporting online figures) for making Anti Semitic and racist comments on his social media platforms. He also recently lost his partnership with the brand Adidas.
One thing that I found interesting about this situation is that there are many caucasian celebrities that have made similar comments as Kanye, but still have tons of fans that support them every day. Kanye on the other hand, as a person of color, receives a huge amount of hate as soon as those words were said by him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y02ybqchrsM
In this video by Ben Shapiro, he quotes a tweet by Charlie Chris stating that DeSantis shouldn’t be elected as governor of Florida since he is the only governor in Florida history to shut down schools and businesses. This is gaslighting to the extreme as DeSantis served during covid and shut down everything just like every other governor did.
Ryan – How does this video connect to the assignment about “representation”? Whose representation is at stake her? This is political discourse, and it certainly is problematic, but I don’t see how it connects to our assignment.
https://youtu.be/ta31VGaVHrY
This is a clip from the disney movie, Encanto. In this clip we see the main character Mirabel arguing with her grandmother. Her grandmother is accusing her of ruining thr family magic. THis is a perfect representation of generational trauma withing Latino families. The grandma went through trauma and because of that she is trying to live through her children and grandchildren.
Jaylynn – Just to be sure that I understand, you’re saying that this is a fair and authentic seeming representation of inter-generational issues in a Latino family? Interesting.
This is a link to an article about celebrities accused of black fishing: https://www.insider.com/celebrities-blackfishing-accusations-racially-ambiguous?amp
Blackfishing is a term used to describe people who are not Black, trying to “pass off” as Black. This type of representation bothers me because instead of letting Black artists have the spotlight, non-Black artists take it away by.
This is an article about Kanye West and his problematic history
https://www.miamitimesonline.com/lifestyles/entertainment/kanye-west-s-twitter-instagram-locked-over-offensive-posts/article_4c18517e-48a8-11ed-8fe1-9774c887e394.html
Recently Kanye West got cancelled (term used on the internet which means to stop supporting online figures) for making Anti Semitic and racist comments on his social media platforms. He also recently lost his partnership with the brand Adidas.
One thing that I found interesting about this situation is that there are many caucasian celebrities that have made similar comments as Kanye, but still have tons of fans that support them every day. Kanye on the other hand, as a person of color, receives a huge amount of hate as soon as those words were said by him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y02ybqchrsM
In this video by Ben Shapiro, he quotes a tweet by Charlie Chris stating that DeSantis shouldn’t be elected as governor of Florida since he is the only governor in Florida history to shut down schools and businesses. This is gaslighting to the extreme as DeSantis served during covid and shut down everything just like every other governor did.
Ryan – How does this video connect to the assignment about “representation”? Whose representation is at stake her? This is political discourse, and it certainly is problematic, but I don’t see how it connects to our assignment.
https://youtu.be/ta31VGaVHrY
This is a clip from the disney movie, Encanto. In this clip we see the main character Mirabel arguing with her grandmother. Her grandmother is accusing her of ruining thr family magic. THis is a perfect representation of generational trauma withing Latino families. The grandma went through trauma and because of that she is trying to live through her children and grandchildren.
Jaylynn – Just to be sure that I understand, you’re saying that this is a fair and authentic seeming representation of inter-generational issues in a Latino family? Interesting.