The two readings assigned for Wednesday's discussion extended earlier conversations about controlling images and media representations. Read the summaries and click on the links to read/skim and/or view the supplemental materials for your comments. Please note, this is not optional. All students are required to post a comment or a question for each post.
From Ch. 46:
From Ch. 46:
In life history interviews with Latino men, Vasquez-Tokos and Norton-Smith found two recurrent themes: gangs and sports. Most respondents had not been involved in either gangs or sports, but they felt forcibly constrained by these controlling images, which had limited their educational opportunities, access to jobs, and sense of self-expression. Whereas prejudice involves negative emotions and stereotypes, controlling images are systemic and cultural instruments of power. They are not individual ideas, but rather ideological collective representations that offer “strategies of action” that bridge systemic racism, prejudice, and discrimination.
Vasquez-Tokos and Norton-Smith’s respondents expressed a sense of being constrained because of controlling images, both from external expectations and from internalized ideas about racial hierarchies and limited aspirations. The resistance respondents mounted in response to these dominant images changed over the life course. Younger men engaged in emotional resistance, an internal struggle to recuperate self- and group-worth. Older men, who had attained more social power, resisted the power of controlling images through leadership activities related to their professions and focused on “giving back” to their communities.
Your first option for a discussion question is the following: compare Vasquez-Tokos and Norton-Smith’s findings with those of what we discussed about hegemonic masculinity from Hurtado and Sinha (Chapter 19: “More than Men: Latino Feminist Masculinities and Intersectionality”). How are the controlling images of gangs and sports related to hegemonic masculinity?
From Ch. 48:
Vasquez-Tokos and Norton-Smith’s respondents expressed a sense of being constrained because of controlling images, both from external expectations and from internalized ideas about racial hierarchies and limited aspirations. The resistance respondents mounted in response to these dominant images changed over the life course. Younger men engaged in emotional resistance, an internal struggle to recuperate self- and group-worth. Older men, who had attained more social power, resisted the power of controlling images through leadership activities related to their professions and focused on “giving back” to their communities.
Your first option for a discussion question is the following: compare Vasquez-Tokos and Norton-Smith’s findings with those of what we discussed about hegemonic masculinity from Hurtado and Sinha (Chapter 19: “More than Men: Latino Feminist Masculinities and Intersectionality”). How are the controlling images of gangs and sports related to hegemonic masculinity?
From Ch. 48:
Both the quantity and quality of media portrayals about a group matter. When minority groups are underrepresented they lack an important source of shared knowledge that can help them understand or orient themselves within their everyday social contexts. They become invisible to others for whom media portrayal provides a surrogate representation for real-world exposure when contact between majority and minority group members is limited or nonexistent. Native Americans are unique in the degree of absolute invisibility they experience in many domains of American life, including the media.
Leavitt et al. report that Native Americans, already a small segment of the population, are severely underrepresented in media, making up less than 1 percent of characters in television, films, and video games. When Native Americans are represented, they are typically portrayed in highly stereotypical ways as 18th- and 19th-century figures frozen in time. Content analysis using Internet search engines found that over 95 percent of images returned in search results for “Native American” and “American Indian” were historical representations. In the rare cases that Native Americans are shown in media as contemporary people, they are negatively stereotyped as poor, uneducated, and prone to addictions.
Leavitt et al. argue that media invisibility has psychological consequences for Native Americans. Lack of adequate representation stifles self-understanding and homogenizes Native American identities. In the absence of a range of realistic, high-quality portrayals of one’s group, group identification may lead to self-stereotyping rather than positive self-esteem. Leavitt et al. advocate for policies that would require media outlets to attend to how and when they represent diverse groups in order to ensure not only that Native Americans are represented in the media but also that they are included in decisions that represent and affect their communities.
Leavitt et al. report that Native Americans, already a small segment of the population, are severely underrepresented in media, making up less than 1 percent of characters in television, films, and video games. When Native Americans are represented, they are typically portrayed in highly stereotypical ways as 18th- and 19th-century figures frozen in time. Content analysis using Internet search engines found that over 95 percent of images returned in search results for “Native American” and “American Indian” were historical representations. In the rare cases that Native Americans are shown in media as contemporary people, they are negatively stereotyped as poor, uneducated, and prone to addictions.
Leavitt et al. argue that media invisibility has psychological consequences for Native Americans. Lack of adequate representation stifles self-understanding and homogenizes Native American identities. In the absence of a range of realistic, high-quality portrayals of one’s group, group identification may lead to self-stereotyping rather than positive self-esteem. Leavitt et al. advocate for policies that would require media outlets to attend to how and when they represent diverse groups in order to ensure not only that Native Americans are represented in the media but also that they are included in decisions that represent and affect their communities.
Any discussion of the invisibility of Native Americans should begin with an understanding of America as a settler colonial state with a long history of systematic attempts to eliminate North America’s indigenous people.
Your second option for a discussion question is the following: How does recognizing the United States of America as a settler colonial state relate to the limited media portrayals of Native Americans and indigenous populations? Your comment should address the chapter and at least one of the links/clips in this post.
Here or on the Scholar Discussion Board please post a comment or question that arose for you in reading/viewing this content as it relates to gender/race/class communication issues.
Please note, this is not optional. All students are required to post a comment or a question for each post. I ask that you please read through your classmates' comments here and on the forums and maybe even reply to a comment or two (on either format, up to you!) in the interest of keeping it interactive.
Your second option for a discussion question is the following: How does recognizing the United States of America as a settler colonial state relate to the limited media portrayals of Native Americans and indigenous populations? Your comment should address the chapter and at least one of the links/clips in this post.
Here or on the Scholar Discussion Board please post a comment or question that arose for you in reading/viewing this content as it relates to gender/race/class communication issues.
If you are able to, please comment here. Otherwise, please place your comment in the appropriate Scholar Discussion board thread (it is available in the Course Content Forum). The deadline is 11:59 pm Sunday, April 5. Early next week I will either share a written post or YouTube summary of my notes if any responses still leave out important info we would have covered in person.
Because colonial americans are the ones that have created the media from the very first days they resided in America, they get to create the narrative of the native people. As a setteler colonial state, the early immigrants wanted to appear to both thier own people and to the Native American's as powerful and capable of taking the lnad for thier own. I believe that same attitude of power over Native Americans was passed down through generations through economic suppression, cultural appropriation, and stereotyping. In the first video of the girls combatting Native American stereotypes, it is easy to see that all the stereotypes created by immigrant americans painted the Native American's in a negative light. The same concept applies to media portrayal as it is discussed in the article. The lack of representation amoung the Native American community in an dof itself fosters a sense of unbelonging in Native American children, but when they are represented in negative or falsely stereotypical ways the few times they are shown in media, it reinfores that negative self-worth.
ReplyDeleteControlling images have the power for minority groups to feel constrained, because of how they can be perceived from certain images. Controlling images bring about the making of race, class and gender inequalities. Hegemonic masculinity refers to males dominance in society. In regards to controlling images referencing gangs and sports, these controlling images play a role as a stereotype of a particular person or groups of people, which identifies a falsehood of who a person or group of people really are. A lot of controlling images are racist and only are used to bring out the bad in people. African-American men are perceived more so as affiliated in gangs or as rappers even based on the controlled images made for them. For gangs and sports, minority men are the favorite target for controlled images to be made for them, more so over women or white males, which can show how hegemonic masculinity can tie into controlled images, since males are favored in images as gang members or in sports only.
ReplyDeleteMedia has played a limited role in exposing the hardships and systemic exclusion that Native Americans face today. Dating back from the Colonial Era, during times of colonization Native Americans were kicked off their own tribal lands and taken advantage of. Natives had to conform to the standards of the 'white man' or face death. Removed from their land and segregated into reservations far from their original inhabitants, the colonials did everything to limit the power of the minority group. The results from racially segregating Natives onto reservations is still being addressed today and as seen in the video Lakota in America, they are suffering the results of what happened centuries ago. The lack of government support and adequate public funding on these reservations creates difficult circumstances for Natives Americans to navigate through. The lack of media attention that is being placed on this subject is alarming, considering how long this has been happening. In order for serious change to be made, the media must navigate attention towards this subject to inspire change for these marginalized communities.
ReplyDeleteRecognizing that the United States was in fact a settler colonial state has everything to do with how we portray racial minorities in the media. After reading what a settler colony is from what Dr. Stern attached in the blog post, the comment that stuck out the most to me was that "it destroys in order to replace." By that, it means that we took away Native Americans land, yes. But to take it in a way that applies to media, we stripped away Native Americans roles in movies, magazines, any kind of media representations they have and make this population of people seem to be poor, uneducated, and prone to addicts, as stated in chapter 48 of our textbook. We strip away their culture to make more room for the "white man" so to speak, and not let people have their own voice. The narrative of the story is being contributed to by the colonial settlers. The only way to truly fix this problem is to bring attention to how wrong this is by the media as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI like how you address to fix the problem in your discussion post because if we keep on with this for future generations things will only tend to get worse. Our kids and their kids will no longer know who are Native Americans.
DeleteRecognizing the U.S as a settler colonial state heavily relates to the limited media portrayals of Native Americans. I previously did not know what settler colonialism is, but after reading the attached article, I now understand that is an imposed structure with the intent to eliminate the resources and lands of natives. Native Americans were forced out of their land and lumped onto reservations with requirements that they would follow the rule or be killed. Colonial Americans decided the future of native people then and although it has taken a different form today that underlying feeling of oppression and negativity continues. During the first video, the girls shed light on the truth behind many negative stereotypes of natives that come specifically from the media. Media representation plays a significant role In society because it shares social messages as well as shared ideals and practices that individuals use to understand themselves. One thing that stood out to me in ch 48 is that media content can be the only exposure that some people have to other groups. Unfortunately, to say that representation of native Americans is lacking in society is an extreme understatement. By having them not appear, or only appear as historical figures, the media conveys a message to natives that they are essentially do not exist, are insignificant not worthy of representation. The narrative of native Americans is heavily controlled, and this continues the cycle of mistreatment and oppression that they have endured. This issue unfortunately fails to recognize the kinds of psychological damage that this can cause to these individuals self esteem and feelings of worth. The media needs to take a step in the right direction to finally shed an accurate light on such an ignored group of people.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading in chapter 48 about the lack of media representation of Native Americans and its affects I made a connection to the lack of media representation of trans* individuals. As the chapter stated, minority groups look to the media to feel included and learn more about themselves but when the representations of themselves are inaccurate or nonexistent they hurt more than help. Operating within the cultural domain of power the media, as shown in chapter 48 and the previous chapter 18, favors select groups of people choosing to discriminate against certain groups. The point that stood out most to me in chapter 48 was that Native Americans "can contest or reject these representations, [but] they cannot control the impact of these representations on how other people think about Native Americans" (p.455). This shows the expanse of power that the media has over minority groups because these representations affect them in multiple ways.
ReplyDeleteThe findings of Norton-Smith connect significantly with Vasquez-Tokos as presented in this chapter of the book. Most significantly, I think it is apparent that the hegemonic masculinity as espoused as so negative to self identity in the earlier Norton-Smith reading is pretty closely tied to how media imagery helps to create controlling images for the LatinX community which paints their self identities into categories which they themselves may not align with. Hegemonic masculinity and the controlling images of gangs and sports are two sides of the same coin, representing how portrays and societal pressures create an idea of "what a true Latino man is" even when not aligning with the true values or ideals of the LatinX community.
ReplyDeleteThe US is a settler colonial state. While most of us may of learned about it in elementary school being a historical event, it's an imposed structure. From the website on American Settler Colonialism that Dr. Stern attached in the post, it says, "The objective of settler colonialism is always the acquisition of indigenous territories and resources, which means the native must be eliminated," and what grabbed my attention was it saying that the native must be eliminated. That quote relates to the lack of representation and tarnish of Native Americans reputation. They've been given this reputation as being poor, uneducated, or even uncivilized and that's not the case at all. By trying to "eliminate the native," we've ignored and taking away their culture, their part in our society, and placed them on reservations away from the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteComparing both Vasquez-Tokos and Norton-Smith’s findings with those of what we discussed about hegemonic masculinity from Hurtado and Sinha, there seems to be some form of correlation with "drawing on positive aspects of hegemonic masculinity" (p. 167), while forming a new narrative for themselves. The leadership and resilience shown by communities paints a different story than the one media so favors. The controlling images of gangs are strongly related to hegemonic masculinity for mediated images of gangs tend to relay a characterization of toxic, male characters that are non-White, coming from broken homes and communities, which then tells a story for non-Whites that is perpetuated and feeds into systemic inequalities and racism that favor the corruptness of hegemonic masculinity.
ReplyDeleteComparing the two readings on Latino representation they both discuss the ways in which Latinos attempt to reject the dominant societal values. Hurtado and Sinha discuss this in the sense of defining masculinity. Latinos attempt to reject hegemonic masculinity as their definition of manhood overtly rejects it through relishing in qualities that oppose it. Vasquez-Tokos and Norton-Smith's reading deals with rejecting the dominant societal values of education among Latinos. Through their age, Latinos learn to stand up against the idea that they are only meant for physical means and cannot thrive in the academic field. When the controlling images of sports and gangs are reinforced, so is hegemonic masculinity as the traits associated with it show up in the controlling images. Sports and gangs are activities where people usually thrive by being physically strong and tough, which are key factors in the hegemonic masculine identity.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to understand that America is a country that was established by taking over land that was occupied. For the America that we live in now many have died and were put out of their homes. This is important for lack of proper representation of Indigenous people because those who have the power tell the narrative. Power is mostly in the hands of white men so they tell the narrative. Their narrative worked for the reason of why colonization and expansion was justified. The narrative continues in media because many people look to media to find something that they can relate to in their self but when there is no one to relate to then you are invisible. When you are invisible you have no voice to change the narrative. This is why changing the name of the football team the Redskins is so hard. I live in DC (Giants fan though) and I never knew the meaning behind the name until the girl in the video mentioned it. The control over media is a powerful influence and we need to recognize who is responsible for these narratives in order to hold those accountable for proper representations.
ReplyDeleteAmericans are too fast to paint Native Americans and indigenous people as the bad guy or still very tribal people and the controlling images of that attitude are so pervasive. Americans still see native Americas as very tribal and believe they live in teepees or wear headdresses all the time. In the vouge video, the girls told of how they have to explain to people that they don’t actually live in a teepee and headdresses are only for ceremonies. Yet almost all portrayals of Native Americans vastly contradict how actual native Americans live everyday life. These controlling images are prejudice and discriminatory. The media also portrays Native Americans as lazy and nearly all Native Americans mooching off the government. Native American media portrayal is limited at best but most is very negative which greatly diminishes self-esteem and worth. These pervasive controlling images are so dangerous to minority groups who are often treated as others and discriminated towards. ]
ReplyDeleteI hate to admit it, but I am one of those Americans that have always recognized Native Americans as colonial figures living in teepees and wearing older tribal clothing. I can't remember the last history class where I actually learning Native American history. If we continue this trend this is how future generation of Americans will be raised as well not knowing the correct images of Native Americans. I am glad we were able to read this chapter to shed some light on this topic of a much needed conversation.
DeleteThe link of explaining what is a settler colonial state really tied together the loose ends to connect the chapter reading and the video. As we recognized the United States as a settler colonial state it makes sense as to why Native Americans are underrepresented if represented at all in the media. As the link discusses a settler colonial state, destroys a minority culture in order cover it up with the dominant culture. Now we can see why the United States wanted to put Native Americans on reservations and keep them there as if they do not exist anymore. The Native American in the video stated a powerful quote, "Kill the Indian, save the man." It seems the United States wants Indians to be extinct and because they couldn't get them gone they decided to put Native Americans away in a corner as if they no longer exist. By having them remain on reservations and not represented in the media, it plays the role of out of sight out of mind.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the video, a Native American stated, "We have to let the world know that we are still here."
As we made this connection, the chapter and video are good to be watched and read together. However, it is still sad that this occurs to Native Americans. Their lives and existence matters. I'm glad to see they have mentors to help young people have a positive outlook on life and to help guide them towards a better future.
A question I would like to pose to this class from the chapter reading on Native Americans is, "Is it better to be misrepresented in the media or not represented at all?"
ReplyDeleteThe chapter discussed and we've had conversations before in class about controlling images in the media with other ethnic groups such as Latinos and African Americans being misrepresented. For this chapter reading Native Americans are not represented much at all. Is one situation "better" than the other?
I am THOROUGHLY impressed with your collective responses to last week's material. I sincerely mean it when I say I have nothing to add to the course slides like I did the previous week. Just be sure to watch all of the videos and read the linked material if you haven't already.
ReplyDeleteComparing Vasquez-Tokos and Norton-Smith’s findings with those of what we discussed about hegemonic masculinity is shown through the creation of new individual narratives. Hegemonic Masculinity is often times shown in the representation of Native Americans in media settings. There is not a wide variety of Native Americans on Television due Forever Foreigner Syndrome. As discussed in class, Forever Foreigner Syndrome is the process of treating Native Americans as constant outsiders to a white America. This can be portrayed through television shows where the taxi driver or convenience store owner is foreign and Business people are white. Native Americans are represented in an extremely stereotypical way in order to drive societal perceptions and "norms". This is an issue that has yet to truly be addressed even though it has been going on for decades. And when minority groups are underrepresented they lack importance and shared knowledge as a source of self identity within America.
ReplyDelete