Annie – Contemporary Racism

Nick Cannon…in Whiteface?

Annie — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 00:36:11 +0000

A few days ago, I came across this article about Nick Cannon in Whiteface on the website Jezebel. At first, I wasn’t even sure that it was Nick Cannon. Then, I kind of hoped that it was some weird joke or botched Photoshop job. Neither turned out to be true. Turns out, it’s a promotion Cannon was doing to promote his new album: “White People Party Music”. Apparently, his White alter ego is named Connor Smallnut, which ...

“Wholesome Families”

Annie — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 02:42:21 +0000

Earlier today, a friend of mine posted a link to a commercial made by Honey Maid that features several different families goofing around while sentimental music played in the background. What made this commercial stand out to so many people was the purposeful use of diverse types of families: there’s an interracial family, a family that features a tattooed, “punk rock” looking father, a single dad, and a gay couple. The marketing slogan for the ...

“If the US media were a person, he’d be an old white guy.”

Annie — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 04:16:05 +0000

“If the US media were a person, he’d be an old white guy.” That’s a line from the beginning of an article on the website Mother Jones called “Hollywood’s White Dude Problem”. In summation, the article lists a bunch of charts that exemplify the ways in which women and people of color get discounted from high profile media exploits. Some notable stats include that only 6.6% of the top-grossing films made between 2007 and 2012 ...

What Do You Stand For When You “Stand Your Ground”?

Annie — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 21:57:13 +0000

Many Americans have been following the Jacksonville, Florida case of Michael Dunn and Jordan Davis for the past few weeks. Dunn, a middle aged white man, fired ten shots into an SUV occupied with black teenage boys because of his frustration with their refusal to turn down the loud music they were playing. One of the boys, 17-year old Jordan Davis, was hit by three of those shots, and killed. Yes, you read that synopsis ...

President Obama and the Promotion of the American Dream

Annie — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 00:47:11 +0000

After our class pulled apart a speech that Obama gave before he was elected president in 2008, I knew that I wanted to pay extra special attention to his first State of the Union speech of the new year. The former speech had been constructed around comments made by Reverend Wright, the former pastor for Obama and his family. Reverend Wright made comments about the state of the country in terms of race, and how ...