gender – Contemporary Racism

Difficulty Setting: White

Teagan Richichi — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:20:32 +0000

A metaphor for life in America being White is that it’s like having the difficulty of a video game set on easy mode. I first heard this metaphor when I was a teenager, approximately in middle school or early high school, and it’s stuck with me since then. The premise is simple, and the metaphor can be expanded on. It’s not just that White is the easy setting, it’s that those who are playing at ...

Two Burdens, One Body

Sofia S — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 17:18:20 +0000

As a Hispanic White woman, I can recall multiple times where I have not been “Hispanic” enough for White people and Hispanic people. One time in particular, in the sixth grade I was shown a picture of a darker Hispanic person and was told that if I was actually Hispanic I would look like them. I thought of my experience when I read the study Applying intersectionality to explore the relations between gendered racism and ...

Let’s talk about racism! Sure…But when?

Chau Dinh — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 15:55:12 +0000

My first American history lesson started with the Crash Course series on YouTube in the summer of 2017, about two months before I came to the States. My “teacher” was a white woman from Texas whose name I failed to remember, who seemed nice and honestly was the spitting image of white Americans in media products I had consumed. She taught me everything from “checks and balances,” “electoral college,” and the Constitution to using “bathroom” ...

The Double Standard of Beauty

Savannah Connolly — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 15:04:39 +0000

I was scrolling through Tik Tok when I saw a woman of color speaking on how recently there has been a shift in how people perceive her. She was being told more and more frequently that she looks white. That got her wondering why people were saying that? Because for most of her life she has easily been identified as an ethnic minority. She started to hypothesize it was because recently ethnic features, especially Black ...

Public Service Announcement: Exotic isn’t a compliment

Savannah Connolly — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 20:00:03 +0000

“Wow you’re so exotic, I wish I looked different like you!” This is a sentiment many women of color hear and experience throughout their lives. From well meaning friends to romantic partners to strangers who pass you on the street. They are all just trying their best to hype you up, and give you the praise you deserve! Well, I’m here to break the news and set the record straight. Calling someone exotic isn’t the ...

Sisterhood’s Lasting Impacts

Emma Schwartz — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 18:02:37 +0000

One of the clearest impressions I have of Greek Life is the movie Sydney White, where every member of the sorority portrayed in the movie is thin, white, and blonde, except for Sydney White, who is, *gasp*, a brunette. And that impression has not been disproven. When I entered Greek Life at Muhlenberg, there were no black women who had joined or were already members in my chapter. There was one Latina woman, who graduated, ...

black and queer, and here – even if they don’t always see us

breebooth — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 19:53:15 +0000

One of my favorite topics that we’ve covered in this course thus far is the creation of counter-spaces. I am intrigued by this concept because I have created these spaces for myself at Muhlenberg without knowing that it had a name attached to it. What is more, it intrigued me to know that counter-spaces are something students of color across the country are constantly creating for themselves. I think my interest lies in the naming ...

“Ignorant White Girl”: One Man’s Attempt to Defend his Sexism

Connie — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 17:01:43 +0000

We’re pleased to feature this special guest post authored by Muhlenberg College (and Contemporary Racism) alum, Brittany Smith (’17). Brittany is at Columbia University pursuing an MPH focusing on health promotion and children’s health equity. A few weeks ago, I went dancing at a few bars with some college friends who were visiting. I also encountered one of the most fragile and aggressive examples of masculinity I’ve ever seen. (And, as a woman who dates ...

#NotYourMule

Wilhelmina Minney — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 16:05:46 +0000

This idea that Black women are the perpetual mules of everyone else has been ingrained in our society. We see it in the media when all we see are Black women marching for Black lives. We see it portrayed in the media with Black women playing the help, the nanny, the supporting motherly character, or the best friend used simply to illuminate the main actress’s character. The image of the Black woman has been, historically ...

Gender, Queerness, and Performative Masculinity as an Escape: An Analysis of Moonlight

Wilhelmina Minney — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 15:42:28 +0000

In her essay “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe”, Hortense Spillers argues that the gendered configuration for Black people through slavery and its afterlife is “the dehumanizing, ungendering, defacing project of African persons” (Ziyad, 2017). She points out that, historically, Black gender has not been used to indicate a shared womanhood or manhood with people within white society, but to highlight how black people are out of step with womanhood and manhood. Essentially, Black gender can never ...

“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity” – Viola Davis

Julia Beatley — Tue, 01 May 2018 11:06:57 +0000

Stereotypes of gender and race permeate our everyday discourses from classrooms to politics and throughout the media. When we aren’t viewing individuals through the impressions granted by stereotypes, we are commonly white-washing our outlooks across matters; from mental illness, physical health, poverty, education and so much more, we downplay the intersections of race and gender. There is typically little room in society for minority groups to speak up for themselves, to challenge the stereotypes allocated ...

Could Be “Crazy In Love,” But Only If You’re…

caroline_whiting — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 18:48:00 +0000

I recently read an article from the website Ebony that began circulating after the Grammy’s which features an interview with Mathew Knowles, father and former manager of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles. The first part of the interview discusses Mathew Knowles’s internal struggle with “colorism”, which can essentially be described as prejudiced treatment or preferential treatment of individuals of one’s same race based on their skin color. I had personally never heard this word before, but ...

Social Stigma Against Black Men and Mental Health

Ashley Kemper — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 01:49:19 +0000

After engaging in an onstage rant and ending his concert prematurely, it was reported in November that rapper Kanye West had suffered a “nervous breakdown.” After going on a lengthy tirade about a personal conflict with Jay-Z and Beyoncé, West warned, “Get ready to have a field day press, ‘cause the show’s over,” dropped the microphone, and walked offstage. While the rapper’s antics have become rather commonplace and even expected, something was different this time. ...

Contesting White Feminism

VictoriaJean — Sun, 25 Sep 2016 21:08:37 +0000

In my feminist media studies class, we’ve moved into the topic of the representation of black women in the media and how mainstream feminism is essentially white feminism, and neglects to acknowledge women of color. Over the last few years however, Beyoncé has really been promoting feminist ideas in her work, becoming a strong feminist voice for women of color. She has always championed the strong and independent woman even back in her TLC days, ...

Trans and Queer Latinx Respond to Pulse Orlando Shooting

Connie — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 17:32:51 +0000

A brief video of reactions to this horrific event, speaking about the intersections of race, ethnicity, sexuality and gender identity.

Black Lives Matter, But So Do Black Female Bodies

kparker17 — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:27:53 +0000

This past week, the New York Times published information regarding Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate for the next presidential election’s, stance on abortion. Trump, like other conservatives, sees abortion as “murder” according to the New York Times; and, taking it back decades, he is in support that abortion should be illegal to all, and he says that women who engage in illegal abortions should be punished by the United States government. I think it ...

We Want A Black James Bond… But Is That The Most Productive Fight To Be Fought?

Joseph Rorem — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 12:46:42 +0000

There’s been a great deal of controversy these past couple of years about the future of the James Bond film franchise, a favorite among movie-goers who are into explosions and tuxedos. Current Bond actor Daniel Craig is poised to put down the 007 mantle before long, and of course a new Bond needs to emerge in his wake. When an email between Sony and Columbia film executives was leaked in 2014, fans of the franchise ...

Daily News Roundup?

EmilyBlakeslee — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 13:42:11 +0000

This morning, I had my coffee with my parents as we watched the morning news. When you watch the news with a critical eye, race, sex, and sexual orientation have a tendency to pop out. Racism, sexism, and heterosexism touched almost every news story, either within the content itself or by a comment the reporter makes. I could do a detailed analysis of just one story, but I think the sheer volume of things that ...

“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 ...

Miley Cyrus and the West African Origins of Twerking

Connie — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 14:16:27 +0000

Sadly, yes. I did feel that including Miley Cyrus in the title and tag of this post would garner more attention. Here is one of several thoughtful pieces I’ve seen – not about misguided Miley’s image – but about how the dancers that surrounded her were used “as props.” It also provides a brief history of twerking – a dance I found awkward and mystifying in Miley’s performance. We owe it to twerking to read ...

The World as a Mob

Daniel.Greenfield90 — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 04:02:18 +0000

So, as many of you may know, I am part of an all male music group here on campus. My involvement in this group has been a source of laughter, an immense amount of fun, and, of late, a really interesting focus group of people to think about from a social justice standpoint. The group, when it comes down to it, are really a social experiment in a pietri dish. This experiment is one that ...

The Privilege Wheel

ccaraway — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 03:02:13 +0000

For Wednesday’s class, we spent a good amount of time discussing the myth of the social identity, and the privilege wheel exercise raised some questions for me. For one, do certain aspects of one’s social identity have more power over the other? How much importance is placed on these aspects? I personally believe that social identities are situational. To say that social identities are situational, I mean to say that when we are met with ...

Sterotypes, Generalization, Prejudice and, at best, Bad Manners

Simone — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:12:29 +0000

Recently, I suffered a sprained shoulder and after a doctor’s visit, I was referred to physical therapy for help in rebuilding strength in my right shoulder. Let me say this right from the start, I am in no way, shape, or form a malingerer. So on my first visit, everything was about evaluating and trying to gather as much information about the injury determine the best treatment regimen for me. By the second visit, one ...

Is “Coming Out” beneficial to homosexual black men?

Keith — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 07:57:54 +0000

In class we have been heavily discussing stereotypes the past couple of weeks and although we have not limited the scope of our discussion to stigmatized groups, it seems those with the most salient stigmatizations inevitable surface in our discussions. This led me to wonder about people who had more than one stigmatized identity, and more specifically, identities that were in conflict with each other. The group I eventually settled on was homosexual black men. ...

Super Bowl fail: PepsiMax “Love Hurts” Ad

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 19:51:34 +0000

Super Bowl fail: Halftime show and ads misfire on big night with video!. Regarding the PepsiMax “Love Hurts” ad, Eric Deggans said the ad “wrapped up sexism, weird racial overtones and violence against women in one toxic package.” What elements of the ad might lead him to those conclusions, and do you interpret those elements in the same way he did?