Last week we saw some commercials intended to attract certain ethnicities or races and it truly made me uncomfortable in my own seat. I don't understand why everything has to be black or white, almost literally. As if chicken cannot be enjoyed by all cultures the same way. No, black people or Latinos cannot like KFC for the same reasons white people do, same way Asians need to see more cartoons in their commercials because they are known for creating them, do I hear cliches? Ugh, the horror! Why do advertisers like to play on the cliches and overplay them until no more can be done? human beings like chicken, beer, music, going places, etc. Our ethnicities help us create our individual identities but it does not define the human being, not entirely. It has been bothering me to see so many things related to targeting certain groups, and this is making me appreciate this whole diversity thing much less than I would want to. I'm not feeling better about reporting minorities, I feel way too aware of it now. I feel like I can't really write freely about anything without saying something that will offend at least one group of people. Since when are people so sensitive? Or is it that the media lack complete sensitivity?
Well this week what was showcased as SO much better. It definitely felt more human, more understanding, more just journalism and not "I'm an insensitive bastard and I'm almost out to get you, hurt your feelings and disrespect your background." The ads and commercials showed a much more sophisticated and educated environment compared to last week. But it hasn't helped to completely wipe out the feelings from last week, those that make me question if everything is about race or that there's no story unless the race or ethnic angle is added to it. I feel like I'm starting to be more prejudiced against certain groups because I'm learning that a lot of the stereotypes are based on truth, not all but some. They are bad, more like evil, they separate people and create disconnections, but they carry some truth in all their negative context. As much as the class is helpful and we get all this information, I feel like I can appreciate some of really good reporting that is being done out there but I cannot appreciate minorities better of like I'm getting better at reporting them. It's almost as if I regressed, and my listening post did not help.
I like what I'm learning in the sense that I feel like reporting is and should be about reporting, I like what I'm being exposed to, it's just not getting me more excited about reporting. On the contrary, all of what I've been seeing makes me want to stay away from people of other races/ethnicities just so that I don't say something inappropriate and offend a possible source. Hopefully next week will be better and I'll feel like my happy-go-lucky self in the journalism world.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Listening Post 1
Note to self: work on introductions! I thought I had, but apparently my work wasn't enough. I walked in with a big smile but as I moved my mouth I saw my attempt failing big time. The first salesperson, a young person, heard what I had o say but didn't really understand and sent me to the clearance section and gave me three flyers for different Fetish Factory events. After my first failure I figured things could only get better, but not really. I managed to bomb my introduction to Jessica, another salesperson in the store (that is what I was able to deduce, but I think she's a manager or more). After two bombed introductions I decided to take a more casual approach. I roamed around the place for a little bit looking at some corsages that could help a birthday party's outfit a nice boost. I passed on to the costumes section and decided to approach a couple that had entered the place right before me. I decided to approach the lady first, Faith, and asked her if she was a regular there. She explained she usually visits one in University Dr. but that she had heard about Fetish Factory’s Halloween party and she wanted to check something out for it. The gentleman, Michael, turned out to be her best friend and they were there for him, her had not been dating in a while and she thought it would be cool for him to go back into the dating scene in the Halloween party. They were looking for outfit options for the party because in those parties you have to be in fetish attire or you won’t get in, seriously. He somehow started to hit on me and so I tried to move away from that section and into a new one and see how I could shift my luck just a little more towards the good side.
Another salesperson, the most charismatic of them all, had a shirt that revealed a very cool tattoo she had on a side of her stomach. The conversation about her tattoo happened to be the way in, and it wasn’t hard, it was truly artistic. I wasn’t able to get her name but we definitely got talking about tattoos and what kind tattoos were our favorites. She liked her tattoo artist because he was good at creating a third dimension with ink, and he definitely had talent, her tattoo was truly unique. I asked her how long had she been working in the store because she really seemed to know what she was talking about with the other customers, and especially with the kinds of products the store has knowledge doesn’t come in one day. She told me she had been working there for three years and had recently come back after leaving for one year in which she visited Vermont. Vermont! Kind of weird, right? Well, she told me about her year there, how everyone there is so hippie-ish, the lifestyle is so much more relaxed and she told me she considered it so much healthier than Miami or south Florida for that matter. Quiet interesting, never thought I’d hear that from someone with piercings, tattoos, black hair and dark make up. Looking for a place healthier than south Florida? I felt like I was in! But it is still a long way to go for me.
There was a TV broadcasting pictures from one of their signature parties, The Pervy Pool Party, which happens every second and fourth Sunday of the month. They also have other parties, which are every first and third Sunday of the month, but those are themed. The one rule about these parties, let me repeat, is to go dressed for the occasion. No jeans or shorts are allowed, neither are cameras or camera phones. The idea is for all attendants, fetish friends, to be able to go feeling secure that whatever they decide to explore will not be revealed out there for people to judge. The pictures were quite graphic and for respect for them I won’t get into many details of what I saw, but let’s call them permissible.
Jessica came back around when about 20 minutes or me roaming around. She asked me if all my questions were being answered, which made me go back to that sense of failure. Ugh! I tried to expand a little more on the reason why I was there and tried to ease it out more, but it didn’t help. So I switched the subject to Sunday’s party and what the attire would be like. I spent some more time talking to Michael and Faith and met another girl who visits Fetish Factory with her friend only to accompany him to buy whatever he may need.
I must say the experience was interesting, I did feel out of place. I have lived in many different places and so I thought it’d be easy for me to walk in and talk, but that wasn’t the case. I felt like I made them feel like a study subject and I put myself in a light of judgment or incomprehension, like as if they were truly so different from me. I wasn’t able to learn as much from them as I would have liked but in many ways I set it up that way. I figured it out quickly that I would learn more than I expected in this place and I’m hoping to be better prepared next time. I will go alone again and try another approach. Hopefully this time I’m much more successful than the first and I can learn the cool girls name, I feel like I want to hear more about Vermont, and maybe find out more about Jessica, she looked like she has been in the store for a while and she knew that the store has been open for over 14 years. Let’s just keep our hopes right.
Another salesperson, the most charismatic of them all, had a shirt that revealed a very cool tattoo she had on a side of her stomach. The conversation about her tattoo happened to be the way in, and it wasn’t hard, it was truly artistic. I wasn’t able to get her name but we definitely got talking about tattoos and what kind tattoos were our favorites. She liked her tattoo artist because he was good at creating a third dimension with ink, and he definitely had talent, her tattoo was truly unique. I asked her how long had she been working in the store because she really seemed to know what she was talking about with the other customers, and especially with the kinds of products the store has knowledge doesn’t come in one day. She told me she had been working there for three years and had recently come back after leaving for one year in which she visited Vermont. Vermont! Kind of weird, right? Well, she told me about her year there, how everyone there is so hippie-ish, the lifestyle is so much more relaxed and she told me she considered it so much healthier than Miami or south Florida for that matter. Quiet interesting, never thought I’d hear that from someone with piercings, tattoos, black hair and dark make up. Looking for a place healthier than south Florida? I felt like I was in! But it is still a long way to go for me.
There was a TV broadcasting pictures from one of their signature parties, The Pervy Pool Party, which happens every second and fourth Sunday of the month. They also have other parties, which are every first and third Sunday of the month, but those are themed. The one rule about these parties, let me repeat, is to go dressed for the occasion. No jeans or shorts are allowed, neither are cameras or camera phones. The idea is for all attendants, fetish friends, to be able to go feeling secure that whatever they decide to explore will not be revealed out there for people to judge. The pictures were quite graphic and for respect for them I won’t get into many details of what I saw, but let’s call them permissible.
Jessica came back around when about 20 minutes or me roaming around. She asked me if all my questions were being answered, which made me go back to that sense of failure. Ugh! I tried to expand a little more on the reason why I was there and tried to ease it out more, but it didn’t help. So I switched the subject to Sunday’s party and what the attire would be like. I spent some more time talking to Michael and Faith and met another girl who visits Fetish Factory with her friend only to accompany him to buy whatever he may need.
I must say the experience was interesting, I did feel out of place. I have lived in many different places and so I thought it’d be easy for me to walk in and talk, but that wasn’t the case. I felt like I made them feel like a study subject and I put myself in a light of judgment or incomprehension, like as if they were truly so different from me. I wasn’t able to learn as much from them as I would have liked but in many ways I set it up that way. I figured it out quickly that I would learn more than I expected in this place and I’m hoping to be better prepared next time. I will go alone again and try another approach. Hopefully this time I’m much more successful than the first and I can learn the cool girls name, I feel like I want to hear more about Vermont, and maybe find out more about Jessica, she looked like she has been in the store for a while and she knew that the store has been open for over 14 years. Let’s just keep our hopes right.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Journal 1
After missing the first day of class I had my reservations coming in. I had read the article on the class and heard from some classmates what the first day was like, So I was hoping I was good to go. What happened in class was nothing what I expected. I guess we live in such a world where we encounter some type of racism or categorize a new person into a stereotype everyday, but of course no one talks about them, especially not like in class. It was interesting to hear that black Americans do not consider islanders (to generalize, as we always do) as smart as them, and vice-versa. It was even more interesting to see Laura and me jump when Pico compared Colombians to Venezuelans, as if he had just insulted us. The reality is he didn't, I have family there and the cultural similarities are many. I guess I just don't like Colombia being compared politically to Venezuela and that's how it took it.
All these "discoveries" made me feel almost ok with the fact that in Colombia we love talking about the region where we're from and criticizing the other occupants of the land. The "Costeños" are the Caribbean beer-drinking bums of our culture. The "rolos" or "cachacos" (the first referring to the more current generations, the latter to the parents and grandparents) are disliked by the rest of the country because of their superiority complex due to the fact that they are from the capital, although honestly they don't help their cause. The "paisas" are looked at, for the most part, as quite not as educated as the "rolos" but everyone likes them and they like everyone, unless you give them a reason no to. The "pastusos" are the looked at as the truly uneducated portion of the population who mostly work in farms and in manual labor.
I realize it is not at all ok. I was brought up with these notions and I'm sure everyone is brought up the same way, thinking there's a group of populates of that country that is superior to the next group. We grow up thinking that our thought system is good, or at least reasonable, just because is passed down by our parents. We then pass it on to our children and the cycle goes on. Class made me realize that they shouldn't, they should end with us, not just as young adults but more so as journalists. Class helped me realize that everyone has a role, and no role is more important than the other. Watching "The Barbershop" made me think about the roles of everyone there, and even those roles that we didn't get to see but that as journalists we love looking for, police officers and government employees. What makes them more important than any other citizen? Nothing really, but yet we look to them for help, and think that everyone else is inferior to them. We use our everyday prejudice to do some of the most mediocre reporting possible. Maybe after this class I'll be able to report better and be wiser, if possible, in my thinking and my interaction with others.
All these "discoveries" made me feel almost ok with the fact that in Colombia we love talking about the region where we're from and criticizing the other occupants of the land. The "Costeños" are the Caribbean beer-drinking bums of our culture. The "rolos" or "cachacos" (the first referring to the more current generations, the latter to the parents and grandparents) are disliked by the rest of the country because of their superiority complex due to the fact that they are from the capital, although honestly they don't help their cause. The "paisas" are looked at, for the most part, as quite not as educated as the "rolos" but everyone likes them and they like everyone, unless you give them a reason no to. The "pastusos" are the looked at as the truly uneducated portion of the population who mostly work in farms and in manual labor.
I realize it is not at all ok. I was brought up with these notions and I'm sure everyone is brought up the same way, thinking there's a group of populates of that country that is superior to the next group. We grow up thinking that our thought system is good, or at least reasonable, just because is passed down by our parents. We then pass it on to our children and the cycle goes on. Class made me realize that they shouldn't, they should end with us, not just as young adults but more so as journalists. Class helped me realize that everyone has a role, and no role is more important than the other. Watching "The Barbershop" made me think about the roles of everyone there, and even those roles that we didn't get to see but that as journalists we love looking for, police officers and government employees. What makes them more important than any other citizen? Nothing really, but yet we look to them for help, and think that everyone else is inferior to them. We use our everyday prejudice to do some of the most mediocre reporting possible. Maybe after this class I'll be able to report better and be wiser, if possible, in my thinking and my interaction with others.
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