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By Anna
It is in American nature to hang on to the curtails of bureaucracy. What we don’t know doesn’t matter, except when the media says it does. In the case of this Twin Cities news clip the media reinforces the long standing racism and classism of society from its white privilege view of East Phillips in Minneapolis.
What reinforces racism in this clip:
- After dark = safe. Jody reports live in East Phillips at 10 p.m., yet the shots of the neighborhood throughout the news clip are only during the day. They wanted to show her live in order to reinforce that the neighborhood is safe after dark, but she’s not going anywhere and the news truck is probably right in front of her. I’d feel awful safe at 10 p.m. anywhere in the Twin Cities with a camera crew too.
- Crime = Black thugs. Forty-five seconds into the clip Jody says the block club was started to “combat crime” as the camera jumps to three black kids walking down the street in baggy clothes. Only reinforcing the fact that surely if they are black and wearing baggy clothes they are criminals.
- Block clubs are not new to combating crime. The report makes block clubs look like new ideas, yet the Banyan Community block club has been around for a decade and has contributed all along to the decrease in crime.
Though the report is news, it is not helping with issues of race and class. Of course the editor cutting the clip was focused on time, it is difficult to combat racism and classism when people in the media are not aware of the stigmas they present. Viewing media from a lower class and different race’s perspective is imperative in understanding in an effort to change your view of race. We must all, at least a little, take on the role of black spectatorship.
By Ryan
I apologize for the lack of columns as of late; I just moved into a new place, and the entire process was pretty taxing in terms of time. That said, I should be putting out stuff more regularly now that I’m all settled in. And what better way to come back than by getting to digest this story?
Chuck E Cheese character groped breast, suit says
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
04/30/2009
ST. LOUIS COUNTY • A woman has filed a lawsuit against Chuck E Cheese, claiming the beloved mouse character at a child-theme restaurant put his paws where they didn’t belong.
Jennifer Sorbello, 22, of Arnold, filed the suit Tuesday in St. Louis County Circuit Court, accusing a man dressed in the mascot costume, William Thigpen, of groping her breast.
The suit says it happened Aug. 2, 2008, at the restaurant at 720 South County Center Way.
“He looked at her, reached out, grabbed her breast and moved along,” said Mark Potashnick, Sorbello’s attorney. “Her jaw dropped in shock and disgust.”
Her stepfather captured in incident in a photo but didn’t know it until after they reviewed the pictures, the lawyer said.
Sorbello accuses Thigpen and the restaurant of assault, battery and discrimination in public accommodation. She’s asking for unspecified compensation, including punitive damages and attorney’s costs.
Potashnick said his client did not know Thigpen.
Thigpen and officials with the restaurant’s parent company, CEC Entertainment of Irving, Texas, could not be reached for comment.
According to the suit, Thigpen was greeting patrons when he touched Sorbello.
“As a direct result of Thigpen’s conduct,” the suit reads. “(Sorbello) has been damaged in the form of emotional distress and humiliation.”
To the woman brining this suit forward:
Emotional distress and humiliation!? Listen, whatever you felt in those few moments when a man in a mouse costume grabbed your breast-and I sympathize with how degrading that would be-I promise you that it will pale in comparison to living the rest of your public life as “the woman who was gropped by and sued Chuck E Cheese.” It’s like you don’t even know about the internet! We live for this kind of stuff. This story will not die! There are already 200 comments on the original article, and tons of links on popular blogs, including USA Today’s website. What’s more embarrassing-having some perv touch you in public or having some perv touch you in public and then having millions of people read about it? I hate to question you after what you went through, but your actions here are pretty questionable.
To the man in the Chuck E Cheese costume:
Have you no shame? Oh wait, obviously you don’t, you work at Chuck E fucking Cheese. And not even servicing the skee ball machines or making the nasty-ass pizza; no, you my friend get to wear the costume and “greet patrons,” which you saw as an opening for copping a feel. You disgust me almost as much as the aforementioned pizza.
To the stepfather:
Why are you at Chuck E Cheese with your 22-year-old stepdaughter? And taking pictures of it! You’re a douche.
To Heather Ratcliffe:
Well done, my friend. Well done.
By Ryan
No where do things happen faster than on the internet. I can honestly remember being 14 years old, hearing a news story, and developing some sort of reaction to it, and, inevitably, some newspaper or magazine would run a column in that same vein a few days or weeks later. This was how it worked. To quote Dan Bejar, “Your backlash was right where I wanted you!” That is to say that there was a time when people had a chance to think about things on their own before hearing other people’s opinions on them.
Flash forward to now when, thanks almost entirely to the internet, backlash is instantaneous. You read about a band from Columbia called Vampire Weekend in Spin? Blog commenters have already dismissed them. Barack Obama just won the Iowa Caucus? The cable news networks have been dissecting John Edwards’s missteps for hours already. You don’t hear news anymore, you hear reactions. In early 2008, I was proposing to anyone who would listen that the backlash to the backlash was the new backlash. That is, people make up their minds about things right as they happen, make crazy statements, and then have to reevaluate them at a later time.
Take the Nadal-Federer Wimbledon final last summer for example. Even as it was happening I got a text message from a friend asking “Greatest tennis match ever?” Let’s be clear: none of my friends like tennis. The only explanation was that they had read about the match as it was happening online, and the coverage had been so over-the-top that they had actually tuned in to watch, then wanted to jump onboard with the “greatest ever” hyperbole. When the match finally ended, everyone and their mom was talking about how it was clearly the best tennis match ever, only to be followed immediately by old-timers and insiders proclaiming it to be “not even close.” Whatever the match was, I have a feeling that stories that came out later that month, year, and so on had/will have a better assessment when they use phrases like “one of the best matches ever” in light of our overreactions being brought to light.
It’s something about how obsessive we’ve become about…everything. We hear/see/read/taste/smell/feel something and make bold claims about it immediately without really taking any time for discernment, and it’s a real problem. I don’t pretend to have any ideas on how to fix this because, admittedly, I love to read the first round of backlash much more than the second round; there’s something exciting about all of us reacting together. And maybe that’s it-we need the universal experience of the first response, if only so we can better figure out how to make a solid judgment on where we differ so that we can craft a healthy second response. Because, trust me, it’s only a matter of time before the backlash to the backlash to the backlash is the new backlash. And no one wants that.
Compiled by Ryan
The links:
-This article about NBC’s upcoming Parks and Recreation is a little inside baseball, but it’s interesting if only for the sense of concern about early test screenings of the pilot.
-If you have some free time this weekend, you may want to check out The A.V. Club’s 10 best Simpsons episodes from the last five years, complete with video of full-episodes.
-Dinosaur Jr. have a new album coming out, and judging from the fact that it’s Dinosaur Jr., it’s going to be great. Peep the great album art:
-Sunset Rubdown are also prepping a new record, only they went the “damned awful” -route with their artwork:
-This NY Times Op-Ed piece about personalities as hedgehogs and foxes (with a focus on the financial and media worlds) is a pretty good read.
-Favorite headline of the week: “Is Antarctica Getting Too Popular?” Let the record show that I liked Antarctica before it was cool. And I’m still not sure it’s all that cool.
The YouTube highlights:
I’ve been a longtime supporter of the Kidz Bop serious for obvious reasons. While the latest video doesn’t match the excitement of earlier efforts (Asian kid at 2:37 of “Since U Been Gone“), it does feature another wildly-misappropriated-for-Kidz-Bop song in Pink’s “So What”:
If you haven’t seen the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are yet, you’ve really got to visit the internet more often. Even if you have, it’s worth re-watching:
Also on the trailer front, Taking Woodstock, directed by Ang Lee and staring Demetri Martin:
New music spotlight:
Dan Deacon – Bromst
Long a cool kid’s secret, Dan Deacon burst onto the (relatively) big-time scene in 2007 with the wonderful Spiderman of the Rings, a record so irresistible that it drove legions of hipsters to dance. Because we all do that cool kids don’t dance for nothing! Or whatever. Bromst is a less immediately rewarding record than its predecessor, but that doesn’t mean it’s anything less than stellar:
Dan Deacon – “Snookered” from Bromst, out now on Carpark
The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
I’m not a big Decemberists fan; I enjoyed Crane Wife, but even that grew old. I usually have a soft spot for vocalists that others would consider annoying, but for some reason, Collin Meloy just irks the hell out of me. Still, I’d rather listen to this than 99% of the music you listen to. (Me 1, general internet audience [mostly my friends and family] 0) The Hazards of Love is conceived as a rock opera of sorts, and, well, I expect to see a lot of “EPIC FAIL” feedback from the online community on this one. Like I said, Meloy works best in smaller, less bombastic doses. There’s a few decent songs here, however, and I’ve no doubt that hardcore fans will enjoy it:
The Decemberists – “The Rake Song” from The Hazards of Love, out now on Capitol
Swan Lake – Enemy Mine
If you hate the incestuous Canadian indie scene, now would be the time to look away. Swan Lake is Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes, Blackout Beach), Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes), and Dan Bejar (Destroyer, The New Pornographers, Hello Blue Roses). Enemy Mine is their second album, and, they claim, more collaborative than their first. It may sound more cohesive, but each songwriter contributes three songs, and every song has that writer’s musically-talented fingerprints all over it. Thanks to the good folks at Jagjaguwar, I’ll give you a taste of all three (Mercer, Krug, Bejar, respectively, and note that you can download these tunes for free by visiting the above link):
Swan Lake – “Spanish Gold, 2044″ from Enemy Mine, out now on Jagjaguwar
Swan Lake – “A Hand At Dusk” from Enemy Mine, out now on Jagjaguwar
Swan Lake – “Spider” from Enemy Mine, out now on Jagjaguwar
By Anna
In the 1940s if you were poor, you didn’t know it. Or so says my grandpa, who was nine when his family first got a record player and 16 when they first got a car. They didn’t have a bathroom in their house, but no one else in the neighborhood did either.
It wasn’t until the golden age of media and the first televised commercial in 1941 that people started to realize how others lived and how they could have the American Dream like everyone else because it was in their Manifest Destiny.
Even children growing up in the poorest regions of Cambodia watch TV, even if it’s only once a week huddled in a small hut with 40 other people. They know who Barack Obama is and have as much hope in him helping them as we do. They also know it is cool to be thin if you’re a female and muscular if you’re a male.
Though the media has caused those in poverty to know they’re in poverty and has influenced my generation’s daily patterns and thoughts, it has also informed us that there is poverty in Cambodia and that wars, genocide and famine are occurring in Africa today. Perhaps we would know of these events without the media, but we would most likely be unaware of the hundreds of non-profits going to help those in need. In fact, non-profits would not exist to the extent they do today without the media.
Take the media with its pros and cons, its Bill O’Reillys and its Jim Cramers. But remember discernment and remember the poor, who, though they may have a television, do not have AIDS medication or a bathroom. Represent yourself beyond what the media says you are and in doing so provide for those less fortunate.
