Week 2 Presentations

So for this week we actually got through 4/5 presentations which is pretty good in my opinion.

I thought the two presentations on colorblindness was an interesting concept. My other class, Society and Technology; we have briefly gone over the idea of colorblind racism in which people chose to ignore race as something that was a fact about life to ensure that they weren’t being racist, but at the same time, this also meant that the social racial injustices that certain group members were inflicted with were also ignored in the process.

We talked about how people that are racially ignored in the Census that don’t fit into any race or ethnicity listed would reflect how the government itself doesn’t acknowledge their presences/existence, thus they would not qualify for health care benefits, financial aid, or funding for their groups if needed. There is inequality in among certain groups of people depending on what they consider themselves as. Feminists and the LGBT organizations face the same injustices as colorblind racism in which they are denied certain rights or benefits based on their identity. It’s an unfair world which we live in and watching the video on how the kids medical report came in to make a claim about his actions was grasping at straws to convict what appears to be an innocent teen facing racial injustice. I understand for the sake of exhausting all options and making a clear objective conclusion they provide all pieces of evidence, but in contrast it’s a contradiction to find an objective answer in my opinion, since the people we hold to a higher standard inadvertently create the standards are subjective to their own personal beliefs and personal experiences to make their own conclusions about an objective situation.

The easier way of saying all of that is that scientist have their own moral code and personal belief they fall under. They’re humans just like us that have lived their own life and have/have not been subjected to racism in their own way and beyond racism themselves, they choose to present their findings in a certain way understanding/or not understanding the ethical/racial ramifications it holds to their audience.

As for learning about vlogging, I know that its a very popular medium in which people within the digital media age use frequently to communicate to an audience on a larger scale. I think defining and understand what is vlogging, what is the criteria, how does it differ depending on the type of vlogging, what is the subject of vlogging and who is involved in vlogging are all points to hit on and clarify in the presentation or final paper/media project. I would like to know how it’s going to relate to the class readings (since I don’t remember all of the presentation) and make sure that those are clearly outlined in the project. It’s an interesting concept, but I guess also connect the benefits and negative outcomes from vlogging itself since the topic is very broad in its own way.

Presentations

I think my favorite presentation was Rebecca’s Online Dating for Eastern Asians. It was really interesting to see these tropes manifested in real cases. I mean I am biologically asian, but I identify as American based off the culture that I grew up in and seeing these sad and petty racist notions of how asians should act and allow those to be excuses for how they act is demeaning. I didn’t know how aggressive and widespread the treatment of these stereotypes existed. Such as the person claiming they could get away with inappropriate behavior because they felt “immersed in the culture” when visiting some asian country I don’t remember.

Online dating is new form that has recently surfaced as social media continued to grow and it doesn’t surprise me that there are asian dating sites since there are plenty of dating sites. Not to mention there are more specific weird dating sites out there; Farmers, catlovers, etc. So asian dating sites are more common, but I guess it surprises me that those that participate as a customer on the site don’t expect this treatment. I’m not saying there isn’t any excuse for the behavior, but I wouldn’t be blind about the stereotypes out there of those that lurk on the internet. People that are even a little internet savvy know through mouth or whispers that there are certain parts of the internet they don’t explore because the shocking, horrifying, and sometimes gross parts of society are celebrated and shared. But in contrast, that’s the dangers of giving an anonymous identity. They create a new face that can either parallel or differ from their offline image.

People complain and are surprised about the weird people that lurk on Tindr that make corny or tasteless techniques to further an intimate relationship, but some people are more conscious of these dangers and still participate in the applications service for, what some people look for, self esteem booster.

Victoria’s presentation was relevant to what we are studying since it’s women and video games. The video she presented was actually a clip and a source I am using in our presentation. Anita is well known for her critiques in the video game industry concerning women. I was a little confused on the focus of the presentation since women and video games has some prominent debates, but very wide variety of topics to choose from. For ours, we are critiquing on how sexism affects the players, the creators, and the industry in specifically three games; Dragon Age, World of Warcraft, and League of Legends. Sex sells as a general standpoint and draws the audience and it is not short for the industry of MOBA’s. In League of Legends being a “Free-to-Play” model makes its money in micro-transactions. I was surprised by the women in the video game industry make careers in the graphic design focus, which ironically enough my current job and a potential career I am hoping for is working in the video game industry with those skills they are apparently needed for women in the industry. Makes me feel a little bit better : )

Current News

In this article it touches on the topic of Police Brutality and the incorporation of technology that help bystanders and citizens to bring truth to viewers. Several people have come up with different types of applications that will provide bystanders and citizens with the proper tools that can help catch these acts of violence in the moment.

Darren Baptiste, creator of Cop Watch, created an app that records a video and will instantly upload to video to youtube after releasing the record button. The reason for having instant upload time is because police will sometimes confiscate cameras with sensitive information pertaining to themselves.

In our Society and Technology class we talk about how police brutality can been seen post Hurricane Katrina. In Spike Lee’s Documentary “When the Levees Broke”, a photo shows cops walking out of a convenience store with DVD’s not concerned with the tragic events that have fallen. On the other side, they show the cops having a showdown with some local citizens who are locked in a store while the press covers them as criminals and stopping a “robbery”. Which I don’t think is justified as a crime because at this point, the government and police authority are preventing you to survive as a human being. To me those would be food, water, and shelter in order to survive. In this scenario, they stopped citizens who were trying to eat due the increase of chaos and lack of outside help in order to survive until help was on their way.

Documentation of police brutality and reformation in government authority protocols have been in change over the years as videos surfaced showing a more brutal side of the justice field. For example the demonstrations and protests of “Black Lives Matter” sparked another re-occurrence with the police.

The Obama administration has even started considering issuing their police uniforms with cameras installed into them for research and review of outside parties. If citizens don’t know they’re being filmed is this a violation of their rights and who has access to the information that is recorded on these cameras? If citizens are in a public space they have the right to videotape what they see and their are many people that support this idea since police have been telling others to stop recording of activities.