veronicawaszak - Tumblr blog

[veronicawaszak]

Multimedia Journal Entry #3

For this journal entry I will be discussing my TV show selection, “Finding Your Roots”, the whole purpose of this show is to teach varying celebrities and media figures about their family history and genetics through DNA research and written records (PBS, 2023). In this course the exposure we’ve had towards racial and ethnic identities has been through people and organizations that are aware of theirs, and this TV show is the opposite of that. This show is more so about the process of learning than the act of teaching, and I think that is different from the way that other varying media surrounding race and ethnicity operate. For most members this is the first deep dive they’ve taken into their personal history, so instead of them teaching us about their cultural differences and complicated yet interesting racial and ethnic identity/backgrounds, we are learning along with them. 

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. [digital photograph]. (2020).

As a young adult, when I think of popular visual media I automatically go to what my generation finds popular, but that leaves out large groups of people. My parents, along with many grown adults, are absolutely captivated by this show, and most times it is these groups of people who may have outdated opinions towards race, ethnicity, and historical “facts” so shows like this are more impactful than they seem on the surface. Something else this show does with popular visual culture is have the guests themselves be from popular media. Incorporating popular figures in media, television, and music catches peoples eyes and the show ends up using this to teach about what truly makes a person. 

People are a culmination of their race, ethnicity, sexuality, socioeconomic class, gender, and much more, and “Finding Your Roots” manages to incorporate all of these. This show exemplifies the intersectionality of all of these things, and more, by exploring the life of their past relatives, where they lived, worked, and who they were around by showing written records and historical photos. The show also makes use of individual situations to reflect on broader events happening at the time, such as slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, immigration laws, or war movements for example. This show demonstrates how one's ethnicity, sexuality, who they marry, their economic status and employment, and their race combine to create the person sitting at the table. “Finding Your Roots” is one of the only shows to explore how all aspects of a person and their history are integral to forming a strong identity in this way.

Finding Your Roots. (2023). Season 9 Promotion [digital collage]. Finding Your Roots Returns To PBS.

I would like to relate this back to the course material in three different ways. The first way is through the very first week of class, where we took the Identity Statements Quiz, and wrote about what we thought multiculturalism was. People going into the show are there because they don’t know these things about themselves and their history, they have low exposure to what multiculturalism means in their lives and what their identity could truly be, just like those taking this class. The second way is through Week 14 and the concept of being post-racial. Apollon’s article clearly states that race is still a topic of interest, and of importance. This show is on the cutting edge of that because they have white guests as well, both men and women which helps grow the idea that white people are included in this “ethnicity and race” conversation (see season 9 promotion picture). People want to learn how to be accurate and respectful when discussing race, and “Finding Your Roots” helps with that by displaying how to properly have conversations involving race, ethnicity, and science without being degrading or manipulative. The final connection I would like to make is to week 13, about representing every part of oneself. Saulny’s article explores this topic by talking about the life experiences of people who are multiracial and the struggles of identity. In an age of growing interest and appreciation of multiculturalism, shows like this allow people to be knowledgeable about themselves so that they can either begin to, or continue to, express themselves fully. “Finding Your Roots” helps people prevent hiding parts of themselves that were integral to their history and identity creation. And a final, much broader connection to the course, is that the majority of stories are supported by various photographs which we have explored deeply. 

Here is a link to the Season 10 extended trailer (the newest season) !

Citations

Apollon, D. (2011, June 7). Don’t call them “post-racial.” millennials say race matters to them. Colorlines. https://colorlines.com/article/dont-call-them-post-racial-millennials-say-race-matters-them/ 

Finding Your Roots. (2023). Season 9 Promotion [digital collage]. Finding Your Roots Returns To PBS. https://genealogybargains.com/finding-your-roots-returns-to-pbs-catch-season-9-starting-january-3-2023/ 

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.[digital photograph]. (2020). ‘Finding Your Roots’: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on the Political Importance of His PBS Series. https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/finding-your-roots-henry-louis-gates-jr-interview-1234592979/ 

Public Broadcasting Service. (n.d.). Finding Your Roots. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/show/finding-your-roots/ 

Saulny, S. (2011, January 29). Black? White? Asian? More Young Americans Choose All of the Above . New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/us/30mixed.html

[veronicawaszak]

Multimedia Journal Entry #2

The film of my choice was a documentary titled “Stamped from the Beginning” which is on Netflix, and was based off of the book “Stamped from the Beginning” by Ibram X Kendi. Documentaries themselves innately disrupt cultures of silence through education and facilitating conversations, and this one was no different. Documentaries provoke community discussion, forcing people to confront topics and issues rather than just listen or learn about them. Some of these conversations will hopefully lead to continued action, self awareness, and even further conversations with a broader audience (iTVS, 2020). “Stamped from the Beginning” explores the persistence and origins of racist ideas in America towards Black people. 

Stamped from the Beginning. (2023). Untitled [Digital image]. Netflix.

One main way I noticed that this documentary generated a conversation regarding race was through mentioning past situations and perspectives, and how they translate into today. One topic this documentary mentioned was how police brutality is the modern day lynching. Lynching obviously is no longer a common practice here in America, but police brutality is. By taking a historic topic and merging it with something everyone is familiar with today facilitates conversation because people can easily contribute through personal experiences and opinions instead of needing to rely on historical knowledge to say something relevant. It was not only historic and current topics that were spliced together, but images/videos as well. Clips from Ku Klux Klan meetings were sandwiched between Trump rallies and January 6th protests (timestamp 16:35) forcing people to become aware of the parallels. The KKK is widely known for their aversion to cultural differences, integration, and anything not strictly all-white supporting, and placing that in the same context as the political environment of just a few short years ago demonstrates how in many ways that same aversion to cultural diversity runs rampant in America. 

This documentary opened by asking interviewees what exactly is wrong with Black people, which obviously resulted in a resounding “nothing” but that question was not asked to generate a direct answer, but more so to initiate critical thinking about baseless racism towards Black people. Something else viewers were meant to realize is how history has been warped by the white view (Abraham Lincoln for example, timestamp 48:55) and how the Black past needs to be confirmed by a credible source before it becomes believable (Phillis Wheatley, a Black poet, for example, timestamp 25:02). This opens the doors for conversations about how racial and ethnic identity can control what narratives you are able to spread, and how they also can dictate what status in society someone has.

I thought weeks two and three were the best match in terms of course readings and screenings to relate back to this media selection because they explored multiculturalism through pictures, and their elements. Mirzoeff uses an example of O.J. Simpson to demonstrate how a shadow archive can implicitly connote that skin color and crime rates can be connected (a point also made in the documentary). Part of that discussion was also how indexical capacity is important to American visual culture. This documentary, in my opinion, did an admirable job using the indexical capacity of photos and videos incorporated to showcase real moments in history, all while coupling them with overlaid dialogue which ushered viewers into the right headspace. Leaving room for personal interpretation is crucial when forming open lines of communication and this documentary did that by using photos and videos to provide not an explanation, but a starting point for critical reflection. 

I’d also like to relate this documentary back to Romare Beardon, and more specifically my artist selection for week 8, John Bankston. This documentary used a lot of mixed media styles, one of those choices being pictures and videos in the form of moving drawings/paintings. This reminded me of how Bankston used a “coloring book” type style to explore heavy themes such as racism and gender roles. Beardon used collage style paintings to transform Classic stories into something more widely applicable, using Black people and culture as a base. Similarly, this documentary took well known historical narratives and used a creative art style to retell them from the Black American point of view.

Here are 3 images for comparison

Beardon, R. (1969). Sunday After Sermon [collage on cardboard]. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

Bankston, J. (1963). Red Turtle [oil painting on linen]. Privately owned.

Stamped from the Beginning. (2023). Untitled [Digital image]. Netflix.

Citations

Bankston, J. (1963). Red Turtle [oil painting on linen]. Privately owned. 

Beardon, R. (1969). Sunday After Sermon [collage on cardboard]. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

Stamped from the Beginning. (2023). Untitled [Digital image]. Netflix. 

What role do documentaries play in conversations about race?. ITVS. (2020, October 12). https://itvs.org/blog/what-role-do-documentaries-play-in-conversations-about-race/ 

Williams, R (Director). 2023. Stamped from the Beginning [Film]. One Story Up Productions. 

[veronicawaszak]

Multimedia Journal Entry #1

For this first question I chose to use my internet/social media selection which is TikTok because I feel like the first question is so broad and encompassing, and so is TikTok. There is so much content on this app, and its open platform allows infinitely different people to contribute. On their own website TikTok published a statement in 2020 that introduces the creation of a “Creator Diversity Collective which brings people from different backgrounds together to help ensure diversity, inclusion, and representation in our programs and on our platform” (Pappas & Chikumbu, 2020). There’s also a section about celebrating Black voices in our communities, which is hugely important as there have been allegations that TikTok prioritizes its white creators over everyone else. 

This relates directly to the topics we started discussing in week 4 “Talking About Whiteness”; this could be one of those things that became suggested as a potential addition to the McIntosh checklist, the ability to be freely and equally represented in media. One of Dryer's points, also from that week, was that non-white people need to be more heavily represented so that white people stop being placed in a position that gives the illusion of built in authority, and if this accusation/perception is correct, it needs to be changed. Some people have noticed that Black creators have videos taken down more frequently, fewer payments being made for content creation, and videos showing up lower in the search queries compared to their white counterparts (Joseph, 2021). And with TikTok being the palace where just under a third of American adults claim to get their news, it would be highly beneficial to promote all creators so that the news being received is not skewed (Matsa, 2023). 

However, there are good sides to this social media platform too, it has become an ever-growing center for social activism, hugely with the Black Lives Matter movement. During the height of BLM, TikTok offered an outlet to share live moments to a larger audience than ever before, and a space for users to speak candidly about their hopes, fears, and reality (Janfaza, 2020). A lot of which can be connected back to the entire unit on Civil Rights as many of the issues being faced today are continuations from that movement (which I won't go into detail about as that was the goal of the previous project and would be repetitive). 

Another thing that TikTok has done well with is that in tandem with providing a platform to ignite activism, it also finally allows people to educate a large population of people about the differences between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation. One good video I came across is from the creator “okaywendyy” which explains the differences between the two with some examples. Another video I came across was from Damian Etsitty where he becomes immersed in Native culture with the help of an actual Native American, and this video made me think about the screening and reading we did about the “Couple in the Cage”, a performance that was a representation of the continuous misrepresentation and inappropriate exhibition of native populations in media. TikTok offers a way for Native populations to write their own narrative, which also connects back to week 6 “Circling the Cross: Bridging Native American”. Antonio Lopez had an article in that week's readings that talked about media literacy and education in the Native American community, and I think he would be pleased with this application of technology.  

However, the TikTok creator that I chose to follow was the user “florida.florian” who educates his followers about Romani culture and history. The reason I chose this creator was because I felt his style fit nicely with the whole message of this class, both on the technical visuals side, and the cultural side. He uses art in the form of photographs and videos to showcase how in America Romani culture and history are misrepresented and taken advantage of (which ties into the privilege and power aspects of this course) but also to educate (which ties into the differences in multicultural America) This creator serves as an example of how TikTok can open doors for people of color to finally be the ones who share their stories, feelings, and advice. For an example, the video I will be attaching will be about the fashion world’s misuse of traditional cultural dress.

Citations

Janfaza, R. (2020, June 4). TikTok serves as hub for #blacklivesmatter activism | CNN politics. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/04/politics/tik-tok-black-lives-matter/index.html  

Joseph, S. (2021, March 22). “the situation is the same as it was last year”: Black creators say Tiktok’s problems with race and diversity persist. Digiday. https://digiday.com/marketing/the-situation-is-the-same-as-it-was-last-year-black-creators-say-tiktoks-problems-with-race-and-diversity-persist/  

Matsa, K. E. (2023, November 15). More Americans are getting news on Tiktok, bucking the trend seen on most other social media sites. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/15/more-americans-are-getting-news-on-tiktok-bucking-the-trend-seen-on-most-other-social-media-sites/  

Pappas, V., & Chikumbu, K. (2020, June 24). Progress report: How we’re supporting Black Communities and promoting ... https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/progress-report-how-were-supporting-black-communities-and-promoting-diversity-and-inclusion/