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Multi-Media Blog Summary

           This multimedia journal examines various media of multiple formats that explore race in America. The selected social media page, Not My Mascot, advocates against the common misappropriation of indigenous cultures in sports while commending the abolishment of such inaccurate depictions. The selected film, Black Panther, analyzes the situation of minorities in power and whether that power should be utilized to avenge oppressed ancestors or to promote a new world peace. Finally, the selected TV show, Black-ish, explores the retainment and adaptation of Black culture in a multicultural America, demonstrating both the common aspects and the unique distinctions of being a family of African-Americans. All three media selections challenge histories of discriminatory actions against American minorities while seeking to encourage a widespread respect among people of all races and ethnicities.

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Not Your Mascot: Combating Indigenous Misappropriations

            Not Your Mascot is a non-profit organization co-founded by Jacqueline Keeler and Tara Houska dedicated to social media activism arguing against the use of Native Americans as mascots in sports. This activism is driven by the argument that indigenous mascots misappropriate indigenous peoples. Native American depictions being used in sports paints them as violent, battle-ready peoples, though this isn’t necessarily historically accurate; the Battle of Wounded Knee, a historical example of Native battle discussed by Takaki, was a complete blowout by Whites, with little chance at intervention by the Natives. Indigenous mascots only continue the tradition of Whites claiming jurisdiction over the Natives’ culture, just as was done after the closing of the frontier. Not Your Mascot’s Twitter page, with 11.8 thousand followers, outputs a collection of tweets both from itself and fellow Native American advocates that highlight modern examples of disgraceful indigenous mascotry and the steps that are or are not being taken towards its abolishment. The page altogether reveals the unfortunate widespread normalization of artificial Native American stereotypes through sports.

            At the professional level, indigenous mascots are intercepted by massive fanbases. Not My Mascot continuously chastises the remaining pro teams who continue on with indigenous names, including the Kansas City Chiefs, Atlanta Braves, and Chicago Blackhawks, often including the teams’ handles in their tweets. Teams with such names and mascots inherently perform what the Twitter page calls “commodified prejudice.” The organization argues that the indigenous theme coerces fans into playing the role of Indian at games through wearing headdresses and performing the “Tomahawk chop,” making a spectacle out of a living culture. This is like the Couple in the Cage performance, where an alternate culture was put on display and audience members payed money for the opportunity to interact with it, thus encouraging the activity. The sports fans both intercept and egg on their teams’ indigenous themes. In this way, both teams and their loyal fans may be charged with advancing negative Native American stereotypes on a massive scale, justifying the need for the team name changes desired by Not My Mascot.

            Many of the page’s tweets also focus on local schools’ indigenous mascots. The necessity of change at this level is made to be great, as it’s described how indigenous mascots are “teaching hands-on racism in 2000+ schools.” A legitimate concern, as instilling misappropriated images in children’s minds is the surest way to continue cultural misrepresentations long-term. However, much news of institutions across America reconsidering their mascots is shared by Not My Mascot, due in part to a greater density of new changes existing to share than with professional-level sports. Petitions, school board decisions, and government legislation are often reinforced; I even saw my home state Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers recognized for budgeting to assist Wisconsin schools with race-based mascots in renaming themselves. Not Your Mascot points out not only the commonality of the indigenous mascot issue but also the commonality of positive change. Continuing this change will be vital in stimulating multicultural respect for Native Americans.

 References

Clarke, Liz. “‘End racism,’ the NFL implored. So what about the Chiefs’ name?.” Washington Post, 5 February 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/02/05/chiefs-name-tomahawk-chop-super-bowl-social-justice/.  

@NotYourMascot. Twitter, https://twitter.com/NotYourMascot.

@NotYourMascot. “.@GovEvers proposed budget includes $400,000 to help #Wisconsin school districts that still have race-based mascots transition to another nickname. #racism #NotYourMascot #ChangeTheName https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10158396446348757&id=79146833756.” Twitter, 3 March 2021, 3:12 pm, https://twitter.com/NotYourMascot/status/1367221393998422017.

@NotYourMascot. “Race-based athletic identities in schools solidify racist ideas in children. Misrepresentation is a huge part of the foundation of the systemic racism. The whole infrastructure of teaching children hands-on #racism in 2000+ schools is disturbing. #RacismIsAPublicHealthCrisis.” Twitter, 25 August 2020, 12:03 pm, https://twitter.com/NotYourMascot/status/1298304902041673730.

@NotYourMascot. “This should be final season people of @KCMO tolerate the @Chiefs name. Kansas City, Missouri is a good city with good people. It doesn't deserve to be held back by commodified prejudice.” Twitter, 7 February 2021, 9:11 pm, https://twitter.com/NotYourMascot/status/1358614289809047554.

Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston, Little, Brown and Company. 1993.

“The Couple in the Cage.” YouTube, uploaded by Ivan Eusebio Aguirre Daranou, 30 Sept 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv26tDDsuA8&t=3s. 

@zhaabowekwe. “Boom. Another one bites the dust. We’re people, #NotYourMascot.” Twitter, 13 December 2020, 8:47 pm, https://twitter.com/zhaabowekwe/status/1338314622030503943. 

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Black Panther: Examining Interracial Power

           Black Panther is a movie set in the fictional African country of Wakanda, a land long hidden from outsiders but quite rich with vibranium, an extremely powerful metal which fuels great internal technological advancements. The film follows the new king, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), a humble young royal in possession of the powers of the Black Panther who takes the throne after the unexpected death of his father. Acting as antagonist is Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), nephew of the former king who was left behind in America as a child after his father committed crimes against Wakanda. After seeing the suffering Black people endure in the real world, he wishes to claim the throne and use Wakanda’s hidden abundance of vibranium to arm Blacks all over the world and empower them to overthrow their oppressors. Killmonger’s appearance prompts T’Challa to reconsider his inherited power, and he comes to realize that Wakanda’s strength should be used to aid the rest of the world and promote peace. Black Panther is indeed an examination of the use of power, particularly considering violent versus peaceful tactics in combating historical discrimination.

           In the film, Killmonger represents the lust of a victimized people for revenge. He recognizes the history of oppression of Black people in America through slavery, unfair incarceration by police, and assassinations. We know this isn’t isolated to Blacks; Takaki discusses how through history similar techniques were applied to cage in many American minorities: Blacks, Indians, Chinese-Americans, and Mexican-Americans, and render them as pawns in the hands of White supremacists. With a Malcolm X-like philosophy, Killmonger’s solution is to arm his people using vibranium weapons and encourage retaliation. This is the movie’s antagonist idea. T’Challa chastises Killmonger, “You have become [your enemies],” arguing that the solution to violence is not a violent uprising; this simply creates new oppressors and even more of the oppressed. No social problem may be fully reconciled in this way.

           T’Challa contrasts Killmonger as an embodiment of peace and humility. He expresses belief that those with the capability to save people should do so, shown in his choosing to bring the ailing White CIA Agent Ross to Wakanda to heal him, despite the inherent breach in security. This is a great display of interracial compassion, one that reveals T’Challa’s nature as humane and unoccupied by Killmonger’s antagonize-the-oppressor philosophy. The Dr. King to Killmonger’s Malcolm X, T’Challa throughout the movie comes to adopt a non-violent position of utilizing Wakanda’s power and technology for good around the world through establishing outreach programs to provide opportunity to the oppressed. This brings to mind Judy Baca, who also utilizes the powerful double-edged resource of modern technology within her mural lab to give voices to the underprivileged and promote multicultural acceptance. Like her, T’Challa desires to use his power to promote peace among all. He closes Black Panther stating that the people of the world must act “as if we were one single tribe.” In working with modern real-world cultural divisions, this method may be revolutionary.

References

Black Panther. Directed by Ryan Coogler, performances by Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, and Danai Gurira, Marvel Studios, 2018.

Latorre, Guisela and Sandoval, Chela. “Chicana/o Artivism: Judy Baca’s Digital Work with Youth of Color.” Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital Media, edited by Anna Everett, The MIT Press, 2008.

Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston, Little, Brown and Company. 1993.

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Black-ish: Clarifying Black Culture

           Black-ish is a sitcom about an upper-class Black family of six living in a White neighborhood. The main character is the father, Andre Johnson (Anthony Anderson), a hardworking, charismatic family-man who came from humble beginnings in the hood of Compton. The show focuses on Andre’s attempts to keep his household happy and promote the Black culture within his household in spite of being surrounded by White people, a premise reminiscent of the culture-retainment and identity-formation discussions in my Art 150 course. Each episode focuses on various Black culture and/or family-related topics and represents a new development of Andre’s ideologies as the two intersect. As a whole, Black-ish promotes a positive identity of the typical Black family as culturally unique but not too disparate from other cultures’ families.

            Many episodes of Black-ish focus solely on family issues. Some of the series’ early familial topics include the awkwardness of “the talk,” the parental roles of Mom as an “unsung hero” and Dad as a “sung hero,” and the question of spanking versus not spanking, topics many regardless of race would be familiar with. The most relatable family episode personally was “The Gift of Hunger,” where Andre realizes he spoils his kids and forces them to fast and get jobs, teaching them work ethic. I can relate to this as my upbringing involved required chores, something I hated but can see the practical effects of now. In this manner, Black-ish normalizes Black families using common issues that anyone of any race, like myself, can personally relate to.

            Black-ish also considers Black culture in a modern White society. The “Pilot” episode is the densest in this regard. Scenes at Andre’s mixed workplace act as a test tube for Black-White interactions, revealing modern misreads of Black culture by Whites. Andre’s White coworker Josh manifests this in his first appearance, asking Andre for business purposes “how a Black guy would say ‘good morning?’” to which Andre quips, “Probably just like that.” Josh’s misperception of disconnect is the result of widespread decade-long illusions of Black disparity, particularly due to degrading difference-emphasizing cartoons (below) and media, as discussed in Harris’s documentary. This moment in the show challenges these illusions, suggesting Blacks aren’t so far from Whites as they’ve been made to seem.

           Black-ish further promotes the uniqueness and importance of Black culture through Andre’s resistance to assimilation. In “Pilot,” Andre agonizes over his son Andre Jr.’s culturally assimilating with his White friends at school through joining field hockey, taking the nickname “Andy,” and declaring the desire to channel Judaism and have a bar mitzvah. Andre’s opposition reflects that of the American Indians, who through Whites’ reservation education lost a sense of cultural identity through forced assimilation, as discussed in Takaki’s book. Andre, wanting to compromise for his family, assumes an approach of cultural adaptation, injecting Black hip-hop into his son’s wild “Bro Mitzvah.” This is an intersecting of two cultures that demonstrates that even as a minority, the Black culture can still shine out and shouldn’t be forgotten.

References

Barris, Kenya, creator. Black-ish, season 1, episodes 1-8. ABC, 2014.

Harris, Thomas. “Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (2014).” Youtube, uploaded by Family Pictures USA, 19 June 2020,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THZWSexAjgk.

Mitchell, Aric. “5 Most Racist Cartoons Ever.” Forever Geek, 6 December 2013, https://www.forevergeek.com/5-racist-cartoons-ever/.

Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston, Little, Brown and Company. 1993.