Found here.
race/ethnicity
The U.S. population is becoming less and less overwhelmingly white. Projections suggest that, by 2050, whites will compromise less than half of the population. This trend, according to the New York Times today, is being driven by our kids. Below, a map shows the percentage of non-white children in each state of the Union.
Among other things interesting to me about this discussion is the tendency to compare the proportion of the population that is “white” with the proportion of the population that is “not white.” This reinforces the notion that white is somehow pure and important, and everything else is just… something else. While some say that we will no longer be a “white nation” (for better or worse) when whites are outnumbered by non-whites, whites will still be the majority insofar as the non-white group is comprised of an incredibly diverse group of people by race, ethnicity, and immigration-status.
Here at Sociological Images, we’re interested in how our standards of beauty are based on a European (that is, light-skinned and straight-haired) ideal. See here and here for examples. A reader pointed out that Syesha Mercado, a contestant on American Idol, has been progressively de-ethnicized.
Here is a photo of Syesha from early in the competition:
Here is a photo of her from this week (end of April):
Am I the only one who thinks she looked prettier before?
However, the stylists have thus far let the white kid keep his dreads:
Thanks for pointing this out, pj!
Kate N. pointed us towards this article in the New York Times today discussing 25 years of Marines recruitment aimed at women. Below is the content of their slide show.
1976:
1978:
1980:
1984:
1988:
1995:
1995:
2000:
2000:
The article says that the Marines have only recently began a concerted attempt to recruit women. Does anyone have any information about the shift in the racial targeting? Or is that just an artifact of the slide show?
Thanks so much for the tip, Kate!
Also in military recruitment: which military would you join?, the homefront, and war as entertainment.
.
Marcello sent us this really fascinating example of political propaganda from an anti-immigrant party in Italy. He translated the text as:
They suffered immigration
Now they live in reserves
Think about it
The implication is, if they let immigrants into Italy, the current residents will suffer the same fate as American Indians.
Marcello writes:
Beside the obvious racist concept i think it’s quite ironic that they identify
themselves with people they would probably discriminate [against] if they ever
met any american-native people here in italy and the fact that they criminalize
the role that the very same “western civilization” they stand for (against the
“bastardization of culture from muslim heretics”, their words, not mine) played
in the american-native genocide.
Original post, by Marcello, here. Thanks!
.
Toothpaste and tampons designed with your skin color “in mind.” MultiCult Classics says:
OK, Pantene offers products designed with Black women in mind. But Crest, Always and Tampax?
Also, apparently the black that is beautiful is light-skinned, with supposedly “European” facial features. See also: black models that don’t look black.
UPDATE: In the comments, Brian asked what I mean by “reification.” Thanks for the question, Brian! I mean “treating an abstraction as if it were real.” And, yep, race isn’t real. See racial categories as a historical artifact and check out this great website by the American Anthropological Association.
As I re-read… the contradiction between the two last paragraphs (black models that look white and there’s no such thing as black and white) is awesomely reflective of the reality of its race and its simultaneous non-reality!
.
This clip, from the newly televised This American Life, shows what happens when (mostly) black women and (mostly) white men living in racially-segregated Chicago are brought together and the social rules of decorum are suspended. It is highly, highly disturbing. I’d love it if some social psychologists could comment on what we see happening here!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo1LPf9mnyU[/youtube]
Here is the trailer for Resident Evil 5, which is not yet on the market:
The player is the sole white person in a dismal, threatening city, apparently in Africa. The locals engage in torture (which we see in some detail) and gleefully cheer at a hanging. At one point the hero is accosted by an angry mob, all of whom just make gutteral, animal-like sounds. In a beleagured voice he tells us he just doesn’t know “if it’s all worth fighting for. Who knows?” Oh, the white man’s burden, indeed!
Thanks once again, Patrick C.!
Jeff G. sent in links to several articles about the game, if you’re interested. Here’s one with the director, and here’s an article about a British government censorship agency officially ruling the game isn’t racist.
NEW! Ryan sent in an image of a character from the game:
Ryan points out it’s another example of non-White women being portrayed as exotic or animalistic. Thanks for the image!
The U.S. population is becoming less and less overwhelmingly white. Projections suggest that, by 2050, whites will compromise less than half of the population. This trend, according to the New York Times today, is being driven by our kids. Below, a map shows the percentage of non-white children in each state of the Union.
Among other things interesting to me about this discussion is the tendency to compare the proportion of the population that is “white” with the proportion of the population that is “not white.” This reinforces the notion that white is somehow pure and important, and everything else is just… something else. While some say that we will no longer be a “white nation” (for better or worse) when whites are outnumbered by non-whites, whites will still be the majority insofar as the non-white group is comprised of an incredibly diverse group of people by race, ethnicity, and immigration-status.
Here at Sociological Images, we’re interested in how our standards of beauty are based on a European (that is, light-skinned and straight-haired) ideal. See here and here for examples. A reader pointed out that Syesha Mercado, a contestant on American Idol, has been progressively de-ethnicized.
Here is a photo of Syesha from early in the competition:
Here is a photo of her from this week (end of April):
Am I the only one who thinks she looked prettier before?
However, the stylists have thus far let the white kid keep his dreads:
Thanks for pointing this out, pj!
Kate N. pointed us towards this article in the New York Times today discussing 25 years of Marines recruitment aimed at women. Below is the content of their slide show.
1976:
1978:
1980:
1984:
1988:
1995:
1995:
2000:
2000:
The article says that the Marines have only recently began a concerted attempt to recruit women. Does anyone have any information about the shift in the racial targeting? Or is that just an artifact of the slide show?
Thanks so much for the tip, Kate!
Also in military recruitment: which military would you join?, the homefront, and war as entertainment.
.
Marcello sent us this really fascinating example of political propaganda from an anti-immigrant party in Italy. He translated the text as:
They suffered immigration
Now they live in reserves
Think about it
The implication is, if they let immigrants into Italy, the current residents will suffer the same fate as American Indians.
Marcello writes:
Beside the obvious racist concept i think it’s quite ironic that they identify
themselves with people they would probably discriminate [against] if they ever
met any american-native people here in italy and the fact that they criminalize
the role that the very same “western civilization” they stand for (against the
“bastardization of culture from muslim heretics”, their words, not mine) played
in the american-native genocide.
Original post, by Marcello, here. Thanks!
.
Toothpaste and tampons designed with your skin color “in mind.” MultiCult Classics says:
OK, Pantene offers products designed with Black women in mind. But Crest, Always and Tampax?
Also, apparently the black that is beautiful is light-skinned, with supposedly “European” facial features. See also: black models that don’t look black.
UPDATE: In the comments, Brian asked what I mean by “reification.” Thanks for the question, Brian! I mean “treating an abstraction as if it were real.” And, yep, race isn’t real. See racial categories as a historical artifact and check out this great website by the American Anthropological Association.
As I re-read… the contradiction between the two last paragraphs (black models that look white and there’s no such thing as black and white) is awesomely reflective of the reality of its race and its simultaneous non-reality!
.
This clip, from the newly televised This American Life, shows what happens when (mostly) black women and (mostly) white men living in racially-segregated Chicago are brought together and the social rules of decorum are suspended. It is highly, highly disturbing. I’d love it if some social psychologists could comment on what we see happening here!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo1LPf9mnyU[/youtube]
Here is the trailer for Resident Evil 5, which is not yet on the market:
The player is the sole white person in a dismal, threatening city, apparently in Africa. The locals engage in torture (which we see in some detail) and gleefully cheer at a hanging. At one point the hero is accosted by an angry mob, all of whom just make gutteral, animal-like sounds. In a beleagured voice he tells us he just doesn’t know “if it’s all worth fighting for. Who knows?” Oh, the white man’s burden, indeed!
Thanks once again, Patrick C.!
Jeff G. sent in links to several articles about the game, if you’re interested. Here’s one with the director, and here’s an article about a British government censorship agency officially ruling the game isn’t racist.
NEW! Ryan sent in an image of a character from the game:
Ryan points out it’s another example of non-White women being portrayed as exotic or animalistic. Thanks for the image!