Journal #3

Professor Reisner shared an article from a Columbia magazine, which talked about race and how people are so afraid of coming off racist. This led to a class discussion about how words have different meanings in different cultures. 

For example: Nigger/Nigga/Negra, this is the same word but has three completely different meanings. The first is very offensive and shouldn't be used ever. The second is more of a slang word used mostly among younger teens with their groups of friends, meaning "bro." The third is an affectionate word used to describe a dark women (not in a cruel way at all) in the Spanish language. “Negra” is what my family calls my mom. Growing up I didn’t really understand it until my mom explained that it’s used in a cute and loving way.

Professor Reisner pointed out that being politically correct is a matter of NOT saying something. "As a white man, you just shut up," he said.

 

The next topic up for discussion was, "When words are codes." Some of the words we talked about were: Urban/Inner=hood, poor; City/Suburban=white, rich; Ghetto=slur, fashion statement, a poor place; Crime=a ridden neighborhood, ghetto. Also, Jew vs. Jewish: Jew is thought of as meaning, cheap, rich and having a big nose. Jewish is the religion. 

It was interesting to realize that even though we might not want to admit that those words do have a connection, the truth is that we do think that way. Many people in class agreed that what the exercise pointed out was true. Although i'm not proud to admit it, I also completely agree with the "When words have codes" exercise. I think society in general has taught us to think this way. 

I was a little taken back by how the professor described, "Urban redevelopment" (moving the poor people out). Thinking about it, I realized that he is absolutely right; it's just that I never heard it said that way. 

Another "Food for thought" exercise we did was, "Ways to avoid saying, White." The examples were: soccer moms, blue collar, Americans, main street, wall street, middle America, New Englanders, all-American, southerners and ordinary people. I must say that these ARE all ways of describing someone as "White" without actually saying it. I've heard most of these words used all my life, sometimes in a joking manner but other times in a mean way. 

The exercises and class discussions continue to open my eyes even more on how touchy these topics are and what the best way is to go about reporting on them.