Random Wrap-Up

Okay so these are completely random thoughts, suggestions and confessions.

Someone let me know how Gran Torino ended. I missed the third installment. I was under-whelmed with what I had seen though. The acting was bad. How many times have you growled out loud in disgust? Yeah I don’t think I do either. And the plot took some huge jumps to bring Walt and his neighbors together. But I still want to know how it ended. I thought Crash was overrated too though so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about. Check out Fast Food Nation if you get a chance. It does not deal directly with race but you get a look inside undocumented workers lives in the U.S.

I think most hardcore racists think they are patriotic. What do they do when black athletes represent the U.S.A. in international sporting events? Are they sick to their stomachs over the Williams vs. Williams final at Wimbledon?

I’ve never rooted against someone in sports because of their color. But I have to confess to rooting for some white guys in sports where whites are lightly represented like basketball and boxing just because they are white. Is that wrong?

Are the Washington Redskins the most blatantly racist, completely accepted image in America?

I can’t stand ESPN’s Stuart Scott who is black. 1. He is scary to look at in HD. 2. I cannot connect with the slang he uses. Dick Vitale, who is white, wears me out for the same reasons.

I think I was lucky. I went to a pretty diverse high school in Tulsa. I joined the OU Men’s Soccer Club when I came to Norman and was surrounded by numerous different nationalities. And I think I am better for it. I would recommend to everyone to get involved in a club that is multi-cultural where you can forge relationships. I think the Greek houses at OU would really benefit with more diversity. They should really recruit hard different races to join their houses.

I think the time is now that we stop saying “that is so gay.” These kinds of remarks are insensitive at the least and should be treated like the n-word. So if homosexuals want to call themselves that, fine. But the rest of us should put an end to it.

I really enjoyed this class, much more than I thought I would going in. I do wish that the class would have been a bit more diverse to get those different perspectives and opinions, but I still learned a lot. Ever since I went through the program as an undergrad, I have always watched television and the movies with an eye on the production value, looking for little things and trying to figure out why or how they did what they did. Now I think I will also look for race and gender issues in the media as well, like the Transformers 2 stereotypical bots. I will be on the lookout for opportunities to discuss these things with my daughter too.

So finally I just want to say thanks to everyone in the class who went out on a limb, and to the instructor for making sure it didn’t snap. See you in the fall.