Response (First week of blogging)

This is the link to my first response to another student's post. This was from the first week.


http://lnaumovski.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/week-5-presentation-of-self.html

Go back to where you came from" performances

So this was a post I did on my old blog but I can't access that blog now so I'm copying and pasting my old blogs to the new one! Really dodgy but the only thing I can think of.

 http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/2268622103/Go-Back-To-Where-You-Came-From

This week’s topic on performances highlights the character an individual performance front stage an audience he or she would prefer a specific reaction from. It’s the “front”, as Goffman terms it, that the individual asserts in order to deviate from the natural behaviour or persona beneath.

As most of you have heard SBS aired its second season of, “Go Back To Where You Came From”. The show places 6 Australians with strong views on the topic of Asylum Seekers on the journey a refugee takes when seeking asylum. Former radio “Shock Jock” Michael Smith is one of the six participants. Michael’s views on the topic are firm in that Asylum Seekers should be turned away if they are seeking refuge via boat.

If you skip the video to 38:40 Michael is seen comforting a small 8 year girl who has never been in a motor vehicle before. He’s holding her exclaiming how frightened she is etc etc. Later on when he finds where the little girl and her family have been transferred in the camp we hear him in shock and awe stating, “this place is so desolate”, “these poor people”. At 49:35 Michael is broken down after spending the day with a 13 year old orphaned boy in the refugee camp who has no one to care for him, no foster care nothing. After this encounter Michael composes himself for the camera and states, “My opinion hasn’t altered in the hard facts of it”. He returns to his performance of his “shock jock” self. Later fellow participant Imogen Bailey states, “it’s touching to see that he’s actually starting to show us I think the real him and the him that is a father but it’s the bull shit side, the performer that I hope for the rest of the journey he’ll leave behind.”

Michael Smith’s front of the “Shock Jock” is what’s consistently performed for audiences. However when confronted with the harsh reality of children with no food shelter or care is fatherly side emerges which brings out his backstage. 

Racism

Okay so really really late on my posts. I've had some issues with my account and essentially had to create an entirely new one. As you can tell I'm really great with technology!

So a few weeks ago, 3 precisely, I had my data discussion presentation. The topic for my discussion was 'Racism'. Being such a broad topic I narrowed it down to the basic question, What is considered racist? Still broad however when reviewing this question it did for me narrow the complexities of racism to a much more comprehensible notion. The data I collected is two videos. One is of a woman (Emma West) on a tram in Britain hurling racial remarks and giving a speech on how "her" Britain has essentially gone down to the loo due to the racial diversity. The most disturbing sight in this video is that during the duration of her hateful speech she is holding what seems to be her child.
The second video for discussion was audio archive of Alan Jones' coverage of the Cronulla Riots. Throughout the audio we hear Jones overtly vilifying the ethnicities being attacked on the day of the riots.
I also briefly discussed a website I found called racistjokes.info. The website has published in my opinion, hateful racist statements, not jokes. However to cushion the blow of their aggressive vilification a symbol of a giant happy face is posted in the middle of the title, "Racist Jokes".

So throughout this discussion, questions were asked such as, can this be seen as racism or is it just nationalism? Or ethnocentrism? And is ethnocentrism the extreme of nationalism? What essentially determines our perception of ethnicities different from our own?
What has driven people like Emma West, Alan Jones and the publishers of the site racistjokes.info to view minority groups in this fashion? The most common answer would be yes their upbringing, their family life etc. What I would like to explore is the specifics in these questions, what could or what other major influences triggers racism because if we think of children (ages 4-7) and their approach to racial status, it is benign and naive. What are the specifics that implement racist behaviours?

More to come in the research report!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGIEHhpfkKY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgm2zLO5N5M