First Day in RGM

Thankfully, I just passed an anthropology class that taught ways to think outside of the box. One of the popular topics in that class was the idea of race, and whether it concretely exists. What I came up with is no. Race is more of the cultural identity one relates with to be excepted/rejected within a society. A control to the theory of race could be the example of a light skin (light complexion- similar to white skin color) African person, and albino people. I read up on it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color Biologically, and in my opinion, race does not exist. However, culturally, race is very prevalant in society. Last year, I did a project over over racial sterotypes called First Impressions at http://kriot08.wordpress.com/. I am excited to hopefully discuss the connection between race and the media, and the influence the media has on race and racial activities. Also, I am eager to discuss the topic of gender in the media, and the role it has on perceptions of gender roles. Case in point, this last presidential election. Man am I lucky to have lived, and been a part of, this election. It was also a big deal for the media as well. This class seems, so far, to be a very useful and fun class. It already has me stepping outside of my box. I never thought I would blog or twitter (mainly because I never really grasped the idea of twitter). I don't, and never had a myspace page or facebook, but after all this blogging, and all these sites I have to keep up with and update, I think I may just break down and sign up. I like the structure of reading the reading material, discussing the material in class, then blogging about it. I feel like it helps the learning process because we can express what we learned in our own words, and the feedback we receive can aid in the learning. I like it a bit better than reciting facts verbatim. I wonder which aspect the class discussions will focus on more-race or gender. The idea of race and racism, because personally, racism is the base or foundation behind the idea of race, is a very easy, controversial topic to talk about for hours and hours. See, I turn back to the conversation of race in this blog. My "race" also enables me to be a bit more educated through experience, and therefore more interested in talking about it. On top of that, in a comedy skit, I heard someone state that the female gender is the minority gender. This world of heirarchy and status is so complex. So, being that I am every minority thought of, this class is like a dream class, in such a way that I get to learn why or where certain ideas, like the stereotypes we discussed today, come from, and possible ways to report fairly and nicely. I mainly just really like the subject matter.