CONTRIBUTORS

Fall 2018

COMM 233A

Sungyeon Ahn

William Andries

Kamal Apatira

Georges Azouri

Faith Blakey

Colleen Kelly

Benjamin May

Pia Ocvirk

Natalie E. Raskas

Helina Samson

Ryan Scott

Sydney Secuskie

Sarah Selzer

Abigail Smith

Griffin Spurgin

Jarrod Stiver

Aleysha Ward

Theresa R. Weigel

Jackson Williams

Joseph S. Zanca

COMM 233C

Caleb Baue

Jonathan Bonilla

Frederick Coudret

Destiney Davis

DaBreonna Doss

Christopher Douglas

Cailey Griffin

Gunter Jaeger

Emmanuel Koutsouras

Yongjie Li

Katharine McLean

Brogan Miller

Joshua Mundell

Richard Pasch

Daniel Scotto

Ryan Smith

Nathan Stapleton

Leda Turpen

Margaret Wagenbrenner

Kenneth West

BORN (TOO BLACK) THIS WAY

By Faith Blakey My nighttime routine consists of scrolling through my Facebook timeline. More recently, it has been filled with social issues that are both domestic and international; from fashion, politics, to personality tests. One of the most striking posts that I have come across recently was a clip from a documentary; “So when you bleach it makes you look more nicer, look more sexier, and look more cuter than you once was”. These words from a middle aged Jamaican women describes the sentiments that are sold with the global trend of skin bleaching. Her opinions towards skin bleaching, or “bleaching” as they call it in Jamaica, are common. This 2012 Vice documentary explores the idea that skin bleaching and colorism are practices that have become well known and respected in popular Jamaican culture. Although this documentary reveals the deep seated colorism that is prominent in Jamaica, it seems as if colorism has developed into a worldwide epidemi...

PREVALENCE OF COLORISM IN BLACK AMERICAN MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS

By: Cailey Griffin It would be extremely difficult to make the argument that the media doesn’t have power. The media has the power to foster a sense of community amongst people by bringing friends and family together to view a television show. The media has the power to regulate the emotions of individuals by creating fictional characters the average viewer will become attached to. The media also has the power to serve as a representation of the different “types” of people in society. In media platforms there’s usually a clear representation of what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a person of color, and what it means to be a person from a particular socioeconomic background. These media representations of different groups and types of people are not always incorrect or negative. In fact, I would argue that media representations are largely positive for certain people. However, the group that seems to consistently get ...

HOW PROUD IS THE PROUD FAMILY?

By: Helina Samson Growing up, I idolized the few shows that portrayed characters that looked somewhat like me, The Proud Family was one of those shows. I could connect with Penny Proud, being a black woman in a seemingly diverse neighborhood, I looked up to Penny and found community within her struggles. I never realized why I felt so connected to Penny but not anyone else in the show, until I learned what the term colorism meant. Colorism is defined as “discrimination or prejudice towards individuals with a darker skin tone”, and is sadly prevalent in today’s society. I didn’t realize that the show was created in a way that allowed Penny to benefit from positive characteristics by consequently instilling negative stereotypes into the darker-skinned characters. I felt connected to Penny because I was supposed to feel connected to Penny, who is portrayed as beautiful with eurocentric features and a down to earth personality. The article Pride and Prejudice: Pervasiveness of Co...

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