Friday, March 20, 2009

VIPS Obeservation in Roger Williams Middle School. Examples of Christensen's piece on the media.





1 comment:

  1. On my way out of the Roger Williams Middle School, I did a “double-take” when walking by that bottom picture of a Native American painting in the main hallway. This painting of the Native American looked exactly like every Native American that I have ever seen portrayed in the media. He was shirtless and had a skirt made of some kind of cloth, and was out somewhere in nature. He had feathers in his head, long dark hair, a bow and arrow, and moccasins. This picture above it is even more stereotypical. The fact that the picture came out blurry does not even matter. I bet that even a four year old could identify that this is a picture of Native Americans if they had ever seen a picture of Native Americans before. It is the classic picture of a group of Native Americans sitting around a fire. They were all dressed “like Native Americans.” Not only are Native Americans stereotyped in the media, but here in the school too! Christensen argues that “Schools need to help students acquire tools to interpret the media and other cultural texts in order to recognize stereotypes and oppression.” This school is not representing this at all. In fact, it is strengthening the stereotype of the classic look of Native Americans.

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