Dear Class,
Please take a look at the blog http://racialicious.com/. You should write
your comments on various aspects of the blog here, and begin to think about
some thoughts, comments, etc. that you would like to add to the in-class
discussion, which will be taking place in the near future.
The website, racialicious.com, is a blog that discusses the
topic of racism and other discriminatory topics in our world today. The website
is funny and entertaining, yet serious and informative at the same time. Like
our previous blog assignment, you could look at the layout/presentation of the
blog and voice your opinions or thoughts about it. We would also like you to
take a look at the post “Trayvon Martin And Walking While
Black”. Have you yourself ever been in a situation such as this? What do
you think you would do if you witnessed something like this taking place? There
are, however, plenty of other posts on this blog that you should feel free to
talk about in your response. Have fun visiting the site and make sure you come
to class ready to talk about it.
When I opened the blog site, Racialicous.com, the first thing I noticed was the multicolored title that features a blend of colors. This to me means how this site shoots to integrate all people of the world and not just promote one single group of people. After reading the article about the Trayvon Martin case, it really made a lot of sense to me. Even if we try not to stereotype, some things we just can’t control to some extreme. For example, if for some reason I were to walk on High street at 12 at night, even with other friends, I would try my best to stay away from people that look like potential threats. I would not call the police or run the other way, but I would definitely be on the look out. I don’t believe that this is a sense of racism, but just being smart and safe. However, going as far as what the Florida policeman did was absolutely disgusting and should not be tolerated. The comments on some articles that say what he did was not due to racism but rather just doing his “job” don’t match up with the fact that on previous occasions, Zimmerman called in back-up to protect himself against, what he called “n-ggers". Its also pretty amazing how this blog site stays up to date on many contemporary issues. One of the problems I have come across when looking at potential blogs is that they are not up to date.
ReplyDeleteRacialicious is a blog that attempts to inform the reader of events in the world that are in some way linked to a certain race or culture of people. The website doesn't cater to one race in particular, but rather focuses on a variety of different peoples. This is evident in their diverse group of staffers as well as the articles and even the logo, which is a spectrum of many different colors, clearly symbolizing that the website is for many different races, not just one.
ReplyDeleteThe website doesn't seem to be an out lash against oppression or a pity site for people who are not white, but rather it appears to focus its content on stories of no specific genre, just a common trend of non-Caucasian based news and entertainment. The website does address serious issues such as the stereotype casting of minorities on television shows, poverty among the billions who live in India and China, and of course the Trayvon Martin shooting. The staffers moderate all posts made to the site and appear to do a good job at being objective and reasonable. After perusing the site for an hour or so, the only tangible pieces of emotion over information I found were found in comments left by readers on some of the more hot-button issues.
All in all, I enjoyed the blog. I think you guys picked a good one for us to discuss in the class.
This blog site gives me a clean and brief first impression as on feministing.com. The pure white background encourages readers to focus more on the content of the articles rather than being distracted by the various design or background. The logo is simple but striking with mainly the name of the website in a large word size and gradually lightening color, which begins with red and ends by yellow. The warm colored style of the logo suggests the owner's attitudes and expectation towards the racial problems. It is a platform for voices from various races, not for fighting and arguing but for communicating and encouraging aware.
ReplyDeleteThe article "Trayvon Martin and Walking While" talks about the feelings of a black male facing suspicion of crime while walking late on the street. People who commented generally agree on the existence of the phenomenon and some surely committed the stereotype thing that they can hardly remove from their mind. Most commenters shared their own experience or used citations from the articles. The experiences acts as evidences and make the support more reasonable, while the citations points out centrally the resonance on the author. However, the responds also act as a deeper analysis. One respond suggests the media effect and the history background that may cause the situation. There are also couple comments showing that the same situation also holds for black women which complement the opinion in the article.
When I opened racialicious.com for the first time, I noticed how plain and simple the background was. The background being white allows the viewers to focus more on the articles that are presented on the page. The second thing I noticed was how the title "Racialicious" was made up of different colours, and to me, this meant that this site attempts and tries to include people of all races and cultural backgrounds. In addition, the site is up to date with current events and issues unlike a lot of blogs.
ReplyDeleteThe article "Trayvon Martin And Walking While Black" is an article written by a Black man who describes that he experienced and continues to experience what Trayvon went through. Throughout the article, he writes that even in this day and age, there are still cop cars that slow down near him and watch him, or people who use racial slurs so that they can get a reaction from him. I also noticed that in the very beginning of the article, he stated that the only difference between him and Tayvon is that he is still alive (because he tries to ignore every thing around him and keeps walking) and Trayvon isn't.
I read the comments below the article and noticed that a lot of people gave their own testimonials about what it is like to be Black while walking down the street. One responder also said that these situations don't only happen to Black men, but also happen to Black women as well. All in all, the comments support and enhance the article.
The first thing I noticed about this blog was the multicolored title with gummy bears at the end. The title being in multiple colors acts as a symbol as to show that the blog is a blog for people of all races just not one specific race. The gummy bears at the end of the title add to the light-hearted feelings the title racialicious its self brings to the table. As you scroll down through the blog you can see the attraction to all races by the different articles concerning race for Latinos, Asians and Middle Eastern communities. Articles such as the “Crush of the Week” express in content the feeling that the name and addition of gummy bears have expressed early on in viewing the website.
ReplyDeleteAn article on the Trayvon Martin case is something that you would expect to have covered extensively due to its large ties racial profiling and discrimination against a colored victim whose assailant was white or partly white as in this case. For this article the only recollections of this immediate racial profiling by members of the community come from one person, which I found interesting. To build ethos and credibility I would have thought that the author would have had different stories from a wide range of backgrounds. Then again the shortness of the article draws a reader in as it is not too long feeding to the thought that this article could very confusing, leading to a skipping over the article by a perspective reader. So overall the article and the website were good.
Everyone,
ReplyDeleteThese really are some quality comments. Thank you for taking the time to analyze our chosen blog. Brian-I really like the comparison you made about walking down high street and the TM case. Perhaps you would like to share this in class. I encouage everyone to give their own interpretation of the color scheme of the title and why the gummy bears might be there. One person's idea could spark another idea for someone else.
When opening this site, I noticed many similarities between this blog and feministing. This layout is fairly simple and direct. There is not a lot of color to it which adds to the colored title of the page to make it stick out even more. The entries of the page are also fairly simple and concise, again, to not draw away from the site’s main message. The site also has a link to its twitter page. This is helpful because for the blog followers, it gives them a real time up to date feed on what the bloggers are doing and what they are up to.
ReplyDeleteAlong with all of this, the blog also contains a small paragraph on the background of the blog. It comes out directly and says what the blog is about and what it is trying to do. This is beneficial because first time users of the blog can see right away what the blog will be talking about and this only helps add to establish creditability. It also states that comments on the blog are monitored which again establishes creditability for the site because they want to try to spark intellectual discussion and not just have anyone who visits the site post anything they feel like saying.
After briefly skimming the site, I realized that Racialicious is very comparable to the feministing site. The title is clever because it clearly puts forward the subject of race and in a unique way ties in the pop culture that the site tries to intersect with race. The logo is also appealing with the different colored gummy bears because it subtly conveys the sites theme without seeming overly threatening. Another aspect comparable to feministing.com is the layout. Each article primarily contains one type of media image or video to help bring in the readers attention. Though there are some advertisements along the right side of the side, it is not overpowering or distracting from the articles. I appreciate that the site does not only focus on the black and white races, but also involves religion and such topics into its theme. Another characteristic I admire about the site is that it does not seem like it is trying to force its opinions on the reader. It simply talks about the subject in a nonthreatening way so that the audience can just read the articles and think about the message. The site is obviously against prejudice and does an effective job laying out their page and displaying their ideas.
ReplyDeleteThe blog racialicious opens its page up with the word racialicious, in a mixture of colors, along with gummy bears. The title immediately grabs the attention of the audience. The use of orange, red, and yellow gives the title a certain brightness that attracts the eye. The blog itself deals with race. Most blogs on the page present people who are currently dealing with race issues or those who have passed by them. There is also a section on the right of the page that shows books relating to feminism. The support of feminism on the page helps bring diversity to the site and forms an alliance between the two. I took look at the blog about Dr. Neil De Grasse Tyson. When reading the blog I noticed that twice in the text the words, black guy; scientist; astrophysicist; and yyyaaayyy, appear. The relationship between a black guy being a scientist is celebrated by the author. It goes to show that performing in advance sciences is not limited by race. Another thing I noticed was when he corrected James Cameron on how the stars appeared in titanic. The author remarked that is was the most significant change made to the movie, showing that race doesn’t limit a persons’ ability.
ReplyDeleteAfter perusing the sight, the very first eye opener is the vibrant title with three different colored gummy bears. These are most likely expressing that people are different colors but deep down they are still people just like the bears are bears just different colors. I skimmed through some of the topics and I think this is a very good topic for this week since so much racial issues have been going on. From the Trayvon case to the Zimmerman incident here locally we can safely say its everywhere in our world today.
ReplyDeleteSecondly I like the fact that the blog uses all types of racial topics instead of just the color of a persons skin. It quickly changes from one of the most viewed cases in trayvon to the jewish woman talking about living in the 60's. Its a good representation of how all racism should be treated the same and not certain problems higher than the others.
The first thing that caught my eyes when I looked at Raliacious.com was its logo. It was orange and red, which are warm colors makes me feel good at the first sight. I think the color of the logo was designed to reflect the author’s positive attitude towards racism. Beside the huge letters, there are three colorful gummy bears. I think the author design the title like this to convey the message that their website is not common racism topic related website that only displays some stereotypical words. Instead, for the most recently published articles, there is always a video or and picture help to explain it better. If you scroll down the webpage, you will see some books related with racism recommended at the right side of the webpage. Click it and it will lead you to the website where you can buy that and read some recent comments on the books. It is a good way to help reader find some more resources related with this topic. Compare with feministing.com, this website is much similar with that one because they are all concise designed. Some articles and related visual material, some links that can help people get more information… It is a practical blog.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing the loaded for a few seconds was the logo, so it really stood out to me as a multicolored, multicultural logo. I also approve of the different colored gummy bears as part of it, since they change the feel of the site right from the start to something more friendly. The design of the site has a similar feel to feministing, with a plain black and white layout and a piece of visual help drawing attention per article. The adds running down the side of the site are far from overpowering as well, and are easily ignore-able. The site also embraes other forms of racism, not just white/african american- the first article is on Treyvon Martin but then it jumps to a jewish woman talking about her experiences to a duke unversity talk.
ReplyDeletePersonally, this log seems quite similar with the feministing.com in several ways. The colorful title, racialicious, representing unite of all races. The clean background that letting the readers to focus only at the posts. Also, posts from several related topics to provide more credibility. For something new, this blog suggests several books from other related topics. And a list of tags that shows the key points for all the posts in the blog, some popular topic such as African-American and Asian-American are highlighted to draw more attention. For the Trayvon Martin And Walking While Black blog, I totally understand it. I have been in this country for almost seven months, I came to realize that sometimes people don’t meant to be mean to a non-white people, but subconsciously, everyone is a racist. I can’t help but to notice that when a one white student trying to cross the street on campus alone, the passing vehicles would slow down like ten meters away, but when Asian student such as myself trying to cross the street? The lots of drivers tend to expect me to wait unless there are other students. First I thought this is minority behavior since racial problems have been discussed a lot more than where I come from, but the fact doesn’t seems to be quite different. Then I realize it is just the stereotype that grows in people’s head and controls their behavior. Hopefully, one day those stereotypes would be unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Song, this blog seems quite similar to the feministing blog we just looked at, visually at least. the plain white background and simple text keep the focus on the main issues of this blog, race. The issue of race surrounds us everyday whether we know it or now. Unfortunately, people continue to see the color of people's skin and their heritage before seeing the content of their character.... which Martin Luther King Jr. tried to help us understand. Race, ethnicity, culture, and religion have always been a touchy subject in this country based on our history and our continued issues with those things. This website is obviously trying to educate people of other cultures and races while sharing stories that can hopefully cut the racial tension and open the world up.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think the more we try to educate and force education on people the greater separation between races and cultures we create. By further drawing attention to our differences we should push the attention onto our similarities, that is where people will find comanalities and be able to open up to those who are in any way different than ourselves.
Like the feministing blog, racialicious does not have an intricate layout in order to keep the reader's focus on the articles and the point they are trying to make. There are ads along the right side of the screen, and that is distracting. Other than that, it is clear that the lack of creativity in the layout intends to keep focus elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading "Trayvon Martin and Walking While Black", I came to the realization that I have felt that way. If I am walking by myself in the dark and pass a man or a group of men, I feel like I have to avoid eye contact and make myself invisible, because I am a woman and I don't want to draw attention to myself, especially at night. I remember my parents always stressing to me to use the “buddy system” instead of walking anywhere by myself, and since getting to college I have seen the importance of this, I had night classes last quarter and did not enjoy or feel safe walking back to my dorm in the dark.