A Fast Food Nation

            For my junior theme, I am planning on investigating the social hierarchies of fast food corporations and tying them back to the slave industry. In an effort to jumpstart my thinking, I decided to watch a movie called Fast Food Nation, a movie about a mock McDonalds company called Mickey’s, which supposedly was using bad meat in their most famous burger, “The Big One.” The movie investigated the lives of a wealthy white marketing manager in the company, teenagers working in the restaurants themselves, and illegal immigrants working in the meat processing plant for Mickey’s. Here’s a preview of the movie to give a better idea of what the movie is all about:

            After actually watching the movie, I was horrified at some of the things that went on, even if this was just a made up story. But, it was all based on real statistics, real facts, and real stories coming from fast food restaurants (hint: McDonalds possibly?). The movie depicts some of the things the immigrants had to go through, such as getting raped or having sex to get a job in the first place, horrible work conditions, one many actually had his leg severed off in the meat mincer, another man got a concussion and other injuries, which unfortunately needed to eventually get paid off by his family who already had no money.

On the other side of things, the marketing manager was given a false taste of reality when he came in. He asked to get a tour of the meat processing plant, and was only shown parts of the plant, or at least the better parts. He was told there was fecal matter in the meat by an expert, but when he went in to the actual plant, he was given no reason to believe such a fact. Luckily, he was able to find another man who actually told him the truth about was going on in there. However, had he not found that man, he would never of known a thing about that plant.

I then began to wonder if this is how all fast food corporations work today. Are there immigrant workers in the meat processing plants of all fast food companies? Do the workers work under as poor of conditions as depicted in the movie? I believe there is a hierarchy in these fast food industries. They had to develop from somewhere, and they seem to mirror the slave industry very closely…

To be continued…

Putting Out the Fire

            I was listening to music this afternoon, when I started listening to a song by Billy Joel, entitled We Didn’t Start the Fire. It had a catchy tune and interesting lyrics. But after listening to the song, I wanted to know more about it, and what the meaning of the song is.

 

            According to one website I went to, the lyrics are “a stream of consciousness list of events” that Joel believed his generation shouldn’t have been blamed for. In the chorus, when he says, “we didn’t start the fire,” he’s saying that all of the societal issues going on during that time weren’t caused by his generation. The phrase, “it was always burning since the world’s been turning” states that these issues were already in place before Joel’s generation was born. Finally, he says, “ but we tried to fight it” to show that although his generation wasn’t the cause of all the social turmoil, they did try to stop it.

            This song was very interesting to me because it made me start to realize that issues in our society today might be blamed on my own generation by the time we become adults. Although these issues might not be our faults, we will have to take on the burden of taking blame for them as well as fixing them. Issues like immigration, poverty, and laws on gay marriage will become our problems to fix. It’s quite daunting to think about.

            Why are different generations blamed for all of the things that went wrong in our country? Will this happen to our own generation?

The Biggest Loser

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Total
White	10	9	12	15	16	15	16	9	14	15	16	12	18	177
Black	2	2	4	2	3	0	4	5	4	4	4	2	2	38
Hispanic/Latino	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	2	2	1	2	1	0	11
Asian	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4
Pacific Islander	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	2	0	0	6
Total	12	13	16	18	20	16	22	16	22	21	24	15	20	236

White: 75%

Black: 16%

Hispanic/Latino: 4%

Asian: 2%

Pacific Islander: 3%

Source

Only for Women

            Today I was watching TV and a commercial came on that reminded me of a fellow classmates blog post. (Unfortunately, I cannot remember who wrote it). Their post was about a Pepsi commercial and it directly related to gender. It talked about how it was “not for women” and “only men can handle the taste of it.” The blog then went on discussing gender related issues as to why companies would use this commercial and try to appeal to men. Well… The commercial I watched compares to the Pepsi commercial in that it appears to appeal to only women. Let’s take a look…

            There is definitely an obvious appeal to women here in this commercial. First we get the tough girl questioning the crystal light girl on her drink of choice because she thinks she’s putting herself at lower standards than men. Then, however, we get a twist in the action when two men on a motorcycle steal her purse and crystal light girl runs after them. Eventually, she catches them, gets the purse back, and scares them away using her “girl power.” This is what has been portrayed to us by this commercial.

            So what are we to make of it? I think the commercial has a direct relation to feminism, and is directly targeting women to buy the product. By seeing this commercial, women will want to be more independent and powerful, triggering them to buy the product. But why only women? Why target just one half of the world essentially, in this commercial? I am yet to understand why companies decided to appeal to only one gender when they are advertising a product…

Black Stereotypes

            A few days ago in American Studies class, we were discussing the topic of racial discrimination in politics. One of the most shocking statistics to me was the fact there have only been four black senators, three of whom were from Illinois. More popularly known is the fact that Barack Obama was the only black man to ever be elected president. But why is this? Why are black politicians rarely elected into office? Is it merely their race that prevents them from being voted for? I was watching a show on Comedy Central, when the comedian, Gabriel Iglesias, began talking about the issue of race in politics…

(sorry for the inconvenience but the video wouldn't load properly onto the blog... here's the link: http://www.tubechop.com/watch/283689 )

            I found it very interesting when he mentioned, “he’s not Snoop Dogg.” I think in that statement, Iglesias brought to light the idea of stereotyping black people. Although we think racism is over, it clearly isn’t because people still have their stereotypes of black people today. In fact, in class today, we were discussing the concept of racial stereotypes in television in the past and present. I find it very interesting that even today, blacks are put under this umbrella of stereotypes by the media. For instance, on clip today that caught my eye was of black men eating fried chicken and watermelon. Although people think that blacks love fried chicken and watermelon, race has nothing to do with taste buds or food preference. All of these ideas leave me very confused about the identity society has given black people. We don’t really know who they are.

            Why do people in society stereotype black people the way they do? Why does the media portray black people the way it does?

The Role of Race in Sports

In American Studies class today, we discussed many ways in which whites differentiated themselves from blacks before and during the civil rights movement. In some instances, whites would go so far to say that the genetic makeup of white people was different than that of black people, which somehow made whites more superior. We then very briefly touched upon the subject of black track stars and how they possess the fast-twitch muscles, allowing them to run faster. This reminded me of a certain video clip from Family Guy, a show that constantly identifies many social issues in the US as well as around the world.

This clip got me thinking. Is it just track that blacks have become more dominant in than whites, or are they starting to make their mark on other sports as well? And which ones? In did some research on the subject, and learned that a lot of the success of black athletes comes from their ability to combine their eagerness to compete with their desire for aggression. I remember one classmate in our discussion brought up a scene in the movie, Friday Night Lights, in which the coaches put the whites in as the quarterback and other “thinking” positions, while they put the blacks in as linebackers where brute force and quick instincts are necessary. I read one article in particular that discussed the education level of some of the most successful black athletes in our day and age. The author talked about how many of the black players seemed to be lacking a substantial education. In particular, he talked about Tony Allen, and how “he can play basketball but beyond that he barely knows what planet he is on.” But then again, if you were born with natural talent in a sport, and had little opportunity for a quality education, what would you pick: “unemployment and a good chance at jail or tens of millions of dollars?”

I then started to wonder about other sports that require more finesse and less aggression, golf and tennis in particular. It doesn’t seem like blacks have acquired the same popularity in those sports as others. I looked into it a little, and came across an article that discussed the segregation of sports. Apparently, these sports maintained the “whites only” policy long after other sports like baseball, football and basketball had become integrated. But is it merely the fact that blacks have not been integrated into these sports as long as others that has hindered their progress in them? Or is it the fact that these sports require a much lower amount of athleticism and aggression compared to the amount of thinking and finesse involved as well?

I have been pondering this idea for a while now. I am not sure exactly why blacks are more successful in certain sports than others. Is it due to the different skill sets required in certain sports that limit blacks from excelling, or is there still segregation through sport today?

Football Evolution

This past Sunday went just as any other Superbowl Sunday goes in my house: my brother and my dad parked on the coach getting through a minimum of three bags of potato chips, my mom constantly commenting on how they are the epitome of American health, and me, drifting in and out of the TV room, amusing myself with a few commercials and then going back to my room to do homework. However, this year was a little different. I decided to spend more time watching the commercials, but with a more critical eye. One commercial in particular came to my attention, and it really opened my eyes to how far sports in America have come over the past century.

If you look closely at the commercial, the yard markings on the field are actually years. For instance, at 0:19, you can clearly see the yardage markings, and someone being tackled at about 1940, which indicates that this is about the time that “we had a game on our hands,” according to the narrator. This commercial to me seems more than anything to be a historical overview of the pathway the game of football has been on for the past century. It is incredibly eye opening though, because this game, although it has not been around very long, it has made quite an impact on American society and taken some huge strides in terms of development.

I went to one website to look at the timeline of American football, and was amazed to find that it only dated back as far as 1820, which was when the timeline stated that “football evolves.” Although it seems like a long time, it really isn’t when you think about it. Sports like lacrosse have been around for centuries, dating back to the native Americans, while soccer dates back before the common era. These sports have grown and developed over an extensive amount of time, whereas football has taken less than two centuries.

            Why is it that football has developed so quickly compared to other sports? Is it coincidence, or is it something about the game itself?