Where's My Role Model?

 My older brother Tony is black and my younger brothers are half-white. Just watching them live, I learned a lot about the privilege of skin, and privilege in general. I belong to a melting-pot family, so I have witnessed plenty of situations that show different privileges for different demographics.

 When I think about role models, I picture a successful person whom someone strives to be like. In my case, my role models were either activists or entertainers. Looking at my older brother's idols, not one of them held an everyday job. Growing up, it seemed like the only options to become successful were to entertain, or if you wanted to oppose that, you had to become an activist and "fight the powers that be."

 Think about it, most people want to become someone who has an effect on their society. I only saw my brother looking up to rappers and basketball players because those were the most prominent figures in our society. Our choices of people to look up to were very minimal. The number of ethnic doctors, lawyers, engineers, business-men, etc. was so minimal that even today, when I list those occupations I picture white males. Of course, we could still strive to reach that type of success, but as a young child, you create a checklist of what you think it takes to be that person. What we saw was unattainable simply because we did not have what it took to be a doctor: white skin.

 Similar to learning shapes as a child, you learn to place the shapes where they fit. A square doesn't have the characteristics of a circle, so you wouldn't associate a square with something a circle does. Circles roll and squares don't. Circles are round, squares aren't. This simple association happens as a child when you see colored people fitting into one shape while white people fit into many other shapes. Not until recently, a colored president was just an idea that parents told their kids to try and inspire them. But who wants to be like the one colored president when it seems proven that people of color are most successful in entertainment? No one wants to be singled out in their respective groups, so it is easier to follow where the people most like you are headed.

 Sports and music being the top interest was no surprise in school because it seemed like the only way to be a successful young ethnic boy. While I imagine young white boys have several categories of role models to choose from, our options were to entertain, or end up working at the lowest level in the workforce. Even if you strived to be something more, it took a great sense of faith in yourself to know that you could break the mold. To many of my childhood friends, attending college instantly made me better than them. I became someone who they thought had left them behind.

 It is difficult to know that you can be successful in a career if you only know of a couple people in your demographic who have had success in that field. I do not want to convey the image that no black or hispanic people have been successful in these types of careers, but there is a marginalization of how successful minorities are portrayed. There are plenty of upstanding hispanic doctors and black lawyers, but as a young minority, you only see successful ball players or rappers. This is the privilege that my half white brothers hopefully will take advantage of.

 Ask yourself the range of role models you have been exposed to. If you can list five different types of jobs, you are already ahead of where I was as an adolescent. Consider the sources of inspiration and motivation which you can draw from. These are thoughts that never occupied my friends' minds, because it seemed so much simpler to want to play ball or make music. This is no fault of our own, the same way your advantages are not yours. We all have privileges which we can't recognize, but this privilege of access to role models has a great impact on the outcome of our societies.

The Blacker The Berry, The Less Color We See

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Why Collecting Shoes Is Not As Dumb As You Think

  A typical outfit for me includes a hoodie, crisp jeans and what some consider flashy shoes, but what a younger me would simply call goals. I have come to know a few "sneakerheads" over the past few years and shaped my own perspective on the culture. "Sneakerheads" are people that collect valuable sneakers such as Jordan, Nike, Asics or many others. This shoe culture is stereotyped with the thought that anyone who spends large amounts of money on shoes must be uneducated. Of course I can see why someone would say that about a person buying the Nike Air Mag, but I don't understand how investing in a pair of high quality shoes supports the stereotype of sneakerheads being dumb.

 First let's forget about our personal budgets and the wage discrepancy between companies and their workers. This does not mean we can't bring up those issues later, but for the purposes of this article humor me.

 If we look at the shoe collecting from a functional aspect first, we can see that considering the current rates, you get what you pay for. For instance, a $50 shoe might not be so comfortable but you can't really complain since you spent $50 on them. A pair of $180 shoes however, feels like a pair of $180 shoes. They may be over priced but even if shoes were solely worth the materials that made them, the fancy sneakers would still be worth a lot more.

 Sneakerheads all find ways to keep their shoes from being damaged because of the respect for the shoe but aside from the extra care, expensive sneakers are pretty durable. Close examination of a pair of Jordan's for instance, reveals intricate stitching and rubber layering that contributes to an aesthetic appeal and durability at the same time. A true sneaker lover would never dream of playing in some limited addition shoes, yet the shoe would be ready to endure the test. Another idea to consider is that with more pairs of shoes, certain pairs are worn less often, ensuring an even longer lifespan.

 If all visual appeal was thrown out of the window and footwear was only created with functionality in mind, we would all have some ugly shoes on. Now think about a famous work of art. You probably thought of a few famous artists and popular painting by them. I want you to ask yourself this; "What does a painting do?"

 Sure we could use paintings as table-mats or chimney fuel if we wanted but for the most part they just decorate a wall. A good painting can cost a lot too, yet the more expensive doesn't mean additional uses. No, a million dollar painting sits on a wall the same way a $2 painting does. With that in mind, is it so crazy to want to display art on your feet?

 Think about it, the only time someone can view and appreciate an art piece that you purchased is when they visit your home. If the work of art was your pair of shoes, that would be a lot more available to the public. Sneakers were not designed haphazardly. Any expensive pair of sneakers you buy were designed to look a certain way in the creative artist's vision. The same way paintings use certain colors and shapes to symbolize specific meanings, sneakers are designed to have a unique feel for each distinctive pair.

 Next time you walk into a young citizen with what seems to be an expensive pair of sneakers, do yourself a favor and think outside of the "they-must-not-have-priorities" mindstate and try to appreciate the art on their feet. Of course, this approach applies to all fashion but for some reason, sneakerheads suffer from being "othered" in the fashion community.

 Keep artistic qualities and functionality in mind and you may just find a new appreciation for that pair of expensive sneakers that you previously thought was hideous. There are also plenty of ugly and expensive works of art.

Missouri High School Students Upset Over Edited ID Photos

           As if young women are not already stressing about their appearance, St. Teresa's Academy has been under fire for altering the appearance of their students' ID photos.

       The all girl academy noticed something different about their pictures when receiving copies back. Realizing that there had been major retouching to the images, many were unhappy with the situation.

        Zoe Royer took to Reddit to express her offense taken in the retouching of her school picture. Explaining that she was finally coming to appreciate the beauty of her face when she received photos of her face which was slimmer, smoother and freckle-less. Zoe's experience is not rare at all. All of the students reported a drastic alteration in their appearance. Slimmer face, neck and cheeks were distributed to each girl, while freckles among other blemishes were stripped away from the photos.

  After Royer's disappointment gained attention around the internet, St. Teresa's Academy immediately apologized and redistributed unaltered photos to each student. The explanation offered was that the pictures had all been automatically run through a retouching software which edited all of the students' pictures. Right.

     It seems ever so apparent that there is an ideology in America that supports the alteration of women in photos. When I say it is an ideology, I mean that immediately editing your own appearance is a social reaction that has become extremely normalized over the years. From social media, apparently all the way into education, young women are more and more conscious about altering their appearance in pictures. I think it says a great deal about our society's self-esteem when photoshop is readily accessible, and even "accidentally" imposed upon an entire student body.

          With that considered, I question our representation-of-self in America. Why are filters, blemish erasers, and face slimming software suddenly so essential to representing our "true" self? This is an example of an instance where representation is "reconstruction rather than reflection," as Dr. Catherine Steele put it.

   

          What do you think? Is it a forgettable mishap that student photos were accidentally retouched or is this an example that we should learn from?