Author: teypalmer

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Social Media and stereotypes

Why does it matter?

Stereotypes and racism are big issues that still happens today and can have a huge effect on others. There are many vidoes or cases where people could be wrongly accused of something becuase of their skin colour racial discrimination is one of the human riughts in Canada.  Racial 1975discrimination act is a law that forbids anyone to be discriminated against based on their race, skin colour, national origin, ethnic background, or immigrant status.

How social media created African stereotypes and racism?

If we look at how this all started,  we would have to go back to the late 1990’s where movies with African women playing in theme often played the role of a maid or a slave that didn’t have much of a voice or right to basic needs. Television back then didn’t have many African men or women working on movies to help rotate how they should be seen in movies, because of that people portrayed  African men to steal, have a bad record or be more aggressive while women were seen as someone small or less than. 

With all the tv stereotypes against Africans were starting to happen and changed the way people would think and feel.  Society started to believe what the media was portraying against Africans and soon common stereotypes were known and some people would believe it.  

Sambo: The Rise and Demise of an American Jester written by Joseph Boksin in 1986 was about a simple-minded African man dates back to the colonization of of America, the book had a lot of influence over steryoptes that shaped the way everyone thought because in it slave owners molded African-American males. A lot of films, books or shows had stereotypes against African-Americans them. 

Over the years many Influential films about African-American women or men being influential and powerful. One example is the film “Hidden Figures” starring Taraji P. Henson, Octivia Spencer, and Janelle  Monae. Hidden Figures is a movie about African American women working at NASA and serving as the brains behind one of the greatest projects in history. 

The Hate You Give is a very powerful book and film about African- American girl named Angie Thomas who grapples with racism, police brutality. She speaks up against racism after witnessing her male friend gets shot by the police because the cop assumed he had a weapon on him because he had dark skin. This book was very impactful for everyone who read or watched it because it taught people what happens when people assume and jump to conclusions based on someone’s skin colour and how racism can be big and small. 

My experience

Growing up I didn’t know about racism or how it applies to me until my mom would tell me that there will be a time where people might say or think things based on my skin colour and that I need to remember to do this or keep my hand out of my pocket when I enter stores so they don’t think I’m shoplifting. I would think after why this even needs to be talked about, why would some people start assuming things just because of my looks or ethnic background. 

Before Covid-19 when I would go to the mall and hang out with friends I started to pay attention to my surroundings and noticed that the few times sI would enter a shop in the mall with my friend’s,  clerks, or workers in the shop would watch what in doing or where I put my hands in case they think I put an item in my pocket.  

Sometimes there could be instances where there is still the tag on an item I bought and the machine when exiting would beep, then a worker would start to either ask me a question or ask to see my pockets instead of looking into the bag first.

It would frustrate me because I didn’t want to have to be out in public and be conscious or weary of how I act, why I need to do it, and having that weary feeling because of the stereotypes and racism against African- Americans still happens.

Facebook:

Racism still happens! Your voice matter#speak up

Twitter:

The Hate You Give is inspiring# Black Lives matter# George Floyd

Citations:

Ferris.edu. 2021. Negative Racial Stereotypes and Their Effect on Attitudes Toward African-Americans – Scholarly Essays – Jim Crow Museum – Ferris State University. [online] Available at: <https://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/links/essays/vcu.htm> [Accessed 21 October 2021].

Ohrc.on.ca. 2021. Racial discrimination (brochure) | Ontario Human Rights Commission. [online] Available at: <http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/racial-discrimination-brochure> [Accessed 21 October 2021].

Humanrights.gov.au. 2021. Why is racism a problem? | Australian Human Rights Commission. [online] Available at: <https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/education/why-racism-problem> [Accessed 21 October 2021].

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Are you a gamer? Chick here to learn about Minecraft!

Minecraft is a sandbox video game that was developed by the Swedish game developer Mojang studios. Markus Perrson “Notch” released the first version of Minecraft called “java edition/classic”. Markus worked at many video game developers before starting  java edition. 

The game was made by Mark during 2009, May 17th . After receiving much feedback about the game and updates users would want to see in the game, Markus began to update the game to the 2011 Minecraft classic version.  

Many updates were made by Markus, one major update that increased the popularity was Alpha. Alpha was the fifth phase  In the production of Minecraft which consisted  of more textures each block in the game. Markus decided to solely focus his work on Minecraft after the increase in the popularity of the game.  

He took the next step and partnered up with a huge video game company called Mojang. During December 30th 2009 many updates and versions were being added to Minecraft, with the updates being done Mojang began to hire employees while increasing the number of users that played the video game. The final version of Minecraft was released on November 18th 2011 which led to immediate success for the game.  

Mojang continued to update the game based on users’ suggestions and partnered with Xbox, Nintendo switch, and PlayStation to make their game available on many platforms so more users can play their game.

Social media and Minecraft 

Mincraft has managed to become the best selling game and still holds the title. With their huge successes over the years social media has been a big foundation to their success and allowed them to open up many doors to increase their game.

Mojang hosted their first Minecon event in 2010 as a gathering for any Minecraft fan where they could see booths, costumes and live events. The next year Mojang hosted another Minecon in Las Vegas in 2011 that celebrated the launch of Mincraft with discussion panels and gaming areas. The 2011 Mincecon had over 12,000 people attending it. Since then Mojang hosts Minecon each year to advertise and announce new updates of the game and have live gaming events for people to participate or enjoy. 

Minecraft  decided to sell products on shopping websites and local stores during the hiatus of the game. Some products that were being sold were recipe books of things players could craft in Minecraft, Lego builds, Figurines etc. This increased Mojang’s sales and earned them millions of dollars from selling products in stores and online. 

During 2012 Mincraft partnered up with Lego to build lego figures of their game, characters, dungeons etc. Once they partnered up, Minecraft lego started to be advertised on tv mainly on teen/kids channels. 

When social media apps started to take popularity Mincraft created accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok etc. Posting photos/videos about their updates, events and short animations of character skins or famous youtubers that created videos about minecraft. Youtubers have benefited when minecraft was gaining popularity by posting survival aries, tutorials, tips and how-to videos on house building for people that love to build in the game. 

Each of their social media have over millions of users that constantly post options/ideas of what they want to see in the game or things they hope Mojang will update in the game.  Minecraft is the most community based game because every feedback on updates is taken into account and added to the game to make the experience better each time.

Facebook: 

A new Halloween themed dungeon update on Minecraft! Get your spooky on #halloween #new adventure

Twitter:

Do you love building and creating things? Check out Build Battle Minigame! #creativity #Minecraft

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