Crystal and I presented on sexual racism. We decided to hone in on two outlets of sexual racism, dating apps and the porn industry. We based our discussion points off of the readings that we were assigned that covered sexual racism in hookups on college campuses, sexual fields in gay hookup culture, and the idea of “screening” of white partners by partners who are POC to make sure that the white partner is racially aware of injustices against people of color.

We made an effort to bring the part of the reading that discussed that asian men and black women were least desirable while asian women and black men are fetishized. If we had more time to do the presentation, it would have been interesting to discuss how these specific stereotypes came to be. We did ask the question: where do sexual fetishes come from? But it would have been helpful to have both scientific evidence and historical evidence. In this reflection, I have chosen to look for some historical and biological evidence to help formulate an answer to this question.

I came across an article that discussed how the Asian female began to be fetishized in American culture. Much of the story covers how through opera and Hollywood, Asian females were portrayed as “ornaments” that were “tools of sexual and cultural exploitation” and supplemented the idea that all other cultures are “savages” and it is “daring” to “take on a native woman as a lover.” This idea reproduced itself over time, especially in the U.S. military presence in Asia and the opportunities it gave for American men to participate in the Asian sex industry. I am very curious as to how the fettish of the black man came to be. Unfortunately, in my very thoroughly conducted google search, the fetishizing of female black women was the only result that popped up. But luckily, we did not discuss this fetishization of black women – and we definitely should have. The fetishization of black women largely originated during the colonial era, where white slave owners would rape black slaves. Their justification of this action was that the women presented themselves as hyper-sexualized. Disgusting! Scientists at the time were fascinated by black bodies and even took molds of black womens’ genitalia most mortem. Black women are continually over-sexualized in the art world, depicting them as sexual beings for the pleasure of the white man. 

Somehow over the course of the semester, we failed to discuss the covert fetishization of black Bowdoin students. Men are fetishized for their supposedly “BBC” whereas the females are more covertly fetishized by white men who wan’t to “try a black woman out,” according to my conversations conducted for my research project on Bowdoin’s racialized hookup culture. 

After this discussion and now this reflection, I can’t help but feel helpless about this situation. Sociology has taught me to be observant in the inner workings of radicalization around me, but I have not learned how to better these problems. It seems almost too hopeful to believe that most of the sexual racism mentioned above could get less severe over my life time. People are very routed in their environments they grow up in and as long as white people continue to breed with other white people, some people will continue to see white people as the prizes of not only sex, but society. Thank you for this discussion and the amazing participation – I thoroughly enjoyed presenting on this topic because sexual fettishes bring in the question of racist notions vs. preference based on environment. 

Salina and I presented a racial analysis of Hollywood, aided by two chapters from Maryann Erigha’s novel, The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry. Erigha highlighted racial representation, the power of cinema to shape, and the economics of the movie industry in relation to race.

In lecture, Salina and I chose to examine the movie The Hunger Games and the play Hamilton, in relation to the representation of race. I found it fascinating that a movie watched by many young teenagers ties in one of the few black characters, Thresh, to the associations of the iconic ghetto. Thresh kills in a violent way devoid of intellectual ability. Meanwhile, Katniss kills from far away with a bow and arrow, requiring precise actions and quick response. This movie was widely popular in our generation and I find it devastating that it took so long for me to realize the racialized characterization is possesses. 

One thought I had during discussion that I did not get the chance to mention was that the translation from book to screen is reflective of the predisposition of Americas to assume that important roles should be played by white actors. Rue, who is played by black actor Amandla Stenberg, is an innocent and beloved character. Audiences were outraged to discover that Rue was played by a black actor instead of a white actor when the movie was released. Even though Susan Collins never specified the race of Rue in her novel, audiences assumed that because she was an integral character that she should be white. 

The idea of important characters represented by white actors is widespread in Hollywood. Another widely watched film of our generation was High School Musical, in which the two main characters were Troy and Gabriella, both played by actors with light skin. Meanwhile, their best friends Chad and Taylor are played by black actors. Even this slight difference in racial representation can have a dramatic effect on young minds. Middle schoolers are learning that the most popular and successful kids in high school are white. Additionally, they are presented with the concept that people date within their racial group. Although there have been additional efforts to have interracial couples on screen, overwhelmingly the most visible couples are of the same race and are usually white. 

Final thoughts: we, as individuals in a sociology class, make up a group that has the opportunity to change this scenario. Change takes motivators from the top such as actors and directors, but is more important coming from a large audience. Because economically, Hollywood is trying to sell to an audience, we need the larger audience of the United States to advocate that increased racial diversity is an expectation (through laws) rather than a disregarded wish. As Erigha mentioned, cinema has the power to shape minds; young children are unknowingly attaining ideas about race that they cannot control. When white characters are the most visible and successful, young minds start to believe that this is true, continuing America’s cyclic notion of white superiority.