CAPS #5

This chapter was very interesting to me because of the way popular culture is defined and described. Pop culture is found is many different forms from television to newspapers. It's what the majority of people want to see and at the same time it can be how people see one another.

I'm going to be writing about kids shows and movies. Starting with a Disney movie example in Pocahontas. I noticed last week at kindergarten recess that most of the girls had on something that was either Dora the Explorer or Hannah Montana, it didn't matter if it matched who they were or not. But the boys that had t.v. characters on their shirts were all white characters. I found it interesting that their was such little variety, especially at my school where diversity is so high.

I don't think popular culture for being considered "low" culture is a good definition for it. It doesn't do much to help people who have little contact with minority groups to not avoid stereotypes. In many cases, especially in cases for children's popular culture when their minds on vulnerable. A child isn't born prejudice or racist and they don't believe in stereotypes. But so many television shows and movies consciously or unconsciously can begin to create these. It's unfortunate.

My first example of popular culture not helping children with stereotypes is Pocahontas. The only thing they got right was how Native people were here first and that white people were greedy. I have a 5th grade Native student I work with and because she's open about being Native and being active in the Native community it opens a door for other kids to jump on her. She's been asked at recess if the gravel talks to her and if she touches a tree it will speak to her. On many occasions she's been called Pocahontas. If that movie hadn't been so cartoonish, unrealistic, and just not accurate then she wouldn't be stuck crying in the bathroom, after recess.

The video colors of the wind isn't the best song. It is filled with partial truths that are difficult to understand if you don't know the culture, which in the case of this movie is pretty much all of the viewers. I can explain many things in the song that make sense to me in a way, but to another kid it's an opening to a bunch of negative issues.

Earlier today I went to a sweat lodge, it's a ceremony where you're basically in a sauna. It's a hut covered in blankets and cloths that seal out the sunlight. In the middle is a hole where they put stones that have been heated for many hours. The stones then have water poured on them to create a type of sauna. In this we sing prayer songs for our loved ones and all people. We say our grandmothers and grandfathers come from these stones when we're in the sweat. At first when the stones are being heated and first put into the hole they are just stones, but water brings life to everything and it brings out the lives of our ancestors. This is because when we die our bodies turn to ash and dust which goes into the stones.

So in a partial truth the movie got it right, but it's a long explanation that is only true for some tribes even. The movie does nothing for Native children when they are around others who have no clue about the culture. It's even worse when a child knows they're Native, but know nothing of their own culture. They are stuck in a position if they are either bullied or asked questions about their culture because of popular culture like this.