Ethnographies!

I must admit, when I first heard about the ethnography presentations, I was more than skeptical. I was unconvinced that the assignment would be anything more than pretending to see things in places where there was nothing to see and assigning abstract terms that we barely understood to describe these things. I was quite wrong. In ALL four of the other presentations, I came away entirely convinced that a tangible culture existed in each instance. While they may not have always been easy to see by any stretch, they are clearly there. Likewise, I am entirely convinced that in my particular group's topic (The Dav), a culture certainly existed and I can only hope that we conveyed it effectively.

Something interesting kept coming out of these presentations, though. It seems that, oftentimes, people are unaware or desensitized to the cultures that they belong to. Based on the reactions exhibited by the students at Howard or those who work as PSAs here at AU, it seems that they were almost humored by the concept of a cultural examination of their particular group and has perhaps never considered the possibility of a culture that they comprised. Maybe, though, this is what constitutes a true culture; if what a group of people shares is legitimate, perhaps so is an implied understanding.

Also, as I acknowledged in a number of my recent comments, I think that people need to be more open-minded when listening to others explaining their preconceived stereotypes or misconceptions.
-Dylan Parker

U.S. Convergence: Love it, Hate it, It's everywhere

Almost everybody who was old enough at the time remembers where they were and what they were doing on September 11th. For me personally, one of the most vivid memories of that day (outside of the images of the actual attacks being carried out and fulfilled) was the immediate televised reaction of some Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Upon hearing of the attacks, these people were shown cheering in the streets and burning American flags. While I do not believe that many of these people were actually anti-Americans (rather, they were more likely just being forced to do so or ignorant of what they were actually doing) there was certainly a very blatant hostile sentiment present in that scene. Somehow, my attention was drawn to a few little children. These kids were no older than 6 or 7, and likely had absolutely no idea what was going on or why they were screaming at the tops of their lungs. Interestingly, one kid was wearing a Spiderman t-shirt and the girl had a Christina Aguileira shirt on. I found it more than a bit ironic that, as these people for one reason or another were celebrating the U.S. being attacked, they were wearing shirts that represented some of the more prevalent instances of American culture worldwide.

This points to a greater trend; the same things can be seen worldwide. I recently watched a PBS documentary about humanitarian groups working in the Darfur region of Sudan. One of their main jobs was distributing clothing to war-ravaged refugees who otherwise had none. Interestingly enough, the shirts were all championship T-shirts from American professional sports teams (i.e, the Yankees 2003 ALCS championship or the Patriots 2004 Super Bowl championship) Upon seeing the Yankees logo, the younger men immediately recognized what they were seeing, and began saying "America! America!" over and over. These people probably had no idea what baseball actually was, but they could certainly recognize the Yankees logo, which has become one of the most famous American sports logos of all time. While America's political ideologies may conflict with other nations or factions, its cultural ones have certainly made their mark.
-Dylan Parker

What is "American" culture?

The terms "popular" and "mainstream" are thrown around these days with almost alarming regularity. We have, it seems, reached a status quo of just exactly what is or isn't acceptable in our greater culture and how it does or doesn't effect us. However, is it fair to call this culture "American"? I don't think so. I think that what is being played out on a daily basis in media, film, and music is the product of a less prevalent but far more omnipresent theme: freedom.

Patriotic and nationalistic campaigns and advertisements almost always focus on the concept of "freedom." This has been especially evident in the wake of 9/11, with Operation Enduring Freedom taking place in Afghanistan and Iraq. From government officials to media pundits, almost everybody throws around the word "freedom," and treats it almost as a physical commodity rather than an abstract ideal. Freedom, as it has come to be defined, can be shared, defended, won, and also lost. It has overtaken society to the point that we are "free" to do as we please, which includes having a Blackberry, posting status updates on Facebook or Twitter, and driving environmentally efficient vehicles, which are all parts of "popular" culture.
-Dylan Parker