White people as an "oppressed majority"

The idea that white people are the ones being oppressed, and scrutinized more than an actual minority is preposterous! As an American white male I am afforded privileges that most minorities cannot have. White people are generally treated better than most, as we have been the majority and therefor have become used to a set of customs, which is really just a myth. White people have been treated better because we were the ones who oppressed everyone else, be it wiping out the Native Americans, forcing blacks into slavery, or the crack epidemic tied with the Reagan years. White Americans who suddenly feel targeted ones, honestly should feel bad for the things that our race has done, however we should celebrate our differences through diversity, and tolerance. True, the recession did scare a lot of whites, as mentioned it hurt us financially and psychiatrically because we had not had the playing field at a economically level ground. So those who feel like we are falling from grace, and say it's a principle, not racism, I have two things to say to you; It's probably about time we let someone else rule the world for a while, we messed things up so terribly, how can anyone do worse. Secondly, I think it's vital as human beings to evolve, not just from single cells to more advanced stages of life, but to evolve emotionally, and mentally. If we can embrace change as a positive, that interracial couples make some damn cute babies, that people are on a core level all the same, thus deserve the same, equal opportunities, regardless of our race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ect. We are all unique in our own ways, yet we are all put on the same rock, spinning around space together, for a certain amount of time, we are all going to die in less than a 100-120 years, this is fact. So we must embrace what little time we are given, and accept that things are universal, all humans are beautiful.

Characters

During the lecture about characters and archetypes, I was fascinated with Joseph Cambell's "Hero With a Thousand Faces" and the idea of Monomyth. As a kid we are all read the same types of stories with the basic plot line of the Hero, the Princess, and the Anti-Hero all fighting it out, and as most stories with these archetypes, the Hero wins and gets the girl, thus living happily ever after. The idea that you can find the exact same plot throughout these types of stories actually doesn't sit well with me. Obviously this statement has elements of hypocrisy, as I am a fan of movies like "Star Wars" and "Avatar." The main reason I like these types of movies, is because it allows for the creator to be as visually stunning as possible, while maintaing that sense of familiarity, therefor keeping the short attention span of viewers. However there are certain movies and shows that allow for character growth, in completely different way that that of the Monomyth.

I am currently watching a great TV show called "Dexter" on Showtime that uses the main character Dexter to mix up what you would consider a hero, mainly because he is a serial killer. The thing with Dexter is that he is constantly dealing with a "Dark Passenger" a force deep inside of him that keeps him in a non-stop battle with his public and private lives, including trying to raise a family.

The Dark Passenger is always telling him to kill, a problem that has plagued him since he was a child, which we find out was caused by seeing his mother being chopped up with a chainsaw because she was an informant for the police. Harry Morgan was the cop who found Dexter in a shipping container full of blood after several hours, and eventually he adopts Dex. This is crucial to the development of Dexter, mainly because Harry tries to install a sense of morality with a set of codes that he must always follow in order to keep his dark passeger contained. Harry understood that he wouldn't be around forever to protect his son, so the rules that Dexter must follow still allow him to kill those who would hurt innocent people. Dexter works as a blood splatter analysis for the Miami Police, giving him access to DNA, criminal databases, and the ability to know how a homicide department works. With Dexter you have a character trying to juggle multiple lives while still having to be the same person, act exactly the same way to the the people he sees day in and day out, even after getting back from a murder, chopping them up into perfect sized pieces, and dumping them 30 miles out at sea, donuts in hand for the unsuspecting detectives working side by side.

Daily Show Blog 4

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Biggest Newser
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

My personal favorite news show is the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and even though it is "fake news" I truly believe that it has more relevance on our current media, and political environment than most present news shows on TV today. The example above is my evidence for this argument, specifically the part where CNN has you text in the story that you would like to see. As Stewart explained, all three news stories are interesting, and significant to the world. Afghani women losing protective shelters, one of the worlds largest arms trade shows in the Middle East, and Iraq-Afghanistan female veterans finding themselves homeless, sometimes with kids, the public should have the right to be informed on such pressing issues. However CNNs programmers seem to think showing clips from youtube is more entertaining, and their right, it is much more fun to watch a cat putting on a bunny rabbit mask. This is what's so great about the Daily Show, Jon Stewart has a free and open platform to rip on whatever he and his writers woefully please just for a laugh, but in a sense not just for a laugh, to show what is the morally correct thing to do.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Crisis in Dairyland - For Richer and Poorer - Teachers and Wall Street
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

The idea that teachers, the people who are directly involved and in charge of out children's education, apparently are the ones bankrupting out economy, while Wall Street CEO's require millions of dollars in bonuses from the same pool of money that taxpayers used to bail out the banks that were corrupted by these same CEO's! Stewart is able to point out the hypocrisy not just in politics but the 24/hr media whom covers it. We must do all we can to see through the BS, cut the crap, and get straight to what is right and decent. The Daily Show does just that with a wink and a smile.

Photo by Matt Embrey