Journal 2

The week of September 9th, we discussed what place we would be attending for our listening post. A list was posted, which allowed us to see what place was most suitable for this assignment. The place that was chosen for my assignment was a flea market, which I was a bit skeptical about. I haven’t been to a flea market since I was a little girl, and the last thing I remember doing at the flea market was scratching the rashes I had. It does sound a bit awkward, but I am allergic to dirt, and the flea market that I last visited was outdoors. Between the heat, dirt and allergic reaction things couldn’t get worst.
An interesting article that we viewed in class and we discussed was about the author of a story. We all had our own views on Robert’s Samuels race. At first, I did not think that he was black because I thought that he would be more familiarized with what was going on, but I realized afterwards that he was. “Optimism still reigns on Northwest 62nd Street and Seventh Avenue, where talk is all about the new supermarket and the old businesses selling President Barack Obama T-shirts,” Samuel says. After looking more in depth at his writing, I realized that he knows the bad aspects of living in a community with violence. According to Samuels, Brewton and others want the same for their now-infamous patch of Northwest 15th avenue, a business thoroughfare where few businesses exist. Here there are no trees and the street's asphalt melts into the concrete of the sidewalk, worn-down like the residents who walk upon them. The road offers a glimpse of the Liberty City that revitalization has not fully touched. The way Samuel describes Liberty City makes me think that he is not black. He explains how the street’s asphalt melts into the concrete of the sidewalk, worn-down like the residents who walk upon them. I believe that the description of the residents could have been restated into a more positive or at least less biased illustration. Because of such description, it made me think that Samuels was white and viewed the people at Liberty City as being very different than any other individuals. I sometimes wonder how people think sometimes about others within their own race. When people live in an environment that is not so good, they usually want to strive for a better lifestyle, but once they get to a level of success, they view those that were once part of their community as low individuals.
My debate is how can people not be able to live amongst others, and only like to live amongst those of their own race and be fine with it, but once they can obtain a better house, a better lifestyle, they deal with others of different races. A well off community is going to have a variety of people of different races, and when an individual of low class reaches that level, they mostly get along with high class people. They no longer would like to live in a poor or low class community where individuals of their own race are living at. It seems that successful people try to avoid these environments, making me think that they’re ashamed of it. With this in mind, Samuels seems to have implemented his high standards ideology to those individuals that are not as privileged as him, he has done so by such description of Liberty City.
The commercial ads were a fun activity with an analytical discussion of what an audience thinks. How a commercial is perceived is very important because it can be a disadvantage to the company to create a stereotype amongst a race. For instance, customers are very essential to a business, and the word of mouth or the buzz is the best advertising technique there can be. How about if a customer watches a commercial ad, and perceives it in a wrong way or feels disrespected by it then this creates a problem. The problem is that this customer can tell family members and friends about this horrible commercial and the word starts spreading to a point where the company loses customers. Because of the importance in keeping customers, it is crucial for a company to know who their target is and to try to avoid any stereotypes.