Damn, what a beautiful and heartbreaking piece. Kiri Davis has a long, successful career ahead of her if this is what she's doing while in high school.

Can we show this to all the anti-affirmative action, 'everything is just fine, racism is a thing of the past' people? What about a screening before the academy awards for all the producers, casting directors, etc.? Then, how about taking it on to fashion week for all the magazine editors?

Affirmative action... What is that, exactly? I was told by a family member that an exapmle of AA is when, say, a black person is accepted into a college just because they're black, instead of the more qualified person, because they're not a minority.

If that's the case, then I have a problem with AA, and think it's unfair.

RedDragoness:

Affirmative Action is a term that has been used to describe a whole range of practices meant to increase the diversity of a work force or school population. It almost never means giving an opportunity to someone solely because of their race or gender. I don't think anyone advocates giving unqualified people jobs or school admissions, but AA can mean giving someone extra training to make up for the fact that they have been denied opportunities or given inferior education in the past.

A more nuanced example is something like this: A college has a great number of applicants with similar grades and test scores and the college will accept a person who has a different cultural background or experiences from the rest. This may be because she is black, because she is a woman, because she is handicapped, or because of some particular hardship she has overcome. The reason to do this, other than to give opportunities to members of groups that historically have been denied those opportunities, is because studies have shown all students have a richer and broader experience when their peers are different from them.

A more specific example, closer to what your family member described, would be if there were two students, one white and one black, who were similar, but the white person had slightly better grades at a highly regarded school, while the black person went to a school with a history of low test scores in a socioeconomically challenged neighborhood. Looking at these students from an AA perspective is not just a matter of choosing the black student because he is black, but seeing what circumstances they have come from and deciding that it is important to give the black student a chance to reach his potential despite the fact that his grades may have been negatively affected by his environment, just as the white student was probably positively influenced by his. (Also, this is a huge generalization. I know that some students in poorly regarded schools get extra attention when they show initiative and that the best schools let some kids slip through the cracks)

Also, it is hardly ever a matter of one student versus one other student. These decisions are made on a case-by-case basis (I think this person should get in based on her application) in the context of thousands of applications, not just one.

I hope this helps. AA is a controversial issue, and there are a lot of false generalizations about what it is, and isn't. There are some types of AA that I would not be in favor of and others that I wholeheartedly support.

Also: this piece is as beautiful as it is sad. The young women are presented as aware and articulate, yet still profoundly affected by the demands on their physical appearance. It always bothers me when people are presented as either victims of hegemony or aware and therefore free from it. The whole problem of hegemony is that it doesn't go away magically just because you realize it's there. So brava, Kiri Davis.

I am amazed this was made by a teenager. Wow.

I didn't understand initially why you said it made you cry, Jessica. Until I saw the part with the children - I don't know what specifically touched you, but seeing that girl say the black doll was "bad", then have to admit it looked like her was heart wrenching :(

Also, as a woman I am constantly frustrated by the roles played in movies, by "strong women" always having to be weaker than the male lead. Or failing that, supernatural.

It only occurred to me a few months ago how it must effect childrens development when they have dark skin, and everywhere you look, there are white faces - movies, TV, ads, magazines, newspapers... Everywhere.

Watching that young girl suggest that the darker skinned doll was worse, and then put it forward because she had dark skin herself was pretty depressing. I dont really have much else to say other than the effect it had on me.

Fenriswolf, about that comment on mostly whites in the media, is that in America? Because its like that here in the UK. Although I think its because I heard that in 2001 about 90% of the UK population was white. So at least in the UK, if things are still pretty similar now, its not that surprising.

legallyblondeez, thanks for clearing that up for me. I understand now. Leave it to my family members to over-simplify something to make it look bad. My whole family is incredibly racist, especially the older ones. I think I'm the only one who isn't... *Sigh*

YayYayYay I can sign in again!

"Fenriswolf, about that comment on mostly whites in the media, is that in America? Because its like that here in the UK. Although I think its because I heard that in 2001 about 90% of the UK population was white. So at least in the UK, if things are still pretty similar now, its not that surprising."

I find this highly amusing (not at you, with you ;) as I'm not American. I'm a NZer.

I can't really comment on the US. But on "Western" countries in general (US/UK/Australia/NZ) I would say it's pretty true.

The fact there is generally one, if any, black characters, and they're seldom main parts, and there's almost never any racially ambigious people in mainstream movies always bugged me

But it was only when I compared it to the lack of women actually taken seriously in films that it occurred to me - imagine being a dark skinned kid, where NOTHING looked like you. Not just mainstream media; toys, educational books...

And it's being PC (a bad thing of course) whenever you include too many "minorities"

Social stereotypes make me want to smack my head into a wall at the best of times, let alone when I open my mind to a whole new vista of inequity :(