Bryant violated NCAA bylaw

Left: Deion Sanders. Photo by CBS. Right: OSU's Dez Bryant. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman

Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant has been ruled ineligible for violating an NCAA bylaw, the school announced Wednesday.

Bryant, an All-American who is ranked ninth overall on Mel Kiper Jr.'s most recent Big Board, was ruled ineligible after lying to the NCAA when he was asked if he had visited Deion Sanders' home and had worked out with him.

Oklahoma State is expected to file a formal appeal as soon as Thursday.

"We are certainly disappointed, but we are moving forward as we would with any challenge during the season," coach Mike Gundy said, according to the university.

A person close to the situation said Bryant will tell the NCAA in seeking an appeal of his ineligibility that he did in fact visit Sanders' home in Texas in May, that he jogged with him at a training facility and that they had lunch, for which he paid.

Bryant is planning to fly or drive to Indianapolis to tell the NCAA his story as soon as Monday, the source said. Sanders, with whom Bryant will say he had a personal relationship, told the NCAA that he had visited with Bryant.

The NCAA interviewed Bryant before the season and also on Sept. 11, the day before a game against Houston, asking if he had visited Sanders' home, if he had worked out with Sanders and also if he had had any interaction with agents.

Bryant told them no to all questions. Bryant is expected to say that he wasn't sure if it was a violation to visit with Sanders. Bryant has been told he has been suspended because he lied about the answers to the first two questions.

In a prepared statement, the school released the following comment from Bryant: "I made a mistake by not being entirely truthful when meeting with the NCAA. I sincerely regret my mistake and apologize to my teammates, coaches, OSU fans and the NCAA."

Bryant, a junior, has 17 receptions for 323 yards and four touchdowns this season. He caught 87 passes for 1,480 yards and 19 touchdowns last season.

Bryant first met Sanders at a restaurant in Dallas and they exchanged phone numbers. Sanders sends Bryant inspirational text messages nearly every day, according to a person close to the situation.

The ex-NFL player was not affiliated with Oklahoma State and the incident does not involve anyone associated with the university, the athletic program or the school's alumni, donors or boosters, the school said. The school did not provide additional details of the incident, citing an ongoing investigation into the matter.

According to the school, Bryant violated NCAA Bylaw 10.1, which addresses "unethical conduct" and includes "Knowingly furnishing the NCAA or the individual's institution false or misleading information concerning the individual's involvement in or knowledge of matters relevant to a possible violation of an NCAA regulation."

Joe Schad is a college football reporter for ESPN. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

The book Who Moved my Cheese by: Spencer Johnson is about how different individuals react to getting their "cheese moved." Dez Bryant's cheese was moved when the NCAA suspended in-definitely him for the rest of the 2009 season for unethical conduct. When asked whether or not he met with ex-NFL star Deion Sanders by NCAA officials, Bryant lie and denied that he met with Sanders. Although his meeting with Sanders in not a NCAA violation, lying to NCAA officials is.

Bryant's status in the 2010 NFL draft likely won't be terribly effected by his suspension but he will missed by the Cowboys as they make a run at their first ever BCS bowl appearance. Bryant was OSU's leading receiver in the 2008 season and was on track to have another monster season this year. It is in-definte whether Bryant will be able to participate in any games this season but the final verdict will likely be reached by Monday.

Final Remarks

Overall I have taken a lot from this class. At first I thought this class would be a "blow off" class in which I would be able to breeze through and not take anything form. The first day of class changed my mind about that very fast. This class has been by far the most diverse class I have ever taken. In the class, there were people from all different backgrounds and cultures. With the class being structured around discussion I was able to get the perspective from many different people.



Before this class I was very close minded and was very set in my ways. Now I am more better educated on the subjects of race gender and media and am more open to other ideas. I really feel like I am leaving this class a better person with a better understanding of other races, cultures and the other gender. My previous lack of sensitivity and understanding of others before was a mere lack of education.



The knowledge I have gained in this class has been very eye opening and had allowed me to take a completely different perspective towards those who are different than me. I think that if everybody was forced to take this class we would all graduate more prepared for the real world and know how to accept others in a more respectful way.



Although there is still a huge problem with diversity in the media, we have made huge strides. The information in our projects alone shared enough information in regards to media's impact on race and gender to teach this class. In these projects we were required to independently study this matter allowing us to get a real life view of how the media continues to favor certain parties. Example: http://newsok.com/police-2-year-olds-injuries-not-caused-only-by-kick-from-horse/article/3366585?custom_click=lead_story_photo (featured article on newsok.com). When looking at the history of this impact of the media it is obvious that there is still a long way to go in diversifying the media but huge strides have been made over the last 50 years. http://www.gmu.edu/thinklearn/images/m-livas.jpg



I am still not extremely crazy about blogging but I understand the purpose. To truly understand the impact media has on race and gender, one must become the media. Blogging is the easiest way for students to consistently do so. On top of that it gives us an opportunity to get to know the opinions of our peers and to express our opinions in return.



As previously said, I have really enjoyed everything learned in this class. I really feel like I am better for taking this class. At one point I thought about dropping this class but I'm now really glad stuck it out. Although I probably wont make an A in RGM, RGM has better prepared me to succeed in future classes and endeavors.

Hip-Hop and Media

In my opinion Hip-Hop can be defined in different categories. Hip-Hop music is rap combined with a rhythmic beat, typically a beat one can dance to. Hip-Hop culture is what you see and hear on music videos and song lyrics. This culture typically involves, money, cars, partying, drugs, alcohol, killing and sex.

The five Hip-Hop videos I picked out were all songs on my ipod. I know these songs but have not seen their music videos. In my opinion these songs seemed to describe the Hip-Hop culture very well.

1. Dat Baby by Shawty Putt (feat. Lil Jon and Too $short)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywSr5AdEM8c

2. Got Money by Lil Wayne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKtZF-Mxv2I&feature=PlayList&p=042F67F750A1E489&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=18

3. I'm on a Boat by Incredibad (feat. Akon)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU

4. Make Way by Birdman (feat. Lil Wayne and Fat Joe)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-wNNC2iico

5. The Boss - Rick Ross (Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTOEV6f7jB4]

The two main Hip-Hop and R&B stations in Oklahoma are Power 103.5 and Wild 104.9. The two most common advertisements on 103.5 were Subway sandwiches and the Harlem Renaissance exhibit at the OKC Art Museum. The two most common advertisements on 104.9 were Riverwind Casino and Mark Heitz Chevrolet.

Hip-Hop has made an influence all throughout media. MTV has a lot of shows that are highly influenced by the Hip-Hop image including From G's to Gents, MTV Cribs and College Life. A lot of Comedy Central shows have been influenced by the Hip-Hop Culture as well. Shows such as The Colbert Report, The Daily Show with John Stewart and Reno 911 have all used hip-hop culture to bring satire to their programs.

The main thing that Hip-Hop has contributed to mainstream culture is vocabulary. Hip-Hop has developed its own vocabulary some of which has become fairly main stream. A couple of examples would be "Ice" which means some jewelry, "Whip" meaning car, "Shawty" meaning girl or girlfriend, "Boo" meaning significant other, and "Stacks" meaning a lot of money. On top of vocabulary Hip-Hop is also responsible for setting a lot of trends such as large rims on cars and high end stereo "systems" in cars.

At my age My parents only listened to Rock & Roll. Both of them grew up in the 60s and 70s and Rock was by far the most popular genre of the time. Both of them pretty much listened to the same music: The Beatles, The Eagles, Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton and Wings. During that time a lot of music had a lot to do with the same thing Hip-Hop represents today such as: sex, drugs and alcohol. Some songs also dealt with love which today R&B deals with that today.

On a personal level, I enjoy listening to Hip-Hop, Rap and R&B. Growing up I listened to the Cronic Album by Dr. Dre and also really liked the Bad Boys 10 year anniversary CD. Now I mainly listen to Lil Wanye, I think he has revolutionized Hip-Hop and will continue to dominate record sales. Although I enjoy listening to Hip-Hop I do not necessarily agree with the lifestyle associated with it. Rap is a genre that takes a lot of heat for what lyrics are talking about but at the same time the artists aren't telling their listeners to do what they talk about in their songs. This is a lot like what was going on when my parents were my age, a lot of songs talked about reckless lift styles and as a result many people chose to follow those lifestyles. What people tend to ignore is that those lifestyles are a choice made by the person fulfilling them.

The Hip-Hop industry is also an industry dominated by black artists. Very few non blacks have broken into the industry putting the consequences of the Hip-Hop lifestyle on the black race as a whole. On the other hand there have been a few white Hip-Hop artists break into the industry (Vanilla Ice, Eminem and Increadibad) as well as a good number of Latin artists (Fat Joe, etc...). One of my video examples was a video featuring a white rap group and another was by Fat Joe.

Finally, I have found that Native American are now attempting to break into the industry. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=122422599

Race and Gender Imagery in Advertising

When I started this assignment, I began watching television stations that I tend to watch the most.  These channels consist of ESPN, FX, Fox, Comedy Central and TBS.  These are pretty much the channels I surf no matter what.  I originally thought I would be able to watch TV for an hour or so and notice diversity throughout the commercials.  This was completely false, I last there for about a half an hour and found absolutely no noticeable diversity in any of them.  I finally started looking closer and found that minority especially black people were not well represented in most commercials and in the commercials that they were represented they were usually upholding some kind of stereotype.  

10 Example Commercials:

1. SoBe involved more African Americans than Caucasian people in its 2009 Super Bowl commercial.  (the men featured in this commercial were professional athletes)

 2. Jello commercials featured Bill Cosby for years.

 3. McDonald’s Cha Cha Slide commercial featured a black family

 4. McDonald’s has commercials about the McDonald’s Latino youth leader of the month which features an all Latino Commercial

 5. Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial featured a black mother and daughter eating at KFC

 6. Lexus IS Commercials only feature Caucasian people

 7. Little Caesar’s Hot’n’Ready Pizza showed all white people and only one Black man who was in the back cooking the pizza (subservient to white people)

 8. Listerine commercial features a white black and Asian person

 9. DSW shoes commercial is very diverse featuring a wide range of different races

 10. Popeye’s Chicken features an African Americana women as the main focus of the commercial

The first commercial that had substantial minorities was a SoBe commercial and every person in that commercial was a professional football player upholding the stereotype that most African Americans are superior athletes.

The second commercial was actually replayed on the TV Show "Family Guy."  This TV show referred to the age old Jello commercials that featured Bill Cosby.  Although these commercials featured a an African American it is noticed that he's a famous icon and non-famous African Americans are generally featured in a long time commercial series as Cosby was in the Jello commercials.

The third commercial was a McDonald's commercial that featured a black family eating fast food while eating it to the beat of the Cha Cha Slide song which, is a rap song.  This is a stereotype in the fact that most African Americans are featured in rap as well as fast food commercials.

The fourth commercial was played during the Jeff Capel show and it was the McDonald's Latino youth leader of the month.  This commercial is a local commercial that features a different Latino Student each month.

The fifth commercial was a KFC commercial that featured a black mother and daughter enjoying KFC.  This meets the stereotype that the black community enjoy fried chicken more then other races and upholds the belief that African Americans are featured mainly in fast food commercials.

The sixth commercial was a Lexus commercial.  I particularly noticed that the Lexus IS commercials never once featured a race other than Caucasian.  With this being a luxury car this upholds the stereotype that Caucasians are the only race that can afford this vehicle.

The seventh commercial was a Little Caesar's commercial that featured all white people except a black man was barely noticeable in the background cooking the pizza.  This upholds the stereotype that African Americans are generally featured as subservient to white people.

The eighth commercial was a Listerine commercial that was the most diverse commercial that I witnessed.  It featured Caucasian, African American, and Asian people equally.

The ninth commercial was a DWS shoes which was also very diverse.  It featured a wide range of women ranging in race and ethnicity.  Although this was very diverse, Caucasian women were featured more often than other races.

The tenth commercial was a Popeye's commercial featuring a black women working at Popeye's.  This displays that black people work mainly at fast food restaurants, and also it upholds the stereotype that the black community enjoys fried chicken.

These commercials were just the commercials that stood out to me when monitoring race.  The commercials that did not however featured only white actors and actresses.  This goes to support the claim that minorities have had a hard time breaking into the commercial world and when they do they generally support some kind of stereotype.  Although these commercials may seem extreme and the fact that minorities are rarely seen in commercials this may have to do with the channels I tend to view the most.  Regardless, the lack of diversity in advertisements was very noticeable and catered the the Caucasian community.

 

 

Social Movements and the News Media

After a few years of studying media and communications I have come up with the conclusion that money determines the news and stets the agenda. When it comes down to it the big conglomerates and business people who own the media outlets just want to make sure they make money. This means that all these outlets do is broadcast something that people will pay attention to. If it is not a hot button issue to the majority then they are just wasting time and money broadcasting it. 

It is important to have a media to represent all types and interest groups because people need to be heard and be in touch with their own culture and interests. Whether or not it is main stream is up to whether or not it will make money. With the capitolist economy of the United States, something that is not main stream will nto make a wide based media broadcast.  The interests of minorities are sadly not the interests of the majority and for that reason they're not broadcasted main stream.  

Initially the war was almost completely backed by the media and most of America.  As it's drug on the media has lost faith and understanding in the direction we're going with the war and with this the media has set the agenda for the people's opinions.  When the troops discovered that there were no nuclear weapons in Iraq, the media became sceptic of our operations as did the rest of the U.S.  After 9/11 being a patriot was the thing to do but ever since the economy has gone down the media has painted the image that ending the war would end all the tough times people are experiencing now.  

Initially the media mentioned nothing of the Jena conflict.  Local stations reported it but most Caucasian stations did not.  Americans heard about the injustice through the broadcasts of predominantly african american stations.  Although there a lot of protests regarding proposition 8 I feel like the coverage is minimal especially in regards to past similar protests.  It is said that during Vietnam, war protests made the news daily and proposition 8 has definitely not.  

In the case of the civil rights movement I believe that the media was in the long run beneficial.  At first the media portrayed the movement in a bad light but towards the end of the movement the media painted MLK as the face of the movement.  In retrospect the media made Caucasians look ridiculously ignorant but at the time they weren't seen that way which did not benefit minorities.  If you look at it from an outside perspective I believe that the media's broadcast benefited the movement but the media's opinions offered in regards to the movement were less than beneficial.

I think it's a shame that the media has the power to set the agenda because they are basically forming opinions based off the opinion of their organization.  On the other hand it becomes the duty of the media to display integrity and become the voice of the people in regards to certain issues.  I think that the fact that money is so involved with everything especially the media that minorities don't get enough coverage as they need and deserve.  I also think that catering the the majority often portrays minorities unjustly.  As for media's coverage on war.... this is the reason that I don't buy into everything the media puts out there.  The fact that the media is so back and forth in regards to the war hurts its credibility in my opinion.  Personally I am a strong believer in not changing stances or at least admitting to being wrong when changing.  The media on the other hand does not take on this philosophy.

Race Gender Stereotype

2-22 9:30 pm

Dave Chappelle stand up

white people aren't scared of cops

Racial Stereotype

2-22 10:00 pm

Heineken beer commercial

walk in closet

Gender Stereotype

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0LgJo9Do-8

2-22 4:30 pm

American History X (movie)

nio nazi

racial stereotype

2-23 5 pm

Crash (movie)

a movie based on racial stereotypes

racial stereotype

2-23 10 pm

Summer Heights High (show)

called a red head a ranger referring to him as an (orangoutang)

racial stereotype

2-23 9:30 pm

OU vs. Kansas

women announcers always give half time interviews of games (because coaches are nicer to women)

gender stereotype

2-24 noon

radio - wild 104.9

If I were a Boy by Biance 

gender stereotype

2-24 3:00 pm

TV- BET 

black entertainment network, a station dedicated to a single race

racial stereotype

2-24 5:30 pm

went to a Ted's 

every worker was hispanic 

racial stereotype

2-25 noon

movie- Beerfest

German's were the best drinkers

racial stereotype

When trying to notice stereotypes it was amazing to see how obvious these stereotypes are and how I have never noticed.  They are every where and on every media outlet.  There are movies and songs dedicated to gender stereotypes.  There are also movies that exploit racial issues.  It is so embedded in our society that it is almost a joke.  

I didn't really get to document a personal stereotype for this assignment but it was very interesting witnessing the fact that every employee at Ted's mexican restaurant was hispanic.  I also thought it was interesting taking a closer look at films such as Crash and American History X that focus on racial matters and differences.  These movies are extremely racially charged and really display how the American society is when regarding race.  During this assignment I also witnessed a racial stereotype that I had never heard of before.  When watching the HBO series Summer Heights High, a character referred to another character as a "ranger" because he had red hair.  

When observing gender stereotypes there were much more obvious occurrences.  For instance Beonce has a song called "If I were a Boy" which pretty much names every male stereotype anybody could think of.  I also observed the Heineken Beer commercial which was in my opinion hilarious.  This particular commercial involved women going crazy for a closet full of shoes and men going crazy over a closet full of beer which is extremely stereotypical.  

After completing this assignment I realized that these stereotypes are all within out comfort zones and are made by society.  Everybody has certain stereotypes in which they are used to and would be uncomfortable of things were different.  In my opinion I think that some stereotypes are harsh and others are for the most part harmless.  The Heineken commercial was harmless but on the other hand the stereotypes at seen in American History X and Crash are offensive to most.  

I have nothing more to say about this.

Privilege

After watching the Tim Wise video on privilege I reached a better understanding of exactly what privilege is. For the most part I find the majority of Wise's comments to be true. I believe that privilege plays a big part of people's everyday lives and white males tend to receive the most privilege. Perhaps the most obvious supporter of this accusation is the fact that most supervisors, administrators, CEOs, etc... are white men.



I think the way media represents privilege the most is through movies, TV shows and commercials. All of these mediums tend to portray the boss, principal, etc... (person in charge) as a white male. Rarely do you see a non caucasion male or even a female playing the roll as the head authority figure. When this is the case it seems as if the that person is the bad guy and not very effective in the authoritative position.



Daily Observed Privileges:



1. The president of the University of Oklahoma is a white male and has never been anything but a white male it the history of OU.

2. More females get accepted into OU than males.

3. When a college person gets pulled over in a weekend night in Norman they are almost always questioned for driving under the influence and adults are rarely ever questioned.

4. Males are issued more tickets than females in relations to the amount of times each gender gets pulled over.

5. Recent studies show that women make 72% of their male coworkers salaries.

6. Land lords discriminate against males when in search of renters and prefer female renters.

7. Last night at the bars I was served faster than any ethnic person or female, assuming I had money or my daddy's credit card. (perhaps the most commonly used stereotype of young men in college)



I strongly believe that society believes in the one drop rule. Take famous icons in the U.S. today such as: Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, Jimmy Hendrix. All of these men are considered black when in fact Obama is half black and half white, Tiger is half 50% black, 25% Chinese and 25% native American, and Hendrix is half black and half Jewish. This to me is the definition of the one drop rule.

When Wise talked about identifying new information and changing behaviors in relation to this information. He was referring to the fact that most adults recognize the fact that privilege is a real thing. Further, he encourages people to change their behaviors based off of this recognition to attempt to eliminate privilege. I think that he is a little naive in this regard merely on the fact that people recognize privilege but the most recognizable privilege is when it is not working in your favor. I think that people naturally victimize themselves and shut out the fact that they may not be the victim. If everybody from all races and both genders recognized that privilege is everywhere and favors all different backgrounds than we could eventually begin to eliminate but we will continue to go no where if we just focus on white male privilege although it is the most apparent privilege.