Racism in Toyland is an article that disscusses the issues of racial and gender differences in toy stores. Even though there is supposed to be no more segrigation you can still see some today in stores and in other places. You can also still see some discrimination between genders by looking at what jobs that men and women have. In the article, Racism in Toyland Christine L. Williams sees that there is not only racism but also genderism in not only what jobs people have but also how customers and employees treat each other. In the article, she talks about three different toy stores named The Toy Warehouse, Diamond Toys, and Tomatoes. The Toy Wearhouse is a like a superstore that has low cost popular toys, similar to Walmart or Target. Diamond …show more content…
Almost all of the cashiers were white and the registers are scattered through out the store in the different departments. The managers like the other stores were mainly white men and they perfered women to work at the cash reister than other people. At the store, she saw many customers treat the few African American workers there badly and with no respect. In one incident while she was being trained by Tanesha, who is a 23 year old African American woman, two white women made their way up through the linr to the service desk and complained to Christine about how things were taking so long. Christine told them she was training and that was why it was taking so long and they immediately assumed that she was training Tanesha. They then demanded that she stop “training” Tanesha and help them or get someone else to help them and she then clarified that she was the one being trained, and in their embarisment they steped back in their place in …show more content…
At Toy Wearhouse she saw that when a white woman made a complaint and essentially threw a fit she would get a gift card, refund and the manager would yell at the staff. However, if that were a nonwhite perosn they would not be treated as nicely or be compensated at all. This leads people to believe that if they are white and throw a fit they will get whatever it is that they want verses a nonwhite person. Additionally it seemed that there were hardly any arguments at the high-end toy stores like Diamond Toys because they believe that the customers are more
Jeannette Walls was born on April 21, 1960 in Phoenix, Arizona. “After her junior year of high school, Walls moved away from home to live in New York City with her older sister, Lori. There she began her career as a journalist, working for The Phoenix. She graduated from Barnard College in 1984 with honors. Jeannette Walls is known for her work on the MSNBC gossip column "Scoop". She is also the author of four books: Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip (2000), The Glass Castle (2005), her first fiction work Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel (2009), and her latest novel The Silver Star (2013)” (“Jeannette Walls Biography”). In the book The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls narrates her outrageously dysfunctional childhood as a youth.
According to Newman in Sociology: The Architecture of Everyday Life, a social class “consists of people who occupy similar positions of power, privilege, and prestige” (Newman, 2012). Someone’s position in a social class can affect “virtually every aspect of their lives, including political preferences, sexual behavior, religious affiliation, diet, and life expectancy” (Newman, 2012). The social class that was represented in the film was the middle-class. The show, Pleasantville, portrays the 1950s in which the wife would stay at home cooking and cleaning while the father works. This show holds similar views to the show, Leave it to Beaver. The movie begins
How would you feel if a worker would not serve you because of your skin color?You would feel left out, and hurt. Cassie Logan was not served at the Wallace Store because of her skin color. To begin with,Cassie entered the store first but then a White Lady came into the store, and they served her first. Cassie Stated ¨Uh…excuse me, Mr. Barnett. I think you forgot but you was waiting on us before you was waiting on this girl here, and we been waiting a good while now for you to get back.¨
Inside Toyland, written by Christine L. Williams, is a look into toy stores and the race, class, and gender issues. Williams worked about six weeks at two toy stores, Diamond Toys and Toy Warehouse, long enough to be able to detect patterns in store operations and the interactions between the workers and the costumers. She wanted to attempt to describe and analyze the rules that govern giant toy stores. Her main goal was to understand how shopping was socially organized and how it might be transformed to enhance the lives of workers. During the twentieth century, toy stores became bigger and helped suburbanization and deregulation. Specialty toy stores existed but sold mainly to adults, not to children. Men used to be the workers at toy stores until it changed and became feminized, racially mixed, part time, and temporary. As box stores came and conquered the land, toy stores started catering to children and offering larger selections at low prices. The box stores became powerful in the flip-flop of the power going from manufacturers to the retailers. Now, the retail giants determine what they will sell and at what price they will sell it.
Racial discrimination emerges in the toy stores all the time. There is a scene noted by the author I found very impressive, which a black man wanted to refund two CD players, but he had been driven away and the CD players were confiscated because the manager deemed him as a thief! However, on the other side, white female customers always consider themselves has racial privilege or superiority, for instance, some of them even refuse to deposit large purses at service desk while all the customers are asked to do so. Other than that, white salesperson, as the author herself being one during her “undercover”, were always assumed as the one in charge by white customers. Racial segregation and discrimination are so distinct in this context. Recalling
All through time, the world has been racist and intolerant of people different from themselves. Countless millions have suffered due to the bigotry of people that couldn't understand change or differences among one another. There was a time when any soul that wasn't blue eyed and blonde haired in Germany, anyone with darker skin where immediately classed as inferior and not human. Even now, when you are not aware, racism is still a considerable problem. But sometimes it isn't one person being racist against another, but rather one person being racist against them self. The movie crash shows good examples of how racism against oneself, caused by fear and misunderstanding, is just as malevolent and evil as racism against another person. Fear is what makes people act racist. Farhad is one of many examples in the movie of a person who recognizes his own race and paralyzes himself through his own fear. Farhad believes that since he is Persian he is immediately being persecuted against and cheated. He flips out at the gun shop when the owner was insulting him which just furthers his fear of Americans. After the events on 9/11, which are referenced a lot in the movie, Farhad thinks that anyone who is Middle Eastern isn't welcome in America. Even after the gun shop owner was rude; his shop was destroyed by racist people who hated him. It is this same fear of being cheated because of his race that makes him very untrusting to people he doesn't know. He calls a lock smith to come fix his door because it won't lock. He immediately thinks that Daniel is trying to cheat him and steal money from him just because of his past endeavors.
Moreover, her argument relates to the historical events of US imperialism and to the term White Supremacy, the belief of superiority of the white race over others. History has also shaped the idea of discrimination, from the trade of African American slaves between European slave owners to Martin Luther Kings stand against racism. For instance, in the 1940s, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark designed and conducted a series of experiments known as “the doll tests” to study the psychological effects of segregation on African-American children ("Brown At 60: The Doll Test"). In today’s world, social media became a source for controversial topics such as racism. As I was scrolling through the Facebook platform I landed a video that went viral when a white mother captured her daughters’ reaction on receiving black dolls as gifts for Christmas. The older one politely tries to accept it while the little one throws it aside and cries uncontrollably. I was questioning the parents’ motives because they were laughing and taking it as a joke. It frankly proves that some parents do not know how to inculcate their children on viewing people equally. It makes one question whether or not racially colorblind people
Gender Stereotypes Among Children's Toys When you walk into the toy section of any store, you do not need a sign to indicate which section is on the girls’ side and which section is on the boys’ side. Aside from all the pink, purple, and other pastel colors that fill the shelves on the girls’ side, the glitter sticks out a lot as well. The boys’ toys, however, are mostly dark colors – blue, black, red, gray, or dark green. The colors typically used on either side are very stereotypical in themselves.
Dina faces more events that express how institutionalized racism is seen in the workforce. ZZ Packer states “there were usually only two lines of work for American gain-teaching or modeling. Modeling was out-she she was not the right race” (Packer 214). As a result of institutionalized racism, Dina struggles to find jobs which are dominated by the majority race. In this quote, Dina doesn’t fit into the standard ideal of getting jobs related to modeling. Because of her race, Dina is denied the experience to have a job in modeling. Like the article “African American Women in the Workplace: Relationships Between Job Conditions, Racial Bias at Work, and Perceived Job Quality” Dina is being restricted of the opportunity to work in the modeling industry. The modeling workforce is plagued with institutionalized racism, which therefore hinders Dina from finding a job. Since institutionalized racism is dominant when Dina tries to find a job this causes segregation amongst individuals of different races in the modeling workforce. In the case of Dina, institutionalized racism causes segregation between her American race and the majority race which in this case is
Throughout the history of the United States, whites dominated society by making laws that limited the power of minorities such as Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans. For hundreds of years, whites controlled minorities using laws and mind games to make sure these minorities never rose to threaten their control. In the 1950s and 60s, Congress passed laws to protect the civil rights of minorities such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination based on “race, color, or religion” in the work force. Even though many people would say that racism ended decades ago, in “Piercing the Brilliant Veil: Two Stories of American Racism” from the Indiana Law Journal, Deborah Jones Merritt argues that two stories of racism exist in our society.
Auster, Carol, and Claire Mansbach. "The Gender Marketing Of Toys: An Analysis Of Color And Type Of Toy On The Disney Store Website." Sex Roles 67.7/8 (2012): 375-388. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Discrimination has been found through out human history and in almost if not every culture. One of the most common, if not thee most is racial discrimination, or more commonly known as racism. In different ways both Bonilla-Silva’s “Racism Without Racists” and Diangelo’s “White Fragility” address this issue of racism; specifically the sub issues of racisms modern forms, such as the coded language, segregation, and the presentation of unequal opportunities. As well as how these new forms of racism are affecting the dominant “white” cultural ideas about racism or more so their lack there of in modern day society. The general conclusion of both was that due to the new ways racism prevents itself, white people are undereducated on the impact
The Development of Racism Slavery's twin legacies to the present are the social and economic inferiority it conferred upon blacks and the cultural racism it instilled in whites. Both continue to haunt our society. Therefore, treating slavery's enduring legacy is necessarily controversial. Unlike slavery, racism is not over yet. Loewen 143.
For my research project I chose the topic of Racism in Children's Literature. I chose this area of study because it is something that bothers me and I know as a child in school I was very uncomfortable with assignments that dealt with racism. One day I would like to make a difference to all the people who are affected by racism. My hypothesis states that if educators are better trained to deal with the delicate subject of racism in children's literature, books would not be banned, yet actually teach the lesson the authors of these books intended for all of us to learn.
Racism in Britain Britain emerged from the Second World War with a labour shortage. In 1944 a Royal Commission was established to assess the population of Great Britain. The commission returned its findings in 1949 recommending that extra labour was needed. The "European Volunteer Workers Scheme" was introduced. Its aim was to entice workers from Europe to come to Britain.