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Blogs I Commented On:

Martin Loo: WOMAN FIRED FOR GIVING THE FINGER TO DONALD TRUMP
Politics is the type of situation to divide people and to feel anger towards certain high officials. I agree that her choice was not a suitable choice and it was a big effect on her job. But even I have to admit that many people would give the middle finger to someone who is furious at someone else. I also agree that her actions were unreasonable however it shouldn't have got her fired. Maybe a suspension would have been better in my opinion. I can also see how the President wouldn't really care much about this issue because he has more problems to worry about (Kim Jong Un and NAFTA). Overall I agree and respect your opinion. It is unreasonable to use the middle finger as a first action to show to political officials and people should think about what might happen if the action is made.


Christan Villarosa: Women's March
Women deserve the right to fight for their own rights. There are still problems in this world today where women are treated unfairly. I agree with your opinion on how Trump should not always have to take the blame. Yeah he did some very bad things during his time as President (mostly name calling on Twitter.) The one thing I don't get is the evidence towards Trump going against towards women. I watch the news almost everyday and the only thing I heard Donald Trump say was how he supported the Women's March and International Women's Day. Overall, I see there are many issues surrounding women that need to be changed, especially with sexual assault and harassment. However, I do not get how people are able to blame Trump for almost any issue that comes about.

Mitchell Ballesteros: The importance of choosing the right representative.
The Pepsi Ad was a big change for the company (mostly in a negative way). I feel that people shouldn't focus on Kendall Jenner too much but the many other people in the ad. Other than Jenner, the people in the ad show protests of peace and celebration. I can see what message Pepsi was trying to say but people took it the wrong way. I bet if there was a black person or a person of any other ethnicity other than white, this would have been a normal commercial with no problems. I like how people talk about profiling people through race and culture when people profiled Jenner as a white person with money and no experience of social injustice (like the stereotypical racist white person). Overall, people just make assumptions without really looking at something thoroughly and people tend to believe these assumptions and don't look at the perspective on their own.

Matthew Pontanilla: Costume Problems
Halloween is a holiday where we dress up as someone we aren't and feel like that person for a day. I understand we should embrace culture and understand the different cultures in the world, but doing it through costumes isn't a good idea. I agree with your opinion on how stores shouldn't sell these costumes because they're offensive and can put the company in a bad place. I also agree with you on how people shouldn't take these costumes seriously. For example the rice hat is a hat worn by many rice farmers in Asia. If someone who isn't Asian wheres that on Halloween I would think they are dressing up as a certain video game character with electric powers. But then I would realize that they dressed up as an Asian rice farmer but I wouldn't mind that much and would just say "Good Job Then". Overall, we should avoid costumes that are teasing culture on Halloween. We should just dress up as people who are fictional so it does not offend people that much.

Jeremy T: NFL Kneels - 200 Players Take A Knee Against Injustice
The National Anthem represents pride and honour for a country. I feel that people should salute their National Anthem however they want. I agree with you that Trump should stop and take a look around to see what his country is doing to make things right. There would be chaos if people didn't get their message out, which is what happened in this situation. Maybe if Trump and the others knew what they were doing by kneeling down maybe this situation would be looked over. Colin did the right thing and he influenced many people. I also don't get how Trump states that the only way to salute the anthem is to stand. Their National Anthem doesn't say anything about standing, but the Canadian Anthem does which gives a reason for Canadians to stand. Overall, people who support Trump's words on this issue should stop looking at themselves and look at others and how they're making change because change can influence the world and it can come with many beneficial effects. Especially if it has to do with race and culture.

Christopher Law: Dove Ad And Racism
Racism still exists in our world today. Using commercials to promote racism has died down but Dove seemed to bring it back accidentally. I agree with you that people are looking over it too much as racist and people should realize that the ad was never meant to be racist but cultural. I feel this was deemed racist due to the amount of things happening around the world that has to do with racism. I just know Dove wanted to make the ad cultural but they planned it out wrong so the message looked racist. I remember seeing an Asian ad about Laundry detergent where the Asian woman put a black man in a washing machine and he came out Asian. I found that ad to be more racist than the Dove ad. Overall, I feel if people want to make an ad about culture they should make sure it has no signs of racism in it and people should look at ad's more carefully before coming to a conclusion.

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#metoo #timesup: My Response

          For many years, women have been used and taken advantage of by many people young or old. Men are usually the ones to blame for these cases because in there heads they think and believe it is right to take advantage of a female. However many men don't dwell in that world where woman are used. It seems that these actions are starting assumptions in the media. Because so much of this is happening the media is focusing more on the bad news on the topic rather than what is right.

          The Women's March is held every year by mostly women to protest about women being put down and how woman shouldn't be used like objects. Most of the people that participate are feminists. Feminists try to make things right and equal for women all over the world. Many well know people in the world are feminists like Hillary Clinton and Emma Watson. In my opinion I feel this movement is helpful but it is being covered by all the negative news, especially the ones that contain cases of sexual assault, sexual harassment, rape, and many other negative things that relate to women being abused. On that day of the Women's March, from my point of view the media didn't really seem to focus on that movement that much. The movement is a sign of hope for those out there who support and aid the women of the world. However due to the Weinstein effect it seems like foul play is more important than a peaceful rally. The Weinstein effect is an effect where many famous male celebrities are being accused by women that they have sexually assaulted or sexually harassed them. This is named after Harvey Weinstein because all of these allegations have been coming up after many women, even celebrities have said Weinstein has sexually assaulted or sexually harassed them. After that many celebrities have been labelled to have sexually assaulted women in the past.

    The hashtags #metoo and #timesup has encouraged people especially women to come forward to talk about how they have been sexually assaulted or sexually harassed. Many of these responses contain celebrities that I have enjoyed watching. For example one of my favourite bands Hedley was accused of sexual allegations. This made me a little sad because the band has helped me through hard times especially with their song "On My Own". After 2 weeks Jacob Hoggard of Hedley confessed he did some bad things and the band has chosen to go on hiatus for a while. This saddened me more because I won't hear from one of my favourite bands for a while and they'll probably stop their pattern of a new album two years from when the previous one was released.

   Overall, I hope this trend that brings out negativity to women STOPS. Let's hope the world can become a better place where men don't harm women for their own pleasure. I won't get myself involved too much but every one needs to find their gentle and kinder side of themselves so they can live happy with no harm involved.

Women Fired For Giving The Finger: My Response

        When Donald Trump was named The New president of The United States of America, many people were disappointed or outraged. Many things happened in the first 100 days for Donald Trump with many new plans and many problems that would be resolved soon after. Over the past few months people finally accepted that Donald Trump was going to be the president for the next four years. From what I have seen, people are still out there rebelling against the Republican's and Donald Trump.

    The article states that the vehicles that goes around with President Donald Trump passed by a woman who was doing her daily bike ride.  She then realized the vehicles and she flipped the bird directly towards the vehicles. The woman was fired from her job for her actions and she even stated that she'll do it again. When I saw this article I thought to myself, "Well, many people would give the middle finger to someone that they dislike." In my opinion they shouldn't have fired the woman for her actions but put her on suspension from her job instead. For example if you give the middle finger to someone at school, there's a pretty low chance you will get expelled from school. You would most likely get suspended from school and a call to your parents. I could see that she was fired because she did it to government officials but comparing it to school again. If I gave the middle finger to any of the teachers, principals, or representatives in my school I would get into A LOT of trouble, BUT I would probably get another chance and stay at the same school if I only did it once. I also feel the people at her workplace were scared that Donald Trump would go after the company or the people in charge of her workplace and tweet about it.  From what I've seen, Trump won't really care about one person in one workplace in one state in one city. They were probably just scared from what the media says about him. Trump probably already knows many people hate him (including the Democrats) and this is just something on a low level compared to others (CNN and Kim Jong Un A.K.A Rocket Man.)

    Overall, this just shows how much people hate Donald Trump and how people get consequences for doing something they should've thought about doing before doing it. In my opinion people should just be patient until 2020 and try not to think about Trump too much. Even though the media is riding on his back everywhere and it's hard to resist, it shouldn't get into peoples head too much. Some day people are just going to get bored of news based on him and anything with his name in it.

      

Players Take A Knee: My Response

     For months now NFL players have been taking a knee for the national anthem. Many people have started to do it when Donald Trump was elected for President.  Many of the athletes in the NFL are African American and when Trump tweeted out about taking a knee, the athletes didn't want to obey someone who is labelled racist.
 
   The NFL Players just wanted to show their loyalty to their country. However one person who thinks there is only one way to honour a country forbids the NFL players to honour their country one way. From I have read an NFL player took a knee during the national anthem to promote/protest on police brutality and abuse on the black community. Many people have protested against this action of kneeling saying that it does not honour to the country and it does not show allegiance to the flag. Colin Kaepernick was one of the first athletes to be called out for kneeling during the national anthem  Since then, Kaepernick was signed off from the NFL and he then filed a lawsuit against the NFL. Since then athletes in the NFL and other sports have kneeled down during the national anthem. Even athletes in Canada are kneeling during their national anthem. When Trump tweeted his thoughts about kneeling during the National Anthem, the situation got more worse and the protests got bigger to show even bigger messages of freedom and other things.

     In my opinion you should have the freedom to be in any position during the national anthem, as long as it honours the country and salutes to the flag. I feel it was unreasonable for Trump to tell people the only way to honour the country through the national anthem is by standing. I've witnessed many people sitting and kneeling during national anthems because they feel it is right. In Canada the national anthem's lyrics are "O, Canada, we Stand on guard for thee." These lyrics can be a reason why we should stand during a national anthem. The American national anthem does not say anything about standing up or standing proud so people in the U.S.A should be able to be in any position they want. I also feel the people who are against the kneeling protest don't really get the message on why they are kneeling. They're kneeling for rights and freedom which should be in all countries with no excuse.  Overall I feel there is no proper way of honouring your country during the national anthem. People have their own ways and beliefs to live in the country they live in and they should all be respected without excluding anyone.

Racist Halloween: My Response

     Halloween is used as a day to dress up in costumes and eat candy. That's what many say about that one day.  Many of the costumes are usually innocent for little kids. However adult costumes may be a little far fetched, mostly with women costumes. The costumes presented many may find inappropriate and some might say "It's just a costume."
       

   At first glance, I knew it was a costume that would be deemed offensive by many people. Many costumes in the past have offended many people even if it didn't relate with a certain culture and it was just a certain character. Many of these ridiculous costumes get into the media and the media always likes to portray things as bad. I also feel that the people who live in that culture may have a lot of opinions on this situation many might say it is a costume and that it is or many might say that it disrespects the culture of the indigenous people. I feel that this problem can be resolved if people listen to what others think of the costumes. Also many stores that sell Halloween Costumes like Party City or the Halloween stores that open for a limited time should reject these costume ideas or hide them away so customers can't buy the offensive costumes. Also from a customers perspective they should think about what they're buying. When I buy Halloween costumes I always see if others would like the costume (even though I was Batman 4 times in my life.) From these Indigenous costumes I would realize that many people would not enjoy them as much and not many people would want to go trick or treating with me. The creators of these costumes should come forward with an apology for this ridiculous or offensive idea of this Halloween costume. These costumes is like if someone wore a white cloak and many think it's a ghost costume until the person wearing the costume says he's portraying a member of a certain clan that hates the black race.  A costume like that would get a lot of backlash like this indigenous costume.

  Overall, the purpose of Halloween is to scare spirits away and get a trick or a treat, not to offend a culture and not make a big deal about it. This may be just a fad for one Halloween but maybe it will continue again to next year with a different offensive costume. Also many discriminating actions can never be stopped and they'll still keep coming. However let's not make discriminating actions on days like Halloween.

   

 

Inclusive Pepsi Commercial Not So Inclusive: My Response

     Pepsi is a very well known company, it is known for its cola flavoured soda and many say Pepsi is the better soda than others.  This advertisement represents a flaw in the company that will leave a negative mark for a long time.

   From what I have read, people have been saying that this advertisement is aimed towards anti-racial group Black Live Matter by putting  Kendall Jenner (A caucasian woman) in the advertisement. Many of the complaints rolled onto Twitter with even the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr even tweeting about the pepsi ad. Many jokes (memes) have arouse on the internet since this advertisement was released. Many of the jokes were pictures of racial protests or conflicts and the caption saying "If He/She had a pepsi, he/she would be fine." After a few months the backlash died down and the Pepsi advertisement has already done its damage to the company. Also Pepsi has made a tweet with an apology for their advertisement.

     From my point of view, this is just another case of bad planning for an advertisement. Like the Dove advertisement many people just assumed it was racist due to how the commercial was shown even though the advertisement's purpose was not to be racist. In my opinion this advertisement wanted to try and stop the chaos going on with different cultures. From what I've seen, Pepsi doesn't really do advertisements relating to different cultures or anything related to cultural problems in the world. In my opinion, Pepsi was trying to do something new and something based on a serious topic but they planned it in a way for people to think it was not inclusive. I think Pepsi will try to not do that again and go back to close up shots of the carbonated cola drink as their advertisements.

     

Dove Ad gone Horribly Wrong: My Response

     Dove, A company who has good remarks for the cleansing products they sell. Dove is a bigger company than many other competitors and is more well known to many people.

      At first glance, when I saw this advertisement, I was a bit surprised about one of their advertisements being racist. From many of the dove ads I have seen, they get many cultures to advertise about a new product. From my perspective, when you first see the advertisement you think of one point that comes straight out of your head and you use that point to convey your opinion of what the message is. When I first saw this ad I thought it was racist as well and I agreed with many people who say that as well. However when I read the articles I realized and understood the message Dove was trying to send out. The point of the advertisement was not meant to be racist, but to show off many cultures. Lola Ogunyemi says that as well, she didn't see the advertisement as racist or Dove putting out a racial message. She thought of the ad as when they take off the shirts they reveal another culture and another to convey that many cultures use dove. In my opinion Dove made a flaw with putting Lola first then the white woman next. Maybe if they switched the order around then many people won't find it racist. In society many people see many races that are not caucasian to be picked on the most. Maybe next time Dove decides to make another advertisement with many cultures they will alter the ad to not look as racist.  One of the articles says that Dove did a racist ad before this. The ad is that a black woman is at a before sign and a white woman is at a after sign. This ad has brought negative reputation to the company. This ad that was made years before may have given off the idea that Dove was doing another racist ad because they did it in the past and they will most likely do it again. As a thought, if Lola did not reply to the criticism in the media and give a response many people would still see it as a racist ad to this day. What I'm trying to say is that when one person says one thing, majority would believe that one thing too. However the majority has not seen the story from another persons perspective, mainly the people involved.  Overall, if Lola's response was given before the media this Dove Ad would not be deemed racist.

   Overall, in my opinion this advertisement was never meant to have any racial meaning to it. Many people just believe it is racist because of what the majority of people say. Always look at other peoples perspective of things before making a conclusion on an opinion. Maybe Dove will be more gentle about advertising after seeing the responses.