To help guide your viewing, here is a synopsis of the movie “Drawn Together: Comics, Diversity, and Stereotypes.”
With a lively backdrop of superheroes, comic books, and animated comics, Drawn Together: Comics, Diversity, and Stereotypes brings together three talented artists—a Sikh, a woman, and an African American—who are challenging the racist stereotyping currently endemic in America through their work.
The documentary provides a rare opportunity to explore the subjects of race, gender, and religion stereotyping through the universally popular medium of comic books and cartoons. Drawn Together boldly encourages viewers to unlearn stereotyping, look beyond the obvious, and confront media prejudices—all through an uncommon and inherently engaging everyday source.
Expert commentary is provided by Professor Arvind Singhal, a world-renowned expert in entertainment education; Andrew Farago, the curator of San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum; and Adam Elrashidi, a cartoonist and producer at Al Jazeera. They share their thoughts on how to solve the problem of racist stereotyping by changing the stories being told and discuss how the three profiled artists have brought about a groundswell movement to combat the way we traditionally look at racist stereotypes.
One was about what makes someone or something part of popular culture. The other was about creative people whose works support diversity rather than stereotypes.
For your main posting, please look back at American history from 1800 to recent times. Find a person, event, artifact, or movement, school, group, or institution that fits into our two themes this week, namely that it is a part of popular culture and that it supports diversity rather than stereotypes.
Your main posting should have three paragraphs. First, tell us what you chose and why it is part of popular culture. Second, describe how your choice supports diversity rather than stereotypes. Third, tell us why you chose it. Why did this attract your attention and also make it worthy of consideration in a course on the history of popular American culture?
Check the discussion rubric if you aren’t sure what a good discussion posting looks like. This rubric is in Part II of our syllabus. Remember to have all the required parts for this posting.
Post this new thread with your three paragraphs in our Week 9 Discussions board on or before Friday night at 11:59 pm Central time.
