The Controversy of Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Yes, I am posting about Star Wars. Surprised? You shouldn't be.
But I'm not going to talk about how amazing Boba Fett is, or how Kylo Ren is clearly not a trained Sith.

I'm going to talk about an issue that appeared recently.
It focuses on this amazing fellow:

John Boyega plays a new addition to the Star Wars universe: A former Stormtrooper of the First Order  (designation FN-2187)
As you can see in the picture, He uses Luke Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker's Lightsaber to fight the main villain, Kylo Ren. (shouldn't have that much trouble defeating him, after all Ren seems to be a fan of the wide-arm tactic. Looks intimidating, but really doesn't work.

(screams internally)

The problem is that people are offended for some reason that one of the main characters is black.
What? Why is that a problem??
1. you guys need to stop being upset about things that you really shouldn't be upset about
2. He's not the first black main character in Star Wars!! What about this dude:

I cannot comprehend why people are upset that John Beroya is in Star Wars. If it's because he's not white, well did you forget all the green people?
People who are mad Beroya is in Star Wars are not true fans.
The only reason to be mad about Episode 7 is if JJ Abrams completely ruins it (petition to call him Jar Jar Abrams?)

What if Bears killed one in five people?

This video was recently uploaded by College Humor to talk about Sexual assault and harassment.
Do you think it is effective?
Is it too much or is it perfect?

Stereotype - Definition

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of stereotype is “to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same.” I think this video is a great example of stereotypes, we even heard similar stereotypes when asking people to fill out our survey. It’s clearly a problem that people are so unfairly judged just because of a characteristic. Do you think there is a way to end stereotyping?

The Truth About Smoking

This commercial is from The Truth About Smoking. Do you feel that this commercial is effective? Have you seen a similar commercial on television?

'Kouchtown" Sit down or get out of the way

On the subject of advertising, I would like to bring attention to a show called 30 rock, which is coincidentally another product of Tina Fey's genius.
There is a particular episode where Jack Donaghy is trying to make and sell couches made in america. The couches are a disaster, better fitted for CIA torture chambers than living rooms.
The ad he has shown is such a desperate attempt to hide how bad they are, and still tries to convince consumers to buy it by using american stereotypes.

Mean Girls - Stereotypes

In the movie Mean Girls, Cady Heron is the new girl at school. She first befriends Janis and Damian, two people who don’t belong to a specific clique. As Cady is walking in the cafeteria towards Janis and Damian, a clique called The Plastics invite her to sit with them. They eventually invite her to sit with them for the rest of the week and teach her the rules of being “plastic”. Some of these rules include wearing pink on Wednesdays and only wearing your hair in a ponytail once a week. Gretchen, a member of The Plastics, even explains that “Ex boyfriends are off limits to friends, that’s just, like, the rules of feminism.” Cady is at first reluctant to continue sitting with The Plastics, but eventually gives in when Janice explains it could be perfect sabotage to get back at Regina, the leader of The Plastics.

One example of a racial stereotype in the movie Mean Girls is when Ms. Norbury introduces the new girl from Africa. She automatically assumes it is the black girl in class, but instead the girl is from Michigan. Cady Heron is really the girl from Africa and is white.

Another example of stereotypes are the cliques at school. Some of the cliques include “Cool Asians”, “Unfriendly Black Hotties”, “Girls Who Don’t Eat Anything”, and “Burnouts”.This displays both gender and race stereotypes.

Mean Girls has many examples of stereotypes, as mentioned in the article Stereotypes & Gender Roles.

Bigotry = Normalcy

When Mr. Inloes said that bigotry might be a better word than "racism", I am inclined to agree.
the definition of Bigot is :

 a person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas, etc. : a bigoted person;especially : a person who hates or refuses to accept the members of a particular group 

(such as a racial or religious group)

I think this really is an accurate word to use in modern times. Hatred has gone beyond just race, to anyone who you can't describe as "normal".
Normal is, in itself, a hateful word when used to describe a person. There is no such thing as a "normal" person, but somehow, people see it as an ideal, and something that all humans should aspire to be.
And anyone who doesn't is cast out in most societies.

There are little to no cultures in present day that do not have traditional ways of thinking or societal rules of how to dress or act.

When I tried to search for a culture that did revere non-conformity, all that showed up in my search engine was essays and articles about how conformity crushes us.

One particular article caught my eye. It was from Psychology Today, a magazine for all of us psych lovers.
The title was a rather accurate description of todays world: "How Cultures Make People Conform".

Reading it, I was rather disturbed because, when I had hoped to find an example of a counterargument of my statement, I instead found pages verifying my thoughts.

This is one of the many times I wish I was wrong.

Normalcy, Traditions; these are words that add fuel to the fire created by bigots. They are used as weapons to beat down the unique ones and tell us to be ashamed of it, and we should strive to be "normal, even though many of us know that "normal" doesn't exist.