Identifying the Enemy... Later

Procrastination. Everyone’s biggest enemy. It’s one of the reasons why I’m writing this blog post JUST before it’s due. Future employers, I promise I will be better at this by the time you hire me. No worries.

The common factors that lead to procrastination:

1. The due date is just too far away.
In your head, two weeks is plenty of time. You have it planned out what you’re going to do so no way it’s going to take all time. Next thing you have two days and just a stack of plans and no actions. No good.

2. You have no clue where to start.
Nothing sounds right or everybody else is doing that. You try to be as original as possible but you just can’t wrap your head around a good solid idea.

3. You’re two episodes away from the season finale of your current Netflix binge and you JUST have to know what happens.
Let’s face it. Fuller House just came out on Netflix and to treat myself for writing this, I’m going to bucker down all weekend and watch that. It’s a disease that has no cure.

Although procrastination habits are easy to fall into, they are not something that I would want to follow me into my professional career. Good ideas and plans lose their ability to turn into Great ideas and plans whenever not enough time is put into them. Relying on last minute things to fall in place causes stress and with public relations already being a high stress career, why add on the extra?
Here are some tools that have helped me:

1. Just do at least one thing a day.
If the date is two weeks away, make an effort to do a small part of the project a day. If it’s a paper, find the sources one day and write your thesis the next. That way throughout the entire time period, you’re being proactive about it.

2. Find a place and make it your “working spot.”
Sometimes to get in the right mindset, you have to be in the right place. I tend to do work from my bed but if I know the project is going to take full concentration, I relocate to a library. Being in a place outside my room, pushes me to do my work because I don’t want to waste my time there and I’m usually ready to get back in bed.

3. Schedule yourself breaks.
While working I put my phone, and if I can, my laptop out of reach that way I cannot be easily tempted. Then I schedule myself with breaks where I can check social media or watch a 15-minute clip of Netflix. It helps with keeping my focus and so I don’t feel overwhelmed.

Photo Cred

Fifty Shades of Conflicted

Brianna Myers for Race, Gender, and the Media

There hasn't been many books that I've read that I didn't enjoy. I wouldn't have completed the book. If I didn't like the writing style that bad in the book, I would probably just read a spoiler online just to save myself the trouble and the time. I read The Twilight Saga in middle school and I read the Fifty Shades in High School. I enjoyed them both, especially since Fifty Shades started off as a fan fiction of Twilight, but this was before I was "woke."

I'm going to talk more about the books rather than the movies because we all know: Books > The Movie it was turned into. The female protagonists of the books posses the same qualities. They're weak, delicate, and both ultimately gain their self worth from the male lead in the story. Throughout both series, the women immerse themselves in their significant other's lifestyles. Hell, Bella DIED to be with Edward. Anastasia signed a contract to start her relationship with Christian (to simply things immensely). One thing, these women also have in common, they're both white.

Even without the physical description of all these characters, one's mind just assumes they're white. These kind of scenarios (even in the land of vampires and werewolves) only appear to happen to white people. I cannot imagine a black woman letting a man dictate their relationship with a piece of paper. The media just would never cast black actors to play any of these roles because that's not the stereotype. Can't say if this is a good or bad thing. Because there are black females who are very passive and probably black men who are interested in the BDSM lifestyle. It shouldn't be abnormal or controversial to see them cast in these positions, but I don't think I ever want to see a black woman abused on camera, emotionally and physically, for the pleasure of middle America.

I want to see people that look like me cast in roles that are more like the everyday me. On the daily, I am not going to be walking down the street and meet a guy who buys me a car and pays off my student loans or one who has been living for centuries but looks like he's 20.No matter what, books that gain this kind of publicity are definitely going to be made into film. And while yes, I would like to see more people of color in major motion pictures, if they’re going to be depicted this way the activist side of me says don’t cast them.

Disclaimer: I probably will continue to watch The Fifty Shades trilogy in theaters and probable reread the series a couple more times. I hate to say I’m attached and can’t stop. Please pray for me.

Are you Invited?

Brianna Myers

You know that feeling of being part of something that nobody else truly understands? Something binds you and the others in a special way that maybe you couldn’t even understand. You have your own language. Your own jokes. Your own rules. I’m talking about Black Twitter and if you have no idea what I’m talking about…. That’s your loss.

Black Twitter is a separate section of Twitter known for making ordinary people go viral and creating hashtags that have set the agenda of what is talked about in news. The community of Black Twitter has the ability to roast someone into oblivion or to call out people on the injustices done to our community. Hashtags created vary from #SelfieOlypics to #BlackLivesMatter.

Black Twitter is like the family that you never knew that you had but somehow you know everything about them. Hashtags like #ThanksgivingWithBlackFamilies showed that no matter where you were from, some things are just universal when it comes to Black Culture. The Auntie that is always getting a divorce. The way you throw away the food when you don’t like it. The cousins that always come back from a “store run” with red eyes and smelling like air freshener.

Not only does this subculture of Twitter know how to make your stomach hurt with laugher but when issues affecting the Black community need to be spoken about, they make sure of it. It’s a way of saying “We know this is wrong, and we aren’t going to let them get away with it.” Without Black Twitter, there would be no call to action to look into policing nationwide. Stories like Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland would not have gotten the attention they deserved without the power of Black Twitter. Protests and rallies were able to be organized on Twitter and with the vast expansion of this community were able to be recognized and talked about.

It’s amazing that there is a place where young and old black people can come together and actively talk about what is going on. Not saying that you need a formal invitation to participate but watch out if you choose to... it can get ruthless.

A Permanent Uniform

Brianna Myers for Race, Gender and the Media

I am 1000 percent positive that today in class we had the most heated debate to date. A talk about advertising and how women are depicted in them turned into a talk about dress codes and the way young girls at an early age are forced to wonder "Am I treated this way because of the way I dress?" We are preached to believe that men are "sexual beings" and "just can't control themselves" when women expose their bodies. Are we supposed to be wearing a permanent uniformed to be approved by conservative men? The constant things that kept running through my mind in this discussion were:

1. That's the dumbest piece of ignorant crap I've ever heard.
2. Why should young girls and women be force to alter their actions and choices because of the disgusting men that think it's okay?
and 3. What about the women that breastfeed in public?

The debate about if it's okay if a woman should expose her breast to feed her child in public has recently come up a lot. Personally I believe that if a baby has to eat, then a baby has to eat. In numerous articles men have presented the argument "I can't pull my dick out in public, so why can a women pull her breast out?" Um, I don't know, maybe because your dick isn't sustaining life for another helpless human being. If men are able to sexualize a woman in that situation clearly there is a bigger picture here. The plus side is that there aren't many cases where you hear a man groping a woman while she was feeding her baby.

Men thinking they have control over a women's body is where the issue starts. In class the only reason we could come up with why men proceed to grope women and force themselves upon them is the desire for control. The mindset that a man has the ability to make a girl blush or make her feel uncomfortable were frequent themes. It's honestly baffling and it's not just "the sick and twisted." It's your friends, your neighbors and typically someone you're comfortable with.

School girls should not be penalized for the over sexualization of their body that they aren't even completely familiar with themselves. That's not their issue. Don't make it their issue.

Before there was Rosa, there was Ida

Brianna Myers

Everyone is familiar with the story of Rosa Parks and her refusal to relocate to the back of the bus. It’s iconic and goes down in history as one of the pivotal moments of the Civil Rights Movement. What we weren’t taught about in our basic public school history class is the story of Ida B. Wells. In 1884 (71 years before Park’s event) Wells refused to move from her seat on a train for a white woman when the conductor asked her to. A couple of bites and scratches later, a gang of men removed her from the train. That kind of fight and determination dictated her journalism career. Wells, known as Iola Princess of the Press, strived to bring light to the truth about the lynchings in the south.

Ida B. Wells was not the only black woman journalist of her time. What made her different was her courage to not just write about woman’s issues but also about politics and race. She easily became a headliner writing under the name Iola to appeal to the common people and strengthen her connection to the south. Wells was one of the owners of Memphis Free Speech and Headlight and Free Speech. It wasn’t until three men, one of them being her friend Thomas Moss, from Memphis were lynched did she launch her anti-lynching campaign.

In the South, lynchings were thought to be the repercussion of raping white women. The truth is that an African American could be killed for being competition, for their interracial relationships or for just plain hatred. When Wells found out that Moss, a local business owner who was wrongly killed, she felt it was her responsibility to report about the sickening, hateful actions of the whites in the south.

Starting in Tennessee, Wells conducted her own research to expose the truth behind some of the brutal killings that were taking place. The result: whites burning down her office and pretty much saying that she couldn’t return to Memphis. Luckily Wells was in New York at the time and stayed put. She continued to write, releasing an in-depth report about lynching in America in the New York Age. The Princess of the Press also held lectures in the 1890s to round up support from whites. The anti-lynching campaign made its way to the White House in 1898 when she demanded for reforms to be made.

Her anti-lynching campaign caught on to black women’s groups, the NAACP, and other Civil Rights advocate groups. Wells was able to take something that she truly believed, the fact that lynching was a crime and should be stopped, and spread it to the public. That is ultimately what I, as a striving public relations professional could only hope to do with my future work.

Photo cred to Rejected Princesses

Maybe it Wasn't About Football

Brianna Myers for Race & Gender in the Media

Superbowl Sunday, basically a holiday here in the country. If it so happened that one year it happened to fall on another day, I'm convinced many people would call in "sick." It only seems fitting that this year somehow a game of football also revolved around race.Cam Newton, a black quarterback of the Carolina Panthers versus Peyton Manning, quarterback of the Denver Broncos.

Newton this entire season has been under scrutiny for his so called "racy" dance celebrations, but are they really "inappropriate?"Can't help but wonder why it's such a big deal. Maybe it's because he's black and successful and we all know how much white America loves to tear that down. Back in November a mom wrote a letter to Newton basically saying that he wasn't living up to his role model potential and his dance moves scarred her 9-year-old daughter.

1. It doesn't say anywhere in his NFL that he has an obligation to be a role model.
2. Newton is known for giving footballs to children in the stands and taking the fine for it.
3. If your daughter hasn't seen the dab dance move by now, you're sheltering her too much and she's already off to a bad start.

Not only was it black quarterback aka thug versus white quarterback aka angel, the most influential icon of our time, Beyonce, made reference to the Black Lives Matter movement during her halftime performance. Performing her newly released song "Formation" Beyonce's background dancers were donned outfits paying homage to the Black Panthers, one of the most influential civil rights group. The radical halftime performance led to an anti-Beyonce protest of Queen Bey in New York. As in, "We should protest Beyonce because she said something mean about the police." Get over it. Police are killing people for being black.

From a media point of view, the Super Bowl was way more about other things than just football this year. Newton had something to prove. Beyonce used this platform to show that we have not forgotten. We will not forget until justice is served.

The Odds: Diversity in PR

Brianna Myers

It’s not breaking news that women in the professional field are not paid as much for the exact same job that a man does. It’s not a surprise that there are more men in charge than there are women. Seeing that I am a woman seeking to enter the professional world of public relations, this is an issue that is going to hit me very soon, if not already. Not only am I a woman, but I am also African American and with it being Black History Month, it only seems right to see the other challenges that await.

Before public relations was even called public relations, African Americans were practicing it throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Led by Martin Luther King Jr., blacks in America marched alongside anti-slavery organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference trying to the change mentality of white Americans. They weren’t just trying to enhance the image of a company or a single person, but of an entire culture.

Now there aren’t many minorities in the public relations field. The Institute for Public Relations reported that only 4.5% of management PR jobs were held by African American women. The odds don’t look so good, do they? The reoccurring point that comes up is that, African Americans and other minorities are not entering the communications field because they do not see themselves represented. It’s difficult to enter a career path without seeing somebody that you could potentially relate to.

Stereotypes are something that every culture carries along with them, for some more than others. In 5 Myths About Black PR Professionals, the author points out something that I think has an effect on the amount of potential African Americans choosing this as their career. Employers try to stick those who are non-white on the multicultural team. They assume that blacks want to always work with black media and influence black people but that’s not always the case. For me, it is but I understand that for others that’s not their passion and they don’t want to be forced to do something that is not pleasing to them.

The crazy thing is, diversity can only be beneficial for a company. Hiring employees of different genders and ethnicities can open up a business to so many other markets. Businesses and firms should be going out of their way to make sure they are made up of the different races; especially since in just a few years minorities will no longer be the minority in America.