Let the Games Begin

So, for this post, I have three seemingly unrelated things to talk about. Librarians, Rue from The Hunger Games series, Jewish persons, and Jacoby Ellsbury. The reason that I wanted to talk about these three things was to carry on the tradition of Stereotyping.

Personally, as a library science major, I never really considered my major an odd choice. It really seems to fit me, and fit what I love to do. However, this fact appears to be a bone of contention with a lot of people. People are constantly laughing about my major, whether it is to ask about “if I really need a degree in that?” “How is library a science?” or my favorite “what are you going to do, sit around and say shhhhh all day?” Obviously we know that people are ignorant, and if it wasn’t my major it would be something else they found unsatisfactory. The people asking these impertinent questions are the people that one must take a deep cleansing breath about before answering. I calmly try to explain that indeed you do need a degree, just like everyone else in education, and so on. Though, the toughest part of my major is trying to explain to non-majors what it is that I actually “do”. How do you explain to people that I am in charge of information literacy, cataloging books, or I assigning the materials subject headings, I place Mylar covers on the books along with the spine label I made and the barcode I also made. What about the circulation desk, technology policies, fair use policies, collection development, reference, media specialist, library administration, preservation, conservation and all of the differences in between. This is not a conversation that I would like to have with a person that is usually one step up from a Neanderthal. How do you explain something to someone who does not know or want to know? Most people do not actually care enough to know, they are just asking because I am like a zoo animal- something to be looked at, but not to get familiar with. Personally, I am really touchy when people laugh at me based upon my decision to become a librarian. I am slowly getting used to it, and I know that it is not just me that feels this way (all of my library friends and I speak heatedly about the topic). A perfect example of this is one of my teachers, who has a Master’s degree in library science, was walking by two students, one of them worked at the information commons desk in the library. The other student asked the worker what it felt like to be a librarian. Clearly that person was not a librarian; they were a library worker if anything, but to some people they have no clue what that would even mean. Those are the times that you must bite your tongue and walk away. It just does not make it any easier to assimilate into what people THINK a librarian is or what they do.

My second topic is about a horrifying fact that I have recently come across. I am an avid reader (obviously) and thus, I was before the craze of The Hunger Games. Long before the movie was coming out, I was devouring the books. I absolutely think the books are fantastic, and very different than the usual young adult craze. It is post-apocalyptic and has some very dark tones. It is in no way your classic boy meets girl type of book. Katniss Everdeen is a stunningly relatable character, and I believe that she is even a feminist. She is fiercely independent and very intelligent. In short, whereas Bella Swan from the Twilight series is mostly a damsel in distress, Katniss is a strong woman who fights for what she believes in. That all being said, there are several characters that enter the Games with Katniss and the male lead of the story, Peeta; there are two characters: Rue and Thresh both from District 11. These characters are described in the book as having “beautiful dark brown skin and eyes” personally; I would take that as a person of an ethnicity other than white. Well, apparently when the movie came out, people were outraged that African American actors were chosen for the parts of Thresh and Rue.  I think that the actors both did a fantastic job, and were very good convincing fits for the role. People on Twitter actually said that when the character Rue died, “they did not feel as sad, because she was black” That is one of the more tame statements made. I am really not sure why people care about the look of the actors- they played their roles to the tee and I think that they were some of the better cast roles. It pains me that in 2012 we still have people who are ignorant enough to say these hurtful things, but I suppose that I should not be surprised at this.

To preface what else I am about to say, I would like to point out that one of my best friends is Jewish, and to be honest that is one of my favorite things about her. She adds a lot of interesting things and knowledge to my life just based on the fact that she has had a lot of different experiences that I have had. Such as, she is participating in not eating meat on Friday during lent, and I will be participating in not eating anything with yeast during Passover. Another instance that happened this week of serious irritation involved someone being Jewish. My friend who is Jewish (her name is Heather) was in one of her classes- a diversity class no less, when the teacher had the class do an activity where they were to categorize themselves based on race. There were many familiar races up on the board for the class to choose from. However, Heather was confused. Jewish was on the board. Being Jewish is not a race, and thus Heather asked politely if they could choose two of the categories. Her teacher asked her which two she was and Heather explained that she was white and Jewish full well knowing that Judaism is a religion, culture and ethnicity, but not a race. The diversity teacher said that being Jewish trumped being white. Which personally, made no sense to me; Jews are not a “race” of people. So, I posted an angry-ish Facebook status about how ridiculous it was that a diversity teacher would say something like that. Perhaps I was asking for it, but I did not know that I would have such an outcry of attention. So, people were saying that a court case ruled that Judaism was a race to “protect” Jews from discrimination. I’m sure that that was highly effective (sarcasm). Then someone else said there is a higher instance of diseases due to gene mutations in Jewish people. I did a little research and came up with: “the people who are Ashlenazi Jews have more genetic mutations/diseases. This is due to the fact that there were only a select few Jews in that area and there was a lot of inter-marrying. However this is not unlike hemophilia among Queen Victoria's descendants.” Thus, I personally think that this disproved any of that discrimination. What do people not understand? Why do we have to pigeon hole people into these little boxes, like if you are the “race” Jewish, that overrides being white? What sense does that make?

Finally, I found out an interesting fact the other day. I am a very big Boston Red Sox fan, and one of my favorite players is a man named Jacoby Ellsbury. I recently was looking around the internet and came to find that he is Navajo and a member of the Colorado River Indian Tribes and is the first Native American of Navajo descent to reach the Major Leagues. I found this fact to be really interesting because I love Jacoby and I think he is one of the most talented members of the Red Sox, but I was saddened that he was the first Navajo person to make it to the Major Leagues. I wonder why that is? Was it because Native kids don’t like baseball, or was it because there were good Native players but they were not allowed to play? I’m not really sure, but I was happy to find that one of my favorite players was Navajo.

So, why am I rambling about all of this? Well to tell you the truth most of the library talk was about the fact that this was one of the weeks where it felt like every day I got an annoying comment. Also, the Rue from The Hunger Games was just because I was irate at how frustrating people are, I was honestly incensed about the way the diversity teacher handled herself and stated that being Jewish was a race, and finally I was just really happy that one of my favorite players was Native. This all is stemming also from the fact that ever since this class, I am more and more outraged about the treatment of others on literally a daily basis. Stereotypes are clearly here and here to stay unless we all chose to do something about it and for heaven’s sake we should try to do some research about whom we are talking, and thus prevent any ignorance.