Summary.

Our reality is complex and only with the pursuit of individuality and free reasoning is possible to understand and analyze the process of human interaction.
Society is full of colors and shades, differences and convergences that generate tension and conflict. As future journalists we have an obligation to seek new ways to investigate and report events from a more neutral and fair perspective.
The ultimate goal is to try to avoid the constant use of stereotypes and preconceived ideas on topics that touch our ethnic and social reality. For a journalist, it is important to put aside the ego and find a sincere and ongoing contact with communities and different social groups in order to reflect their concerns and ideas in a more accurate and precise manner.
Sometimes a personal experience gives a greater level of depth that a collective experience. That is why, I believe that we should never report a fact or event about a certain racial or ethnic group describing the community as an indivisible mass without form or substance, but instead seek individual stories that might explain the reasons and causes of certain and specific behaviors and ideas that members of a community can have in common.

Listening Post 3.

My third visit to Andy’s was short, but as pleasant as the second one, the place was crowded and I felt as one more of the customers. In this occasion I sit in the bar and spoke with Jamie.
She was a white woman in her mid twenties from North Carolina. She told me that she came down to Florida because she had some family in Clearwater and she was currently living with them.

"I am in Miami for the weekend bacause my cousin invited me," she said.

Then I asked her about her experience in Miami. She said that it was a big city, that there were many places to go and she was considering moving to Hallandale with her cousin. She also said that one of the problems in a city like Miami was that she didn’t speak Spanish. According to her in order to live in this city you needed to know at least some Spanish.
I asked about the idea that she had about Hispanics. According to her it deepened on where they were from. For her Colombians and Venezuelans were very different than Cubans or Puerto Ricans, but she also said that she didn’t care where they were from as long as they were respectful.
It was a very short conversation, but I didn’t notice any racial or ethnic tension with her or with the people in the bar.
In general I had a good time and for a moment I forgot that only white folks were around me. I am not going to say that for a Hispanic this is the perfect place to have a drink, but it is a good experience. I found people that didn’t like me just because I was Hispanic, but I also found people that were very nice and accepted my identity, at least partially.
I believe that sometimes the preconceive ideas and baggage affect the way we judge people from different backgrounds, but if you put aside those prejudices it is very possible that you can interact perfectly fine with respect and a good attitude.

Journal 3: Reality and Complexity.

Every person is complex and unique. It is important to understand that, even though, the voting behavior is different from one human being to another those differences are not completely reflected in the voting polls. Race and ethnicity are factors that influence our ideas and principles.
“Like so many of the labels that crop up each year to describe the voting behavior of groups, those two are mostly stereotypes masquerading as information. Too often, journalists use the phrases without ever thinking about what they're actually saying or what the consequences might be of that kind of political lumping,” Keith Woods wrote in his article “A Vote for Complexity: Handling Race in Political Coverage.”
The two groups that Woods was referring to were the black and the Latino vote. I believe that journalism in many cases report the voting behavior using stereotypes in order to describe common ideals and concerns that certain community have. It is truth that not everybody on a certain community is going to vote for the same candidate or that they going to decide their political inclinations only based on racial and ethnic profiling; however, our crude reality is that, as professor Reisner said, we have to make an enormous effort to not vote for the candidate that is related to us. We tend to put our faith on a candidate mostly based on racial and social similarities that create patterns within communities and groups, and that is why those stereotypes and labels exist.
In the last presidential race the majority of the black community vote for Obama, the younger vote was also directed to the same candidate and those groups determined the results of the political race. The Latino vote also favored Obama. That certain groups have a common voting intention is an avoidable fact; nevertheless, political coverage should be more complex and profound. There are different motivations that drive voting ideals and journalists must be aware of them.
A journalist must be aware of the cultural, social and racial divisions, but also must be aware of the subdivision and the divisions within the subdivisions. For example, the Hispanic community differs incredibly depending of the country of origin and the socio-economic factors. A Venezuelan- American may have different ideological opinions than a Cuban- American.
A journalist should cover a community as a group of individuals and not as an indistinctive mass. A journalist should look for more profound differences that in many cases are far more complex than race and ethnicity issues.

Listening Post 2. Anthony and Joey

View Larger MapMy second visit to Andy’s was a good experience. I got there early this time. I mean it was almost 11:30 p.m. but for a place that closes after the sun rises the midnight is an early stage.
Not more than seven customers were sitting on the bar and no more than two were playing at the pool table. Again, as soon as I entered the place I felt a heavy atmosphere; I was not a welcome customer but I was a customer anyways.
Kelly was bartending that night. We didn’t have an actual conversation, but she always hand me a beer with a smile. I tried to approach the few customers smiling and saying hi, but after two or three words and in decent ways they avoid to get involved in a deeper chat. Finally, an angel dropped from the skies.
Anthony Alparone, a good friend from long time was at the front door. He sat in the bar with two friends and ordered a whiskey. I approached him and say hi. He was surprised to see me there; however, after I explained to him that I was doing a report for one of my classes he understood. Following that he introduced me to his friends. Joey, a white Caucasian from Jacksonville in his twenties who is a bartender in Carolina Ale House a restaurant located in Weston. Frank was the oldest in the bar I think, also white and on his fifties. Frank left ten minutes after they got there. He said that he was coming back, but he never did.
After that Joey, Anthony and I engage in different conversations involving beer, race and beer. From the beer talk I can say that for Joey a good American beer is one hundred times better than a Corona or a Modelo. Anthony likes hard liquor instead of beer, but if he has to drink beer he prefers a Heineken. The race talk was very productive. I wasn’t trying to get involved in that kind of conversation in a direct manner, but the topic jumped into the dialogue and it was fine to me. According to Joey people that go to Andy’s are white mostly. He said that some Latinos were very annoying and sometimes they didn’t understand that is important to respect in order to be respected.For him it was not important if people from different backgrounds were at the bar; however, he also said that he felt more comfortable with his own people. His tone was calm; nonetheless, I detect some anger in his words.
Anthony is half Italian, half Venezuelan. For him races were secondaries,he was in the place for the drinks and to have a good time.
In general this was a better expetrience and Anthony help me substantially. They even introduced me to some girls that were a little bit too drunk. We also played some pool.
At 2:00 a.m. I decided that it was enough for the night. Joey said good bye and whispered that I was cool. Anthony gave me his phone number, he seemed happy to see me again. I left the place knowing that I am going to come back, but not just because I have to.