Ethnographies Galore!

I thought last Thursday's presentations went really well. I thought the ethnography at the Dav was really interesting because I never would have thought to look at it as its own culture or community, but the group who presented did a great job explaining why it was its own bounded culture. I couldn't help but think during that whole presentation that most coffee shops are their own bounded culture. Think about Starbucks. Starbucks in itself is a culture; it has its own language, rituals, rule, etc. You can't go into Starbucks and say, "I'll have a small coffee with some cream and sugar". No, it has to be "I'll have a venti skinny vanilla latte." Then look at Dunkin Donuts. Dunkin Donuts, like the Davenport, is the anti-Starbucks. They use normal words such as "small", "medium", and "large", and there is not much thinking involved in ordering a drink. You don't have to be a regular to know what you are getting and the coffee is cheaper. Critics of Dunkin Donuts would say that the coffee doesn't taste as strong or is as good quality as Starbucks. As you can see, different places to get coffee can become their own bounded cultures and people can become quite defensive about where they get their coffee.

Then there was the Howard ethnography. I felt badly because the group seemed to stay as honest as possible, yet got a bit of criticism during the question portion. I thought their ethnography was interesting and they were daring to bring up certain topics, especially their preconceived assumptions about the university. A question that popped into my head after the presentation was, would this group have observed this same culture and presented their findings in the same way if there were an African American student in the class? I wonder if they would phrase their findings in different ways or be more cautious as to not offend anyone. I texted my friend from Howard after the presentation and told him that the kids doing a project on Howard thought the university as a whole was extremely friendly and welcoming. He didn't seem to know what I was talking about and laughed. I think the ethnography would have looked a bit different if the group had gone to Howard more times, but because of time constraints they weren't able to do so.

Our presentation is tomorrow and I hope we can present just as well as the other groups. Good job everyone!

Ethnography Presentations

Last week, we here at CLAMO saw a little of the competition we had in our ethnography presentations. I was pretty impressed with both groups' projects. The first group did an ethnography on a Tavern-like food spot at Howard University. There were definitely a couple of controversial statements made. Supposed stereotypes like "we thought they wouldn't be as studious" and the nature of the project in general really set off the racism alarms in my head. But at the same time, I was impressed that the group took a risk and really tried to observe a specific in-group.
The ethnography on the Davenport was pretty cool. I know the first time I went to the Dav I felt a little out of place. I couldn't quite pinpoint it at the time, but their ethnography shed some light on that. In a weird way, the Dav reminds me of all the hipster cafes and and stores at home. I know that should probably make me feel right at home, but I think I felt alienated because it was different than the rest of the American campus.
Anyway, the point is, both groups were really impressive and I think CLAMO needs to bring our A-game on Thursday.
(P.S. I know this post was kind of useless but that is one of the consequences of Thanksgiving.)