CAP Con was a collection of information and ideas brought forth by students from various CAP streams who all brought something a little different to the table. The room my group was set up in also featured a video created by two girls in the Media Studies stream which showed a journey of coming to Vancouver through doodles. A poster set up outside featured an analysis of the Black Lives Matter movement and media representation of people of colour right next to a group from my own ASTU class with a graphic about Chinese immigration and the head tax. Though some of the projects were similar to one another, none were quite the same, and each held a wealth of information.

The first panel I watched was the one that stuck out to me the most. It was composed of a group of students discussing Avatar: The Last Airbender, a children’s television show. The panelists, Vanessa, Caroline, Niki, and Melissa, all spoke about different aspects of the television show, ranging from its depiction of disability to how race was approached by both the show and the movie that was based off it. What interested me in particular was the discussion of whitewashing in the Hollywood live action film based off the show. The panelists pointed to the fact that most actors in the movie, despite depicting a wide array of racially diverse characters, were white, except for the villain.

My final sociology paper is about representations of race in Hollywood film and how it socializes societies to accept whiteness as a norm. I have been researching whitewashing in Hollywood as well, and seeing someone from a different stream working on a similar issue was interesting because it allowed me to see other perspectives on it. Whitewashing in film is not only extremely common but also has negative consequences. In the case of Avatar, as the panelists pointed out, whitewashing the film undermines the themes or racial inclusion, equality, and cooperation that make the show what it is.

I don’t know much about the Individual and Society stream, which the panelists were from, but it was definitely interesting for me to see how the different CAP streams overlap with one another. The panel discussion about Avatar felt to me like something that would come up in the Global Citizens stream as well. It is something we would approach in Sociology when discussing race or media, or in Arts Studies when talking about whose voices are heard and whose lives matter. The issues of representation in film and television intersect with broader issues of representation and marginalized voices. These issues are important and looking at them through different lenses, as global citizens or those with different skill sets and viewpoints, is important too.

First year university students don’t often get the chance to share the work they’re doing, or learn from their peers. CAP Con is a place where we could do both, with the added bonus of free cookies. For me, it was both a learning experience and a chance to share my own work and receive valuable feedback, as well as meet and interact with intelligent and passionate people. And that is what the Coordinated Arts Program has been for me, too.