Black Media of Color The media has had countless dilemmas with representing race and culture accurately and mostly by people of color. Such as the Blaxploitation movies and black TV and the attraction that they have to other races, mainly whites that also go to enjoy these cinemas and cultures. Whites always seem to be willing to accept the black lives on screen but never appear to in real life. But black people themselves have had some reservations about the very show and movies that put them in a place to be seen and respected. Both of these expressions have their pros and cons, but it all depends on how someone sees them and whether you can accept the truth about them. Blacks can see both as progressive for the African American community …show more content…
There is constant talk of the bad representations of blacks that come from these movies. In his article Engles states that “Criticizing blaxploitation as exploiting black filmmakers, actors, audiences and the community as a whole, those against the cinematic movement blasted the films and the industry for producing films that “glorified drugs, imitated successful white stereotypes, set forth impossible and ultimately debilitating fantasies, [and] developed a negative image of the American black man and woman…” (Engles). Similarly, in The Race and Media Reader Sut Jhally and Justin Lewis article White Responses writes about black TV and specifically The Cosby Show. In the piece Jhally and Lewis say “One criticism that black people have made about The Cosby Show is that the Huxtables behave just, as Gates put it, “just like white people” (Jhally and Lewis, 111). It has been shown that while both of these entertainments performed by black actors are well liked by the African-American communities, it is also watched by the …show more content…
Similarly, David Engles talks about how the music and Blaxploitation movements was the outlet African Americans need to create a better condition for themselves. Engles states that “If supporters of the movements were correct, African Americans would be given a new empowered voice that could establish a self-created identity and possibly serve to counteract cultural oppression. Regardless of the outcome, these two movements extended beyond the boundaries of entertainment and became a battleground for African Americans to attempt and define a new black identity” (Engles). The music of gangsta rappers of the black community needed a platform to display their music and that’s where radio stations came in. Stations such as WDIA were developed after the war to get advertisements. The Newman article says “Radio was the most prevalent form of nationally sponsored mass culture in African American homes…” (Newman, 101). Davind Engles proclaims that “…gangsta rappers understood that in order to successfully connect with African American audiences and establish a level of authenticity needed to successfully appeal to them, they needed to portray a familiarity with and understanding of the unique characteristics and pressures associated with ‘hood life’” (Engles). And rappers needed to be able to tell a story that will provide a sense of association to the black listeners. And
...nd provided Black Amer¬ica with tal¬en¬ted con¬tem¬por¬ary lead¬ers who voiced the struggle they were facing. Its major impact comes from the fact that it has encour¬aged a pro¬found Nation¬al¬ism in Black America.” Today’s Hip-hop & Rap artist promote the culture with guns, dope, violence and sexism instead the manhood and womanhood, support of the struggles, prisoners, and good entertainment from the roots of Afro centric culture. There may be a few that still install Black Nationalism into today’s society, like Jay-Z and P. Diddy who have built empires that will lead others to want to succeed and follow their the success route. In today’s society the youth lacks the encouragement to stand up for their rights and decides to fight to get their points across. They don’t think about the self-determination, self-defense or self-respect its all about actions, no unity.
African American representation in the film industry has always been a topic for discussion. Whether talking about character types and roles, the actors being cast or not cast, and the lack of diversity in front of and behind the camera. ‘The contemporary status of race in mainstream American culture is intimately bound to the process of representation within and through the mass media.’ (Rocchio, 2000, p. 4). Any role that was to be played by an African American kept in with the dominant stereotypes of the time of production; incompetent, child like, hyper-sexualised or criminal.
I chose this video because it raised my awareness by questioning the difference between positive role models, such as The Cosby Show, and positive images for all African-Americans. The issues discussed and comments made by the cast piqued my interest and helped change my perspective on the history of African-American representation in the media, especially in the realm of television. Color Adjustment contains more than just endless ‘talking heads’ – it has elements of fact, history, and professional opinion all blended together in an engaging format. It was extremely exciting to hear the TV producers like Hal Kanter and David Wolper talk about their own productions in retrospect. Most importantly to me, Color Adjustment changed my perspective on African-American representation in the media by challenging me to think about images...
Modern culture, especially that perpetuated on MTV, has given many suburban white kids the idea that they are oppressed by some business-like aristocracy. That may be true in a way, but in another, it is puzzling that the reaction has been for many middle-class Caucasian youth to adopt black culture as their own. And as far as media perception of black people, I really don't fit that mold. I am very in touch with my culture, heritage and race. And I take a great deal of pride in it. But because I don't fit the stereotype that even white kids are now trying to emulate, it sometimes puts me at odds with my own perception of my race.
One of Williams main topics of concerns is the wrong messages that “public airwaves” are sending to their listeners and followers. Williams claims rap and other medias are representing and sending the wrong message about African American communities. She mentions that rap music once held a positive message but now rap music is bombarding the public with the use of profanity, violence, and obscenity throughout their lyrics and music
Although blacks have won Academy Awards for acting, screenwriting, and music production they still find trouble in getting quality roles within the film industry. (Common Black Stereotypes) Long before television and films were being produced, there were plays and different forms of entertainment where blacks were stereotyped. They were often played by white people in a demoralizing fashion. Over time blacks became seen as the same and that was bad people.
...owledge is unavailable to an individual such as a language barrier or rare interaction with one another, television provides society with images that influence and shape their perceptions. The higher the exposure, the more people are inclined to recall what they have viewed and apply it to their everyday lives and scenarios. Bill Cosby stated in 1994 that blacks in the media tended to be “menacing, untidy, rebellious, disrespectful, buffoonish, sexual, immoral, hopeless, untrained, uneducated and noisy” (Punyanunt-Carter 243). He concluded that most black roles were negative and stereotypical. These damaging –portrayals that do not shed a positive light on African Americans often focus on reaffirming harmful racial stereotypes.
A race issue that occurs within the rap and hip-hop musical genre is the racial stereotypes associated with the musical form. According to Brandt, and Viki rap music and hip- hop music are known for fomenting crime violence, and the continuing formation of negative perceptions revolving around the African-American race (p.362). Many individuals believe that rap and hip-hop music and the culture that forms it is the particular reason for the degradation of the African-American community and the stereotypes that surround that specific ethnic group. An example is a two thousand and seven song produced by artist Nas entitled the N-word. The particular title of the song sparked major debates within not only the African-American community thus the Caucasian communities as well. Debates included topics such as the significance and worth of freedom of speech compared with the need to take a stand against messages that denigrate African-Americans. This specific label turned into an outrage and came to the point where conservative white individuals stood in front of the record label expressing their feelings. These individuals made a point that it is because artists like Nas that there is an increase in gang and street violence within communities. Rap and hip-hop music only depicts a simple-minded image of black men as sex crazed, criminals, or “gangsters”. As said above, community concerns have arisen over time over the use of the N-word, or the fact that many rappers vocalize about white superiority and privilege. Of course rap music did not develop these specific stereotypes, however these stereotypes are being used; and quite successfully in rap and hip-hop which spreads them and keeps the idea that people of color are lazy, all crimin...
African Americans have been dealing with “double-consciousness” since the age of slavery. They always struggled when it came to know where they belong or what their identity is. Although throughout history some African Americans feel as they are part of American society yet a handful of them thing otherwise. It is not their fault that they question who they are and where they belong because after all the things they went through, they are afraid to raise their voice for their rights. That fear of being treated bad is always there. People like Bill Cosby are doing anything in their power to try to encourage African Americans to be better people and be part of the society. It will take few generations for “double-conciseness” to not be part of African American culture. But as time passes we as a society will overcome it.
African-American music is a vibrant art form that describes the difficult lives of African American people. This can be proven by examining slave music, which shows its listeners how the slaves felt when they were working, and gives us insight into the problems of slavery; the blues, which expresses the significant connection with American history, discusses what the American spirit looks like and teaches a great deal from the stories it tells; and hip-hop, which started on the streets and includes topics such as misogyny, sex, and black-on-black violence to reveal the reactions to the circumstances faced by modern African Americans.
Rap is about giving voice to a black community otherwise underrepresented, if not silent, in the mass media. It has always been and remains … directly connected to the streets from which it came. (144)
Even when one becomes an artist in the industry, there are many troubles that go along with the tag of being a recording artist in the urban division. One example is seen in the article, “The Business of Rap: Between the Street and the Executive Suite” by Keith Negus, where columnist, J.R. Reynolds, mentions the closing of the urban division at Capitol Records in 1996, calling it “the systematic extermination of black music at Capitol Records”, saying that it did not make any sense because the genre was doing well in the market (528). The black music division is often subject to this kind of cutting compared to others. Negus also states that “despite the influence of rap and hip hop on the aesthetics of music, video, television, film, sport, fashion, dancing and advertising, the potential of this broader cultural formation to make a contribution to music industry business practices is not encouraged” (534). The sad fact of the matter is that this is true. It is almost like the larger companies take from the smaller urban divisions in order to make themselves look better without giving credit where it is due and in turn, because those companies are not seen to be doing well in the market, they are dropped from the label. Ted Swedenburg explains this in the article “Homies in The ‘Hood: Rap’s Commodification of Insubordination”, when he states that “while the major academic rock critics usually acknowledge black musicians’ essential contributions to pop and occasionally write sympathetic a...
In conclusion this was a dark part in American history and a part that America would like to forget but the stereotypes are still there even today but people choose not to look or say anything about it. Today African Americans are portrayed as gang bangers and thugs who love white women. When you research into this you might be left with yourself thinking as to why do the television people put stereotypical and demeaning stuff like this on television and I guess it’s a question that will never be answered.
Negative things are said about African Americans on a daily basis. From the beginning we have had stereotypes built up against us tearing down our image in society. Over the years it would seem that African Americans would want to fix this image of them but instead they have continued to build to this negativity. One of the main reasons why this image is present until this day is reality television. Although it may not be real, portraying these images on television gives both sexes of the African American race a bad name. Even though some of these shows are funny what needs to be realized is that the people watching these shows are not laughing with African Americans, but instead at them.
Hip hop has multiple branches of style and is a culture of these. This essay will examine Hip Hop from the point of view of the following three popular music scholars, Johnson, Jeffries and Smitherman. It will delve deeper into their understanding of what hip hop is and its relation to the different people that identify with its message and contents. It will also identify the history of Hip hop and its transition into popular music. In particular this essay will focus on what hip hop represents in the black community and how it can be used as a social movement against inequalities faced by them. This will then open up the discussion for the how this has influenced society, and the impact it has had in terms of race issues which hip hop itself often represents through music.