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1. In the movie “The Black Power Mixtape” it clearly shows how class and race intersect to impact a person’s social status. A bold example of that is Mable Carmichael discussing her husband’s experience in the workforce. She mentions her husband faced many challenges, and he was often the first one to be laid off or get pay cuts.
2. The deviant behavior shown by the black people their attitudes towards the white people during the 1960s. Sociologist define “Deviance is socially relative” by stating unusual or strange behaviour is influenced social structure. The movie uses the example of black people rioting against the control white people have over them through slavery and other institutions. During the riots black people were fighting
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for equal rights and equal treatment, but were being shot at and arrested by the police to control their “Deviant” behavior. Hence proving deviances is socially relative and relating it back to the definition outlined by sociologists. 3.
The sociological claim that “race is socially constructed” is very self-explanatory. The idea suggests the way we view race is based on how we construct it as a society. The movie shows the mistreatment of black people through the violation of their rights and freedom, they were condemned and punished for protesting to gain equal rights. The punishments included being shot at, pepper sprayed and arbitrary arrests.
4. Yes, the movie can explain the over representation of black people being locked up in prison. During the early and mid-1900s black people were often viewed as dirty, uneducated and criminals by racist white people and over time those racially views have been passed through generations. Hence it results in very bias criminal justice system towards black people, they are often viewed more dangerous and serious offenders compared to their white counterparts.
5. The movie serves excellent examples of prejudice and discrimination. The entire movie is pretty much about prejudice, it tries to explain the racial issues experienced by black people at the hands of white people. Finally discrimination was experienced by black people there were treated as second class citizens, prohibited to use same services as white people such as but not limited to public transport and water
fountains. 6. The events depicted in the movie still have relevance in our society today. The movie shows a lot of prejudice and discrimination towards black people. There are number of incidents where black people are unfortunately being shot and killed by white people suggesting a problem of prejudice being still relevant in our society. Lastly A study conducted by “Code Switch” found through an experiment that black actors were often given higher interest rates, shown fewer houses and less likely to get approved for mortgage when compared to their white equivalents ( (Demby, 2017). In conclusion our society still has a large prevalent of prejudice and discrimination.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) is a 1 hour and 40 minute documentary that observes the black power movement in American history. This film is directed by Swedish director Goran Hugo Olson and has detailed footage that was shot during the 1960s and 1970s by Swedish journalists. The footage largely focuses on the black power movements. The film allows viewers to not only grasp a better understanding of this movement but allows us to understand why this movement appealed to Swedish journalists. The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 includes vintage interviews with Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, and other prominent leaders during the Black Power Movement. The documentary also contains contemporary audio interviews and commentaries from various entertainers, artists, activists, and scholars, including but not limited to: Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli, Melvin Van Peebles, Erykah Badu, Abiodun Oyewele, and Questlove from The Roots.
Before we get into the movie specifically, we should first talk about representation and how race is represented in the media in general. Representation is defined as the assigning of meaning through language and in culture. (CITE) Representation isn't reality, but rather a mere construction of reality and the meaning behind it. (CITE) Through representation we are able to shape how people are seen by others. Race is an aspect of people which is often represented in the media in different ways. Race itself is not a category of nature, but rather...
This shows us how white people thought of African Americans as inferior, and they just wanted to dominate the society making no place for other races to express themselves. Even though African Americans were citizens of the state of Mississippi they were still discriminated against. This documentary does a great job of showing us the suffering of these people in hopes to remind everyone, especially the government, to not make the same mistakes and discriminate against citizens no matter what their race is because this will only cause a division to our nation when everyone should be
I have always believed that all races have their good and bad. Their is never going to be the perfect race. This movie definitely set a powerful message that life is not perfect for any race and that even though people are from different cultures, they are all interconnected somehow. The filmmakers did a great job at showing us that individuals should not be based on first impressions such as skin color or the social status.
I’ve chosen this movie to speak about due to the fact that it hit very close to home for me. This movie shows how others were treated and still to this day are treated like nothing if you’re not them in certain parts of the United States. It shows how corrupt law enforcement was way back then and you still see it to this day. I honestly just don’t see the point of racism. It affects everyone around not just that person it’s being committed against.
There were every few scenes in this film that did not contain some form of stereotyping. Unfortunately movies such as this one help to perpetuate stereotypes, they use them to provide entertainment. However, continuing to show minority individuals in stereotyping roles influence the general population (Grazian, 2015). Instead of seeing many young black men in successful roles in media they are often shown as the villain or members of a gang. These and other stereotypes were played throughout the film; one example would be when there was a black homeless man with a shotgun who tried to rob the McDowell’s restaurant (Folsey, 1988). These scenes may be humorous to many in the audience but stereotyping can have a negative effect on society.
In “Citizen” by Claudia Rankine, she discusses and uses film scripts that relate to blacks’ incidents. Rankine writes the story of “Jena Six” case where six black students at Jena High School who were convicted of beating a white student. Rankine asserts: “Boys will be boys feeling their capacity heaving butting heads righting their wrongs in the violence of aggravated adolescence...the fists the feet criminalized already are weapons already exploding the landscape and then the litigious hitting back is life imprisoned.” (Rankine 101). This portrays that sometimes there is a circumstance where boys are fighting into another and that is normal, but in this case, it shows that there is injustice where life imprisoned is the punishment for six
Through the film, Lee shows his audience that although nobody goes around in blackface anymore, it does not mean that Hollywood has abandoned or given up essentialist debates. After reading the pages assigned to the book I found text that resonated with me. In the book "Griffins" says, "consequently, the few representations of African American in classical Hollywood films were predominately under threatening and almost childish" (Benshoff and Griffin 80). This text explains that the African Americans were not taken seriously in classical Hollywood at the time. Lee uses a very symbolic image and components throughout the film in order to explain racism and misrepresentation. Another factor addressed in the film was the trenchant comments on the importance, problem and long-lasting effects of media representation. For instance, each time an unarmed black person is killed, they quickly view the person as a thug or a brute in the media. As we seen it happen recently to Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, etc. We are seeing the perpetuation of old anti-black stereotypes, reconfiguring for our
Furthermore a little later on in the movie two black guys are coming out of a restaurant and talking about How all the white customers were very much catered too and they weren’t even though the waitress was black because she has a stereotype that black people do not tip well. These two black guys who we later find out that they are carjackers see a white woman and her husband walking down the street as soon as the woman sees them she get scared. Her hunts later becomes right as the two black guys rob her and her husband of their vehicle.In the very next seen a white officer who is coming off his shift Shoots another black officer both of them not knowing they were officers. There is many evidence in this movie of stereotyping and prejudice the list can go on and on. I think that prejudice can be reduced overtime I think there’s many ways to do it one way is to start from the youth and teach them socially equality. Another way that we can reduce prejudice is people having a perfectly of their prejudice through life altering
After watching the movie a second time it gave me a better understanding about life decisions that the characters had to make out of high school which would affect their life for the rest of their life. Even though the characters went to war to serve their country, they still were not accepted by society when they came back to the United States. The film showed me that drugs had a negative effect on society and was destroying the United States. The film also showed me that the Vietnam War was one of the worst wars in American History. I had a better understanding of life the film made me realize that life is not promise and make the right decisions. The way that African Americans were betrayed in the movie, I didn’t like because they were betrayed in a negative and never positive. The Actors in the movie were either Pimps, Number Runners or Drug dealers. The main character on the other hand did something positive with his life but by the end of the movie we realize that wasn’t good enough and society brings him
The reason for recommending the movie is that the movie effectively arouses people’s awareness that race and racism do matter to them whether they are white, black, brown or yellow people. First of all, race and racism are still around the world even if most people have an ideology, believing that racism is long gone. The truth, however, is not what it seems to be. Taking the election of Barack Obama as an example, which brings people into a post-racial thinking, some glaring facts are actually being ignored. White Like Me precisely picks up the actual election results showing that although Obama won the popular vote solidly, it was not noticed by many that he lost the white vote by a big margin. The most significant case is that he only received 10% of the white vote in Southern states. Of course it does not mean that all whites voted against him just because he was black but undoubtedly it was the reason for some, clearly showing that racism still exists in which people should not ignore. Second, confronting the problems of race and racism is vital as the consequences can be very serious. Surely if people try to ignore and deny the history and decide not to talk too much about racism to avoid it, they do not actually help improve but worsen the situation. Besides, it is happening. Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American, was shot to dead in 2012 by George Zimmerman, a white neighborhood watch volunteer. No sooner had Zimmerman been acquitted of second-degree murder in 2013 than a large scale of protests in over a hundred cities broke out. Racism indeed causes casualties and widens the gap between different races. People just cannot laugh it off. Last but not least, if there are solutions towards racism, people will know they are able to make changes to relieve the problems of racism. As mentioned by
For example, it discusses how Fred Hampton was a positive figure and was killed for being a black leader that could make a change. In the film, it alludes to the assumption that Fred Hampton, the head of black panthers, was killed most likely because of his encouragement and outlook on race. He brought together whites, blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Native Americans to push for equality. The film also depicts the increase prison population of black Americans which in 2001 rose to 878,400 which was more than the entire prison population in the seventies and eighties combine. There is also evidence stating that the goals were to basically tear apart the black family. Lee Atwater was recorded saying you “start out by saying, nigger, nigger, nigger in 1954, and that you can say that anymore in 1968, it backfires, so you say things like state rights, and forced bussin.” This is coherent with John Enlrichmen statement about criminalizing black people. If you are interested in learning truthful events about black history you should buy this film. If you want to become more aware of racial inequality you should buy this film. This film we give you a clear indication of how and why black Americans have been oppressed in American
...hat this was a great movie and it showed all the hard things that African Americans had to go through. This movie had everything from racism, to beatings and even lynching. This movie really shows the hard times for the black communities and the white communities because of the racism and the great depression. I think that it is very courageous of what Melvin B. Tolson was doing. He was not only leading a debate team versus all-white colleges for the first time, but he was also leading a union for blacks and whites. The things that African Americans had to go through in the south is very heartbreaking and this movie does exactly what it showed and shows what people had to go through. One of the main things that this movie focuses on is being passionate and always trying to reach your goal and not stopping. This is a very important lesson that all people should know.
First off one major concept that was apparent through out the movie is prejudice which in its slef has three components. There is evidence of prejudice because of the attitudes, actions and thoughts that some
I grew up in the time when Hip Hop was new fresh and had a lot of social structure. Today Hip Hop has become somewhat of a joke. Rappers used to speak on social topics, parties, and real life events, now days it’s all about who has the most money, the biggest car, or the most women. The odd thing about today is most rappers don’t make the money the old rappers made; due to the internet and free music downloads. The internet has changed the music industry, so artist have to find other ways to make income like commercials and T.V. appearances. Reality T.V. began to gain popularity with the show cops (1989) but became popular with the younger generation in 1992 with MTV’S The Real World. In 2002 P.Diddy was the first to introduce the world