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Hip-Hop Culture and Contemporary Race Relations
How has the media contributed to cultural representations of Black Americans
Music racism
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Recommended: Hip-Hop Culture and Contemporary Race Relations
Black self-contempt seeping into African American culture is irrefutable, as is the fact that it is misconstrued, unchallenged, and undervalued. The unparalleled intense emotion of internalized self-hatred currently plaguing the minds of numerous Blacks is not an ordinary phenomenon developed from centuries of evolution. It is not a nameless occurrence empty of a coherent justification. It is simply the consequence of an intentionally condemned system of suppression and control. An enormous scheming method used for preserving the present grand image of society. Oh, what treacherous lengths has America traveled to conceal this horrific secrete. As the wealthy, influential, white elites continue to define the standard of true living through mass media, African Americans are forced to lives cloaked with self-hate.
The misshapen portrayal of Black America in media magnifies the negative aspects to the point that it deforms reality. These media programs operate as psychosocial exploitation agendas. These programs are intended to fracture African Americans’ sense of Black racial identity, commitment, and harmony by enslaving them to images of the most deceptive worst in themselves while persuading them that they respect, value, and trust only Whites. It is a clandestine arrangement of power that secures the prolongation of white supremacy by ensuring that African Americans continue to be the most culturally debased and most economically oppressed people in America.
Not only is it in main stream media, but black entertainment is also posing an issue. The media’s incessant battering of the African American consciousness is deliberately adulterating their feeling of cultural cohesion, shaping the fiber of self-hatred, and producing...
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... the additional dispersal of this toxin among our people, and we must abolish the control of those who are spreading it. It would be insufferable for such influence to be in the hands of the covetous capitalist white elites with standards and interests unlike our own. But to allow the white elites, with their centuries of heartless racist domination, to maintain such supremacy over us is equivalent to race suicide. Certainly, the point that so many Blacks today are bursting with a sense of racial self-abhorrence is a disturbing result of the white control over media.
And while this media psychosocial program is more covert than those earlier racist systems used in America’s history against African Americans, its marks are very tangible and damaging. In fact, this scheme is by far the most skillful organization ever arranged against African American population.
Ghettos, low-riders, hip-hop, rap, drugs and crime, it has got to be a Black man right? Saggy pants, unintelligible language, lazy, and the lists continue to both stereotype and describe Blacks. Do Black Americans perpetuate their own discrimination? Are Black Americans creating their own low status in society? Black people around the world have been hypnotized into believing all their failures in life are due to discrimination, but are they correct? Blacks are often their own worst enemies, often the cause of their own disasters, and many don’t see that until it’s too late, if ever. Discrimination and prejudice are imposed upon Blacks, often because the culture they live in is not “acceptable” to the dominant society. On the other hand, an understandable reason for Blacks actions is often due to unattainable opportunities towards the American Dream.
In his documentary Classified X, Martin Van Peebles describes three areas where African-Americans could be receive some sanctuary from the racism that pervaded almost all Hollywood films. These three places were: the Hollywood version of an all-Black film, the church, and entertainment. Black culture and music is prominent in mainstream society, but the people behind this culture don’t always receive recognition and respect for their creations. Mainstream White pop culture excitedly consumes and appropriates Black culture, but disrespects the source.
...sm: The Crystallization of a Kinder, Gentler Anti-Black Ideology.” Pp. 15-44 in Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change, edited by S.A. Tuch and J. Marten. Greenwood, CT: Praeger.
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
Omi claims that media and popular culture are two of the main culprits for the dissemination of a segregation ideology through music, movies and TV shows (Omi 114). According to Omi, media has the “ability to reflect the dominant racial ideology” and to “shape that ideology in first place” (Omi 115). These two sentences imply that Omi is not just blaming on media, but also on white people, who dominate communications and provide a better image of themselves in order to maintain the status of dominant culture. Moreover, Omi uses the concept of “representation” to claim that even the popular culture, which was supposed to be created by the people, brings segregating ideology on itself and do not contribute to the celebration of cultural diversity (Omi 120). Omi explains this belief of “representation” as a tool of segregation when stating that jokes and songs “reinforce stereotypes and rationalize the existing relations of social inequality” (Omi 121). Media and popular culture are outsiders, meaning that are not racist themselves, but according to Omi they are the main incentive to
Since 1945, in what is defined by literary scholars as the Contemporary Period, it appears that the "refracted public image"(xx) whites hold of blacks continues to necessitate ...
Although an effort is made in connecting with the blacks, the idea behind it is not in understanding the blacks and their culture but rather is an exploitative one. It had an adverse impact on the black community by degrading their esteem and status in the community. For many years, the political process also had been influenced by the same ideas and had ignored the black population in the political process (Belk, 1990). America loves appropriating black culture — even when black people themselves, at times, don’t receive much love from America.
Francine Prose argues in her essay “Voting Democracy off the Island” that if the lesson to be learned in watching reality television shoes like Survivor and The Bachelorette is that “anyone will do anything for money, that every human interaction necessarily involves the swift, calculated formation and dissolution of dishonest, amoral alliances, it seems naïve to be appalled by the fact that our government has been robbing us to pay off its supporters in the pharmaceutical industry”. By this same reasoning, if the lesson to be learned from Black reality television shows like Fantasia for Real is that African Americans are ignorant, uneducated, and lazy, it is naive to be surprised by such realities as the achievement gap and disparities in prison demographics.
Marlon T. Riggs’ video, Color Adjustment, offers the viewer an exciting trip though the history of television, focusing on the representation, or lack thereof, of African-Americans. A perfectly chosen combination of television producers, actors, sociologists, and cultural critics join forces to offer insight and professional opinion about the status of African-Americans in television since the inception of television itself. As Color Adjustment traces the history of television shows from Amos n’ Andy and Julia to "ghetto sitcoms" and The Cosby Show, the cast of television professionals and cultural critics discuss the impacts those representations have on both the African-American community and our society as a whole. Color Adjustment continually asks the question: "Are these images positive?" This video raises the viewer’s awareness about issues of positive images for African-Americans on television.
Besides, in cultivation theory, George Gerbner proposes that heavy users of media treat the content of media as a primary source to perceive the world and assert what they see in media is very similar to the reality (Bryant, Thompson and Finklea, 2013), so there is a high possibility that audience will bring the perception of stereotyped portrayals of African-American from media into the real world. Based on the above unhealthy situations, this paper is going to illustrate how the racial stereotypes in media negatively affect people’s perception, attitude and behavior toward African American in the reality....
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, – this longing to attain self-consciousness, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message f...
Racism and discrimination continue to be a prevalent problem in American society. Although minorities have made significant strides toward autonomy and equality, the images in media, specifically television, continue to misrepresent and manipulate the public opinion of blacks. It is no longer a blatant practice upheld by the law and celebrated with hangings and beatings, but instead it is a subtle practice that is perceived in the entertainment and media industries. Whether it’s appearing in disparaging roles or being negatively portrayed in newscasts, blacks continue to be the victims of an industry that relies on old ideas to appeal to the majority. The viscous cycle that is the unconscious racism of the media continues to not only be detrimental to the white consumers, who base what they know about blacks on what is represented on television, but also the black consumers, who grow up with a false sense of identity.
The final theme portrayed within race, crime, and The Wire is the media’s influence on public views. The media plays a large role in influencing the views of the public. What the media decides to air is broadcast to the whole world as what is “right” so discretion should be used in reporting information. Blacks already carry a large stigma for many reasons, however the media should not reinforce this. Anderson (1990) states that many learn to fear minorities based on crimes seen on television as well as in the newspaper.
Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hop's influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., companies and corporate giants have used its appeal to capitalize on it. Although critics of rap music and hip hop seem to be fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers a new paradigm of what can be (Lewis, 1998.) The potential of this art form to mend ethnic relations is substantial. Hip hop has challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a rich ethnic spectrum. This art form was once considered a fad has kept going strong for more than three decades. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up immersed in hip-hop. Hip hop represents a realignment of America?s cultural aesthetics. Rap songs deliver a message, again and again, to keep it real. It has influenced young people of all races to search for excitement, artistic fulfillment, and a sense of identity by exploring the black underclass (Foreman, 2002). Though it is music, many people do not realize that it is much more than that. Hip hop is a form of art and culture, style, and language, and extension of commerce, and for many, a natural means of living. The purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and its effect on American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to shed some light that helps readers to what hip hop actually is. In order to see hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.
The media does not stand in isolation from the separation in society when they report. It is a group wonder, which translates into everyday reality through the actions of individuals. But it is not confined to individuals. It is present in the institutional and cultural matrix of a society. According to Jennifer Pierce, stories about discrimination against people of color and the problems the economy posed for them receive little attention in the news media, while accounts of “reverse discrimination,” “angry white males,” and “white male victims” took center stage—narratives that helped turns the majority of California voters against affirmative action. For example the media have separated the working class and stereotyping class young African-American and Hispanics as gangsters or drug dealers. The media has crushed the younger generation for future education, employment, and other advancements. The media has focused more on the negative aspects of the Hispanic and black than the