My name is Nathaniel Howard and this is my final project. I am going to do a final project on African Americans in Popular Culture. The reason I am doing this because I am working on a book that will have African Americans as superheroes in it. I decide to relate my project to the working of my manuscript. I have researched and studied on article that shows the impact of African Americans in lieature and T.V Shows. My final project will dicuss why I am doing it and why it is important.
I read three sources that I will use on my final project. The sources are Africa in the American Imagination : Popular Culture, Radicalized Identities, and African Visual Culture, Pigtails, Ponytails, and Getting Tail: The Infantilization and Hyper-Sexualization of African American Females in Popular Culture , and “You Ain’t No Denzel”: African American Men’s Use of Popular Culture to Narrate and Understand Marriage and Romantic Relationships. The reason i will use these sources because it connects to my final project ideas and it connects to my manuscript. The manuscript I am working on will involves African Americans as super heroes, involving realistic history facts in Black History.
The Articles
Researching why I am doing the final project on African Americans in popular culture, I find out how African American males are being show in a negative light. Although, in popular culture, their are movies that show African Americans males in positive light like Black Panther, Blade, and Spawn, but the negative outweighs the positives. For example, movies like Boy in the Hood, Friday, and other movies that has African Americans as gangsters often paint the African Americans male as a thug, hood, and emasulcated. Although these movies have the African American males changing at the end, it is still saddening to see how people are looking at African Americans male. According to the article titled “You Ain’t No Denzel”: African American Men’s Use of Popular Culture to Narrate and Understand Marriage and Romantic Relationships , it stated ” “An examination of the transcripts revealed that 18 of the 33 (54 %) men participating in our study made a total of 51 references to the media and popular culture in their discussions of their romantic relationships and marriages” (Perry, Smith, and Brooms 489).
This isn’t only affecting African American males, but also African Americans females. In popular culture, African Americans females are often show as Jezebel, a black stereotype that they are oversexualized. In shows like Love and Hip Hop: Altana, Real Housewives, and Emipre, it portayled African American females as sex symbols rather than showing positive feature about them. According to the article Pigtails, Ponytails, and Getting Tail: The Infantilization and Hyper-Sexualization of African American Females in Popular Culture, it stated, ” Historically, the pairing of a black male brute or pimp figure and the Jezebel is familiar in stereotypical representations of black sexuality”(Mullins 747).
The reason it is a problem for African Americans and we should be against shows that proytaled us in a negative light because different cultures will believe we do these things. For example, look at Hip Hop and other shows that show African Americans in a negative light. We got Asians, Whites, Mexicans, and Hispanics trying to act black. The tern act black is a negative connation in which people will act ghetto aka improper and uneducated, which the majority of African American rappers, African Americans entertainers, and African American directors often put us in a negative which it is the case of the most in their videos. In Hip Hop, most African Americans rappers have people to believe it is okay to do drugs and have sex with multiple women. People will think that African Americans accept these behaviors. According to the article, Africa in the American Imagination : Popular Culture, Radicalized Identities, and African Visual Culture , it stated that White people copy the negative customs of African Americans and think all African Americans are going what these African Americans rappers are doing (Magee 30).
The source of the Problem
Although I say Hip Hop was one of the problem that stereotype African Americans and influence them, I am saying Gangster Rap had created a problem in the Black Community. I am not saying that Gangster Rap is causing African Americans to go out and kill each others. I am saying that Gangster Rap is influencing African Americans into the life of drugs, alcohols, and especially gang violence. As African Americans, we shouldn’t allowed this type of music to effect us at all, but yet we still listen to it and let the media controls us. I stand against evil and Gangster Rap promotes lust, murder, and other things that aren’t positive for our community. We should make positive music instead of making music that promote the opposite.
Samples of Gangster Raps
Let be honest, why do we support this type of music?
YG-Stop Snitching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXMfvLUgMM4
Bobby Shmurda- Hot nigga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJwKKKd2ZYE
Chief Keef- Earned It https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLpCkuftmJM
If you listen to rappers like this I am not shaming you or telling you to stop listen, but rather watch out for African American Stereotypes in them.
According to Ben Carson, ” We need to reestablish faith in our communities and the values and principles that got us through slavery, that got us through Jim Crow, and segregation, and all kinds of horrible things that were heaped upon us,” he said. “Why were we able to get through those? Because of our faith, because of our family, because of our values, and as we allow the hip-hop community to destroy those things for us, and as we grasp onto what’s politically correct and not what is correct, we continue to deteriorate” (Ben Carson blasts hip-hop for hurting African-American communities).
Look at how white people and Asian people are using us as jokes
The last one is sad because this brother is participating in a racist act look as blackface. I don’t know if the female is black or hispanic, It is disrespectful to see how our people is using racist act as games.
Works Cited
Magee, Carol L. Africa in the American Imagination Popular Culture, Racialized Identities, and African Visual Culture . Jackson [Miss: University Press of Mississippi, 2012. Print.
Perry, Armon, Smith, Siobhan, and Brooms, Derrick. “You Ain’t No Denzel”: African American Men’s Use of Popular Culture to Narrate and Understand Marriage and Romantic Relationships. Vol. 18. Boston: Springer US, 2014. Web.
Dagbovie‐Mullins, Sika A. Pigtails, Ponytails, and Getting Tail: The Infantilization and Hyper‐Sexualization of African American Females in Popular Culture. Vol. 46. N.p., 2013. Web.
Larson, Leslie. “Ben Carson Blasts Hip-Hop for Hurting African-American Communities.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 6 Apr. 2015, https://www.businessinsider.com/ben-carson-blasts-hip-hop-2015-4.
Ms. Mojo. “Top 10 Craziest Real Housewives of Atlanta Moments”. Youtube, Youtube, 3, June .2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyapvP78clg .
DeLaGhetto, Timothy. “ACTING BLACK”. Youtube, Youtube, 5, May. 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82q9PQe8rDc.
DeLaGhetto, Timothy. “Gangsta Angry Birds”. Youtube. Youtube, 3, June. 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jPvRWtKGk0 .
The Prince Family. “Picked My HUSBAND Up In An UBER UNDER DISGUISE!!”. Youtube. Youtube, 5, Sep. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sukwc7u_dMo .
Story Time 