Being An Other : Race And American Culture

News media and Hollywood are the main two vehicles of identity theft among African people. In Hollywood, blacks are always shown in a position of reluctant assistance or sub servant i.e. Butler, Helper and or slave. Equally, News Media almost always show us as animals and criminals of the lowest morals. Consequently, through the system of programming, constant repetitions of demoralizing images are perpetuated, and with no other source of reference to rely upon blacks often consciously and subconsciously accept those images. Moreover some people, rather most become not only to accept those images, a lot of Black disassociate themselves with their race, because who wants to be from a race of ”nobodies” and by default has to capture the identity of the European race. One must keep in mind that racism is a system of power that is employed by White people, thus one must ponder, who owns and operates Hollywood and new media.” I agree with Trevor Musa black often see them self as invisible because of media which is a cause racial prejudice.

The 1987 film documentary Ethnic Notions directed by Marlon Riggs, identifies the evolution of African American cultural depictions through ethnic stereotypes and caricatures in American culture. I feel Ethnic Notions exposes the roots of false generalization from the beginning and presents a series of classifications for racial depictions that still are noticeable in today's society. These racial depictions identified with in this film begin in the mid 1800's and continue thought to the 1960's. I now after viewing Ethnic notions agree that there are generalizations and depictions that are exaggerated in American popular culture and entertainment.

As a teacher, it is important to know and understand the racial and cultural identities of both yourself, and your students. Knowing about your students’ backgrounds is a great way to make the classroom a safe and welcoming environment. Not all educational settings emit a feeling of safety to its students, and that needs to be changed. In this paper, I will discuss how my racial and cultural identity may be the same and may differ from my students, as well as some ways in which the institution of education can be changed to be more racially and culturally inclusive.

People of all races enjoy a good film or tv show but, they sometimes are not being represented equally. Representation matters because, it is important to teach the younger generations about their race’s worldview on what they find normal. Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted a psychological study where, “children were shown two dolls, one black and one white. They were asked to choose which one they preferred, which one was ‘bad’ and which one was ‘good.’ The results were the same across races: the children generally preferred the white doll and saw that doll as ‘good’…. but it is really no surprise if you look at the media these children are consuming”(The

I believe race is so central to how we organize social life in many societies because it has been the defining factor that breaks humans apart from one another just based off of something as simple as sight. It is the easiest way to classify individuals aside from gender or nationality. Race has also become something that individuals have personally adopted, and I believe many people are more comfortable being around those that share the same characteristics as themselves.

The Unites States is a true melting pot of ethnicities and cultures. For many members of minority groups a certain hybridity is readily adopted, but for others, cultural assimilation can be quite difficult. Chicana author, Sandra Cisneros described this phenomenon as “always straddling two countries… but not belonging to either culture” (Doyle. 54). African American author, Alice Walker shared Cisneros’ sentiment, but focused her attention on the assimilation of black cultures and subcultures within the United States. Cisneros and Walker make the same poignant statement about the strains of cultural assimilation, with reconciliation of split identities as the goal, in their respective works, 1991’s “Woman Hollering Creek,” and 1973’s “Everyday Use,” yet their unique ethnic perspectives allow them to make it in surprisingly different ways.

To individuals who knew few blacks in the past, stereotypes in film and television reinforced negative views about black laziness, sexuality, and criminality, making comedy shows such as Amos ‘n’ Andy easier to carry out as there was minimal explaining that was needed. By providing African Americans with inferior roles on television, it reinforced the idea that African Americans were not as valuable as their white counterparts. In essence, “we are what we consume.” The more audiences watched African Americans playing roles such as servants and buffoons, the more society began to see these roles as a reflection of the kinds of characteristics they possessed in reality. Pop culture, as such, is an expression of a communities shared experiences. Pop culture influences how people follow the general view of society. Such is apparent even in today’s society as celebrities such as Kylie Jenner “can put out a tweet or an Instagram photo and it becomes all the rage, she drives pop culture like no other celebrity does” (White). Her infamous lips have resulted in teens demanding lip injections in order to mirror her looks by asking doctors for “The

A comment was made in a blog post early on in the year about whiteness in American that bugged me. It’s a topic that came up a few times throughout the semester in and outside of class. Granted, this topic is based on a single blog post but a collection of comment and statements that were made on specific blogs and during class sessions. This topic I fin extremely important mainly because I felt as though there was some confusion around the topic being white. Understandably if you’re white in America I think it’s easy to forget exactly how privileged you are. Nonetheless, it forced me to want to talk about white privilege in America, explain the meaning of “paradox of privilege”,

Popular culture is defined as “a composite of all the values, ideas, symbols, material goods, processes, and understandings that arise from mass media” (Atkins 131). It is well-known to the public and reinforces the way people see they world, including aspects such as race, ethnicity, and gender. According to Omi, popular culture “deals with the symbolic realm of social life, the images which it creates, represents, and disseminates contribute to the overall racial climate” (540). The individuals or groups belong to a specific race can be perceived based on their behavior portrayed by the mass media, instead of being recognized for who they truly are. Such effect created by the popular culture contributes to what is known as “racial stereotype”, which is “beliefs about differences in behavior associated with racial differences” (Jones 982).

I believe race in America shapes how a person identifies themselves and others 100 percent. I also believe American culture encourages race identification. There are many instances in American culture where race plays a key identification role. For instance, a typical employment application in America requires race self identification; historically Black Colleges and Universities embrace race identification (for good reason, I must admit); race identification even extends to physicians in which ailments are prescreened during annual visits. For example, African Americans will likely be checked for sickle cell anemia while Whites will likely be checked for heart disease (according to the National Institute of Health (NIH)) despite the fact

Throughout American history, people of color have been treated as inferior to whites in everything from beauty standards to criminal records. While this tactic provides validity to more whites, it also further divides society, building a barrier many don’t realize they create. The film discusses the subconscious biases many people have against those with darker skin, immediately discounting them as humans and demoting them to a lower place in society. Research has shown this through a test which asks participants to associate white with good and African American with bad, and then flips this to associating African-American with good and white with bad. For someone with an implicit bias, the latter task will be more difficult, time consuming, and laden with error as compared to the former. The acceptability of appearance-based judgement widens the color line, disregarding all people of non-European ancestry, and making the quest for validation near impossible for many. Nevertheless, the human race has proved that it will do anything to find validation, as noted by Gunnar Myrdal. “My general opinion of human beings is that they are very confused in their mind. Their public opinions are certainly not their private opinions” (Smith 0:49-1:00). People follow those whose opinions have been marked as valid, even though they may not agree. To them, the glory of their own validation outweighs the value of another human being; they have no qualms about changing their

“Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.”

People constantly try to gain direction and insight from their evaluations of other people. One such way they do so is through stereotypes. Stereotypes are cognitive constructs involving an individual’s half-truths and distorted realities knowledge, expectations, and beliefs about human groups. As such, racial stereotypes are constructed beliefs that all members of the same race share certain specific characteristics. In America, the media and Hollywood play an integral role in entrenching and dispelling these stereotypes. However, Hollywood and the media create characters according to stereotypes to attract an audience, from which the viewers can reflect on and laugh at the stereotypes recognizable within American society. This paper seeks to discuss the common stereotypes in American society and how the media and Hollywood promotes those stereotypes and their impacts.

The popular culture particularly visual media affects our opions and attitude towards race and racial minorities group. our assumptions about race and racial minorities are both successeded and reflected in the streotypes presented by the visual media. i strongly believe in the George Gebners scientific examintaiton of televison that how we perceive ourselves and how we view those around us are affected by what we see on television. Visual media has such a heavy impact on us that even though they present a grossly distorted picture of the real world. people tend to accept more readily than reality itslef. the popular culture deals with symbolic realm of social life, the image which it creates, represents

According to Micheal Omi, “Film and television have been notorious in disseminating images of racial minorities which establish for audiences what these groups look like, how they behave, and, in essence, ‘who they are’” (541). Micheal Omi is the author of “In Living Color: Race and American Culture”, who depicts that many people are assuming the exclusion is over in United States, however, she argues that racism is continuing to modern society through the mass media that creates of the popular culture, and it brings many social problems on stereotyping ethnic characters. Jessica Haredorn, author of “Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck”, also describes that how the Asian women are stereotyping in Hollywood, “If we are ‘good,’ we are childlike, submissive, silent, and eager for sex… or else we are tragic victim types… And if we are not silent, suffering doormats, we are demonized dragon ladies — cunning, deceitful, sexual provocateurs” (344). As they discuss about, Hollywood writers and directors have a social responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic characters because the mess media can give negative effects in the modern society, such as increasing conflict between different the racial groups, developing of the stereotyping ethnic characters, and immunizing from the ethnic stereotype.