Color In Pop Culture

Black and white teenagers listen alike to rock music on the radio and attended clubs to hear it, together. Rock ‘n’ Roll’s roots helped accustom white teens to black music through the lenses of white, male vocalists—a normalcy to ground these drastic changes in race relations. The stars, like Elvis Presley—know for his sexual and riveting performances—began to blur the line between different forms of music and more importantly, black and white music.3 Rock ‘n’ Roll music was a blend of these two different cultures, demonstrating the enormous consumer power of this emerging youth culture and giving it the power to unite an entire

“…the appropriation of hip-hop cultural forms suggest not that whites want a black identity: rather, they want characteristics of blackness.” (Perry 2002, 109). This is quote by Pamela Perry, a sociologist as University of California Santa Cruz, from her book Shades of White:White Kids and Racial Identities in High School. Pamela Perry is a sociologist from University of California, Santa Cruz, throughout her book she touches on the idea of white children developing a sort of identity crisis depending on their environment. This quote helps put the appropriation of African American culture in its simplest terms. In most cases people associate Hip Hop culture with African Americans. With that being said, many artist of different genres who attempt to have a more hip hop vibe, fall subject to appropriating African American Culture. Various artist have been appropriating culture in several different ways whether it’s through dance, sound, or even image.

He states that online social marketing networks have provided the media for exposure to a global audience and has bred an unprecedented cultural confidence in its black originators. No longer do people of color have to strive to be identified as white to afford the opportunities that were associated with being white (e.g., better paying jobs, education, homeownership, etc.) to change their socio-economic status in life. White is no longer a threat or an ideal. The rise to mega wealth by people of color or ethnicity through sports and music has enabled them to move into social circles previously occupied by only the privileged upper white class. Minorities and immigrants no longer care about assimilating white American culture and behavior but are remaking culture in the image of white America’s multiethnic, multicolored heirs. Again, Hsu identifies this as a shift of white power and incorporates alarmist statements into his article such as warning that “colored migration is a universal peril, menacing every part of the white world.” He uses the election of Barack Obama as an example of the gradual erosion of “whiteness” in America and refers to whiteness as the touchstone of what it means to be an American.

“America, to be sure, has never policed the whole world, nor is it feasible for one country to do

Hip-Hop Culture and race have had a complicated relationship in the past two decades. It has been commonly referred to as “black music” and a reflection of black culture. However, recent studies done by the Mediamark Research Inc. showed that 60% of rap music buyers are white. With the emergence of white, Latino, Asian, and other rappers with diverse backgrounds on the Hip Hop scene it is important recognize the changing color of the genre and the stereotype it holds as “black music”. Black culture has also been subject to appropriation because of the popularization of Hip-hop music. However, much of the discourse on the topic confuses cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, and states that hip-hop music is strictly for African Americans or that it doesn’t belong to anyone at all. Hip-Hop is a black art form that transcends cultural boundaries and can be appreciated through the lenses of different cultures as long as those who enjoy it acknowledge its roots. The genre’s growing number of non-black rappers is not due to the appropriation of the genre by other cultures but as an expansion of it due to it’s growing popularity across the world.

Unfortunately indicative of the politics and policies in today’s terms, foreign policy increasingly occurs 150 characters at a time through Twitter, and the unhinged behavior often displayed by our executive leadership damages our national image and ability to effectively manage foreign policy. This fosters a political climate bent on retribution, vilifying dissent, and clear lacks of self-control does not convey an image of national strength and admiration. Unfortunately, this reinforces the stereotypical worldview of American’s and our politics as “the gun toting cowboy” that shoots first and asks questions later. While “the gun toting cowboy” is part of our culture as a nation, an “environment of threat inflation, frenzied overreaction, confusion, complexity, and uncertainty requires cool judgment” (LeVien 16), but cool judgement and detailed planning are not the hallmarks of a shoot-from-the-hip approach. Fulbright spoke to this in The Arrogance of Power in comparing two Americas when he clearly portrayed “the gun toting cowboy” as self righteous, narrowly egotistical, and arrogant in the use of power (Fulbright 245). This only reinforces Fulbright and Bacevich’s

The happenings of September 11, 2001 were tragic and heartbreaking, and in the presidential speech that George W. Bush gave nine days later, he ties ideas of American exceptionalism into the works. In his speech he adds that, “as long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be a time of terror” (Bush, 93). Here, he is trying to boost the morale of Americans by saying that we will come together and will be able to get over this since we are exceptional from the rest and have a lot of power. Bush then declares that they will go to war and are “confident of the victories to come” (Bush, 94). He is able to say that with confidence because they are a

When white people are being taught about racism they don't think it's them because they think "there talking about the other "bad" white people. She also talks about how white people have an advantage that people of color don't have, and that white people are treated better ."whiteness is a location of structural advantage, of race privilege.second its a 'standpoint' a place from which whir= te people look at ourselves, at others and society .third it refers to a set of cultural practices that are unmarked and unnamed. "(white fragility) .

As it becomes evident from the above tenets, critical race theory was developed and centered on issues of race and racism that are embedded in American society. Alternatively, other scholars situate CRT within four tenets: (1) racism is normal, (2) interest convergence, (3) historical context, and (4) narrative (Taylor, 2009).

To mock us in a satire way that we are the same way. What Klosteman is attempting to accomplish is that we are all the same, no one wants to stick out from a group of people. We never necessarily realize what we do, when we are doing it. If we don't take control of what we are actually doing, we might just end up like zombies.

The post-Civil Right era has seen the dismantle of racial categorization based on Biology. The theory that race influences the psychological, cultural and socio-economic aspect of one’s life has predominantly vanished. This accomplishment left a void for those who needed the biological discourse of race to establish their racist ideology. Colorblindness is the new methodology of implementing or otherwise avoiding the existence of racism. Its proponents predominantly assert its validity through the concept of the Civil Right Movement and the distorted understanding of the fact that “race is a social construct.” While the phrase implies that race is an illusion and nonexistent in nature, it also contains an often overlooked acknowledgment of race being an influential reality under the consideration of its social construction.

Aubrey, I loved how you started this discussion off with your own personal relationship to the issue. I cannot agree enough with the statement that our views, as an individual, are directly affected by the society with which we grew up in and our relationships with other people. Whether this be with people similar to our selves or drastically different. This truly speaks for the argument of color consciousness. From the points you made throughout this discussion, covering the reasons as to why people are more likely to cast prejudgment on those that are different from themselves, such as whites vs. blacks or lighter skinned blacks vs. darker skinned blacks, I find it very easy to agree with you. The explanations you provided make it easy to

1.These are the summaries of An American Tragedy and That Devil History. He starts talking about the phrase " conversation about race even mean." Henry Louis Gates thinks it 's meaningless and that talking about race means recognizing how race is intertwined with U.S. History. In an interview for Salon Gates said that "since slavery ended all political movements have been about race." American conservatives have been stuck on that since slavery ended a century and a half ago they need to get over it, move in, and embrace the benign American exceptionalism. Liberals have tried to justify the value of "white guilt." That includes the nagging feeling that modern white people need to make amends for. He basically wants white people and

Dance is often just considered a physical form of exercise and entertainment, but while studying dance through a sociocultural lense you can see that dance can tell you a lot more about many different cultures. Dance can tell you about how a culture was living at a certain time, how the people treated one another, if their was any racial conflicts, and or, if their was a big divide between the rich and the poor(Desmond). Hip Hop culture has been a big part of American history ever since Afrika Bambaataa brought hip hop values to the New York Bronx in 1971(Adaso). African people and Black Americans have always been creating their own styles of dance using Africanist aesthetics, and white people have been taking their dance styles and calling them their own since the beginning. Crank That Soulja Boy is no different than any other Africanist dance that white people learned and started doing themselves. Recent developments in social media has given an increased availability for white people to learn and watch and whitewash black American dances and culture. Crank That Soulja Boy is a modern day example of cultural appropriation: from black African American aesthetics, to privileged white Americans through the use of modern day social media, and whitewashing. Through the means of freud's fetishism and the primitive tropes, white people have been attracted to African American aesthetics and culture, thus adding to the white washing and cultural appropriation of Crank That, and

The study of popular culture is useful in many ways. To be more specific, this course has reached its three intended main ideas: what it means to be American, how to be more consumption-conscious, and how to apply these studies in our own lives. Jim Cullen puts this in a less specific sense, arguing that the study of popular culture can “afford valuable clues – about collective fears, hopes, and debates” (Cullen, The Art of Democracy, 2). We use these clues to understand the world around us, as well as why we do what we do as Americans and as humans. I will be touching on themes that relate to this quotation by Cullen, escapism, exploitation, and globalization, as well as how these themes relate to the course goals.