“Down Low” in African-American and Caucasian Communities

Music is a creative art form that allows the artist to construct something that expresses a purpose. It evolves over time and changes as the world changes, taking on many different motivations behind the melody and lyrics. In today’s society, anger, oppression, racism, and negative opinions rule the media and popular culture. I believe that African Americans need to show their self worth and not let white people hold them back. With the music in white culture often mocking African American culture and portraying negative stereotypes, African Americans have to find ways to gain respect. In acknowledgement of the negative portrayal of their culture, African Americans respond by creating songs and videos that express their pride in their culture and heritage, react to white oppression, and communicate their independence.

Harris’s interest was the representational dialogic of racial difference within film and the real/representation dialect of cultural, gender, and sexual identity (Harris, 51). But the new images of black masculinity are problematic and limited. This was an operation of sorts, of “recoding masculinity from established, now historic, Hollywood codings of black men and black masculinity visualizes a more ambiguous, more discursive image, producing the meanings of an intricately constructed masculinity, more complexly dimensional than the submissive, docile Tom, or the morally corrupt, conniving, sexually threatening drug dealer” (Harris, 52). But these aggressive and politically charged black masculinities, now turned into these difficult ideological metaphors- they construct themselves from the existing “pop cultural and filmic representations of masculinity” (Harris, 52). Basically, Harris stated that black masculinity turned into a “fixed” culturally familiar/consumable construct; masculinity became reinforcement of singular, monologic meanings, only within different popular images. According to Robyn Weigman’s Feminism, The Boyz, and Other Matters Regarding the Male, Newsweek asserts, “Hollywood fades to black.” The primary images

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.

Although the film was extremely upsetting, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie because I learned so much. Throughout the entirety of the film, I felt heartbroken and ashamed. I think I felt this way because being a white, upper-middle class individual, I have never experienced anything similar to what Africans Americans go through daily.

Throughout America’s history there have been many struggles with equality amongst the many racial identities that live in this “melting pot.” Acceptance of the many races is a continuous goal in the war on racism in America. Once accepted, many racial identities go under huge scrutiny by the media, society, and their other racial counterparts, etc. Black Sexual Politics by Patricia Hill Collins is a critical analysis of blacks in America and blacks as a race. The book analyzes this race on various levels, and these levels include, but are not limited to the following: the concept of “new” racism, gender ideology within the race, and the potential for progression of

According to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 1.2 million individuals in the United States have HIV (about 14 percent of which are unaware of their infection and another 1.1 million have progressed to AIDS. Over the past decade, the number of HIV cases in the US has increased, however, the annual number of cases remains stable at about 50, 000 new cases per year. Within these estimates, certain groups tend to carry the burden of these disease, particularly the gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (MSM) and among race/ethnic groups, Blacks/African American males remain disproportionately affected. (CDC)

If a movie of this sort had such an emotional impact on me, it is no wonder people embraced these ideas back then. The use of new and popular media methods in those days was more than adequate in transferring the black inferiority ideas to the general public. Beginning at the early 19th century with the happy, dancing, toothless, drunken Negro with big, bold and white lips to the image of the mid 21st century African-American, the media has always used these images to convey inferiority. These images implied inherent traits in the black community. This whole community was represented in the new media as one who can not be collateralized and integrated in to society without being happily enslaved. Most of these images had great commercial values that made it all the more impossible for the rest of the nation not to embrace the African American stereotypes.

This film portrays both the Native and White men as human beings, instead of saints or villains - all have their own personal and cultural flaws, but yet they all act morally correct according to each set of culture beliefs. The Jesuit priest (Father Laforgue) attempts to bring Catholic faith

Did you know straight black men enjoy having sex with other straight black men, but do not consider themselves anything but heterosexual males? In today’s world, even “back in the day”, which can be considered before 2004 when this tell-all novel, On the Downlow: A Journey Into the Lives of Straight Black Men Who Sleep With Men by J.L. King, Karen Hunter and E. Lynn Harris was written, takes the reader on an actual journey into a world someone would least expect. With everyone we have in our life, our neighbors, close family, distant family, friends, and strangers we see everyday, we still do not know some of the most soul defining things about them. As society grows into this new world of acceptance, friends are bound to share their interests with others they know that are not interested in the subject, but also knowing they will still be accepted. It took until 2016, to finally legalize gay marriage, yet there are still the many people who are completely disgusted with it. And to think just 60 short years ago the KKK was still a popular thing. The point being, in the 80s-90s, around the time of most of the occurrences in this novel, a straight black male is not going to broadcast about his sexual encounters with other men as freely as it could potentially be. Thus, being the biggest issue for the spread of HIV in the country.

Last but not least, when the film was released, John Singleton proved that a movie with no white faces as major characters, about the dicey topic of black-on-black crime, could win over critics and audiences of all colors. The examples in the film are actually from John Singleton experiences when

People classified others into stereotypes that might influence our cultural views of other, regardless if they were true or not. In the movie, it was assumed that if you were African-American that lived in a poor neighborhood, you can’t go to college and will fall under the peer pressure to become a drug leader, just like many people had before and many people actually do in real life. This type of views results in people having to fight adversity to make something out of themselves. It is something no person should experience because stereotypes, for the most

How beneficial is having knowledge about the down low? Not enough of our society is informed of how detrimental or costly this “lifestyle” is or can be. Surprisingly, the risk factors include an association with sexually transmitted diseases most notably HIV/AIDS. According to Lisa Bond, “the down low has been used to describe black men who identify as heterosexual yet put their female partners at risk for HIV infection by secretly engaging in homosexual sex”. Whether or not we conclude that black men are in fact "prime agents" for spreading HIV, popular press feel obliged to associate HIV/AIDS and black down low men thus asserting that their lifestyle could possibly be why the disease started and is still growing. Therefore, this research paper is to spark whether "down low" black men contribute to the continuous spread of HIV/AIDS. Without understanding the background of the down low lifestyle, writers popularize negative associations with it. Furthermore, I plan to briefly identify and define what is the down low and what allegedly provokes men to engage in it. And because the public media and writers have continuously pointed fingers at black men who only participate in this lifestyle, I also plan to expand my research to reject that only black men are on the down low.

Over the recent years, reality TV has consumed Atlanta, GA. Atlanta has a rich history for black success where many pioneers have lead the way for existing African Americans. Nevertheless, the grossly popular TV show, Love and Hip Hop Atlanta, draws millions in awe week after week. Viewers are drawn in by the stereotypical issues distressing the black community, more specifically, African American men. On this weekly program, black men in particular are portrayed as Brute individuals. This stereotype has been generated since the beginning of film. Birth of a Nation nationally disseminated these negative racial stereotypes. In the film, two white men wearing black face menace a young white virgin until she leaps to her death (Baynes). Historically, black men have been subjected to the image of being violent savages, who are

There will always be someone who is not the target, guess whom? Those individuals that are elevated by definition and receive an advantage, receive a subsidy, receive a privilege in the process. They like to talk about those who are down as if there is no up. They like to use language that obscures the interrelationship of down and up. Now down has no meaning without an up. They talk about those at the bottom of the hierarchy, not paying attention to the fact that for anyone who is down, someone is above them and they are above them because they are down. They use this language, that makes it impossible. So what does it mean to be a part of a minority community? Accepting the fact that there will always be denial amongst the privileged, accepting

This shows that were both in love. They didn’t even take in mind that black and white people couldn’t kiss or have a future together. They simply didn’t care about it.