African American Popular Culture

It is the year 2016. Slaver in North America officially ended 150 years ago, yet the controlling images of African Americans in the media and overall popular culture still objectifies African Americans as slaves within American society and to the rest of the world. In particular, images of African American women have been completely stripped, due to slavery, of any authentic identity and images have been overly controlled which has left African American women with no legacy of positivity within popular culture imagery. The popular culture view of African American women continues the enslaved images reminiscent of the past 150 years of African American only inherent in American. Current controlling images adhere to none of the past truths

What is popular culture? In short popular culture is everything US citizens consider to be mainstream. Pop culture holds a consensus on our social views, attitudes, perspectives, ideas and images within the mass of our culture and culture capital. We create the reality through popular culture. An example would be the consensus of the company Nike, its products, commercials but more importantly its logo. The white check mark or “Swoosh” which is the Nike logo seems to forever portray the image of approval globally to “Just Do It”. Whether or not you own any Nike products, because of popular culture, it is very likely that you have or will have and interaction with this company in some way. Clothes sent in care packages to third world countries sometimes have Nike products, thus making Nike a global pop culture phenomena. Throughout the world we have a view of what Nike is and how Nike is used in relation to our everyday lives. Everything is defined in popular cultures encompassing scope even if the popular cultures definition is further from truth, reality or even solid facts. So what does popular cultures controlling images of African American women say about them globally? “Because the authority to define societal values is a major instrument of power, elite groups, in

Emphasis on pop culture ubiquity and dominance in our society, its consolidation ownership among a few multinational corporations, and its ability to manufacture desires, perpetuate stereotypes, and mold human minds, particularly those of children. (Grazian,2010). African American women are known in popular culture as being video groupies, and are normally exploited in music videos for their bodies in all generes but primarily hip hop/rap videos. This brings up the next controlling imagery of Black women as being sexual and animalistic in nature. Pop culture of music, sitcoms and even news stories constantly display African American women in a negative way. Animal print, wild hair and safari settings are inherent when casting a black women in the media. In music videos a woman’s body is the main focus. On black women the buttocks is given special attention always in an intriguing and taboo manner. Since the 18th century African women have been exploited for their assets. “Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman (before 1790 – 29 December 1815) was the most famous of at least two Khoikhoi women who, due to their large buttocks or steatopygia, were exhibited as freak show attractions in 19th-century Europe under the name Hottentot Venus. “Hottentot" was the then