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Hip hop and race relations in america
Hip hop and race relations in america
Hip hop and race relations in america
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Whether we are watching the news or reading the newspaper, we hear stories of how women are brutally abused by their husbands, someone who had promised to love her in sickness or in health. Many times we hear that these women end up dead, because the abuse was so brutal that they couldn’t take it anymore. These stories though, are most commonly heard of in the black community, also known as the ghetto. In the article “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hoes” Joan Morgan connects the abuse of black women in their community to the lyrics of Rap and Hip Hop artists, and how they are influencing the black male. In the title alone, Morgan raises the question of how we went from asking a girl “Suga how you get so fly?”
Lorissa Figueroa Professor Patton ENG 1A 7 February 2018 More than what Rap Portrays When we listen to rap music we don’t really pay attention to how lyrics can affect people as often as we should. Since rap music has started it always influenced violence and sexism, but not everyone notices how it influences the black community. Joan Morgan explains this in a passage of her book When Chickenheads Come to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down (1999).
“Beyond Beats and Rhymes” Summary This movie was a broad discussion about hip-hop music (or more specifically gangster rap) and what kind of social issues the music not only showcases but seems to promote. The producer of this film, Byron Hunt, interviewed people involved in all aspects of the hip-hop industry, including famous rappers, to try to get to the bottom of this. Some of the most prominent issues discussed in the film were the over-sexualization of women, gun violence, and anti- homophobic attitudes. Hunt would ask those involved in the industry about why they think these themes are so prevalent.
In Gary Soto’s autobiographical piece “Black Hair,” he portrays a feeling of alienation. He describes a feeling of disconnection towards both his Hispanic coworkers, due to his language barrier, and feeling apart from the middle class family due he rented a room with, due to socio-economic status. Like Soto, I had a period in my life where I felt alienated from the environment I was in. My particular experience with this feeling of isolation took place in middle school, involving a group of girls that I had been friends with since Kindergarten. I had been glued to the hip with these girls since we were still wearing diapers, tapping away in our tap shoes at our dance classes together.
Hip Hop is seen as something inspiring, but most people see it as a way to speak out the truth about a problem. As in “Hip Hop planet” being able say the truth can sometimes worsen any situation because sometimes what we say can promote violence and whatever happens after is not in our control. The essay is about how hip hop has changed into speaking out the issues that need to be taken care of in order to maintain a proper society. McBride talked about how rappers use violent lyrics to degrade women and gays and because of this it shows how the music has evolved into something entirely different that no one would have ever expected to have changed. In James McBride's essay “Hip Hop Planet,” he argues that hip hop has a negative influence on American Culture despite people thinking of it as inspirational and how people live through different experiences in life despite of your race.
Hip-hop culture has been the topic of various academic, social, and political discourses. Rap music, in particular, has made its way to mainstream media which is evident in the numerous films and movies that centers on what was once a part of an underground culture. Scholars explain that the popularity of hip-hop in both music and films are partly due to its potential to disseminate information, address an issue, and promote social change. Tinson and McBride (2013), for example, note that hip-hop is a “…form of critical education at the intersection of, and inseparable from political engagement” (1). Scholars further note that hip-hop’s current state “…requires frequent accounting of its engagement with the social, political, and cultural climate
In her essay “hip hop’s betrayal of black women,” Jennifer McLune implies that “(h)ip-hop owes its success to the ideology of women-hating” (193). She does not agree with Kevin Powell’s article that hip-hop does not mean to “offend” black women, but instead artists are only letting out their temper throughout their music. McLune feels infuriated that many artists in hip hop (including black men) rap about their community and downgrade their own women. In the hip-hop genre, sexism is mainly used, not only by black men but also by many other race hip-hop artists. Artists assume that women-hating in their rap songs will be accepted by women, but do not realize that it is affecting all women.
When I was growing up, my father never allowed me to listen to a lot of rap music. Instead, he exposed me to other types of music, even music that was not in English. I found the topic of how music affects people to be interesting because I never truly understood why I was not allowed to listen to certain types of music. In “Media literacy and perceptions of identity among pre-adolescent African-American girls”, Johari Harris, Miles Irving, PhD and Ann C Kruger, PhD take interviews of 8 young girls attending an elementary school in a 6-week program called “Project Prevent”.
Most people believe that “lyrics should appeal to us, not degrade us” (Glidden3). There is controversy surrounding “some artists accused of rapping sexually inflammatory lyrics” (Encyclopedia4). The actions of a few is causing people to put a bad label on rap in a whole. This bias opinion is becoming the cause of listeners to believe that rap lyrics “are setting a bad example for kids and teens” (Glidden2). I can understand where this may lead to critics to misapply such distaste to the rap form, but “there are rap artists who don’t use offensive language or portray women in a negative light” (Glidden1).
Sex, money, drugs and violence. When you hear those four words, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Many people would say they think of rap or hip hop. Today, rap music is constantly mistaken for valuing the destruction of communities by promoting images of “the thug life”. However, the hip hop culture can have a positive impact on society.
Nowadays, everyone wears the identity with pride. The genre was a testament to triumphing over hardships, to having enough confidence in oneself not to let the world drag you down, and to rising above the struggle, even when things seem hopeless. Violence in rap did not begin as an affective agent that threatened to harm America 's youth; rather, it was the outcry of an already-existing problem from youth whose world views have been shaped by the inequalities and prejudice they have experienced. The relentless wave of heroic new rappers arriving on the scene formed the golden age of hip hop in the 1980s, a newfound voice which rose from the impoverished ghettos during the 1980s and inspiring a generation of black youth to fight the police brutality they faced on a daily basis.
Hip Hop was the wildfire that started in the South Bronx and whose flames leapt up around the world crying out for change. James McBride’s Hip Hop Planet focuses on his personal interactions with the development of Hip Hop culture and his changing interpretations of the world wide movement. Many of his encounters and mentions in the text concern young black males and his writing follows an evolution in the representation of this specific social group. He initially portrays them as arrogant, poor, and uneducated but eventually develops their image to include the positive effects of their culture in an attempt to negate their historical misrepresentation.
Along with the creation of music videos, hip-hop’s popularity has soared and changed in many ways. Men and women are depicted in distinct and vivid ways in the media – particularly music videos – that may subconsciously affect our views of the norms of today’s society. That is, catchy songs and glamorous music videos that society thinks are harmless entertainment actually shape our worldview and can cause people to accept false impressions of women (Shrum & Lee, 2012). For example, as Sarnavka (2003) posits, women are victims of violence in society, as well as victims of violence in media (as cited in Bretthauer, Zimmerman, and Banning, 2007).
Rap music has negative influences on teenagers and youth lives, as they are drawn to the lifestyle of drugs, sex, and violence, which is contained in the music lyrics and videos. Research has supported this, arguing that exposure for a long time to this music is likely to affect the overall mood, behavior, perceptions, and create fantasies among the youths (Miranda and Claes, 2004). This has had significant influences on their behaviors at school and at home. Parents are concerned, since they are unaware of the lyrics, as the teenagers prefer to download the songs and listen the music through the headphones. Research has proven that popular rap music effects explore the student schoolwork, social interactions, moods, and overall behavior.
The Hip hop industry consists of mostly African American musicians. Since blacks are often alienated in society, their music seems to be too. People often give rappers negative labels such as “gangster” or “thug”, which are discriminatory words that people have often used to describe African Americans in the media. There is an everlasting double standard in music. as people bash rap music for being sexist and violent, other genres of music such as country or alternative have the same themes, but they’re vulgar lyrics go
