(B). In the article Defining Black Masculinity as Cultural Property the authors illustrate that the publics portrayals of Blacks as violent are often misguided and unjustly framed. Several recent studies have confirmed that the media tend to reinforce racial stereotypes, social deviancy, and delinquency of black males. Interestingly when news about a white shooter breaks it usually leads with a gunman fires shots or a gunman kills, and after they identify the shooter he is referred to by name. Or you read 24 year old Johnny whatever has been identified as the shooter. When it’s a person of color, you almost get his whole demographic. I recently read a headline the other day that said, “LA Times label black shooter as white supremacist. That’s …show more content…
These five factors that affect Black masculine positionality are important aspects of repositioning Black masculinities to counter pathological depictions of Black masculinity. Psychoanalyst Carl Jung contended that the self is naturally motivated to move toward growth, perfection, and completion. The ultimate symbol of the self is the mandala, a diagram that contains a circle inside of a square or vice versa. The dialect between the shapes is consistent with the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious elements of the self; hence, the combination of the three represents the total self, which is in constant pursuit of balance and wholeness. Because we as humans are naturally incomplete, we often strive toward perfection and balance, and sometimes this is done on a most subconscious level. We often behave in ways that are meant to evoke recognition, approval, and validation. Black masculine persons define the spaces where they live. Place, space, home and territory describe positions of the self in society. Home is represents privacy, self-protection, shelter, and comfort. Place, space, and territory are public terms that fuse the constitutive features of adjacency, interconnectedness, isolation, possession, yet fragmented. Both accent a void that needs to be filled. The motivation to do so characterizes struggle, but the behavioral quest is about
For anyone looking for clear evidence of the implicit racial biases and obvious disparities in the perception of the Black community when compared to their white counterparts, they hardly need to look any further than two motorcycle festivals that take over South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach every summer .Gene Demby, Lead Blogger for npr.org, authored, “2 Biker Rallies: One White, One Black-One ‘Badass’, The Other, Just ‘Bad”, is an article about how the media portrays groups of bikers different. Demby argues, that there is a considerable difference between how white bikers and black bikers portrayed thru the media. I agree with Demby, for instance, with what took place in Waco, Texas, where nine people were killed in a violent biker gang shootout.
In Brent Staple’s essay, Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space, he discusses how the black are stereotyped and not in a nice way. The whites’ believe black people are dangerous to their community, that the blacks commit wrong doings and create violence everywhere they go. The author goes through many struggles in his lifetime, for example, people thinking he is a mugger or even worse. Staples writes about his “first victim” to begin his essay, the victim is a white women who is so scared that he is behind her that she sprints off as far as she can. When people see Staples, they immediately assume that he is a bad man, when in reality he is a hardworking man earning everything he has.
In the article Black Men and Public Space written by Brent Staples, he shares his experience being a misconceived African American living in major cities Chicago and New York. Having generic traits of a “youngish black man- a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair” (Staples 520), he was often misunderstood for a thug; particularly when he roamed around the streets sundown. His first encounter being mistaken as a brute happened in Chicago. He turned around the corner into a rather quiet street in a neighborhood of the upper class, coincidentally walking behind a lady who was described by Staples as “white, well dressed, probably in her late twenties”. It was when she initially picked up her pace, and eventually fled on foot soon after realizing the presence of a seemingly suspicious man walking harmlessly behind her.
Though Brent Staples writes “Black Men in Public Space” in essay form, and Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” is a short story, both authors explore similar ideas about race, the power of racial stereotypes, and the harmful effect of them. Staples use of irony, and Morrison’s symbolic use of metaphor shows that every situation has multiple perspectives and to not look outside of one individual experience can often induce one to accept stereotypes as full truths. As Staples discusses the stereotypes attached to black males, he writes about “the alienation that comes of being ever the suspect”(2). The word suspect literally means a person thought to be guilty of a crime or offense, but here it is used in an ironic perspective. Staples really wasn’t
The ideology is also analyzed through its social and physiological effects on black people through Fanon’s “The Fact of Blackness”. Fanon’s “The Fact of Blackness” and Gayle Jr.’s “Cultural Strangulation” makes it clear to see that Whiteness and the White Aesthetic has oppressed the race of black people by promoting the ideology that black people are inferior to white people, this ideology is used to make black people incapable of seeing their true superiority. In Fanon’s, “The Fact of Blackness” he identifies society’s view on blackness and its physiological effect on black people though analyzing his identity as a black man.
These examples show that what Brent Staples wrote about fear and guns is still true till this day, as more and more cases are shown in the media of an police officer killing unarmed, non-aggressive African
In the south region of the United States, Atlanta Georgia preferably, has been at the top of hip hop music production for the last decade. Several artists had used dance and dance instruction in combination with their lyrics to carry, and to have a concept of masculinities. Body movements works hand in hand with lyrics in the expression of masculinities, another commonly held misconception is that Black masculinity is a singular concept. Masculinities are communicated through hip-hop dance and are a non-verbal language.
Masculinity. Baldwin also enlightens the masculinity in both black and white folks in America, according to Katie Riley, “Masculinity is something that is explored thoroughly by James Baldwin works” while researching about James Baldwin, I figure he portrayed a lot of Masculinity in some or most of his works. Although James Baldwin didn't only explore Masculinity in only his race, he also explores Masculinity in other race such as white race. That pretty much got my attention because Baldwin was diverse in topics that he writes about. At the central aspect of James Baldwin works, Baldwin compares both black and white Masculinities and shows that they are both established and “formulated” via similar experiences and circumstances around them.
6), street violence is going on everywhere with young black males, and unfortunately other black men have to pay the consequences of their actions. Unlike others,
“Black Men and Public Spaces” Diagnostic Essay Brent Staples in “Black Men and Public Spaces,” illustrates the inescapable prejudices and stereotyping that African-American men face in America. He does this by relating to his audience through his personal experiences with stereotyping, and sharing his malcontent on how these events have made him alter his way of living. From “victimizing” woman, watching people lock themselves away, and having to whistle classical music to calm the nerves of people around him; Staples builds a picture to help people better sympathize and understand his frustration. Although Staples describes himself as a college graduate, a journalist, and a softy in the face of violence, he details that the overall public deems him a dangerous criminal.
In his essay entitled Black Men and Public Space (1987), Brent Staples talks about how people will have a common misconception on the black community by thinking that they are all mugger ,rapist or thugs. Staples supports his claim by telling the reader events/ stories that occured to him and talks about how people will assume that he is a danger to society when in reality he isnt. The authors purpose is to inform the reader that his experiences of being stereotyped is to show the reader his point of view when it comes to these types of situations. Staples writes in a formal tone for an intelligent or free minded person.
American Journal of Political Science. Hurwitz and Peffley write on how stereotypes about African Americans have an effect on people’s attitudes towards crime and policy. The authors discuss the link on race and crime and how the media has a lot to do with it. This work will be helpful to my research because of the stereotype linking blacks to crime. It will support my thesis on how race is spread throughout
I am an African American female whom is a descendent from the African Slave and a native American refugee. My culture runs deep in my veins and I am a product of the strength of my mother and father. While growing up I understood we were on the poverty line. My family lived in a small home with 3 bedrooms and occupied 7 people. I grew up in a small southeast Georgian town named Statesboro.
Embracing diversity in the media is important because it will shed light on the importance of protecting against racial stereotyping. Racial stereotyping is a well know problem that all minorities have faced. Racial stereotyping is when a person has preconceived notions on a person because they are of a certain race. A great deal of stereotyping stems from the media’s lack of diversity that has casted stereotypes towards minorities.
Masculinity (also called boyhood, manliness or manhood) is a set of attributes, behaviors and roles generally associated with boys and men. But the culture doesn’t end at the definition, it starts from there. The first thing to come to mind when the word masculinity is heard is usually a man flexing his gigantic muscles, as the word might sound to suggest, and that right there is the current culture of masculinity because sadly, in the world we live in, not everyone has a “muscular body”. So far we know the concept of masculinity, but the culture is what is truly hampering.