Step into the twenty-first century where the use of the word has shifted and evolved drastically. Going from nigger to the contemporary “nigga” has produced a fluid, adaptable, postmodern, and urban construction of identity epitomizing numerous social and rhetorical flows. “Nigga” identity has been most expressed in hip-hop and rap culture, one end that presents a sense of masculinity, misogyny, as well as sexual violence then another side that attempts to locate an authentic self amidst the difficult life that has forever plagued blacks within urban America. This is a term used to bring African Americans together. The issue that lies through this metamorphosis is that African Americans have managed to establish the unspoken rule that it is
Commercial hip hop is too blindsided by making profit to assist in the rallies for Black justice the same way that hip-hop proper is doing. #BLM has liberated rap from its default setting today, and is beginning to break the white stereotype that hip hop is defined as a consumer market where “rhyming negro gentleman callers and ballers sold vernacular song and dance to an adoringly vicarious and increasingly whiter public” (para.6). Tate concludes with stating that #BLM’s “reclamation of hip-hop proper has brought complexity and revolutionary street cred back to the race conversation in commercial rap. The public can no longer be sold the noxious and recherché notion that 21st-century rap culture is only about trap-happy nigras getting paid for getting dumb, or coldstoopidwackretarded, even. Thanks to #BlackLivesMatter, the beautiful struggle against racialized injustice once again matters where rap and hip-hop proper live” (para
Tatum explores how people negotiate and understand their racial identity and how this affects their experiences and viewpoints, with effective use of the concept of "racial identity formation (Tatum, 2017). " From pre-encounter to internalization, the author thoroughly analyzes the many stages of racial identity development and how they affect people and their experiences. An in-depth analysis of the methods by which racial stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination are spread, as well as the effects they have on people and communities, is also provided by
The term “ white girl’ refers to any white American girl who is obsessed with any of the following: Leggings, Uggs, Starbucks, Autumn, iPhones, Instagram, Twitter, Selfies, or the movie Mean Girls. Since 2012, all of these “basic” women have been relocated to an island referred to as White Girl Island . The island is located fifty miles off the coast of Florence, Italy with citizens that are required to wear their “white girl starter packs”. They’re equipped with UGG boots that match perfectly with their yoga pants and oversized hoodies. For the citizens at White Girl island to remain at ease, they must have these necessities,government, and entertainment.
A path to embrace difficulties Even when we do not notice, words have a huge impact in the culture that’s speaks the language and the culture has an impact in the meaning of the language. Given this, there is certainly a relationship between a word’s intention and the reaction it gets, instead of the actual meaning, we create words and give them the meaning (Rahman ). The n word is one of the most controversial words nowadays, if not the most. These is because of the loaded historical background that it carries with it, this word is seen to be completely ligated to violence and intimidation that happened during the 19th century to the African-American race.
This article focuses on the color-blind ideology that allows white people to participate in and appropriate hip-hop culture. Rodriquez notes that they do so by using the guise of inclusivity of all races to justify their participation in hip hop and to adapt characteristics of the culture without respecting Black identity. He uses his own interviews of several white audience members of hip hop concerts who identified as participants of hip hop culture. Rodriquez identifies two groups resulting from social collectivity to reinforce his argument: consciously collective white groups, who actively reinforce racial segregation and passively collective white groups, who unknowingly unite and reinforce systematic racism through their adherence to color-blind ideology. The participants of his research are part of the latter, who unconsciously reinforce systematic racism through treating cultural objects, namely aspects of hip hop culture, as shareable products and experiences.
1. This is one of the most prominent aspects of slavery in today’s world, the word nigga/nigger was not used as a term of endearment as we all know but at some point in time it was used as a psychological weapon to make people of African descent actually prefer being referred to as a ‘nigga’ than an African American. This derogatory reference served to separate us from the strong pride 2. Today there is a lack of ample people that we can look up to and be influenced by in our presence, there is a serious lack of education with our culture, how could you exactly teach one different when you were taught or bought up I one way of life?
This is not a regular day for jharel. He is going downtown to protest on black lives matter. He believes all lives matter but african american lives are being targeted the most. He feels like they don 't care about african american lives and were taken for granted. This is something that have been going on for a while now.
Within creating this song the NWA has established a negative connotation and narrow stereotype of African Americans being in relation to violence, drugs, murder and rape. The song links all African Americans to an “American gangster” lifestyle which creates and contributes to the undesirable marginalization of an African
The rap music, sharing its root with other forms of traditional African-American music, bore artists like N.W.A. who documented these secular problems through their records. “They wanted to talk about what they were going through, seeing” and have transformed the way of delivering messages (NPR). In conclusion, the post-black era bred improved diversity and complex identity in African-American culture. Many African-American figures even today are changing the landscape of black identity in the United States.
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.
One remaining question is what does tomorrow hold? ZZ Packer used this book as a way to bring light to such a dark topic. While America is not where we used to be, we still have a lot of progress to make in the near future. “Revisiting the Rhetoric of Racism” by Mark Lawrence McPhail suggests that African-Americans have longed for a sense of identity that has long been denied by people of the white race. McPhail said that scholars have been working to understand racial rhetoric by examining the “social construction of identity and difference,” (McPhail 43).
Historical events fall along the lines of celebrating holidays such as Black History Month in school or even church. William E Cross ’s Nigresence model discusses five stages which include emersion, immersion, pre-encounter, encounter, and internalization commitment. First, the pre-encounter stage happened in middle school being exposed to so many Caucasian people, and considering how a like we acted. Acted which means growing up in the country and using the same slang as well as taking a liking in the same activities.
Racial identity plays a role in the physical and psychological features of humans. Physically, humans in different parts of the globe endure different conditions and environments. Humans adapt to their environments and obtain different physical traits, henceforth, these physical traits have become adjacent to race. Psychologically, ancestral prejudices and influences throughout history have lingered through the generations and have impacted modern racial identities and tensions. Ethnic conflicts of the past such as the Social Darwinist theory of a "superior race" are morally refuted in current times, but that assumption had a brunt impact in which the world is still repairing today.
The film Boyz N the Hood is a story about life in South Central Los Angeles. The film was wrote and directed by John Singleton in 1991. I chose this movie because of its relevance to the course and how it reflects pop culture in that time period. The opening line in the movie “one out of every twenty-one Black American males will be murdered in their lifetime” really catches the audience attention. This movie goes into detail and shows the life of three young males living in the hood of Los Angeles battling a life surrounded by drugs, violence, and questions of race.
While identity focuses on uniqueness such as how an individual is different from and similar to others, diversity focuses on the range of the difference and uniqueness such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, among others. Diversity should be seen as source of strength. However, it can also be a source of violence, oftentimes by those who fear or dislike difference. In the best light diversity is foundation for peacebuilding – since it enables us to draw strength and be respectful of difference. Identity and diversity are linked.