Take Control of Your Culture - American Studies - Blog

Cultural Analysis of Race

The blogging assignment for American Studies this week is to post a cultural analysis of of a recent work of popular culture that constructs race is an intriguing way.  Also, by the end of the week you should comment on two of your classmates' cultural analyses.  I'll be giving extra credit for those who post their analysis early in the week -- to get the conversation started -- and those who do an additional cultural analysis (as long as the first one is complete).

You can look at the guide to writing a cultural analysis that we discussed at the beginning of the year.

In this particular case, your thesis should argue for whether the work of culture supports or criticizes, reinforces or resist dominant ideologies about race in America.  In other words, does the work of culture perpetuate or break stereotypes of race?  Consider the historical stereotypes we have discussed -- Jim Crow, Sambo, Zip Coon, Brute and Mammy -- but feel free to update those stereotypes with more modern terminology and nuance. 

Our Class America Poem - Remix for Extra Credit

America

America is a knife in the back
America is a gang
America is a cold hair on the back of a polar bear
America is an illness
America is a disease
America is a blind priest
America is married to the money
America is a free for all
America is a school with no boundaries
America is an empty pot of gold
America is a sea of stereotypes
America is a kid
America is a crying baby
America is a broken bone
America is a bully
America is a hardened heart
America is a dark alley
America is a black hole
America is a superhero
America is a Walmart parking lot
America is crossing lines backwards
America is freedom itself
America is an open field
America is Rack M Willie
America is a chess game
America is a question without an answer
America is a Gemini
America is a web of lies
America is throwing its hand in the air
America is a painted canvas
America is a time capsule
America is a fishbowl
America is a mask of secrets
America is a talking parrot
America is a race
America is a welcoming redneck
America is a homeless person
America is a party mix

What Is a Dominant American Ideology? Group DBQs

Address the following questions using the sources from the group you have been assigned:

What is a dominant American ideology?
How does that ideology operate?
How does it shape American society?

Click below for the sources:

Group 1 (Group 10 responds)

Group 2 (Group 9 responds; backup for Group 9 is Group 6)

Group 3 (Group 8 responds)

Group 4 (Group 7 responds; backup for Group 7 is Group 8)

Group 5 (Group 6 responds; backup for Group 6 is Group 7)

Group 6 (Group 5 responds)

Group 7 (Group 4 responds)

Group 8 (Group 3 responds)

Group 9 (Group 2 responds)

Group 10 (Group 1 responds)

Weight Watchers

 

September/October 2010 Cover

Avril Lavigne - I Wanna Be A Supermodel

 Made in: 2008

Lyrics:

I don't care
what my teachers say,
I'm gonna be a supermodel
and everyone is gonna
dress like me,
wait and see!
When I'm a supermodel
and my hair will shine
like the sea!
and everyone
will wanna look just like me
Cause I'm young, and I'm hip,
and so beautiful!
I'm gonna be a supermodel!
(cause i'm hip)
and so beautiful!
I'm gonna be a supermodel!
I wish that I was like Tory Spelling,
with a car like her's
and a dad like her's
And I would show them how it was done,
that'd be fun,
that'd be fun!
And i'd, write my school report,
on how much i love my jeans,
oh why i love my jeans,
and for my locker door,
it'd be the coolest thing,
that you've ever seen!!!
Cause i'm young, and i'm hip,
and so beautiful,
(i'm gonna be a super model...)
i'm young, and i'm hip, and so beautiful!
i'm gonna be a supermodel!
I didn't yesterday,
and I'm not gonna today,
and I'm not gonna eat towmarrow,
Cause I'm gonna be a supermodel!
Young, and hip, and so beautiful!
I'm gonna be a supermodel!
i'm gonna be a super model!

What Was The Dominant Ideology of the 1980s? (Heidkamp & Schwartz)

Use the following sources to address the following questions:

What was the dominant ideology of the 1980s?
How does that ideology operate?
How does it shape American society?

Bonfire of the Vanities
"Material Girl"
Pac-Man
"Illegal Business"
Political Cartoons
"U Can't Touch This"
"Greed is Good"/Wall Street

The Boondocks

            

The Boondocks.  As most people know, this is probably one of the funniest shows that has ever been on the television about the racist depictions of black and white people of the US population.  the Boondocks was created by Aaron McGruder November November 2005.  The show starts out with the Freemans moving to from the South Side of Chicago,Illinois to a higher class suburb, Woodcrest.  In this new neighborhood, they are the only fully African Americans that live in their immediate area.  There is their neighbor across the street, Tom, and Uncle Ruckus. 

    They are both black, but each represent the different styles that some black people live.  Tom is a black man that has married a white woman, which some people look down on still, and acts like a white man.  This can be seen as the sstereotypical Zip Coon.  He tries his bet to keep his composure as a respectful and quiet man, but he sometimes goes off like a "ignant" black man. 

    This stereotype plays a huge role in this show because Robert Freeman, also known as Grandad by Huey and Riley, tries his best to fit in to this community.  He wants to act white around his white friends to try and impress them and secure his place as a member of this high society life.  But around his friends he acts loud, crazy, and curses like a sailor.  This is a stereotype of a regular black man, or person.

    Huey and Riley are brothers and represent opposite, yet similar stereotypical ideas.  HUey is a intelligent ten year old, wiser than some adults well into theirr years. He is mostly into philosophy and social justice and movements.  This moves against the appearance that most black people are ignorant and not intelligent.  He dabs into this stereotypes by following the African American mainstream pop culture.  Riley is a bashful child and very destructive, but has a very artistic side to him.  Not many people think black people really have a softer side, and he tries to hide this from the world.  He covers up by having sagging pants and cursing and always hanging with rappers and older black men.  He tries his best to become famous with money and plenty of females at his disposal. 

    The Boodndocks is a great show that you can learn a lot about the world from.  Whether it be racist or true about the political world.  I recommend watching this show. 

Syl Johnson -Is it because i'm black?

Like other black songwriters of the period, several of his at this time explored themes of social problems in songs including Is It Because I'm Black. Syl Johnos is a master of the soul gener. That's why a great soul performance means so much more than just acombination of music and lyrics. I not a black I'm Asian, maybe I can's understand that pain but on the song/lyrics I can hear/see that painful--- IS IT BECAUSE I'M BLACK?. The reson black people are the "stereotype" because after beging depressed for so many years it just turned to aggressiveness.  

http://www.lyricsvip.com/Syl-Johnson/Is-It-Because-I'm-Black-Lyrics.html

Black Kids on Degrassi

    Degrassi is a show that is directed towards teenagers. It tries to deal with problems that all teens may face while in high school from drama with others, to personal problems. I couldn't help but noticed that most character on this show are white. You will see the black kid on the side lines trying to fit in, trying to like someone but it never works out. It just seems like the black kid can never be accepted in this show, in most cases.

White Girl

    The song "White Girl" by Young Jeezy came out on his c.d. USDA:Cold Summer "White Girl" was the number one single on this c.d. The song "White Girl" is about having a white girl, the song goes against racial sterotypes because most movies, songs, etc are some how promoting staying inside of your own race.

    But, in the song Young Jeezy promotes the idea of going outside of your race and maybe get a white girl. Also, it promotes the facet that there is nothing wrong with dating or being with somebody outside of your race it might not be the norm but there is still nothing wrong with it.

"You know I keep that white girl, Christina Aguilera"

http://www.metrolyrics.com/white-girl-lyrics-young-jeezy.html

 

Madea, the Symbol of the Typical Black Woman?

Tyler Perry, other wise known as Madea,is a global symbol of the typical African Amercian woman.  Being naturally agressive, yet at the same time caring to others in the house hold.  Being a man of great sense of humor, could his symbol be seen as a racistal figure as well? think of Madea from another race's point of view, how would you react towards black females knowing they could be like this symbol and be aggressive at any moment? would you be afraid to aproach said females?  These are the questions that come along with modern day society. 

There are many things that can be used to descibe african american females, but tyler perry likes to stick to the "facts" and "stories" that come along with this culture of females.  In african american households, the female is portrayed as the ruler of the house.  She lays the laws essentially, but at the same time she isn't the ruler. The african american male obeys the females rules but he knows he is controlling, but doesn't need to say so.  Basically speaking, the African american female plays a strong role in her household.

Our Identity Is Born

    The frontier was an essential part of American history. The U.S developed good qualities along with many bad ones.  We expanded our territory, spread our ideas, made a lot of enemies, and most importunately we developed extremely huge egos on the frontier. The Indian wars is definitely the most horrible event that took place on the frontier. The Americans fear of Native Americans lead to genocide which killed many people. Fear of Native Americans is constantly shown in Seventh Son. In one part Reverend Thrower discuses his fear on the frontier when he begins to think, " The Red would fall upon the settlers and  destroy them; scum they might be, but they were mostly English scum, and the vision of the Red's savagery made his skin crawl." (Page 39) This shows how people viewed the Natives and as we discussed last quarter, fear leads to disaster.

Seventh Son Discussion

I chose to do question 2 "What is more important on the frontier- the individual or the community?

I feel like the whole book in general was about both of them. Everybody there knew eachother and vibed with eachother every well. They were all so faithful and loyal to eachother when it came to there friendships, which made them a community. They were like a huge family. They stuck together.

 

As far as individualism, they all knew there strengths. They knew what they needed to do. What made them different. What made them themselves, and everybody knew everyone elses knacks or strengths. That makes them strogn people i feel.

superstitious

In the novel The Seventh Son, the devil is described to a young man named Alvin.  The describer states that the devil looks like "the horns of a bull, claws of a bear, hooves of a goat, and has the roar of a ravening lion."  The young man replies to this saying "An you call us superstitious."  From this conversation between two characters, i wonder if ones self can believe in a religion and at the same time, not believe it is indeed superstitious... 

Within the novel itself, a family called the Millers, see themselves as a superstitious family, The local Reverend "thrower", also see's it this way.  As a reader, in some sense i see the Reverend himself as a superstitous person.  He tries his best to force a religion onto a young man, who is uncapable of understanding the figure "god".  Is this how he should spread such a godly religion? i think not.  Along with that note, he wishes to kill the young man because the thinks he is the devil.  Being a man of god, could he take gods power into his "own" hands to kill one of "gods creations"?

In some sense i belive that the image of god we ourselfs have created is somewhat superstitious, no human on earth has ever seen this "God" but we still believe he is there.  Other cultures have many gods..doesnt it seem unnessesary to have multiple gods that withhold the same powers? could it not be possible that one "god" created us all, and not the the power of multiple "gods"?  For that matter, wouldnt having "A" god be superstitious enough? i believe that this "god" might just be a figure of the human imagination, and at the same time just a figure of history, not actually a person.

The frontier helps The American Identity.

The frontier helps the American identity because living and surviving out on the frontier makes us look better to other people who don't know what we have to go to live. Living out on the frontier is a difficult thing to do because its a free for all type of living, move there with your family, looking for land large enough for you, create a house, and live against the wild and thrive and there are many threats to your life and your families. Animals, other people, or sickness. If other countries who think we are just lavished and all of our people are rich, I feel like they will give us respect for what a majority of people have to do to live. The idea of a rugged individual is created from men living out on the frontier. People who are rich and always inside living the "cozy" life aren't going to be much of a rugged individual. I also feel that being a rugged person is looked at by other people from other countries as being a group of people that they don't want to deal with, or they would want to ally with them. Frontier is something that not all countries population have to go through that we the people have to go through.