Take Control of Your Culture - American Studies - Blog

Satire in The Boondocks

 

The citcom "The Boondocks" portrays satire in the forms of sarcasm, parodies, and more common within the show, exaggeration. The Boondocks contains every stereotypical character that's ever existed within the african american community, starting from Uncle Tom, which in this citcom has been renamed "Uncle Rukus" because of his loud mouth, and excessive ignorant and unbelivably ignorant comments, expanding to the Brute Character, whose name is Riley. The exaggeration of races, events, and razor sharp exposure of subjects once categorized as sensitive, have gained notariety, and responses, both negative and positive, from Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, and Al Sharpton, who have all been featured in the show at one time or another. The portrayal of people within the media who are usually accredited for their storng minds, or lack there of, are extremely exaggerated, which provide the audience with an ironic and different view, of someone who is usually loved and, well spoken of, into, the truth. In Season 1, episode 6, Gangstalicious is introduced as a Gangsta rapper, who's endured a rough life, and engages in violence, and activity described as riskier, is discovered later in the show, as gay. The thought of such a masculine figure within the music industry, revealing a truth of engagement with homosexuality, is a thought that was once, among us, as the consumers of their products, listeners of their music, and beliefs of their initial portrayal, as brutal, robust, and overall "Gangsters." But, the revelation of R&B singer, and member of OFWGKTA, Frank Ocean's bisexuality, as exhibited just how true, although satirical, the citcom the boondocks really turns out to be.

Jeff Dunham, Subtle Racial Stereotypes

The comedian Jeff Dunham is a ventriloquist with many personalities. A few of them are Achmed the Dead Terrorist, Walter, Jose Jalapeno on a Stick,Bubba J, and Sweet Daddy Dee. He has a few more but these are more of the sterotype ones. Achmed is a terrorist who blew himself up and is now just a skeleton. He is a stereotypical Arab whenever Jeff uses him. He always talks about blowing stuff up in the name of Allah and Osama's 72 virgin promise. It is all fun and jokes but it also is racist. Walter is the old grumpy white guy who complains about everything and is old school. He makes jokes about black people and arab people but he is never making jokes about white people. There aren't a lot of Mexican jokes but Jose Jalapeno on a stick makes up for that. Jose is a Jalapeno that  wears a sombrero and talks in a Mexican accent. He is the one that makes the border jokes and all of the jokes about Mexican stereotypes. He is after all, a jalapeno. Bubba J is sterotypical redneck white trash. He watches nascar and drinks beer all day. This is the stereotypical redneck. He makes a mockery of southern people. The last one is Sweet Daddy Dee. He is the sweet talking black pimp. He is Jeff's Manager and is always good with the ladies. He is the stereotypical African-American. Overall Jeff Dunham is just a comedian trying to make money off of racial stereotypes.

Dolls Shaping America

 

The origins of Barbie go back to the early '50's. She is most commonly portrayed as a 6 foot tall, perky, long blond haired white female. She can be seen swimming in her mansions pool, or helping animals when they are sick. She symbolizes the woman of America.

The origins of Bratz goes back to the early '90's. They are urban, can be seen at parties, and come in a variety of races, but they are not as popular as a common Barbie doll. Their lips and heads are too big for their bodies, and they flirt with boys, making them not so innocent.

They are both dolls we used to play with as kids, but the images they put out are just some of the ways media shapes our views and ideas on race. The barbie doll unintentionally shapes the way girls and women see themselves. The barbie doll is perfect, perfect voice, hair, makeup, body and skin. She is what a white woman supposed to be: polite, kind, always happy, perky and suburban.

 

Bratz however get rid of the stereotype by having the main dolls of different races: white, black, latin, and asian. They represent a more realistic common girl in America.

 

 

Radio

Radio a 2003 film is based around a 23 year old mentally-disabled young man named James Robert "Radio" Kennedy.  Harold Jones (football coach at the local school) sees Radio walking down the street one day with a shopping cart full of his belongings and his radio.  After seeing Radio for days doing this Coach Jones asks radio if he wants to help coach.  Once on board Radio is abused by the team.  One day after practice they lock radio in a cold dark shed and Coach Jones finds him there hours later and takes him back home.  This is where we meet Radios mother and his hardships back at home.  These two scences show the stereotype that blacks are not even human or like the Jim Crow stereotype.  Radio never knew that they were making fun of him by putting him in there they thought they were playing a game and that thats what the blacks did.  At his home we find that his mother is rather poor and there's another sterotype that blacks are all poor and that is not true because Radios dad died a couple years earlier so they had not real source of imcome.  One of the more racist scences was when one of the fathers of the football players told the coach that he could not have his son or other players around Radio and that he could not keep coaching with them.  Later in the movie the father realizes he is wrong and his son begins to like Radio and become friends.  This movie is a great example of how a person (black or white) can become someone important with the help and love of others.

My Favorite Show Has A Race Defining Moment

One of my favorite shows, Scrubs, has an episode that defines race. Now if you're not familiar with this show basically it takes place in a hospital and it revolves around one new doctor and his co-workers. His best friend Turk just so happens to be black while J.D (the main character) is white. That's perfectly fine with me that two best friends are black and white. But Turk is one of the whitest black guys I've ever seen. Before you call me racist here's a quote from Dr. Cox (one of the co-workers) to Turk about if he believe's he's black. "You're black? 'Cause last I checked you had a nerdy white best friend, you enjoy Neil Diamond, and you damn sure act like a black guy and these are all characteristics of white guys. Please understand, I'm a huge supporter of the NAACP. If you're don't know what that stands for, it's the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. And quite frankly, I always thought they should change the 'colored people' to 'African Americans' but then of course it wouldn't be the NAACP it'd be the N quad A or NAAAA. And I know this probably sounds like a digression but actually brings me back to my original point... Do I think you're black? Naaaaaaaaa!" He put's it perfectly, it's a bit mean but I think it has a hidden message to it if you read it right. I believe it's saying it doesn't matter what color your skin is you can act black and be white, and vise versa. The episode I got this from was titled "His Story III" I recomend watching the whole thing to get a full idea of what the episode is about but if not here's a clip that shows another race defining moment. In order to prove he is black Turk tries to, how shall I put this, aviod doing anything that would seem white like buying a mini van. When Dr.Cox calls him out on it Turk over compensates and tries to become more black just with the way he talks. Here's the bottom line, in this show they show a black guy acting white and at the same time a black guy acting black. Race is complex but it shouldn't define who we are. We can be anything we want as clliche as it may sound it's a cliche for a reason. It's true.

Gossip Girl

In the rich society of upper east Manhattan, these teenagers live with first world problems. Theres Blair, who get any and almost every piece of designer clothing that she wishes, theres Serena who can fly away to another state or country when she feels like it, theres Nate who can get into any University because of his powerful last name, and then there is Chuck, who doesn't even need to go to University because he has so much money. But besides coming from rich and powerful families that make them top of Manhattan's elite, these people have something in common: They're all white.

I think this show is unintentionally portraying the racial ideology of whites being superior and wealthier than other races. In this show, you rarely ever see someone of a different race, and when you do, it will be a character from another country that is there for the story line. This show unintentionally potrays this ideology because they never actually address race in any of the episodes. However when the viewers ever have to think of superior families with a great social status, they automatically think of rich white kids living in luxury suits and having no worries. This ideology increases other ideologies as well, like when thinking of the ghetto (which is defined as a poor populated area in a city) people will think of hispanic and black races. No one ever thinks of whites living in the ghetto, even though in reality they do. But like I said before, people even still today, think of whites being the superior race. This is because of pop culture such as Gossip Girl has unintentionally portrayed in their series.

New Girl

New Girl is a comedy about three guys and one girl living together. One of the guys happens to be black. In the video linked it shows Schmidt a stereotypical white Jew talking to Winston about how he wants to be "the black brother he never had." He starts referring to soul food and gives him a Jamaican hat because that's what he thinks of when he thinks of black people. This is not the only reference to race in this episode. Winston tells Schmidt he wants to get some cocaine because that's what he did when he was with the "brothers." In the end Winston was just seeing how far Schmidt would go to make him happy but Schmidt goes along with it because he thinks that is what the black culture regularly does. This show takes Stereotypical racism and turns it into jokes. It shows that racism is somewhat a joke to us. In some ways that's good, but it could also be taken in the wrong way. Making jokes lightens the mood when the issue of race comes in but it has to be used in a non offensive manner. Schmidt just wants Winston to fit in so he tries to act like a stereotypical black man. That's funny because he is the opposite of a black man. Joking about race could also be a bad thing because some people might get offended. I think New Girl uses race in their favor, and it makes for a very funny episode.  

Remember The Titans

Remember The Titans is a movie that came out in 2000 that focus on race and football. It takes place as if they were in 1971 in Alexandria, Virginia and successful high school.The football team is coached by a white man names Bill Yoast. Bill was focred to step down and Herman Boone, a black man, (known as Denzel Washington in reality) , is forced to step up as the head coach. The white team mates disagrees and will not be apart to the team if Bill isnt there, so he decides to stick around as the assistant coach next to Boone. The football team, The Titans is a mixture of black and white players who dont get along just because of the color of their skin. Throughout training camp and the season, Boone and Yoast's black and white players learn to accept each other, to work together, and that football knows no race. As they learn from each other, Boone and Yoast also learn from them and in turn, the whole town learns from the team, the Titans that race should never be how you judge someone.

In the beginning when the team first got together, they would loose just about every game because they couldnt get along with eachother because of the color of their skin. The white boys on the tean will call the black boys names, even try to injure them in practice by hurting them when doing a play to get ready for the game. When Boone becomes the coach he isn't accepted by the white players nor the staff. Despite all the racism, Boone is willing to deal with it to put a winning team out on the field. But as the boys got to know eachother, they wont care about race.

There's plenty of scences in the movie when the team went out on the field to play, the white people in the audience will go all out by spitting, throwing food, drinks, and other things at the black players. They also called them names. But, that didnt stop them from going out to show them that they could win. Also, when they were traveling down down south to go play another school, they had to stay at a hotel. But because some pf the players were black, they weren't allowed to stay there. The hotel was for whites only. By all this happening, this brought the team mantes closer together, forgeting the color of their skin. Towards the end the players got to see eachother for who they really were and they becane a family.  

The Wanderers

The Wanderers is a movie about different race gangs in highschool. These kids have their own gangs. There are italian, black asian, latino, skinheads, irish, and any other gang you can think of. One part in the movie all the italian gang members and all the black gang members are in a class together. The teacher tells them to name racial names towards eachother. One guy started off with N*****, then one black gang member say greeceball. They named about 15 racial names towards eachother and ended up getting into a fight over it. the teacher was trying to make a point that everyone is the same. No one is better than one another. At the end of the movie The italians and the black gangs play a football game betweeen eachother. Its sorta to see who is better than who and to gain respect. The toughest gang of them all are called the Ducky Boys. They are all white. they do not talik and they live in a poor part of the town. They have the biggest gang of them all and everyone is terrified of them because they wont beat you up...they will kill you. at the end of the football game all the ducky boys show up. The black and italian gangs team up at fight the ducky boys. They all come together and work together and win.

-Alex R.

Cultural Analysis of Race

The blogging assignment for American Studies -- due by Friday, 1/18 -- 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 by Wednesday, 1/16 -- 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 -- or to discuss stereotypes of white culture or other races.

On another note, here is the link to the PBS website that has a lot of great activities revealing the construction of race.

Racial Stereotypes in Education

 

 

The poem "I Look Like" by Kai Davis speaks about prejudice and condescension in the educational system. In this poem Kai criticizes the ideology that diversity is a key American value. The poem expresses the how Americans uphold racial stereotypes, by giving examples of how in school teachers and her peers assumed that black students were ignorant due to their vernacular. She says with sarcasm "We in the same class but your idea of advanced is too advanced and my mind cant match you...". Later in the  poem she states that even people of her own race have submitted into the stereotype; she calls it "self hate" because of how they judge her for excelling in school. She adds, "According to my people, I act smart, so I act white. So, I can't be black and be smart because black people are dumb." In conclusion the poem surfaces the racial and cultural issues that still remain in society and the educational system.

 

 

 

Racism on "Survivor" Parody

 

This clip happens to be a parody of the show "Survivor" and here some racial stereotypes are used to create a view on how the show could be racist. Towards the end you see that the all white team has an advantage over all of the other teams with different races.

"When Black Men Succeed"

    In American Studies 3-4th period classes we were assigned to find something about race and as I browsed the interwebs I found this study.  

    When I read the title to this article, "When Black Men Succeed", I thought about how black man succeeding, makes news.  I thought about the significance of the topic and how it actually makes news is insulting.  Though as I read on I began to understand that the writer of the article shared the same view as me. The article talks about how when black man DO succeed in business, they are usually surrounded by a bunch of whites.  

    This article talks about how a study was conducted that shows 3 out of 5 blacks come from low income families.  Many blacks struggle to go to college or esteem to be anything great because most come from an unsporting lifestyle and are led to believe that they cannot get in to college (or succeed greatly in life) even if they tried.  This negative influence usually comes from their living conditions and lack of positive reinforcement from those around them.  Not only does it come from people in their life but also from the media.  The media portrays the upper and middle class as white law abiding citizens, while it portrays the lower class as blacks and latinos as criminals and convicts.  Even though in some cases this stereotype is true, it doesn't help aspiring blacks to see other blacks portrayed as poor gang members.  The media supports these stereotypes despite them not being true.  

 

Link to study: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/02/06/study-aims-learn-why-some-black-men-succeed-college

Good Hair

The movie "Good Hair" is about how black people have different hair than white people and how they feel that they don't have as beautiful hair as white people. The movie "Good Hair" talks about how all of the different types of hair are beautiful hair and that the stereotype that black people have "nappy" and not as beautiful hair as white people isn't true. It's not fair that black people are said to not have as beautiful or "good" hair as white people because that stereotype isn't true because all types of hair are beautiful.

Dark-skin vs. Light-skin?

    Today in american society, many African-Americans are still left with the bitterness of slavery. Even though slavery was abolished in 1865, the events that occured seemed to leave the race seperated and somehow against each other. It all goes back to slavery and there being 2 different types of slaves, the field slaves and the house slaves. Usually if you were darkskin then you would have to work the fields but if you were lightskin you had the privilege of working in the house, having it a bit easier to be a slave because the master felt because you were lighter, you were closer to being white instead of more African. Because of this many house slaves began to believe that they were better than the field slaves because they were lighter and had it easier. The field slaves then started to envy them because they had a better advantage.  Even after many years alot of African-Americans still hold on to this stereotype that being lighter is better than being darker because it traces back so long ago. It is now 2012 and most African-Americans have started to accept the fact they ware beautiful no matter what shade they are, while some still feel that being lighter is better than being darker. In the end, everyone within the African-American race is beautiful and honestly, shade doesn't really matter.