Black self-portrayal in pop culture denigrating
Chris Thomas
Issue date: 4/16/04 Section: Ed-Op
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If you watch enough cable television, you'd think that the simple usage of catch phrases and sporting of baggy clothes puts you on good standing with the "in" crowd. Using phrases like "holla back" or "for shizzle" makes you a part of a community, and that community is the place to be. If you listen to proponents of Ebonics, then this is more than just bad English; it's a dialect that deserves respect as such. I was unaware that pop culture had its own language, but this looks to be it.
Despite its obvious usage in many popular songs, actors such as Samuel L. Jackson and actor/rapper crossover Ice Cube have taken this language, combined with profanity, and made it useful in films as well. Snoop Dogg is infamous for his slurring of words, even garnering a cameo on an AOL commercial to use the line "just wait one minizzle." Snoop's signature adding of -izzle to any word has started a trend that is yet to reach its peak.
The language isn't just in the music or movie industry either. ESPN's Stuart Scott has used his position as an anchor of SportsCenter to introduce words like "holla" to millions of viewers every morning. Jokes about "Pookie and Rae-Rae and 'nem watching back home" only furthers a trend that is larger than any one song or star in Hollywood today.
More than just the vernacular, the black "attitude" of being indignant, loud and constantly using profane language has jumped to the forefront of society. Sometimes dubbed as "thug life," these sets of attitude, language and clothing have swept the nation, to the disgrace and chagrin of older generations. If our parents and grandparents fought in the Civil Rights Movement, did they fight for rappers' clothing lines and the blatant and continuing degradation of black women in music videos?
Some of the audience might be reading this and calling me a "hater," saying that this is an act of "hateration," and even going so far as to say that I should "stop sipping the haterade." This commentary isn't about any vendetta I have with anyone or any group in particular, but I think some aspects of the language and attitude counteract any movement towards equality. I encourage and embrace the differences between groups, but I also support improving ourselves as a people, and the utter stupidity that some of this language elicits is depressing.
When being a thug is mentioned, you can't talk too long without bringing up sex. Women, especially black women, are simply targets of procreation, nothing more and certainly nothing less. Despite one's marital status, these guys are so horny that they need two or three women at a time. No wonder women look at their counterparts funnily, I would too if I watched enough music videos.
That standard only holds true for males. For a man to have as many women as he would like, it's a badge of honor. Meanwhile, if a woman isn't satisfied by just one man, it makes her a whore, and that's using tactful language. So, according to this cool black thug life, why don't we just time warp back before women's suffrage? These women were oppressed just like the men during slavery, and then taken advantage of (in some cases) by their masters. Now, why oppress them in a cotton field when we can do it on television? People still make money off their exploitation, so I guess that justifies it, right?
Black men and women alike are cast into roles on television shows and motion pictures that do nothing more than perpetuate stereotypes and make fun of themselves as a people (see UPN's "The Parkers" or Columbia Pictures' "Booty Call"), as if we as a group need anymore self-deprecation. I'm aware of numerous avid "Chapelle's Show" viewers, and some of his work is quite funny; but giving a supposed family of white people the n-word as a last name not only highlights a race's degradation, but seems to accept it with a smile and a chuckle.
Before I go on any further, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the "ghetto" or the "projects," where every rapper alive seems to get their start, and many others wish they had. Here's a news flash you may have missed: thugs don't go to college. I don't see Ja Rule or Kanye West waving a bachelor's degree around in their videos, and West's latest album was appropriately named "The College Dropout." If you're wearing the latest outfit from a Ludacris video or a fitted Yankee cap (similar to Jay-Z, Nas and a host of others), it doesn't make you a popular person; it simply identifies you as a pseudo-thug who could use your own identity. My clothing isn't exactly form-fitting either, but I don't need to look like Mannie Fresh. There's a difference between knowing what you like and conforming to other's ideas, and I'm not sure many people understand that difference, especially in pop culture.
I'm almost 22, and I feel ashamed for our parents and grandparents, because I can assure you that this isn't what they fought so long and hard for. Regardless of my sentiments, it's pretty clear that it's "cool" to be black according to pop culture, but think about this: Is that where we as a people want to be, and what happens if being black falls out of style? Melanin doesn't wash off.
Chris Thomas is a senior majoring in corporate communications.
Despite its obvious usage in many popular songs, actors such as Samuel L. Jackson and actor/rapper crossover Ice Cube have taken this language, combined with profanity, and made it useful in films as well. Snoop Dogg is infamous for his slurring of words, even garnering a cameo on an AOL commercial to use the line "just wait one minizzle." Snoop's signature adding of -izzle to any word has started a trend that is yet to reach its peak.
The language isn't just in the music or movie industry either. ESPN's Stuart Scott has used his position as an anchor of SportsCenter to introduce words like "holla" to millions of viewers every morning. Jokes about "Pookie and Rae-Rae and 'nem watching back home" only furthers a trend that is larger than any one song or star in Hollywood today.
More than just the vernacular, the black "attitude" of being indignant, loud and constantly using profane language has jumped to the forefront of society. Sometimes dubbed as "thug life," these sets of attitude, language and clothing have swept the nation, to the disgrace and chagrin of older generations. If our parents and grandparents fought in the Civil Rights Movement, did they fight for rappers' clothing lines and the blatant and continuing degradation of black women in music videos?
Some of the audience might be reading this and calling me a "hater," saying that this is an act of "hateration," and even going so far as to say that I should "stop sipping the haterade." This commentary isn't about any vendetta I have with anyone or any group in particular, but I think some aspects of the language and attitude counteract any movement towards equality. I encourage and embrace the differences between groups, but I also support improving ourselves as a people, and the utter stupidity that some of this language elicits is depressing.
When being a thug is mentioned, you can't talk too long without bringing up sex. Women, especially black women, are simply targets of procreation, nothing more and certainly nothing less. Despite one's marital status, these guys are so horny that they need two or three women at a time. No wonder women look at their counterparts funnily, I would too if I watched enough music videos.
That standard only holds true for males. For a man to have as many women as he would like, it's a badge of honor. Meanwhile, if a woman isn't satisfied by just one man, it makes her a whore, and that's using tactful language. So, according to this cool black thug life, why don't we just time warp back before women's suffrage? These women were oppressed just like the men during slavery, and then taken advantage of (in some cases) by their masters. Now, why oppress them in a cotton field when we can do it on television? People still make money off their exploitation, so I guess that justifies it, right?
Black men and women alike are cast into roles on television shows and motion pictures that do nothing more than perpetuate stereotypes and make fun of themselves as a people (see UPN's "The Parkers" or Columbia Pictures' "Booty Call"), as if we as a group need anymore self-deprecation. I'm aware of numerous avid "Chapelle's Show" viewers, and some of his work is quite funny; but giving a supposed family of white people the n-word as a last name not only highlights a race's degradation, but seems to accept it with a smile and a chuckle.
Before I go on any further, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the "ghetto" or the "projects," where every rapper alive seems to get their start, and many others wish they had. Here's a news flash you may have missed: thugs don't go to college. I don't see Ja Rule or Kanye West waving a bachelor's degree around in their videos, and West's latest album was appropriately named "The College Dropout." If you're wearing the latest outfit from a Ludacris video or a fitted Yankee cap (similar to Jay-Z, Nas and a host of others), it doesn't make you a popular person; it simply identifies you as a pseudo-thug who could use your own identity. My clothing isn't exactly form-fitting either, but I don't need to look like Mannie Fresh. There's a difference between knowing what you like and conforming to other's ideas, and I'm not sure many people understand that difference, especially in pop culture.
I'm almost 22, and I feel ashamed for our parents and grandparents, because I can assure you that this isn't what they fought so long and hard for. Regardless of my sentiments, it's pretty clear that it's "cool" to be black according to pop culture, but think about this: Is that where we as a people want to be, and what happens if being black falls out of style? Melanin doesn't wash off.
Chris Thomas is a senior majoring in corporate communications.
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