Wednesday, June 29, 2011

For my final project i decided to look at the way african american teenage boys are depicted in the media. I noticed that when watching television, and looking at magazines, and the news african american boys are mainly depicted as drug dealers and gangtsters. My project reminds me of the movie we watched in class Tough Guise. The movie made a very valid point, if men are constsanly shown to be tough thats what they are going to grow up and believe thats how they have to be. If African American teenage boys are constantly shown depictions of their peers as drug dealers and gangsters thats what they are going to believe they have to grow up to be. Not all African American teenage boys deal drugs or are in gangs. This stereotype of african american men has been around for many decades and still today is seen in mainstream video. I took some clips that i thought showed this stereotype of teenage African American boys. Ialso found a really good article that talked about these stereotypes and the need for young black men to have positive role models. Here is a link to this article. Hopefully one day people will not be judged by their race or stereotypes of their race.

                                                                                     P.S.
                                                                         Please excuse the quality of the movie it's my first time making one. I had fun doing it but needless to say i'm not great at it. LOL :)

6 comments:

  1. Chavon! I enjoyed reading and watching your final project on the way the media looks on African American boys. I agree that many media productions always seems to picture them in a negative way. One example I thought of was coach carter, how these boys were looked at so negatively and also how they are just getting teen girls pregnant. Another example that came to my mind was the TV show Friday night lights, its show how the mom was a drug addict, the father in prison, and then son stealing money and drugs even if he is good at football. You added some other great examples to get your idea across. The article you added also was very interesting to read some of the stereotypes. One quote I liked was,” African American stereotypes is like saying you only need to meet one African American to know what all other African Americans are like. Just by relating to several people in a day, will make one see how erroneous it is it to buy into African American stereotypes ." I thought this is a great quote to show anyone who plays into stereotypes. I would have been interested into know what African American Teen Boys think of these stereotypes, and if they seem themselves or others playing into them. Also, I truly feel that the stereotypes for a African American towards the boys would be a lot different then if a White person was to list the stereotypes for the boys.
    Good job on learning how to use the programs also!!!

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  2. This was a really good project. African American Men are represented in the media as drug-dealers, gangsters, and criminals in so many movies I have lost count. This project reminded me of Save the Last Dance, Malakai and a group of Derek's friends were criminals by stealing, drive-by-shootings, and being involved in gang related activity. Another example would be the stereotype of Black males living in the hood, ghetto, or projects. The media portrays the Black males residing there as all criminals, when in reality not all of these males are remotely bad. I remember my grandmother saying not to go near Black males in a "bad neighborhood" in providence because they were all bad and would try to hurt me. These stereotypes about Black males must end.

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  3. I love your assessment and the video. The clips made me think about so many different stereotypes of black men-as angry, violent, and criminals. In a way, I think these sorts of films reaffirm SCWAAMP-iness. The juxtaposition of other races and classes against the normative ideology of white male'ness creates the idea that white men are safe while black males are not. It reinforces the power struggle.


    I also thought about Christensen too while watching this. Because we are packaged racism and sexism at such an early age, it's hard for us to really see racism as racism. We know that something's not right in the portrayal of black men (or other folks too) but we just can't put our finger on what exactly it is. You would think that television programs and films would provide a much more diverse application of black male characters in film. Instead, it seems they are still relying on old fashioned stock characters that do nothing to highlight the problematic relationship between Hollywood and racism.

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  4. I also did teenage black males in the media. I felt that these boys were being depicted in an untrue way. However, I agree with you when you said that these stereotypes have been around for so long. These boys are also usually only viewed in a very distinct way.

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  5. Chavon I think you did an amazing job with this video. You really showed how black males are portrayed by the media. I completely agree with your statement on you become what you see, sad fully it is very true. The worst thing is that all that they see are negative remarks toward the Black Male. Good Job

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  6. I really enjoyed your video. The media really does make black men look bad by making them all seem like they are dangerous. In regards to the discourses I definitely see social problem. It is sad that this is still a stereotype after so many years and is definitely sad that people are actually used to seeing this and actually accept it.

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