During this semester, as a class,
we have taken a lot of time focusing on race, the history behind it and how
important it still effects today. We have dissected the lives of many pervious
slaves and discussed the impact their lives have had on our society. There a
multiple numbers of people in African American history that have risked their
lives for the betterment of society, especially in the black community but yet
the black community still continues to struggle and is looked down upon. Black
folks continue to be viewed as a violent, disorganized, and hateful group of
individuals. I believe that these negative images have continued to grow and
worsen because of the negative depiction black folks continue to provide for
the media.
These
negative depictions are most visible in video games, music/artist, and
athletes. With the newest release of the video game Grand Theft Auto (GTA),
there is no wonder that white society continues to take a negative depiction of
the lives of African Americans. This game is full of violence, sex and drugs and
has a black man as its star character; this is a clear example of why society
continues to look at African American’s as a threat. We provide them with the
opportunities to make these judgments and the worst part is that a lot of young
African Americans take this ideal of life and actually try to live it. This is
where the real problem resides, we are being taught to be gangsters and drug
dealers instead of doctors or lawyers.
The stem of problems that young
African Americans are facing directly deals with the role models that they look
up to. These role models range from musical artist such as Gucci Mane and Chief
Keef to athletes like Pacman Jones and Gilbert Arenas. These musicians continue
to rap about drugs, sex and money and killing; making it seem like these are
the only options that young black men are offered making them very narrow
minded. The other group hat can be recognized for the poor behavior in the
black community is athletes. There is no reason that every week on Sports
Center the public should be hearing that some athlete got arrested on drug or
gun charges, this is absolutely piss poor. These public figures are looked at as
role models to young children and are adored by them. As a community we need to
do a better job to express our concerns about the development of the children
in the African American communities. We need to focus and attack the problem
head on in order to conquer it and preserve the lives of our youth.
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I agree with Mr. Flowers. It is sad to see how we used to be a race who empowered one another and raised our children as a village, to resenting the person sitting next to us.
ReplyDeleteI recently stumbled onto an article that stated that all of these negative stereotypes and images of the black community were deliberately implemented by the music industry to make a profit through their shares in private prisons. I'm not sure of its validity, but it does seem possible with the sudden change of how rap used to be, to what it has become.
http://dontpaniconline.com/magazine/music/the-secret-meeting-that-changed-rap-music-and-destroyed-a-generation
This is an interesting report. I agree that games like GTV can influence our youth and their decision making.
ReplyDeleteGood post Mr. Flowers. I feel we have to be reminded to continue to strive for polish and uplift in order to enhance the black race. We have to try to ignore the media and remind ourselves that we are dominant in sports.
ReplyDeleteI agree with those to an extent. I do believe that violent video games, rap music, and the glamorized bad imagery that they provide can persuade the youth of African Americans. I just don't believe that we can fully blame these things on why African Americans have some of these typical bad stereotypes among us. I believe that it starts with the way that are youth is raised and communities. I can admit that I've owned almost every Grand Theft Auto game when I was younger (and even now) I used to be the biggest fan of 50 Cent (don't judge me, I was young then haha) and he used to glamorize the fact that he was shot and ran the streets, but I amongst others have turned out fine. It's those that are raised poorly, not told and given an example of the value of education, and are not doing anything productive (weather it's a sport, after school activity etc.) with their free time while still young that are the ones that end up falling into these horrible stereotypes. I believe that we got to stop looking to blame outside things of life and focus on where everything starts, inside the home.
ReplyDeleteRobert Kinney
I feel like we need more leaders in our community than ones we see on T.Vs. we need leaders to physically be there so young kids can actually see them in reality than just watching examples on TVs. We got to be the ones to make a changes in our local community and sooner than later their it will spread.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that violent video games can be a contributor to the violence in the black community, but I don't believe that there is significant data out there to strongly substantiate that claim. I do agree that we have a skewed view of who our "role models" are in the community. The people that represent us in the media today (attention junkies in my opinion -- or people industry puppets who are getting played by big businesses and crooked music labels) are horrible representations of what black people should be and who we are as a people. This is changing our culture and our values and morals. It's a shame that we can't even see when we are deteriorating ourselves, but to an extent, not us, but our ignorance and naivety is to blame.
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