One Story- Jenessa

Growing up in Chicago, I always had my own ideas of what it meant to be black. What it meant to "talk black," "dress black," and even "walk black." However, in my mind, these ideas and thoughts sometimes conflicted and it confused me. I had multiple black friends who didn't act much differently than me. But then I had friends who "acted black" and even as a child, I had to learn to sort out the difference between a human and their stereotype.

What does it mean to "act black?" According to a lot of the media, it means you act gangsta. You wear baggy clothes, chains, and big shoes and you walk with swag. You listen to rap and use the n- word a lot. One of the first rap songs I ever owned was "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire. This helped fuel that stereotype the media created for me. The album cover alone did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtwJvgPJ9xw

This gangsta-affiliated label continued throughout other aspects of the media. I saw it in 
movies, music, pictures, and the news media. And even though most of the 
African-Americans I knew weren't actually gang affiliated, it became easy to determine 
that "acting black" meant you acted like a gangster. In this scene from the movie "Step Up,"
 it shows a young black kid trying to act "cool." To do that, he steals the car of a gangster 
(who is also black) and ends up being shot in the street because of it. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hmOf27Qego

Many popular rap artists (which is usually popular amongst black teens) act and dress 
gangster. For example, here is a picture of Snoop Dogg:
 

These images in the media fuel the gangster stereotype and this ends up being limiting. 
Often times, black youth think acting like that is one of the only ways to "be cool" or to 
be true to who they are. This causes negative social implications because it ends up 
perpetuating the problem. Gang violence is NOT okay. It is also not defined by one race 
but we tend to group African-Americans and gangsters because of their portrayal in the 
media. As I mentioned before, this ends up being limiting because it conveys a message 
toblack youth that this is how they're "supposed" to act and it almost even glorifies it. I have 
a black brother that grew up in the rough area of Dallas. He went to school as a little kid 
dressed as a gangster. His teacher told him that when he returned to school the next day, 
he would be wearing normal clothes because she would not have the streets in her classroom. 
That ended up being a turning point for him and he was able to turn his focus to school and 
football and use football as a ticket out of there in college. Many of his friends and family 
members. If he had fallen into that stereotype, he would not be where he is today. 
One-storying is dangerous. It limits us and causes negative social implications. We need to 
be careful to not perpetuate the problem and allow people to decide for themselves who 
they want to be.