The single story of African Americans depicts proud men, with little education or learning ability, either engaging in gang life and rap music or excelling in athletics. Women in this story are also proud, not educated and are often involved in promiscuous behavior. In short, the good ones are athletes and the bad ones are in gangs.
The two artifacts below discuss the later group. Guns, violence and rebellion against the police and federal government fill these examples from beginning to end, stimulating other races to fear and grievously mistrust African Americans. This image imprisons them. In the minds of others they are bound to this standard and because others will not allow them to be anything different, the body count rises.
The image below illustrates the other group. They are also proud, resilient and angry. Athletics permits them to unleash these feelings without breaking the law and to attempt breaking the restrictions mentioned above. As they stretch and pull against the confines of the above group, they come close to disbanding it. Although this group helps improve the story of African Americans, it still limits them to athletics. In the mind of others these are good but have no place outside sports.
The two videos below belong to the above group with a small twist. Though learning is difficult for him and he pursues a career in sports, Michael fights against the single story through his humility, love and forgiving nature. He separates himself from the people in the first group by ignoring gangster life and staying in school. His example is the beginning of a change that needs to occur. The single story of African Americans cannot exist any longer. It damages countless lives and belittles an entire race. Piece by piece it must be dismantled and rebuilt without any constraints.
I liked that you included the trailer for Straight Outta Compton, I think that trailer totally depicts the most prevalent of all African-American stereotypes. The media heavily portrays African-Americans as rappers, and thugs that are involved in gang violence.
ReplyDeleteI think that these examples are so interesting and your comparison is really eye opening to how we categorize them.
ReplyDeleteI wrote also wrote about the limitation of athletics, but directed towards Latinos. I used the movie "McFarland, USA" as part of my analysis. I think we limit others' potential when we stereotype and restrict them to success in certain areas. Minorities can succeed in other areas, such as academics, but it is not portrayed in the media as often as athletics.
ReplyDeleteI like what you've written, because I think when African-Americans get one storied, it's particularly hard for them to break its bands as well. Their culture and background has a lot going for them, but society does judge them pretty harshly sometimes which can be detrimental to encouraging dreams and aspirations.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how big of a role the media has in keeping these stereotypes going. I feel like a lot of what we learn comes from the media.
ReplyDeleteI feel that stereotypes are such an easy thing for the media to prey on, but it only perpetuates the problem.
ReplyDeleteHaha I am very guilty of assuming that African-Americans are naturally good at sports. This type of sterotyping reminds me of this great video by The Onion. Even though it is obviously a joke, we do this all the time without realizing it:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCC7LuTQ_x0