Gossip Girl

The TV show “Gossip Girl”, is a show predominantly with white people, and has few people of color. One of the main characters “Blair,” has sidekicks. Blair is a privileged white girl that goes to a Catholic school. The sidekicks have no personality, no interests, no real lives other than to take orders from Blair, reinforcing the age-old colonial narrative as normal. Her sidekicks are woman of color, although throughout the show he sidekicks change. Blair is naturally superior to them and shows her superiority by demanding them to do things for her, whenever she wants.

Cultural Analysis of Race

"Family Guy" is a show that takes jokes to points where it becomes racist to all different races of people. It’s stereotypical references or cutaways usually have to do with someone’s nationality or someone's skin color being made fun of or being mimicked. The reason why its considered okay or why no one has done anything about it is because the whole show is a joke and no one can actually take it seriously. Most people find it funny because thats where the shows gets most of it’s jokes. This shows that in todays society shows like this that are only going for jokes don’t really bother people even when being made fun of but is still be racist or stereotypical.

Here is a clip of many different cutaways that have no relation to the show at all and are used to make a point but are exaggerated greatly and are stereotypical. In the first two scenes it’s making fun of asians because of their lack of driving skills. In the next one it makes fun of both canadian and mexican people. The stereotypes are that the canadian guy loves to watch curling and in the championship they are playing mexico and the sweeper for the mexican team is a maid cleaning instead of an actual athlete. It also makes fun of black women on how they say “mhm” but instead of saying it in a real conversation thats the only thing they are saying back to each other which never really happens. This shows that not of this actually true because of the exaggeration of all of it.

Cultural Analysis of Race

In this extremely controversial commercial, a Volkswagen Polo is driven to a busy area by an Arab man. The Arab man sets off a bomb in the car and the bomb doesn’t hurt anyone or anything outside the car, which is inferring the new car is super durable. The subject of Arab or Islamic people being terrorists is a hypersensitive subject in today’s society. After the 9-11 attack at the World Trade Center, the stereotype has been a touchy subject. This commercial is promoting the stereotype that many Arab people are suicide bombers and terrorists.

Volkswagen tried to reinforce a cultural stereotype about Arab people being terrorists by setting off a suicide bomb in a busy area. While the commercial does not say the man’s culture, they make it pretty obvious it portrays the typical Jihad style bombings we hear about on the news. What makes the commercial’s portrayal so effective is how the man gets in his car just to drive to a busy restaurant to set off the bomb. The man wanted to kill others while killing himself.

The stereotype of Arab or Islamic people being terrorists is a stereotype that nobody wants to admit, but is definitely alive in today’s society. In airport security, Muslims or Arabs are known to more likely get “randomly selected” for additional screening. After the tragedy on September 11, 2001, the media emphasis on Arab’s and Muslim’s being “violent” just pushed the stereotype even more. The dominant ideology that most Arab or Muslim people are terrorists is so large could also be due to the size of the Arab American and Muslim community. They take up only about 1% of the total U.S. population, so the negative stereotype is much harder to dismiss.

Stuart Scott

Stuart Scott was a legendary sports analyst who broke color barriers and brung an African-American flavor to the world and ESPN. Scott recently passed away after a several year battle with cancer. Scott revolutionized the art of being a reporter. He lead by example, making it be known that you didn't have to be a white man to be successful. He proved to many that black men aren't always who media and the TV portray them to be, we aren't all ignorant, rude, and uneducated. Most black men are very well educated but that side of the story never gets told for example the whole Richard Sherman incident when everyone claimed him to be a hood thug after his little rant even though Sherman graduated from Stanford and also was 2nd in his class academically while in high school. Stuart Scott made it possible to be yourself and not what the world sees you as.

Stuart Scott came up with his own catch-phrases like "booyah!" And "cooler than the other side of the pillow" Scott showed the world that black men have potential to be great. He helped tear down stereotypical barriers that said "black men are ignorant". Even though Stuart Scott was battling cancer he still visited people to lift their spirits up. He encouraged people to be a better them and to live life to the fullest and that they are not alone and to keep fighting. Thanks to brave human beings like Richard Sherman and Stuart Scott it is safe to say black people have intelligence and a certainty hustle about them to make something out of nothing just like so many African-American men and women have done so far for themselves and blacks amongst them.

Gain Commercial

In the recent Gain commercial the creators promote and break stereotypes. These stereotypes are about gospel music and suburban life. This Gain commercial is in between stereotypes because the commercial shows black woman singing gospel music and white men singing as well. The commercial also breaks stereotypes in suburban life, showing blacks and whites in upper-middle class suburbs. This commercial shows that not only black women can sing gospel music and African American people can live in the suburbs.

In this particular gain commercial they promote and break a couple stereotypes. This commercial shows white women and men can sing just as well as an African American man or women. In this commercial they also promote this stereotype by having the majority of singers black. One scene in the Gain commercial shows white people in suburbs and in a different scene they show an African American man in a suburban home. Although they break the stereotype that only white people live in safe suburban communities, they only show one African American man in the community besides the gospel singers.

These types of stereotypes are displayed throughout media. They can be subtle but they are in almost everything. Media has the power to make or break stereotypes.

Gain Commercial

White Zombies

My cultural analysis is on a Key and Peele sketch called "White Zombies".  This video or sketch is mostly about how the zombies are racist because they wont eat the black people only the white people and as Key and Peele walk around to explore this behavior they notice how the zombies try and distance themselves from Key and Peele.  This kind of promotes racism by saying that whites as another form still wouldn't like blacks and that we are feared or disliked that much.  The question about this sketch is do all whites see blacks this way or should they really hate or fear us this much.  The video is kind of breaking stereotypes because most whites would probably think to themselves or get away at a way further distance.  The video also is keeps you thinking about if whites are actually like this towards blacks and if they are this afraid of us.

This video is questioning if all whites see blacks this way and should blacks be feared.

Asian Girlz

"Asian Girlz" has to be one of the most blatantly racist and sexist music videos I’ve ever seen.Literally every racist and sexist trope that you could possibly fit into a music video has been crammed in in order to fetishize ASIAN GIRLZZZZ!!!! let’s start off with the plot of the music video since it’s easy to sum up with a simple sentence summary. Levy Tran(relatively famous porn star) plays some kind of weird witch that seduces men and shrinks them in order to shove them up her vagina for sexual pleasure….. what can I even say about that? The done to death succubus trope that reinforces the notion that women can only gain any kind of power through sex.There’s also a nerdy looking Asian guy which is pretty stereotypical.I mean I could spend this whole post ranting about the video alone but I’m not going to do that because the lyrics are actually worse than the music video itself believe it or not.With such stunning lyrics like “Bitch I love you” (Pro tip don’t call a woman a bitch when trying to say I love you) ,”Come on sit on my lap Or we'll send you back” (a classy reference to sex slavery) and “Ninja pussy I'm stabbin'” (I really hope that all the people involved in creating this music video and song are unable to get work.). after all the racist and sexist BS that was in this song the band (Day Above Ground) that was responsible for this putrid turd decided to call it satire in the sad attempt to cover up their racism/sexism but Even if it is actually satire it is extremely awful satire.It is really awful satire because there’s nothing in the video or the song to indicate that it is satire.No voice of reason popping in to share pain,instead the band decides to do a shout out to some Asian communities in order to imply that they have Asian friends…..really pathetic guys.

Also instead of giving you a link to the music video itself I decided it would be better to link analysis of the song instead since I do not want to give any more views that wretched video …..

Glee

The popular show "Glee" has every race possible on the show. It doesn't come off as a show with racial stereotypes, but once you start noticing the way the different characters if different races act you know it is. Not only does it have someone of every race, there's also a person of every religion, sexual orientation, and clique or type of person. Even though the show has all this diversity, it does not challenge the "dominant way of thinking." In this blog post I will be talking about how stereotypes are used in it. Stereotypes from race, sexuality, cliques, gender roles, etc. The character Kurt Hummel who figures out he's gay in the middle of the show, is a stereotype. Not all gay men act feminine, or girly. Kurt has no masculinity at all, and is the typical stereotype of gay men. In the show and like in real life the two genders are not treated equally. The men in the show have more power than the women. Instead of challenging the stereotypes the show fits right in, all the gay men act like women and do not have power. The show also has the white people dominant, for example in the "glee club" which gives the show the name Glee. In the club there are 7 white kids, 2 Asian girls, 2 African-Americans, and a Hispanic girl. The show is mainly about white people, with other races as the minorities. The big plots in the show are based around the white people, the white people also get all the main dialogue. African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and any other race in the show are the minorities.

Family Matters

Today in America there is a lot of controversy in the racial profiling of young black men. This topic has increased in the past year or two because of huge incidents. The show family matters is an older television show based in the 90s have an example of an episode of "Family Matters" where the son Eddie Winslow got pulled over for a failure to use a signal. His father Carl Winslow is also a cop of the Chicago area in the show and has a few words for the police officers who questioned his son. The show is old and has an old school feel to it so its before all of the Ferguson and Garland incidents but was still relevant and a huge topic in the 80s and 90s. Another reason its relevant to todays life is because there are many people worried about racial profiling in America against black people. A specific moment in the scene is when the black officer asks why his son was pulled over and it was said that he looked like a certain criminal that the police were looking for. The black officer knew the other white officer was lying because he didn't fit the description and he was the in charge of looking for these certain criminals. This also applies to my own life because I've been stopped at least three times by the police in the last year and it was because i was in a big group of people who looked like we were up to no good.

All African Americans Are Brutes?

White Americans have in their heads about black men: as savage, violent, amazingly strong and not caring about right and wrong. “Black men kill for no reason.” This is called the brute stereotype. Today, Black people are supporting the brute stereotype through their music more than they’re protecting themselves against the it. We act as if we are Little Red Riding Hood, and White people are the fox, but that's not completely true.

Most African Americans listen to rap music, and the lyrics in the music promotes the brute stereotype. This music influences a majority of the people who listen to it, who just happens to be black. Which causes more of our people to fall into the brute stereotype. In a song by rapper Chief Keef, he says “Guns for my armor, nigga **** security. Out the cut like Barbers, got niggas Forest Gumping.” Some people might not know what he means by that, but being that I’m black I understand the type of slang he’s using. Basically he means that even though he is a celebrity, he doesn't have security guards following him around and protecting him, that's what his gun is for. The next sentence means that when he “pops out” or comes out of his hiding spot and people see him with the gun they begin to run like Forest off of the movie Forest Gump. Its kind of hard to explain, but you get the point. This isn't the only type of brute behavior rappers display in their music, and its not only against whites, but blacks too!   

All in all, this kind of music is the music that most African Americans enjoy. Personally, I listen to it all the time and it is my favorite kind of music. That doesn't mean that because I'm black and listen to rap music I’m automatically a brute. Other races may use our music as a piece of evidence to back up the theory of all blacks being out of control and violent, but we’re not. However, listening to this kind of music and letting it influence us isn't helping us break that stereotype, its promoting it.

Remember that One Black Guy in the Jetsons?...

Why are there no black people in the Jetsons?  Many people have wondered this and the answer may lie in the time the show was written.  The Jetsons was written in the early 1960's, and it is about a postwar family living the American Dream.  The only difference was that they were placed in the future.  The fact that there are no black people in it turns me to wonder who the American Dream was meant for.  The Jetsons is an American work of culture that promotes the stereotype that black people do not deserve their freedom.  Anywhere you look in the show, you will not find a face of color.  Did the writers believe the American Dream was only for whites?  There used to be minstrel shows where a white man will dress in black face and characters like Jim Crow were created.  Jim Crow is a slave who is happy to be a slave.  White people believed that slaves did not deserve their freedom because they would not know what to do with themselves, so they should be happy that the white man has given them a home even though they are enslaved.  The writers of the Jetsons imagined a postwar world where people lived out the American Dream and seemed to forget about the black people.  Or possibly the Jetsons is the grand stage for the world's largest minstrel show.  And the foolish characters in the show are the reverse roll of a black man in a white man's face, obviously not making it through appearing as a normal man.  The Jetsons may be a modernized version of the first cartoons that discriminated against black people all those years ago. 

Black Ice

In Key and Peele’s comedy sketch “Black Ice” it expresses the stereotype that black people are viewed as dangerous and that white people in some way control everything. In this sketch shows how some white people pass the blame onto black people and black people throw the blame right back at them. The two white anchors constantly talk about how the only problem that’s threatening everyone’s safety is the black ice. In response to this the black weather man talks about how the white snow is the big problem. This shows how our society is always trying to put the blame on someone, most of the time this blame is put on the black people. It’s expresses how a lot of black people are portrayed as “dangerous” just by how they look. The “Black Ice” is a metaphor for how black people are portrayed in America. The white snow that is also mentioned in this sketch is a metaphor for how some black people view the racist white people. In today’s society there is a lot of hate and people feel the need to blame everything on someone or something. In this case its people’s race even though race doesn’t really have anything to do with the majority of America’s issues.

Cultural Analysis- Boondocks

In the TV show The Boondocks, there are many examples of exaggerated stereotypes of African Americans. This TV show promotes stereotypes and while the show may have some truth to it the content or suggestions it makes about African Americans is mostly false. 

In the Boondocks they make African Americans do really silly things. One example is in the episode “Fried Chicken Flu” where there was a store selling tainted fried chicken and all the African Americans were still eating it afterwards, even though it made them sick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE_mjPDAfAk

The Blind Side

In the film, The Blind Side by John Lee Hancock released in 2009. It breaks the typical stereotypes for Caucasian people. This film hasn't been causing much controversy in the media at all. I believe the film has broken many stereotypes. For example in this film there was young african american character who went by Michael Oher he was a homeless teen who was in and out of different school systems occasionally. Throughout the film an caucasian family came in his life. The mother Leigh Anne Touhy and father Sean Touhy took Michael and eventually became his legal guardians. The family treated Michael like their own child. They helped him succeed in school, and sports. Throughout the movie it broke the stereotype of Caucasians being considered racist and not caring for African Americans. By the end of the movie the Touhy family helped Michael finish high school and get drafted to play for a College football team. The outcome of this movie made me realize that not all people are racist and that there is still hope in the world.

The Stereotype with gays

Key & Peele's sketch, Office Homophobe, promotes the stereotype that all gay people have. Key's character, Latrell, doesn't stop talking about sex. He also would get offended when ever Peele, who is a coworker just like Latrell, would say anything to him. Latrell calls Peele baby girl, Latrell also is overly gay about everything. Where his coworker is how most gay people are. People who are gay are just normal people who like the same sex.

Key and Peele "Black Ice" sketch

I decided to do my cultural analysis on a Key and Peele sketch called "Black Ice." The plot of the sketch is that four newscaster are talking about the horrible weather conditions when one of them brings up the term "black ice," resulting in a heated argument that is about "ice," but is really about race and stereotypes and how white people seem to see all black objects as bad, evil, useful, ext. using black ice as a metaphor to categorize black America.

Story of Gangstalicious

This shows what a typical black rapper has to be in the society we live in. The world looks at rappers as an icon of tough guys who are usually womanizers. Well this story is different in this particular work it shows a gangter rapper by the name of Ganstalicious. It shows his upbringings and how he is such a hardcore ganster. Riley one of the main characters looks up to Ganstalicious as young black kids look up to rappers now. Riley mind changes when he finds out his beloved Ganstalicious isn't as hardcore as he thought. Ganstalicious is actually a gay rapper who pretends to do all these things in order to become famous. If the world knew he was actually gay he wouldn't be the typical black ganster rapper everyone thought he was. Riley found him kissing another guy in the woods and that really hurt Riley, his icon has turned out to be actually gay. This mad Riley no longer a fan, but Ganstalicious lied to him and told him he wasn't gay. This piece shows how society expects blacks musicans to be ganster rappers and if they aren't then they are not accepted as artist and looked down on.

Cultural Analysis

This cultural analysis shows the stereotype of black men. It shows that they are always getting in trouble and dressing like a thug.

Cultural Analysis: The Exaggeration of Racism and Stereotypes

“But That’s not Racist” is a sketch made by YouTube personality, Dominic Sandoval. In this video, characters put a racist perspective when approaching someone of a different race. The different races featured were Caucasian, African American, and Middle Eastern. When Sandoval approached two African American men, Sandoval immediately fell on his knees pleading for his life and giving the two men his wallet when the two African American men knew it was simply an accident. As the video progresses, the two African American men approached a man from the Middle East and immediately the African American men dropped to their knees chanting for Allah. All in all the stereotypes were exaggerated but what makes these videos funny, about these controversial topics, is how comedians try to “push the buttons” of their audience. “But That’s Not Racist” may exaggerate the typical stereotypes of another race but it also identifies how people see each other based on history.

This sketch uses general stereotypes of the different races identified. In the early 2000’s Americans alienated Islamic people because of the 9/11 attack. Al Qaeda claimed they were Islamic but they were Extreme Jihadists seeking to cause danger to Americans. According to the Pew Research center 60% of Americans are concerned about Islamic Extremism arising in the United States. Because of this statistic 55% of people from the Middle East think it is harder to live in the United States since 9/11. Americans do not realize Al Qaeda was a terrorist group “claiming” Islamic values. This attack has posted a negative connotation on people from Middle Eastern descent.

For most African Americans, slavery is a difficult topic to talk about. In the video two African American men were offended because a Caucasian was giving them orders. The African American men intertwined that situation to pertain to slavery. Then made the Caucasian man feel bad while calling him a “cracker”. Slavery is always a hard topic to talk about because it took so long for people to accept African Americans as citizens and humans. Back in the 1800’s they were taken advantage of and treated brutally. Although it was a tough time in the United States not every African American should recall that notion because not all of the Caucasian race owned slaves and mistreated them.

History has a tendency to make the worst part of an event the perpetual memory of that event. Other comedic sketches such as “White People Can’t Dance” by Dave Chappelle and “The White Face Project” by Eddie Murphy exaggerate components of stereotypes that define a race. Their purpose is to make their audience laugh but to also prove these stereotypes false. The problem is that people make a generalization about others and their opinion is converted into a stereotype. That stereotype thrives on that race for a long time then once a person of that race “lives in the stereotype” they showcase that it is true. In his famous “I Had A Dream” speech, Martin Luther King said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The content of a person’s character is the only thing that should define that individual or group rather than stereotypes that generalize the whole race.

Racism/Stereotypes Now, analysis

I'm analyzing specific moments of racist happenings in the social media. In this video:  This video shows people of different races, making racist comments towards other races. It simply shows how stereotyping, and racism in different form and fashion, is still alive today. Common racist sayings, and comments on physical appearance are constantly thrown around carelessly. The people on the news say it, as well as famous hosts on talk shows. I noticed how, almost half the time it was used in a comedic sense, and the other time it was used, it was said in a nonchalant manner.

Soul Plane

The Movie Soul Plan is about a black man named Shawn who sues a plane company for the lost of his dog and different odd reasons. When Shawn sues the air plane company he spends his money on an airplane he can call his own. This movie defines race in many ways.

In this airplane the plane is full of black people and the have a black Pilot and all black crew members.There is a white family on the plane. The Wife is  scared at sometimes of the people on the plane she shows this early in the movie by talking weird when spoken too and clinching her purse. The family's son picks up on the black culture and starts to dress thuggish and speak slang. The daughter was a regular teenage girl who was very promiscuous . Elvis the father was a regular white man who was curious. There was one Arab who got on the plane and everyone stop and stared.  2 security guards sat by him and said, "You not going no where Osama it'[s cool everybody we got this". This movie defines race just by how the plane is set up. The plane has a club and it also has hydraulics on it. No Normal plane has a club and hydraulics   on  it.  Before the plane takes off instead of reading safety directions to the passengers. The crew gave a full on show singing the directions out and dancing. The movie is trying to suggest that if a black man were to own his own airline this is what the plane would be like. Every plane has food and beverages , The beverages on this plane was cheep malt liquor and Pop eyes chicken. These are food and drinks that are suppose to be preferred more by blacks.

In this Movie The Sambo was Mugs the Co Captain of the plane. He was care free and really never serious. Mugs hired a prison terrorist plane flyer who never even really flew a plane. Mugs was just content with every thing even when Shawn told him about difficulties with the plane he was satisfied with it all this is a characteristics of the Sambo. On the plane There where many black men trying to get close to  The teenager Heather who was white. Elvis kept trying to fight these men off of his daughter. The Mammy in this movie represented the two security guards. The guards where not attractive they were more masculine heavy set black woman. These two woman were the most dominant on the plane. There was no brute in the movie. The movie consist of 3 races The backs are wild , care free , and having a good time. The white family is very curious and they are surprised and shocked by the plane. The one Arab man on the plane is dressed in a head rap and gown. The Arab man is harassed by the two securities.