Black Culture

Hall, Stuart. "What is This 'Black' in Black Popular Culture?" Social Justice A Journal Of Crime Conflict And World Order (1993): 101-114.

Extra Credit #2

Extra Credit #2

               

  The movie Pariah (2011) staring Adepero Oduye was interesting to say the least. It was about a teenage lesbian girl Alika and the trails and tribulation she goes through because of her homosexuality. Throughout the movie Alika is faced with problems left and right. The problems ranged from trouble with her own self-identity to issues with her parents’ marriage. Being a hetero-sexual male I couldn’t relate to the movie much, but it was still an intriguing story. It took me awhile to really take an interest to the plot; but once I started watching closely, I had no problem keeping my eyes glued to the screen. I would recommend this movie to anyone that had trouble with self-confidence.

Extra Credit #1

Michelle Alexander was a very interesting speaker. During the time she spoke, she touched on Faith and Ethics in the Workplace. Usually I am bored by the thought of a discussion on ethics. It is a common-placed subject and the speaker repeats cliché statements which I have heard dozens of times. However Alexander was able to capture my attention and give me and interesting point of view on the subject of ethics.  Since Alexander is a civil rights lawyer and associate professor of law at Ohio State University, I had deemed her more credible than the previous speakers before she spoke. After she began the discussion I found myself captivated in her statements. She was so genuine and real with the audience. To my surprise, her speech really gave me a new outlook on ethics in the workplace.

It needs to be fixed

Bird, S. Elizabeth. Dressing in Feathers: The Construction of the Indian in American Popular Culture. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996.

Mariah Carey 1-16--11

In class we discussed Gloria Anzaldua’s theory of border crossers and border crossing. Although Anzaldua' theory was address the Mexican community, it can be applied to other communities of color such as the African American celebrities who have not declared an ethnicity. One of the celebrities discussed in class was Mariah Carey. Although Carey is mixed with Black and White, she is publicly seen to have closer affiliation with the African American community because of her music and ethnicity of her husband.  

Using a cultural perspective, it is easy to see that Mariah Carey has crossed the borders of ethnicity. This crossing is seen in her choice of music genre. In the beginning of her career, Carey produced music of the pop genre (a known European genre of music). However, after her first album the music she produced was of the R&B genre. R&B music is rooted from the Black community. Her change of music genre was her was of crossing the borders of the European American community to the African American community.

Mariah Carey can also be seen as crossing the ethnicity borders using a social perspective. Mariah crossed the borders of ethnicity in her choice of spouses. Mariah’s first husband was her manager, Tommy Mottola. The fact that her husband was white made Carey seem closer to the European American community than the African American community. However, Mottola and Carey divorced and Carey remarried Nick Cannon (an African American). Carey’s two marriages show that she is ­­­attracted to both European American and African American and illustrates her border crossing.


Works Cited

Santiago, Roberto. "Black and Latino." Ress, Teresa and Carolyn Shuttlesworth. Revelations. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 1989. 189-190.