Tutorial targets

1. Re write up intro 
2. how does the film use stereotypes 
3. how the film is packaged or fiction
4. quotes -make sure they are properly explained and incorporated 

Introduction to my Critical Investigation essay

This essay focuses on the representations of black people in Straight Outta Compton and to what extent the film reinforces negative stereotypes of black people. Straight Outta Compton was one of the most successful movies so far in 2015 and made 200 million worldwide receiving so many good reviews. However just once when we thought stereotyping was unacceptable in society as the African American community have been through a lot in the past years in the US such as the police brutality situations as many of black lives a have been taken due to police stereotyping them and believing they are guilty while they are actually innocent. Still a large amount of African Americans actors plays criminals roles in Hollywood fuels the racial stereotype that black men are dangerous and have zero respect for the law. Also disrespecting women, swearing and killing each other these are the main factors in many movies starring African Americans. However, must consider that the film Straight Outta Compton is a 2015 American biographical drama about the rise and fall of the Compton, California hip hop group N.W.A. "Stereotypes are like fictions they are created to serve as substitutions, standing in for what’s is real" stereotypes are gathered by thoughts, beliefs and reality through individuals then generalised to the rest of the race or gender etc. 

Essay Plan

To what extent do the representations of black people in 'Straight Outta Compton' reinforce negative stereotypes?
Key Concepts (MIGRAIN) and Wider Contexts (SHEP)

Intro:

• In the intro be talking about my question and my main text.
• focus on what the film did with their black characters most successful film of 2015 so far received positive reviews from critics, and has grossed over $200 million worldwide
• Give an arguments for both sides of the argument.
• This focuses on the representation theory 
• "Stereotypes, however inaccurate, are on form of representation.like fictions they are created to serve as substitutions,standing in for whats is real"
• Cultural Studies By Lawrence Grossberg, 1992
• How they reinforce the stereotypes and what the stereotypes are

Paragraph 1 

• Give a more background info on nwa and what impact they had on the world 
• "Compton, California, was some of the most dangerous place in the country. When five young men translated their experiences growing up into brutally honest music"
• http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_outta_compton/
• Stereotyping in the film a black director
• Urban drama funny and sad
• Why they were loved by their fans and why they were hated by others
• Then will make the connection to the film that was made about them narrative equilibrium(Todorov) rags to riches
• and talk briefly about how they were represented

   Paragraph 2 

•     Urban drama
•     Primary audience - black males and females however this changed dramatically 
•     Textual analysis of one scene with the women giving oral sex
•     The word "nigga" and the word "hoe" used 
•     "male sexual dominance, with women framed as objects and denied any agency or their own gaze" media magazine odd future...
•     https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16889
•     Stereotype of black males mistreating issue/debate
•     Was the scene exaggerate and is it true?
•     Thugs take over the school bus scene 
•     Stereotyping black males thugs and unemployed
•    "For many years,African Americans were simply objects within popular culture whose representation tended to be quite stereotypical and especially problematic"
•     African Americans and Popular Culture 

  Paragraph 3

•     Historical text Super Fly is a 1972 blaxploitation, crime drama an African American cocaine dealer who is trying to quit the underworld drug business.
•     blaxploitation was in the 1970's it was genre with a black audience but it grew
•     They are set in poor neighbourhoods
•     "These movies used a mostly black cast and featured stories set in urban America"
•      "The films focused heavily on the dark undercurrents of society and promoted many incorrect stereotypes about black people"
•     http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-blaxploitation-films.htm
•     Similar to Straight outta Comptons as it shows ethnic slurs gang violence or drugs 
•     Reinforcing the stereotype poor black people,violent,drug users   
•      Levis Strauss binary oppositions -Black people vs white /poor vs rich 

  Paragraph 4

•     Point against as the film can be telling the true story 
•     "Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Wright, gave the actor playing Eazy unseen footage of the rapper — including outtakes of music-video shoots ­— to help him capture the late MC's personality"
•     http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/14-things-we-learned-about-straight-outta-compton-20150813
•     Celebrating the creators of gangsta rap music
•      Many rappers nowhere days are influenced by NWA
•     They were trying to really get inside of their heads to perceive them correctly 
•      So the representations in the movie is not negative because that how they really was
•     "NWA coined the phrase "reality rap", a term that refined black male expressions of anger and angst in the late 1980s. If no one else was speaking for urban black men, NWA was, and in voices that were defiantly unapologetic."

  The Words and Music of Ice Cube

•     They were loved by black because of the truth they were speaking so authentic and gave the people a voice 
•     So the film represented that as they represented in a bad light as they were the villains propp

  Paragraph 5

• "Black males males make up less than 7 percent of US population,yet they constitute almost half of the prison  population."
• Africana Cultures and Policy Studies
• "Blacks and Hispanics are about 70% percent more likely to have had contact with the police than white people are"
• These are the negative stereotypes as the film portrays illegal use of drugs and guns
• So it shows the black representation in the film that they have no fear for the law
• Narrative pleasures
• The film representation of black males:
• unemployment,baby mamas,single mothers,drug abuse ,drug dealing,a lot of swearing 
• They describe each other as nigga and hoes

   Conclusion:

•      The film didn't reinforces negative stereotypes because the film was a biography 
•      Dyer - stereotypes are a projection of the real world
•      The stereotypes are all real as the members grew up on  
•     "The groups root in the struggling working class neighbourhoods of Compton and south central are manifest in NWA image and messages.Rampant unemployment ,drug dealing and drug abuse ,absentee fathers ,teen pregnancy ,police brutality and a litany og the inner city woes are chronicled in the groups music and captured vividly in the harsh language and intentional of NWA shock value"

  The Words and Music of Ice Cube

•      The film didn't reinforce negative stereotypes as this is what they grew up in.This sort of environment in Compton they grew up to see that violence and drug abuse it would be a miracle if they didn't go in that direction as that is all they knew
•      Perkins - Stereotypes are not always negative, establish elements of the truth.

Historical Text Superfly

Super Fly is a 1972 blaxploitation, crime drama film about a Youngblood Priest, an African American cocaine dealer who is trying to quit the underworld drug business.Super Fly resonated with many of the post-civil rights movement generation of African Americans, who saw Young blood as a new example of how to rise in the American class system. Several California organised crime veterans, including drug trafficker "Freeway" Rick Ross, have cited the film as an influence in their decision to take up drug dealing and gang violence.

Blaxploitation is an ethnic sub genre of the exploitation film. It emerged in the United States in the early 1970s. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, but the genre's audience appeal soon broadened across racial and ethnic lines.

These movies used a mostly black cast and featured stories set in urban America. Most often, blaxploitation films had a low budget focused on marketing campaigns. The term blaxploitation is a combination of the words “black” and “exploitation.” In Hollywood, exploitation films are low budget movies that rely on catchy elements, such as gore, violence or sexual content, to attract an audience.In their depiction of the African-American world, the films focused heavily on the dark undercurrents of society and promoted many incorrect stereotypes about black people.

The movie was very intense as the main character leads a dangerous life so he attempts to pull off one giant drug deal that will bring him the money he needs to live the rest of his life in the superfly manner to which he has become accustomed, but he continuously runs up against a variety of cops and other criminals who wish to stop him.The film shows the drug dealing and violence that happens in the black neighborhoods.Money is there way of life as its their american dream so any of the character would do anything for money and it just represents black males not fearing the law once again.As they aim to avoid prison while they kill their enemies.

Bibliography

Academic Research
Boyd, T. (2008). African Americans and popular culture. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. 

Grossberg, L. (1992). Cultural studies. New York: Routledge

Jones, W. (2011). Ethics at the cinema. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Livesey, C. (2014). Cambridge international as and a level sociology coursebook. Place of publication not identified: Cambridge Univ Press.

Rose, T. (2008). The hip hop wars what we talk about when we talk about hip hop--and why it matters. New York: BasicCivitas.

Straus, E. (n.d.). Death of a suburban dream: Race and schools in Compton, California. 

Way, N. (2011). Deep secrets boys, friendships, and the crisis of connection. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Williams, Z. (2009). Africana cultures and policy studies: Scholarship and the transformation of public policy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Woldu, G. (2008). The words and music of Ice Cube. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.

Jet 3 Apr 1995 American leading black magazine 

Roberts, Kevin D. African American Issues. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2006. Print.



Johnson, Robert Lee. Compton. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Pub., 2012. Print.

Media Magazine   
    Phil Dyas, December 2012, https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16889
Odd Future, Stranger Past - Issues of Representation in Contemporary Hip-Hop

Lucy Johnson, https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16057
Representation in rap


Pete Turner, February 2011: the 'Culture' issue
https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16789
Ghetto Culture 


Jennifer G.  December 2008. Black Ink - Black Press in Britain
https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16203

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16094
The Wire - American dream as nightmare

Website links

Rottentomatoes
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_outta_compton/

Rory Carroll, August 2015, 
The guardian Straight Outta Compton film puts California City back under scrutiny
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/08/straight-outta-compton-california-film-review

 Lisa Respers France, CNN, August 14, 2015 
Why you should see 'Straight Outta Compton'
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/13/opinions/straight-outta-compton-lisa-france/

 Kevin O'Keeffe August 14, 2015
The One Scene in 'Straight Outta Compton' That Resonates Most in 2015
http://mic.com/articles/123837/the-one-scene-in-straight-outta-compton-that-resonates-most-in-2015

The list of stereotypes OCT 28 2007
by Beachflute
http://beachflute.teachforus.org/2007/10/28/the-list-of-stereotypes/

14 Things We Learned About 'Straight Outta Compton'
BY BRIAN HIATT August 13, 2015 http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/14-things-we-learned-about-straight-outta-compton-20150813

N.W.A.: The World's Most Dangerous Group
VH1 Documentary - Narrated By Chris Rock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYXOAgO2U_A

The world’s most dangerous group?
By Rebecca Laurence 13 August 2015

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150813-nwa-the-worlds-most-dangerous-group

Academic research and bibliography

African Americans and Popular Culture 

Todd Boyd 2008

• Films by black directors and black film companies were no more accurate. Between 1910 and 1930, such black film  directors /producers as bill foster and the foster photo play company ,Oscar Micheux and the Micheaux film and book company and the Lincoln motion picture company included the same kinds of stereotypes seen in films by white directors.
• This quote tells me that's white directors and black directors both reinforce the stereotypes of black people in films.
• Although these companies were pioneer in the creation of black controlled ,black orientated film genres ,the demand for negative stereotyped images of African american persisted
• Then this quote tells me that people in the early 1900's people wanted to watch the African American being negatively being stereotyped maybe they found it amusing or refreshing.
• African american culture and utilize what David Marc calls "black prime time dozens humor" or black verbal art forms.Other aspects of these shows include an emphasis on black music,art ,and literature ;a greater tendency to focus on black issues ,such as racism and discrimination.
• This shows what the black actors overall role used to be in and it isnt so negative as it is in SOOC.
• For many years,African Americans were simply objects within popular culture whose representation tended to be quite stereotypical and especially problematic.
• This once again tells me how they are represented in films back in those days as problematic person is not a good person as they always have issues.
• A example film was a social commentary on the welfare system and how it actually aided in the poverty of poor black families headed by a single female.The absence of the male in the black families ,as chronicled by the moynihan report,was actually supported by the government itself.
• This tells me that the stereotype of black males not being there was put in a film however it got backed up by the government stats to show it.Therefore it still is stereotyping even if its true.
• Although Diahann Carroll's character was a responsible black single mother who was taking care of her kids -the opposite of the crack mother and bad mother that Halle Berry played in her respective films-the image of the black single mothers as the image of women on welfare continues to pervasive.
• Then they showed 2 different types of black stereotypes as one was very hard working and good mother.However Halle berry played a mother who was on drugs and who was not a good mother.The film showed 2 types of the same race stereotyping them both.
• These images therefore reinforce stereotypes of black women that exist within the US boarders.
• So these stereotypes are what truly happened in the US and the film is showing the truth.

Cultural Studies By Lawrence Grossberg, 1992

• Stereotypes ,however inaccurate, are on form of representation.like fictions they are created to serve as substitutions,standing in for whats is real. 
• This tells me the correct and detailed explanation of stereotyping

Cambridge International AS and A Level Sociology Coursebook 
By Chris Livesey

• One feature of ethnic representation in the western media is the gradual disappearance of crude stereotypes and demeaning representations of "black people".
• This tells me where the representation of black people are mostly done  and what they show. That's the western media (Europe and America) negative stereotypes.
• White overt racism is no longer tolerated,hall (1995) argues that it has been replaced by inferential racism- black ethnicity are represented in ways that stress their cultural ,rather than biological ,difference.
• This tells me what a theorist has to say and tells me what he thinks as he says no racism but it has transformed to stereotyping negatively
• Part of this representation involves their "problematic nature";minority ethnicity are represented as the source,rather than victim, of social problem.
• This tells me again how they are represented as they are hardly the victims but they are the source.
• This in turn ,reflects two forms of representation;
• Over represention,according to klimkiewicz (1999) in areas such as new sand fiction as perpetrators and victims;UK news reporting Africa,for example, represents black ethnicity  as; victims of natural disasters such as floods and famines  and perpetrators of man made disasters involving wars and corruption.
• In context ,ethnic minorities are mainly views through a white, middle class and male gaze.
• This tells me where the stereotyping comes from most of the time in the media not only in films but in the news

Deep Secrets By Niobe Way
2011

• While these representations of boys are considered true for all boys,ethnic minority and poor and working class boys ,particularly those who are Black and Latino.
• I have learned the victims of stereotyping are the poor and working class and ethnic minorities in the US.
• Images of rappers like 50 cent and lil wayne are emblematic of this stereotype.
• This helps me as stereotypes come from famous rappers like NWA its 50 cent and lil Wayne. As they have tough up bringing they result in selling drugs and gang violence however they become rappers and start rapping about those things.
• The most negative characterisation-that African american men are "thugs" and in gangs-is true for only a very small percentage black and Latino youth and is thus an unfounded negative stereotype.
• This tells me that the stereotype of blacks people being thugs can be backed up that its not true.They are thugs but only a small amount not all.
• The confusion even for black youth regarding what is a stereotype and what is a fact underscores the power of these stereotypes.
• This tells me that black youths get stereotyped a lot and so they are not educated enough to know the difference between a fact or a stereotype 
• The belief that black and Latino males are gangsters and thugs will likely foster social and emotional disconnection in young mens search for admission into the world of black and Latino manhood.
• This shows that stereotyping can lead to social and emotional effects to the young men into manhood.

Africana Cultures and Policy Studies By Zachery Williams
2009 New York

• To illustrate the connection between attitudes and actions,consider the long standing negative attitudes of police towards black males,who are often victims of police brutality.
• Some bad Police have a bad attitude to black males as it maybe stereotyping on stereotyping as some police officers are bad and some black people are thugs.
• The negative attitudes are perpetuated through the stereotype of the black male predator,oftentime reinforced in the media, in which black men are stereotyped as being criminals,pimps,drug dealers and "gangsta-thugs".
• The police are aware as the way black people are stereotyped in the media they have to be real tough and hard towards which is very bad.
• The Assumption is that the police are the good guys and black men are the bad guys.However, research reports that in the unfortunate situations in which police are killed by citizens,those citizens are rarely black men.
• The police are the hero's for killing black males as they seem them as a threat to society however the amount of people who kill police officers are rarely black 
• In policing literature, the symbolic assailant is a young,low income, African american male.
• Again we see who is being stereotyped 
• The stereotype is very dangerous and can easily result in the abuse or the killing of an innocent black men, and in blaming black men for society crime problems
• This tells me that stereotyping can take away live as police can think a innocent black male is a drug dealer with a possession of a gun but they are not
• Black males males make up less than 7 percent of US population,yet they constitute almost half of the prison  population.
• This where the stereotype comes from people see this type of stat and generalise it to all black males
• Blacks and Hispanics are about 70% percent more likely to have had contact with the police than white are 
• This is another stat shows that its fact that a coloured person is more criminal active than a white person

Ethics at the Cinema edited by Ward E. Jones, Samantha Vice
2011

• The films most extended and complex challenging of racial stereotypes, in both the cultural and the one-dimensional form,concerns a particularly potent and damaging stereotype -that young black males are dangerous,violent and to be feared.
• This tells me that's stereotypes in the media damages society 
• Stereotypes being more negative or more culturally embedded than other (blacks as unintelligent (a centuries-old stereotype, originating a racial slavery) vs Whites as band ); or  because ,in context some stereotype contribute to ill treatment of the group in question more than do others.
• Among at least the first and third of these, the "violent young black male" stereotype is a particularly damaging one.It deleterious affects young black male ability to find employment,receive respectful and appropriate treatment in schools and be treated with appropriate civic regard in public spaces.
• Once again stereotyping can harm someones self esteem and role in life.Therefore leading to commit suicide 

The Words and Music of Ice Cube

2008

 By Gail Hilson Woldu

• NWA coined the phrase "reality rap", a term that refined black male expressions of anger and angst in the late 1980s. If no one else was speaking for urban black men, NWA was, and in voices that were defiantly unapologetic.
• NWA rapping was the truth as their music is a reality of what they live
• Reality within hip hop is rooted in raps lyrics content and street based narratives;as such ,reality in rap becomes more than "just music",as it it "situated within the lived context of black expressivity and contemporary cultural identify formation.
• The music is telling a story and thats why people in compton and other "hoods" enjoyed listening to them as they speak on what every from there goes through 
• NWA was created in 1986 by Eric "eazy E" Wright, a street hustler from Compton.The group original members included, in addition to Ice cube and eazy e,MC ren (Lorenzo Patterson),Dr Dre (Andre Young) ,DJ Yella (Antoine Carraby)
• The member and their names
• Eazy E had big ideas about how to break into the record business using money bankrolled from criminal activities that  included drug dealing,car theft and burglary.
• Eazy E was not negatively stereotyped in the movie it is true he was a drug dealer
• Eazy E gave voice to gang and street culture in Los Angeles by painting a musical graphic of his neighborhoods harsh environment
• They told the truth to people who don't live in the hood, mostly white kids,that want to know what is happening in there as they are fascinated 
• He was eulogized variously as one of the most important players in the development of hip hop music
• They were the first gangsta rap music artist and he built the foundation  for the rap scene in the west coast 
• The groups root in the struggling working class neighborhoods of Compton and south central are manifest in NWA image and messages.Rampant unemployment ,drug dealing and drug abuse ,absentee fathers ,teen pregnancy ,police brutality and a litany og the inner city woes are chronicled in the groups music and captured vividly in the harsh language and intentional of NWA shock value.
• "Played bitches,killed enemies and assassinated police"
• The film didn't reinforce negative stereotypes as this is what they grew up in.This sort of environment in Compton they grew up to see that violence and drug abuse it would be a miracle if they didn't go in that direction 

Jet 3 Apr 1995

• In hospital, Eazy E received an average 2500 phone calls per day from his fans across the country
• Showed what a popular character he was as people say many people didn't like him because he was a criminal 
• "I had other women.I have seven children by six different mothers.Maybe success was too good to me.I love all my kids.And i always took care of them"
• Shows what a good father he was as he also ran the record label just shows he puts the stereotypes to bed of black males being unemployed and lazy
• "Now im in the biggest fight of my life and it aint easy.But i want to say much love to those who have been down with me and thanks for all the support"
• "Yes I was a brother on the streets of Compton doing a lot of things most people look down on,but it did pay off.Then we started rapping about real stuff that shook up the LAPD and the FBI.But we got our message across big time and everyone in America started paying attention to the boyz in the hood."
• This shows he didn't regret his early criminal mind as he would not have the money to start the record label and studio time for the group.So it is very much a rags to riches to story.

Death of a Suburban Dream: Race and Schools in Compton, California By Emily E. Straus

• While unrest occurred in pockets throughout Los Angeles county,including Pasadena,Venice the violence most deeply affected south central region of Los Angeles,home to thirds of Los Angeles county black population
• The stereotypes weren't just made it,it started as the violence kicked off due to the drug trade in south central LA
• Poverty, police brutality and lack of employment opportunities laid the groundwork for the unrest.
• The violence lead to this and made the stereotype come into peoples heads as they see some black people drug dealing and being violent active in gangs.they believe all of the black people are like that.Therefor they don't employ them and police disrespectful them.

The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why It Matters
2008
 By Tricia Rose

• -Has increasingly become a playground for caricatures of black gangstas, pimps  and hoes. Hyper sexism has increased dramatically,and homophobia along with distorted ,antisocial ,self destructive ,and violent portraits of black masculinity have become rap calling cards.
• Gangstas,hustlers ,street crimes and vernacular sexual insults (e.g., calling black women "hoes")
• NWA talked about all these things in a very bad way in their songs and some people loved them because of them having no filter
• Prior to the ascendance of corporate mainstream hip hop ,these figures were more complex and ambivalent.A few were interesting social critics.Some early west cost gangsta rappers NWA and WC and the Maad Circle,for example -featured store that emphasized being trapped b the gang life and spoke about why street crime had become a "line of work" in the context of chronic black joblessness.
• Growing up in the hood the was no way out and no jobs available so they sort of had to do crimes to survive,thats what they say in their music but do we believe it
• Following he meteoric rise of west coast hip hop music producer Dr Dre and of NWA., widely considered a seminal gangsta rap group,west coast gangsta rap solidified  and expanded the already well represented street criminal icon-thug,hustler,gangster and pimp-in a musically  compelling way.
• They embraced the fact that they were known as gangsta rappers from the hood by white people.

Guerrero, Ed. Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1993. 

• Hollywood strategic response to this combination of black social and intellectual pressure was of black social and intellectual pressure was to produce a wave of cheap made black action adventures set in the "ghetto" that were,with a few notable expectations,crawled by white directors and gained tremendous profits for the mainstream commercial system but also subordinated place talent and creativity to the needs of that system of all systems. 
• 64 percent of black respondents felt that drugs and urban violence were part of a a white conspiracy to eliminate blacks.
• Voices similar suspicious in Boyz N the Hood when he gives a street-corner speech about how "they" fennel liquor ,drugs, and guns into the black community in hopes that "we will kill each other off".
• Recovering capital invested and turning a profit form the black audience alone#
• New jack city (1991) ,which cost $8.5 million and earned over $47million,or the top grossing black film BOYZ N THE HOOD (1991),which was made for a modest 6 million and so far,has earned over 60 million.
• For they not only did well with black audiences,but they have successfully crossed over into boarder consumer markets

Rocchio, Vincent F. Reel Racism Confronting Hollywood's Construction of Afro-American Culture. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 2000. Print.

• In this sense,racism is also a dialectical operation,because racism as social dimension effects individual beliefs,attitudes ,and a actions , but these individual beliefs, attitude , and actions-separately and collectively-become the support and foundation for social dimensions.

Media Magazine

    Media Magazine   

     https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16889

Odd Future, Stranger Past - Issues of Representation in Contemporary Hip-Hop

·         Association of young black males; traditionally masculine, unemotional, aggressive, violent and often misogynistic.

·         This stereotype grew from the rise of gangster rap in the late 1980s, most notably through artists such as N.W.A

·         flaunted their criminal backgrounds and took a confrontational approach to authority

·         that group focused on racial inequality and promoting black culture as a way of life

·         This representation remained the dominant stereotype throughout the 1990s and 2000s

·         Common conventions of hip-hop videos and publicity images for the period include:

·         a fixation on money and wealth, shown through diamond jewellery, expensive cars and flaunted cash

·         male sexual dominance, with women framed as objects and denied any agency or their own gaze

·         images of crime and violence, referenced in lyrics, video narratives and shown through mise-en-scène

·         self-aggrandisement, shown through body language and reinforced with low-angle shots and close-ups

·         during the period portray young black men as aspiring to wealth, rather than professional or intellectual success;

·         arguably the genre exploits extremely negative stereotypes of young black men

·         reinforcing archaic ideas about inner-city youth and discouraging the audience - also largely young black men

·         However, this trend appears to be shifting, or at least becoming more complex, in the modern era

·         This could be due to the success of Kanye West;

·         Often vulnerable, emotional and conflicted in his lyrics.

·         experiences at university, his Christianity, his interest in fashion

     https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16057

     Representation in rap

·         Lucy Johnson explores the construction and representation of rapper 50 Cent.

·         50 is sexist, misogynistic, materialistic, arrogant and a proponent of violence as a solution to the many problems he comes across in the 'Ghetto'.

·         50's success is predicated on certain ideas about 'blackness' and the black male in particular

·         The difficulty is learning to see beyond the supposed veracity of 50 Cent's persona

·         a survivor of the Ghetto, shot at nine times, a former crack dealer who recounts his adventures in his songs

·         You need to show that you are able to separate the representation of Gangsta Rap,

·         You need to be aware of the fact that although certain record bosses and music stars involved with Gangsta Rap have indeed been involved in criminality

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16789

Ghetto Culture (Historical Text)

·         The narrative, cinematography and use of music are all clearly influenced by American independent films such as Boyz N the Hood and film-makers such as Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee.

·         The American 'hood' film sub-genre often has a character that is trying to reject a life of crime and escape the trappings of the 'hood'

·         These representations of young black males are life-affirming and positive.

·         However, other characters confirm the more negative stereotypes of youths from ethnic minorities e.g city of god

·         For example, Lil Ze in City of God and Hubert in La Haine are both drug dealers. Lil Ze is a typical crime film villain;

·         Followed by his subsequent decline and death. He is violent and psychotic, with no remorse for his actions or sympathy for his victims.

·         He is a cocaine dealer, rapist and gang leader; out of control, hungry for power and desperate to control the favela

·         City of God's focus is mainly on black youths. The favelas were initially created to house freed slaves, and therefore black people are massively over-represented in this setting.

·         The representation of the police in both films is almost entirely negative

·         They sell guns to gangsters, shoot suspects on sight (including an innocent youth on his way to school), steal money and drugs from dealers and are never seen helping anyone. The police representation …
Black Ink - Black Press in Britain
https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16203

•       Black culture'? Using this terminology to define people with a little colour plays into the idea that they are from one homogenous jelly-mould with no variation in language, 
•      North America has many more Black publications. Indeed some find their way onto our shores, most notably Essence and Ebony lifestyle magazines, with music magazines such as Vibe following

  https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16094
    The Wire - American dream as nightmare

•     The Wire is set in Baltimore, a port city on the Eastern seaboard of the US. It is a city with huge problems of unemployment, gang-related violence and drug addiction.
•      The central conflict is typically generic in that it focuses on the police and the drug gangs.
•      That said it attempts to present a view of all the central protagonists which avoids lazy generalisations and stereotypes.
•      The police are portrayed in a variety of ways. For the most part they are certainly not seen as heroes. 
•      They attack and beat up suspects in custody and they are driven, not by a moral duty to protect the public, but by an obsessive need to beat the gangs.
•       The street is also represented by characters that turn previous representations of gang members on their head.
•      Unlike many other American shows The Wire has a predominately black cast, reflecting Baltimore's demographic. This in itself marks a key difference from a number of other generic texts.
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