My Sources

All of my sources may not have been included in my annotations. I used the Powerpoints on Moodle as my sources and I used Google for images.

Eminem

No matter what, there is always going to be a battle of the classes. Oftentimes in modern society, hip-hop music is seen as deviant by the outside world because of what it promotes. On the other hand, society glamorizes rapper, Eminem, almost always when it comes down to declaring "the best rapper of our current time". People are quick to point out the good in Eminem lyrics rather than the bad. This is an example of of stratification by race. Because Eminem is a White rapper, his music is not seen as negatively as his Black counter parts. The troubling reality, according to lecture, hate offenses continue to exist. As evident, Black rappers are still seen as deviant more than White rappers are like Eminem.

Sample Eminem lyrics:
Roman's Revenge by Nicki Minaj (Feat. Eminem)
"So finally I broke down and bought her an iPod 
And caught her stealin' my music, so I tied her arms and legs to the bed 
Set up the camera and pissed twice on her 
Look, two pees and a tripod! 
The moral to the story is, life's treatin' you like dry sod? 
Kick it back in its face, my God" 
Versus
J. Cole  lyrics:
"Always thought my first time would be with someone I cared about
But being a virgin was something to be embarrassed bout
I used to ask for practice so I wasn't scared out my mind
You call it rhymes I call it clearing out my mind
Was just a young boy staring out my blind
Till I got free from my momma leash
Running loose through the streets
Like a stray dog in heat"

Malibu's Most Wanted and Racial Transparency

Brad "B-Rad" Gluckmann was an aspiring rapper in the movie, Malibu's Most Wanted. B-Rad was White and he surrounded himself with Black culture. Even though he claims that he understands the Black struggle in one scene, his kidnappers Bloodbath and Tree try to use his racial transparency to get him to rob a liquor store in their neighborhood. Racial transparency is the state of having no "color". Whites have this advantage in society. When Whites walk into places, they are not looked down upon, as someone would other minorities. As B-Rad walks in, he greets the owner and attempts to get some malt liquor. Because he was associated with Black people, the owner saw him as a threat at first and kept a very close eye on him.

Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Experiment

The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, third grade school teacher, Jane Elliot decided to do an in-class experiment with her all-White class. Elliot divided the class amongst eye color to exhibit institutionalized racism. According to Week 12 lecture, institutionalized racism established laws, custom, and practices that systematically reflect and produce racial inequalities in society-despite it it is intended or not. If your eyes were blue, you were superior and if your eyes were brown, then you were inferior. Many of the kids were fine at first but after a while, the kids began to clash with one another over their eye color. One little boy is heard saying that he performed poorly because he had brown eyes. This experiment was reminiscent to the Jim Crow laws. Blacks began to feel inferior to their White counterparts because they did not have the same advantages they had.

Brooklyn's Finest

Brooklyn's Finest follows three crooked cops that all have something that they need to do in a specific time period. Don Chedle's character Tango was an undercover police officer that sold drugs in his neighborhood. Even though he took initiative and had potential be an asset to his community, Tango fell right back into the stereotypes that people label Black men as. This is an example of the consequences of race and ethnicity. People of color continue to confront stereotypes, prejudice, and racism. They are unable to overcome these factors, even after economic success. In the end of the film, Tango is murdered by another officer because he thought that he was another neighborhood hoodlum.