by B.J. on 5/17/2003 10:15:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

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Don't Mock the 'Hood

Really. Don't. Who are you to anyway ?

Earlier in the school year I mocked the shit out of it. I was a dumbass sort of white-washed Asian, who could care less. Amidst the Western Service Workers canvasses, science as cultural practice, writing, and community activism readings, I've changed my mind yet again this year. There's been a lot of ideology overhaul or discovery for me just this past week alone also because of the numerous papers I've had to write, so here goes one of them:

Affirmative action is a boost into social capital and better representation in the media in a world dominated by straight, white, middle-class males. It's not condescending because it helps preserve people's dignity and empowers them. It's not a substitute for hard work, but rather just a door to open where it would not be available. It works well as a full-fledged jump start. Charity is condescending. But people won't question that because no one is concerned with the dignity of those that actually benefit from affirmative action and it takes their power away by discrediting them. It's about living up to standards developed by the powerful of this country.

The minority will often be under and misrepresented, MISJUDGED, looked upon with condesecension according to the majority's own developed standards because it's how the majority stays afloat. It's shown when people try to mock talk like they're from the 'hood as if white middle-class language is something superior like from the semi-revolutionary group Mindless Self Indulgence. Even though their shit sounds jumpy and sort of tight, some of their lyrics judge and hierarchize as they the "rebellious" white guys freely use the n-word and mock lyricize attacking the infusion of rap and hip-hop into pop culture. Fine, attack pop culture, but using the n-word is just inviting more people to use it and condescend on actual ghetto people, rather than just pop culture, because they'll all have different meanings as to the lyrics of the songs. Perceptions of the minority are contorted all over the place, but they revolve around the same stereotypes and principles evoked from media shit like that. On the other hand, other than the subverted class, no one mocks a CEO because it's what is considered at the top of the hierarchy. It's considered 'normal' and 'high-class,' and what sticks with the majority group applies to all groups.

Secondly, majorities will always dominate the media because of their versatility. We can't have a white entertainment channel because they're already all over the place. They've already got a diversified opinion base established in the media which is why they can't be classified as just "white." Different minorities are usually relegated to one stereotype. For example, Asian guys are always viewed as nerds, but Asian girls are always highly sexualized ala Matrix 2 ('Yell !). Asian guys usually solve the complex problem of a movie but don't get the *action* that their female counterparts always get. . .it's why I sometimes feel uncomfortable when I see white guys interacting with Asian girls with short skirts. Sounds racist, but it's just an unsettling hunch I've really tried to kick. White guys don't have to deal with this because they're subtly everywhere.

In this world and US society dominated by perception and taken in the context of sociological effects, affirmative action is there to bring that diversity of opinion to the minorities for different perceptions across America. It brings more people into the top universities and into more media. And more opinions. It's only reverse discrimination for some individual rather than a whole. Some people may not have the capital to live up to the majority's standards. There's a reason people are called "minorities." You don't know how much pride I felt whenever I saw any Filipino represented in the American media be it in the LA Times or the FBI's most wanted. It was pretty de-moralizing not seeing any of my own on the daily TV, which made me want so badly to be white when I was 9 and at the dawn of my NBA dreams. Ha.

But for now, minorities are relegated to standardized stereotypes. So we're all lumped together in different minority groups by the media. So in response, when you mock one aspect of any minority culture, which may not apply to all minorities, you talk about all minority shit because it's our right to defend and grow out of the perceptions from mass white American culture.

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