After reading this article, I think my perspective of what race actually is changed. Race, to me, is the child of racism. This is not a case of the chicken and the egg. Race was created as a justification to racism. Pop culture is a widely accepted form of perpetuating this racism and allowing the people at the top of the system (primarily white men) to continue holding all the cards. This article gave me a grim outlook on racism. It seems like every institutionalized practice in America (television, religion, etc.) is just a catalyst that allows racism to occur.
The main focus of this article is to show how so many aspects of our culture allow racism. There's a massive amount of misrepresentation in Hollywood films. They only retell the stories of the people who own the companies making those movies. And who are they? You guess it. White. Males. My favorite quote from this article was "the racist believes his hatred to be earned and that beauty and nobility and even love flower from it," (Marche). This shows how powerful the belief in racism can be. Overall this article is a great introduction to my studies in racism in pop culture.
Marche, Stephen. (2013, November 25). How Did Racism Get So Popular? Retrieved from http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a26162/how-did-racism-get-popular-1213/.
Mikayla mentions "Race, to [her], is the child of racism." I agree. I do believe that race exists on the premise of racism. Race has come to be after the many years of inequality between the individuals of a light skin color and those of a darker skin color. Today, pop culture fosters the continuation of race and inequality by allowing white people have roles of power and giving minorities have submissive roles in film and television. It makes me upset to see that in one hand, our society is trying to end racism but then on the other hand, there is not much being done to actually end racism. Yes, it is true that there has been an increase of minorities playing important major roles and has come a long way since the beginning of Hollywood, but they still have a long way to go before society widely accepts both white individuals and individuals of color equally in film and television. I hope to see this one day.
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