Inverted Racism

"Crabs in a Barrel" is a common term used in the black community. It took me getting older to really understand what it means. It has come to mean the tendency of African Americans to pull each other down when they see them doing well, instead of lifting one another up. Many people, both in and out of the black community, see that inability to come together as a race as one of the major downfalls. The idea of hegemony helps support this idea that one group of people "may participate in their own oppression" and therefore ultimately be their own downfall. Racism typically means pitting one race against another, but in this instance, it sees one race pitted against themselves. When a group has turned inward against themselves, the end is near. African Americans have shown a lack of racial harmony over the years in various ways. There is this idea of lighter skin and darker skin somehow being different, there is a lot of black on black crime, and there is a lot of self degradation in using things such as the 'n' word and the mistreatment of women. The worst part is that not only have African Americans become a part of their own disenfranchisement, they have come to accept this as the norm. Women believe that they are meant to be single mothers, men believe that selling drugs is the best way to support their family, and children believe that the way to become successful is to become a rapper. Breaking out of this mentality is the key to advancement as a race.


 Reference List
Brummett, B. (2011). Rhetoric in popular culture. (Third ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE
Publications, Inc.

The Horror Film Genre

During the horror film craze of the 1960s, 1970s, and the 1980s, you couldn't tell moviegoers that there was anything scarier on the planet. From hockey mask wearing Jason Voorhees to butcher knife wielding Michael Myers to scissor-knife fingered Freddy Krueger, terror reigned in the hearts of viewers everywhere. As frightening as they were, times have changed. In today's generation, we have so much blood, gore and realistic effects, that it's almost overwhelming. Looking back, on all those original horror movies that I used to watch, they seem very dull compared to the extravagance of today's films. By dull, I mean kind of cheesy and predictable. All three killers, although they use different modes of killing, they all seem to follow the same pattern. They are all male and their targets are usually almost always female. It seemed as if all the directors wanted to play up the fact that the killers had the advantage. Whether the women was being physically overpowered by the killer or intellectually outsmarted by him, she was made to look foolish in a sense. Whether they had to run to the sheriff or another male figure in the film, it seemed as if they could never come out victorious on their own. Even with male aide, it seemed as if the killer still had the upper hand. This shows 2 ideas from the book: both feminism and generic expectations. "Feminist critics note the heavy imbalance of leading characters and heroes in film and television, in which most of the strong characters are male" (Brummett, 2011). Generic expectations are fulfilled in a variety of scenarios, like when the music builds and someone jumps from behind a closet, when the helpless female victim falls and breaks her leg trying to escape the killers' grasp or when the killer seemingly dies at the end of the film, only to not really be dead.

 Reference List

Brummett, B. (2011). Rhetoric in popular culture. (Third ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE
Publications, Inc.