Bell Hooks video on cultural criticism and transformation discusses the often taboo issue of white supremacy displayed in different forms of media. In my opinion, I do agree with the majority of Hooks ideas and thoughts. People might not even be aware of how powerful the media can be. The media holds in its hands, the ability to make people think a certain way, act a certain way, dress a certain way, etc. Hooks spoke about how important it is for us to understand the media and our world. Many times people can be blindly unaware of how the media works. We must stand up and realize that we must not let something control us, but rather make our own assumptions and conclusions about the world we live in.
Hooks gives an example in which the cast included a black man as the "bad guy." When asked why that was the choice the director said he wanted it to be clear who the "good guy" was, vs "the bad guy." This is blatantly racist and wrong. Why not cast it the other way around? Why has our world decided that this is the stereotype? Why have we let the media portray African American men as being criminals, gangsters and bad guys? This is the case with not just one movie but many, not just one type of media, but all forms. It goes to show that we have fallen victim to these exsisting racial and supremacy issues.
As I said before, we must question ourselves, is this truly what we believe in? Most of us have gone so long with just accepting these mass media messages, stereotypes, etc. But we must stop and think, who is behind these mass media messages? More importantly, is this truly what we believe?
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