My first hypertext essay is going to be on the topic of racial divide in the media industries. I came up with this idea because of the article we read in Race After the Internet called "New Voices on the Net?" This article by E.J. Wilson III and Sasha Costanza-Chock goes in brief depth about how the lack of racial and gender diversity in the media industries effects the United States socially and economically. After reading this article I was inspired to do my hypertext essay on the topic of racial divide because of how I can see it affects minorities in my day-to-day life. Granted I am quite biased for the position of African Americans in media industries because I think my race is never adequately represented in the media, but after some thinking it made me realized how "white washed" American society still is today.
The United States is growing more and more diverse but anytime white America gets a hold of something culturally different that they like, they seem to take the culture out of it. For example, southern cooking is something that is highly associated with the south and people seem to think that it's always been that way. One day I was overhearing a group of white men talking about how they hate when people say soul food because soul food is just typical southern cooking. Hearing this made me cringe because that took away everything that is culturally relevant with this specific cuisine. Soul food is slave food. African slaves made food for their masters using scraps and odd bits to season things so that food could be on the table for their white owners everyday. Soul food is culturally black and by just simply calling it southern cooking, you take away the stigma that some how makes "black food" a bad thing. Though that's just a small example of white washing I've seen it happen with Cinco de Mayo, the Chinese New Year, and so many other culturally distinct things from other races that white Americans have seem to "Americanized" for the enjoyment of everyone.
My goals for my hypertext essay are to explore as in depth in possible why and how the racial divide in media related industries affect minorities specifically in the United States. I want my hypertext essay to engage it's readers to question why people do not bring more attention to these issues. Why aren't Americans not upset that 90% of media makers and professionals represent a group of people that do not relate to them? American society accepts this white washing of everything from music, television, news, magazines, books and so many other media tools like it is the norm. This shouldn't be the case. The United States is growing increasingly more diverse, and to other looking in, all the prominent faces and voices of America are white or negatively stereotyped ideals of American Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans. I hope to invoke the question of how can we change this dilemma through my hypertext essay entitled Defining Us.
The United States is growing more and more diverse but anytime white America gets a hold of something culturally different that they like, they seem to take the culture out of it. For example, southern cooking is something that is highly associated with the south and people seem to think that it's always been that way. One day I was overhearing a group of white men talking about how they hate when people say soul food because soul food is just typical southern cooking. Hearing this made me cringe because that took away everything that is culturally relevant with this specific cuisine. Soul food is slave food. African slaves made food for their masters using scraps and odd bits to season things so that food could be on the table for their white owners everyday. Soul food is culturally black and by just simply calling it southern cooking, you take away the stigma that some how makes "black food" a bad thing. Though that's just a small example of white washing I've seen it happen with Cinco de Mayo, the Chinese New Year, and so many other culturally distinct things from other races that white Americans have seem to "Americanized" for the enjoyment of everyone.
My goals for my hypertext essay are to explore as in depth in possible why and how the racial divide in media related industries affect minorities specifically in the United States. I want my hypertext essay to engage it's readers to question why people do not bring more attention to these issues. Why aren't Americans not upset that 90% of media makers and professionals represent a group of people that do not relate to them? American society accepts this white washing of everything from music, television, news, magazines, books and so many other media tools like it is the norm. This shouldn't be the case. The United States is growing increasingly more diverse, and to other looking in, all the prominent faces and voices of America are white or negatively stereotyped ideals of American Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans. I hope to invoke the question of how can we change this dilemma through my hypertext essay entitled Defining Us.