Images and Race (29/02/2012)

This billboard image is intended to shock people in regards to their stereotypes of black people. This picture by itself would likely terrify our society and if they saw a black man like this in person, they would probably be wary of him and cross the road to avoid him. This combined with the word “SCARED?” in blood-red capital letters gives a somewhat fearful and dangerous image – which is the exact intentions of the billboard and coincides with Alvardo’s maxim of black people being portrayed or perceived as ‘dangerous’. In a white smaller print under “SCARED?” it reads “YOU SHOULD BE. HE’S A DENTIST”. The audience of this image would feel guilty at being initially fearful of people like this and conforming to the stereotypes portrayed in our British media, and will hopefully fulfil the posters’ purpose of shocking people out of their rigid views towards black people and looking upon them in our society with more equality.



Although this advertisement did not intend on portraying the idea that all black people are likely to attack or rape innocent white females, it does implant the idea into the viewers head. The man is simply looking forward and sat on the bus with a non-threatening pose, but the young woman sitting as far away from him as possible (being quite close to the window), clutching her arm and looking fearfully towards him as though he will jump up and attack her at any moment gives the impression that black people will do this to innocent white women. It somewhat conveys the idea that we should be wary of all black people even if we have no reason to be wary of them, because (as the image reads) “IT’S A JUNGLE OUT THERE”. This image again coincides with Alvardo’s maxim of black people being perceived as ‘dangerous’.

At first glance of this image, I instantly knew that it matches Alvardo’s maxim of people from different races (namely Aborigines in this case) being portrayed as ‘exotic’. They’re being shown performing acts that are native to their culture, such as spear-fishing and making boomerangs, as a way of enticing British people to come and see the Aborigines exotic way of life in Australia. In contrast to the previous images, this exotic portrayal is not a bad thing like the ‘dangerous’ perception was – but the Aborigines would not call themselves ‘exotic’. Their way of life just seems exotic to us because it is completely different to our own culture – Aborigines may even see the British culture as ‘exotic’. Australia is just feeding of their diverse culture in order to advertise and accumulate more money in their own tourism industry without much benefit to the supposedly exotic Aborigines.  

This headline is obviously trying to create a somewhat humorous impact on the reader – it is addressing a real event and turning it into something that we, as the audience, can make fun from. For this reason, I think this image relates to Alvardo’s ‘humorous’ maxim of the representation of different races in our media. The headline was probably never meant to be taking literally, yet the reader would be stunned at the strange statement – most likely stunned into laughter!

This poster is attempting to address the terrorist situation and scare people into looking out for potential terrorist activity, but it does it with an underlying focus on one group of people – Muslims. At first glance, I assumed that it was informing me to look out for any person that could be a terrorist, with no particular reference to skin colour or religion but examining it further, it does focus on the Islamic religion. The eyes seem to be that of a woman – we know it is a woman without having to see the rest of her face because the surrounding black background acts as a traditional Islamic hijab that hides the rest of her face. She seems frightened as though she may be hiding some terrible terrorist plot, but the fact that the rest of her face is hidden makes her seem more dangerous (as in Alvardo’s maxim of diverse cultures being represented as ‘dangerous’) to us as we have no idea what she is hiding under her hijab. Moreover, the way the poster depicts terrorists as “them” and “they” separates them even more from our own white British society and, combined with the image, gives the impression that they are completely different from us in terms of political views and skin colour. In my opinion, this image is extremely damaging to our society in that it makes white people more cautious and differentiated from Islamic people.

The Representation of Black Youths in 'Kidulthood' and 'Attack the Block' - Group Presentation (08/02/2012)

Me, Charlotte Williamson and Conor Wynn worked together to produce this presentation on the representation of black youths in our two movie case studies, 'Kidulthood' and 'Attack the Block'. Here is the presentation we created:



How are black youths represented in ‘Attack the Block’? (02/02/2012)

Although this film is primarily shot from the point of view of a teen gang, the group are often shown in a negative light as well as in a positive one. Being the leading hero’s in the film, it would be expected that the gang would be good, courageous people – but instead, they are shown to be the tough, gritty knife-wielding gang they actually are.

Since the gang are responsible for saving their block of flats from alien destruction, they are shown positively at points throughout the film. The audience will immediately feel sympathy for this black gang when we discover that all of the youths come from unconventional families/homes as the film unravels. We soon learn that gang leader Moses lives with his uncle, and that his father his away a lot and doesn’t really care for his son even when he is at home. This added to the fact that Moses is revealed to be only at the young age of 15 gives a sense of vulnerability to the previously-seen tough, unsmiling gang leader. This unconventionality of family for all of the gang members becomes more positive as the friends all call each other “bruv” constantly through the movie – the friends act more like a family than a dangerous street gang, and they do not seem as fearful as they once were perceived. This brotherhood-mentality continues during the firework sequence towards the end of the film – Pest releases fireworks into a dark hallway in order to scare away the aliens and create a smoky haze for them to pass through unseen. Unfortunately Jerome drops his glasses and becomes lost in the misty corridor, but Pest ventures back into the haze to find his friend and ‘bruv’. Jerome is caught and killed by the aliens anyway, but Pest’s act of loyalty and courage gives the gang an overall positive tone.

However, it is not just what the black youths themselves do which make them seem more positive – the way in which the other white characters act seems more negative than the leading black gang. Pest is a white character in the group that follows black gang leader Moses in his unlawful acts (for example, mugging the white female character Sam), and this brings a sense of equality to this prominent division between ‘bad’ black characters and the ‘white’ good ones. It further shows that not all stereotypes of white people being victims and black youths being the criminals – Pest is just as bad as the rest of the black gang who mugged Sam and threatened her with a knife! Moreover, the white student-aged man called Brewis makes the black youths appear more positive when he tries to be ‘street like the youths by smoking weed and attempting to use their lingo in Ron’s flat but instead of converging with the youths, he just acts like an idiotic higher-class student. In another scene, Sam starts ranting about the alien situation and uses inappropriate expletives to get her point across. The young gang looks at her in disgust, and Moses even tells her off for using so many swear words. This proves that despite being young criminals, the boys still know what’s right or wrong and have their principles in mind. Lastly, the black youths are proven to be more heroic than the other white characters when drug-users Brewis and Ron are cowardly hiding in their flat during the alien invasion, and the fact that Sam takes on the role of the defenceless female who is constantly hiding behind the brave Moses and his gang. The way the white characters are portrayed in this film manage to make an unlawful young gang of black youths seem gallant, and thus they are seen in a positive light for a large proportion of the movie.

Despite these positive aspects, the black youths are unfortunately portrayed negatively as well in order to keep the film in accordance with the typical stereotypes society follows as a result of the media (i.e. the news). The youths are conveyed negatively right from the very beginning when the gang mugs the defenceless female Sam and threatens her with a knife, and then goes on to chase after (what they though was) a dog, with every intention of killing it just because it got in their way. Even though the youths end up saving Sam and what they thought was a ‘dog’ turns out to be an alien, it doesn’t change the fact that these acts were wrong and fulfils the stereotypes believed by receivers of media around Britain. Moreover, the language used by the black characters in the film gives a negative appearance – they speak in their regional dialects throughout, using words such as “dem” and “yo” rather than the typical standard English, and this informality can widen the space between the audience and the characters and make them feel more inferior and intimidated by their use of language. Also, drug dealer Hi-Hatz is seen in one scene driving the streets recklessly whilst rapping along to a song that uses inappropriate lexis such as “f***” and “hoes” – words that are not commonly used in our everyday vocabulary, and which again gives a negative portrayal and does not bide well with the audience. Even the hierarchy within the ‘block’ with Hi-Hatz having his drug dealer status intimidates the audience and, along with his large thug-like bodyguards, gives a disconcerting depiction of the black characters in this film.

Furthermore, the simple mise en scene of the movie gives a negative view of the black youths in ‘Attack the Block’ and coincides with the stereotypes believed by the majority of the audience. In terms of costume, the black gang youths are seen wearing the same dark tracksuits, hoodies and the balaclava-style masks covering the lower half of their faces. These are all items of clothing associated with the criminal youth culture and primarily, the stereotyped black youths in blocks of flats who make their own gang hierarchy’s, and thus fulfil this negative stereotype. The setting of the movie (e.g. the weed room and the scruffy ‘blcok’) combined with the undesirable choice of props (knives, fireworks, cigarettes and drugs) add to this negative view of the gang, and are all props that we assume these sort of youths would use in real-life too. In one interesting point in the film, two (approximately) 10 year old boys called Probs and Mayhem approach the gang and ask if they can help kill the aliens. However, one of the youths notices that they are holding a paintball gun and steals it off them. The interesting thing is that the gang thinks that it is a real gun and do not realise that it is only a mere paintball gun – are the gang actually stereotyping themselves and just assuming that kids living on their block would be walking around with dangerous weapons? It is as if the group are starting to believe the stereotypes set out by the media and are somehow conforming to them. All of these factors give an intimidating negative view of the black youths, and make it more difficult to also see the positive aspects shown by them too.

‘Attack the Block’ has given a new spin to the expected views of black youths by making them the hero’s in the story, yet they have kept the more obvious stereotypes intact as a way of reminding the audience of what they believe. It is unfair to assume that all black youths are the same, but conforming to the stereotypes is the only way this film will be able to relate to the audience’s biased views.  

Antonio Gramsci - Hegemony (30/01/2012)

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian linguist, political philosopher and a Marxist. In the late 1920’s, Gramsci developed the Hegemony theory which now helps us to understand the representation of ethnic minorities in Western and British television and cinemas.

In short, Gramsci suggested that we live in a hegemonic culture in our capitalist society in which dominant groups maintain power and protect common class interests, namely, wealth and ownership, through the use of cultural institutions and alliances with other members of the elite. For Gramsci, hegemonic dominance ultimately relied on a "consented" coercion, and in a "crisis of authority" the "masks of consent" slip away, revealing the fist of force. Basically, certain groups stayed dominant through an underlying form of pressure (or ‘fist of force’) which reveals itself when there is a dilemma over who will have the ruling authority within a society.

We can use Gramsci’s hegemony theory to explain why ethnic minorities are represented the way they are on television and film. For example, ‘Attack the Block’ is a movie about a group of black youths who steal and use knives and general violence to send a message, but have their way of life on the block changed when the leader of the gang (Moses) causes an alien invasion to occur. Although the youths end on a positive light by destroying the aliens and saving their block, they are generally represented as the lower class thugs that they are expected to be. Hegemony coincides with this representation as the youths are shown to be the lower-class society members who are ruled by the authority of the police (who attempt to arrest the youths various times throughout the movie). It is interesting to note that the authority figures are white, along with the female theft victim Sam, and this relates to the hegemonic ideology that the white characters are dominant through their wealth and position in cultural institutions – the police obviously have more money than the youths due to their jobs, and working in institutions such as the police force and the NHS (since Sam is a nurse) ultimately gives them a more dominant place above the poor, unemployed youths. Furthermore, the white police officers can use their ‘fist of force’ or right to exercise power over the unruly youths to ensure that they stay in their lower position in the hegemonic structure.

But why do we accept this state of hegemony? Our British and Western culture has been trained since the dawn of capitalism to have a natural hierarchy in which the poor are less significant than the wealthy, and naturally we have come to accept it as the social norm. We are never going to be completely equal no matter how hard we try, as there will always be a state of dominant authority to ensure a state of peace amongst all the social classes.