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If we take a look at American History, we see that many African Americans before us accomplished many things, in various disciplines, such as become the surgeon general of the United States, Win an Olympic Gold medal, Become a President of an Ivy League University, become CEO of a Fortune 500 company or even become President of the United States. These and the others on the extensive list of African American Firsts did not come easy or were given. In the words of Cohen, “They had to work hard, be respectful, and always have your superior humanity on display for whites to observe. With more and more 1st being accomplished, it has become more possible for many African Americans to reach hose same positions or go further. Today, in the year 2014, we also have new problems to face in terms of this new technology. Black twitter, for example, is an unofficial title for a community on twitter that has a huge impact online and in the media. Whether there is a primetimes television show or some breaking news story, Black twitter has you covered. Seemingly as a voice for all black Americans, this is heavily skewed by its demographic.
Consisting of mainly young adults, this community becomes very negative and often creates moral panic and suppresses ACH other in the black community. The post-racial thesis suggests that in the post- civil rights era, material conditions have improved for Black Americans, but the conditions Black Americans face today are markedly better than the conditions that earlier generations had faced. As one example of many pressures black youth are facing, this shows that material conditions may have increased but the pressures are still prevalent In Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the future of American Politics, a book by Cathy J.
Cohen, discusses about the political life of young black people, not emitted to their relationship with the state and or government but between their peers, other members of the black community and the larger society. In relation to the post-racial thesis, this book contains arguments that serve as a counter to the post-racial thesis by discussing many issues that young black people face. In chapter 2, she introduces the phenomenon called moral panics and how they affect the black community, especially black youth.
In chapter 5, she discusses forms of alienation that black youth face and how they engage in the public sphere, attempting to voice heir own public agenda. In chapter 6, she engages the ideas that young black people develop in light of the election of the country 1st black president and what this means to them. Chapter 2, “Gangs Rap Made Me do it”, talks about moral panics and how Bill Cowboys and Don Emus are examples of creating such things. Earlier on in the chapter, they discuses some statistics developed by The Black Youth Project.
These statistics showed results from surveys filled out by African Americans ages 30 and above and group based on levels of income The topics of the survey included Rap Music’s perceived Influence on Black Youth, The behavior of too many young black Americans threatens to progress of respectable black people who are trying to do the right things, and reasons young black Americans find it hard to get ahead. These topics were surprisingly posed to non-youth about three topics that involve black youth in America.
Many of these adults had an opinion on all of these questions, because of moral panics. Cohen states that moral panic is a concept typically used by scholars to explain irrational and inflated reactions to lesser events that have been exaggerated by the media. Through the media, the crisis itself is shrouded by the massive uproar generated by the public. Bill Cowboys, known for his comedic background, spoke at Constitution Hall in Washington, D. C. Where they were commemoration the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.
The topics that he received fire from were the ones directed to poor black people and the black youth. From Cowboys perspective he is trying to let it be know that everything black people do, is a representation of all black Americans. His comments toward poor members in the black community included “These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids, $500 sneakers for what? And wont spend $200 dollars for ‘Hooked on Phonics. ‘ ” Here we have an older African American who is removed a generation from those parents he are addressing.
This alone shows that there is a problem with the consecutive generation. This also highlights that the generation of parents who are buying the kids expensive sneakers are more worried about looks that education. We can infer that the kids wanted the expensive sneakers because of social pressures to be wealth. Also, His comments on Black Youth culture is that the out of today are uneducated when it comes to knowing about their African American and their African culture.
He makes remarks about how black males are putting on clothes backwards and sagging of pants, and women wearing short skirts and piercing. This is another example of pressure that the youth are facing because Bill Cowboys is probably not the only person making these remarks. The pressures of previous generations in its self are making it hard for the young black American to live. She introduces the 21st century, the average youth has a lot of things to deal with. Bullying, growing up, peer pressure, family, school