Blog Post Two

Blog Post Two

Cultural perspective starts at an individual level. How one preserves the culture around them plays into how they “perform” in a sense. More important than how one preserve the culture around themselves is how the culture of people, aka society, preserves the individual. This can be related to an essentialist perspective “which assumes people are essentially or fundamentally, their positionalities” (Warren, Fassett 110).  This is the basis of stereotypes, an oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. When one possesses these theories, they prevent themselves from recognizing the true personality of those around them. In Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa Harris-Perry, the idea and consequences that there are only three examples most people image of black women are discussed. Mammy, Jezebel, and Sapphire, according to Perry, are the three stereotypes for black women in today's society Mammy is considered to be the caregiver, who is desexualized, while Jezebel is over sexual, considered, as a promiscuous woman. Sapphire is stereotyped to be the loud, over aggressive black women, always causing a scene. These are especially presented in the media, and the limited number of roles for black women actresses. According to Perry

“An individual who is seen primarily as a part of a despised group losses the opportunity to experience the public recognition for which the human self-strives. Further if the group itself is misunderstood then to the extent that one is even as a part of this group, that seeing is inaccurate. Inaccurate recognition is painful not only to the psyche but also to the political self and citizen self” (Perry 38)

To simplify this, basically when someone does not recognize one’s own personality aware from the generalized group, they not are only wilted down to the stereotype, but there is no progression.

            Perry interviewed women, and discussed the truths and myths they seen within their own culture of black women. These women even agreed to the statement that there are “welfare queens” but that there are a large majority whom have worked hard to be finically independent. Their work, goes unrecognized, and their personalities are belittled to false generalization, almost making their tangible.

            To put this in a none communication term, one can look at the course our government is taking with global warming. Although there is much information and evidence that proves our climate is changing, the man with the power to stop the progression of this damage chooses to ignore the facts. Because President Trump has not expanded his previous view off climate change, he takes no new action. Since there is no action and no confirmation of the knowledge, it is almost as if there is no evidence. Just like how many black women are not on welfare, but are treated as if they are. In both cases “the political and citizen self” are damaged. When a person or idea is left in the same context as before, there is no progression. In both cases people may act on the mythical norm; that if the president takes no action for global warming, there must be no global warming, and that all black women are promiscuous, so she is too.

            There are some who embody the stereotypes of their culture, but individuals have a reasonability to acknowledge those who have broken the generalizations. The quote acknowledges that taking action on a myth norm not only stops the progression of one’s identity when they are stereotyped, but it stops the progression of culture.

Reference

Harris-Perry, Melissa V. Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. Yale

University Press, 2013. 38. Print.

Warren, John T., and Deanna L. Fassett. "Chapter Four." Communication: A Critical/cultural

Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2015. 110. Print.