Grinner "Hip-Hop See No Color"

“Hip –Hop Sees No Color ” by Leslie Grinner

Argument

This author argues that the media brings out dominant ideologies which reinforce stereotypes and racism.. Grinner, skillfully has come up with an acronym for these specific ideologies called SCWAMP, which stands for Straight, Christian, White, Able-bodied, Male, and Property holding. In this specific article she is referring to a movie called Save the Last Dance.  Grinner claims that the film secretly and skillfully reinforces white America.  AS she states in her article, “Though it claims opposition  to white supremacy, Save the Last Dance actually reinforces whiteness as a standard of superiority.  While the cast of the film  is predominantly Black, the ways in which Blacks and whites are coded indicate that whiteness is considered more valuable throughout the film.  The film defines Blackness in a certain way, with poverty, drug abuse, and violence at its core” (184).   Grinner argues that this film, like many Hollywood films, sets up a good plot, and most people watching this film will see the theme as a young person reaching the American dream when it fact the undertone is very racial and stereotypical and fits into the SSHWAMP ideology perfectly, she states ‘But there’s something else-an invisible set of ideals that guides this film and others.  We need to make these ideals visible, and in doing so we can become a more media-literate population”(181).