Popular culture

Popular culture

Popular culture entails or promotes some aspects of racism in society. As we learned last week, popular culture implies a set of practice and beliefs that are generally accepted in society. It further involves objects that are dominant and prevalent in a community in a given time. Popular culture is about activities and feelings cultivated due to human interactions. In many ways, racism has been promoted through popular culture. Today, the most current popular culture is entertainment which involves activities such as movies, music, video games and television. Other forms include sports, technology, fashion and slang.

Popular culture promotes racism in many ways. For example, let’s look at the presentation of women on television in North America. Most advertisements over the TV in the region are done by white women who are believed to be more beautiful than black women. The aspect of women beauty is idealized in a specific direction in the context of race. By using only white women in the entertainment industry, televisions shows and advertisements is a shred of valid and concrete evidence that racism is cultivated in popular culture. Lichtenberg (1998) noted that when the television organizers present whiteness as the only norm with powers and ability to be beautiful as shown, a diverse perspective is developed that only the white women are beautiful. They are given the privileges and power to overrun the beauty seen in other women of colour.

Another good example is sports. In sports activities, white people always have many opportunities to play certain games perceived to be expensive. For example, it is not easy to observe a person of colour playing golf. It is, therefore, reasonable to argue that popular culture promotes racism in some regions.