DoubleBubble, hook's

This article interested me because it shocked me and really caught my attention. This shock could have been because of my unawareness of this issue within society, or I could of simply just not seen through this idea into the deeper meaning that hook’s discusses. Racism is a topic that is very well known within our society, but now our society has found more subtle ways to express this racism. They do this through the media and the consumer society, just to benefit them. It is sad how selfish and unthoughtful our society can be sometimes. Like, we took racism and found a way to make it okay? & Now we are using media to express these ideas? Media is being corrupted, but yet we still fall into the trap.

Cultural appropriation causes the White Western male to thrive for dominance over the “other”. Their desire to be exotic and different is because of the desire to be dominant over the “other”. White Western Men do not want to simply be ordinary and instead they want to dominant and become powerful and successful, so they step outside of this ordinary ideals.
To start off the article, hook’s comments, "ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture.” (366). What hook’s means by this is that this idea and attraction can only be done by the white western male.

This whole idea relates into the media, because the media is what makes us buy into this idea. Media takes this idea and makes it so much bigger that it begins to become something we can accept and understand, which then leads to us believing these ideas are acceptable. According to hook’s, the media is able to do this because of the importance of “space and place in identity and cultural politics”. She demonstrates this importance by using the idea of these cultural commodities. Simply, characteristics of racism in the past are now being used again, but in different words. Since they are using these racist ideas in other ways they are not directly being racist, so the “other” is commodified in different words. So, is it now okay to be a racist if you are beating around the bush? Isn’t it sad to think that we have developed this new “language” to express things that are banned within our society?

When hook’s quotes, "acknowledge Other must assume recognizable forms"(368) it really had me thinking. Mainstream white culture has created these identities for the “other”. We can be talking about the other, but they would not know because they are not aware of these identities we have given them. The mainstream white western culture has given them these identities. Why are women scared of black men? Why are they instantly given the stereotype of being violent? When in an area with a black man walking towards you, most of the time someone will become scared. When hook’s mentioned this, I thought of the movie Crash. A couple is walking down the street to their car and walking towards them is a black male. The wife grasps onto the husbands arm when the black male walks towards her, because she has been given the stereotype that they are violent and something bad is going to happen. The black male notices this and says something about how she instantly grabbed onto him for protection.

This has sadly become our second nature and habits. This reading really got my attention and how media really can influence every little thing about us.