Thursday, October 24, 2019

Barack Obama speaks out on being a "man"


I found this video to be quite relative on last week's module and the "Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes" video we watched. In this video, Obama is discussing what it means to be a man as an African American and how those types of men are expected to live up to the expectations that are set for them by hip-hop artists and rappers. In today's music, the same type of lyrics are being carelessly thrown around about disrespecting women, feminizing men, and having the most money in the world. Obama counters these lyrics by saying they are actually making the singers and rappers come off as insecure. If they were actually rich or strong, they would not need to wear big chains around their neck or brag about knocking people out, and if they were not insecure about their sexuality then they would not have several women dancing around them. I think this is an interesting perspective to take on today's artists and their music because it goes against what the initial thought would be when someone sees a music video with an artist throwing money at the camera or has half-naked women dancing circles around a guy sitting on a throne. Obama also mentions it is important that we display examples of successful men that do not follow the social norms of masculinity in society because it is not very often these types of men are manifested.

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbkgYVYoXjw

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