Articles, 10.27.14, SOC142 Night Class

Aaron Cunningham

Evaluating Agency and Responsibility in Gendered Violence: African American Youth Talk About Violence and Hip Hop

Looking into how African American teens view violence towards women in hip hop, they created six focus groups of students for a total of 35 students. There were two locations, with three groups at each location: boys only, girls only, and a gender-mixed group. The groups were led by African American moderators who were trained in the subject. There were three modules that the groups went through, viewing how hip hop portrayed women and men, their reaction to a song "Love is Blind" which discusses an abusive relationship where the woman is murdered, and a discussion of a hypothetical about date rape of hip hop fans.

For the first and the third modules, 4 out of 5 boys said that the rape was 80% the woman's fault, while the girls were more likely to describe it as 50/50. In the first module, while they said that it was wrong to beat women, some rationalized it as being the woman's fault. Generally, though, they described the behaviour as unmanly. In module 2, a majority of participants would describe woman's portrayal as "nasty" and the man's portrayal as "gangster", generally using their clothing to describe it. They also looked into whether a woman could be both powerful and sexy, and most agreed that an erotic look diminished a woman's power.



Understanding Music in Movements: The White Power Music Scene

To understand the effects that music had in the White Power Movement (WPM), the sociologists contacted 59 WPM activists, short of a 1:3 ratio of leaders to followers. Another 40 follow up interviews were conducted, for a total of 99 interviews. The interviews were held in different locations, were 1-3 hours long, and were either over-the-phone or face-to-face. They mentioned that a difficulty in getting these interviews organize was the organizations fear that the sociologists were working with law enforcement, and several only agreed to participate because the interviewer was white (though he was questioned many times about his racial background).

The result showed the extensive effect that music has within the WPM. The music scene is driven mainly by two music labels, Resistance Records and Free Your Mind Publications, who are responsible for much of the white power music produced. While bands hold their own local concerts often, these two companies and others help host festivals which bring in several hundred white power activists as well as creating online forums where these activists can get together. The music, in both live and recorded aspects, are important for many groups as a way to feel unity with others and as a way to convince new members of their beliefs. While some in the WPM community feel that the music is an artificial form of their movement, many believe that the music is a major component to the unity and publicity that their movement has.