While reading Stuart Hall’s What is this “black” in black popular culture?, I was confused with the overall message Hall was trying to portray to his readers. However, I was able to take out the three general coordinates Hall wants to bring to attention to his readers. First, he talks about the displacement of European models of high culture. Hall wants his readers to understand that Europe is looked at as the universal subject of culture. According to Hall, Europe did not have, or simply did not recognize, that it had any ethnicity. Because of Europe not recognizing their individual ethnicities, I think that the models of high culture that Europe wants to portray are a little off. Unlike Europe, The United States has always accommodated black traditions. Secondly, Hall brings the emergence of the United States as a world power to attention. In this coordinate, Hall wants to make clear that the United States is the center of global cultural production and circulation. He says that “This emergence is both a displacement and a hegemonic shift in the definition of culture.” By this, I think that Hall wants his audience to realize that it is a movement of culture. Finally, Hall’s third coordinate is the decolonization of the Third World. I think in this coordinate, Hall wants to stress civil rights and struggles that arise among African Americans.
In accordance to the media today, Stuart Hall’s message can best be reflected on ABC’s new televised program Black-ish. I think Black-ish best reflects Hall’s third coordinate regarding the struggles that African Americans face. I think this because like The Cosby Show, Black-ish is based on a modern-day African American family living their life in America. In any show regarding an African American family living in The United States, topics such as African American civil rights will be talked about.
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