Black people and Rap music; response for the movie "8 Mile" Hiroki FUJITA (11/29/04) The fifth movie was “8 Mile.” We dealt with this movie in the class (but I don’t remember the topic, maybe racism or something). The picture describes the story of one rapper. Basically, this kind of music is not my preference. But I enjoyed movie. Although the leading actor is a white, most of the actors and actresses are black. Rap music is very popular among black people. I am sure that the rap music creates the stereotypical “cool” figure of them. Movements, language, behavior, clothes that the movie showed are common especially among the young blacks. It was kind of amazing and shocking that some students at the Polk elementary school behave in “that” way. They were black. It is influenced not only for children but also for young people. We can see many young blacks wearing “rapper style” clothes in the town. It looks so scary for me. I found the same characteristics in the movie. The language was also violent. From the beginning to the end, it was full of swear words. Most of them are inappropriate to write it down here. The rappers cursed awfully each other with music about so tiny matters that really not important for them. But it makes them angry. Sometimes it causes the violence fight. Even if it was in front of the home, there is a little child in the house, they were fighting. That has really bad influences for children. In addition, I found many grammatical mistakes such as “he don’t do something” even though they are native speakers. The phrase spoken by a black actor “she ain’t gonna do something” is grammatically correct and I know it does make sense, but it was considered uneducated. We don’t hear these words in the classroom. This fact shows the structural problem of the society. I think the director did it on purpose, but I believe partly it reflects the reality. Generally, most black people live in impoverished area. They cannot get a high-income job. They have to work from early morning to the evening. Of course, it is physical hard labor. They cannot afford to do anything but make a living. These disadvantages will reproduce generation to generation. These swear words are used among those. That’s why I never ever heard these in the classroom; they are not in college. Well, I am not going to accuse the “this kind” of music, but I just pointed out the features. As you see, this is a structural problem, not the problem of them. Above all, these traits correlate each other, then, it creates the typical scared image of the black in the society. One of the factors must be the poverty. Improving economical conditions will help them from hard work and violence. It is not going to be easy, but it should not be ignored. Works cited Universal Pictures. (Curtis Hanson). (2002). 8 Mile [Videodisc]. Universal City; Universal Studios.