Yo wat up

The African-American community(or otherwise known as the black community) in America is identified through its culture of Rap and R&b music, break-dancing, slang and language, behavior and actions, dressing and clothing and a whole lot more. The black community in US have single-handedly revolutionized  Hip-hop. And I’m not just talking about the music, I’m talking about the moves, the clothes, the language, the whole get-up. 

Does a black man know from birth that he was destined to rap and break dance? I suppose no. Cultures are learned. When a baby is born, the influence of the society, his parents, and his friends mould him into the person that he would be in the future. Cultural norms are only norms because we are so used to them that we often forget that they were novel to us once. Most black musicians on radio now sing the same genre of music, and behave in a similar manner. Also, musicians such as 50cent, Chris Brown, Flo Rida, T-Pain, all dress in the same manner. There is a perfectly legitimate explanation for this. Often, belonging to a culture (in this case, the black culture/ hip-hop culture) means acting according to group norms. This is due to the security it provides. Because cultures are shared, it is difficult to act as freely as we wish. When Eminem, a white rapper, first entered the rap music industry, he was heavily criticized for “posing like a black man”.

There are many cultures in the world, and despite culture being exclusive to a community, it can be observed that there is more intercultural interactions more so than before. Take the example of US. The hip-hop culture is so extensive that even the white community is involved. In addition, the hip-hop culture is also extended to Asia, where Japanese, Chinese and Koreans etc are involved. We live in a global village, where there are intercultural encounters everyday. There is so much intercultural interaction that there is an obvious presence of co-cultures. 

The above youtube video is a short scene from the movie, Step Up, showing Channing Tatum(the white man in the clip) dancing in a hip-hop style, with break-dancing moves. Also, you would notice that he speaks like a black man. In the movie, the white man lives in the ghetto and he grew up feeling that he belongs to the black community, following their culture. His language style is very much like the black hip-hop guys in the movie. Because he uses this language, and also their slangs, a person who is not familiar with the hip-hop culture would not necessarily understand the things he says.

Also, in the movie, Channing Tatum is supposedly the “bad” boy. Because he is a white man “acting” like a black man, he is stereotyped as a “poser”. In the movie, the school and its students despise him and have prejudices against him. It went to a point where they discriminated him. To them, the hip-hop culture produces criminals, “gangstas”, and delinquents. 

This also highlights an important barrier to cultural understanding. Ethnocentrism is a belief that one’s culture is superior to all others and there is a tendency to judge all cultures by one’s own criteria. In the movie, most of the white students can’t stand Channing Tatum because they think his culture is not as superior as theirs and that he doesn’t possess the talent and classical dance techniques to be qualified as a dancer. To them, he’s just some “punk”.

However, having said all that, it is absolutely important to keep in mind that intercultural communication allows understanding of each others’ cultures, and with greater understanding, there is greater tolerance to differences. In fact, knowing the similarities between cultures bond people and unite them.