Cultural Theorist In The African American Community example essay topic

The Coldest Winter Ever Born Lisa Williamson in 1964, Sister Souljah is a hip-hop artist that burst to the forefront of mainstream media in 1992 when she was criticized by then Presidential candidate Bill Clinton for saying "If Black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?" Clinton was trying to prove to other Democrats that he did not sympathize with the organization that Souljah was a member of. She basically said Bill Clinton and went on to sign music and publishing contracts. She has become one of the more passionate and articulate voices to emerge speaking for young African Americans in the United States. She has written and published to works: No Disrespect, and autobiographical account of Souljah's life, and The Coldest Winter Ever. The Coldest Winter Ever tells of the story of a young woman named Winter. She was born into a family drug operation.

Her father was a drug kingpin. Winter never knew about struggles in life. She always had the best of the best; everyone wanted to be like her. This was all taken away when her father's operation is busted and he goes to jail for the rest of his life.

Winter, who has never known poverty, is faced with trying to survive while attempting to continue living in the extravagance to which she has become accustomed. The story follows Winter from the time she is fifteen until she is about twenty-five, in prison serving time for a crime for possessing drugs that belonged to her boyfriend. The story ends with Winter still in jail, not the usual happy ending that accompanies fictional novels. This real life ending is the most important aspect of this novel.

Karl Marx argues in The German Ideology that material allows for more culture. Material is the road to true humanity. These materials are not only those things that we possess, such as cars, clothes, and houses, but also material that we gain through life experience itself. Winter defines her life by material.

For her, money is God. She begins referencing her material items at once, from the diamond ring set in 24-karat gold she received the day she was born, to the diamond tennis bracelet she received on her sixteenth birthday, to the designer clothes she wore that no one else had or could afford. Even after she has no money because of her father's arrest, she continues to spend what little money she has on what is considered "in style". Winter does not possess the will to put her money to the side and live within her means. This illustrates a problematic aspect of the African American community.

Material identity has become a prevalent aspect surrounding the hip-hop community. Material is illustrated most often through the type of car a person drives and the accessories that they put on it. It is also illustrated through clothes and jewelry. This bar judged men that Winter would consider dating.

Souljah uses Winter's love of material possessions to illustrate what becomes the downfall of many people in the African America community. Although it took Winter getting put in jail to realize the error of her ways, she has learned a valuable life lesson that can sometimes only be learned through personal experience. In the end of the book she is talking to her sister, is involved with a drug dealer. Winter starts to tell her sister to change her ways, but realizes that her words of advice will fall of deaf ears. She says to herself, "Hell, I'm not meddling in other people's business. I definitely don't be making no speeches...

She " ll learn for herself, that's just the way it is" (413). These learned lessons form culture. We learn the lessons make humanity positive or negative. This book serves to show that there is not a happy ending.

Our life is what we make it. There is a pervasive notion in fiction that the work must have a happy ending. That the reader must have that warm fuzzy feeling when they finish a novel. This is not always true.

According to John Storey, in Critical Studies and the Study of Popular Culture, "all narratives contain an ideological project... they promise to tell the truth about something that will later be revealed" (40). Souljah does just that in the novel, beginning with the "Dedication". Sister Souljah writes, "There is no such thing as love anymore, / the kind that is so strong / that you kind of feel it in your bones. / you know we used to feel that emotion / when we looked into the faces of our mother, / father, sisters, brothers, family and friends... This novel is dedicated to the era in which we live. / The era in which love, loyalty, truth, honor, / and respect died. / Where humility and appreciation are nonexistent.

/ Where families are divided and God reviled, / The era. / The Coldest Winter Ever". Automatically, the reader knows that serious issues are about to be discussed and that the outcome may not be positive. This novel challenges the material ideology discussed above. It does this by bringing the issues to the forefront and reporting on them in a fictitious yet realistic manner. The reader is not led to believe that the ending will be happy, he is supposed to expect the consider the harsh realities of the world throughout the piece.

It can be argued that what we experience in life lead us to develop our takes on culture. In The Coldest Winter Ever, Sister Souljah draws on her real-life experiences to illustrate how reality is used to shape fiction. In her autobiography, No Disrespect, Sister Souljah writes about her experiences growing up basing each chapter on a different person who affected her in her life in ways both negative and positive. When reading The Coldest Winter Ever in conjunction with No Disrespect, the reader can see how real life shapes fiction. It has been said that within every lie lie a bit of truth. The Coldest Winter Ever is the lie among the truths of Souljah's life.

She even includes her current self in the fictitious novel to update the reader on what she does on everyday occasions. One of the aspects covered in an essay titled "Subject Positions as a Site of Rhetorical Struggle: Representing African Americans" is the idea people shape their ideas of a group of people based on that light in which they are represented most often. The article makes the argument that African Americans are most often objectified in negative fashions. They are not shown to have intelligence to think and make decisions for themselves.

There are not many times when African Americans are shown in a positive light. In this work though, Sister Souljah defies this common methodology. Although Winter is a character that carries negative connotations of objectivity, her character is not objectified but subject ified because in the end, she has learned from her mistakes and is seen in a positive light. The characters objectified face consequences that are not pleasurable.

Because Souljah's work focuses only on the African American community, she does not reverse the stereotype and portray Caucasians negatively. She does a tremendous job of balancing the positive and negative portrayals of African Americans. Sister Souljah uses this book to educate African American people. To attempt to open their eyes to what is really going on in the Black community. This is something that is often disregarded in the African American community.

Education about one's community is not welcomed, yet according to Dr. Carter Goodwin Woodson in The Mis-Education of the Negro, "those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they did in the beginning" (Woodson). This is a chronic problem in the black community. African Americans are sometimes satisfied to take what comes to them and never strive to do more than what is minimally necessary. The Coldest Winter Ever is an excellent representation of cultural problems facing the Black community. She takes this work and illustrates the problems that face a community that according to Randall Sheldon has been labeled a criminal class, citing the overwhelming instances of African Americans in jails and prisons in America.

She does not just offer observation though; she offers solution within the middle when all the Blacks are shown in such a positive and progressive light. She takes people in her home and gives them a free place to stay. She also holds forums and study sessions where she tries to teach and therefor strengthen the mentality of its participants. She is encouraging them to think about questions they have never thought about before such as "Do you believe in God?" and "What is love?" . Souljah uses the work to solidify her place as an up and coming cultural theorist in the African American community.

Bibliography

Engels, Frederick and Marx, Karl. The German Ideology. New York. International Publishers. 2004.
Rostock, Thomas. "Subject Positions as a Site of Rhetorical Struggle: Representing African Americans". At the Intersection: Cultural Studies and Rhetorical Studies. The Guilford Press. New York. 1999.
Sheldon, Randall G. "The History of Criminal Justice from a Critical Perspective". Controlling the Dangerous Classes: A Critical Introduction to the History of Criminal Justice. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001.
Sister Souljah. The Coldest Winter Ever. Pocket Books, a Division of Simon and Schuster Inc. Americas, NY. 1999.
Sister Souljah. No Disrespect. Vintage Books, a Division of Random House. New York. 1994.
Storey, John. "Fiction". Cultural Studies and the Study of Poplar Culture second edition. Athens, Georgia. University of Georgia Press. 2003.
Woodson, Carter G. The Mis-Education of the Negro. Trenton, NJ. Africa World Press, Inc. March 1998.