Spectrum

Despite advances in civil rights in our country’s history, our society, in the 21st Century, is still plagued by racist symbols such as “blackface” and other racial stereotyping. It has been recently brought to the public’s attention through the publication of a blackface photo involving the Governor of Virginia and the admission by that State’s Attorney General that he appeared in blackface while in college in the 1980’s. Such denigration has continued in various forms to allow Caucasians to feel superior to other races and especially African-Americans, says Dr. Akil Houston, Associate Professor of Cultural and Media Studies at Ohio University. Dr. Houston focuses his scholarship on the fields of Africology/African-American, Cinema, Cultural, and Gender Studies. He believes that pop culture is a fertile source for the study of ideologies and racial stereotyping. Additionally, Hip-hop is one of his scholarly interests. He traces the history of “blackface” and other racist symbols and stereotypes that still