Newhouse1

William Newhouse

ENC 1102

Dr. Jennifer Taylor

April 14, 2017

Stakeholder Analysis

Out of the many focus groups of the discourse communities Ive selected for my

research, I believe that the most affected by racism in America is Black young adults and whites

in a position of power. I believe these are the most effected groups because theyre the two

discourse communities that are always in the spotlight.

White people of power control what goes on in the United States whether that be jobs,

incarceration rates, and education; these people of power can be anybody from the president,

to police officers, to executives at companies. My research gives specific examples of how these

people use their power to oppress people of color; for example, police brutality is a prominent

issue in todays media. In my annotated bibliography, I outlined facts that showed the The War

on Drugs specifically targeted the African American community; as well as the government

destroyed Black Wall Street in a militant attack.

Young black adults are highly effected by racism in America because they have to

experience the racial profiling and discrimination that comes along with their skin color. I

previously stated how police brutality is a main issue, but an issue that has sparked controversy
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has been the discrimination in the workforce as well. This discrimination comes from not only

skin color, but appearance such as hair type. This strongly effects blacks because in order to

support yourself and your family you need a job. Not only is this discrimination prominent in the

workforce, its also prominent in education where people of color are denied entry to institutions

or are set to higher standards than Caucasian applicants.

Genre Analysis

I would say that most African American young adults look towards social media and

music as a source of everyday interaction. Social media has been proven to be a huge role in not

only the lives of African American young adults, but young adults. The social media platform

could be very misleading to young adults because its biased and often non-factual. Many media

outlets are paid to promote propaganda so the information presented is a persuasive technique to

get viewers to think or feel a certain way. A prime example of how social media can be

manipulated in this manner is how they portray police brutality cases on media outlets; they

publish the article of the victim in either a mugshot or in a demeaning fashion and the officer in

his official head shot. Another form of information that these young adults use as a source of

information is music. Theres always the argument of whether music is as influential to

someones life, but in todays youth it plays a big factor. According to

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org, the type of music you listen to and its lyrics has a heavy

impact on how a young adult behaves. The website goes on to show that a study states

Approximately 17% of male adolescents and 25% of female adolescents expressed that they

liked their favorite songs specifically because the lyrics were a reflection of their feelings. I

would say that lyrics of a song can influence the younger generation to act in a certain way

regardless of its moral standing. These outlets that are directed towards young adults play a huge
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role in how they act and show a direct correlation to how they use these means of information to

make their decisions.

Furthermore, I would suggest the people of power, who are white, continue to oppress

people of color by abusing their power. This would imply that, it is harder to obtain a degree,

employment opportunity, or survive a routine traffic stop as an African American young adult

than it is for a Caucasian. These statements arent solid fact, however according to multiple

statistics from the United States FBI, it is harder to obtain any one of those items or

opportunities; many white communities refuse to accept this fact. I believe that many people in

the Caucasian discourse communities refute this statement because they are ignorant to these

things going on due to a theory called White Privilege. This theory states that white people are

blind to whats going on around them because they are used to the way things are ran and they

arent exposed to what happens.