Popular Culture and Critical Media Pedagogy in Secondary Literacy Classrooms

The African American youth of America have little to count on when it comes to pop culture and media portraying them in positive light. The promotion of poverty and the lack of self-love shown in the media drives down the morale of the youth and forces them into stereotype that in no way benefits them and pushes them into unhealthy situations. With the up rise in the media of racism both societal and institutional is shows an inferiority complex placed upon much of the minorities and removes any motivation they may have had towards educational aspirations.  

The media ‘s portrayal of inner-city youth and the educational institutions they attend the educational advantages of becoming literate are few and far between. With the institutions lacking funding access literacy tools becomes increasingly difficult to obtain.

With the hip hop project allowing students to study the connection between hip hop music and culture and its connection to the youth focusing solely on how literacy can be connected to this culture in an effort to improve literacy in the minority demographics, this will allow education to become a part of their lives in a way they never expected. The poetry and story telling devices used in hip hop lyrics the identifying and use of said devices in their own lyrics will allow practice and an understanding on their level and in their cultural setting. Showing the poetry of artists like Tupac, The Notorious BIG, Mobb Deep, and KRS One and how they use rhymes scheme, meter, and numerous other poetic devices in their work will for lack of a better term show “how cool” poetry can be. This will push students to read written authors and seek out more traditional poetry in an effort to learn about their culture outside of hip hop as well as in the literary arena.