MEDIA TEXTS: I AM NOT MY HAIR

Media Texts: I am not my Hair

Media Texts: I am not my Hair

Introduction

The media text selected for this paper is the lyrics of the song “"I am not my hair" by India Arie. "I am not my hair" is song of the American R & B singer and songwriter India Arie's third studio album, Testimony: Vol 1, Life & Relationship (2006). The lyrics are written by Simpson, Shannon Sanders and Drew Ramsey, and the album was released in late 2005 years with moderate success in the charts. The song was nominated for Best female R & B vocal Performance and Best R & Awards B song Grammy in 2007.

Description

The Idea of the Text

The main idea behind the lyrics is the self religion irrespective of the race and ethnicity. The lyrics depict the fight against the racial discrimination which the blacks have been victim of for a long period of time.

“I am not my hair” is a thematic song. The theme focuses on the idea of self realization and significance of the soul rather than body and appearance. The hair often hides the true identity of people over taking their sense of personal experience. People need to hide their true identify behind their hair. In terms of hair and identity, the main focus of the song by India Arie is that her hair is not what defines her (Burroway, 2010, 25-36). What really defines her is the soul beneath the hair itself. After listening to the song, one can say it very clearly that India has been judged throughout her life for her hairstyle from and early childhood (http://www.indiaarie.com). The song earned appraisal from the critiques since it is based on the metaphors which relate the personality with the looks. Such type of poems conveys messages simply by comparing two aspects without exaggeration (Burroway, 2010, 25-36).

Hairstyles were already assigned in various African societies spiritual qualities. Messages of the gods and spirits, as it is called in the Yoruba, would pass through the hair to the soul. Even so barbers in African-American communities had always a special status. For the displaced Africans to the New World were that the hair is central to their identity. The American white-black hair was long, however inferior. Often it was synonymous to"Wool" (Hopkins, 1954)

No other body decided to feature more about the value of time of slavery, the other African-Americans and even awarded himself. Stereotypes not only place a cap on equality but also how African Americans are placed in a separate social class because of it. Social classifications of African Americans are considered next to the lowest within a society; because of this, inequality amongst races still exists (Tillilch, 1952, 96-111). For example, let us take the social stance on how African Americans are viewed when it comes to education. As I previously discussed African Americans are considered less intelligent and ignorant in comparison to other races. One of the greatest struggles Blacks faced in America is the fight ...