Abstract
The results of this study provide insights into the ways that African American adolescents think about gendered interpersonal violence. African American high school students were invited to discuss images and incidents from contemporary urban music culture (events based on incidents with famous hip hop figures and lyrics from rap music) in a focus group format. We explored how African American youth perceived and responded to examples of gendered violence portrayed in vignettes and musical lyrics. The main analyses focus on the question of how youths’ perceptions of hip hop images, hypothetical stories, and lyrics were linked to their views of “normative” gender interactions and interpersonal relationships for their racial group.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
This article reflects only three modules of the focus groups. The focus groups were organized to discuss how students perceive, evaluate, and deal with violence between peers. Thus, we envisioned the focus groups as an opportunity for us to learn from the participants what they thought were the most salient terms and issues and to use this newfound knowledge to serve as guides for future investigations of Black adolescents’ beliefs about and attitudes toward violence. The research team was interested in three main arenas: violence in interpersonal relationships; how students perceived adult authorities as resources for assisting them with issues of violence; and how students reacted to acts of violence involving African American men and women communicated in popular media and the news. Other modules utilized hypothetical vignettes about violence in schools, when to involve authority figures (e.g., teachers, parents, principals), and how to avoid violence.
Although the focus group literature cautions against heterogeneous groups, we were interested to see if girls and boys, when together, would modify each other’s views or challenge each other in ways different than in the homogeneous gendered groups. However, our results suggest that, at least in these groups of students, there were few differences in the students’ attitudes toward gender roles in hip hop and/or violent situations by group composition.
An assistant worked with the moderator to take notes as the discussion evolved. The assistant’s role was to record observations related to group dynamics, help in creating a record of whom speaks when and how often, and note the issues that seemed to be of most interest to the group. This record, in turn, helped the transcriber to identify voices and interruptions to facilitate transcription as well include information not apparent to either the transcriber or noticeable to the moderator whose focus was on facilitating conversation.
Since the advent of “gangsta” (aka “reality”) rap, cultural critics, activists, politicians, parents, and academics have decried the effects of hip hop on Black youth. Many of these criticisms center on the deleterious effects of lyrics and video images on African American adolescents; adults fear that adolescents are learning that violence toward and disrespect of women are acceptable. Preeminent in the minds of many critics are video images and lyrics that objectify women and portray them as merely sexual prey for men. The protests of Dr. C. Delores Tucker and the National Congress of Black Women (NCBW) are often mentioned as exemplars of the concern African Americans express about the imagery and lyrics in hip hop. Indeed, the NCBW continues what it refers to as “the crusade against gangsta/porno rap” and has held boycotts and rallies against major media companies such as Time Warner. From outside African American communities, a multitude of political actors, including Congressional representatives and groups such as the Parents’ Music Resource Center, have decried violence and sexism in rap lyrics and videos, and government officials have, most famously in the 2 Live Crew case, tried to use obscenity law to censor hip hop stars.
The vignette, read aloud by the moderators, was modeled after recent events in the news at the time, such as the TuPac Shakur rape case. It also echoes Johnson’s (1994) use of vignettes in research on how college age students assign blame in rape situations.
References
Allen, J. P., & Land, D. (1999). Attachment in adolescence. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 319–335). New York: Guilford.
Anderson, E. (1999). Code of the street: Decency, violence and the moral life of the inner city. New York: Norton.
Beatty, A. C. (2005). What is this gangstressism in popular culture? Reading rap music as a legitimate hustle and analyzing the role of agency in intrafemale aggression. Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, 2005.
Berry, V. (1994). Reedeeming the rap music experience. In J. Epstein (Ed.), Adolescents and their music: If it’s too loud you’re too old (pp. 165–188). New York: Garland.
Beyers, W., Goossens, L., & Vansant, I. (2003). Structural model of autonomy in middle and late adolescence: Connectedness, separation, detachment, and agency. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32, 351–365.
Bourque, L. B. (1989). Defining rape. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Bravo, E. (1992). The 9 to 5 guide to combating sexual harassment: Candid advice from 9 to 5, the National Association of Working Women. New York: Wiley.
Breines, W. (2002). What’s love got to do with it? White women, Black women, and feminism in the movement years. Signs, 27, 1095–1133.
Brown, A. W., & Gourdine, R. (2001). Black adolescent females: An examination of the impact of violence on their lives and perceptions of environmental supports. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 4, 275–298.
Bruce, H. E., & Davis, B. D. (2000). Slam: Hip-hop meets poetry—A strategy for violence intervention. English Journal, 89(5), 119–127.
Buckley, T. (2005). Black adolescent girls: Do gender role and racial identity impact their self esteem? Sex Roles, 53(9–10), 647–661.
Caraway, N. (1991). Segregated sisterhood: Racism and the politics of American feminism. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Carter, P. L. (2005). Keepin’ it real: School success beyond black and white. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Centers for Disease Control (2004). Sexual violence: Fact sheet. Retrieved June 29, 2006, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/svfacts.htm.
Clay, A. (2003). Keepin’ it real: Black youth, hip-hop culture, and Black identity. American Behavioral Scientist, 46, 1346–1358.
Collins, P. H. (1991). Black feminist thought. New York: Routledge.
Collins, P. H. (2004). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York: Routledge.
Davis, A. (1981). Women, race and class. New York: Random House.
Durr, M., & Hill, S. A. (Eds.) (2002). Guest editor’s introduction: Special issue on African American women Gender and Society, 16, 438–441.
Elam, H. J., & Jackson, K. (Eds.) (2005). Black cultural traffic: Crossroads in global performance and popular culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Emerson, R. A. (2002). “Where my girls at?”: Negotiating Black womanhood in music videos. Gender and Society, 16(1), 115–135.
Feminism in Hip Hop Conference (2005, April). Conference archive retrieved January 10, 2006, from http://www.csrpc.uchicago.edu/fhhc/conference_description.shtml.
Freudenberg, N., Roberts, L., Richie, B. E., Taylor, R. T., McGillicuddy, K., & Greenne, M. B. (1999). Coming up in the boogie down: The role of violence in the lives of adolescents in the South Bronx. Health Education & Behavior, 26, 788–805.
Furstenburg, F., Herschberg, T., & Modell, J. (1975). The origins of the Black female-headed family: The impact of urban experience. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 7, 211–233.
Gan, S., Zillman, D., & Mitrook, M. (1997). Stereotyping effect of black women’s sexual rap on white audiences. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 19(3), 381–399.
Gerhard, J. F. (2001). Desiring revolution: Second-wave feminism and the rewriting of American sexual thought, 1920–1982. New York: Columbia University Press.
Giacopassi, D. J., & Dull, R. T. (1986). Gender and racial differences in the acceptance of rape myths within a college population. Sex Roles, 15(1 & 2), 63–75.
Giddings, P. (1984). When and where I enter: The impact of Black women on race and sex in America. New York: Morrow.
Greene, K., Krcmar, M., & Walters, L. H. (2000). Targeting adolescent risk-taking behaviors: The contribution of egocentrism and sensation seeking. Journal of Adolescence, 23, 439–461.
Harris Lacewell, M. (2001). No place to rest: African American political attitudes and the myth of Black women’s strength. Women & Politics, 23(3), 1–33.
Hill, S. A. (2001). Class, race, and gender dimensions of child rearing in African American families. Journal of Black Studies, 31(4), 494–508.
Hill, S. A. (2002). Teaching and doing gender in African American families. Sex Roles, 47, 493–507.
Hooks, B. (1981). Ain’t I a woman: Black women and feminism. Boston, MA: South End.
Johnson, J. D. (1994). The effect of rape type and information admissibility on perceptions of rape victims. Sex Roles, 30, 781–792.
Johnson, J. D., Jackson, L. A., & Gatto, L. (1995). Violent attitudes and deferred academic aspirations: Deleterious effects of exposure to rap music. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 16(1&2), 27–41.
Johnson, S. B., Frattaroli, S., Campbell, J., Wright, J., Pearson-Fields, A., & Cheng, T. (2005). “I know what love means.” Gender-based violence in the lives of urban adolescents. Journal of Women’s Health, 14, 172–179.
Jones, J. (1985). Labor of love, labor of sorrow: Black women, work and the family from slavery to the present. New York: Basic.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
MacKinnon, C. (2004). Directions in sexual harassment law. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Mahiri, J., & Conner, E. (2003). Black youth violence has a bad rap. Journal of Social Issues, 59(1), 121–140.
Marcinak, L. M. (1998). Adolescent attitudes toward victim precipitation of rape. Violence and Victims, 13, 287–300.
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Miller, B. C., & Benson, B. (1999). Romantic and sexual relationship development during adolescence. In F. Wyndol & B. Brown (Eds.), Development of romantic relationships in adolescence (pp. 99–121). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Millstein, S. G., & Halpern-Felsher, B. L. (2002). Judgements about risk and perceived invulnerability in adolescents and young adults. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 12, 399–422.
Mitchell, M. (2004). Righteous propagation: African Americans and the politics of racial destiny after Reconstruction. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Morgan, D. (1997). Focus groups as qualitative research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (2006). Dating violence facts. Retrieved June 29, 2006, from http://www.participate.net/standup/domesticviolence.
Quadrel, M. J., Fischhoff, B., & Davis, W. (1993). Adolescent (in)vulnerability. American Psychologist, 48, 102–116.
Roberts, D. (1997). Killing the black body: Race, reproduction, and the meaning of liberty. New York: Pantheon.
Romero, R. E. (2000). The icon of the strong Black woman: The paradox of strength. In L. C. Jackson & B. Greene (Eds.), Psychotherapy with African American women: Innovations in psychodynamic perspective and practice (pp. 225–238). New York: Guilford.
Rucker, N., & Greene, V. (1995). The myth of the invulnerable self of adolescence. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 55, 369–379.
Sanders, S. M. (2003). Teen dating violence: The invisible peril. New York: Peter Lang.
Shorter-Gooden, K., & Washington, N. C. (1996). Young, Black, and female: The challenge of weaving an identity. Journal of Adolescence, 19, 465–475.
Silverman, J. G., Raj, A., Mucci, L. A., & Hathaway, J. E. (2001). Dating violence against adolescent girls and associated substance use, unhealthy weight control, sexual risk behavior, pregnancy, and suicidality. Journal of the American Medical Association, 286, 572–579.
Simonson, K., & Subich, L. (1999). Rape perceptions as a function of gender-role traditionality and victim-perpetrator association. Sex Roles, 40, 617–637.
Smetana, J. G., Campione-Barr, N., & Daddis, C. (2004). Longitudinal development of family decision making: Defining healthy behavioral autonomy for middle-class African American adolescents. Child Development, 75, 1418–1434.
Staples, R. (1982). Black masculinity: The Black male’s role in American society. San Francisco: Black Scholar.
Sullivan, R. E. (2003). Rap and race: It’s got a nice beat, but what about the message? Journal of Black Studies, 33, 605–622.
Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (1998). Prevalence, incidence, and consequences of violence against women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. National Institute of Justice, publication 172837. Retrieved April 29, 2006, from NIJ Web site: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/210346.htm.
Trice, D. T. (2004). Morse Avenue harassment calls for action. Chicago Tribune, Available at http://www.chicagotribune.com/archives, March 31.
Ward, L. M., Hansbrough, E., & Walker, E. (2005). Contributions of music video exposure to black adolescents’ gender and sexual schemas. Journal of Adolescent Research, 20(2), 143–166.
Whelehan, I. (1995). Modern feminist thought: From the second wave to “post-feminism”. New York: New York University Press.
Williams, J. E. (1979). Sex role stereotypes, women’s liberation and rape: A cross-cultural analysis of attitudes. Sociological Symposium, 25, 61–97.
Williams, J. E., & Holmes, K. A. (1981). The second assault: Rape and public attitudes. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
Wilson, W. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wyatt, G. (1992). The sociocultural context of African American and White American women’s rape. Journal of Social Issues, 48, 77–91.
Zucker, A. N., & Cole, E. R. (2006). Black and White women’s perspectives on femininity. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. (in press)
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions for revision. We would also like to thank Kira Hudson Banks, William Corrin, Omar Headen, Lumas Helaire, Alicia Ross, Michael Selders, Mary Trujillo, and Jennifer McCall for their invaluable assistance with the focus groups. This study was funded by a grant from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Squires, C.R., Kohn-Wood, L.P., Chavous, T. et al. Evaluating Agency and Responsibility in Gendered Violence: African American Youth Talk About Violence and Hip Hop. Sex Roles 55, 725–737 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9127-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9127-7