Cultural Artifact Analysis

How High Cultural Artifact Analysis In this paper, I will explore how the movie How High reinforces racial and classist stereotypes associated with African Americans. I will then discuss how the use of these stereotypes diminishes hope for African Americans who would like to go to college. How High is about two African American males who decide to smoke magical marijuana before taking college entrance exams. This marijuana enables them to score very well on the exam and thus get accepted to many prestigious universities. They decide to go to Harvard where they continue to smoke the magical weed, cause a ruckus and stand out among their all-white classmates. I will first discuss how the movie reinforces the stereotype that all black people are drug users and how this stereotype affects viewers of all races. The two main characters in the movie are “stoners”; they smoke weed before every class, grow weed in their dorm room and try to convince everyone to smoke weed with them. This is clearly an exaggeration but it unfortunately has strong effects on its viewers. Many scenes show their white classmates using drugs and consuming alcohol, yet it is presented as far more subversive when the two black men smoke. This exemplifies the idea of white privilege and how it is reinforced in our minds, even in the most innocent looking movies. This allows white viewers to justify their drinking and drug use while, at the same time, judging their black peers for engaging in similar behavior. White privilege is a problem that African Americans struggle with every day. Additionally, it is important to note that this particular instance of white privilege is based on many false assumptions. Black people tend to get arrested more often for drug use because of racial profiling. There is a cycle happening in society that often goes over looked: the ideas of white privilege are enforced through movies such as How High, so police officers are then more likely to be suspicious of black people for drug use and are then more likely to arrest black people for drug use. Consequently, black people get categorized as “stoners” and then movies such as How High are made based on these stereotypes. An article in Time Magazine called “Study: Whites More Likely to Abuse Drugs than Blacks” shows how 9% of whites met the criteria for “a substance abuse disorder” while 5% of blacks met the same criteria (Szalavitz). Unfortunately, more and more movies are made each year enforcing negative black stereotypes, which reinforce negative societal constructions of race. How High also reifies the common belief that black people are not hard working and thus they need help from schools or the government to get into college. In the movie, the two black men would have had no chance of going to a renowned university if they hadn’t smoked the magical marijuana. White privilege, self-fulfilling stereotypes and internalized oppression have led to blacks having a harder time succeeding. Unfortunately, in movies like How High, the media depicts black people as lazy, resulting in many white people thinking that blacks do not deserve reparations or scholarships for college. Bob, who was quoted in the article “Color-Blind Racism,” believes “that you should be judged on your qualifications, your experience, your education, your background, not your race” (Bonilla-Silva 133). This is a common belief among white people who are unaware of white privilege and believe in the stereotypes they see on TV. Finally I will discuss how the movie makes a prominent class distinction between the two black characters and the rest of their upper class white classmates. The two men are portrayed as being from the “ghetto” and of lower class than the rest of the students. This distinction is made very clear by the choice of clothing, including excessively baggy pants, doo rags and over-sized Rockawear brand shirts (a brand usually associated with poorer communities). This choice of clothing is very deceiving. When watching a movie like this, what we seem to forget is that many people who dress in this way may indeed have high hopes for going to college. The two men also use poor grammar and cause a disturbance in the classroom, showing they do not know how to behave in a college setting. Social classes, although they are often forgotten about, are as important in today’s society as race is. By showing a classroom full of middle to upper class white students, the movie is implying that most black people are of lower class and that people of lower class dress and act like the men in the movie. Unfortunately, it is true that “class standing has a significant impact on chances for education,” according to “Class in America” by Gregory Mantsios. What we often forget though is that the lower class is comprised of much more than “ghetto” black people, like those portrayed in the movie, and that people who wear doo rags and baggy clothing are not necessarily of a lower class. By making such defined class distinctions in the movie, black viewers are discouraged when they relate to the characters who dress like they do and who got in to college only because of a “miracle.” Black viewers who watch How High might begin to identify with the main characters, even if they are college-bound. They are likely to dress similarly to the main characters and possibly talk like them too. They will then begin to think that because they are so similar to the black men, they will not be able to attend college or will need a “miracle” to attend a university like Harvard. They might start self-fulfilling the stereotype of a “stoner” and begin to think it is acceptable for them to smoke weed since it appears that many other black people are doing it. Movies like How High reduce hope for many black students who are fully capable of attending college and create unnecessary internalized oppression.
Word Count: 995

Citation Page
Szalavitz, Maia. "Study: Whites More Likely to Abuse Drugs Than Blacks | TIME.com." Time. Time, n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2013.