On a typical New York City subway commute, I hear incessant chatter from a sea of passengers. This constant mumble is composed of cacophonous voices. When I tune into this mixture of sounds I have this pressing need to match the succinct voices with their corresponding faces and bodies. Speech, voice, and clothing possess a racialized component which is undeniable. It calls upon stereotypical images of certain racial groups. My reactions to specific racial groups are reflexive for the sole purpose of self-preservation and conflict-aversion. However, these split-second reactions and dangerous assumptions (dangerous in both making these assumptions and not making them [in order to be politically correct]), as illustrated in Paul Haggis's Crash, a film about heated racial tension in L.A.). These assumptions are insidious mental schemas that generalize a certain group of people and leave hardly any leeway for open-mindedness. I realize that the connections that I inevitably make are driven bymicroaggressions "indoctrinated" (Samoran, Interviewed Subject #1) by proliferate images in the media, repetitive reporting of news anchors, and a coat of paranoia ("mind your own business"; "don't make eye contact"; "watch your back") in New York City. In calling up various stereotypes, I am asserting an assumed, expected identity upon certain racial groups and strongly believing that their deviant behaviors (opposed to good behaviors in a dichotomous model of good v. bad model minority) or threat levels are primordial or inherent, that it is "just who they are" and how they act across the board.
Picture this subway experience and try to comprehend my accompanying behavior: I am sitting in a nearly empty train. Suddenly, a noticeable group of ghetto black teenagers (I use the term "ghetto" to refer to black teens who subscribe to a hip hop representation of life, who live in the projects or I perceive to have grown up in urban slums and impoverished neighborhoods) swarm the train and converge on the empty seats. Their loud, quarrelsome voices permeate the once-still subway atmosphere. I hear their loud chortles, exaggerated speech and the rampant use of the N word. I sense the mounting antagonism in their voices, I hear particular black slang words which are part of their vernacular, I see the frantic, frenzied gestures such as stomping of their feet and shaking of their lanky bodies in tune with their blaring rap song. Immediately I clutch my personal belongings and tuck my iPod and earphones into my jacket and conceal them forever. I stealthily look left and right to find a few passengers in my company, but they are feigning sleep. I steal a surreptitious glance at these young men because I want to know that they are not staring at me. A few minutes later I can tell from the corner of my eye that they are staring me down and sizing me up from across the subway car. Do I move to another car or do I get off at the next stop? Failure to take any action will result in being jumped, robbed, mugged, or even worse. This entire scene recalls a scene from The Brave One with Jodie Foster, where two thugs try to rob her aboard a NYC subway train (0:50). [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmD9Hb5I1A0]
Now picture this second scenario: a bunch of private school White kids, just as tall, just as lanky, just as loud (decibels), swarm the train car and interrupt the train ride by cursing and using slang words like it is part of their diet. Roberta and Marcus (Interviewed Subject #2 and #3) tell me that they react to this differently because they do not associate a "buncha white kids" with stealing or assault, especially if they are dressed in school uniform which designates a spoiled, privileged, lavish lifestyle. They go on to tell me that this [the private school kids' lifestyle] is in harsh comparison to the "ghetto" lifestyle which is associated with stealing from the in-group and brazen assaults for self-preservation and protection of turf. My subjects' immediate difference in reaction or mental perception indicate that there are truly different associations for white males and urban black teens despite rather similar paraphernalia, except the baggy, sagging jeans and exposed underwear. These markers of difference such as the do-rag (originally used for keeping hair disciplined) and the sagging jeans have been altered in its meanings. The associations between prison life and sagging jeans (unavailability of belts in prison) made this style of clothing a deviant culture, and this deviant culture becomes marked in opposition to a rather desired culture of the model minority (working hard and studying hard and dressing "properly"). This is similar with the do-rag which have been embraced by the media as gang paraphernalia and associations with the "boys in the hood" and thugs roaming the projects. A controversial Nivea shaving cream commercial sparked outrage for creating a dichotomy between a civilized and "uncivilized" black male: 
Apparently the despicable designers of this ad believe that black men with afro are uncivilized because their afros are wild and unkempt. This contrasts a black male with meticulous shave and clean haircut. The implication here is that if black men renounce their afros and convert to an entirely new lifestyle (a Nivealifestyle/assimilated), they will actually "give a damn," but this is apparently not enough, because they will just "look like they give a damn." These markers (including the afro) are truly used against them in efforts to single them out and to oppress them. In this case it is black teens who are perceived to be either studious climbers in the education system or juvenile delinquents who do not pull their pants up and follow the law.
The media plays an integral role in both asserting an identity for black youth (but not to their advantage) and essentializing black males as gangsters, pimps, dope dealers, hip hop consumers who are perpetrators of a majority of street crimes, pimps who abuse women, and aggressive deadbeat dads/perpetual child support payers who have failed to rear their children. Black teens are portrayed as uncouth juvenile delinquents who live in the "hood" and subscribe to the hip hop culture. It is important to note that these are impure, biased representations of black youth and their culture. Hip hop is acommercialized culture and other racial groups such as white teens and Asian Pacific American teens have acculturated accordingly by imitating clothing styles and listening to similar hip hop/rap artists. Dave Chappelle and standup comedians are just a few testimonies to the media's commercialization of this very culture: Consumers of comedy and television readily laugh at stereotypical images of gangsters and thugs misusing their weapons and tying their do-rag improperly. This reaction only reinforces the presupposed stereotype that there is a correct way for black males to use handguns and to tie their do-rag. It is also assumed that there is a playlist for thugs (Watch 3:10 in above The Brave One video clip). Consumers of television and viral media receive these implantation of patterns. Patterns upon patterns especially in the news broadcasts: there is airing and re-airing of video where black males are wanted for murder and black males are shooting in the streets. In New York City the motto is self preservation and minding one's business. The movieCrash illustrates this concept very well because L.A. is "a second NYC." When Sandra Bullock's character walks down the bustling, diverse L.A. street and two black males are approaching her, she subdues her "racist" tendencies. A few seconds later she is assaulted and looking down the barrel of a gun. In the following scene she spills that she tried her hardest not to make eye contact because she did not want to give off the impression that she had preconceptions of the two men, and that she was contemplating on acting on her preconceptions which is to walk across the street. In trying to protect herself and to mind her own business, she eased the voices in her mind and passed them thinking that it would be over in a few seconds.
It is understandable that subway train riders behave a certain way when a group of black teens board the train compared to a group of white or Asian males coming onto the train. There is a certain switch inside individuals that is turned on when black teens enter a certain space. It is seemingly rational that individuals turn to self-preservation on a subway train, but this dire necessity of staying alive has been aroused by the fear of certain black men. Therefore, if the group of black males are dressed in baggy jeans, afros, do-rags, and are speaking in loud volume, riders will feel fearful and unsafe. This immediate use of the stereotype of deviant young black males is slightly irrational because persons have not met all other black males. Not every single black male acts the same way as knife-wielding thugs ready for descent. It is important that society nips these microaggressions and stock-in-trade stereotypes in the bud. In an era of "colorblindness," society has only conveyed an illusion that race is no longer a cause of tension. Hopefully, one day in the distant future, black men do not have to whistle in order to declare their unthreatening presence to passersby, similar to Brent Staples's main character in Black Men and Public Space.
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