The Symbolic Annihilation of the Black Woman in Rap Videos: A Content Analysis

Abstract

Racial and ethnic minorities are often exploited within the larger societies to which they belong, often having aspects of their cultures appropriated and commodified. The commodification of certain aspects of marginalized groups' cultures, or the selling of cultural expressions to the dominant group, act as a way to keep representations of minorities squarely in the realm of the stereotypical. Historically, there have been trends, such as in fashion and language, associated with racial/ethnic minorities that gained legitimacy only once adopted by Whites (Avins, 2015; Flynn, 2015). According to fans and critics, Black women, once highly visible and overly sexualized, have seemingly been pushed out and replaced by women of different races in rap and hip- hop music videos (Iandoli, 2013; Longfellow, 2014). This lack of representation and replacement of Black women is similar to Gerbner's (1972) notion of symbolic annihilation. In the current study, I argue that contemporary Black artists commodify Whiteness, and, in turn, validate their art and themselves, through visual and lyrical veneration and fetishization of the White female form, which has historically been seen as a more valuable currency than the Black female form. Through a quantitative content analysis, 210 rap videos were assessed to evaluate whether there has been a symbolic annihilation of Black women in rap/hip-hop music videos over the last 20 years. The current study found that representation of Black women has decreased while the representation of non-Black women has increased. Further, the results suggest that Black women's skin tone has gotten lighter, and they have become more racially ambiguous, suggesting an adherence to Eurocentric standards of beauty that symbolically annihilates Black women.