Modern literature, cinema, the music industry, graphic novels, or any other major component of pop culture are in one way or another a reflection of the society in which it is created and formed as part of the dominant culture. For years, popular culture has in fact been the tool for expressing and highlighting the problems and issues prevalent in the cultures and societies they create. Race, gender, social inequality, drug problems, sexuality, and other key issues that concern society as a whole are often the main issues in the plots of various works of pop culture. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The reasons why social issues are essential parts of modern popular culture may vary, but one thing can be said: people love watching, reading, listening to stories they can tell and with which they are familiar. On the other hand, exposing social issues through novels, films, music, etc. helps society analyze the problem and look at it from a different perspective. Judging issues from an outside perspective is crucial when dealing with social issues. to social problems that are so deeply embedded in society that they are barely perceived as a problem by members of society itself. Such an approach is especially necessary in the case of systemic oppression, because the essence of systemic oppression is that, to a certain extent, it is a set of behaviors that are normalized in a certain society. This is not seen as oppressive behavior on the part of a specific person or authority, but rather it is part of the behavior of society in general and no specific culprit can be found in many cases. The fact that systemic oppression is often a semi-normalized societal behavior is especially important to express in pop culture in order to show that institutionalized oppression is such a deep-seated problem for society. In this essay, I would like to discuss how systemic oppression manifests in two landmark works of modern popular culture. Both films, Dangerous Minds and Higher Learning, are based on issues of social inequality and also how these inequalities are the result of systemic oppression that is often difficult to identify, yet is a very obvious component and essential to the problem of inequalities. In the case of higher education, the film highlights many issues in society as a whole and the reality of campus life in particular. John Singleton, the film's director, is famous for speaking out against racial inequality in his films. This particular film is a kind of projection of society represented by a kind of sanctuary - the college campus of young students in post-racist America where laws do not particularly support racial inequality, but which does not eliminate or make not disappear the system. oppression all together. The film shows how oppressive behavior is part of people's mentality and is much more difficult to change than the country's official laws. The college campus is a great place to evaluate society and its attitudes toward issues such as racism. Higher Education depicts the situation of Columbus University, a fictional campus in which freshmen attempt to adjust to new adult life in a way thatas people adjust to life in America in general. The combination of the African American Malik, the weak and frightened white man Remi and the white girl Kristen creates a kind of simulation of real life in which people of different social statuses, different histories and different insecurities try to find each other and in the end. at the same time, they try to protect themselves from each other. The main problem is how to protect oneself and, in doing so, oppress others. Singleton's film offers several angles of discussion and several angles of systemic oppression that project into the mindset of society, even into the mindset of the oppressed members themselves. As an African-American boy, Malik set his sights on becoming a successful athlete, and in some ways, he feels that's all that's required of him. At one point, he even asks his deeply conservative black teacher to be more lenient with him when it comes to academic performance. Professor Maurice Phipps might be the only person in this fictional American university society who opposes the oppressive society and its fixed mentality. He refuses Malik's wish to be treated less strictly and to be less challenged in terms of academic performance. Indeed, Phipps holds him to the same standards as anyone else and strives to achieve a decent level of academic excellence. While even Malik himself considered his only aspiration to be perfection in sports and didn't even consider being equal academically to his peers, Phipps championed that kind of mindset and made him become equal of other students. Malik's attitude towards his goals and objectives shows that even when official laws cannot be directly attributed, systemic oppression still influences people's lives and the way they think as well as the way they perceive themselves as part of society. his own role is not the only instance where systemic oppression reveals its influence on the life of a young black student. Each of the three freshmen is in some way “adopted” and guided by the older students with similar views and social backgrounds. Similarly, Remy, a week-old white boy with puzzled eyes, befriends Nazi skinheads who guide his racist behavior against Malik and ultimately his violent and deadly attack on the students. Remy's racist behavior towards Malik did not elicit an adequate response from the authorities and they even helped him escape more than once when he attacked the black students. Systemic oppression may not be part of the official rules, but the problem is that it still takes root in people's minds and influences their behavior. The people who let Remy escape certainly wouldn't do the same thing if he wasn't a white guy attacking black students. Being extremely useful to whites against blacks, even to the extent of serious harm and crime, is indeed a result. of systemic oppression, which occurs in society as a whole and not just in the mind of a specific person. This influences how people treat each other and even how they treat themselves, as was evident in Malik's case. Another film I'm going to talk about in regards to systemic oppression and its influence on social patterns is John N Smith's Dangerous. Spirits. In this case, the film itself is about the oppressed sections of society. The “special kids” class is made up of black and Hispanic students from poor families. The class is in fact a separate society within the school, the class of excluded people who are already condemned to follow a life of poverty with.