![\"Capture\"](\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2009\/09\/Capture16.JPG\" "\\"Capture\\"")
<\/p>\nNikki L. sent us a link to this fascinating Tickle Me Elmo commercial.\u00a0 In introduces a new Tickle Me Elmo product, “Tickle Hands.”<\/p>\n
The ad takes place on what appears to be an urban street (reminiscent of Sesame Street).\u00a0 Two of the kids appear white, while the other two look (probably deliberately vaguely) “racial,” maybe Asian and Latino (perhaps biracial).\u00a0 At the very end of the commercial the kids pose in front of a brick wall with a picture of Elmo graffiti-style.\u00a0 Two of them look like they’re flashing gang signs and Elmo, no joke, says “Yeahhhhhh Booooy.”\u00a0 Here’s a screen shot of the moment:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So let’s trace the evolution of the gangster meme.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0 Government policy strips urban centers of resources,\u00a0jobs leave (along with useful things like grocery stores), housing prices fall and the poor become concentrated, and those with means move to the suburbs.\u00a0 With few “above ground” economic options, people turn to “underground” economies.\u00a0 With only the “underclass” left, politicians (who tend to listen more to those with economic power and cultural clout) continue policies that disinvest in urban communities of color.\u00a0 Say “goodbye” to things like nice parks and excellent fire protection.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0 In a world where obeying the rules gets you nowhere fast, violence flourishes.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0 The suffering and resourcefulness of young black, Latino, and Asian men in these communities appeals to a (mostly) white “mainstream” America for whom depictions of men of color doing violence confirms their beliefs about white superiority and advanced “civilization.”\u00a0 Hip hop and rap music becomes a huge money maker for music studios and producers (and a handful of men of color).<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0 As hip hop and rap become commodified, they are depoliticized.\u00a0 The “oppositional consciousness” that once characterized these art forms becomes largely lost.\u00a0 For the most part, any artist that wants to “make it” has to be and say what producers think that mainstream Americans want them to do and say.<\/p>\n
5.\u00a0 Now depoliticized, being “hard” and “urban” becomes synonymous with being “cool<\/a>.”\u00a0 Everyone wants to be cool.<\/p>\n 6.\u00a0 Being “gangster” is appropriated by white suburban youth.<\/p>\n 7.\u00a0 Stripped of any meaning, it filters down to younger and younger kids.<\/p>\n Enter: Tickle Me Elmo “tickle hand” gang signs.<\/p>\n For more examples of this phenomenon, see these advertising images at a shoe store<\/a>, Beyonce’s House of Dereon clothing line for girls<\/a>, the marketing for the Alvin and the Chipmunks remake<\/a>, and these candy “grills.”<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n Lisa Wade is a\u00a0professor of sociology at Occidental College<\/a>. You can follow her on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nikki L. sent us a link to this fascinating Tickle Me Elmo commercial.\u00a0 In introduces a new Tickle Me Elmo product, “Tickle Hands.” The ad takes place on what appears to be an urban street (reminiscent of Sesame Street).\u00a0 Two of the kids appear white, while the other two look (probably deliberately vaguely) “racial,” maybe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[223,29,23703,85,1711,285,341,23622,133],"class_list":["post-13618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-childrenyouth","tag-class","tag-marketing","tag-politics","tag-toysgames","tag-raceethnicity","tag-ruralurban","tag-social-construction-symbols","tag-violence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13618"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71078,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13618\/revisions\/71078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}