magazinelogo

Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science

ISSN Online: 2576-0548 Downloads: 831731 Total View: 5429218
Frequency: monthly ISSN Print: 2576-0556 CODEN: JHASAY
Email: jhass@hillpublisher.com
Article Open Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2023.07.032

How Identities Are Constructed in 8 Mile?

Yuan Qin

Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China.

*Corresponding author: Yuan Qin

Published: August 23,2023

Abstract

8 Mile is a film based on the rapper Eminem, in which the main character Jimmy, as a white man, succeeds in a rap culture dominated by the black community, which is tied to the environment he finds himself in and the people around him. This essay sought to explore how identity is influenced by environment, class and culture. This essay analysed episodes such as the conversation between Jimmy and his mother's lover Greg about work, Wink leaving Jimmy and others to join Future World, the battle between Jimmy and Papa Doc, and Jimmy's attitude towards country music, and makes the following four points. Firstly, social identity is given by society, and people will take the initiative to adapt to society and construct their identity in a flexible manner. Secondly, people will maintain their positive social identities through certain behaviours. Thirdly, class also acts as the construction of identity, and in 8 Mile, a collective identity based on class is more cohesive than racial identity. Fourthly, the multicultural context of the film allows one to skilfully analyse and integrate multiple cultures and construct new cultural identities, and this multicultural exchange is presented in the composition of Eminem's fan base.

References

Abrams, D. (2001). Social Identity, Psychology of. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 14306–14309. https://doi.org/10.1016/b0-08-043076-7/01728-9. 

Benet-Martinez, V., &Haritatos, J. (2005). Bicultural Identity Integration (BII): Components and psychosocial antecedents. Journal of Personality, 73(4), 1015–1050. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00337.x. 

Huang, B., Carley, K.M. (2020). Discover Your Social Identity from What You Tweet: A Content Based Approach. In: Shu, K., Wang, S., Lee, D., Liu, H. (eds) Disinformation, Misinformation, and Fake News in Social Media. Lecture Notes in Social Networks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42699-6_2.

Jackson, L. A., Sullivan, L. A., Harnish, R., & Hodge, C. N. (1996). Achieving positive social identity: Social Mobility, social creativity, and permeability of group boundaries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(2), 241–254. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.2.241. 

Liebkind, K., Mähönen, T. A., Varjonen, S., &Jasinskaja-Lahti, I. (2015). Ethnic identity, psychology of. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 113–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.24016-6. 

Mann, G. (2008). Why does country music sound white? Race and the voice of nostalgia. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 31(1), 73-100.https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870701538893. 

Mays, K. (2019). Decolonial Hip Hop: Indigenous Hip Hop and the disruption of settler colonialism. Cultural Studies (London, England), 33(3), 460-479.https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2019.1584908.

Pratt, N. (2005). Identity, Culture and Democratization: The Case of Egypt. New Political Science, 27(1), 69-86.

https://doi.org/10.1080/07393140500030832.

Pyatak, E., &Muccitelli, L. (2011). Rap Music as Resistive Occupation: Constructions of Black American Identity and Culture for Performers and their Audiences. Journal of Occupational Science, 18(1), 48-61.

https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2011.554154.

Smelser, N. J., Baltes, P. B., & Snow, D. A. (2001). Collective Identity and Expressive Forms. In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (pp. 2212–2219). essay, Pergamon.

Stadler, J. (2011). Oreo, Topdeck and Eminem. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 14(2), 153-172.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877910387971.

Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (2004). The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior. Political Psychology, 276–293. 

https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203505984-16. 

Wan, C., & Chew, P. (2013). Cultural knowledge, category label, and social connections: Components of cultural identity in the global, multicultural context. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 16(4), 247-259.

https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12029.

Whitaker, M.C. (2020). Us and Them: Using Social Identity Theory to Explain and Re-envision Teacher–Student Relationships in Urban Schools. Urban Rev 52, 691–707 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-019-00539-w.

How to cite this paper

How Identities Are Constructed in 8 Mile?

How to cite this paper: Yuan Qin. (2023) How Identities Are Constructed in 8 MileJournal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science7(7), 1417-1420.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2023.07.032