A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF 8 MILE MOVIE
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Reizha Ocnarulita Tobing 112008056
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF 8 MILE MOVIE
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Reizha Ocnarulita Tobing 112008056
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF 8 MILE MOVIE
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Reizha Ocnarulita Tobing 112008056
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M. Ch. Eko Setyarini, S.S., M.Hum Danielle Donelson-Sims, MA
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A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF 8 MILE MOVIE
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A Critical Discourse Analysis of 8 Mile Movie
Reizha Ocnarulita Tobing (112008056)
Abstract
The 8 Mile movie is a kind of movie that mostly talks about some social issues between African-Americans and White-Americans, racism, and stereotypes that were built of these two races. This study aimed to find the cultural aspect in the 8 Mile movie and how power influenced the interlocutors. This research was a discourse/text-based study. The data were collected by finding the utterances that characteristically contained power from 8 Mile movie script. The finding of the data analysis showed that the stereotype that was built in the recent society about White-Americans and African-Americans is not occurred in the 8Mile movie, whereas it showed how a White-American boy was being underestimated by African-Americans. There were also some utterances that characteristically contained power which were spoken by the main character. The power that was contained in utterances refers to utterances which would give different effect to interlocutors and the main character himself. These kind of utterances could make the interlocutors obey what main character said, did something against the main character, or it could change the personality of the main character himself.
Keywords: CDA, power, racism, culture
INTRODUCTION
Movie productions never stop releasing new movies. Every year, even in month, movie
production always releases the new movies with a lot of technological development in it. People
can find many kinds of movies or we call it genres. One of them is the movie that contains of
cultural context in it, for example Memoirs of a Geisha, My name is Khan, and etc. 8 Mile is a
kind of movie that is also included in one of the movie that contains cultural context. Some
between the White-Americans and African-Americans in this movie, even the conflict that
happen within the main character of the movie, the White-American.
Racism is not strange anymore for the people worldwide. The differences between one race
with another, sometimes create some problems. Racism is the belief that one group of people with a particular biological make up is superior to other groups with a differing biological make up.The racism issue that is talked about and still exists is between White-Americans and Africa-Americans, from the Montgomery Bus Boycott in December 1955, and the student sit-ins in the
sixties, to the Selma March in 1965 headed by Martin Luther King and the Voting Rights Act
signed by President Johnson in the same year (Issues, 2012).
Americans have had a long story about racism and until now, it is not given any sign of
decreasing. Black and White, many people usually refer to this term. The racism between Blacks
and Whites is happened since the seventeenth century where there are many immigrants’
nationalities (Sears, 1988). In the eighteenth century and before then too, racism comes out from
the slave trade. In the slave trade, many Blacks can be bought and sold like things and they are
seen as a thing that is less than a human. One article about the history of racism stated that,
“In those earlier days in the 20th century, the face of racism was largely black and white. Today, the face of racism has become multi-colored and multicultural. With the high increase of diverse populations entering and maintaining communities all over the country, racism has expanded to include antagonism between peoples of many cultures.” (Issues,
2012)
Other articles about Racism Now and Then, also tells that until now the discrimination of the Black people by the White-Americans is still happening.
Other studies also conducted the research using Critical Discourse Analysis to analyze the
social issues that occur in the movie. One study about the movie Shrek 2 showed that American
animation movie had contributed important things in national discourse of race, language,
identity and general social commentary in this past 75 years (Pimentel & Velázquez, 2009). In
this study, they analyzed three races that were presented by three different animation characters;
Whites, African-Americans, and Latinos. They studied the discursive practice of the movie; they
also analyzed what the school could do to facilitate more positive image of the Whites,
African-Americans, and Latinos.
Another study comes from a Professor of the college of Education at Texas State of
University, Charise Pimentel. Pimentel conducted the study by asking her two graduate students
to analyze a movie using Critical Discourse Analysis and focused more on racial construct in
those movies. The movies that her students analyzed were Stand to Deliver and Freedom
Writers. Pimentel (2010) stated that the research aims “to demonstrate how teacher education students in a graduate multicultural course critically examined race through a discursive
framework of racism.”
Another study related to my studies is the study that was conducted by Atalya Agustin,
published in 2009. She analyzed the movie “Daun di Atas Bantal.” She studied about the power
contained behind the utterances of the main character who was also the powerful person towards
the powerless people. However, in my study, although I also focused more on racial, stereotypes,
and power, one thing that made my study different from other related studies was that I tried to
see other racial issues that occurred in a society through 8 Mile movie, where in this movie the
person” in society also had the power behind his utterances which could affect the people around
him.
Those three above studies by using Critical Discourse Analysis, tried to analyze the cultural
issue behind the movie, in the first and second study and how power could give effect for the
others, in the last study. Here, my research tried to combine all aspects that those three above
studies researched. In my research, I wanted to find the cultural aspect in the movie and how
power influences the others. However, what makes my study different was that, I tried to find
whether the person that was underestimated in this movie also had power that gave effect to the
people that had more “power” there, for example people that had more “power” would obeyed
the command or did something which was against the person.
In my research, to analyze this 8 Mile movie, I proposed three research questions which had
a connection to each other. My research questions are:
1. How are African-Americans and White- Americans portrayed in this 8 Mile movie? 2. What are the utterances that characteristically contain power that are spoken by the main
character, Jimmy (the White-American person)?
3. What are the effects from the power in the utterances toward the main character himself and other characters (the African-Americans) that closely are related to the main character?
My expectation of this research was that, from the findings, I could find the answers of my
research questions and reach the aims that I had proposed to this study. The purpose of
conducting this kind of research was that I revealed the stereotypes portrayed in this movie. As
we know, in reality, African-Americans always become the side that are underestimated by
White-Americans, and White-Americans are the one who have the higher level. However, this
just because this person, who wanted to be a rapper, was a White kid. Therefore, with this
research, it could be seen how the stereotypes that had been formed by the people in reality were
portrayed in this movie or not. Besides, I also wanted to see the power relations in this movie.
This research was conducted by using Critical Discourse Analysis, which means this was a kind
of linguistic analysis, so that this study focused more on the utterances (Agustin, 2009).
The power, as one of the main points in Critical Discourse Analysis, was the thing that
influenced each character of the movie to speak and respond to each other. In this study, I
wanted to search if were there any utterances which contained power produced by the main
character. I also search did the power of the main character gives some effect toward the main
character himself and the other character. Whereas we knew that in this movie, the main
character was the one who was intimidated and seen as a powerless people in a society.
In my research, I expected that this research can be as a reference for the people who are
interested in studying cultures, especially American culture, about stereotypes between
White-Americans and Africa-White-Americans that are portrayed by some groups of people. It could be seen
as a reference to the fact that some races that have been portrayed as higher level race can be
underestimated and refused by a lower level race of the society. Besides, my expectation from
conducting this study was that it gave references not only to those who wanted to learn culture,
how the power lay behind the utterances had effect to the others, even the bad effects.
In this research I had the limitation for my research questions. The first research question, I
found how Black and White people are portrayed based on their act, so how the Black people act
to White and conversely. In the other words, I found the stereotypes that occurred in the movie
between Black and White. Then for the second research question, to find the utterances which
affected the interlocutors and made them responded, in speech or act, to the utterances that were
spoken by the main character. The last research question, the effects that I meant were: whether
the other characters responded to the power by giving the negative way or not, whether the other
characters changed their behavior toward the main characters or not, and whether the main
character became the person who had more power than before so that the other characters
became respectful to him or not.
8 Mile is the movie that released in 2002, a movie production of Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment and directed by Curtis Hanson and Brian Grazer. 8 Mile is the story of
Jimmy Smith, a White kid who has to move back to his unstable mother who lives at Detroit.
They are just a poor family, so Jimmy has to work to make a better life. He works in a factory,
but it does not pay well. He thinks that his talent as a rapper is the only hope to make the better
life happen. He is making music in the middle of African-American community, and because he
is a white kid, he becomes intimidated. He cannot do anything in the MC’s battle; he thinks he
cannot make his dream comes true because of that silly thing. However, because of help from his
friends and his new girlfriend, he is struggling to be more confident to take one more chance in
the MC’s battle.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This research focused more on sociocultural stereotypes and also power relations. Therefore,
this research used Critical Discourse Analysis to reveal the stereotypes and power relation that
were portrayed in this movie. Critical Discourse Analysis was used to reveal the hidden
motivation behind the text or conversation as a spoken text (Agustin, 2009). The CDA also
analysis based on van Dijk (1998) is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies
the way social power abuse, dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by
text and talk in the social and political context. Other researchers, Wodak and Meyer (2009),
stated that the multiple roots of CDA lie in Rhetoric, Text linguistics, Anthropology, Philosophy,
Socio-Psychology, Cognitive Science, Literary Studies and Sociolinguistics, as well as in
Applied Linguistics and Pragmatics.
Nowadays, some scholars tend to use CDA rather than other Discourse Studies, for example
Teun A. van Dijk who gives broad example of Critical Discourse analysis. The major differences
between Discourse Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis lie in the constitutive
problem-oriented interdisciplinary approach (Wodak & Meyer, 2009). CDA is therefore not interested in
investigating a linguistic unit per se but in studying social phenomena which are necessarily
complex and thus require a multidisciplinary and multi-methodical approach.
In the Wodak and Meyer (2009) study, it stated about the history of “CDA Group.” The
theory of Critical Discourse Analysis is emerged in the early 1960s, and then followed by small
symposium in Amsterdam in January 1991. With the support of the University of Amsterdam,
Teun van Dijk, Norman Fairclough, Gunther Kress, Theo van Leeuwen and Ruth Wodak spent
two days together, and had the opportunity to discuss theories and methods of Discourse
Analysis, specifically CDA. The start of the CDA network was marked by the launch of Van
Dijk’s journal Discourse and Society (1990), as well as by several books which were coincidentally published simultaneously and led by similar research goals. Since the Amsterdam
meeting, new journals have been created, multiple overviews have been written, and nowadays
CDA is an established paradigm in Linguistics. In sum, CDA has become an established
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Why do I have to use this kind of analysis rather than another discourse analysis? As the
explanation before stated that Critical Discourse Analysis is type of research that studied the
social power in a social and political context. It means Critical Discourse Analysis not only talks
about semantic meaning of the discourse itself but also focuses more on power and social issues.
Another description about Critical Discourse Analysis comes from Wodak (1996):
CDA highlights the substantively linguistic and discursive nature of social relations of power in contemporary societies. This is partly the matter of how power relations are
exercised and negotiated in discourse. It is fruitful to look at both “power in discourse” and “power over discourse” in these dynamic terms.
Fairclough and Wodak (1997) mention the main tenets of CDA: (1) CDA addresses social
problems, (2) Power relations are discursive, (3) Discourse constitutes society and culture, (4)
Discourse does ideological work, (5) Discourse is historical, (6) The link between text and
society is mediated, (7) Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory, and the last (8)
Discourse is a form of social actions.
As Wodak and Weiss (2003) stated that language cannot be as powerful if it stands up by
itself, it can be powerful if there are powerful people make it happens. That is why Critical
Discourse Analysis is mostly used to analyze language that has a connection with power. The
main perspective of CDA itself is a notion of ‘power’. Specifically, why did I choose Critical
Discourse Analysis? I choose this kind of analysis because of some reasons. The first reason is
that because CDA focuses primarily on social problems and political issues, rather than on
current paradigms and fashions (van Dijk, 1993). The second reason is that because, rather than
merely describe discourse structures, it tries to explain them in terms of properties of social
movie that I choose for this study because, through this research, I wanted to reveal the
stereotypes and power relations between two races. To conduct this study, I used the theory from
Fairclough (1997).
METHODOLOGY
The methodology that I used in this research was Discourse/text based study. The analysis
that I chose to conduct the study was Critical Discourse Analysis that is proposed by Fairclough
(1997). Here, I did the text analysis (description), processing analysis (interpretation) and social
analysis (explanation). The subject of my research was the script of the 8 Mile movie, because I
analyzed the text or the script to find out the utterances or sentences that contain power and are
related to the culture; and also the Slang Words Dictionary, because almost all of the dialogue in
this movie were using slangs.
As I mentioned before, for the procedure to conduct the study, I did the text analysis
(description), processing analysis (interpretation) and social analysis (explanation). These three
processes of analysis led me to find the utterances first that characteristically contain power and
social issues, listed it, interpreted the list of the dialogue, and explained the social thing and
power that was existed behind those utterances. I also explained how the power that laid behind
those utterances could affect to other characters. Therefore, I had to compare between the script
or the dialogue and the visualization in the movie to get the real thoughts, real pictures of the
scenes. Also, this was a challenge to analyzing the movie, because analyzed the spoken language
was quite harder than analyze the written language or the script. Last thing that has to be
remembered is that, because I used Critical Discourse Analysis, the result was mostly related to
FINDINGS AND DISSCUSION
Here are the data that contain power and social issues from the script of “8 Mile” Movie. I
selected some conversations that relate more to the research questions that I proposed. As I
mentioned before, I analyzed the transcription by interpreting the text and the act and explaining
the social thing and power that existed behind the text and the actions of the characters that are
discussed (Fairclough, 1997).
DATA 1
BIG BAD DUDE : Where are you going?
JIMMY : Backstage. I'm in the battle.
BIG BAD DUDE : You can't.
JIMMY : I got a stamp on my hand.
BIG BAD DUDE : You got to go around front.
JIMMY : Man, you just seen me...
BIG BAD DUDE : I didn't see nothing.
JIMMY : You just fucking seen me.
I went to the bathroom.
The conversation in Data 1 happened in the Shelter, when Jimmy (the main character of the
movie) wanted to go to the stage to do a battle. The Big Bad Dude, the security of the Shelter,
forbade Jimmy to go to the stage and asked him to go around front, although Jimmy had showed
his stamp. When Big Bad Dude said “I didn’t see nothing”, it means that the Big Bad Dude
ignored Jimmy although he had seen Jimmy before he went to the bathroom. There are two
reasons that are interpreted from this conversation and act in Data 1: First, he ignores Jimmy
because he thinks he never sees him before in the Shelter and does not know him. Second,
because he is a white person. Some African-Americans, especially in the movie, have the
mindset that white people cannot rap and have no skill in rap battling. As LittleItaly (2010)
stated that white people usually have the privilege education. They do not have the feeling of
other words, this Big Bad Dude underestimates Jimmy by directly saying”You can’t,” to Jimmy after he explains that he is in the battle. This social factor is explained more in the next lines,
when Future, Jimmy’s friend, came and then Big Bad Dude allowed Jimmy to come in.
DATA 2
(FUTURE COMING)
JIMMY : He's got a problem with me.
BIG BAD DUDE : Shut the fuck up.
FUTURE (TO BIG BAD DUDE): He's straight, dawg.
BIG BAD DUDE : He with you?
FUTURE : Yeah.
BIG BAD DUDE : Okay. Cool, Future.
But your boy got an attitude problem.
In this conversation (Data 2), the social factor that made Jimmy was not allowed to go to the
backstage is clearly stated by the utterance that Future said to Big Bad Dude. When Future came
by saying “He’s straight, dawg” and Big Bad Dude made sure that Jimmy came with him, Big
Bad Dude allowed Jimmy to come. In this movie, it describes that Future is a black guy who is
Jimmy’s friend for a long time. The term “he’s straight” in urbandictionary.com means that he
is not a gay, or it can be described as cool. Hip-hop or rap usually uses homophobic words or
sentences to attack another man’s masculinity and argue for their own power (Kerr, 2012).
Future used the word“straight”to emphasize and make Big Bad Dude believed that Jimmy was
not a gay and it was okay to Jimmy to enter the Shelter and made sure that he would not make
any problems just because he is a white person. Here, because Jimmy came with Future, who
was the host of the battle and work there and a black guy, Big Bad Dude allowed him to come in.
These two conversations (Data 1 and Data 2) clearly show that Jimmy as a white guy was
underestimated by a black guy.
DATA 3
(EVERYBODY LOOKING AT CHEDDER)
JIMMY : I'll need a place to crash.
(FUTURE, SOL, AND DJ IZ LAUGHING)
JIMMY : Can I get some fucking privacy here, man?
DJ IZ : Alright, come on.
(SOL, DJ IZZ AND CHEDDER LEAVING)
Data 3 shows how Jimmy controlled the situation. Jimmy, as the minority person in this
movie, showed his strength and power from his utterance. He asked his friends who were
laughing at him to go with just with one sentence. His utterance clearly shows his power because
after saying “Can I get some fucking privacy here, man?” his friends went away. The word
“fucking privacy” clearly shows his power. Instead of commanding his friend by saying “go”,
he said “Can I get some fucking privacy”. Before Jimmy said this utterance, Jimmy’s mimic
showed that his friends were so disturbing but his friends did not care about it. Then, Jimmy said
this utterance to his friends who was still disturbing him with their jokes and it made his friends
stop their jokes. This utterance sounds better, clearer and also full of power. It was proved by
the act of his friends who were not protesting against his command but directly went away.
DATA 4
Data 4 shows a part of Lil’ Tic lyric when he did a rap battle against Jimmy on the stage.
This lyric indicates how Lil’ Tic really underestimated Jimmy as a white man. Overall, the lyrics
actually was not there in the battling stage. The sentence “He’s the type to lose, a fight with a
dyke”means that Jimmy is surely a type of loser that will be lose in the battle. The word “dyke”,
the misspelling of the word “dike”, based on urbandictionary.com, is a slang word that means a
lesbian. “A fight with a dyke” is the sentence that Lil’ Tic used to against Jimmy. It means that
Lil’ Tic would win against Jimmy who was just a loser and he looked like a woman who was not
as though as a man. Next lyric, Lil’ Tic said “They don’t laugh cause you wack, it’s ‘cause you
white with a mic”.This lyric clearly indicates the stereotype which white and black people create
between themselves. The word “wack” based on urbandictionary.com means “lame” or “is not
cool at all” or it is a short term of “wacky” which means crazy, so this sentence means that the
audience in the Shelter did not laugh at Jimmy because he was not cool in battling but the
audience laughed because he was a white guy who did a rap. This sentence literally means that,
in their stereotype, it is so weird to see white people do a rap battle because usually black people
are the ones who do the rap. Besides, rap itself was invented by black people.
“… rap is rooted in the pain of Black-American experience which began with slavery. While slaves were working in the fields, they would often sing. Part of the song they sang
was “call and answer” selections. One leader would call out part of the song and the rest of the slaves would answer with the next line.” (Wood, 2004)
Lil’ Tic also mentioned “a laughingstock” to describe Jimmy because of what he did on the
stage just made him became a laughingstock. Next lyric that showed how far the gap between
black people and white people is “you a wigga, that invented rhyme for money”. The word
“wigga” in this sentence is the abbreviation of “white nigga”. Based on urbandictionary.com, the
online dictionary of slang terms, the word “nigga” itself evolved from the derogative term
“nigger”, but it does not merely mean “black guy”. Actually, the term “nigga” means someone
guy. As the stereotype of white and black people stated that white people is a superior groups
that allowed gaining economic power and social dominance over the inferior (Issues, 2012). The
term“invented rhyme for money”from Lil’ Tic’s rap lyrics stated that Jimmy is just a white guy
that creates a rap for gaining more economic power.
DATA 5
This last part of Lil’ Tic rap lyric in Data 5 also shows the stereotype of white people. Lil’
Tic said“’cause this is hip-hop, you don’t belong you’re a tourist”implicitly means that hip-hop is just for black people. Black people are the inferior groups who invented this hip-hop culture,
so indirectly black people owned hip-hop. Whereas, Jimmy is a white guy and commonly white
guys do not do rap music because rap relates to black people. As Rhino stated,
“White people really love to debate whether rap is music or not. Many white people constantly degrade rap for a supposed lack of musical notes, for only having a beat, for being classified more as poetry than music….. So, when white people say rap isn’t music, they pretty much mean it’s not music because it’s black.” (Rhino, 2010)
It is stated that hip-hop does not belong to Jimmy as a white guy, so Jimmy is not allowed to do
a hip-hop. Last lyric said “put your hockey sticks and baseball bat away, this here’s Detroit”.
Hockey is one of the sports that reputed as most expensive sports. As Knerl (2011) stated that the
total price for this sport can near $1,000 or more because they need equipment which has
overwhelming costs per each. He also mentioned baseball in his lyric. Baseball is also one of
incredibly expensive sport. People can spend $400 just for new bats. These two expensive sports
in Lil’ Tic‘s lyric points out to Jimmy as a white guy who usually has good economic power.
Besides, hockey and basketball considered more white sports. By using these sports, he tried to
insult Jimmy. He also said “this here’s Detroit” to show that Jimmy was in the wrong place
because Detroit is a place where black people are the majority citizens there, it was proved by
the data sourced from the 2010 U. S. Census that Detroit is the first rank of place that has the
largest percentage of African American people.
The conversation in Data 6 took place in front of Jimmy’s house. Jimmy came home after
being humiliated in the rap battle. He found Greg was with his mother. In this conversation,
Jimmy really showed his power not only by his utterances but also in his action toward Greg.
This conversation indicates how Jimmy tried to rebel against Greg because Greg did not respect
him as the son of Stephanie. Jimmy used the word “bitch”that refers to Greg. The term “bitch”
has literally meaning of “female dog”. It is use to refer to someone who malicious or rudely
intrusive. Jimmy said “Don’t fucking judge me!” to Greg; this sentence contains power. This
sentence means that Jimmy did not want Greg to always judge Jimmy as a person who always
did useless things, it is showed from the act of the movie that this fighting scene happened after
not his father and he was not allowed to judge him as Greg wanted. Jimmy also revealed his
power by saying “I’ve fought guys bigger than you” toward Greg. By saying this kind of
sentence, he really wanted to show that he also had a power to control the people around that
were against him or people that he did not like. Besides, Jimmy also revealed his power through
his act toward Greg. He threw a bottle to Greg because Jimmy thought he was so intrusive. He
also punched Greg to show that he could not be underestimated.
DATA 7
(JIMMY HOLD LILY AND BRING HER INSIDE)
JIMMY : Go back to bed.
LILY : Will you sing to me?
JIMMY : Yeah. Of course I will. Come on. DATA 8
JIMMY : (OPEN THE REFRIGERATOR) No milk.
(TO STEPHANIE) Can I get a ride to work in the morning?
STEPHANIE : Where's your car?
JIMMY : I left it for Janeane.
(STEPHANIE HOLDS THE CAR KEY AND GIVES IT TO JIMMY)
JIMMY : You're going to let me borrow your car?
STEPHANIE : Nope.
It's your birthday present.
Data 7 and Data 8 show the power that Jimmy has in his utterances. The conversation in
Data 7 happened when Lily came out from the house because she heard Jimmy and Greg
shouting at each other. Here, although Jimmy used a soft tone in his utterances to Lily, it still
shows the power of his utterances. The power of his utterances gave impact to Lily to obey what
Jimmy said. Lily wanted to go to bed after Jimmy sang a song for her and accompanied her until
she slept. It also showed in Data 8, how the utterances of Jimmy gave impact to his interlocutor.
He asked his mother if he could get a ride or not, but his mother gave the car for Jimmy for his
birthday present although his birthday had already passed.
FUTURE : Come on, man. You got to battle!
“Future, I’m not you, dawg. Look at me”emphasizes that Jimmy is not Future. He is not a black
guy like him. He is a white guy who always being underestimated by black people by saying that
he cannot do a rap and rap does not suit him. However, Future tried to clarify what Jimmy
thought by saying “Once they hear you, it won’t matter what color you are”. Future wanted to
show that Jimmy has a talent of being a rapper although he is a white guy. He also wanted to
show to Jimmy that once the people heard him rapping, heard how good he does rap, the people
would not make skin color as a trouble for the society. He wanted Jimmy to feel confident and
show to the black people that he cannot be underestimated. This conversation shows also that the
stereotypes created in the society happen because the society does not know the person they
underestimated has the good skill in a rap as many of the black people have.
DATA 10
JIMMY : Mom, stop living your life like this!
If you cared about Lily,
you'd get a job and quit fucking around. I got to go. I'll be late for work.
The conversation in Data10 reveals the power behind Jimmy’s utterances to his mother.
house, whereas Greg did not give any money for Stephanie. Jimmy felt his mother had to change
her mind set. He said “stop living your life like this!”to make his mother realized that what she
did for her life was wrong. Jimmy wanted her mother to think about his little sister, Lily, and
start to do her responsibilities as a mother. It can be seen by a sentence “you’d get a job and quit
fucking around”. Jimmy said “quit fucking around” because his mother just went to the casino
and spent money to gamble, so that he said this power-contained sentence to his mother to make
her realize it. The impact that was directly created after Jimmy said this sentence to his mother is
Stephanie felt offended. However, some scenes after shows the real impact to Stephanie.
Stephanie finally realized that she was the mother of two kids and she had responsibilities to take
care of them. The scene after shows Stephanie who came home buying some fresh fruit and
vegetables and said she wanted to cook for her son and daughter and apologized to Jimmy
because she became a bad mother for them.
DATA 11
How you froze up and got booed offstage.
JIMMY : Fuck you, Jeneane! Go home.
(JENEANE LEAVING)
DATA 12
(CHEDDER TAKES OUT HIS GUN) (GUNSHOT)
CHEDDER : You want to fuck with us?
Fuck with us, yeah?
JIMMY : What the fuck are you doing?
Where'd you get that shit?
CHEDDER : It's my mom's.
JIMMY : Put it away
before you fucking kill somebody!
JIMMY : Put it away!
Data 11 and Data 12 are the conversations that show how Jimmy said something with the
power behind his utterances. The power that Jimmy showed in these two conversations is
similar. It can be seen from the exclamation sentences he used for both conversations. Data 11
took place in the factory when Jimmy’s ex-girlfriend came to see Jimmy. The conversation and
also the act in this data showed how mad Jimmy was to Jeneane because he knew that Jeneane
lied. In this conversation, the utterances that Jimmy said to Jeneane contained the power. He
used the term “fuck you”to emphasize that he was very mad to her. The conversation also used
exclamation mark that showed that Jimmy was mad and he spoke this sentence in angry mood.
The utterances also gave impact to Jeneane. Jeneane who at first was very kind to Jimmy and
asked him to fix their relationship, changed into someone who was against Jimmy by saying
some bad things about Jimmy that she heard. She tried to ruin Jimmy’s good name and finally
she left Jimmy after Jimmy said “fuck you, Jeneane!” It also shows in Data 12 how the term
“fuck” that Jimmy said to Chedder gave impact to him. Jimmy said “put it away, before you
fucking kill somebody!” to Chedder and after that Chedder put the gun down. Here, the term
“fuck”shows how Jimmy emphasized what he wanted his interlocutors to do.
DATA 13
STEPHANIE : Stop it! It's your fault he left me!
You ruined it! You fucked it all up for me! Who's gonna want me now?
We don't have any money! We don't have anything! What am I gonna do?
JIMMY : What are you gonna do?
Lily's out there by herself! Why do you have to be like this? What'd we ever do to you?
The power of the utterances of Jimmy is also shown in these two conversations (Data 13 and
14). These conversations show another side of Jimmy himself. It shows that Jimmy also could be
a mature man. He also thought about his friends and his family, although from outside he looks
so ignorant. He said some sentences that contain much power to make his interlocutor reacted to
what he said. Data 13 took place on the side of road after Jimmy and his friends brought Chedder
to a hospital. The act in this conversation showed how Jimmy felt empathy toward his friend
who had to be nursed in hospital but then he said“Chedder is in the hospital and you fight about
this? So fucking stupid” because his friends fought for some silly things. He thought it was so
silly and his friends were so childish, so that he asked them to stop fighting by saying that
sentence and went out from the car leaving his friends who were still quarreling. The sentence
made his friends realized that they did a silly thing by fighting each other, while his best friends
had to be nursed in the hospital.
This kind of power is also shown in Data 14. This conversation happened in Jimmy’s house
when Jimmy and his mother had a quarrel because Greg left Stephanie. Stephanie tried to blame
Jimmy and she looked so depressed and neglected all the things about the family when Greg left
her. Jimmy knew that his mother was wrong by doing that, so he tried to tell his mother using the
sentence“What are you gonna do? Lily’s out there by herself! What do you have to be like this?
What’d we ever do to you?”By saying this sentence he wanted her mother to take care his little
it directly affected his mother who was still depressed. His mother got angry to Jimmy because
he said the thing like this and his mother was still under her depression. However, a few days
after Jimmy said this sentence, Stephanie realized that what she did was wrong.
DATA 15
STEPHANIE : Come on in. I'll make you something to eat.
This conversation in Data 15 shows another type of power that Jimmy has in his utterances.
The power was shown by repeating one sentence “I fell”. This sentence was repeated to tell to
his mother that he just fell, he did not want explain further about why there were many injuries in
his face. Just by saying this one sentence, his mother understood what Jimmy wanted, it clearly
showed from the action and the mimic’s changing of his mother toward Jimmy after jimmy said
this utterance, so that she reacted differently to Jimmy. She shifted the talk by asking Jimmy to
come in.
DATA 16
PAPA DOC : (TO JIMMY) You again?
It looks like a handicap convention in here. Crippled motherfuckers.
LC (TO CHEDDER) : Don't shoot!
The conversation shows in Data 16 was happened in the backstage of the Shelter when
Jimmy would do a rap battle. These lines told that Jimmy was still being underestimated by
black rappers. Papa Doc was one of the strongest rapper in the area. He always tried to beat
down Jimmy because he did not like him much, especially because he was a white guy. When he
saw Jimmy in the backstage, he said “a handicap convention” which means a convention for
Jimmy’s bravery because he knew that Jimmy joining the battle. He also hated Jimmy because
he was white and he thought Jimmy and his friends were just handicapped people in a rapping
contest. He also said “Cripple motherfuckers” as a gibe to Jimmy and friends. The term
“cripple” has the same meaning with “handicap” it means physically disabled. The term
“motherfucker” is a vulgar slang which means a person regarded as thoroughly despicable or
points to something regarded as thoroughly unpleasant, frustrating or despicable. These terms
indicate how Papa Doc and other black people did not like Jimmy very much. They think Jimmy
was a white guy who did not proper to stay in Detroit and be a rapper.
DATA 17
…………
You ain't Detroit, I'm the D You the New Kid on the Block 'Bout to get smacked
back to the boondocks …………
Take your white ass
across 8 Mile to the trailer park
Data 17 shows the rap lyrics of LC who did a battle rap against Jimmy. Still in this rap, the
black guy underestimated Jimmy as a white guy. LC said in his rap “you ain’t Detroit, I’m the
D.” tells that Jimmy is not a black guy who is not supposed to live in Detroit where the black
people live. The word “ain’t” is also a slang word that usually African-American said for “is
not”, “am not”, or “are not” based on urbandictionary.com.
LC also mentioned in his lyric ‘You the New Kids On the Block”, this sentence emphasizes
that Jimmy is not a black guy but a white guy. “New Kids On the Block” is a boy band from
America that was very popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. That is the reason why LC used
“New Kids On The Block” as a word which showed Jimmy’s supposed to be. At the last lyric of
Jimmy as a white ass. Based on urbandictionary.com, “white ass” is the term that usually used by
black people to call a person as a bitch (ass) and call them racially by using “white”. This
utterance used to insult Jimmy as he’s calling him whites who have no money or white trash. “8
Mile” itself is a name of a road in Detroit, so literally this sentence means that Jimmy as a white
guy has to go out from the Detroit back to his original place.
DATA 18
against Jimmy that he was just a white boy, still lived with his mother and had a dumb friend like
Chedder. By expressing all his feeling into the lyrics, it gives more power to the lyrics itself. The
power made the people around and the enemy just could stand still without doing anything to
against Jimmy. Even the people around who watched the battle change their mind and became
Jimmy’s supporters. The lyrics look powerful and give a big impact to Papa Doc as his enemy
on the battle ground. The next lyrics add more power to the rap itself. The lyric“don’t ever try to
judge me” shows that he felt tired of being underestimated by the interlocutor. He told him that
to anything. He just stood still and looked shocked. It shows how these lyrics give big impact to
the interlocutor.
DATA 19
……… Fuck everybody
Fuck y'all if you doubt me I'm a piece of fuckin' white trash I say it proudly
Fuck this battle
I don't want to win, I'm outtie
Here, tell these people something they don't know about me
If previous lyrics pointed Papa Doc as his interlocutor and his enemy in the battle, this lyrics
in Data 19 pointed to the audience or black people who always underestimated him because he
was a white guy and not suitable as a rapper. He mentioned “fuck everybody, fuck ya’ll if you
doubt me”.It was dedicated to everyone that always doubted him as a white guy who did rap. He
felt revolting of what people did all this time to him. “I’m a piece of fuckin’ white trash, I say it
proudly”means that he knew what people thought about him all this time. He knew that people
around always thought that he was just a “white trash” who came to wrong area and did silly
things by dreaming as a rapper. He admitted that he was just a white guy and he felt proud of it
because he felt that he never became somebody else.“fuckin’ white trash” is a term that Jimmy
used to emphasize about what people thought of him. He also mentioned in the lyrics that he did
not want to win the battle. He just wanted everybody to know what they did not know. “Here,
tell these people something they don’t know about me” is the last lyrics that tells that he just
wanted the people to know how they underestimated Jimmy and what they thought about him all
this time was wrong because they actually did not know anything about him. These lyrics
interlocutor. The mostly black audience gave applause to Jimmy and yelled his name. They
seemed to admit that this white guy really had a talent as a rapper and could not be
underestimated. These lyrics became a turning point of difficulty and oppression that Jimmy got
from the people around, especially the black people in Detroit.
DATA 20
FUTURE : Come on.
Tell me you don't want to host with me. You'll have everybody looking up to you, everybody'll know who you are.
JIMMY : Yeah, but...
I think I need to just do my own thing, man. You know?
FUTURE : Yeah, I think I do.
Last conversation in Data 20 shows the power that shows behind Jimmy’s utterances to
Future. After Jimmy succeeded in the rap battle, Future asked Jimmy to work as a host in the
shelter but Jimmy refused it.“I think I need to just do my own thing, man”shows that he did not
want to work in the shelter. There are some possible reasons why Jimmy did not want to be a
host. First, because he found that he already told the people what he felt with his rap in the final
battle and he thought it was enough. Second, he wanted to earn his own money by building his
own studio. At the previous scene, he did not want to go to the Shelter because he worked over
time. He revealed this reason to Alex. This sentence shows how Jimmy used his power to make a
decision for his life. It also made Future understand about his decision and let Jimmy do what he
thought was good for him.
Those are the discussions of all the data taken from the movie based on the utterances and
the acts of the characters. After discussing all the data, it clearly showed that the discussions
to the research questions itself. The answers of the research questions are concluded in the next
section.
CONCLUSION
The aim of this study was to find the cultural aspects in the movie and how power influences
the others. I could answer my research questions that I proposed before from the data that I had
been analyzed. First, the stereotype that was created in this film was so different with what
people have in recent society. In this movie, the stereotype that has been built in societies was
not portrayed. The analysis showed how Afro-Americans underestimated a White-American
boy. This movie also showed that Afro-Americans’ mindset said White-Americans were not
suitable to be a rapper.
Second, I found 15 utterances which were spoken by the main character that
characteristically contained power from the previous analysis. These utterances mostly were
marked by exclamation marks (Data 6 or Data 14) and used a high tone. However, there were
also some utterances used a soft tone (Data 7), short sentences (Data 15) and more polite
command ended by question marks (Data 11), which also had power. These utterances which
contained power created some effects that were shown by his interlocutors’ speech or act. In the
final rap battle, the utterance in Data19 spoken by the main character, affected his interlocutor,
Papa Doc and the audience, and himself. His enemy in a final rap battle just can stand still and
keep silent. The audiences, who at first underestimated him, also turned to people who support
him. This lyric also affected him as the main character. He changed from a powerless person
became a powerful person. Other effects shown were: The interlocutors obeyed what Jimmy said
In this study I only analyzed 20 conversations from the movie script because the limitation
of time to conduct this study although there were more conversations. I only took conversations
which related most toward American culture racism but it did not mean that the findings of this
study only can be applied for American culture. The findings of the analysis can be applied in
the way people created their perspective toward every culture. People should not judge or see
other people by only seeing their culture and its stereotypes. Somehow stereotypes that society
has built, is no longer exist in real social life. However, if I analyzed all the conversation more
deeply, I can find the more variety discussion for my research questions.
Every culture has their rules and stereotypes. It became important to be studies by seeing the
fact that stereotype of each culture, which had been build and set, is sometimes not used in other
places because they have different culture. It is hoped for the teachers, when they teach culture,
to make their perspective broader, so that they teach not only based on the recent stereotype of
current culture which society made but from every perspectives. It can be seen from my study,
when a white guy became so ignorant because he dreamed as a rapper, then he proved to the
people that the stereotype that people built for him, as a White, was not true. He also had a talent
as a rapper. Therefore, it showed that teachers should not only teach based on the stereotypes
that society has built.
Regarding the conclusion, there are some suggestions that are recommended. First, I suggest
this research can be a reference for the readers who are concern about culture, especially
American culture that talks about racism between white and black people. The analysis above
tells that somehow the group of people that stereotyped as “high level” also can be refused by the
groups of people that usually become a “low level” in some situations. Therefore, I suggest that
African-Americans and White-African-Americans. They should not judge who Whites are and who Blacks are
only from the stereotypes that they know recently. Second, I suggest for general readers to
realize that utterances which contain power will affect much for the interlocutor even if the
utterances use the soft tone ones.
Last, I suggest this research can be a reference for English Department students as future
English teachers or as students of ED itself who will meet, interact and make relationships with
many kind of people, especially they who have different culture or have this kind of racism, to
have the right strategies when they have to deal with those people and their culture. Therefore,
when they deal with this kind of situation and people, they are not only dealing based on the
recent stereotypes they already know, but the students have to make their perspectives broader. I
hope the next researcher who will conduct the same research about this problem will discuss it
deeper than the recent research. The next researcher can find other reasons why these stereotypes
among Whites and Blacks still exist and give more suggestion to the people how they should
think or act toward these never-ending issues.
ACKNOLEDGEMENT
First, I would like to thank to my Jesus Christ because of His blessing and guidance I could
finish my thesis. I also want to say thank you so much for my thesis supervisor, Maria Christina
Eko S., M. Hum., for her support and help so that I could finish my thesis. I also want to say
thank you to my second reader, Danielle Donelson-Sims, MA, for her willingness to read and
exam my thesis.
I would like to thank also to my father, mother and lil’ sissy who always support me to
partner in crime, Dian Wicaksono, who always motivates, supports and gives me strength to
finish my study. I also want to say thank you to my very very best friends, ED 2008ers and
Salatiga Movement, who never leave me alone and support me always. Last but not the least,
thank you so much for all the teachers and staffs in English Department for educating me the
whole time I study in Satya Wacana Christian University.
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