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American youth culture and identity

Culture is a core foundation of identity within America. With a large multicultural society predominately of western culture, large scale migration has ultimately shaped the identity and cultural norms within a number of sub-cultures that have their own core characteristics. For example, Asian, African and Latino cultures. Universal youth culture within America is expressed by these groups through their practices of tradition, music, fashion, language, gang affiliation, drug use and othes. These common practices influencing and shaping the lifestyles and identity of these cultural groups within society.

Asian American youth

Asian American youth culture is heavily influenced by a myriad of things. With a common stereotype surrounding this subculture as being nerdy and geeky and smart with 50% of freshmen at The University of California and up to 30% at other top universities. Statistically receiving higher SAT scores in mathematics another stereotype is all Asians are good at maths with many feeling this prejudice that this is part of their identity and culture to be academic. (YONG ZHAO, WEI QIU (2009)

Often judged on their race and facing segregation, cyber cafes are a common meeting place for many Asian American youth’s, used as a place to form friendships as players are judged on their gaming skills rather than their race, playing games such as counter strike. This has ultimately prompted a gaming culture for Asian Americans. .  (Lee, Zhou 2004)

Asian American youth culture an identity is also shaped by their involvement within the music and dance club scenes, for example, within the San Francisco Bay in California which has the highest number of Asian Americans, there are various venues in this location host Asian nights on a monthly or weekly basis showing party culture has is now part of the identity of many Asian youths.(Geoffrey Hunt, Molly Moloney, and Kristin Evans 2012) With this modern day party culture, alcohol and drug prevalence can be seen as fairly common, with a sample of 100 Asian American youth’s within this scene, and a mean age of 24. 100% had tried alcohol, with almost 100% trying marijuana and 90% trying ecstasy, displaying how the party culture within this cultural group has made drug use fairly normal.(JS Hong 2011) Youth gang culture is also prevalent and a basis for identity, particularly Cambodian and Vietnamese gang members of African American gangs. In the past joining was a means of protection, however it has seemingly turned into a choice and lifestyle of many of these youths, with many as young as 16 having years of experience. This has influenced this subculture through their fashion and music preferences. Typically wearing baggy pants an loose fitting t-shirts and an increasing rate of Asian American youth’s listening to hip-hop and rap which is commonly referred to as black music.(Lee, Zhou 2004)  

Party scene

African American youth

Adidas Yeezy by Kanye West

African-American gang

African American youth culture has become the foundation of black identity. Heavily influenced by modern day hip-hop culture, encompassing predominately rap music which is commonly referred to as black music. (Parker, E. (2015) Hip-hop has been at the core of African American youth music since the 1970’s and through the years this music style has greatly influenced the fashion, dance, slang and gang affiliation within African American youth groups. (The Journal News 2011) The glorification of gang affiliation and crime is often heard in this music with rappers such as Gucci mane and 2 chainz singing about their involvement in crime and also through shows and movies such as Notorious and Get Rich or Die Trying which also glorifies the lives of famous gang members and artists Biggie Smalls and Tupac (Bryant, Y. (2008). This has seemingly lead to a crime and gang culture for many African American youth’s that has seen the incarceration rate compared to white Americans at more than five times the rate.(Western, B., & Wildeman, C. (2009) Rap and hip-hop has also influenced the fashion trends within this sub-culture with artists such as Kanye West’s Yeezy brand who has mergers with Nike and Adidas, Jay Z’s brand Rocawear, Nikki Minaj’s Kmart collection and Pharell’s brand Billionaire Boys Club to name a few. These brands all influence the style and fashion trends within the African American community as this youth desire to dress and identify with their favourite artists. (Strähle, J., & Kriegel, A. C. (2018) With rappers such as Quavo, lil uzi vert and drake spending upwards of $250,000 USD on chains, they have influenced current trends within the African American community to show bling and lavish Jewellery, providing these individuals with a culture to show off their success and identity with lavish jewellery.(Ragland, A. (2016) Rap and hip-hop culture has further influenced on the style of dance within the African American youth subculture by creating trending dance moves which are seen through performances at concerts or within hip-hop music videoclips. For example, the milly rock by Bobby Shmurda, the whip and nae nae by silento, the dougie named after former rapper Dougie Fresh and the shoot by Drake have all influenced the style of dance in this culture, whilst providing them with an identity of being part of this hip-hop community. (Cresswell, T. (2016)

Hispanic and Latino American youth

Hispanic and Latino American youth of Mexico and South American background are also heavily influenced by music which creates a way of identity for these people, by shifting the fashion and dance within this culture. With music commonly involving a mixture of Spanish and English, artists such as Pitbull, Nicky Jam, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee have created modern day Latino music with mainstream artists such as Justin Bieber in Despasito. This music has allowed these youth to identity with their culture and has influenced particularly the dance by popularising Latin dance such as the salsa and other sensual dances and moves. (Román-Velázquez, P. (2017). Other Hispanic artists such as 6ix9ine has begun to shift norms and delve into hip-hop music which has also shifted the youth culture with more Latino and Hispanics now listening to this type of music and making it part of their culture. Showing off brands such as Gucci and diamond chains, 6ix9ine has influenced the fashion within this sub-culture by popularising wearing heavy jewellery and large logo’s of expensive clothing brands, which allows this youth to identify as someone who is not only wealthy but also a fan of modern day hip-hop. (Torres Stone, R.,A., & Meyler, D. 2007).