HARI In-House Blog

Submitted by batkins on

Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 12:00pm
The Hiphop Archive & Research Institute
104 Mount Auburn St., Floor 3R, Cambridge, MA
 

This event is free and open to the public. A Q&A will follow the lecture. 
Watch the live stream HERE.

Dr. Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey is an Associate Professor at Georgia State University in the Political Science Department. Her research interests include Hip Hop culture, political behavior, political attitudes, African-American politics, political psychology and public opinion. She completed her doctoral degree in the Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University, where her research examined the political impact of rap music on Black political attitudes. Dr. Bonnette-Bailey has written numerous articles and book chapters including her book, published (2015) with the University of Pennsylvania Press entitled, Pulse of the People: Rap Music and Black Political Attitudes. In 2017 she hosted the first political Hiphop conference at Georgia State University entitled, Behind the Music: Hip Hop and Social Justice, which examined the ways in which social justice is addressed and expressed within Hip Hop culture. Dr. Bonnette-Bailey currently teaches classes on American government, Black women and politics, Black political behavior, Black politics, Hiphop and politics, racial attitudes and identity politics.


Pulse of the People: Political Rap Music and Black Politics
 

The study of rap music assists in the understanding of the development of some political attitudes, thoughts and ideologies among those exposed to rap music.  Currently rap has a large audience.  With this recognition of the impact that rap has, it is imperative to study the political and racial attitudes that may be asserted through rap as a predictor of a wide range of political attitudes, thoughts and behavior. 

This lecture examines the impact of political rap music on an individual’s political and racial attitudes. This research is significant because it expands the knowledge of what factors shape public opinion and continues the debate about racial attitudes, including the development and elimination of racial attitudes  (Dovidio and Gaertner 1986; Bobo and Kluegel 1993; Bobo and Hutchings 1996; Gillens 1996; Hurwitz and Peffley 1998; Kuklinski, Sniderman, Knight, Piazza, Tetlock, Lawrence and Mellers 1997; Darby and Shelby 2005; Shelby 2014).