Cultural Diversity has advanced profusely in the past decades. In pop culture such as movies, television, music, and much more minorities were pretty much non existence, but now minorities are playing huge roles in all of these categories. Caucasians were the predominant race in pop culture and they still are, but minorities are rapidly making their way into these roles.

In television, Caucasians had most if not all the roles in the show; but now minorities are in the cast and even having lead roles. In the Star Wars TV show, “The Clone Wars”, had mainly the characters from the movies and the cast was mostly Caucasian. In the new upcoming Star Wars TV show, “The Mandalorians”, the cast will be more diverse with minorities obtaining main roles and supporting roles.

Just like television, movies mostly had Caucasian filled casts; but minorities are now having roles in huge movie productions. In early Star Wars films, the casts were predominantly Caucasian, but now in the newer Star Wars films minorities are lead roles. In the very first Star Wars movie, “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope”, the cast is mainly just Caucasian such as actors, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and actress Carrie Fisher. In the latest Star Wars movie, “Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi”, the cast is more diverse with a lead role being African American, Finn played by John Boyega. Kelly Tran, Oscar Isaac, and Lupita Nyong’o are all supporting roles that are minorities. So, in the beginning of the movie series the cast was mainly Caucasian, but now the cast is more diverse with minorities to even out the scale.

In music, Caucasians used to be the main source of music. Now minorities are taking charge and are producing music. In The Billboard Top 100, the top artists are very diverse with a wide variety of races. Back in the 1900’s the ranks would have prominently been Caucasian, but today the ranks are diverse and show a great racial diversity.

Do you think minorities will continue to be on the rise in pop culture?

Cultural Adaptation is the time and process it takes a person to adapt and feel comfortable within the culture. As an example take an elementary student moving up into middle school; the student will have to adapt to the different environment and schedule. Cultural adaptation has four stages that are very common. These stages are “The Honeymoon”, “Culture Shock”, “Gradual Adjustment, Humor, and Perspective”, and “Feeling at Home”.

“The Honeymoon” is the first stage of cultural adaptation. It usually shows one’s excitement of learning, motivation, and cooperation. In Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker was found by Rey on Ahch-To. Luke Skywalker had to adapt to the different environment of Ahch-To.

“Culture Shock” is the second stage of cultural adaptation and is primarily oneself focusing on the differences between the new and old cultures. Small differences feel like huge problems and cause a lot of stress. In Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker shows interest in the Dark Side and soon joins it. Anakin uses cultural adaptation to switch over from the Light Side to the Dark Side.

The third stage of cultural adaptation is “Gradual Adjustment, Humor, and Perspective”. This is when one starts to feel more comfortable and are past all the initial emotional stages. In Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader and changes his perspective of the Light Side.

The fourth and final stage of cultural adaptation is “Feeling At Home”. This is when one is fully adjusted to their new environment. In Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Darth Vader becomes Palpatine’s second in command and is fully adjusted to the Dark Side.

Citizenship is defined as holding a status in a particular group. As an example, say there is a photography club at your school and you are in it; therefore you are a citizen of that photography club. Over the past decades citizenship has been influenced by pop culture. Pop culture is modern popular culture passed on by mass media mainly focused at younger audiences. Pop culture has influenced citizenship by the music genres, movie genres, and even physical appearance. Take The Avengers to identify how pop culture has influenced citizenship, the movie series has created a large fan base. Those fans would classify as a citizen of the superhero fan base group. Pop culture created these superhero movies, comic books, and even music soundtracks; these creations have influenced citizenship by making new groups for people to identify as. Hip hop and rap have introduced more groups for people to be citizens in and these groups have been on the rise at an extreme rate. Hip hop and rap have increased at a fast pace and it does not show any signs of slowing down. The rapid growth of hip hop and rap’s audience and producers have formed these groups which influence citizenship based off of their lyrics and music videos. Both the lyrics and music videos tend to grab the audience’s attention by relating to their audience. They relate to the audience by using past experiences in history and recent news stories. Citizenship is influenced by pop culture and will always be influenced by something in today’s culture. Does citizenship have an impact of today’s society, in the same way pop culture has an impact on citizenship?

I am a freshman in college and I am majoring in art concentrating photography. I am currently taking a citizenship class talking about how pop culture and specifically Star Wars has influenced citizenship. We cover the foundations of citizenship, which are critical thinking, ethics, and civil actions.