Saturday, April 23, 2011

The Miseducation of Hip-Hop - Discrimination in Education



In today's world, where the hip-hop's saturation into the culture of young populations worldwide has reached an all-time high and is steadily rising, Jamilah Evelyn's examinations in "The Miseducation of HipHop" are most relevant. Many student, like Jason Hinmon, are being stereotyped by their much older and out-of-touch professors at colleges all over America because of thier choice of dress. I must admit to a bit of ambivalence in this situation. While it is evident that the hiphop culture, due to the nature of its position at the forefront of influences on the younger generations, will make it presence known, just as the afros and dashikis made evident the spread of the civil rights struggle, these sam individuals must strive for a middle ground between their hiphop identities and the expectations of the generations that have come before them. The companies and organizations they are hoping to become a part of after completing college will not be run by rappers and records company executives that expound again and again on the idea of "keeping it real" and "keeping it hood". It will most likely be the staid and conservative old-timers that come from a distant past. However, professors are also charged with the responsibility of meeting the students halfway on this. How can they deign to say they are willing to teach when they are not willing to learn? How can they not be willing to seek understanding of the hiphop culture in order to be able to teach the many students that are emerging from it? With both the students and professors working towards an understanding, they all may be able to close that gap between both generations and come to a new understanding of each others' points of view.

Postman and Powers Prepare to Watch the News

How to Watch TV News


Postman and Powers' "The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures" is an informative piece bent on preparing TV news viewer to "come with a prepared mind - information, opinions, a sense of proportion, an articulate value system" in order to not be mislead of the picture show the news has become. When it comes to the actual language used in  this TV news broadcasts, they warn that "the viewer must never assume that the words spoken on a television news show are exactly what happened. Since there are so many alternative ways of describing what happened, the viewer must be on guard against assuming that he or she has hear 'the absolute truth.'" Pictures, both moving and non-moving, are treated with the same detailed analysis. According to the authors, individual pictures are the most basic form of communication, and can only be used to "speak in particularities", while videos or pictures in succession with the accompaniment of sound  and music are able to "present emotions and rudimentary ideas" through their juxtaposition of different stimuli. However, actual words are the only medium through which all the pictures, ideas and emotions can be put into context and made comprehensible, or even given a specific time frame to reference them by.

Volkswagen Commercial: The Force

Volkswagon's new advertisement for the 2012 Passat features an adorable mini-Darth Vader who tries to use the force to control his dog, a doll and even a sandwich, and finds no success in exerting his will until he discovers the new Passat in the driveway. This he is able to conquer and bend to his will, with a little help from his parents! This commercial offers a storybook family, of two parents, a dog, and two kids: a boy and a girl (as evidenced by the pink room and the baby doll). At a time where in America, half of the families are headed by a single parent, Little Darth maybe a window into a past time where this condition was not so prevalent. Volkswagon's use of the Darth Vader character seems central to the idea of transporting this audience back to a time where the two-parent home with two kids and a dog was both the ideal and alot closer to the reality.

Bieber Baby Bowling??

Justin’s Bieber’s video for the hit single, “Baby”, is a modern take on a classic teen scene from movies such as Grease. This new version does maintain the basic characteristics of such a scene: bowling alley, boys and girls on separate sides of the room while one guy looks longingly across the room at his love interest, and he then proceeds to chase her to and fro while displaying his amazing agility coordinating by jumping, dancing and swinging from any available fixtures. However, Bieber does give these scene the fresh new look of the millennium. Instead of the bright fluorescents of more traditional bowling alley scenes, “Baby” utilizes dark backdrops and strobe lights that make it look like more of a tame club scene than a bowling alley. The boy/girl interaction is a somewhat slight change from the traditional, as the female is bit aggressively adverse to Bieber’s advances, rather than coy and playful in turning down his advances, which might be more accurate of how teenagers interact in this age. The addition of a hip-hop verse from Ludacris and cameo appearances from Drake and Young Money lends Bieber a hip new “swag” that would not have been previously evident in earlier male pop singers, and can be attributed to the reverse crossover appeal that was originally enjoyed by Justin Timberlake. Altogether, Bieber’s “Baby” does not seem to fit neatly into a reality where teens usually meet and congregate through virtual spaces like Facebook and Twitter, it does bring a new fresh look at a goodie but oldie, the traditional bowling alley scene, minus the poodle skirts and leather jackets of course!