1. My post is on an article from the Obsidion, BGSU’s student magazine. It is on the article, “Necessary Information or Mid-education” that was written by Shelby Jefferson. Since I could not copy and paste it off of the internet, I will give you a short summary.
The article is about a controversial hip-hop music video that was shown on BET. Biomanni Armah’s song “Read a Book” It contains lyrics full of not so pleasant language like “Read a book, n****! Read a motherf*****’ book! It also has pictures of women in tight clothing with the word book on their behind. Even more astonishing is that Armah maintained that the video was aimed at children and teenagers. He said he wanted to catch the children’s attention place an emphasis on reading. While his intentions may have been good, they are overshadowed by the vulgar language and other negatives. Many people defend him saying at least he’s encouraging them to read rather than other things that most hip hop singers include in their songs. But still this was not the proper way of encouraging.
Here is a link to the video on You-Tube Warning: It contains vulgar language and other content
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN2VqFPNS8w
Jefferson, Shelby. “Necessary Information or Mis-education?” The Obsidian 25 Oct. 2007: 12.
2. The item that I chose is an article in The Obsidion that talked about whether the music video “Read a Book” was appropriate for viewing on BET. The music video was intended to inspire teens and children to read more, but was overshadowed by its questionable content. The author weighed the negatives and the positives of the music video and in the end concluded that the music video had more negatives than positives. While trying to persuade young African Americans to read is a wonderful gesture, using vulgar language, scantily dressed women, and violence is not the way to do it. His music video teaches kids more wrong than right. The reason that I chose this video was because I think it is one of the reasons why stereotypes of blacks never go away. I know my parents would see this video and think that all African Americans speak that way and this would just solidify their negative connotations about blacks. Reasons such as this video are reasons why these negative stereotypes are still strong today.
3. I think that this item relates to a discussion that we have had during the semester. In the reading, Johnson Chapter six, he says that the blame for privilege and power is becuase of social groups. He says that we learn through social groups such as families and the mass media, which is set by people such as family members and public figures. This is one reason that some African American people have trouble moving up the class ladder. Celebrities such as rap and hip-hop composers are looked up to by many black children for their music. If this is what most black kids are looking up to than its no wonder some of them don’t want to read and grow increase their knowledge. A majority of these hip-hop singers encourage kids to do other negative things rather than value education, that only damage their futures. People could say, “He was trying to influence the young African Americans to read and learn so it was a good message.” I don’t see it that way. The main message that they get out of the video is that they are n*****. If African American children take this and other hip-hop tunes to heart than they won’t give themselves a chance to establish a bright future. A commercial during programming encouraging them to read would have been an excellent way to influence kids. But this video, teaches them to continue in devaluing themselves.
4. I am from a small rural town in Ohio so until college I have never really had consistent contact with black people. The only black people that I consistently saw and listened to were the rap and hip-hop singers. Therefore I had some false ideas about black people. In my year and a half on this campus, I have met some wonderful black people. But I have met seen some who talk just like the artists in hip-hop music, devaluing themselves by calling themselves n*****. Back fifty years ago this language would have been terrible to black people. But now the stars that young black children look up to call themselves n***** and some children follow their lead. This saddens me. After everything that the slaves and the civil rights activists had to go through to earn respect in this country for African Americans today, to hear fellow classmates go around calling themselves n***** is really saddening. The majority of black people are great people who work hard. But when people such as my parents who don’t associate with black people very often hear them using the n – word to describe themselves, it ruins all of their respect for African Americans. It is sad that the minority of blacks who don’t respect themselves are the ones that rural white people see most often and who they continue to hold stereotypes of.
No comments:
Post a Comment