It's all about R-E-S-P-E-C-T...

In “The Miseducation of Hip-Hop – Discrimination in Education,” Jason Hinmon expresses the fact that he feels stereotyped and discriminated against by the faculty at the University of Delaware after transferring from Morehouse College in Atlanta.  Dr. Thomas Earl Midgette believes the young African American population is negatively influenced by rap artists in the way they present themselves.  Jamilah Evelyn brilliantly lays out the back and forth contrasting points of view throughout the piece, which truly displays their strong convictions.  I understand what Dr. Midgette is saying and agree with him on certain aspects of the discussion; however, I believe college is a time when young people discover who they are and what they stand for.  Therefore, regardless of what type of music artists are influencing the way they dress; they should be able to express themselves through their own personal style. 

           

            In my opinion, saying rap artists are the reason they “look like hoochie mamas, not like they’re coming to class,” (Evelyn, 2008, 559) makes as much sense as saying Marilyn Manson’s music is the reason the “trench coat mafia” shot up Columbine High School.  Yes, they are young and impressionable, but they are certainly old enough to know what is right and what is wrong regardless of what type of music they prefer to listen to.  Every human being is responsible for their own actions and nobody is entitled to anything in this world   So if somebody chooses to go on a job interview or an important business meeting of some kind dressed inappropriately than I don’t think it has anything to do with being African American, influenced by rappers or the like.  I think it has everything to do with that individual, the way they were raised and how they choose to present themselves to the world.

            When I was in college – the first time – 90% of the kids in my classes wore legitimate pajamas or clothes that could certainly be mistaken for pajamas.  I, personally, attended many classes wearing ripped up jeans, a university tee shirt, no makeup on my face and unbrushed hair pulled back under a university baseball cap.  Classes were filled with ethnic and racial diversity, yet it seemed as though the main common thread was that we all dressed like…college students.  Nobody wants to sit through a 3 hour Biology lecture and not be comfortable. 

            On the other hand, I could not agree more with Dr. Midgette when it comes to appropriate attire for job interviews, business meetings, etc.  He says, “We’re not gonna serve them well in the university if we don’t shake their thinking about how dress is going to influence job opportunities” (as cited by Evelyn, 2008, 563).  Pajamas are fine for sitting through class; however, these young people need to be grown up enough to realize a job interview is not the time to look inappropriate.  I worked for Starbucks throughout college and I will never forget how personally offended my store manager, Linda, would get when potential Baristas would show up for their interview in wrinkled, unprofessional clothes.  She told me she didn’t care how much experience someone has, if they don’t show her, the company and the position they are interviewing for the respect of showing up professionally than they don’t deserve to work there.  This would result in countless applicants being turned down for jobs because young people felt it was “only” a coffee shop and chose to be unprofessional. 

            As I previously mentioned, nobody is entitled to anything in this world and if you can’t show a little respect and clean yourself up for a job interview than you should not be considered an adult.  Universities should absolutely be preparing the younger generation for the “real” world so that once they get there, they know not to dress like “hoochie mamas.”  While in school, let them express themselves freely.  You never know, one day they may be listening to rap and the next day they may decide they relate more to country music.  As long as they attend class, complete their work and learn what they should be learning – why should it matter how they are dressed?

Reference

Evelyn, J. (2008). The Miseducation of Hip-Hop – Discrimination in Education. In L.

            Gray-Rosendale, Pop Perspectives Readings to Critique Contemporary Culture

            (pp. 559-566). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Breaking News

           In “The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures” Neil Postman and Steve Powers offer an entertaining and veracious claim about the state of today’s television newscasts.  Through distinguishing between stationary pictures, moving pictures and language, the authors are able to make the assertion that it is virtually impossible for any television newscasts to be completely objective and the viewing audience needs to be prepared with the proper mindset when watching the news. 

            Postman and Powers claim that every news show is a “re-presentation” of what actually took place and they are made up of both “language and pictures” (Postman and Powers, 2008, p. 482).  The authors explain the differences between language and pictures, and how they also rely on one another.  They state, “It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Maybe so.  But it is probably equally true that one word is worth a thousand pictures, at least sometimes…” (Postman and Powers, 2008, p. 485).  Single, stationary pictures are simply snapshots of an object or person and have no meaning without the words to describe them.  “The language makes them comprehensible” (Postman and Powers, 2008, p. 485). 

            Moving pictures, on the other hand, which include video and sound are what brings emotion and initial impressions to the scenes being viewed.  Moving pictures can be very dramatic and can give some answers as to what is taking place.  However, it is language that actually gives meaning to the scenario.  Postman and Powers successfully prove that all newscasts are carefully orchestrated to give more time to the “exciting” stories because viewers do not want to watch “talking heads,” or “people who simply appear in front of a camera and speak” (Postman and Powers, 2008, p. 486).  News shows and stations have ratings and expectations to meet, therefore the more exciting, urgent and entertaining the stories are the more viewers will watch their show.  One can not help but notice when viewing a news program, that virtually every new story is “breaking news” so as to grab the viewers’ attention. 

            The contrasting and supporting principles of language and pictures are crucial to the understanding of the authors’ ultimate point in that even if television news shows could afford to lose viewers by presenting a completely objective newscast – it is utterly impossible to do so.  Newspapers are much better equipped to present an objective take on the day’s news because they are able to expand upon every subject, detailing it from inception to its present state.  Whereas, on a TV news program, the reporters only have a certain amount of time to grab the viewers’ attention and give a surface explanation of the story.  “A television news show reveals the world as a series of unrelated, fragmentary moments.  It does not – and cannot be expected to – offer a sense of coherence or meaning” (Postman and Powers, 2008, p. 489).  The authors’ cleverly sum up their piece by asserting that if someone witnessing a TV news show is not properly prepared, that show is “…only a kind of rousing light show” (Postman and Powers, 2008, p. 489). 

Reference

Postman, N., Powers, S. (2008). The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures. In L. Gray-

Rosendale, Pop Perspectives Readings to Critique Contemporary Culture (pp. 481-490). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Evolution of Family... And a Cool Car.

            The 2012 Volkswagen Passat commercial where a child is dressed as Darth Vader trying to use “the force” on random items around the house, may be adorable; however, this commercial poses some serious issues with gender/family representations of 21^st century life.  The basic make up of the people in the commercial is that they are a family made up of mom, dad and child.  Mom is at home with the child and dad comes home later in a suit/tie with a briefcase, clearly meant to display his arrival home from work.  In addition, mom can not help the child when she pushes the peanut butter sandwich in front of him but dad comes home from work and saves the day by starting the car from inside the house so that the child believes he has truly used “the force.”  Mom looks at dad and dad raises his eyebrows as he gives her a look with a bit of arrogance that the man is home and he has taken care of the problem. 

            While male chauvinism may still exist today, the old traditional family setting of mom at home with the kids and dad as the breadwinner who fixes all the problems is certainly in the minority.  Not only do most women work as equally as their husbands do, but there are many families made up of the mom as the breadwinner and dad stays home with the kids.  Not to mention all of the single parent homes, same sex parent homes, etc. that exist today which are more of an adequate representation of a family today. 

            Not only is the setting outdated in this commercial, but it is also featuring a child dressed as Darth Vader which is a character from the Star Wars series circa the latter part of the 1970’s.  The character remains current in popular culture today because of the enormity of popularity with the Star Wars series.  So much so, that George Lucas made 3 more Star Wars movies beginning in 1999 that are considered prequels to the original series.  Therefore, people who were too young or not born yet when the first series came out were introduced to Star Wars and the evolution of the Darth Vader character with the prequels.  The 2^nd series was also hugely successful and resulted in a resurgence of popularity in the original series because of the people watching them for the first time. 

            Perhaps Volkswagen is portraying this family with the old school make up and Star Wars theme to add emphasis to their marketing strategy and show viewers the incredible evolution of the new Volkswagen – the 2012 Passat.  Thus, comparing the evolution of the nature of family and what is possible for the 21^st century family make up since it has come such a long way from the male dominated version of stay at home mom and breadwinner dad.  Whether on purpose or not, this commercial reveals more than just an incredible car; it reveals the incredible evolution of a modern day family by showing the typical family structure of a time long ago. 

A Ludicrous Combination?

In the music video for Justin Bieber’s hit, “Baby,” there are many different dynamics at play.  Some of which have notes of truth and others merely placed for entertainment value; however all in all, one can not deny that the video is truly entertaining and the song is catchy enough to get trapped in the subconscious for the remainder of the day. 

Justin immediately assumes the typical male dominant role at the bowling alley when he and his friends are in a lane and the group of girls is in a lane next to them.  He bowls a strike and gloats about it as though the girls won’t be able to do the same.  Initially and throughout the video, the girl of Justin’s focus brushes him off and wants nothing to do with him.  The interactions throughout between Justin’s group of “boys” and the object of his affections and her “girls” are anything but a teenager’s typical route to get the girl. 

The setting is somewhat believable at the bowling alley, because these are the days of “Cosmic Bowling” where they turn off all the lights, pump up the music and put on the strobe lights to make a somewhat old fashioned game, current and hip.  However, Justin’s way of “wooing” his girl by a dance-off between the boys and girls is certainly not conventional by any stretch of the imagination.  Also, even though Justin is Usher’s protégé, the fact that he and his friends would be hanging out at a bowling alley with Drake and Ludacris, for lack of a better term…ludicrous. 

The perception of teenagers and their habits in every new generation is going to be that they have too much freedom and not enough discipline.  Every older generation believes the newer to be pushing the envelope in that they are too racy, too outspoken and too unsupervised. 

The merger of music styles between Justin and Ludacris is not quite as ludicrous as them hanging out as friends.  Today, there are so many different artists working together on tracks because it promotes both artists in many ways.  One of the biggest musicians to pioneer the current trend in artists’ combos, Drake, is also part of the Justin video.  Drake has many combos with artists such as Niki Minaj and Bruno Mars.  This trend has proven successful for these artists because it means double the exposure, double the album sales, and double the ticket prices should they perform live together.  Justin and Luda seem to work as Luda is singing about his first love from when he was 13 years old…about as old as Justin seems to be in this video. 

The Justin Bieber “Baby” video is about as realistic as any other music video playing on MTV (when they play music videos…).  As previously stated, the setting of the bowling alley is possible; however the dance-off to win the affections of some girl who happens to be bowling in the lane next to Justin is in no way realistic.  And the fact that he does, of course, win her over and they exit the bowling alley hand in hand as an adorable new couple is simply the work of a catchy and entertaining music video.  After all, who wants to watch a teenaged boy repeatedly get shot down by the girl he is trying desperately to win over via boy vs. girl dance-off?