Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Mendacity in the Country

Astral Facts, March 2011
Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Mendacity in the Country

In my freshman composition (English 101) class, students form groups and choose from a list of articles which they would like to teach to their classmates. Among them is a 1990 New York Times article written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “2 Live Crew, Decoded,” in which Gates defends the 1st Amendment rights of the controversial rap group.


Gates’ argument is that the content cannot be evaluated without first understanding the cultural background at its foundation. His point is that exaggeration and hyperbole are imbued in the culture, just as more mainstream cultural groups use the “tall tales” of the North to entertain. Due to the roots of slave oppression, African-Americans needed to create coded vocabulary to communicate among themselves while using what seems to be innocuous language.

These days, when the lyrics appear to cross beyond the innocuous, those in the mainstream culture can easily take the language content at face value, which Gates perceives as a problem at the receiving end. However, his commentary does not imply a blanket approval of the content, as he says,
“Still, many of us look toward the emergence of more female rappers to redress sexual stereotypes. And we must not allow ourselves to sentimentalize street culture: The appreciation of verbal virtuosity does not lessen one’s obligation to critique bigotry in all its pernicious forms.”

Obviously, he is concerned about the representation of the African American female stereotypes these lyrics portray, and back in 1990 he was anticipating a rebuttal to emerge from the community that is being misrepresented.It is now 21 years later and we might take a look to see what is happening in this cultural battlefield. Here is a posting by a group of young African American girls in response to content in the current music scene: (Although the presentation is by adolescent girls, expletives have not been deleted):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8nLCg6ZwjY&feature=player_embedded



Obviously, they didn’t post this up all by themselves, as the URL for a website does appear on the screen. (If you do go to the website advertised, you can find links to over 250 photos of women who would like to meet you!)


Those in the community do find it troubling:

http://www.bvblackspin.com/2011/02/15/profane-kid-video-demonstrates-the-need-for-our-own-revolution/


A ten-year-old’s letter to Lil Wayne:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu0SeTXjC74

But as one of the comments on the first YouTube notes, “kids will be kids.”

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Astral Facts, February 2011



Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Figuratively Speaking

Often we hear questions about the arts and humanities – what role do they play? Why do we study the texts from literature, art, music, and such from the past?

Even though we may merely regard them as such, frequently the stories they tell are more than just a thrown together plot with action and exploding cars (Spike TV) or the emotional stress of building and/or destroying relationships (Lifetime TV) with stuff in between (the other channels).

In a recent Frazz cartoon in the daily paper on Feb 18th, (I haven’t reproduced it here because copyright laws are too complex for my simple mind, but here’s the URL: http://comics.com/frazz/), a student tells three others that he gets $5 for every A on his report card, but another student gets $10 for each one. The three students respond differently:

“My mom says learning is its own reward,”
“My dad pays himself $100 for every A I get,” and
“My mom pays me the same each year, but I have to get 15% more.”

 In the final panel, Frazz (the young custodian) asks “What did you learn?” and the student replies,

 “That Katie’s mom is still in school, Egan’s dad is a CEO, Isabel’s mom is a sales director, and why grown-ups don’t talk about their salaries.”

Like this scene, the “story” may be filled with information, but real “learning” occurs when we exercise critical thinking and analysis to understand what the details or information means and why it holds significance in application outside the “text” itself.

The repeated and familiar texts of a culture are vehicles that frequently illustrate and communicate thoughts and ideals that extend beyond each text itself. However, without a foundation of cultural literacy, the meaning may escape us.

This was brought home to me recently when a family friend mentioned someone had recently been offered a transfer away from his relatives to work in Hawaii, and the person had commented, “Don’t throw me in the briar patch! Don’t throw me in the briar patch!” Our friend thought that was a weird non-sequitur. When I asked my children to explain it, they were equally clueless.

So I went to the library and requested a copy of The Favorite Tales of Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris. A few days later over the after-dinner tea, I read aloud the story of “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby,” but they still didn’t understand. So I got another version (Jump Again: More Adventures of Brer Rabbit), translated from the original dialect of the “American South” and we read “Brer Rabbit in the Well” followed by “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby.” Now they get it!

In a recent column on the sports page of the Seattle Times, a reporter interviewed a former player from the Mariners now finally achieving some recognition with another team after many years in the minor leagues. Knowing that several other successful players have had such difficult journeys, the reporter asked the player whose life he most identified with. The player responded, “Odysseus!” Try as he might, the reporter couldn’t recall which team Odysseus had played for. (Perhaps associating it with Homer might not even help, for so many players have hit homers?)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/larrystone/2014280945_stone20.html

A few years ago, I heard a minister describe a retreat he had attended with other religious leaders, and at one point they were asked to identify which biblical character they most identified with. Many of them named various of Jesus’ disciples and noteworthy Old Testament figures. However, one of them said he identified most with Balaam’s Ass, which the minister found quite apropos.

I had to look it up (the minister’s intention for telling the story), and I have to say I see the connection in education as well as I encourage my students to get off the path that wanders into merely noting and remembering details and information.

Hopefully, we can have a citizenry that looks beyond the plot details of life and relationships rather than just living on the surface level of chase and action scenes, although taking a break  to watch a car exploding or Bruce Willis blowing away some bad guys can be relaxing!

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.