Saturday, January 31, 2015
Friday, January 30, 2015
WTF, Arizona?
"Public schools in Tucson, Arizona, illegally promote ethnic
solidarity and the overthrow of the U.S. government by teaching Mexican
history, Rage Against the Machine lyrics and an explanation of hip hop
by rapper KRS-One, the outgoing head of the state Education Department
said in a letter released Friday.
The letter to the Tucson school district was the final act in office for John Huppenthal, a conservative former state senator who in 2010 helped pass a law later used to ban a controversial Mexican-American studies program from Tucson schools, arguing that the courses had bred resentment against whites.
Huppenthal, Arizona's superintendent of public instruction since 2012, oversaw the program’s elimination. He now says “culturally relevant courses” that a federal court ordered Tucson to offer as part of an agreement to resolve a decades-long desegregation lawsuit also violate the state law."
read the rest here
"Huppenthal criticizes Cholla Magnet High School for including a history class, “Culturally Relevant Mexican American Perspective,” which includes lyrics from the Rage Against The Machine song “Take The Power Back.” An English class at the same school, “Culturally Relevant African American Perspective,” allegedly includes an essay by KRS-One, “An Introduction to Hip-Hop.”
“According to the Hip Hoptionary: The Dictionary Of Hip Hop Terminology by Alonso Westbrook, Hip Hop is defined as the artistic response to oppression,” the essay reads in part. “A way of expression in dance, music, word/song. A culture that thrives on creativity and nostalgia. As a musical art form it is the stories of inner-city life, often with a message, spoken over beats of music. The culture includes Rap and any other venture spawned from the Hip Hop style and culture.”
“Culturally relevant” courses like the district’s Mexican-American Studies program were scuttled in 2010 after Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed a state law into effect banning classes that were found to “promote resentment toward any race or class” and “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of being individuals.”
read rest here
The letter to the Tucson school district was the final act in office for John Huppenthal, a conservative former state senator who in 2010 helped pass a law later used to ban a controversial Mexican-American studies program from Tucson schools, arguing that the courses had bred resentment against whites.
Huppenthal, Arizona's superintendent of public instruction since 2012, oversaw the program’s elimination. He now says “culturally relevant courses” that a federal court ordered Tucson to offer as part of an agreement to resolve a decades-long desegregation lawsuit also violate the state law."
read the rest here
"Huppenthal criticizes Cholla Magnet High School for including a history class, “Culturally Relevant Mexican American Perspective,” which includes lyrics from the Rage Against The Machine song “Take The Power Back.” An English class at the same school, “Culturally Relevant African American Perspective,” allegedly includes an essay by KRS-One, “An Introduction to Hip-Hop.”
“According to the Hip Hoptionary: The Dictionary Of Hip Hop Terminology by Alonso Westbrook, Hip Hop is defined as the artistic response to oppression,” the essay reads in part. “A way of expression in dance, music, word/song. A culture that thrives on creativity and nostalgia. As a musical art form it is the stories of inner-city life, often with a message, spoken over beats of music. The culture includes Rap and any other venture spawned from the Hip Hop style and culture.”
“Culturally relevant” courses like the district’s Mexican-American Studies program were scuttled in 2010 after Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed a state law into effect banning classes that were found to “promote resentment toward any race or class” and “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of being individuals.”
read rest here
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Beyond Beats and Rhymes
"What are some of the factors that influences the ideas, values, and models of life of young inner-city African-American men today? There are the everyday conditions of life in the neighborhoods of segregated American cities, which Elijah Anderson considers in Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City (link). But there is also the increasingly violent and misogynist output of hip hop music and video. It is apparent that the images, values, and modes of behavior presented in hip hop music and videos find their way back onto the street and into the lives of young black men and women. Hip hop doesn't simply mirror the street -- it helps to create the street. So the content and identities portrayed in the music makes a difference.
Byron Hurt's very interesting 2006 PBS documentary on violence and sexism in hip hop music and videos, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, addresses these issues. (The video is posted at the top.) Hurt does a great job of reading the role that violence and misogyny play in hip hop lyrics and videos. "Why are so many rappers preoccupied with violence and gunplay" (6:30). The basic idea that he puts forward is that this major aspect of hip hop culture is a commercial exploitation of a cartoonish version of masculinity—hard, tough, unafraid, ready to kill, ready to exploit and sexualize women. (Hurt calls it “hyper-masculinity”.) The representation of women in much of this music is hyper-sexualized and brutalizing. And there is a recurring theme of homophobia and homophobic slurs."
Read the rest here
'Black Dynamite' - Musical on Police Brutality
"Titled "The Wizard of Watts," the episode will follow Black Dynamite
as he attempts to take a vacation, when the police start patrolling the
streets, and a riot breaks out. Black Dynamite is then hit in the head
with a brick, which causes him to hallucinate, taking him into the
"Magical Land of Oz-Watts," where he is called on to defend the
community, against the police.
It'll be an hour long (episodes are typically 30 minutes), and will feature guest appearances by Erykah Badu, Tyler, The Creator, Tim Blake Nelson and J.B. Smoove."
read more about it here
It'll be an hour long (episodes are typically 30 minutes), and will feature guest appearances by Erykah Badu, Tyler, The Creator, Tim Blake Nelson and J.B. Smoove."
read more about it here
Friday, January 9, 2015
Professional Twerker...
She makes 6 figures a year as a "professional twerker"...
I wonder if there's a black or latino women with the same deal somewhere...
Monday, January 5, 2015
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Friday, January 2, 2015
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Macklemore interview
"Macklemore, speaking for over an hour, touched on the issue of cultural appropriation in rap and the role his success plays: “Just because there’s been more successful white rappers, you cannot disregard where this culture came from and our place in it as white people,” he said. “This is not a culture that white people started. I do believe that as much as I have honed my craft and put in years of dedication into the music that I love, I need to know my place.”
source
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