Movie: Kids in America

Very Inspirational- if you haven't seen it, here is your chance.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwmeLPNT5pE

WATCH ON YOUTUBE BY CLICKING HERE

getting seen

Get the picture? When translation is up to the interpreter

Preface by Lauren Greenfield

Greenfield is a documentarien who tries to be a participent observer of teens in LA and at the same time try to be unbiased in her analysis when relating this to teenagers on a bigger scale. While i understand what she is trying to accomplish, I am hesitant to believe that some of her conclusions aren't biased by her own experiences as a teen in LA.

she suggests that only in LA life is rushed. "You grow up really fast when you grow up in LA. It seems like everyone is in a rush to be an adult. It's not cool to be a kid." According the the five discources reading, i believe our culture tells us that it isn't cool to be a kid anywhere in western culture, you are always striving to achive "16" "18" "21" "get married" "have babies" "have your dream job" you are always looking forward and pushing for it as hard as you can, this is not a phenomenon isolated to LA.

she also suggests that LA determines popular culture. "as the center of the entertainment industry...the experience of LA teens has inspired many popular media products" our culture does not follow LA teens specifically to determine what be the new fashion trend or if gayness will be acceptable in the next generation fo movies. the intention may not be that LA determines popular culture, but this is definatly how it reads to me.

She suggests money is more important in La then elsewhere. LA may have rich people, but the US is based on capitalism which is a machine made to center around money so its no surprise that this is central to people's minds everywhere, not just in LA.

"better to not like one another than to not know the stranger exists" this reads to me like visibility at any cost, which ties into last class. while i agree that seeing the sissy gay is better than no gay at all, visibility at any cost is like saying i am happy with tolerance, and i am not. i want acceptance- and furthur full integration. i want "you" not to see me as any different from yourself, and only then will i be content. so yes, hoo rah for visibility but i can't stop there, becasue rap exists so should we be happy that parts of balck culture are in the mainstream and stop there? no! its still perpetuating the cycle, and worse, it makes people think that we are combating racism becasie the rap songs exist. we are not combatting homophobia when all we see is sissy gay men. UGH. i could go on for hours.

"in LA...quest for noteriety has become a rite of passage" again, not just in LA this is popular culture, where i come from, in the sticks, people still dream of making a name for themselves. we have created a culture where everyone is trying to be anything but themselves becasue being who you are is never pretty enough, skinny enough, smooth enough, young enough, innocent enough, smart enough, mature enough, privilaged enough, rich enough, etc. You forget who you are in all this confusion and i would argue that most people are wandering around western culture disconnected from their true identities and their bodies. Thats a very sad concept.

Another thing that she touches on a lot is the notion of MTV and TV in general as a major popular culture distributer. While i know what she is trying to say, i have to mention that culture gets to you almost always no matter how "disconnected" you may feel, and that is the truly scary part of culture's penetration. I grew up with very little tv access (and no cable), no internet, no gaming- kids and the outdoors, but our knowledge of popular culture was just as fine tuned of the teens discribed from LA.

"Bloodbath" a positive period

Glee- i'm not enthused

This media clip was a lot to take in at once. Having never seen it before, i now understand that it is mean to be stereotypical highschool, include "all" the minorities, sing throughout, and send the message that "anyone's can be a winner". Unfortunatly, this intention is not the implication, because the LGBT community is getting slammed the whole time.

Here are my notes about the pilot:

1. glee club consists of minorities- asian, black, differently abled, female, and (gay?)

• the leads are still a white man and a white woman
• the black woman is "angry" at one point, but when challenged fades into the background again
• if they're so hooked on minorities, wheres the latino?
• the asian woman doesn't get assigned a "specialty" like all the others

2. other downfalls/stereotypes

• all females are portrayed as weak and impressionable, unless they are "two-faced", "bitchy", and "loose cannons", like the wife, the cheerleading coach, and the lead cheerleader
• the lawn guy, who is average, even ugly, ends up with a very beautiful woman
• principle called the differently abled person a "cripple"
• principle is india and is portayed as caring only about money
• footabll players lock the differently abled student in a port a potty and plan to roll it

3. building a better world, at the expense of the gay community (all differenly gender presenting and references to alternate sexuality are VERY negative)

• boy thrown in trash at beginning is (gay?) differently gendered, has a higher voice then the average boy, appriciates handbages and sweaters, the prof does nothing to stop his harrasement
• past prof of glee club protrayed in negative way, high voice, wears a lot of pink, becomes a drug dealer, is mentally unstable, appriciates thread count and pillows. has a "long distance girlfriend in san francisco" uses termonology of teenage girl "call me"
• past prof of glee club accused of having a relationship with a male student, who is obiously uncomfortable
• female lead says "im not homophobic, i have two dads!" this is the same as saying "im not racist, i have black friends!"
• football players held down their teammate and shaved off his eyebrows becasue he watched grey's anatomy
• "gaylord" and "butmuncher" are the first two insults on the signup sheet after the locker room scene
• football team painballs the male lead becasue he skipped practice to go on a fieldtrip with the glee club
• football player says "if i joined the flag team, you would beat the crap outta me"
• football players threw "peeballs" at the (gay?) kid, and nailed his furnature to the roof
• football players ask their roommate "what, are you quitting to join the homo-explosion?! (glee club)"

What i don't understand:

• what the producers of this series intended by making it
• what effect it has on teenagers that watch it

Connection: TEENAGERS ARE NOT SOME ALIEN LIFE FORM

• the prof that runs the club says "one day you guys are going to grow up and understand" (it doesnt get more condescending then that)

media clip:from the l word, that i credit as one of my favorite shows for being so positive for the glbt community, still, it is riddeld with problems like:

• it only aired because there are lesbian sex scenes every other second
• they arent true portrayls of lesbian sex, they are what straight men picture of when they think of lesbian sex
• all the women are high femmes, save a tranny boi, and an andro-dyke (shane is no butch)
• all the women are sleeping with eachother and there is mad drama
• absence of gay culture (like that there is only ONE drag queen, and she doesnt show up 'til the last season, the ONE drag king doesn't show 'til the second season)
• it spreads the idea that all lesbians are engaged in a meat market, check out every woman they see, and seek to "recruit" for our community
• WATCH HERE

a really good hip hop song

I Can Lyrics
Artist(Band):Nas Review The Song (31) Print the Lyrics



[Kids]
I know I can (I know I can)
Be what I wanna be (be what I wanna be)
If I work hard at it (If I work hard at it)
I'll be where I wanna be (I'll be where I wanna be)

[Nas]
Be, B-Boys and girls, listen up
You can be anything in the world, in God we trust
An architect, doctor, maybe an actress
But nothing comes easy it takes much practice
Like, I met a woman who's becoming a star
She was very beautiful, leaving people in awe
Singing songs, Lina Horn, but the younger version
Hung with the wrong person
Got her strung on that
Heroin, cocaine, sniffin up drugs all in her nose...
Coulda died, so young, now looks ugly and old
No fun cause now when she reaches for hugs people hold they breath
Cause she smells of corrosion and death
Watch the company you keep and the crowd you bring
Cause they came to do drugs and you came to sing
So if you gonna be the best, I'ma tell you how,
Put your hands in the air, and take a vow

[Chorus - 2x (Nas and Kids)]
I know I can (I know I can)
Be what I wanna be (be what I wanna be)
If I work hard at it (If I work hard at it)
I'll be where I wanna be (I'll be where I wanna be)

[Nas]
Be, B-Boys and girls, listen again
This is for grown looking girls who's only ten
The ones who watch videos and do what they see
As cute as can be, up in the club with fake ID
Careful, 'fore you meet a man with HIV
You can host the TV like Oprah Winfrey
Whatever you decide, be careful, some men be
Rapists, so act your age, don't pretend to be
Older than you are, give yourself time to grow
You thinking he can give you wealth, but so
Young boys, you can use a lot of help, you know
You thinkin life's all about smokin weed and ice
You don't wanna be my age and can't read and write
Begging different women for a place to sleep at night
Smart boys turn to men and do whatever they wish
If you believe you can achieve, then say it like this

[Chorus]

[Nas]
Be, be, 'fore we came to this country
We were kings and queens, never porch monkeys
There was empires in Africa called Kush
Timbuktu, where every race came to get books
To learn from black teachers who taught Greeks and Romans
Asian Arabs and gave them gold when
Gold was converted to money it all changed
Money then became empowerment for Europeans
The Persian military invaded
They heard about the gold, the teachings, and everything sacred
Africa was almost robbed naked
Slavery was money, so they began making slave ships
Egypt was the place that Alexander the Great went
He was so shocked at the mountains with black faces
Shot up they nose to impose what basically
Still goes on today, you see?
If the truth is told, the youth can grow
Then learn to survive until they gain control
Nobody says you have to be gangstas, hoes
Read more learn more, change the globe
Ghetto children, do your thing
Hold your head up, little man, you're a king
Young Princess when you get your wedding ring
Your man is saying "She's my queen"

[Chorus]

Save the music y'all, save the music y'all
Save the music y'all, save the music y'all
Save the music

Brainwashing-Out Oppression

Author: Jared Ball
Title: Hip-Hop, Mass Media and 21st Century Colonization
Hip-Hop and the Corporate Function of Colonization

my wordle

I understand that he is arguing here that all hip hop and mass media is a fabrication becasue it has been dumbed down, censored, and manipulated until we loose the messages of oppressiona and retain only "good beats" and "simplistic story lines"
"there can be no popular representation of the colonized that does not reflect a justification or omission of their colonized status". becasue the white people that buy popular culture don;t want to think about it
Even though ip-hop is popular in the black community, it is not a postive force because it does nothing to improve education or SES, just maintines the status quo.
"the lyrics comittee censor the political, not linguistic messages"
just think about hwo much swaering you hear, but you never head how education is poor in specific racialized areas or how the arrest rate is entirely unproportional, when we know such artists exist.
"encourage a behavior among the colonized which produces self-inflicted wounds that in reality result from externally-based oppression" divide and conquer method to maintaining control: set up a hirearchy and let the people go after themselves, its less work for the people at the top, lasts longer, and is more effective
"success" depends on adherance to a set of values defined by popular culture, white, straight, christian, able bodied, high class culture.


What i dont't understand:

minority elite=white men- i didnt understnad this reference. people with power in a society by definition are not a minority in an oppressive way.

"better beats" argument as opposed to music industry focusing on inspirational/meaningful/real words that depict the real reality?


connection:
- Randy on American Idol- as the seasons go on his style gets more and more prep- and more and more "white". i would argue that it helps his image to sound slighly urban but to conform to every other white stereotype thats exists

-hip hop is not much different from poetry- it is poetry, which can be used constructivly or not. but like slam poets, the more mainstream the poet, the more mainstream the jargon they preach. someone like andrea gibson is just small enough that while she get national attention she had to start as grassroots and hence is comfortable speaking out, even and uchually against the goverment and whats media's implications are for society

-heres kats:

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