Field Site

I will be going to my field site on Monday at 12 pm. because I made an appointment for that day. My blog entry will be posted on Tuesday April 1, 2008 no later then 9 am.

Reaching Helen Keller

Topic: Deaf Culture

Sources:
Cartwright, Lisa. Moral spectatorship: technologies of voice and affect in postwar representations of the child. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008

Davis Lennard J. My sense of silence: memoirs of a childhood with deafness. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000

Marshark, Marc. Raising and educating a deaf child: a comprehensive guide to the choices, controversies, and decisions faced by parents and educators. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Miller, Sarah. Miss Spitfire: reaching Helen Keller. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 2007

Williamson, Carylon Estelle. Black deaf students: a model for educational success. Washington, D.C: Gallaudet University Press, 2007.

Reading a couple of pages from Miss Spitfire: reaching Helen Keller gave me an inside look of how hard it is to teach a child who is deaf and blind. Researching about this subculture will be difficult because there several things I can talk about. Mostly from reading this book the inspiring story of Helen Keller was told from the point of view from the woman who helped her named Annie Sullivan.

The thing I found interesting was the different techniques Annie used to teach Helen, like how to function in everyday tasks. This book will be helpful on understanding this subculture more, and give me a better idea on how to approach different sources.

We were assigned the assignment that asked us to find an argument in hip-hop culture. I thought to myself I wanted to find an argument that wasn’t too prevalent in the hip hop community. I looked on google.com and found the usual results and then I checked on youtube.com. I found a video by the YOUNG TURKS. It showed a statement made by a radio talk show host named John Gibson. This man said some supremely racist things about African Americans in this school named Success Tech. It’s a school that is pre-dominantly black. There was a shooting at this school and he insinuated that the shooter was a black youth. When the report revealed that the kid was a white youth he began to try and explain why and how it wasn’t a black youth. He started saying some racist comments once again. He blamed the shooting on “Hip-hoppers”. He was surprised to hear that it wasn’t a black youth. Gibson tried to play it off saying that,”Hip-hoppers do not shoot others than kill themselves. Only White youth do this.” I felt very offended that he tried to cover his racism towards African-Americans by calling them “hip-hoppers”. Because of the views that society has towards to African-Americans, when people such as John Gibson make racist remarks, it confirms stereotypes between black communities which are considered not necessarily true. In conclusion, I think that because hip-hop has now been commercialized and is now forced to be reckoned with in mainstream media, many of the opposers feel that the lyrical content is still influencing the youth of today. John Gibson tried to blame the shooting on Rap music and the content of African-American music. There are so many things in society that can influence people to do the wrong thing besides hip hop. John Gibson was just exposed as a pure racist against African- Americans and his information became irrelevant.

Exploring

Glancing at the long list of references, the title that stood out most to me was Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia’s Dead End Kids by Donna Gaines. Initially my thoughts about the book based on the title and the cover were suburban, sheltered , white kids who were influenced by rap music because they thought it was the ”cool” thing to do. After reading the first couple of pages I found it hard to put the book down. The story is based on true events of four youth that made a suicide pact. Their interest in heavy metal is that assumed reason why the group of kids committed suicide. This book is interesting because I never understood why people would voluntarily want to kill themselves. It would give me somewhat of an idea of how and why people, especially kids would want to kill themselves. Reading several paragraphs from the novel, her passionate style of writing made it very clear that she cares about the youth the today’s society. I did my research and discovered that has a Ph.D. in Sociology, and a Masters degree in Social Work. She is also an international expert on youth violence and culture. Due to her extensive background in sociology and other social work with the youth, she is a perfect candidate for writing this book.

Hip Hop Culture

In the previous class we watched various forms of rap music ranging from Indian, British, Jewish, even French hop hip. All over the world rap music is more commonly being used to express culture and lifestyle. In particular one rapper that caught my attention was Dizzee Rascal. A born native from East London, at the young 19 he is a forced to be reckoned with in the hip hop community. With smash hits like Flex, and other pop chart songs he is bringing an electronic hybrid hip hop style know as grime from the underground scene to the forefront. Dizzee Rascal represents and talks about his life growing up in a dominant style, what us Americans associate with as gangster rap. He even got the name Dizzee Rascal, formally from Dylan Mills because his teachers said he was rascal and excluded him from every class except music.
Raised in a single family household, Rascal connects with the inner streets and represents that culture. In the UK, grime is a type of music that is often dark, and aggressive. Used to express the problems that affect his area, he often raps about the societal and cultural things that his community has to offer. Often feeling that the youth is his neighborhood frequently get overlooked and not given a far chance to succeed in life. He brings his community together with his music, and because of that he has been the first and the youngest rapper to be awarded with the Mercury Award. This award is given to the best in British music.
It is clear that Dizze Rascal is one of those rappers who stay true to his culture and his community. Even though rap music is often filled with violence, Dizzle Rascal brings something new and original to the genre, style, and culture to hip hop which is refreshing for the world.

Peer Editing

In the previous class we were asked to peer edit a classmate’s paper. From the beginning I already had my reservations. Already a little uncomfortable about other people critiquing and evaluating my work, I was prepared for the worst. Once we formed into our groups and discussed within our group what we thought our strengths and weakness were I began to feel a little more at ease and I liked that. Also, I think it is easier to take advice from your peers due to the fact that you can relate to them more. Personally I feel as though peer editing is not something that I would voluntarily want to do. The reason being is because I feel as though I am not the best writer, and reading other people writing would not be beneficial for them.

Everything about peer editing is not so bad. The one thing that I would do differently is try to give better advice to my peers. I want to try to give them ideas or opinions that they wouldn’t have thought of. At the end of the day, weighting the pros and cons of peer editing I would have to say that it’s not so bad after all.

Logical Fallacies

In the motion picture PCU, which is a fictional movie trying to depict how college life is, the use of logical fallacies are throughout the movie. A specific fallacy that stood out to me was hasty generalization. This became more evident while viewing the movie, we see how the different social groups interact with a particular club that the movie refers to as “the pit.” The people who are grouped in this organization were deemed and looked upon as losers, and potheads. They stereotype every member in the group, basically jumping to conclusions that everyone who associated with “the pit” are ignorant. This film is trying to generalize and stereotype a certain group of college kids, giving off the impression that college is based on who you hang around, and who you know.

Death of an Innocent

In this society it’s hard to consider that someone would voluntarily want to live a life without worldly processions, responsibilities, and money. As I continued reading this intriguing narrative I began to ask myself, is living a life such as that really a dreadful idea? I think everyone can in some way relate to McCandless. Granted his actions are somewhat far fetched, but his beliefs are a staple in American culture. For the most part, it seems that people have forgotten the simple things in life. Living in a culture where you are judged on how much you accomplish your wealth, and success. We often lose sight that money and other economic value is not the true meaning of life.
Chris McCandless is someone who dared to go against the norm and be true to himself. His ideas were simple, to live a life free from society’s ideas of happiness, and to better understand oneself. Even though times have changed since this heroic story took place, people still carry McCandless views and beliefs in society today. In this generation where we put so much value on material possessions, it is often hard for us be content with oneself. In the story, it is made clear that McCandless despised the idea of materialistic assets that we as a Western society have now become obsessed over. In several instances the author describes how worldly goods are of no importance. It mentions how he donates $20,000 to a Famine Relief Fund, and also speaks about how he burned the little money he did have, and buried the meager belongings he owned. Once again his he goes over board with his actions but we have all given money away to someone or an organization. Donated clothes to the goodwill, or even given something that you valued to someone who was in dire need.
Living in a world where economic value is the forefront of our society we tend to fall in society ideas of what we can do to make money. Money equals success therefore success equal happiness. That’s what is frequently discussed thought our society. Often it is instilled in the youth to go to college so you can get a good job and make oodles of money. Rarely do you hear people telling there children to go to school do to something you enjoy and love. McCandless thoughts of “losing our bearings to push overselves into unknown territory,” is somewhat freighting to many of us, but we have gone through it. Simple things such as your first day of school, to meeting new people, are some examples. In an uncanny way McCandless exists in all of us. Even though we may not be as extreme or adventurous as he, we all need time to find our own path in life. Death of an Innocent, in not only an appropriate title for the story, it is also a great way to explain what is going to happen if economic value is the primary goal in our lives.

Two thoughts ran though my mind the initial time I saw the image. First, a feeling of remorse came over me because I felt bad that the family had to watch a loved one on their death bed. The second thought was more of a curiosity then anything else; I wondered what he was dying from. Since the advertisement was only a picture with no words, I was left only with assumptions. Soon my thoughts and questions were answered, but the response that I received was not what I expected. When I learned that a clothing company used this image as an advertising tactic, to say the least I was shocked.

The purpose of advertising strategies is to entice the consumer into buying the product. In this case, this advertisement does more then entice, it pulls you in emotionally as well. There are several different strategies that the clothing company could have chosen. We have all seen a commercial, or picture in a magazine of a model wearing the latest and fashionable ensemble. Your reaction could be “cute outfit” but then turn the page, or channel. Instead of going the typical route, they used a more creative strategy and chose an advertisement that would draw you in, and keep you talking about it. In a strange way the advertisement is fairly successful. Just to prove how effective that advertisement was, I showed a couple of my friends the image to see what they thought about it. None of them knew it was for a clothing line, but the first thing they did was ask me questions and wondered what this was supposed to advertise. That’s how simple it is, I showed two people, they do the same, and soon it will be the object of discussion everywhere. It keeps you talking about it, it makes you want to know more, and it creates an emotion ambience. Those are the three most important things that make up an advertisement.

In conclusion, this ad campaign is powerful and frankly used to shock people. I am not totally agreeing with the route that they choose, but I must admit that it grabs my attention. Usually we as consumers are more attracted to products that make us feel happy. United Colors of Benetton choose instead to go for the shock value, and make us think. In the marketing field their goal is to get a message across to an audience, and grab the consumer’s attention. As I have mentioned above, this ad has accomplished both of those things. Overall, my opinion is even though some people could consider these ads offensive, they are very effective. Obviously, these ads are doing the trick, due to the fact that United Colors of Benetton is still in business and not showing any sign of slowing down. Many may argue that the ad doesn’t appeal to some consumers at all. The point is that you see the name brand and have a reaction whether good or bad it will cause debate and conflict of ideas.