My Reason For Waking Up Each Day

Reflection

The acquisition of Academic English as a discourse has been a major struggle.   In order to be successful in Academic Discourse the constant use of a French-English Dictionary, a thesaurus and the spelling/grammar check in Microsoft Word have been the legs of my literacy “stool.”  Without all three the balance of the stool would be upset and it would be useless.

Coming from the Cameroon in Africa where French is the main language spoken to America where I was able to learn some forms of English by osmosis; hip hop music, community discourse, and talking with nurse’s aides at my job.  Those discourse communities do not necessarily translate to Academic discourse so I really needed help.    Luckily the technology and publishing industries have provided tools that made learning Academic discourse possible.  Additionally the immersion in the classroom helped with Academic discourse.

My biggest concern in college has been that professors or students would recognize my weakness and think less of my intelligence.  I still think in French; that is a major hurdle in class.  It slows me down in responding and participating and makes me look slow.  I really want my peers to respect my intelligence.  That is why I prefer online classes because when I write I sound smarter; and the reader has no idea it took 6 drafts!

The online class setting should not be used just to save gas; it should be used to help students.  ESL, special needs, and remedial students should be allowed to do their online work in the tutoring labs so that if they have questions they can get help right away.  Presently they have to make an appointment or stop in the lab during special hours and wait their turn for help.  Real-time assistance could be much more beneficial and could save many students significant embarrassment.

My future discourse acquisition goals are to make sure that as I move up in the nursing field.  I cannot afford to have patient lose trust in my abilities because of a weakness in grammar, spelling or vocabulary.

Overall this course has made me view language from 10,000 feet; like being in an airplane and getting the big picture.  I like the idea of having the overarching view of where my discourse came from, where it is, and where it is going.   Thank you.

The Discourse of Hip Hop

The language of hip hop speaks to me in all of its forms: verbal, non-verbal, art, and rhythm.  The musical genre is a truly American creation with vague elements of other cultural traditions but with evolutionary influences that have come from within this country.  Hip hop also insults me in several forms: misogynistic messages, degrading images, and a subordinate role.  Hip hop is the discourse of the young, the disenfranchised, and the urban core but it has to take the time to reflect upon the impact of that discourse on women in society.

In the text, Sponsors of Literacy, Brandt examines the sources of literacy and by extension discourse.  The author examines the gatekeeper role that can be played by literacy/discourse and how that role continues by contributing or hindering development in a field.  The gatekeeper role of Hip Hop Discourse puts women in the uncomfortable position of being viewed as less valuable accessory to the male than his weapon.  The only time the discourse presents women in a positive light is if she is the mother of the artist’s child, with the caveat that the woman has foregone child-support in favor of cash under the table.

The education community has begun to recognize the significance of Hip Hop culture to the urban population.  In the piece, Showing, Seeing: Hip-Hop, Visual Culture, and the Show-and-Tell Performance that appeared in the Black History Bulletin, the author reflects upon the ways that educators are trying to communicate with a subculture that has grown to a level of major significance among the African-American and Latino communities, and touches some of the members of the Caucasian and Asian student populations as well.  The author proposes that there are three distinct rationales for the inclusion of Hip-hop discourse among educators:

1. Teachers are finding the incorporation of Hip-hop music into the curriculum a part of culturally responsive teaching.

2. The Hip-hop community is an integral part of the identity of many students particularly in the urban core.

3. Higher education has already embraced Hip-hop as a legitimate field of study.

The problem with the inclusion of Hip-hop in the classroom is the “stamp of approval” given to the genre without addressing the misogynistic images of the women in the music, art and videos.  Songs have reached number one with lyrics such as NWA’s Gangsta Gangsta, “What about the B*&@h that got shot? F$%# her! You think I give a d@3$ about a B*&@h? I ain’t a sucka!”  That is mild compared to the songs glorifying women for having a large derriere at the expense of her mind, or her soul.  The value of women can be expressed in simplistic terms as sexual, victims, or trophies.  Seen and not heard is the reality of Hip-hop for women.  How can school justify the inclusion of a genre that disrespects half the children in the classroom, even if you are not including those particular songs?

Other authors are comparing Hip-hop to the Harlem renaissance and conveying the impression that Hip-hop is a weapon against hegemony.  This is another attempt to make Hip-hop more relevant than it has a right to be and ignores the impact on women.  The author, J. J. Price who published in Convergence magazine examines the culture through the lens of the hegemonic practices by the dominant culture.  The Hip-hop culture is connected to the other movements and examined for both impact to the dominant and subordinate culture.   The long-term impact is studied and both positive and negative outcomes examined.  The problem is that by even mentioning Hip-hop in a discussion of the Harlem Renaissance you have put legitimacy to the misogyny.

Male identity is both the beneficiary and victim of Hip-hop.  The messages from the music encourage leadership, and promote the idea that men are strong; the messages also promote the opposite about women and influence the men by teaching them to devalue the female sex.  Prier & Beachum discuss the impact on scholarship and research of this mixed message and propose that a positive discourse can be formed around the topics by addressing them head-on with the members of this discourse community at the college level but it may be too late.

Stephens and Few examine the same topic from the preadolescent level.  African-American women have been the subject of misogynistic attitudes from the Hip-hop performers and the community in general.  The misogyny is born from the overwhelming dominance of males as artists, producers, writers, and customers.  The author defines eight categories for Hip-hops definition of women:  diva, gold-digger, freak, lesbian, gangster girl, sister savior, earth mother, and baby mama.  The author discusses the connections between these images of women and promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, and violence towards women.

The article Real to Reel discusses the influence of hip-hop culture on cinema.  The Kaleidoscope of Writing on Hip Hop Culture discusses the categories of writing about Hip-hop.  Both carry the same message: there are people studying the genre for different purposes.  The purposes are split between academics, tourists, and adherents to the culture.  Everything written or filmed is geared towards one of these groups.

The biggest fear I carry as a mother is that my messages will be lost on my children.  As a parent you hope that for their whole life your children will hear your voice in their head when making decisions.  My personal aspiration as a mother is to be the voice of reason in my children’s head.  With a young daughter (2) and a son (will be born before the fall quarter) I fear that both may come under the influence of Hip-hop and receive the dangerous messages therein.  For my daughter the fear is that she will allow herself to be defined by the measurement of her body not her IQ.  For my son the fear is that he will view women as an accessory to be changed with his clothing.  Every child goes through a rebellious stage at some point in life.  Parents lament the terrible-twos but at least there are still 16-20 years to fix the problem afterwards.  My fear is the terrible-teens where there is less than a decade to fix whatever destructive messages are pumped into the heads of my children.

 

 

 

 

 

References

Brandt, D. (1998). Sponsors of Literacy. Literacy a Critical Sourcebook (pp. 555-571). Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Brunson III, J. E. (2011). Showing, Seeing: Hip-Hop, Visual Culture, and the Show-and-Tell Performance. Black History Bulletin, 74(1), 6-12.

Gee, J. (1989). Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction and What is Literacy?. Literacy a Critical Sourcebook (pp. 525-544). Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Price, J. J. (2005). HEGEMONY, HOPE, AND THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE: TAKING HIP HOP CULTURE SERIOUSLY. Convergence, 38(2), 55-64.

Prier, D., & Beachum, F. (2008). Conceptualizing a critical discourse around hip-hop culture and Black male youth in educational scholarship and research. International Journal Of Qualitative Studies In Education (QSE), 21(5), 519-535. doi:10.1080/09518390802297805

Stephens, D., & Few, A. (2007). Hip Hop Honey or Video Ho: African American Preadolescents’ Understanding of Female Sexual Scripts in Hip Hop Culture. Sexuality & Culture, 11(4), 48-69. doi:10.1007/s12119-007-9012-8

Stewart, J. (2009). Real to Reel: Filmic Constructions of Hip Hop Cultures and Hip Hop Identities. Interdisciplinary Humanities, 26(2), 49-67.

Woldu, G. (2010). The Kaleidoscope of Writing on Hip-Hop Culture. Notes, 67(1), 9-38.

 

Culture and Language

Culture and Language have connections beyond the obvious.  The authors of the reference pieces discuss the potential connections and investigate whether a causal relationship can be established between intellectual development and the bilingualism/biculturalism.

The authors are unable to find research that conclusively blames intellectual deficits on acquiring a second language.  The authors in fact find support for the idea that biculturalism and bilingualism as factors in improving the intellect of students.

The acquisition of a second language allows the learner to compare it structure and rules to the primary language and get a better understanding of the first from that comparison.  People acquire primary language rules through immersion not study so the rules are often unspoken, and therefore un-contemplated, by contemplating the rules in the study of a second language the applicability to the first is an additional benefit.  The second culure acquisition is the same.  Discovering the Mexican Holiday, Los Dios de Muerte (Day of the dead) draws comparisons to Memorial day in our country.  Their celebration is loud and boisterous with a focus on ancestors of all types.   Our celebration is somber and reverential with a focus on the military.  The only boisterousness is at the picnic after the celebration.

Annotated Bibliography – Hip Hop Discourse Study

Brandt, D. (1998). Sponsors of Literacy. Literacy a Critical Sourcebook (pp. 555-571). Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

The author examines the sources of literacy and by extension discourse.  The author examines the gatekeeper role that can be played by literacy/discourse and how that role continues by contributing or hindering development in a field.  This relates to my chosen topic because I plan to examine Hip-hop discourse and the impact it has had on urban youth.  The anecdotes provided by the author provide a literary framework that could be emulated in the paper I plan to write.

Brunson III, J. E. (2011). Showing, Seeing: Hip-Hop, Visual Culture, and the Show-and-Tell Performance. Black History Bulletin, 74(1), 6-12.

Hip-hop has gained significant relevance in the education community.  Educators are trying to communicate with a subculture that has grown to a level of major significance among the African-American and Latino communities, and touches some of the members of the Caucasian and Asian student populations as well.  The author proposes that there are three distinct rationales for the inclusion of Hip-hop discourse among educators:

1. Teachers are finding the incorporation of Hip-hop music into the curriculum a part of culturally responsive teaching.

2. The Hip-hop community is an integral part of the identity of many students particularly in the urban core.

3. Higher education has already embraced Hip-hop as a legitimate field of study.

Gee, J. (1989). Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction and What is Literacy?. Literacy a Critical Sourcebook (pp. 525-544). Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

The author introduces the concept of discourses and defines how the concept relates to college academics.  Of significance was the author’s comments on page 530 where he mentions that notions of functional literacy and competency based literacy are incoherent.  I cannot agree more.  The primary discourses of many communities mean that functional literacy is a relative term and the community of importance is the one in which the primary discourse is used.  If the person is fluent in that discourse all other may not only be irrelevant and unnecessary but potentially harmful as the use of that discourse could result in the speaker becoming a member of the out-group.

Price, J. J. (2005). HEGEMONY, HOPE, AND THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE: TAKING HIP HOP CULTURE SERIOUSLY. Convergence, 38(2), 55-64.

The author connects the Hip-hop movement to previous African-American cultural movements including the Harlem renaissance.  The Harlem Renaissance is examined through the lens of the hegemonic practices by the dominant culture.  The Hip-hop culture is connected to the other movements and examined for both impact to the dominant and subordinate culture.   The long-term impact is studied and both positive and negative outcomes examined.

Prier, D., & Beachum, F. (2008). Conceptualizing a critical discourse around hip-hop culture and Black male youth in educational scholarship and research. International Journal Of Qualitative Studies In Education (QSE), 21(5), 519-535. doi:10.1080/09518390802297805

The concept of African-American male identity is examined and the influences of hip-hop culture on the educational attitudes of African-American males are specifically detailed by the author.  The images of self and the process of empowerment are examined by the authors.  The author theorizes that an emancipatory concept can be formed that is positive and utilizes the same discourse as a way to empower the students who have popularized hip-hop.

Stephens, D., & Few, A. (2007). Hip Hop Honey or Video Ho: African American Preadolescents’ Understanding of Female Sexual Scripts in Hip Hop Culture. Sexuality & Culture, 11(4), 48-69. doi:10.1007/s12119-007-9012-8

African-American women have been the subject of misogynistic attitudes from the Hip-hop performers and the community in general.  The misogyny is born from the overwhelming dominance of males as artists, producers, writers, and customers.  The author defines eight categories for Hip-hops definition of women:  diva, gold-digger, freak, lesbian, gangster girl, sister savior, earth mother, and baby mama.  The author discusses the connections between these images of women and promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, and violence towards women.

Stewart, J. (2009). Real to Reel: Filmic Constructions of Hip Hop Cultures and Hip Hop Identities. Interdisciplinary Humanities, 26(2), 49-67.

There are multiple sub-genres of Hip-hop cinema and the understanding of the messages, image and discourses presented by the films.  In particular the influences of the pseudo-biographical and semi-biographical films of the biggest stars have served to provide a false template of role models for conduct among followers of the Hip-hop genre.  There have also been several documentaries produced that follow the genre.  The author discusses the hegemonic practices of the media in promoting these images specifically to the urban populations that make up the majority of adherents to the culture.

Woldu, G. (2010). The Kaleidoscope of Writing on Hip-Hop Culture. Notes, 67(1), 9-38.

The emergence of scholarly discourse about Hip-hop culture is categorized by the author into three subgroups with distinct purposes, language and audiences: journalists, cultural researchers, and fans.    The understanding of the multiple audiences is important to students interested in the genre because the points of view are different and that affects how the research can be used by students.

Literacy Sponsors – Nursing

The sponsors of literacy in the field of Nursing are the professional standards boards of each state.  These boards are the gatekeepers to the field.  The classifications, qualifications and courses of study that are required in each state are determined by these boards.  Their goal is to protect a high standard and keep the number of practitioners at a level that allows salaries to remain high.  The boards do not want just anyone getting hired.  Instead they establish LPN, RN, and Nurse Practitioner standards.  The colleges then implement coursework that promotes those standards.

 

The discourses of the nursing field are then established by those courses.  The vocabulary used, role in the workplace, ethical standards all flow from the board, to the colleges to the students to the workplace.  Even the perception of competence by the outside world is strongly influenced by the actions of the boards.

The relationship is positive in that the boards help make nursing a profession instead of a job.

Discourse Example – Hip Hop

The discourse community I plan to discuss is the “hip-hop / gansta rap” segment of the music industry and its ability to influence the larger culture.  The form of the genre is Hip-Hop music and the content of the genre is gansta rap.  In particular the counter-culture, almost oppositional defiant disorder, that is promoted by the music and results in a major disconnect between the value system promulgated by the music and the value system of mainstream society.  Additionally I plant to discuss the source of some of that discourse through the lens of critical race theory.

An example from this discourse community are the lyrics to the song “Steady Mobbin” by Ice Cube:

“Bustin caps in the mix Rather be judged by twelve than carried by six” – Ice Cube, Interscope Records

The form is a hip-hop song and the content is gansta rap.  The anti-authoritarian nature of the music is illustrated by the idea that court (and the subsequent jail sentence) is the better choice than death at the hands of the police.  The implications from other lyrics from the song and the genre are that the police do not offer a fair option so death is the result of any interactions.  The court system is not trusted by this discourse community but is a better option, even with jail time, because the individual is still alive.  This is antithetical to the “police officer is your friend,” messages of the DARE programs and other police-citizen interaction opportunities.

Critical Race Theory provides a framework for understanding the justifiable anti-establishment nature of African-American society.  The hip-hop/gansta rap genre takes that lack anti-establishment attitude to its logical or illogical conclusion depending upon perspective.  The spread of the genre from a subculture to the majority culture has been a result of emerging technology, a fracturing of the entertainment industry and a general degradation of societal standards.  Those three factors provided the proverbial “perfect storm” of which conditions allowed this discourse to emerge.

Discourse Community

Discourse Community – (Personal Definition)– A discourse community is a group of people who have the same critical lens, and vocabulary to describe the world seen through that lens, as the other members.

The rationale behind this definition is simple; a discourse is an experession of how the world is viewed.  The insular nature of the group who share a world view creates a vocabulary, syntax and structure that is unique to the members of that group.  Isolation and segregation of the group further influences this phenomenon.

American history is rife with examples of political, religious, racist, militias and gangs all develop their own discourse after their seclusion within their community.  The KKK used created words that all began with a K as a method showing support for the organization.  Gang members developed hand signs and clothing signals for the same purpose.  The political class has developed loaded words to describe opposition members and paint their positions without discussion.  The term “liberal” once had a very different meaning in American politics but that term is now used by many as a pejorative.

Discourse Examined – From Prison

“Da plane, Boss! Da plane! Da plane!” Those were the famous words of Tattoo from the show Fantasy Island. Tattoo was the nickname of my best friend when he was a child. It made sense; He was short, tan, and round just like Hervé Villachez the actor who played Tattoo.

When he became a young adult the only time he used a nickname was in his fraternity. He was known as Big Brother One Night. That name came from his ability to learn fraternity history and poetry in a single night, and from his lack of a steady girlfriend. After college, his only other nickname came from his skills at playing cards.

I mention all this because my friend went to prison for the first time and wrote to me about his experiences.  Within prison he discovered a society of gentleman who were greatly offended when any person used their real name, or what they call their “government.”

At first I was perplexed by his recounting of this phenomenon, but after several conversations with my friend and personal reflection I developed a theory that the choice to not use their birth name is partially cultural, but is mainly an attempt to define oneself. Consider the following; the overall society judges everyone by their paper trail, academic records, criminal history, credit rating, work history, all of these are linked to the name and social security number of an individual. Changing your social security number is impractical since the new number is attached to the old records. Changing the recorded paper trail of your life is impossible in an age where electronic records live forever on the internet. Changing how people address you is a way to take control, build a new reputation, and often to make a statement about yourself as an individual. So a person joining that society would need a nickname. For my friend the development of a nickname became a matter of social survival.

My friend ruined his government name by becoming a felon, destroying his credit and being kicked out of college. Becoming a member of a new discourse community in prison required the acquisition of a prison-society acceptable nickname.

This all relates to our discourse community discussion because this other discourse community in the prison system has been a major influence on the hip-hop discourse community and subsequently has bled into the dominant culture’s discourse community.  Understand this other community and the discourse necessary for survival can provide insight into the boarder community.  In fact it can be argued that an understanding of multiple discourses is the only way to truly understand the richness of a free society.  Think about the other nations of the world that suffer from oppression; in those countries the government is trying to control the discourse and the rebels are trying to develop their own.  Within the walls of the prison the inmates have developed their own discourse that helps define and is defined by their internal experiences.  While that discourse community probably translates to other prisons it also has some aspects that make it unique to that location.

James Paul Gee in his essay Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction and What is Literacy, presents the idea that a “a new field of study, integrating ‘psycho’ and ‘socio’ approaches to language from a variety of disciplines, is emerging, a field which we might call literacy studies. (Gee, page 525, 1989).  Think of the implications of a psycho, social, and linguistic study of the environment of a prison.  There have been books written by inmates, but few by inmates who entered prison already well-versed in academic discourse and qualitative methods, and then used those skills to write a paper after becoming a full-member of that discourse community.  Not a tourist or a Jane Goodall-like set of inferences regarding the behavior of the observed species.  Instead it would take full multi-year immersion with the same pressures as any other inmate; therefore the person would have to be an actual convict, not a plant.  In other words the study probably wouldn’t happen but the insights gained if it were possible are fascinating.  The reason full-immersion is required is that in order to fully understand the community the treatment by guards, the hopelessness of some circumstances and all other aspects need to be incorporated by the researcher.  Knowing they could walk out at any time changes the paradigm and their conclusions regarding the community.

The study of another discourse community could be valuable for any serious researcher who wants to understand their own discourse community.  In the process of establishing the rules for one a natural comparison to their home community will take place.  In order to fully understand the sociological trends occurring in modern society a study of the influences could greatly benefit educators, police officers, social workers and psychologists.  Prison is a good place to start.

 

 

References

 

Gee, James P. (1989). Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction and What is Literacy?. In Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook (525-544). Boston, Ma: Bedford Press.

Other Views on Discourse Communities

The concept of discourse communities is reminiscent of the arguments in California in the late 1990’s.  Educators in the state saw the positives of bilingual education being presented to Hispanic children and theorized that the same techniques, funding and attention could benefit African-American children who spoke a different dialect of English.  The uproar was immediate and critics reframed the argument as the teaching of “Ebonics.”  The actual argument was about discourse communities and whether or not presenting a new discourse community in the language of the primary discourse community could be beneficial.

The position of James Paul Gee in, The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse, is in essence, an admission of defeat; the author seems to feel that the presentation of a new discourse community to the individuals utilizing non-academic discourses will not help.  This is not only dangerous but flies in the face of American educational practices.  If teaching a new discourse doesn’t provide an effective means of integration into academic society then what was the purpose of the billions spent annually on English as a Second Language instruction?  The reason the California educators wanted to emulate the program with American children was because it works.

The position of David Bartholomae, as extrapolated from his essay, Inventing the University, is that Bartholomae would allow the students to speak in their native discourse and utilize their diverse thoughts, attitudes and actions to help reinvent the university.  The problem would be finding professors that buy into that notion and not drive off the non-standard discourse community through direct or indirect actions.

Lisa Delpit in her essay, The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse, advocates the direct instruction of Standard Discourse as a means of providing the skills to succeed in academic circles.  The author provides examples of African-Americans who have learned a new discourse that helped them be successful in multiple career fields.

As an African native who has learned multiple discourses I feel that all three have valid positions when examined theoretically.  Looking at the reality is a whole different assessment.  Hegemony is defined as practices of the dominant culture that are used to help maintain the position of dominance.  The whole policy of using discourse as a gatekeeper to academia, employment, and social status is a hegemonic practice.  It is personally offensive that there are such structural barriers in place that keep people from benefiting fully from the educational opportunities in this country.  Multiple barriers have been erected to makes sure the “right people” enter the “right colleges”: college application essays, SAT scores, and AP classes.   Those are all designed to weed out people by discourse not attitude, effort, intellect or potential contribution to the college community.  Upon enrollment format requirements, emphasis on written assignments and other structural barriers are put into the syllabus of the classes to ensure conformity of style, if not content.  The conformity of style is to make sure only students who have acquired a certain technique are full participants in the community.  The professor can then ignore ideas presented and take off points because a reference had the date before the page or some other trivial mistake.  The non-traditional voice is then shut-out with a professor free to argue that it was not the ideas but the format that was the problem.  Paolo Friere’s work Pedagogy of the Oppressed address these kinds of practices by the dominant culture and yet they never go away.

References

Bartholomae, David. (1985). Inventing the University. In Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook (511-524). Boston, Ma: Bedford Press.

Delpit, Lisa. (1995). The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse. In Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook (545-554). Boston, Ma: Bedford Press.

Gee, James P. (1989). Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction and What is Literacy?. In Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook (525-544). Boston, Ma: Bedford Press.