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‘the Finale’

As human beings, we are equipped with five senses to enable us to interact and respond to our environment. Sight is arguably by far the most important sense, but the ability to hear presents itself as a close second. Similarly to sight who consists of both passive and active processes, hearing is the passive auditory process while listening is the more consciously active process. Throughout this quarter we strategically utilized our ability to listen in order to enable us to critically analyze the different forms of sounds present throughout our history and modern society. While subsequently, both contextualizing these forms of sound to their time and dissecting the speaker's words to extract their explicit and implicit meaning.

 In order to properly commence our journey into sounds, we begin by analyzing the processes of listening and implement different techniques to acquire the most out of each speech or sound. In Kara Keeling and Josh Kun article, “Listening to American Studies,” they did a great job in highlighting the benefits of listening which consequently resulted in a shift in academia towards the study of listening in the article. Primarily, it’s historical use in America which facilitated the analysis of contemporary issues around immigration, imperialism, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, etc. As well as the analysis of a juxtaposition between sound as a form of power which enabled a certain racial group to voice their opinion and be heard.

Our journey began with the analysis of profound African American civil rights leaders that have unapologetically placed themselves on platforms that forced their voices to be heard and not neglected. Starting off with Malcolm X, we direct our focus towards his famous eulogy for the death of Ronald Stokes in the hands of police brutality. As I watched I realized that this wasn’t just a eulogy, but a call to action towards the black community that lived in the United States in the early 1960’s. Malcolm did an outstanding job in executing his speech as he constantly connected with the crowd in such a poetic manner; it reminded me of spoken word. From beginning to end, X articulated his “radical” beliefs of black progression in the system of white supremacy deeply rooted within America’s oppressive ideologies, mainly to aid a community that has been sickened by its environment. Throughout my analysis of his speech, I realized a common trend of his ability to illustrate the present systems of oppression through imagery that creates a realistic image for his listeners. An image of a typical day to day lives of an African American man or women living in America. Personally, the part that stood out the most to me was when he began to touch bases on the infection of self-hate that has found itself within African American communities through the historical implicit form of white supremacy. X says, Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? To such extent, you bleach, to get like the white man.”

Shifting our focus toward Martin Luther King famous speeches “Beyond Vietnam--- A Time to Break Silences”. Because of King’s background as academia, his speech was well articulated and strategically structured to address the issue the war in Vietnam while subsequently promoting peace and nonviolence. Initially, Martin’s speech seemed extremely dense and bland because of his calming voice. Not until I was able to read his speech while listening to it I was able to properly understand the deeper social structure he was challenging. Martin’s words were as, or even more, punctual than Malcolm as he both explicitly and implicitly broke down the upstream and downstream effects of the present systems of oppression in America. Which made me question why there was a societal belief that Malcolm was extremely radical compared to Martin. Not until I listen to both of their speeches side by side did I realize that Martin’s was considered ‘less radical’ mainly because he habitually addressed the different sectors of racism that was occurring in America implicitly. While Malcolm illustrated these different sectors by pointing out them out through contemporary issues within African American communities.  

Music, specifically hip-hop, has found its way into academia primarily through not only its presences as a form of expressionism for the artist but its ability to spread across the word and connect with a diverse population. Throughout hip hop’s comes a common trend of rhythmic beats that catches your attention, but is correspondent with lyrics that challenge the contemporary social structures. Rooting back to artist such as Public Enemy, N.W.A, and Wu-Tang Clan, these rap groups poetically dissected and illuminated the neglected, oppressive social structures present of their time. While expressing the common pain felt with black and brown bodies all across America. Specifically, Public Enemy’s song, “Fight the Power,” became a call to action to oppressed communities across the United States to rebel against the hegemonic systems and oppressive leaders that are in power. N.W.A embodied the same concept but took a more direct approach by blatantly pointing out the presences of police brutality within the black communities. This same theme of expressionism is demonstrated within modern day hip-hop artists such as Lupe Fiasco and Kendrick Lamar. Lupe Fiasco addressing a wide range of controversies within his song, “Words I Never Said.” In the first verse, “I think the war on terror is a bunch of bullsh**,” he challenges the United States President Richard Nixon’s decision to go to war on drugs which resulted in an increase in policing black and brown bodies.

Overall, through this journey of sound, I began to learn the true meaning of the active process of listening. It enables me to shed light on the dark corners that aren’t seen with the naked eye. As well as acquiring the proper tools to deconstruct everything I listen to based on its upstream and downstream effects and interpretation. As a consequence of the wide range of sounds and both the explicit and implicit complexities embedded in each sound; such as music, lecture, and/or podcast; facilitates its ability and necessity to study in all forms of academia.

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‘Podcast’

Because of our technological advancement in modern society, both the methods in which we acquire knowledge and record discourse has evolved. Similarly to the invention of the printing press, the introduction of video and audio recording has commenced a new chapter in contemporary disciplines. Specifically, with the transformation of audio discourse, such as podcasts, as a platform to express and educate its listeners has enabled its ability to enter into the modern curriculum. In this week’s article, Tiffanie Wen beautifully articulates the benefits of audio discourse as she explains its effects on our brain and our ability to learn. Wen quotes communication professor Emma Rodero, explain how,“Audio is one of the most intimate forms of media because you are constantly building your own images of the story in your mind and you’re creating your own production.” This enables the listener to attach their personal emotions and experiences to the audio discourse, and connect the acquired knowledge to the world they live in.

Throughout this week’s listening, I began to grow a greater understand of the purpose behind podcast. This realization primarily occurred after listening Francis Kissling’s podcast “Listening Beyond Life and Choice” which on the outside seems like a meer conversation, but in reality consist of a magnitude of philosophical layers. As Kissling illustrates her worldly viewpoint on abortion, it allowed me to perceive the subject from the position of a women and empathize with her situation. What stood out to me the most was when Kissling addressed her disapproval towards the idea of “meeting at a common ground”. Initially, I was skeptical of her position, but as she elaborates I began to understand and agree with her stance. As she explains the inability for two people with deep differences to reach a common ground, I began to realize that most cases in politics ‘common ground’ isn’t a compromise. In reality, it is a technique used to neglect the bigger issue because both parties aren’t really satisfied with the result. Historically, as a consequence induced the marginalization of the party with the lower power, i.e the formation and nullification of treaties amongst the indigenous people and the United States.  

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‘Kendrick Head of Internal Affairs’

The name Kendrick Lamar has become an icon in the hip-hop community through his ability to revive the highly neglected conscious element of hip-hop. With the combination of his revolutionary lyrics and uplifting, funky rhymes and rhythm, Kendrick Lamar has found himself a seat at the table beside legends such as Jay Z, Andre 3000, and much more. Kendrick has displayed his ability to surpass his peers on numerous occasions. Rooting back to his debut album Section 8.0 which consisted of songs that challenged socio-political controversy of that time such as Ronald Reagan Era, challenges the ‘war on drugs’; Kesha’s Song, issues in black femininity; Poe Man’s Dream, life as a lowerclassmen America; etc. To Kendrick’s most recent albums To Pimp A Butterfly and Damn, where Kendrick capitalizes on his status and platform to shed light on the numerous elephants in the room within the African American community.

In this week’s listen as we dive deep and dissect Kendrick’s work, we focus on his song “The Blacker the Berry”. This song is one of those songs which require you to not only listen to it a few time to get the full understanding but read the lyrics and do your own personal research to comprehend the context. The first time around hearing this song, his pre-hook (The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juicy x3 // The blacker the berry, the bigger I shoot) stood out to me the most because of his reference to Tupac song “Keep Ya Head Up”. As I listen to the song more and more, I began to realize not only the concept in which he was addressing but the reason why he continuously called himself a hypocrite. It is because of his historical demonstration of social consciousness which was in an aim to uplift black bodies, but on the contrary, he found himself in a middle ground that illustrated him as the enemy and the savior. With the increase in black on black crime and gang violence, Kendrick realized that there were internal conflicts within the black community rooting back to colonialism that forced black to be in a constant battle within themselves. Kendrick’s first and last bar encapsulates the whole concept as his begins with, “I'm the biggest hypocrite of 2015 // Once I finish this, witnesses will convey just what I mean, then finishes with, “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street when gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me? Hypocrite!”

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‘The Other Side of the Hill’

Hip Hop has established itself as more than just a genre of music, but both a sector of the African American culture and a culture of its own. A culture that allows the artist to expresses their deepest emotions, challenge social structures, and celebrate life while keeping rhythmic flow that rhymes. This culture has been demonstrated throughout hip hop’s history, rooting back to the 1982 song the Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, which illustrated the racial trials and tribulations faced by African American. The culture lives on till today through artists such as Kendrick and J Cole, who address issues around police brutality, racial inequalities, and constant battles faced by blacks in America. Hip-hop has evolved into a platform that inherited the rebellious traditions of rock combined it the dynamic wordplay of poetry, and served it to the world to shape contemporary popular culture.

Throughout my personal experiences with hip-hop, I have had numerous shifts and moments of enlightenment. Because of hip-hop artists ability to make the dynamic wordplay that is deep with sociopolitical themes sound so smooth, as a kid, the music went way over my head. Initially, I was under the impression that artists such as Wu-Tang Clan and Lauryn Hill, like most people, were landing on top of the charts because of their flow and upbeat tempo. Not until I took the time to dissect their lyrics was I able to understand the deeper reasoning behind their success. Within this week’s collection of music, Lauryn Hill’s song Black Rage has had the biggest impact on me; as I read the lyrics while listening to her song, it hit a soft spot on my heart. As she elucidates the true meaning behind black rage that has crippled the black community, Hill explains roots of this infection of black rage from early chattel slavery with her lyrics, “Black human packages tied and subsistence, Having to justify very existence.”  Hill never failed to demonstrate her level of intellect and ability to challenge social structures. Another great example by Hill was within her song Consumerism, where she exquisitely breaks down the origin, the many facets, and consequences of consumerism. Music with such dense topics and lyricism can only be understood by those that have a deep social conscious and background, similarly to MLK or Malcolm X’s speeches.

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“Politics -n- Music”

Artist such as Nina Simone and James Brown fueled the energy behind the civil rights movement with their music. Nina Simone exquisitely illustrates the utility of music within political movements with her song ‘Mississippi Goddam” where she expresses a nationwide pain felt from the Birmingham Church bombing. As a result, Mississippi Goddam not only sheds light on the neglected racial injustices against blacks but also became a cry for change across the United States. What really caught my eye was the fact that a song that is expressing pain and distress was reciprocated as a form of empowerment for the people and fueled rallies throughout the Civil Rights movement. Similarly, James Brown in his song “Say It Loud” used his upbeat Jazz tempo and his energized music platform to empower the black community during the Black Power Movement. Likewise, contemporary artists such as NWA, Public Enemy, Wu-Tang, and Milck utilize their talents and platform to address social issues. Personally, Wu-Tang stood out the most because of their ability to merge popular culture with an unorthodox rhyming scheme to address racial inequalities. In their song “A Better Tomorrow”, like Nina Simone, they address the relationship between minority communities and the systems we live in to display the pain felt within the minority communities. Even their title is a play with words; as they implicitly describe the presences of a “better tomorrow” through their explicit illustration of the negative consequences of being Black in America necessity for minority communities.   

Music has historically presented itself as an important platform in not only initiating but driving political movements. Within this week’s collection, we get a glimpse of music in action and its historical influence within the civil rights movement and contemporary movements. Jonathan C. Friedman initiates the conversation with his article as he explains, “Performance is clearly a potent medium for spreading and making accessible what otherwise might be problematic and unpopular.” In this case, Friedman generalizes the use of the verbal performances such as poetry, plays, and music as an essential medium. With this week’s collection, we take it a step further and direct our focus towards the use of music within political movements.  

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James Baldwin aka ‘Baldwin’s Nigger’

In this week's collection of readings and listenings, we observed the works of James Baldwin, focusing primarily on his presence as a poet, writer, and civil-rights activist. Personally, James Baldwin is amongst one of the many artists from the Harlem Renaissance who is briefly discussed throughout our curriculum but doesn’t receive the proper recognition that he deserves. In his speech “Baldwin’s Nigger”, he attempts to form a bridge between the socio-political challenges faced by the black communities in the United States and the Caribbean community around Europe. Baldwin does a great job by articulating and dissecting the deeply encrypted systems of hegemony that has been embedded around the United States, through his personal stories and experience. Throughout his talk, Baldwin unintentionally connects with the audience on a personal level as they display a unified recognition of the challenges he experienced.  

Baldwin’s powerful word choice alone can move a mountain, along with his use of body language and unorthodox articulation formulated a more stunning execution and a better understanding of his work. Within this speech, his ability to speak his mind about issues that have been habitually silenced at that time in such a calm, but blunt, manner really stood out to me. Specifically, when he was addressing the issue around identity and the necessity for black and brown communities to identify their presence within the system, Baldwin’s tone of voice was the main driving force of his message. Personally, I could feel the pain and struggles he had faced which brought him to this position and conclusion. Along with statements that connected self-identification to a form of rebellion or revolution against the system that still views black and brown bodies as property or merely another statistic.

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‘King’

Whoever knew reading a speech would be as, or more beneficial, than listening to it? In this week’s collection of reading, we focused on listening to Dr. Martin Luther King’s speeches and studied his choice of words and its meaning. Dr. King’s speeches have always placed me in this position to sternly analyze my environment and truly see the systems of oppression that have been instilled in our society. While this week’s reading and speeches did a great job to reiterate this theme, it opened my eyes to use of reading a speech. This time, it enabled me to pause at moments of ignorance and self-educate, comparability to in the past where I simply looked past those moments and focus on the bigger picture. Through the collaboration of reading and listening to his speech, I was able to connect the minor, but crucial, details of his speech to the bigger picture in which he was intending for.

Dr. Martin Luther King, MLK. His name alone speaks for itself; his reputation of peace and collective societal progression is demonstrated in any, and every, form of discourse in which he was mentioned in. MLK’s ability to connect and unify his audience and bring them to common understanding was his biggest asset and, as I believe, the main drive of his succession. Along with his belief of peaceful progression and his drive to retract from violent popular culture. This forced him to ‘think outside the box’ and create tangible strategies by playing with the cards he was dealt when it came to taking action. Throughout his life, he’s presented this notion that the power is truly instilled within the people, and with the people, the power will be allocated properly.

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‘X’

Malcolm X was a demonstration of not only black excellence but the American dream in its purest form. In each speech, he exquisitely articulated his “radical” beliefs of black progression in a system of oppression in order to aid a community that has been sickened by its environment. X did a great job by explicitly pointing out the day to day struggles that were faced by black bodies through the United States. His speeches illustrated each multifaceted forms of oppression in America; from system-wide racial discrimination, ie. police brutality, to a societal demonstration of white supremacy. As X flourished from the concretes of America, he blossomed to become a tree that presented structure and durability to the black community with a strong connection to his roots. In my opinion, X was the “father figure” of the civil rights movement through his ability to forcefully feed America explicit criticism that became the medicine it needed, while a shoulder of support for his people.

This weeks reading and speech revolving around Malcolm X collaboratively worked hand in hand in understanding both X’s words and its effects on the listener. The reading did a great job by setting the groundwork by providing a well-articulated background of X as a Pro-Black activist and his consequences of his work. So when I was listening to his speech, it was smoother to listen and clearer to understand his intent. It wasn’t the first time hearing X’s speech, “Eulogy for Ronald Stokes”, but the difference is this time I took the time to critically investigate his explicit and implicit meaning.

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‘like an introduction’

Throughout this week’s readings, the common theme of shifting away from passively ‘hearing towards active ‘listening’ to verbal discourse was constantly presented. Each reading illustrated the power of sound and the use verbal discourse throughout history to convey an idea or influences a group of people. Both Tara Rodgers and Charles Hirschkind dissected different forms of sounds and dive deep in order to identify their use. Rogers demonstrates an artist's use of music and ‘sounds’ to express their identity and individuality, while Hirschkind examines the construction of Islamic sermons to properly understand its influence on the listener. The other two reading did a great job in highlighting the literal power of ‘sound’ and how it can benefit or hold a group or an individual with its presence or lack of.

Only until I came to college did a truly understand the process of critically analyzing the information we are present in life. Majority of my life, I have believed this naive notion that the educational system, along with news outlets, were in place to educate the people. Reality hit with the deeper understanding of systems of power in place and a critical analysis of the origins of each discourse. Similarly, this week’s readings shifted my understanding from written discourse to verbal course; in order to properly listen to verbal discourse, you have to dissect both the explicit and implicit meaning of the speaker. These collections of articles set the groundwork to properly understand the theme of this course, as well as how to listen throughout the class.