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letterboxd · 5 years ago

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Satisfied?

We examine what Letterboxd reviews of Hamilton reveal about the musical’s cultural currency in 2020.

In this absolutely insane year, when our love of movies feels helpless in the face of pandemic-induced economic collapse, some extremely good decisions are being made on behalf of audiences. Studio Ghibli on streaming platforms. Virtual screenings to support art house cinemas. Free streaming of many important films about Black experience. And: Disney+ releasing the filmed version of Hamilton: An American Musical—recorded at the Richard Rodgers Theater in 2016 with most of its original Broadway cast—a year ahead of schedule, on Independence Day weekend.

“Superlative pop art,” writes Wesley of the filmed musical. “Hamilton wears its influences and themes on its sleeve, and it’s all the better for it. Lin-Manuel Miranda and his team employ an unlikely cocktail of not only hip-hop and showtunes, but also jazz (‘What’d I Miss?’), British-Invasion pop-rock (‘You’ll Be Back’), folk music (‘Dear Theodosia’) and Shakespeare (‘Take a Break’) in service of developing an impressively vast array of themes. This is a testament to the power of writing, an immigrant narrative, a cautionary tale about ambition, a tragic family drama, and a reevaluation of who decides the narrative of history.”

2016 may only be a half-decade ago, but it feels like an eon in American political years. With theaters dark and America’s long record of racism under urgent scrutiny, the complex smash-hit lands back in the spotlight at an interesting time. Is Hamilton “the most offensive cultural artefact of the last decade”, as Lee writes? Or “timeless and wholly of the moment”, as Tom suggests? The answer, according to a deep read of your Letterboxd reviews, is “all of the above”.

First things first: why now?

Sophie has a theory:

“Disney executive: Hey we’re losing a lot of money because our parks are closed. How do we start making money again?

Other Disney executive: It might be nice, it might be nice… to get Hamilton on our side.”

Sure, business. Still, it’s historically unprecedented that a Broadway show of this caliber (a record-setting sixteen Tony nominations, eleven wins, plus a Grammy and a Pulitzer) would be filmed and released to the public while it’s still, in a Covid-free universe, capable of filling theaters every night. Will people stay away when Broadway reopens because they’re all Disney+’d out?

No chance, reckons Erika. “I’d still kill to see Hamilton live with any cast… I get why producers are afraid that these videos might hurt ticket sales, but I’m fucking ready to buy a ticket and fly to NY one day just to see as many shows as I can after watching this.”

Not every musical fan has the resources to travel, often waiting years for a touring version to come near their hometown. And even if you do live in a town with Hamilton, the ticket price is beyond many; a daily lottery the only way some of us get to go. So Holly-Beth speaks for many when she writes: “I entered the Hamilton lottery every day for almost two years but I never got to be in the room where it happens… however, this 4K recording of the original cast will do very nicely for now! Finally getting to see the context and performances after obsessing over the music for years was so, so satisfying.”

“Finally” is a common theme. Sydnie writes, “I love this musical with every fiber of my body and it was an extraordinary experience finally getting to watch it in Australia”. Flogic: “To finally be able to put the intended visuals to a soundtrack that I’ve had on repeat for such a long time: goosebumps for 160 minutes.” Newt Potter: “Now I fully understand people’s love for this masterpiece of a musical!”

I’ve got a small query for you.

Where’s the motherfucking swearing? Unsurprisingly, Disney+ comes with some limitations. For Hamilton, it’s the loss of a perfectly placed F-word.

“I know Disney is ‘too pure’ to let a couple of ‘fucks’ slip by,” writes Fernando, “but come on, it’s kind of distracting having the sound go out completely when they sing the very satisfying ‘Southern Motherfucking Democratic Republicans!’ line.”

Will agrees: “Disney cutting ‘motherfucking’ from ‘Washington on Your Side’ felt like sacrilege akin to Mickey Mouse taking an eyebrow pencil to the Mona Lisa.”

Nevertheless, sings Allison:

“Even tho Disney stripped the story of its f***s, Don’t think for a moment that it sucks.”

(Yes, she has a vegan alert for Hamilton.)

Does it throw away its shot?

The crew filmed two regular shows in front of live audiences, with additional audience-less sessions for a dolly, crane and Steadicam to capture specific numbers. The vast majority of you are satisfied. “It’s the most engaging and expertly crafted life filming I’ve seen since Stop Making Sense,” writes ArtPig. “The film does an incredible job of placing you right in the action. It feels like the best seat you could get in the theater. You can see the sweat and spit.”

“Translates perfectly onto the small screen,” agrees Ollie. “There’s a level of intimacy that feels hard to replicate in any other filmed production. We see those close ups, the passion and gusto behind every actor’s performance.”

“Shockingly cinematic for something filmed on such a small stage,” is Technerd’s succinct summary, while Paul praises director Thomas Kail: “He knows when to back away along with moving nearer when appropriate, and the choices always serve to govern the power and stamina of the performances.”

Though cast members’ voices were recorded on individual audio tracks, Noah had a few quibbles with the sound quality. “Some of the audio capture is off in the recording, sometimes voices being too soft or too loud. It’s not immersion breaking, but it is noticeable enough to irk me a little in pivotal moments. Some of the shot composition doesn’t fully work either. Of course nothing is going to be as good as seeing it in person.”

Robert, recalling another recent cinematic escapade of musical theater, lets his poetry do the talking:

“This will do for now until the true movie’s made, Though if Hooper directs, there’ll be an angry tirade.”

I think your pants look hot.

Hamilton fans have their cast favorites, but something about being able to see Jonathan Groff’s spittle and Leslie Odom Jr’s scowls in 4K has you losing it all over again. Several specific shout-outs we enjoyed:

“Daveed Diggs the Legend! Go watch Blindspotting (2018), it’s one of the best movies ever!” —Kyle

“It’s hard to believe anyone will ever top Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr. I already loved him from the original cast recording, but seeing his full performance in all its glory was just godly.” —Erika

“Thankful that it was made possible for me to view with such clarity the phenomenon that is Renée Elise Goldsberry and spectacular Phillipa Soo.” —Thea

“Daveed Diggs was electrifying and Jonathan Groff was absolutely hilarious. If they interacted together the stage would’ve combusted from the sheer will of their talent.” —Nick

This is not a game.

On one hand, the release of Hamilton is sweet relief for music theater nerds riding out the pandemic. A generation of kids knows every word by heart, rapping (this version of) American history like it’s no thing. On the other, the Obama-era musical already feels behind-the-times, even for many Hamilton lovers, and the filmed version has brought that into sharp focus.

“I listened to the OG cast album about 50 times when it came out, the production is about as good as I’d always hoped,” writes Josh. “Since then however there’s been a very important and broader reckoning with the failures of neoliberalism and the Obama years ([from] which this has to be the most emblematic piece of art) and for me personally a drifting further to the left that has resulted in a very different relationship with the material. So my feelings today are a bit more complicated.”

“Hamilton is extremely non-committal about its politics,” writes Sting. “It doesn’t examine much of what Hamilton dictated besides ‘he wants complete financial control of the country’ (which would sound like a fucking supervillain in any other context, including reality).”

That lack of political commitment, reckons Morgan, is what helped Hamilton as a musical become so popular: “It’s fun. It’s catchy. It interweaves trendy and socially relevant artistic tools to infer a subversive subtext, while simultaneously sanitizing and, at times, flat out fabricating the historical narrative and downplaying the brutality of the true origin story, for the sake of appeasing those in power. Classic Bill Shakespeare stuff.”

History has its eyes on you.

Much criticism lies with the fundamental storytelling decision to make a modern ruckus about America’s Founding Fathers, the men (including Alexander Hamilton) who in the late eighteenth century united the thirteen colonies and co-wrote the Constitution. Undisputed titans of history, they also have blood on their hands, and HoneyRose writes that the musical “glorifies these men, and paints them as self-sacrificing heroes, and honestly normalizes and validates slavery, as well as the behavior of slave owners.”

Stevie, who saw the Broadway production as well as the filmed version, confesses: “I’ve tried (I’ve really tried) to understand what makes people lose their minds over this but I’m still completely baffled by the hype… These were horrible men and a romanticism of them through song and dance just seems entirely misguided.”

Sean is not convinced that Hamilton is a hagiography. “I can’t imagine anyone watching all of this and thinking it paints a portrait of the Founding Fathers as anything other than childish, greedy, venal and self-aggrandizing.” Wesley agrees: “I don’t think Hamilton is trying to be a history lesson, so much as a lesson about how we think about history. It’s a compelling human story told in a revolutionary way.”

That “revolutionary way” is the musical’s central conceit: that of a cast-of-color playing the white founding fathers as they bumble towards independence. Journalist Jamelle Bouie, who regards the musical as “fun, exciting, innovative and, at points, genuinely moving,” wrestles with the “celebratory narrative in which the Framers are men to admire without reservation. Through its casting, it invites audiences of color to take ownership of that narrative, as if they should want to take ownership of a narrative that white-washes the history of the revolution under the guise of inclusion.”

It’s complicated for Matt, too: “It’s widely agreed upon that the show encapsulates the Obama era better than anything, how it coddles white liberals with a post-racial vision of history in a superficial sense, overlooking the insidious and oppressive systems that they benefit from (hearing the audience clap to ‘Immigrants, we get the job done’ unsettled me). Of course hopefully its legacy will be that it opened up more Broadway roles for POC. But I really think that the show doesn’t make Broadway more appealing and accessible to POC, it just makes hip hop more accessible to white people, a launching pad of course to listening to Watsky or something.

“No hate though to anyone that’s completely in love with this, it’s definitely worth seeing despite any hang ups.”

I wanna build something that’s gonna outlive me.

The story doesn’t end, just because the music does. Kai_Kenn has a suggestion: “I have been a part of discussions that dissect the culture that created Hamilton, as well as the culture that Hamilton created, and whether or not Hamilton appropriately addresses the modern issues [that] the cult following proposes it does.

“This is an ongoing discussion that I am trying to be an active listener in and, if you consider yourself to be a conscientious consumer of art, you should too.”

Noah is on board with that: “Reflecting on the past and focusing on the future are not two mutually exclusive actions. Both are a must, regardless of who you are or what you do. A five-star experience in a four-and-a-half-star film. I think that’s just fine.”

Related content

Want to see more of the key cast? Watch Daveed Diggs in ‘Blindspotting’; Renée Elise Goldsberry in ‘Waves’, Jonathan Groff repeat his role as Kristoff in ‘Frozen 2’, Lin-Manuel Miranda in ‘Mary Poppins Returns’, Leslie Odom Jr. in ‘Harriet’, Phillipa Soo in the forthcoming ‘Broken Hearts Gallery’, Christopher Jackson in the forthcoming ‘In The Heights’, Jasmine Cephas Jones in ‘The Photograph’, Okiereriete Onaodowan in ‘A Quiet Place II’ and Anthony Ramos in ‘Monsters and Men’ and ‘A Star is Born’.

Ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement

Official Black Lives Matter’s Resources

Teenagers that have ‘Hamilton’ stuff on their bedroom walls

Films where they mention ‘Hamilton’

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intoxicatingimmediacy · 5 years ago

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Interview with horrorcore hip-hop geniuses Clipping.

[...] In that sense, There Existed An Addiction to Blood is Clipping’s response to the horrorcore hip-hop of Brotha Lynch Hung and early Three 6 Mafia, which they’ve always loved and knew they wanted to pay homage to. But also, as horror film and literature lifers, their long-awaited opportunity to make a musical anthology of horror stories in the vein of the blaxploitation flicks of the 1970s—which they view as distinctly political, as Clipping has always been. The title of the album is taken from the 1973 film Ganja & Hess, an avant-garde horror film about black vampires that’s sampled in the centerpiece of the album, “Blood of the Fang.”

“It’s a lot of things I’m attracted to and interested in in noise, and metal, and extreme music,” Hutson says. “Which is, like, a very vocal hard-left, anti-racist politics. But that’s handled kind of irresponsibly and violently, in a way that would be frowned upon by non-anarchists, I guess.”

[...] You’re all working in the visual arts field outside of Clipping. How do your experiences in that realm influence what you’re doing in Clipping itself?

Hutson: Jonathon will get an idea that some other project is not interested in and won’t let him do, that he’ll bring to Clipping and then we’ll do it. Clipping is where we get to do all the things that we think of in our normal lives, and apply those things to a thing that we know the three of us want to do and trust each other in. And [where we] want to do weirder, more out-there ideas that maybe not everyone else wants.

Snipes: Even the thermos that we sampled for “Work Work” [off of 2014’s CLPPNG] for the main rhythm was an opening night gift from a play I sound-designed. But I used to really compartmentalize and think of all of my different works and practices as separate, and Clipping was the thing that made me see how connected they all are. Like, this technique that I learned from doing a play could somehow be applied to making a rap song.

Hutson: At least a couple songs on this new album started as movie pitches that we turned into songs. That were, like, ideas I had for screenplays.

[...] Tell me about the making of the song “Run For Your Life,” which has all sorts of different beats and instrumental moves going on.

Hutson: That was two different ideas stuck together. I wanted a song with La Chat [of Three 6 Mafia] because she’s sort of a horrorcore icon. She was always the scariest, toughest member of Three 6 in those days. And I had this idea of her verse that was basically her hunting down someone, driving through the streets chasing someone who’s running from her. And Jonathon had had this idea years and years ago that we had been talking about forever that would be Daveed rapping on a street corner, and every car that goes by would be playing a different beat that was all synced up.

Snipes: This is a perfect example of me having a crazy and goofy idea that Bill reigns in and makes really specific. In my version of this, each car is listening to a reggaeton station or a classical station or talk radio, totally different genre mashups. I have ideas that are centrally novelty songs that Bill somehow manages to make into something that’s smart and specific.

[...] What do you like so much about horrorcore? What attracts you to that style and why did you want to work within that aesthetic for this album?

Hutson: Apparently my house [growing up] was the house where all of our friends could come and watch R-rated horror movies. My parents were the ones who let us do that and their parents didn’t, so my house was the secret-sleepover-to-watch-the-Texas Chainsaw Massacre-house. And so I feel like I grew up with that very much being a part of who I was and what I was interested in. When I was in graduate school the course I got to teach a summer course that was called Monsters and the Uncanny in American Popular Culture. That was just an introduction to different social theory, each paired with a horror story and a horror movie. It would be like, “here’s the basic primer on Marxism or anti-racist theory or queer theroy,” and each week would be a different horror movie and a different horror text to illustrate those things. So I guess part of my interest in horror is always political in the sense that it’s always a good metaphor for what a culture is afraid of at any given time. It’s a good metaphor for that political climate and how you can use those monsters to address what’s going on.

#bill hutson #jonathan snipes #daveed diggs #clipping.#clipping #it bugs me no end that they misspell jonathan's name

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elwoodbonner424-blog · 6 years ago

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25 Greatest Pop Songs Of 2018

Ambient is a mode that describes a large spectrum of music. The swing period made stars of many popular singers together with the young Frank Sinatra , Bing Crosby , Dinah Shore , Jo Stafford , Perry Como , Peggy Lee , Patti Web page , and David Whitfield Two notable innovations had been the addition of string sections and orchestral preparations and extra emphasis on the vocal efficiency. 2 The addition of lush strings will be heard in a lot of the favored music all through the Forties and Nineteen Fifties. Within the early 1950s because the dominance of swing gave strategy to the normal pop music era, most of the vocalists related to swing bands became even more widespread, and were central figures in common music. There have been a couple of educational tasks that have discussed homogeneity of music. In 2017, Noah Askin and Michael Mauskapf researched What Makes a Quantity One Hit , utilizing EchoNest knowledge. They discovered that songs that attain the very best echelons of the charts bear some similarity to other in style songs that are out on the same time, however they should be unique in certain methods. That's, they should be optimally differentiated." Similar to this article, they produced a music similarity rating referred to as typicality." Not like our method, this metric controlled for style. That's, songs had been in contrast within their style of hip hop, rock, country, and many others. somewhat than the entire Billboard chart. We had them produce their typicality rating for songs reaching the highest 10, and the results are considerably similar to ours (line going up = songs are more similar), although the trend only begins in the Nineteen Nineties, with songs changing into extra numerous from the late-50s to late-80s. I have been pondering just lately about what it is that provides rise to 'good' and 'dangerous' pop music. I think pop music is a singular style, since industrial success and significant acclaim don't necessarily go hand-in-hand. It is doable for a pop music to be massively profitable but be universally panned by critics. Nevertheless, it's nonetheless fairly frequent for pop songs to be loved by the masses and receive optimistic reviews. A number of examples that instantly spring to thoughts are the likes of Royals, Uptown Funk, Get Fortunate, and Any person That I Used To Know which all enjoyed great success whilst receiving mostly positive reviews. Nonetheless, then again you've gotten the current success of Shape Of You which of them has garnered mostly lukewarm to negative critiques regardless of dominating the charts.

The piano, in particular, has been an unparalleled outlet for those seeking escape, artistic expression, and easily fun and joy. The modern piano has 36 black and 52 white keys, making a total of 88 keys and www.magicaudiotools.com is played using a keyboard. The piano was first invented round 1700 and is used for a lot of forms of music including classical, jazz, traditional and popular. Typically regarded as the best musical instrument to begin enjoying it is highly versatile, has a large-range and a grand ability to alter dynamics. You like music and want to know what you're talking about in an effort to be the one whom all of your friends and family will depend on when they wish to know more about pop music. Pop is the short time period for "Fashionable" and it encompasses a lot of music. Since what's fashionable modifications with time, lots of various kinds of music will depend as pop. You'll be able to construct your musical information and familiarity with the world of pop music with a little help from wikiHow. See more on how after the jump.

After all, real causes for shame are riddled via pop historical past: American widespread tradition has its deepest roots in slavery, the blackface minstrel present, ethnic vaudeville comedy, brothels and burlesque, religious revival actions, rural poverty, urban segregation, mob-run clubs and labels, wheeler-dealer rip-offs and plenty of different not-so-fairly chapters. Cultural theft, pandering, shock and other crass strikes are sure up with pop innovation and creativity. Be crucial, however don't get on excessive horses, as a result of very few of our artistic heroes might be disentangled from these dubious, typically tragic associations.So one might ask: does at this time's church leadership have a responsibility to edify its congregation by presenting each shorter and longer pieces, in quite a lot of kinds, from completely different eras and for various mixtures of devices? Isn't this the best way to …put together God's people for works of service, in order that the physique of Christ may be built up…"(Eph. 4:12)? Contemporary Christian worship songs are sometimes lovely, exciting, and inspirational, but for my part, to summarily eradicate all different kinds of music just isn't reflective of latest life. Such a apply is not going to solely forestall younger churchgoers from recognizing and remembering hymns and different sacred music from the past 500 years — it might also produce in them an underdeveloped artistic sense. They might discover it difficult to enter and performance in a culture that also values intellectual achievement and the art of music in all its guises.We have minimized the music industry, but did rock stars emerge regardless of the most important labels or in part because of them? I believe the large commerce-off we used to have was that loopy, risky individuals who can't even gown themselves could make thousands and thousands as recording artists as a result of that they had 20 staffers around to put their pants on for them. If you're bananas, you are great onstage, but offstage you must be led round and talked to love a ninety-12 months-previous ("RIGHT HERE IS THE MICROPHONE. WE WANT YOU TO SING NOW.") since you are unimaginable, and that's a relationship that requires two parties.Meanwhile, Nogueira can also be putting on music live shows particularly composed for the enjoyment of CI users. He and his colleagues within the Auditory Prosthetic Group at the college's German Hearing Heart organized meetings between composers and CI customers, who shared details about the expertise and their experiences with music. The musicians then wrote electroacoustic numbers impressed by what they'd discovered and by the patients themselves. We have been aiming at music that can be similarly perceived by CI users and normal hearing listeners," says Nogueira.Some, like Eric Clapton (Tears In Heaven") and Carlos Santana (Supernatural"), are '60s veterans who traveled a protracted, exhausting street to mainstream pop success. Then there are the MTV-era stars, who convey the glamour and technical perfection of vintage Hollywood to modern music: Janet Jackson (That's The Approach Love Goes"), Toni Braxton (Un-Break My Heart"), Mariah Carey (One Sweet Day"), and Sheryl Crow (All I Wanna Do"). Different current-day pop icons —a mong them Li'l Kim, R. Kelly , and Snoop Dogg — have crossed over to the mainstream from the r&b and rap charts, just as Religion Hill and Shania Twain have executed from their original base in nation music.

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weaselle · 7 years ago

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PSA for white cishet men

Okay, so, especially for a lot of you young’uns who are getting the bulk of your social input from the internet (but also for anyone else) If you are white, cishet, and male it can seem... all of society is rallying against you. And I want to address that with you right now. The below post mentions some identities more than others, but is equally relevant in terms of racism, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, transphobia - all the phobias and isms. A large portion of society IS rallying against whiteness, maleness, heterosexuality, etc, ... and it is important that they are. And this does not make you a bad person for being those things. First, my credentials. I am white-passing, cishetman-passing, and have never been treated as anything else in my life. I am also 1/4 Japanese and some kind of nonbinary that, if I could go back 25 or 35 years and help young me understand more, would likely be a trans woman and a lesbian today. And even though I am not 100% white, 100% male, or 100% cishet, I have moved through society as if I am all of these things, even spending decades trying my best to identify as these things. And, importantly, I have experienced a full measure of all the privileges, advantages, social indoctrination and special treatment that come with those things. I want to reach out to those white cishet men who are pushing back against what they feel is unfair assignment of negativity to parts of their being and identity they have no control over. Especially when I was young, I have felt that terrible self hatred and helpless desperation that can happen when you are a decent person trying to interface with yourself about what it means to be white, straight, cis, male, etc in this society today. Unfair assignment of negativity to parts of people’s being and identity that they have no control over is exactly the issue, and if you feel it is being applied to you, the first thing you have to understand is that this is a natural, normal, and necessary part of correcting a millennia-long imbalance. Unfair assignment of negativity to parts of people’s being and identity that they have no control over has been happening to everyone without our white male cishet attributes for hundreds of years, with much more visceral consequences for them than us. You may feel that white people are cast in a bad light right now, but there were literal lynchings of black people only 10 years before I was born, and black people still die unfairly at the hands of white people only because of the color of their skin. You may feel that cishets are cast in a bad light right now, but a few years ago in my city a young person publicly perceived as male was set on fire on a bus for wearing a skirt. You may feel that men are cast in a bad light simply for being men but U.S. rape rates of women are astoundingly high... as well as things like, my mother was not allowed to get a credit card from a bank without permission simply because she was a woman. Let me be clear. As an adult woman, THE BANK required her to have written permission from her father or husband to apply for a credit card. Men have had and still have unfair access to real social power and advantage. White people have had and still have unfair access to real social power and advantage, cis-hets have had and still have... etc. This “cast in a bad light” thing, the assignment of negativity to whiteness, maleness, heterosexuality, and other identity markers you have no control over? The more sensitive you are about it, the more likely it is that you haven’t experienced the kind of visceral consequences for that negative value that others have. It can be easy to be sensitive about it, but this “cast in a bad light” thing isn’t preventing straight white men from being paid more, being promoted to CEO more, etc etc. And while YOU may feel that men are currently cast in a bad light, that’s not as true in society at large as may seem if you are white and male and NOT a CEO, and face plenty of adversity in your life. So yes. “whiteness” and “manhood” and “heterosexuality” are all concepts that are being assigned negative value right now. What you are feeling is society PUSHING those concepts out of their centralized place to make room for everybody else. When, due only to who you have been born as, you feel that push, it is not the fault of the people doing the pushing, it is the fault of our ancestors that made such pushing necessary. And it is necessary. Your feelings of self worth may well just be a casualty in society’s fight for this change. But they don’t have to be. We don’t have to feel bad, or attacked - sometimes it’s just hard not to. But nobody is specifically setting out to make us personally feel bad; that’s our own issue to deal with. What is happening in American Society (and Modern Western Culture in general) regarding these attributes, is much larger than our personal experience or lifetime. And it is far from over. YOU may feel that you have arrived on the shores of equality for all, but this society has not, and that push NEEDS to continue happening. So, while not everybody is going to be able to parse this in such terms for you, let me re-assure you. We are not trying to tell you whiteness itself is bad. It’s okay to be white. But nobody is going to feel like they have to tell you that it’s okay to be white, because politicians and banks and police in our society already reenforce that it’s okay to be white, in ways that matter more than somebody’s feelings. Similarly, most people are not trying to tell you maleness or heterosexuality is something you need to be ashamed of, but they won’t feel like they have to reassure you of that for the same kind of reasons. And some people WILL tell you that you should be ashamed of those things, and that is because THEY have been made to feel ashamed of THEIR sexuality, gender, or race. Understand that and move on from it. What is being fought against is not your literal skin color or sexual orientation or gender, what is being fought against is the concepts of the “white” “cis/het” and “male” values of these attributes as they currently function in this society. Almost everyone understands that many white/cis/het/men are good people trying their best. And, this is very important, you can be both. You can be both a good person who is worthy of love and admiration and who tries their best and who would never knowingly be a bigot, AND participate in bigoted ideology. In fact we all do. Let me give you an example of how I have been both. Now, I have made it my life’s work to be as good and humane a person as I can be, and I would never KNOWINGLY do racist things. When I was young, in my twenties, I would have told you unequivocally that I was not racist. I would have been wrong. Just one way I was wrong is something I didn’t learn until I was in my young 30′s, and it was startling. See, sometimes in this life, when scared, or in an intense situation, or even as a joke, we act “tough”. And, I forget what it was that prompted me to examine this, but, I discovered that on those occasions, when I was acting “tough”... what I was really acting was “black”. My hand movements, my body language, my vocabulary and pronunciation... when I felt like presenting myself as tough, these all became rough copies of stereotypical black culture. My hands would move like I was in a rap video, my head movements the same, my pronunciation of words like “motherfucker” changed, my use of black vernacular increased. And I was totally unaware that this is what I was doing when I was trying to act tough. When I sat down to unpack that, I realized that I wasn’t acting like black people I knew (which were too few, having grown up in a little white-bread California town) I was acting like black people from movies and TV. The only conclusion I could reach was that through this media, society had taught me that black people are dangerous, so when I wanted to be scary and tough, that’s what I acted like. But before I made myself look into this, I NEVER would have realized that on some level I thought black people were scary, and I had NO IDEA I was doing this clearly racist thing. The fact that I WAS doing it didn’t make me a bad person... just ignorant of my own racism. Especially if you are young, in your teens and twenties, and white, watch the white people around you when they act “tough”. It won’t be every one of them or all the time, but it will be a lot. When you’re looking for it, it’s really obvious. These days, I know my own toughness, and I never have to do any acting about it. These days I know that tough looks like being in a U.S. Air Force interrogation room in Germany and being clearly scared as shit but still repeatedly saying “I would like to continue to be cooperative, but if the questions are about my friends on base, I will not speak without a lawyer”. These days, all my toughness comes from inside. But, I know there are other things I do that I am not yet aware of that are just as racist. And homophobic. And misogynistic. And ableist. And just, informed and nurtured by my bigoted society in general. When you hear “all white people are racist” it does NOT mean the people saying it think you specifically are going around doing evil racist things on purpose. It means that when a white guy is in charge of hiring, he will pass over applications of qualified people if they have black-sounding names. They did a study to prove this. They passed out hundreds of resumés with identical qualifications but 1/2 with white-sounding and 1/2 with black-sounding names at the top. So, same resumé, one says “Cindy” one says “Lakisha”. White names got way more call backs. And most of the people sorting the resumés aren’t doing that on purpose, they’re not some comic book villain chortling “not this black-ass motherfucker” and tossing resumés in the garbage, they are normal white people who don’t think of themselves as racist and don’t realize what they are doing because they don’t understand the way they have been conditioned by our society to make subconscious associations about black names and black people. SUBCONSCIOUS. That’s the crux. Because we KNOW you’re probably a good person doing your best. But how can you possibly answer the question “tell me the things you do that you don’t know you do”? That’s why it’s so important that you don’t take this all personally, but allow other people to give you insight into the ways you have been indoctrinated into participating in a bigoted society. But when you push back against that then we DON’T know you are a good person doing your best, we have to guess if you are or not. Because some people who push back against that are people who just haven’t matured into the concept yet.... and others are dedicated, purposeful bigots. In my next post about this, I will use a parable to help you get over your white guilt and associated internalized issues.

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blackkudos · 8 years ago

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Paris Barclay

Paris K.C. Barclay (born June 30, 1956) is an American television director and producer, and writer. He is currently serving his second term as the President of the Directors Guild of America. He is a two-time Emmy Award winner and is among the busiest single-camera television directors, having directed nearly 150 episodes of television to date, for series such as NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, CSI, Lost, The Shield, House, Law & Order, Monk Numb3rs, City of Angels, Cold Case, and more recently Sons of Anarchy, The Bastard Executioner, The Mentalist, Weeds, NCIS: Los Angeles, In Treatment, Glee, Smash and The Good Wife, Extant, and Manhattan, Empire, and Scandal.

Most recently, Barclay worked as an executive producer and principal director for the Fox series Pitch, and directed the CBS pilot, Perfect Citizen.

Early life

Barclay was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois. He attended La Lumiere School, a private college preparatory boarding school in La Porte, Indiana. On scholarship, he was one of the first African-Americans to attend the school, Barclay went on to Harvard College, where he was extremely active in student musical theatre productions and the a cappella singing group The Harvard Krokodiloes. During his four years there, he wrote 16 musicals, including the music for two of the annual Hasty Pudding shows. Barclay attended both the La Lumiere School and Harvard with John Roberts, now the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. His Harvard roommate was novelist Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha.

Music video career

Following his graduation from Harvard, he worked as a copywriter and creative supervisor at Grey, BBDO, Cunningham & Walsh, and Marsteller. Barclay then moved into music video directing and production through his own company, Black & White Television. He directed music videos for Bob Dylan ("It's Unbelievable"), the New Kids On The Block ("Games" ), Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross ("The Best Things in Life Are Free" ). Most notably, he created eight videos for LL Cool J, including "Mama Said Knock You Out", which won awards from both MTV and Billboard—and went on to be listed by The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. In 2013, Complex Magazine ranked "Mama Said Knock You Out" as one of the top 50 rap videos of the 1990s, crediting it with creating "one of the most crucial links in establishing the cultural bridge between boxing and rap." Barclay was often hired to direct videos for films, introducing audiences to House Party (1990), White Men Can't Jump (1992), Mo' Money (1992), Posse (1993), and Cool Runnings (1993), among others.

In 2012, Barclay directed his first music video in 16 years, working once again with LL Cool J and R&B star Joe on the video for "Take It".

Also drawing on his music video experience was Barclay's episode ("The Coup") of the Steven Spielberg-produced NBC series Smash, in which TV Fanatic said that the Barclay-directed number for the original song "Touch Me" (written by OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder) "pushed the boundaries from traditional Broadway show to music video level."

Film and television career

1990s

Paris began his successful career in television with an episode of Angel Street. He was hired by John Wells, who was making his debut as an executive producer.

Barclay directed Shawn and Marlon Wayans' first feature film, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996) – also featuring Keenen Ivory Wayans, Vivica Fox, and Bernie Mac. Although it received mixed reviews, it was a box office success and has built a cult following since its release. Barclay also directed the HBO movie, The Cherokee Kid (1996), a Western dramedy starring Sinbad, James Coburn, Burt Reynolds, Gregory Hines, and A Martinez.

After directing episodes of ER, Paris directed and eventually became a producer of NYPD Blue. In three years there, Barclay would receive two Emmy Awards for best directing—the second of which was for the episode titled "Hearts and Souls"— featuring the death of Jimmy Smits' character Bobby Simone. The episode has been ranked one of TV Guide's 100 Best Episodes of All Time. Barclay has since reteamed with Smits again in his role as "Nero Padilla" on Sons of Anarchy.

2000s

In 2000, Barclay joined forces with fellow NYPD Blue producers Steven Bochco and Nicholas Wootton to create City of Angels, a medical drama with a predominantly African-American cast including Blair Underwood, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Maya Rudolph, and Vivica Fox. The show aired on CBS for two seasons while winning two NAACP awards.

In 2002 he returned to the John Wells fold to produce and direct the pilot, The Big Time, featuring Christina Hendricks, Dylan Baker, Molly Ringwald and Christopher Lloyd—which eventually aired as a two-hour movie. In the years that followed, Barclay worked on a wide variety of television dramas and comedies. He served as co-executive producer and producing director of the series Cold Case, for which he has also directed nine episodes. Other shows he directed in the decade include The West Wing, Huff, Law & Order, Numb3rs, Lost, House, The Shield, Weeds, Monk,The Good Wife, NCIS: Los Angeles, Sons of Anarchy, CSI, The Mentalist and 9 episodes of Glee.

2008 marked Barclay's return to HBO, where he executive produced three seasons of In Treatment, as well as directed 36 episodes.

2010–present

In 2011, Barclay became the executive producer and primary director for the fourth season of FX's Sons of Anarchy, a role he continued through the seventh and final season.

Also in 2013, Barclay directed two episodes of Glee, "Diva" and "Lights Out". For his work on "Diva", Barclay was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Direction in a Comedy Series, his second Emmy nomination for Glee. In the same season, Barclay directed an episode of The New Normal and the penultimate episode of the ABC series Last Resort.

In 2014, Barclay directed the season premiere and penultimate episodes of Sons of Anarchy for the fourth year running. In addition to his Sons of Anarchy duties, Barclay also directed the milestone episode "100" for Glee, for which he received another Emmy nomination, in addition to episodes of The Good Wife, Extant, executive produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Halle Berry, and Manhattan, a Tommy Schlamme/Sam Shaw period drama for WGN America;; and Glee’s emotional flashback episode "2009" – the first half of the series finale, "a perfect tribute to the origins of Glee, the original cast, and Cory Monteith."

In 2015, Paris continued his role as Executive Producer/Director on FX's The Bastard Executioner. The show starred Katey Sagal, Stephen Moyer, and Matthew Rhys. At the end of the year, he was enlisted by FOX to direct an episode of Empire, the Television Critics Association program of the year.

In 2016, Paris joined the Shondaland family by directing an episode of ABC's critically acclaimed show, Scandal, created/produced by Shonda Rhimes, starring Kerry Washington.

He recently completed the first season of FOX's, Pitch, from writer/creators Dan Fogelman and Rick Singer, starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Ali Larter, Mark Consuelos, Dan Lauria and up and comer Kylie Bunbury in the title role.

In spring 2017, Paris Barclay was tapped to direct and executive produce the CBS pilot, Perfect Citizen, a legal drama written and executive produced by former The Good Wife executive producer Craig Turk. Perfect Citizen stars Noah Wyle, Kristin Chenoweth, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Stephanie Szostak, Adrienne Warren, Shanley Caswell, and Lenny Platt.

Directors Guild of America

In June 2013, Paris was elected President of the Directors Guild of America, the first African-American and first openly gay President in the history of the Guild. After the vote, Barclay expressed gratitude for the honor and admiration for the Union's history, saying "I am profoundly honored to be elected President of the DGA.... The DGA has worked for more than three-quarters of a century to advance the creative and economic rights of directors and their teams and I look forward to continuing this strong tradition of service. As the son of a glass blower and a tile maker from Chicago, I am extremely humbled to have the honor to serve in the footsteps of the legendary leaders of the DGA like Frank Capra, Robert Wise and Gil Cates." Barclay was nominated for the Presidency by past-President Michael Apted, who said of him, "Paris’ qualifications for DGA president are exceptional.... His understanding of the issues facing directors and their teams is outstanding and his ability to resolve problems and create solutions is beyond compare." His nomination was seconded by Steven Soderbergh, who said of Barclay, "This is a great moment for our Guild; Paris will be a phenomenal leader as we move into the future." Paris has been enthusiastically re-elected this year, June 2015, to continue his notable presidency.

Before being elected DGA President, Barclay served four terms as First Vice President of the DGA, where he was the first African-American Officer in the history of the guild. While serving as First Vice President, Paris was also chair of the DGA’s Political Action Committee, whose mission it is to promote the interests of DGA members to state and federal lawmakers. Their top issues include battling online copyright threats and promoting production tax incentives. He also served on the Western Directors Council and co-chaired the Diversity Task Force, whose mission is to encourage the hiring of women and minority directors to networks and studios. In addition, Paris served as a board member of the DGA-affiliated Franco-American Cultural Fund, which promotes cultural exchange between French and American directors.

Barclay was re-elected to a second term as DGA president in June 2015.

Reputation in the entertainment industry

During his three decades as a director, Barclay has developed a strong reputation as a go-to director capable of working adeptly in multiple genres - described in a June 2011 article in Variety as a "highly adaptive force with the ability to control both TV detectives and scene-stealing gleesters". The same article ranked Barclay among the "Ten TV Directors Who Leave Their Mark."

Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter stated in an interview with The Star-Ledger that it wasn't until Paris came on board to direct that the show found its "groove", observing: "We had all those glitches in those first two or three episodes [...] We had (Paris) come in [...] and we all just started trusting what we were doing here." Later in an interview for Variety, Kurt stated "The great thing about (exec producer Paris Barclay) is that he's a writer and he's also a director [...] so he can get the scripts and understand the production realities of it but also understand creatively what the need for everything is."

In an interview with TV Fanatic, Glee actor Blake Jenner credited Barclay for guiding him through a difficult scene in the episode "Lights Out", saying "He was just so nurturing."

In a piece for Vulture, television critic Matt Zoller Seitz cites Barclay as one of the few producer/directors who can "manage and drive the medium [of television]" as well as a writer-showrunner can. Seitz explains, "Directors tend to think in terms of images and moments; those skill sets aren’t often compatible with the left-brain requirements of managing a sitcom or drama (though there are always exceptions; see veteran TV director Paris Barclay’s executive-producer credit on FX’s stylishly nasty biker drama, Sons of Anarchy)."

Ryan Murphy, creator of the Fox hit Glee, called Paris' episode "Wheels" a "turning point for the show".

Over time, many of Paris Barclay’s former assistants have gone on to great Hollywood success in their own right. One of his first assistants was Kevin Williamson, writer of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, and the creator and Executive Producer of the hit television shows Dawson’s Creek, The Vampire Diaries, and The Following. Josh Barry, another former Barclay assistant, heads the television department at Prospect Park after working as an executive in Drama Development at ABC. Sam Martin, the former HBO executive (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Lackwanna Blues) and film producer (Pariah) and Jason Clodfelter, VP of Drama Development at Sony Television, is another former Barclay assistant. both previously served as Barclay assistants.

Awards

Along with winning two Emmy Awards for NYPD Blue (Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series - "Lost Israel part II" and "Hearts and Souls"), Barclay has garnered another six Emmy nominations: two for producing NYPD Blue (Outstanding Drama Series), one for directing The West Wing (Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series - "Indians In The Lobby"), and three for directing Glee (Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series - "Wheels", "Diva" and "100") .

He has also received a Directors Guild of America Award for NYPD Blue and 10 other DGA Award nominations for The West Wing (3), In Treatment (2), NYPD Blue (2), ER, House, and Glee. In 2007, he and Taylor Hackford were recipients of the DGA Robert B. Aldrich Award, for Distinguished Service to the Directors Guild.

Barclay received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Drama Series as co-creator, writer, and director of the groundbreaking medical drama City of Angels, another Image Award for directing Cold Case, and a third Image Award for directing Smash. He has been nominated for the Image Award for Directing every year it has been offered, from 2006 to 2013. On February 22, 2014 the NAACP honored Paris by inducting him into the NAACP Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame Award is bestowed on an individual who is a pioneer in his or her respective field and whose influence will shape the profession for generations to come. Other recipients have included Lena Horne, Paul Robeson, Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey.

Also a writer, Paris received his first WGA Award nomination for co-writing Pedro with screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, marking the Oscar-winner's first WGA credit. The moving story of The Real World's Pedro Zamora garnered the team nominations for a GLAAD Media Award and Humanitas Prize.

Episodes directed by Paris for Glee and In Treatment have become the recipients of the prestigious Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting. The Glee episode "Wheels" was also acknowledged at the 2010 Shane's Inspiration Gala, receiving the Visionary Leadership Award for shining a light on the abilities of those with disabilities.

The Glee episode, "Wheels" and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode, "Coup de Grace" were both chosen for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Television Academy Honor, saluting "Television with a Conscience," in which the Academy recognizes achievements in programming that present issues of concern to society in "a compelling, emotional, and insightful way." Barclay also accepted the Voice Award from the US Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of In Treatment, for "incorporating dignified, respectful, and accurate portrayals of people with mental illnesses."

In June 2011, Advertising Age featured Paris on the cover as one of 2011's 50 Most Creative People, saying "Mr. Barclay brings an innate cultural awareness to shows." TV Guide also recognized his House episode, "Three Stories", as one of the 100 Best Episodes of All Time.

In April 2017, Paris was awarded the Order of the Golden Sphinx by the acclaimed Hasty Pudding Institute of Harvard University – it is the highest honor bestowed by the Institute and recognizes individuals in the entertainment industry for their extraordinary contributions to the performing arts. The recipient represents the Institute’s mission to support and foster performing arts within its membership, at Harvard, and around the world.

In addition to his honors in television, Paris has been awarded the Founder's Award from Project Angel Food in 1998, the GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Award in 2001, to honor his outstanding representation of the LGBT community, and in 2004 the Pan-African Film Festival Pioneer Award. In 2009 Barclay was named by POWER UP as one of the Top Ten Gay Men in Entertainment; 2010 he received the Bridge Award from the Cornerstone Theater in Los Angeles for over 20 years of contributing to the theater. Barclay received the 2012 Upton Sinclair Award from the non-profit Liberty Hill for "unwavering idealism and vision.". Also in 2012, he and husband Christopher Barclay were awarded with the Family Values Award from In the Life Media, given to "individuals whose representation of LGBT families serve as an inspiration for all Americans. Most recently he’s been awarded the Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign, the Legacy Award from the African-American Film Critics Association.

Work in musical theater

In the theater, Barclay presented his original musical On Hold With Music at the Manhattan Theater Club in 1984, with a cast including Jason Alexander, Terry Burrell, John Dossett, Ray Gill, and Maureen Brennan. Based on his life in advertising, Barclay wrote and composed the sung through musical in its entirety.

In 1985, he wrote the book, music and lyrics for another musical drama entitled Almos’ a Man, based on a short story by Richard Wright – which had been developed in the second year of the ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop in New York, under the tutelage of Charles Strouse and Stephen Sondheim. It was produced that year at Soho Rep, receiving a mixed review from the New York Times’ Mel Gussow.

After years of directing, Barclay returned to composing in September 2001 with the premiere of a musical based on the collection of letters Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. Called Letters from ‘Nam, the play featured Grammy winner Maureen McGovern, future Tony winner Levi Kreis, and David Burnham. Praised by most reviewers and opening days before the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Vietnam musical hit home emotionally with those who performed in it, produced it, or experienced it.

In 2003, Barclay wrote songs for and co-directed "Order My Steps" for the Cornerstone Theater Company. The musical play, with book by Tracey Scott Wilson, dealt with the African-American church’s response to the AIDS epidemic. The Los Angeles Times call a "moving tale about the human toll of AIDS."

Barclay returned to Vietnam with One Red Flower: Letters from ‘Nam, a reworked version of the musical was produced at the Village Theater in Issaquah to further acclaim, with Levi Kreis and David Burnham reprising their roles. Other productions followed, with the most significant being Eric Schaeffer’s "gritty and emotional" staging at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia in 2004.

In 2008, Barclay presented a reading of One Red Flower in Los Angeles to benefit New Directions, an organization that supports veterans of all wars. Maureen McGovern, Levi Kreis and David Burnham returned in featured roles, with television stars Hunter Parrish and Josh Henderson. Although it was not a full production, again it received glowing reviews, described by Beverly Cohn in the Santa Monica Mirror as an "evening that had the audience smiling with a lump in its throat."

Personal life

Openly gay since late in his college days, he was a regular contributor to The Advocate for several years. Barclay married food-industry executive Christopher Barclay (né Mason), his partner of 17 years, in 2008.

Filmography

Directed episodes of (arranged in order from most episodes directed to least):

In Treatment (36 episodes; also executive producer; Golden Globe nomination, 2 DGA nominations, and NAACP Image Award nomination)

Sons of Anarchy (15 episodes, one NAACP Image Award nomination, also executive producer)

NYPD Blue (12 episodes; 2 Emmy Awards; also supervising producer)

Cold Case (9 episodes; also co-executive producer; NAACP Image Award)

Glee (9 episodes, 3 Emmy nominations, 2 DGA nominations)

The Bastard Executioner (4 episodes; also Executive Producer)

City of Angels (4 episodes; NAACP Image Award for best drama series; also co-executive producer and co-creator)

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (4 episodes; 2 NAACP Image Award nominations)

Pitch (4 episodes, NAACP Image Award nomination, also executive producer)

The Shield (3 episodes; NAACP Image Award nomination)

The West Wing (3 episodes; Emmy nomination, 3 DGA nominations)

ER (3 episodes; DGA nomination)

Sliders (3 episodes)

The Good Wife (2 episodes)

Angel Street (2 episodes)

Second Noah (2 episodes)

Clueless (2 episodes)

Monk (2 episodes)

NCIS: Los Angeles (2 episodes)

Dirt (2 episodes)

Fastlane (2 episodes)

Empire

Scandal

Diagnosis: Murder

Brooklyn South

American Dreams

Huff

Lost

NUMB3RS

House MD (DGA nomination)

Weeds (DGA nomination)

The Mentalist

Miami Medical

The New Normal

Last Resort

The Chicago Code

Law & Order

Silk Stalkings

Moon Over Miami

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, starring Shawn and Marlon Wayans

Television pilots:

Perfect Citizen, for CBS

Pitch, for FOX

The Street Lawyer, based on the novel by John Grisham for ABC

Dead Lawyers starring F. Murray Abraham for SyFy

City of Angels with Blair Underwood and Viola Davis for CBS

Hate starring Marcia Gay Harden for Showtime

The Chang Family Saves the World written by John Ridley for ABC

Big Mike starring Greg Grunberg for A&E

Television movies:

The Cherokee Kid (HBO)

The Big Time (TNT)

Wikipedia

#Paris Barclay #06-30

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evilradmedieval · 8 years ago

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Kendrick Lamar - “DAMN.” Review

I’m gonna be that guy and say that I’ve been listening to Kung-Fu Kenny for a hot minute, now. He’s been around since the early 2000s, hanging around longtime friends such as Jay Rock and several others who would soon become known as the Black Hippy collective of the then-future TDE label. Dropping Lil Wayne-inspired mixtapes here and there while collaborating with TDE labelmates ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul, he didn’t quite come into artistic fruition until his release of his debut EP, The Kendrick Lamar EP in 2009. Lyrically and instrumentally raw, the EP was packed with both anthemic and lowkey cuts, and showcased a fairly young Kendrick rapping about more common hip-hop themes such as relationships and coming up in the rap game. He then continued this onto his major fifth mixtape Overly Dedicated, an album with more lush production and a more central over-arching theme of “gangster-realism”, while also including more sensual tracks as well. He included bigger-named features, most notably a young Jhene Aiko, LA-native Dom Kennedy and underground legend MURS. However, it wasn’t until 2011 when K.Dot made major waves on the internet with his major debut mixtape Section.80. Fully honing his lyrical skill over more illustrious and well-sampled production, I was simply blown away. He truly embraced his more nasally delivery, however his technical skill was ridiculous. Lyrically he stood out over cuts such as “HiiiPoWer” and the ridiculous “Rigamortis”. There are bangers here and there as well, yet also had its fair share of more laidback, drugged-out cuts. However, topically he seems to go deeper and darker, referencing themes of racism in the system and medicinal tolerance. One can also make the claim of calling this a concept album, as he explores the stories of women who are going through hardship such as abandonment and the circumstances facing teen pregnancy. At this point, King Kendrick has really caught my attention, whist also being deemed “worthy” of carrying the torch for the west coast by Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and The Game. Then he drops a song called “Swimming Pools”, a song that seemingly sounds like another drinking anthem, but is genius in the sense that it talks about alcoholism in a different perspective. Little did I know that this banger of a track came through in a bigger context within an album, as the 2012 release of good kid, M.A.A.D. city proved to be the epitome of the modern hip-hop storytelling album. Here, we follow the narrative of a young Kendrick Lamar, growing up in a very dangerous environment of South Central LA. Gang violence, racial profiling and even the dreary recollections of a woman really put us in his point of view, while flawlessly making every song act as one chapter of his life. However, each song acts as a great stand-alone track as itself, as bangers like “Backseat Freestyle” and “m.a.a.d. city” are one of the hardest beats I’ve heard Kendrick rap on to date. After a bit of a 3-year hiatus, we find ourselves with probably one of the most socially conscious albums, let alone hip-hop albums, that I’ve ever heard. To Pimp a Butterfly was packed with so many different layers upon layers of instrumentation that pulls from Parliament/ Funkadelic-esque soul-funk rock, gospel, jazz, spoken word, G-funk and boom-bap. Production by artists such as Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Flying Lotus, Knxwledge, Boi-1da and TDE affiliate Sounwave. yet, with all these genre-bending instrumentals, we get an album that comments on today’s current African American culture, racial inequalities, institutionalized discrimination and depression. The album honestly is hard to digest track by track, but once you dig deeper within the narrative of the LP as one cohesive project, it becomes apparent how well-crafted and thought-out this project was. I understand that a lot of people did not like this album due to this experimental and avant-garde approach, but what many of those people don’t understand is the scope of the album and magnitude of its message is. The instrumentation is beautiful, and the more aggressive “The Blacker the Berry” hits harder the more I listen to it. It was honestly perfect in my eyes, and I cannot see how Kendrick would ever be able to top this masterpiece.

But then again, I thought about it and realized that each album he’s ever released came with completely different narratives and themes. In a way, he reinvents himself every album in order to fulfill each respective albums’ content. good kid, m.a.a.d. city was an on-going narrative on his life growing up in Compton through several perspectives. To Pimp a Butterfly was an encompassing. cohesive work that gave us more insight with different perspectives on the current state of African American culture and racism in America. The theme on DAMN.? It’s a little... disjointed compared to his previous works. Not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s just something he hasn’t necessarily done on his past projects. In comparison to his last album (not including his unmastered. untitled. compilation), this album sonically sounds way more accessible and would appeal to more types of people across the board due to its more poppy, trappy-flavored and skeletal instrumentals. The features? U2 and Rihanna, along with a random feature from a Jeremih-esque singer and Kid Capri adlibs sprinkled throughout. There are random gunshots and reversals of tracks, giving me allusions of death and then resurrection? In addition to so much talk about death, we get a very wishy-washy Kendrick going off about various topics here and there, hence the slight incohesiveness, which isn’t necessarily bad. But here on this album, I can be the cause for some slight blunders and conflicting points of view which can be interpreted either way as intentional or not. The songs titles are also pretty vague and bold topics to be addressing topically, with tracks such as “GOD.”, “LOVE.” and “LOYALTY.” Of course, you can’t entirely break down such topics within a couples minutes on a conventional rap album, but it still was interesting the way he decided to proceed with what songs topically to include.

The intro "BLOOD.” is interesting in the sense that it begins with Kendrick telling the story of encountering an old woman who seems to have lost something. The elderly woman then proceeds to shoot him with a gun, which then sents him into a strange spiraling out of reality which conveniently careens you towards the start of “DNA.” Probably one the hardest tracks on the entire project, we get a banger of a trap-flavored anthem about Kendrick lashing out against his haters and critics. Here, he explores aspects of black history and African American culture, topics in which are deeply rooted in his lyrics. The track also features a sample of the dialogue of Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera. Being criticized for his lyrics that openly disapprove of law enforcement, he lyrically roasts Rivera claiming how he was preaching hope and not adversity. I especially love how towards the middle-section of the track, the album decides to come through with the heaviest of bass that I’ve ever heard from a Kendrick Lamar song, which really reinforces his constant bar after bars regarding African royalty, a common tenet of Afrocentricism. “DNA.” is heavy song with fantastic delivery and lyrics all-around.

The next track in “YAH.” delivers a very stripped back and repetitive instrumental. Supposedly being referenced to God’s name in “Yahweh”, the song has very deep religious undertones. The hook showcases a very slurred delivery, similar to a “buzzing noise” whenever he repeats the song title, announcing his awareness of everything that’s happening around him. With it, he continues on his tirade on Fox News, how he is labeled another generic rapper that detriments society due to the content of his music. he then throws Bible verses and allusions left and right, which may need some room for interpretation. A very lowkey and skeletal instrumental with a slurred delivery, the track isn’t one of my favorites but has a definite eeriness to it.

“ELEMENT.” happens to be one of my favorite songs on the album. I’m not sure if there’s a Big Lebowski reference in it, but I love the part of the chorus whenever he says he’ll “make it look sexy.” But essentially the track is a bunch of shit-talking and braggadocio, with clever lines left and right. He also delves into his personal life regarding his family and his upbringing, and how he basically went from the bottom to the top of the game within years. Surprisingly, James Blake had a share in the production, assisted by TDE’s Sounwave. The track is atmospheric and skeletal, yet upbeat and still hits hard with Kendrick’s unrelenting delivery. Definitely a noteworthy cut from the album.

From the heavy-hitting flows of “ELEMENT.”, we transition into a more depressing and lowkey cut off the LP which actually sounds like something I’d find Kanye singing on. Here, we get a very confused and depressed Kendrick, rapping about deception and abandonment. It’s quite apparent that beneath all that success and fame, there’s underlying feelings of toxicity that ultimately lead to suffering. Probably one of the more negative-sounding cuts off the tracklisting, he’s seen to definitely struggle emotionally and interpersonally. This is something we don’t normal get from him, which was interesting to see.

It’s kind of crazy to think that the next track “LOYALTY.” was a flip of Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic”, reversing and slowing the hook of the track. A very poppy yet G-funk-inspired instrumental, pop icon Rihanna comes through with minimal backing vocals, but was able to contribute a pretty decent rap verse herself. The song is pretty straighforward, regarding loyalty in both platonic and romantic relationships. I thought the song was just run-of-the-mill for me, as he doesn’t too philosophically deep into the tracklisting, but the track still sounds great as a stand-alone single for the radio.

Next up, we get this constantly changing vocal inflection of a delivery on “PRIDE.” With help from The Internet’s Steve Lacy, we get these really melodic garage rock riffs, along with this thumping and groovy tempo. He also contributes to the hook, which has these really dreary and high-pitched harmonizing vocals by Anna Wise. Here, we get more religious allusions, in which Kendrick delves more into his position in the rap game and how his recognition causes tensions between his own ideals and actions. Despite the sound being really lowkey and melodic, this track actually contrasts itself with the ever-sarcastic follow-up in “HUMBLE.” Taking a huge U-turn and doing the exact opposite of being modest, Kendrick drops bar after bar of obnoxious braggadocio , and urging his contemporaries (*coughs* Big Sean *coughs*) to “sit down” and “be humble”. Working into the context of the album, it doesn’t really add more meaning than it did initially as a single, but contrasts humorously with the previous track in the sense that each song evokes emotions the opposite of the established topic.

Sexual intimacy and... well lust are dominating topics on the track “LUST.” He discusses not just sexual drive, but also things that we strive for that are for self-indulgence. Money, drugs, and fame are a couple things, hence the refrain for “water” to quench his thirst for such things. Again, the track is stripped back and minimal instrumentally, with his high-pitched vocals dominating the hook, which aren’t necessarily his forte. Not one of my favorites, but still an intriguing track.

The next track “LOVE.” is absolute garbage. I don’t care for the Jeremih-esque vocals by Zacari, and the really annoying refrain by Kendrick with the “I wanna be with you!” just kills me every time. The only thing I like about the song is Kendrick’s flow, but again despite this, he comes through with underwhelming lyrics and a really lazy R&B-tinged inflection in his voice, similar to Drake’s rap-singing. The track is ethereal, atmospheric and really skeletal with looming synths in the background. Additionally, the track doesn’t elaborate much upon such a generically topical song.

“XXX.” came through with a U2 feature that actually went over well better than I expected, as I’m not a fan of Bono’s work other than Joshua Tree. I love how the track has these three segments where the beginning starts off with K.Dot delivering this sort of monotone flow over a skeletal trap-flavored instrumental, which then climaxes around the middle-section of the track where the heavy sub-bass kicks in that is accompanied by these blaring sirens that really fit well into the beat. The track then abruptly settles down into a momentary lull, in which Bono delivers some decent vocals. Kendrick then follows the hook with more bars about the current state of the United States, including gang violence, the recent Trump election and the hypocrisy of our nations leaders.

“FEAR.” appears on the tracklisting as one of the longer tracks, sitting at a whopping 7 minutes. Here, there is an obvious allusion to the biblical scriptures, which heavily draws from the story of Job. Kendrick gives us a very paranoid point of view of being fearful of all the bad things that are happening to him and everyone around him, beckoning towards the mercy of God. This is the first time I’ve seen Kendrick act so unsure of himself and really draw from more religious themes in any part of his discography. There are vocal samples throughout, alluding to how the African Americans are the Israelites of the country. In my personal opinion, this is an interesting take, however I can see how it can draw away some fans from this album. The religious undertones are more apparent than you think, however this track really takes the cake in regards to directly addressing Kendrick’s suffering due to God’s will. Sonically the track sounds great, but the content of why Kendrick is so heavily in constant sorrow can be unsettling.

“GOD.” happens to be one of my least favorite tracks, in which he pulls from the trend of rappers who need to sing their own hooks on their tracks. He does okay for a majority of the singing until he attempts to croon then throws in these Kanye-inspired vocal snippets that sound Autotuned and strangely altered for the sake of sounding like Kanye. The track has a pretty generic trap-flavored, atmospheric instrumental. The track has a decent pair of verses in which he alludes to how rappers view themselves in very god-like figures. But the singing really kills it for me.

“DUCKWORTH.” closes out DAMN. with one hell of a standout. We have this soulful ballad sample in the beginning which then drops you into a beautifully-sampled vocal loop over these boom-bap drums. 9th Wonder does a fantastic job on the boards, giving a very jazzy and soul-inspired hip-hop beat, an aesthetic I wish Kendrick tried to opt towards more on this LP. The track has a couple beat-change-ups, which really make Kendrick’s bars pop even more with every transition with each topic. The track is simply a recollection of when his father almost got killed accidentally by a future musical contributor in his life, TDE founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith. The track then ends with another gun shot, which then reverses the track into the entire tracklisting and then drops us off back into the intro to the LP like some sort of freak time-machine accident, where we meet the same old woman Kendrick encounters in the beginning.

It was honestly a huge challenge breaking down every aspect of this album. The more and more I listen to it, I get more and more addicted to trying to interpret every single moment. The gunshots, the track rewinds, the simplistic instrumentals, the constant biblical allusions... everything just seems to make this album more intricate than it actually sounds on first listen. DAMN. gives us a Kendrick we haven’t seen before: vulnerable, depressed, and yearning for forgiveness and mercy from a benevolent God. The song titles are extremely conceptual, yet most of the tracks don’t completely make a sufficient comment or complete central theme honed in upon the said title. “LOVE.” for example, gave very little in what it had to do with topically, yet songs like “PRIDE.” and “HUMBLE.” were clever in the way that their assumed meaning sarcastically flipped sonically upon each other with the former being more lowkey while the latter being more obnoxious. Kendrick delivers, however, a collective of tracks with one of his best rap flows yet, despite some vocal blunders on several tracks. The instrumentals were a little too dumbed down and accessible for my taste, as the lush and heavily sampled live instruments and influences spanning various genres on To Pimp a Butterfly really gave me a sense of maximalism in regards to instrumentation. This album has a more straight-forward sound, yet has very hard-to-interpret moments that keep many listeners still scratching their heads. Additionally, with the rumors of follow-up album NATION. being an upcoming release, DAMN. makes me also yearn for more material to satisfy all the questions that have arisen from listening. Not the best in Kendrick Lamar’s discography, but that doesn’t really anything wholly negative, as he’s released several of the most influential benchmarks in modern hip-hop today through his previous two albums.

RATING: 7/10

#kendrick lamar #damn.#album review #rap review #hip hop review #music review

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newstfionline · 8 years ago

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Has Political Correctness Gone off the Rails in America?

By Philipp Oehmke, Der Spiegel, Jan. 5, 2017

It’s a Friday afternoon in Oberlin, Ohio, around one month before the country heads to the polls to elect Donald Trump as its next president. The final classes and lectures of the week have just ended, and a young woman comes walking by in bare feet with a hula hoop gyrating around her waist while others are performing what seems to be a rhythmic dance to the African music that’s playing. Two black students are rapping.

It’s the kind of scene that could easily play out on a beach full of backpack tourists, but this is unfolding at one of the country’s most expensive universities.

Many female students here have dyed their hair green or blue, they have piercings and their fashion sense seems inspired by “Girls” creator and millennial star Lena Dunham, who, of course, also studied here.

In such a setting, it seems almost inconceivable that this country could go on to elect Donald Trump as its president only a few weeks later. Yet pro-Trump country is just a few miles away. Oberlin is located in Ohio, one of the swing states that made Trump’s election possible. Drive five miles down College Road toward town, and you start seeing blue “Trump Pence 2016” signs on people’s lawns.

Places like Oberlin are the breeding grounds of the leftist elite Trump’s people spoke so disparagingly of during the election campaign.

Only a few months earlier, a handful of students claimed they had been traumatized after someone used chalk to scrawl “Trump 2016” on the walls of buildings and on sidewalks at Oberlin and at other liberal universities. It triggered protests on some campuses, with students demanding “safe spaces” where they would be spared from hearing or seeing the name of this “fascist, racist candidate.”

In the months prior to the election, “safe spaces” had been one of the most widely discussed terms at Oberlin. The concept has its roots in feminism and describes a physically and intellectually sheltered space that protects one from potentially insulting, injurious or traumatizing ideas or comments--a place, in short, that protects one from the world. When conservative philosopher and feminism critic Christina Hoff Sommers was scheduled to give a speech at Oberlin last year, some students did not approve and claimed that Sommer’s views on feminism represented “microaggressions.”

When Sommers appeared anyway, leading some Oberlin students to create a “safe space” during the speech where, as one professor reported, “New Age music” was played to calm their nerves and ease their trauma. They could also “get massages and console themselves with stuffed animals.”

“Microaggressions” are the conceptual cousins of “safe spaces”--small remarks perceived by the victims to be objectionable. In addition, there are also “trigger warnings”--brief indicators placed before a text, image, film or work of art alerting the viewer or listener of the possibility that it could “trigger” memories of a traumatic experience or the recurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder. Such a warning surely makes sense for people who have experienced war, who have fled their home country or who have otherwise been exposed to cruelty and violence.

But at Oberlin, one student complained to the university administration and requested a trigger warning for Sophocles’ “Antigone.” The student argued that the suicide scene in the play had triggered strong emotions in him and that he, as someone who had himself long been on suicide watch, should have been warned. In an article he wrote for the Oberlin Review, the student, Cyrus Eosphoros, compared a trigger warning to the list of ingredients on food items. “People should have the right to know and consent to what they’re putting into their minds,” he wrote. Eosphoros has since dropped out of the school.

The call for safe spaces and trigger warnings in addition to complaints about microaggressions all fall under the term “political correctness” in the United States.

Few other expressions are as ideologically charged and contested as this one. It is most widely used as an invective: Coming from the mouths of the right-wing, including Donald Trump and his millions of followers, the term is used to describe self-censorship. They consider it an expression of a victim culture, within which the hypersensitive “leftist mainstream” (also used as an epithet) seeks to isolate itself from every deviation from its own worldview. Opponents of political correctness consider it to be an overwrought fixation on the needs of minorities and one’s individual identity, on skin color and gender.

Now, two months after the election, those looking for clues as to how Trump’s victory became possible quickly arrive at the refusal of many Trump detractors--including members of Hillary Clinton’s own campaign team--to confront the uncomfortable fact that there are legions of Trump fans all across the country. It’s almost as if, in the face of Trump, liberal America collectively retreated to a “safe space.” And when they finally resurfaced after the election, Trump had won.

There was a time when political correctness wasn’t yet synonymous with hypersensitivity, feel-good oases or censorship. Originally, it was associated with the counterculture, not as a project of the academic elite and the establishment as it is today. Initially, it was an attempt to free the public debate from prejudices based on race, gender and background--from the apparently casual yet hate-filled and disparaging comments that frequently caused suffering, particularly among minorities and the weaker members of society. It was intended as an effort to get the voices of these minorities heard in the first place.

One of the primary assumptions of political correctness is that thinking starts with language. Those who use disparaging language must think that way as well. Another assumption is that of constant progress. That people evolve over time, that discrimination and inequality diminish over the centuries, from the elimination of slavery to women’s suffrage to same-sex marriage and the growing acceptance of transgender people. Progress was seen as the integration of the formerly suppressed and of minorities. At least in theory.

In the last decade, however, the obsession with minorities and their victimhood may have gone overboard. In a much-discussed opinion piece for the New York Times last month, Mark Lilla, a professor at Columbia University, argued that American liberalism in recent years has been seized by hysteria regarding race, gender and sexual identity. Lilla says it was a strategic error on the part of Hillary Clinton to focus her campaign so heavily on African-Americans, Latinos, the LGBT community and women. “The fixation on diversity in our schools and in the press has produced a generation of liberals and progressives narcissistically unaware of conditions outside their self-defined groups,” he wrote.

Even as the white working class and lower class flocked to Trump in droves, students at Oberlin were busy organizing a protest against the food served at the Afrikan Heritage House. A few students had pointed out that the dishes there were at most Westernized interpretations of the original recipes, a state of affairs which showed a lack of respect toward African traditions. This offense, too, has a term: “cultural appropriation.”

Meanwhile, Asian students complained that the cafeteria served bánh mì using inauthentic ingredients, prompting accusations of cultural imperialism.

The college took the complaints seriously, as it does with all grievances lodged by students. It has a reputation to protect--and must also protect itself from the lawsuits that many of its students’ parents can easily afford.

The cafeteria had to issue a public apology. But it shouldn’t have been only the Vietnamese students who felt insulted--it should have been everyone. After all, another term often used at Oberlin is “allyship.” The theory basically goes like this: Someone who has spent his life as a heterosexual white male will never be able to understand how an incorrectly-made sandwich could trigger a trauma. Nor would he ever truly be able to comprehend the systemic microaggressions that a black woman might be exposed to. But he could make himself her “ally,” by taking her experiences seriously and accepting them at face value, whether or not he is able to comprehend them personally.

For some professors, it has gone too far. One of those is Roger Copeland. On a recent Friday afternoon, he made his way to the Slow Train Café, the only place at Oberlin where everybody meets up during the day--professors, students and activists. He has come to talk about everything he believes has destroyed his profession. He has recently accepted an early-retirement severance package and will be leaving the school in a few weeks. Professor Copeland has taught for over 40 years at Oberlin. He is a theater professor and he looks the part. He arrives wearing a Hawaiian shirt and speaks, even in normal discussion, as if he were reciting Shakespeare from the stage.

Copeland himself took to the streets in protest in the 1970s: against the Vietnam War, against Watergate--the big things. On two occasions, he was arrested.

Today, though, it’s personal pronouns that his students are squabbling over and Copeland has little understanding. He says students no longer want to be addressed as “he” or “she,” but as “X” or “they” or newly created personal pronouns. At Oberlin, terms like “Latina” or “Latino” for people with Central or South American backgrounds have been replaced with the gender-neutral “Latinx.”

Two years ago, Copeland asked a young student who was editing a video during rehearsals for a stage production if she would manage to finish editing the footage by the end of the week. He didn’t get the immediate response and things were hectic. “Yes or no?” he called out in his exalted way. “Yes or no?”

The student, who Copeland says is an Asian-American lesbian woman, stormed out of the rehearsal, not that uncommon of an occurrence in theater. Later, the dean ordered Copeland to his office and accused him of having berated a student and of creating a “hostile and unsafe learning environment.” There was that term again: “unsafe learning environment.” The dean handed him a document and asked him to sign it. Copeland refused and provided the names of others who had been present and who could attest that he hadn’t berated the student. The dean said it didn’t matter. What mattered was that the “student felt unsafe.”

The matter led to a formal Title IX investigation for sexual misconduct. Copeland hired a lawyer and the probe was dropped after a year. The whole thing cost Copeland thousands of dollars. Worse yet, he says, he lost his ideological compass.

What was going on? Where, if not here, did young men and women have the opportunity to mature into citizens, into people who could also confront unpleasant views?

Copeland self-identifies as a leftist. He’s a man who has fought for social justice, for the rights of the weak, for freedom and for free speech. Now students were dismissing him as some old, reactionary grandpa who knew nothing about the vulnerabilities created by identity, skin color and gender, whether it be male, female, gay, lesbian or transgender, the full spectrum of LGBTQ, as people call it today--or “cisgender.”

Cisgender is a relatively new word and Copeland only recently became aware of it. He also learned that it is often used as an insult. It describes pretty much to a “T” what he is: a white, heterosexual man who is certain that he doesn’t want to be a woman and isn’t even a little bit bi-sexual.

Copeland isn’t the only victim. Across the country, “social justice warriors,” as they are disparagingly called, are leaving a trail of destruction in their wake, attacking professors, artists, authors and even DJs along the way.

At a bar at the University of North Carolina, a student named Liz Hawryluk complained to the DJ on a Saturday night in 2014 when he played Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” The song was a major summer hit, played at nightclubs around the world, but Hawryluk demanded the DJ immediately stop playing it.

The song includes the line, “Good girl? I know you want it.” Allegedly words a rapist would speak.

When the DJ refused and the girl continued insisting, she was asked to leave the bar. She then wrote about her experience on Facebook, arguing that line in the song is a “trigger” for victims of sexual assault that can reawaken their trauma. After her post got shared a number of times, the bar publicly apologized and fired the DJ.

In 2015, feminist film researcher Laura Kipnis, a professor at Chicago’s Northwestern University, became the subject of an investigation after she published an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education about sexual paranoia in academia. The subject of the article had been a new ban on sex or relationships between students and professors at the university. Kipnis also criticized what she described as obsessive discussion among female students about traumas and sensitivity. She described it as a fallback to traditional behavioral patterns--the vulnerable woman, the helpless victim and the man as the perpetrator.

But the supposedly defenseless female students struck back--first on Facebook and later in the form of a protest. Two students then lodged a complaint against Kipnis for alleged sexual misconduct, arguing that Kipnis’ essay had a “chilling effect” on female students who wanted to file sexual harassment complaints. Kipnis had to hire a lawyer and the charges were dropped after a 72-day investigation. In a later article, she described the proceedings as an absurd drama reminiscent of a Kafka novel.

Roger Copeland spent a long time contemplating where these vulnerabilities and sensitivities might have come from. “The relationship my students have with the world is constantly mediated. They only have access to it through their iPhone screens and through the social networks they have joined. What we would call the virtual is the real for them.”

It’s only when they are in the lecture halls, when someone like Copeland is speaking to them, that this filtered reality is suddenly suspended. This suspension can evoke a defensive reaction in those who are only used to receiving select news from a politically correct world in which everything has been furnished with warning labels and freed of any microaggressions. Internet activist Eli Pariser calls the serving of information to users using algorithms that predict what they think the reader will want to see the “filter bubble.”

Socio-cultural advancement has become something of a fetish for many students--and many have lost sight of everything else in the process.

Professor Marc Blecher, who teaches political science at Oberlin and enjoys lecturing on Marxism, had warned at a meeting one month prior to the election, likewise at the Slow Train Café, that the millennial students of today’s generation may talk a lot about social transformation, but they have lost sight of one truly decisive issue: class.

With their focus on skin color, gender and sexual orientation and the microaggressions associated with them, he argued, students were overlooking what Trump was able to recognize: Most people in the United States aren’t unhappy or angry because of their gender, their personal pronoun or the lack of a trigger warning in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” (due to misogyny). They’re angry because they aren’t able to pay their rents, and they have the feeling that nobody cares--that the liberal-progressive public is more concerned about whether the bathrooms used by transsexuals should be those of their biological or perceived gender. Shouldn’t the discussion be about the fight for wealth redistribution rather than definitions and identities?

Sidestepping such issues often underscores just how helpless many of these students have become, Blecher says. Still, he doesn’t want to create any misunderstandings. “They are not spoiled sons and daughters. Oberlin’s brand is social progressivism. The school wants to admit students from financially weaker families, students from Hispanic or African-American families, some are kids from the streets. Some have spent the last five years trying to get in and then their guidance counselor at high school gets them into a place like Oberlin. They were the most promising students we could find. And you know what? They arrive here and it is hell for them!”

Academic expectations are high, which he says makes the students feel like they don’t belong here--and, in a way, they don’t. “At its core, Oberlin is a highly exclusive place that wants to be inclusive. It’s an unavoidable contradiction. So some lash out.” And how do they do that? They look for a discourse, for a language. What they find is language like “microaggressions,” “safe space” and “intersectionality,” meaning the traits that some minorities have in common. “Their frustration keeps growing to the point that they start attacking the food in the cafeteria!”

The interesting thing, says Blecher, is that the students’ feelings of outrage are correct--they are just misplaced. “What’s really keeping them down are class dynamics and racial segregation. But we don’t talk about that.”

In places where microaggressions lurk and trigger warnings become necessary, certain things can simply no longer be discussed. The children of the 1968 student protest generation took for granted the freedoms that their parents fought to obtain, holding them to be self-evident. The grandchildren of the 1968 generation now want to retract some of those freedoms. Free speech--once the highest achievement the leftist student generation had fought for--is now largely and paradoxically being invoked by populists and the right-wing.

When Donald Trump calls Mexicans who cross the borders rapists, when he cracks jokes about women, and when, at gatherings in his honor, people lift their arms in Hitler greetings and fans of his top adviser Steve Bannon tweet “Sieg Heil”--that all falls under “freedom of speech.”

The roles have been completely reversed. Whereas today’s leftist student movement is willing to sacrifice the freedom of speech--fought for by their political predecessors--on the altar of trigger warnings and “safe spaces,” this right is now being defended by the very same right-wing whose political antecedents sought to prevent it back in the day.

This new right can be seen every day on Fox News. The cable network interprets freedom of speech to mean the right to insult. And that freedom of expression also provides a license to spread untruths. That’s also a problem with Trump’s new America: One part of the population is growing increasingly sensitive and no longer wants to read “Antigone,” while the other is growing increasingly brazen, calling Mexicans rapists and seeing all Muslims as terrorists. In Donald Trump, they will soon have a president who emboldens them.

Their narrative holds that they would love to say what is actually on their minds, but the “social justice warriors,” the guardians of political correctness, led by the “liberal media,” won’t let them. They too feel they are victims--at least they act like it, complaining that you can’t say anything in this country anymore. Indeed, they feel much as the leftist students did in the early 1960s. The only difference being that there really were things that you couldn’t say back then.

On the day after the vote, Oberlin College held a symposium called, “Making Sense of the 2016 Election.” A few days later, 2,400 students, staff and former employees called for Oberlin to be made a “Sanctuary Campus,” a kind of “safe space” for the illegal immigrants that the incoming Trump administration has said it wants to deport.

A few days after that, news of the vote breakdown in Oberlin came in: 4,575 votes for Hillary Clinton against 412 for Donald Trump. They now want to find those Trump voters. And confront them.

#political correctness #Oberlin College #microagression #Democratic politics #2016 presidential campaign #liberals #conservatives #US politics

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jenniferasberryus · 5 years ago

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Why Sonic Is the Perfect Mascot for Gen Z

Ever since the film based on the Genesis’ Sonic games got regenerated for Gen Zs, it’s got me thinking: “Gen Z’s” sounds a lot like “Genesis.” But, beyond that, it’s got me thinking about the ever-improving system we have in place for marketing nostalgia to Millenials, while also trying to convince new clusters of Gen Z kids to embrace these characters and franchises as their own.

Marvel comics became the MCU, the Star Wars continue unabated, and everyone’s so aware that we’re living in recycled times that... that’s all I’m really going to say about it. What’s interesting to me is just how perfect Sonic the Hedgehog is as a vehicle for this kind of weaponized nostalgia, and how he’s served as a measure of our relationship to coolness for three generations now.

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Obviously, by casting Jim Carrey in a wacky role and re-doing the CG to make Sonic look more like his classic self, the filmmakers aren’t shying away from appealing to fond Millenial memories (you know, for money!). But Sonic remains primarily a kids’ movie, and thinking about the ways that today’s young people may relate to the blue blur made me realize that Sonic said a lot more about the Millennial generation than we realized - whether he intended to or not - and he sheds light on some of the things that connect us across time, no matter our generation...except for the Boomers, who I guess we all hate now? Is that the meme? Regardless, to understand why Sonic is the fuzzy multi-generational mirror that he is, we’re going to need...

A Bit of a History Lesson

To be clear, I’m considering a Baby Boomer someone born between 1950 and 1965, a Gen X-er someone born between ‘65 and ‘80, a Millenial someone born between ‘80 and ‘95 (prime Sonic age), and a Gen Z-er anyone born after 1995.

When Sonic was initially released in 1991, I was six years old, and “being cool” was super important both to myself and all of my peers (except for the kid who brought a gavel to school every day). What I think younger folks today might not understand is that this quest for coolness was not about authenticity, individuality, or any kind of meta-awareness of our identities. We weren’t “cool,” we were Cool™, and Coolness™ was defined by brands, something most of us didn’t grow up with the media-savvy to question. It was about being in a minority product vertical: skateboarding, black clothes, skitchin’, rap and/or punk rock on MTV, and unironically spelling the word “extreme” with a capital X.

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Speaking of irony, I’d argue that the ’90s were the decade where Detached Irony was born, grew up, got perfected as chronicled in the 1995 Alanis Morisette song “Ironic,” and, in a sense, died. Irony is a toy we make memes with nowadays, but it used to be what we used to identify ourselves as - we were misfits who were “over it,” and therefore cooler than you. You were Coke, we were Pepsi. Flash forward twenty years and I’d call myself more of a Blueberry Acai caffeine-free Diet Coke guy; my point being that identity issues have gotten more complex over the years. And Sonic has all of that wrapped up in his fur. Needles? His…hedgehog...texture.

The ’90s were a gaming landscape dominated by Mario: a fat, middle-aged human who focuses primarily on jumping. This made Sonic feel like pure, uncut, corporate-designed cool in a way that immediately juiced the X-centers of my brain. If you were a Sega kid, you felt indie, edgy, a little more Pitchfork than your Nintendo playmates. Sonic focused on going fast, his head had Liberty Spikes, and he was such a crude, rude, awesome dude that if you stopped playing for a few seconds he’d look right into camera and give you the stink eye for wasting his time.

Amazingly, none of that seemed corny to us at the time. Sonic’s Cool was genuine and accepted by his fans with a naivete born of the mono-media culture of the ’70s and ’80s, and which has been slowly decaying ever since Fonzie jumped the shark. These days it’s almost been completely dispelled as the internet and other technologies drive us to be more aware of the systems around us from a younger and younger age.

Considering that, it’s no coincidence that the 90’s saw the ascendance of grunge music, pop-punk, an explosion in goth culture, the advent of “The Gritty Reboot,” and popular films with nihilism as a central theme. As a culture, we became obsessed with the “fakeness” of all the sheeple around us — irony became a way to interact with the broader world, and a signature part of the Gen X and Millenial attitude. Suddenly we were only interested in bands that hadn’t “sold out” yet, and anyone who didn’t think everything sucked was probably a phony.

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In that environment, Sonic’s cool started to taste a little Chemical Zone-ey, a little factory-produced. Although the fact that his transition to 3-D graphics was far less graceful than Mario’s was definitely a factor, as a pop-cultural icon Sonic had to shift gears, too. The first Sonic TV show, essentially a kid’s comedy, was canceled and replaced with a much more action-packed and serious take on the Battle for Mobius (if you didn’t know, Sonic’s from a planet called Mobius in the year 3235, but it’s best not to question it).

During the same period, Sonic stopped moving merch, and Sega announced their retirement from the console wars. Which finally brings us to Gen Z, the generation that’s proud to be themselves and frankly doesn’t give a f**k what you think about it.

Sonic & Gen Z (or... Zennials or… Whatever You/They Want to Call Your/Themselves)

These days, truly being yourself, unique, authentic… just you, is huge business. Youtube and Twitch are filled with child billionaires who lean into their personality quirks and are loved specifically for that reason. Also some racism. But the bigger point is, in the new normal, ironic detachment isn’t nearly as valuable. It’s actually cooler, these days, to be into something than to be over something. Young people feel more empowered to simply like what they like, which makes it an ideal time for Sonic to re-enter the fray.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/12/sonic-the-hedgehog-old-and-new-design-comparison"]

None of this is to say the movie will definitely do well (or even be good), but as a Sonic fan for life, it’s been interesting to watch him go from cool, to corporatized and “fake”, to “kinda corny and silly and… still fake, but that’s what’s funny about it.” The whole debacle with the initial CG Sonic reveal speaks to that...the filmmakers tried to make Sonic “realistic” and the internet said, “No you idiots, he’s a cartoon rascal that thinks he’s too cool for school, just let him be that!”

Gen Z is the first generation of humans to have grown up fully immersed in a digitally-enhanced society. Everyone is able to indulge their interests and hobbies much more thoroughly now, which has resulted in a galaxy of fragmented fan-bases and communal identities that make the “Are you a Sega person or a Nintendo person?” question seems quaint by comparison.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/03/01/why-are-there-no-good-video-game-movies"]

Nowadays, someone isn’t just a Nintendo or Sega player - they’re an anime cosplayer with an interest in tabletop gaming, or a maker of pixel-beats who crochets Star Wars scarves on Etsy in their spare time. The pop culture landscape is richer. Case in point: there were 130 more movies released in the US in 2018 than in 2017, and the number of scripted TV series’ have increased by 85% since 2011. In such a dynamic environment, generalizations are tough to make, but there is a lot of statistical data on Gen Z folks -- mostly marketing data about buying trends, because Capitalsim™ -- that I think bodes well for the possibility of a Sonic Renaissance.

Environmental Consciousness

Gen Z kids are more concerned about pollution, sustainability, and conservancy than any previous generation. Sonic the Hedgehog’s arch-nemesis is a boomer in a non-self-driving vehicle who’s here to automate all the flowers and animals and build a giant factory.

Fiscal Responsibility

Gen Z-ers are notoriously thrifty, more likely to work a series of freelance jobs or change careers frequently, and always looking for bargains or a place to live that they can actually afford. Sonic the Hedgehog hoards gold rings and emeralds and is in danger of being gentrified out of his neighborhood.

Cord-Cutters

Gen Z is the generation that “cut the cable,” and consumes most of their content on their mobiles, seeing screens as essentially interchangeable and TV as outdated. Sonic destroys hundreds of old-fashioned TVs every game and is mobility incarnate.

Data Protection

Gen Z places less emphasis on the importance of personal privacy. Sonic wears gloves and shoes but no pants.

Ethically-Sourced…Chili Dogs?

Gen Z is consuming far less meat than previous generations. Sonic loves chili dogs, which is a tube of several kinds of meat with ground-up meat on top. Okay, that one doesn’t work. Um...

Blue Hair

I’ve been seeing lots of kids with blue hair lately? What’s up with that?

Let’s see, how can I sound older than I already do? Oh! Bidets? No thank you! What’s all this fuss lately about bidets and bidet seat add-ons? I’ll stick to good old-fashioned American-made two-ply, thank you very much! Now, in my day, we had the Virtual Boy, and he was my best friend and oh my, the times we’d have…

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

Editor’s Note: Michael just kept typing out SNES titles until he got sleepy. We put a blanket over him to make sure he didn’t get cold.

What’s your take on Sonic these days? Corporate Shill or Moderately Funny In Sort of a Kitschy Way Corporate Shill? Let us know in the comments, or to really see how far the internet has fallen, check out what happens when you put the creepy old CG sonic’s teeth on other game characters.

from IGN Video Games https://www.ign.com/articles/2020/01/09/why-sonic-is-the-perfect-mascot-for-gen-z via IFTTT from The Fax Fox https://thefaxfox.blogspot.com/2020/01/why-sonic-is-perfect-mascot-for-gen-z.html

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changesinlatitudepr · 6 years ago

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Being Black In America

Being black in America has never been easy. White Americans have been stereotypical of black people for decades now. Although African Americans have struggled with various segregation acts and racial discrimination, many achieved the American Dream by countless job opportunities provided by America 's industrial and agricultural sectors.They have influenced our culture and the American history through politics, sports, and inventions. When we talk about American culture, we tend to think it just consists of one thing, although it’s completely the opposite. “Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we greet visitors, how we behave with loved ones, and a million other things,” said Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London.

The United States is the third largest country in the world with a population of more than 325.7 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Besides Native Americans who were already living on the continent, the population of the United States was built on immigration from other countries. The United States is seen as one of the most racist countries in the world, what is ironic about this is that it is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. Nearly every region of the world has influenced American culture. Cultures ranging from Native Americans and Latin Americans to Africans and Asians.

The music video of the song “This is America” by Childish Gambino has made a lot of people talk due to the contradicting and shocking message about what America brings to their people, especially the black community. The central message of the video is about guns and violence in America. How this has always been present and has become part of our normal conversations. “This is America” tries to portray what happens inside the country in the most poetic and artistic ways. A lot of the times, I had to stop during the video and back-it-up again to recapture the idea of what was happening.

There are three key elements in the video. Starting off, in the opening moments of “This Is America”, it show a man strumming a guitar. Within the first minute, Gambino shoots the man, who’s tied up with a head cover. Childish Gambino hands the gun to another man, who safely wraps it in a red cloth as the man is dragged away. The moment goes right into the first rapped chorus: “This is America / Don’t catch you slippin’ up”. Here, he’s talking about the contradictions of trying to get money, the idea of being a black man in America.Later, toward the middle of the video, a choir sings before Gambino shoots them all. The massacre recalls the 2015 Charleston shooting. This part shows us the scary side of America: you can’t escape violence.

The final moments of the video show Gambino running, terrified, down a long dark hallway away from a group of people as Young Thug sings “you just a back man in this world / you just a barcode.” Gambino running takes us back to a long tradition of black Americans having to run to save their lives. This shows a cruel reality: a black person running for his or her life has just been a part of American culture dating back to slavery.

Through the video I realized that Childish Gambino is a representation of America. Neither Gambino or the black men do all the killing. Rather, it is the country itself. It is America, with its racist history and contemporary disinterest in black lives, that takes the lives of black people, even innocent, church-going black people, and continues to smile and dance as though the violence was unworthy of notice. Unfortunately, some of this violence takes the form of white supremacists but other violence is systematic: racially and wrong school discipline, segregated low-income housing that isolates those living in poverty, and subcultures that glorify guns and value them more than people. I think Gambino understands this and that’s why it is part of his commentary.

This music video has been one of the best made videos in years. It shows an active problem in the United States. Americans tend to say that that race isn't important and that we should all focus on our shared humanity, while black men and women continue to experience disproportional access to education, health care, and justice.There has been many recent movies and tv-shows that involves a full cast of black people. An example is one of the most talked about movies from 2017, “Black Panther”. With an all-star collection of majority black talent both in front of and behind the camera, Black Pantheris about more than the latest superhero’s journey; it’s also about black culture’s journey, and it points toward a future where it could be the culture. Black Panther is in many ways a love letter to black culture. The black community has traditionally been an unsophisticated bit player in American media, often portrayed as backward, savage, and chaotic in everything from news coverage to films. This was one of the most successful movies in the world, which proves that black Americans are just as capable and as successful as any other white American.

Bibliography

1. De Ross, Cristina. "American Culture: Traditions And Customs Of The United States." LiveScience.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.

2. Florida, Richard, The flight of the creative class: the new global competition for talent, 2005

3. Johnson, Tre. “Black Panther Is a Gorgeous, Groundbreaking Celebration of Black Culture.” Vox.com, Vox Media, 23 Feb. 2018, www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/23/17028826/black-panther-wakanda-culture-marvel.

#black panther #Black americans #this is america

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educati23on1332 · 7 years ago

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I was browsing one of my old best shapewear books - Barron's 2001 Profiles of American Colleges - the other day and, once again, I realized several unique features of America as the world's education powerhouse.First of all, America is a distinct educational destination which values pluralism. Besides the tens of thousands of educational institutions hosting students from America and the rest of the world, dotting the landscape of this mammoth country, America offers a whole world of college courses. These programs are of relevance to the American populace. Eskimo Studies, Jewish Studies, Native American Studies, Hispano-American and Mexican-American or Chicano Studies, and in recent years, Philippine Studies, are Maternity Shapewear some of the peculiar programs offered in US universities which reflect the history and the increasingly multicultural and pluralistic heritage of the American people (It can also be inferred that the past colonial masters offer courses in their universities which mirror their imperial past. In the United Kingdom, Egyptology is a course offered at University of Oxford and Cambridge University. This scenario manifests British interest in Egypt which historically was one of the colonies in Imperial Britain's spheres of influence). As a Boston resident, I am well aware that America, especially Boston, Massachusetts, is washer dryer clearance the keystone of world education. For instance, shop at a local Abercrombie and Fitch store, and you will come across hordes of multicultural youths. You can overhear them speaking in Central European, French, Japanese, British English, and myriads of other lingua francas, manifesting how America is the ultimate educational hotspot of the world. You will also find a group of well-dressed Japanese tourists politely volunteering to take my picture while I was strolling along School Street in Boston, thinking I was a visitor like them. Or a Red Cross volunteer reckoning me as a student and asking for my contribution. I agree with LL Cool J, a well-known rap artist, in remarking used appliances houston that regardless if America encounters financial and political turmoil, the superpower will always be number one in the world for primarily being a creative hub. Given the millions of this educational heartland's citizens and growing, imagine the vast creativity this population can produce.Second, no country in the world is as democratic as the United States. Academic freedom prevails everywhere. Students are encouraged to get involved and to speak up their points of view in as early as elementary school. The popularity of talk shows is aired appliances houston during daytime, primetime, and late night, hinting you are in Oprah country.Third, in the United States, the right to information is highly respected and observed. America is a reading society. Publishing and documentation are valued for their purpose of keeping the American public abreast with knowledge and events which affect their day-to-day lives. Furthermore, if you are curious about anything particular under the sun, expect that when you Google it, a mammon of information would be readily available for such subject has already been published or blogged about. I have experienced this particularly when I conducted my research about this contemporary phenomenon of students taking on study-abroad programs or traveling overseas to study college. Lo and behold, I realized that America has institutionalized the subject of my graduate thesis and has even coined the term for it - international education. And whoa, institutions like the Institute of International Education in New York City (where I ordered my references needed to complete my study) and the experts on international education have been in existence for a very long time! Furthermore, another scenario on how this information hub works is barely two car dealerships in houston months after the 33 Chilean miners got trapped in the centuries-old copper-gold mine in Chile, the book The 33 Men by American author Jonathan Franklin had already been published. Indeed, America is the place to be when you need a wealth of information for you research work or simply enjoy learning and finding out more. Furthermore, art films centering on the immense tendencies of human nature abound, like the ballet psychodrama The Black Swan starring Natalie Portman, Michael Fassbender's film on sex addiction explained in Shame, and the Lolita-like young student-older man May-December love affair film An Education starring Peter Sarsgaard and Carey Mulligan facilitates your inner humanity to be tremendously developed if you live in the United States. This educational heartland enables an individual's intent luxury cars houston to be highly educated, civilized, classy and cultured.Fourth, apparently, the Americans have a role and a say in almost all fields of knowledge and human interest. They take interest, discover, and document anything under the sun for which the whole world recognizes them for, like the naming of dinosaurs (19th-century Yale academics are credited for this), the mooing of cows' benefit to the livestock industry (Thanks to Temple Grandin, an American prodigy in animal science and animal behavior), and National Geographic's informative accounts on its magazine about the lavender-laden perfume fields of Provençe, the Galapagos Islands' aquatic wonders, Alaska's dramatic Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the tea-colored Orinoco waterway at the plus size shapewear heart of Venezuela. America certainly allots substantial funds to uphold not only its citizens' but also the people of the rest of the world's inalienable right to know.Fifth, being the world's Education Mecca as it is, America is an acclaimed investor in people. It provides opportunities to anyone who has the intent to do whatever it takes to achieve his life plans regardless of his background. For instance, Temple Grandin, a typical Boston resident, was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at an early age. Later in her life, she developed into an expert in animal science. Dr. Grandin is a specially abled American doctor of animal science and behavior. Gifted and versatile, she has achieved on to becoming a professor at Colorado State University, a best-selling author, a consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior, and the inventor of the hug machine, designed to calm hypersensitive people and a mode of stress Houston SEO Expert relief therapy. In 2010, Dr. Grandin's life story was produced into a film under her namesake. The inspiring movie earned a Golden Globe award for Claire Danes, the actress who portrayed the title role. Finally, America's offering of Scandinavian Studies, British Studies, Canadian Studies, Dutch, and Polish in some of its tertiary institutions shows America's intent to extend is appendages of influence - be it political, economic, or cultural - to the territories dealt with by these programs of study. Moreover, it is in America's ideals to fortify its established diplomatic relations with its allies, thus, aiming to gain a better knowledge and understanding of these countries. In the American television program, Rick Steves's Europe, I am surprised to arrive at the conclusion that American expatriates are everywhere, studying and familiarizing themselves with the other sojourners of this world better. Rick Steves is an American author, historian, and television personality hosting his Eurocentric travel show. The episodes present Mr. Steves journeying in strange yet breathtakingly picturesque SEO Company Toronto locations such as the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, the Balkan side, and other Adriatic delights. In one of the episodes, he met a fellow American writer and a permanent resident of Slovenia who authored a travel guide about the life and times in the southern European land. In addition, a lucid account of the socio-cultural landscape of the Philippines has been vividly captured by an American scholar, David Timberman in his book A Changeless Land: Continuity and Change in Philippine Politics, one of my required readings in graduate school. As an observer, these scenarios present America as to be projecting a Roman Empire-like international presence. I could therefore expect what career is right for me that should I travel to non-mainstream tourist destinations like Greenland or Iceland, I could always look forward to encountering hints of the American-ness. The recent address by the Minister of Education Mr Heng Swee Keat goes a greater depth compared to the normal arguments regarding the positives and negatives associated with present education system. 1 important term that he emphasized in his speech is "fundamental". We have to go back to the basics of education. An education system does the very best when it very best fulfills its basic duties. Every society has popular expectations in addition to ideals shared by just about all members of the community. To be sure the continuity of these basic spirits, schooling with the youthful generation turns into a vital means. Consequently we can far better A+ certification training evaluate the Singapore education system in light of the fundamentals being a far more helpful technique of analysis. Very first, the society treasures justness. In addition to people natural sense of fairness, Singaporeans value the critical function of justness in managing a racially-diverse population or maximizing the use of capable persons in a modest population. Hence, it suffices to say the idea of fairness has been nailed to the head of Singaporeans. This kind of a thought is additionally reflected in Singapore's education system. In spite of the calling for abolishing tests, especially the PSLE, this kind of a probability continues to be remote. Even the minister of education won't endorse the move, as witnessed in his description of how certain countries that used to eliminate examinations are returning to exam-based solutions. Examinations, as strenuous as they are, set impartial standard of assessment. A result of Ninety is better compared to a grade of eighty nine. Though it truly is arguable how much business analyst certification distinction does that 1 mark seriously makes, the score-based assessment based on standardized exams has shown to be more trustworthy and just compared to every other alternative: the interview-based test, the talent-based assessment where by subjective assessment is employed. The score assigned to a dance performance by a student applicant is in essence arbitrary, and is different throughout various assessors, who may perhaps by themself be influenced by their own idea of excellence, their experiences and in many cases their mood on the day of assessment. Therefore, exam results carry a lot extra weight of credibility that appeals to men and women's sense of justness. Therefore, perhaps it will not be wise to argue for when this kind of a proposal impedes one of several basic values men and women hold dear to. Secondly, the skill sets as well as values educated in college reflect the public demand for such capabilities among the pupils. The colleges tend to be usually responsive to social requirements due to rivalry in bringing in excellent students. The individuals with the right set of qualities the society would like are a lot more probable to become successful right after they graduate. Graduating a winning batch of college students improves the status of establishments that could entice college students with greater branding.Therefore, the college will make an effort to equip students with all the socially desired skills and values. The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), with their exclusive IB syllabus that emphasizes breath together with autonomous early childhood development analysis, is drawing the best secondary school pupils. The Singapore Management University, because of its one of a kind seminar teaching approach in addition to extensive presentation training, makes its graduates highly marketable. Some critics feel concerned about the value learning and skill impartation which have been compromised by a strong focus on examinations. Nonetheless because of competition among colleges for diversity as well as branding, the future of education scene may not end up being as bleak as some might predict. Educational institutions realize that by simply producing excellent scorers will not help to make their graduated pupils go very far, and that will be reflected in testimonies such as graduate employment survey that mothers and fathers in addition to would-be students pay attention to yearly. Therefore what the government should do may perhaps not be dictating value training from a top-down method, but rather promote the diversity and competition amongst schools while enhancing a series of technical schools near me graduate surveys and research to improve the information circulation, which in the long run incentivizes colleges to react to what society actually wants.

#best shapewear

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republicstandard · 7 years ago

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Evidence Over Experience: Confronting Racial Supremacist Ideologies

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, “The most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” Given that there is no governmentally-forced integration (yet), this observation, borne out by the statistics—close to 95% of American churches have congregations that are at least 80% one distinct race or ethnicity—tells us that when left to their own devices, most people naturally self-segregate. A trip to just about any major city will confirm this as different areas and neighborhoods have a distinct racial or ethnic composition, and in leaving the cities and heading into the suburbs (though gentrification sometimes reverses the process), and certainly the country, you’ll notice an increasingly uniform population of whites. This is actually true with many Western countries. This is anecdotal evidence and would not be permissible in a court of law, but people have eyes and instincts. Finnish sociologist Tatu Vanhanen observed:

Interest conflicts between ethnic groups are inevitable because ethnic groups are genetic kinship groups and because the struggle for existence concerns the survival of our own genes through our own or our relatives’ descendants.

To prefer our own is perfectly natural, or as Vanhanen put it, “Ethnic nepotism belongs to human nature.” It ensures our continued survival. For one to not prefer their own, they would have to be either literally psychotic, or, in select cases, there is something called Williams Syndrome, which is a kind of mild mental retardation where healthy fear of the unknown, strangers, social inhibition, and racial preference are all absent due to normal neural communications being disrupted. Why then the incessant drum-beat for one group and one group only to cast aside this preference for the genocidal embrace of “multi-culturalism”? We should’ve learned from the events of 376 AD at the latest that multi-culturalism is a bad idea. To quote Kevin MacDonald;

“White liberals…are deluding themselves about the attitudes of the non-Whites that they so eagerly embrace. Their liberalism won’t save them when push comes to shove.”

For Jared Taylor:

Americans therefore live a contradiction that makes it difficult to talk honestly about race. There is probably no other subject about which there is a greater divergence between what is said publicly and thought privately…At least that is true for whites…Blacks and Hispanics [openly reject] the civil-rights ideal of transcending race. For many minorities, race or ethnicity is central to their identity…Non-white racial/ethnic solidarity is an entrenched part of the political landscape, and the pressure tactics to which it gives rise have been very successful…[Whites] have dismantled and condemned their own racial identity in the expectation that others will do the same…They should…ponder the consequences of being the only group for whom [racial] identity is forbidden and who are permitted no aspirations as a group.

The government can obscure and re-classify races on the census and manipulate and doctor crime statistics, but it doesn’t change the fact that biology is the primary driver of culture. Sickle cell is not a social construct. Tay-Sachs is not a social construct. Given full self-determination, Liberia—which has a constitutional amendment barring whites from citizenship—Liberia did not become Wakanda. It became Liberia. Like Liberia, Haiti has had two hundred years with no white interference or help, and it has become a very close proxy for hell on earth. Ethiopia, master of its own destiny since the dawn of sedentary societies minus a five-year interregnum from 1936-1941, is no better off. So let’s stop with the fiction for once. The culture reflects the people.

When a black says they’re going to “educate you,” what you can expect is an endlessly self-referential polemic of microwaved post-colonial jargon heavily imbued with the “lived experience” of “blackness,” utterly devoid of quantitative reasoning or evidence of any kind. You may also encounter vague references to “trauma” and definite examples of slavery and Jim Crow, which they will never have experienced first-hand. Black culture is a dead-end. If we as whites are not nearly racially-conscious enough, blacks are the opposite, luxuriating in this “blackness” despite having contributed virtually nothing to civilization outside of the pop-cultural realm. If whites internalize and have high rates of suicidality, blacks externalize, with a toxic excess of self-esteem and an enactment of their frustrations on others.

Blacks account for about 13% of America’s population but commit 52.5% of its homicides and at least forty percent of other violent crimes. Blacks commit 85% of violent black-white interracial crimes (blacks are twenty-seven times more likely to attack whites than vice versa; Hispanics eight times more likely to attack whites than vice versa) and commit interracial aggravated assault over two hundred times more often than whites. Black males are fourteen times more likely than white males to commit homicide and are between seven to ten times more likely to commit a crime than whites. Over half of blacks convicted of rape in the last decade chose white victims. Even on college campuses, center of the one-in-four rape hysteria when in reality college campuses are statistically safer than the national average, blacks are grossly overrepresented. Consider the real rape culture on Baylor University’s campus or the fact that the University of Missouri football team, which is 65.3% percent black, commits sexual assaults at five times the rate of the general student population, which is 8% percent black.

Statistically speaking, a white woman dating a black man is about as bad a decision as it is possible to make: 92% of children from a white mother and black father are born out of wedlock, and 82% wind up on government assistance. As we know, single parenthood is the single greatest guarantor of inter-generational poverty. For that 8 % who get him to put a ring on it, you have this to look forward to: in black male-white female marriages, the white woman is 12.4 times more likely to be murdered by her spouse than if she had married a white man.

But, as Taleeb Starkes points out, if “a black person is killed by a white person (my note: which, as evidenced above, statistically happens far less often), the benefits for the deceased black person are seemingly limitless. They include:

Canonization with eternal recognition as a martyr.

Incessant comparisons to icons of the Civil Rights movement i.e. Emmet Till.

Front page news coverage, and despite criminal proclivities or rap sheet, benevolent-looking pictures will always be used to propagate the victimology narrative.

Marches and protests with customized slogan.

Foundation created with celebrity endorsements.

Birth parents and even step-parents will become celebrities (Mom may also get to speak at the United Nations).

Trademarked likeness (Note: This may cause family members to fight over rights).

Covered funeral expenses with the likelihood that a big shot from the Race Grievance Industry will deliver the eulogy.

The white perpetrator will be caricatured as a racist demon whose purpose was to snatch black lives.

The white perpetrator’s private information will be publicized on social networks with emphasis on vengeance.”

More blacks are killed by police per capita because they are in contact with the police far more often with their criminal overrepresentation! Always lamenting the predations on their communities, most blacks and browns never put two and two together—criminality isn’t a shapeless cloud that menaces the black ghettoes and the barrios, it is the young men whose fathers have abandoned them to roam free as feral thugs, looting and terrorizing their own communities, utterly unconcerned with general upkeep, steady employment, and social harmony. The high-fecundity blacks and browns have the lowest investment in parenting, so we have a situation similar to pack animals now, where the alpha cultivates what is essentially a harem, and the betas scrounge around the periphery of the pack, or are killed or exiled (probably to terrorize Europe). The decrease in pair-bonding leads to lower investment parenting and either single-parenthood or in the case of sharia-compliant marriages what is effectively single-parenthood as the men may have up to four wives and at least one sex slave.

Lower investment parenting and single parenthood lead to a whole host of elevated risk factors for criminality to psychological issues to dependence issues. Play this out a few generations, and the trends we are already seeing manifest themselves in ways wholly unconducive to the maintenance, let alone advancement, of civilization. It takes six Japanese women to reproduce what one woman from Niger is “accomplishing” with her womb. Neither is healthy. Over-population by high time preference people and under-population by low time preference people is going to lead to environmental degradation, lack of proper aquifer and reservoir maintenance, and eventual mass famine and starvation. The farms in Zimbabwe né Rhodesia plummeted to one-tenth of their productivity once they were seized from the white farmers, and the nation went from food-exporting to food-importing. We are witnessing a similar trend in South Africa. By the time you read this, there may well be no more running water in Cape Town.

Lothrop Stoddard wrote about the inevitable deterioration of a society under “The Lure of the Primitive” when its “life-line of civilization wore thinner and spurred to fiercer energy those waxing powers of barbarism and chaos.” What did Rhodesia and South Africa do that could’ve caused the present situation? What is much of the West rushing lemming-like off a cliff to do now? Ah, right: The enduring image of one dead child on a beach in Turkey as a result of irresponsible parenting has been enough to accelerate the flooding of the European continent with feral young black and brown men, but the horror stories of the native Europeans victimized by these people are swept away as nothing but collateral damage in the pursuit of DIVERSITY.

As whites, they are permitted no identity, and by extension, they are denied full personhood, especially if they are from the loathed lower classes. They have none of the mystique of the jungle primitive or the allure of the Orient, just bad teeth, a life on the dole, incomprehensible customs, and too many damn kids! Wait, is that the white lower class or the people the “elites” are importing? Remember, noticing is forbidden:

"If the Nazis hadn’t noticed that the Jews were actively debasing Germany during the Weimar era, the Holocaust would have never occurred, in which 6 million of the 2.4 million Jews in German-occupied Europe were mercilessly slaughtered, and their remains turned into useful household products like soap and lampshades. If white Southerners and South African Boers hadn’t noticed the criminal propensities of blacks, their reckless envy of whites and white accomplishment, and their general affinity for strongman-rule, we would have never had the brutal horrors of Jim Crow and apartheid. If Jesus Himself hadn’t noticed the man-made traditions and self-idolatry of the Pharisees, the specter of anti-Semitism would have never reared its ugly head. Noticing led to the greatest acts of oppression and injustice ever known in human history."

Forget everything you just read and get back in line, White Man. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil!

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makingmediameta · 7 years ago

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AG: Second Amendment

What Messages do you hear in Owning My Masters? What do you learn from his music?

In Second Amendment, Carson introduces the controversy surrounding the Second Amendment. One of the major messages is that guns aren't the problem in society today, it's the people in society that are the problem. He references the many victims of police shootings that have occurred within the past couple years and how people – specifically black people – now walk around in fear of being shot.

How does AD Carson make rap music meta?

Carson makes rap meta because he talk about the importance of rap and then proceeds to tackle important issues by rapping about them.

JT: Grading on a Curve

What messages do you hear in Owning My Masters? What do you learn from his music?

In the song “Grading on a Curve” AD Carson focuses heavily on the tendency of the U.S. and its residents to ignore the existence of racial issues. For one thing, he states that the country’s reaction to racial issues is “different when punctuated with bullets,” clearly nodding to the manifestation of these tensions in the form of violence. Furthermore, the country’s responses to these problems are inadequate, as attempts to address them are met with resistance, which is evinced by lines such as “say it to they face, they say you grating on they nerves” and “so the conversation is over.” Overall, Carson’s work speaks to the problematic nature of the nation’s passivity in dealing with issues stemming from racial tensions.

How does AD Carson make rap music meta?

In this specific song, Carson says that he has been thinking that his “voice can be more resounding” if he uses the different parts of speech correctly and says it “how [he] heard it when [he] heard it,” and on account of this fact, this rap is “deliberately worded how it’s worded.” In other words, this is just one of the many examples Carson uses to demonstrate how rap music, which is generally known for not adhering strictly to established and accepted grammatical rules, can be manipulated in order to highlight this very fact. Furthermore, pointing out that he is well aware of how rap music’s structure differs from other linguistic forms (particularly those present in institutions) enables him to perpetuate his message about issues of systemic racism being swept under the rug.

CR: 80's [Produced by Truth]

What messages do you hear in Owning My Masters? What do you learn from his music?

In this song, Carson discusses the War on Drugs in the 80s, particularly cocaine and the effect the Reagan Administration had on black Americans. Carson, by comparing the strict drug laws and drug use in the eighties to slavery, vividly demonstrates how detrimental drug laws and the crack-down on crack was for black communities.

How does AD Carson make rap music meta?

This song does not have any explicit mention of rap or music, so it is not as "meta" as some of the other tracks on this dissertation. However, it is meta that Carson is using rap to discuss the political and cultural role that rap plays. "80's" provides some historical context for his discussion of rap.

KK: Willie Revisited

What messages do you hear in Owning My Masters? What do you learn from his music?

In “Willie Revisited,” AD Carson writes about Willie Lynch and slavery. He discusses how much hatred there is and how one desires control. He talks about how Willie claimed to have the idea that to control black slaves was to set them against each other.

How does AD Carson make rap music meta?

I think that AD Carson makes rap music meta by incorporating real life issues and rap. He talks about how important rap is to him, and then he discusses the aspect of slavery by putting it into a modern perspective.

JH: Talking to Ghosts feat. Bad Dreams [Prod. by Preme]

What messages do you hear in Owning My Masters? What do you learn from his music?

In "Talking to Ghosts," AD Carson is addressing the idea that Hip Hop is dead. He essentially says a timeless form of media that addresses issues in society is lifeless. He extends this hypothetical though in his title and in his rap by "talking to ghosts" (rap if it is dead) and (I believe) audio files from 12 years a slave to have a quasi-dialogue with the past.

How does AD Carson make rap music meta?

By returning to the roots of rap. Incorporating and discussing political issues in rap, especially when the song is filled with emotion, is one of the trademarks of rap. He also makes it meta by turning his rap into a dissertation.

RE: Dissertation (Part 1: The Introduction) Prod by Truth

What messages do you hear in Owning My Masters? What do you learn from his music?

In Part 1, Carson introduces his dissertation and his motivation for creating it. One of the major messages is that no matter how educated black people are, they are still oppressed and stigmatized. He plans to use his dissertation to create what "his people have envisioned," to legitimize hip hop as an art form and a medium worthy of academic inquiry.

How does AD Carson make rap music meta?

Carson discusses the history and purpose of rap by rapping. He also talks about the medium's future.

RC: Find the Ledge (produced by Preme)

What Messages do you hear in Owning My Masters? What do you learn from his music?

In Find the Ledge, AD Carson puts emphasis on the notion that nothing is ever handed to you, especially when you come from an underprivileged situation. AD Carson is trying to say that you'll have to work to get to where you want, and it most likely won't be publicized either. You'll just have to grind on your own to get to where you want to be.

How does AD Carson make rap music meta?

AD Carson talks about real, important issues in his rapping. He uses metaphors and phrases that hit close to home and can be applied by his listeners. He wants to do something more than just rap, he wants to convey his message via his unique platform.

JM: Impeach the President

What messages do you hear? What did you learn?

Carson addresses some of the dark sides to our democracy- our financially driven campaigns, the cultural expectations placed on voters, and our elected officials' power to exclude. He juxtaposes the idea of a DJ in a club with that of the American political machine. Throughout his narrative he constantly draws upon this metaphor to really drive home the point: we oftentimes treat our voting system, filled with political parties, as if it were a club party. We are apathetic at best, and at worst, we gobble up every line the government tells us as gospel; we are entranced by their authority and power over us. Carson seems to be telling us to come to our senses and realize that our politicians are normal people like us and as such, can be held accountable and responsible for their actions as we often are.

How does AD Carson make "rap" meta?

Particularly in other songs, Carson uses rap music as an extension of Black Culture to address the way that the rest of America both views and portrays Black Culture. However, and in his song Impeach the President, Carson uses rap to subvert an aspect of mainstream culture. It is important that Carson uses rap which, by definition, is a subversion of what we Americans consider "pop music" to further subvert other aspects of culture and address these topics from previously unheard perspectives.

BS: Good Mourning America

What messages do you hear in Owning My Masters? What do you learn from his music?

In Owning My Masters, I hear messages of the need for overdue justice for underrepresented people. AD Carson details the unjust treatment of black people as well as other people of color and of the poor. He discusses the shortcomings of the American democracy and legal system. All of these concepts run throughout his album and are present in the song "Good Mourning America". From his music, I learned that these problems are still present and that by creating art and making progress in academia, more awareness about these problems can be brought to people's attention.

How does AD Carson make rap music meta?

AD Carson makes rap music meta by discussing, through a medium that he directly references with heavy ties to black culture, the problems faced by black people in America.

DF-Ferguson

What messages do you hear in Owning My Masters? What do you learn from his music?

The song that I listened to on the album was Ferguson. As the title suggests, this song criticized and brought attention to police brutality against minorities in protesting situations in residential areas. This was mainly done through immersing the listener into an experience, with the narration being done by a reporting witnessing police brutality. This song calls for people to become more aware of this dynamic unfolding and I learned to sympathize with experiences I am very separated from.

How does AD Carson make rap music meta?

Carson doesn't specifically mention the medium of rap so this song isn't meta in that sense. But this isn't a "normal" rap song, its all talking from a narrator's perspective. In this fashion the song pushes the limits of the form.

JK: “Willie Revisited”

What messages do you hear in Owning My Masters? What do you learn from his music?

The central message of Carson’s album, Owning My Masters, is one of struggle, or the emotions associated with struggle. In “Willie Revisited,” the message isn’t heard, it is felt – through the beat, through the tone. Carson translates emotions into sound which the listener then decodes within themselves. The lesson, then, is one of real empathy.

How does AD Carson make rap music meta?

A central ideology Carson’s dissertation is built around is that rap music is largely either undervalued or stigmatized in academic research. Carson then goes on to demonstrate that rap music is a valuable area of study by creating a mixtape dissertation – an exploration of black culture and history as related through lyric verse. Carson makes rap meta by arguing that rap is worth studying and then creating academically centered rap music to be studied.

JC: Truth on the beat

What message do you hear? What do you learn from his music?

At the beginning of the song, Carson is speaking about his drive to be a rapper and how he wishes to use the platform to spread his teachings. He explains his qualifications to speak wisdom to people, saying that he has lived through the experiences he talks about. In the second verse, Carson speaks about human kinds common ambition to make money, even at the expense of other people. He points to Columbus and conquistadors as examples. Additionally, he claims that the insanely rich people are gaming the world, people with wealth beyond that of Jay Z or Lebron James.

How does Carson make Rap music meta?

The first verse of truth on the beat is meta because he is speaking about his qualifications to be a rapper. Thus, he is referring to the fact that he is rapping within the lyrics itself. Additionally, the hook to the song is meta. He claims that his words are the truth on the beat, and that he is spitting on the street. Both these lines refer to the act of rapping.

A.D. Carson’s Rap Album Dissertation

The artist poses the following questions in his artist’s statement: 1. What are the roles of Hip-Hop performance in knowledge production and what types of ideological work is being done by scholarly engagements with Hip-Hop Performance? Hip-hop performance can help facilitate a non-traditional, innovative, and engaging way for an audience to observe the artform and analyze the content in retrospect to the medium it is being presented in. A.D. Carsen is one example of how a Hip-Hop artist can perform and participate in scholarly engagements as he is a Professor of hip-hop at the University of Virginia who had actually rapped his dissertation. 2. How can Hip-Hop performance resist [push beyond] the limits set upon it by academic convention? Judging by the work of A.D. Carsen, Hip-Hop has the power to surpass its stigma in society as a mere genre of music and assumed preference of a younger, more juvenile demographic. Instead he utilizes Hip-Hop music as a platform of academic convention and conversation. He brings the issues racial discrimination, hardships, and experiences to the table all while proving to the audience that rap and Hip-Hop are not limited to it’s usual conventions and connotations. 3. How does one more effectively approach Hip-Hop academically in a manner that speaks through [one of] its form[s] and doesn’t reinscribe the “oppression” the form seeks to subvert? As mentioned before, a way to do this is to shed light on relevant issues of groups and individuals in the African-American community so that the audience can become more aware of the struggles that African-Americans go through, be more conscious of the ways that they might be contributing to said “oppression” through their privilege and be more active in helping to fight against oppressive institutions. 4. How can we responsibly deal with the issue[s] of access for producers of cultural products like Rap music/lyrics? Judging from what is often considered popular rap and played on the radio which for a long time usually spoke on money, sex, and drugs, producers of cultural products like Rap music and lyrics are likely not African American and will only contribute to producing content that will become mainstream and be guaranteed to be financially successful. Ultimately it is up to the audience and consumers to actively boycott or protest rap or hip-hop that may reinscribe oppression and build negative stigma around the industry and culture, and instead demand for more meaningful production of rap music and lyrics. 5. How should [or How/Should] our considerations of responsibility regarding access change if the aforementioned cultural products are created by people who have not achieved the notoriety of Nas and Jay-Z—artists whose works are studied in academic institutions but would likely not qualify to study or teach at those institutions [both men dropped out of high school before their rap careers began]? Allowing these artists whose works are studied academic institutions, to come and give first-hand interpretations and context of their work would serve for greater change through better access. It only right to give artists the credibility they deserve, even if they didn’t pursue a higher education since their art is meaningful and speaks of their experiences relevant to politics and society. What messages do you hear in Owning My Masters? What do you learn from his music? I hear the message of man who is taking ownership of his education, identity, culture, and history. I learned that A.D Carson knew living in his hometown that if he stayed, he knew he wouldn’t have been able to pursue a higher education and credibility would be limited. How does AD Carson make rap music meta?AD Carson subverts the art form of rap music which originated in African oral tradition and is often thought as far from academic or informative, into his dissertation where he himself raps about his experiences as an African American man pursuing a PhD and the oppression, biases, and mistreatment that his fellow African-Americans might have also experienced due to their race.-AL

#music #ADCarson #rhetorics #owningmymasters #rapdissertation

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eewilliamsthings · 8 years ago

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Tales from the light rail...

"Never been on the tram, where d'ya sit? Ah, sit here, what's a good stop? Never been on the tram, did you's tap on? Nah not tap on, yeah Opal! Sit still, act normal, all ABOARD"! My travelling companion boarded the light rail at Central. Jumping on with seconds to spare, he reeked of booze and held his bottle of Tawny Port wrapped in a ripped and beaten brown paper bag like a sommelier. Impressive.

He sat opposite, squeezing himself between an Asian family, mamma, grand mamma and a young teenager, he stared at them intently and asked "do ya speak English"? They appeared wary, "No English, nah, doesn't matter, let me try, Champignon, yeah that's mushroom". He's teaching them French! "Konnichiwa"! The family were a little more than wary now.

The tram stopped for the traffic lights, he jumped up, "Why'd we stop? Aah, need to get off", he dashed to the door "get a little claustrophobic, nah they won't let me off, sit down, act normal, yeah all good". I smiled, it's alright buddy, were moving again. He sat down, and commenced to beat box (Insert favourite beats here). "Yeah, rap, hip hop, historically introduced by the African Americans to signify the social divide and cultural differences between them and the rest of the United States of Americaaaaa!".

Silent, hysterical laughter is a modest description of my reaction.

We moved though the intersection towards Capitol Square, he jumped up again, and at the top of his voice he sang "Bah, Bah, Black Sheep have you any wool, yes Sir, yes Sir three bags of em. One for the master, and one for the other fellow and one for the landlady". Stifle those giggles Miss Lizzie."Ah, gotta get off, what's going on here then", he yelled as he stepped off to assail a tall thin man wearing summer clothes and a black beret.

The family exhaled, the tram moved on, and a slightly claustrophobic drunken social commentator chatted to his new friend in the beret. Bless.

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therightnewsnetwork · 8 years ago

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The double murder of Otto Warmbier

We may never know what brutal torture and malign neglect American student Otto Warmbier suffered at the hands of North Korea’s dictatorship before losing his life this week at the age of 22.

But it wasn’t the first time the free-spirited Ohio native died.

More than a year before succumbing to the unknown illness or injury that left him in a coma thousands of miles away from home, Otto Warmbier’s own countrymen murdered his reputation. His character. His humanity.

Click-hungry media ghouls knew nothing about Warmbier’s small-town upbringing, his family life, politics, personality, disappointments or dreams. But they gleefully savaged a young man who made a mistake on a doomed trip to a totalitarian hell.

Warmbier’s thoughtless taunters instantly transformed him into a bigger, badder villain than the barbaric DPRK goons who beat, starve, rape and kill enemies of the state for such offenses as listening to foreign radio broadcasts, possessing Bibles and disrespecting Dear Leader — in Warmbier’s case, by attempting to steal a propaganda sign that read “Let’s arm ourselves strongly with Kim Jong-il’s patriotism!” as a souvenir.

The Huffington Post published an acid rant by “Blogging While Black” writer La Sha titled “North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal.” She rejoiced at Warmbier’s sentence because, she gloated, it taught him that “the shield his cis white male identity provides here in America is not teflon abroad.”

Instead of faulting a repressive socialist regime, La Sha blamed Warmbier for “being socialized first as a white boy, and then as a white man in this country.” The HuffPo’s megalomaniac millennial had the gall to compare her daily plight of living and breathing freely in America to Warmbier’s captivity:

“The hopeless fear Warmbier is now experiencing is my daily reality living in a country where white men like him are willfully oblivious to my suffering even as they are complicit in maintaining the power structures which ensure their supremacy at my expense.”

But it wasn’t just babbling diversity bloggers who exploited Warmbier’s imprisonment.

For a few cheap yuks, liberal black comedian Larry Wilmore plowed ahead with smug disregard to how Warmbier’s parents, family and friends must have suffered as photos and videos of their son and loved one were plastered all over media. To canned laughter, Wilmore mocked Warmbier on his Comedy Central show with a graphic labeling him an “ASS,” which spelled out a fake frat name, “Alpha Sigma Sigma.”

“It’s just tough for me to have much sympathy for this guy and his crocodile tears,” Wilmore snarked as he roasted the “Frat Boy.”

Left-wing website Salon added another layer to the white male-bashing echo chamber:

“This might be America’s biggest idiot frat boy: Meet the UVa student who thought he could pull a prank in North Korea.”

Not to be outdone, Affinity Magazine (a “social justice” online magazine for teens) stomped on Warmbier’s grave after his death was announced:

“Watch whiteness work,” the publication tweeted. “He wasn’t a ‘kid’ or ‘innocent’ you can’t go to another country and try to steal from them. Respect their laws.”

This from a rag that had deified Black Lives Matter icons Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin as downtrodden youth whose extensive rap sheets must remain unmentioned at all costs.

Otto’s saboteurs engaged in the very same bigotry and stereotyping they recklessly accuse everyone else of at every turn. The far left learned nothing from leaping to conclusions about the Duke lacrosse players or the wrongfully accused members of Phi Kappa Psi at University of Virginia — where Warmbier was a junior double-majoring in commerce and economics.

By all accounts, Warmbier was a charismatic and caring human being whom one high-school classmate called “Everyone’s friend.” He was a lover of cultures and intellectually open-minded — “a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds,” according to his family.

Utterly consumed by malignant identity politics, the left-wing intelligentsia have become the intolerantsia. They are bent on dehumanizing individuals, fomenting racial, ethnic and class division in the name of “progressivism,” and never taking responsibility for the damage done.

Contrast the no-regrets policy of these “Frat Boy”-bashers, with a former North Korean prison guard, Lim Hye-jin, who escaped recently and recounted the horrors of life in the camps.

“We were manipulated not to feel any sympathy for prisoners,” she said. The guards of the totalitarian state “do not see them as human beings, just as animals.” After realizing she had been brainwashed by ideological monsters, she spoke out.

“Now I know they were normal people, so I feel very guilty.”

Will the short, slandered life and double death of Otto Warmbier prompt the American left’s cruel character assassins to admit the same?

Soul-searching, alas, requires a soul.

from http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/the-double-murder-of-otto-warmbier/

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