Fear and Vulgarity

Today when I turned on the news there was speculation of bomb like devices found on a cargo plane. It was suspected that it was shipped from Yemen, which is a hot bed for terrorist. Next, the news warned of bed bug in hotels and dorm rooms.  To top it all off, the news cautioned that people may give your children marijuana laced treats on Halloween. Papaganda that was most like perpetuated by those against prop. 19. Everyday we are inundated with subjects that evoke fear. These subjects represent a truth of society, there is evil amongst us. Why then is vulgarity taboo? These two components of life may seem unrelated, but let's take a deeper look.
Fear is an undeniable part of life as is vulgarity. If there was a scale that measure immorality I am sure fear would rank much higher than vulgarity. An example of this is the court of law. If you threaten to hurt someone you can be charged with a terrorist threat. In comparison a person can call someone ever bad name he can think of and be charged, at the most, with disturbing the peace.
Fear lingers on a persons mind longer than feelings of offense from obscenities. Think of the last time you were offended by obscene language. The feeling usually passes within minutes. Now compare that with the false fear of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which left the nation paralyzed with terror for years. Fear is not censored, why then is vulgarity?

Vulgarity is part of the speech of everyday people. A storyteller can not create realistic stories that involve everyday people, and leave out the way they communicate. For instance, if a story about a teenage that has family issues describes how one day the character was so upset with his parents that he told them to “go f**k themselves”, how would you alter that without loosing the emotion and anger? It would be virtually impossible.

Art imitates life. We do not attempt to take away the right for people to say vulgar words or to do vulgar things. Why then do we want to censor vulgarity out of media?

I believe that censorship comes from a combination of religion and democracy. Religion created groundwork for what is thought of as moral. Any thing that does not meet these religious standards is censored because the amount of leverage religion has. Gay people’s right to marry is an example of this. Marriage is thought of as the union between a woman and a man in almost every religion. Gay marriage went against this religious standard, and since the majority of Californians are religious it was struck down. They did not take into account that there are gay people that have been together for years, which value their relationship as much as the next couple, and want to make it official.

Censorship of vulgarity is a denial of the truth. When we create a false sense of reality for our comfort we create an ultra-sensitive society.

When Keeping it Gangsta Goes Wrong

Rap music is a genre formed in the urban slums of New York and Los Angeles. It gives people that would not usually venture into these neighborhoods a sensationalized glimpse of what is occurring in these places.

The stories told in rap music became a controversial issue when the group NWA, which means niggas with attitudes, came on the scene. They started the trend, which is still prominent today, of using curse word in there music. NWA gave you a gritty account of there surrounding and the people within them.

The issue of prejudice came about when the general public began taking these over exaggerations of urban life as factual everyday occurrences. It is important that we take a step back and get a concrete definition of prejudice. Prejudice is defined simple as an opinion formed without knowledge. A large percentage of the listeners of rap had no knowledge of what was going on in Compton California. The public took NWA as musical journalist and not a group of young man seeking notoriety through shock value.

Even the people within these cities begin to glorify language that perpetuates prejudice. This language changed young black man into niggas that could not be trusted. They would rob, steal, kill, and sell drugs in their pursuit of money, hoes, and clothes, cause that is, as proclaimed by Biggie, all a nigga knows. Women became bitches that would have sex with anyone and create problems for niggas out of spite. These bitches, as Three Six Mafia warned, could be a niggas worst downfall. But Big Boi, of Outkast does admit reluctantly that niggas love these bitches or at least like them a whole lot.

Art is made to imitate life, but also to capture the attention of the observer. A movie about a character waking up, going to his classes, and eating dinner would not draw any attention from the masses. But if we exchange our character for a wizard in training and the classes for magical training sessions, we can sell millions of movie tickets. Essentially, this is what rap music does, but there embellishment shaped the perspectives of the listeners much more believably.

Most rap artists are African-American. In a culture that already has to fight a ridiculous amount of prejudice, rap music adds even more fuel to the flame. It gives the impression that if these people do not respect themselves then why should anyone else respect them.

My conclusion for this blog is more of a disclaimer. I do not believe that NWA or any other rap group has the power to create an issue that was not present before the creation of the genre. Rap may have perpetuated and glamorized the use of foul language, but they sure did not invent it. As humans we are born with the greatest ability among all the animals, critical thinking. If we allow media to shape our perspective to the point of prejudice we are just wool-less, upright walking sheep, with a lot more variations to our baahs.

Free Doom

We as Americans, live in a country that is rooted in freedom. As we progress through time we lose appreciation for the qualities that make our nation great. We begin to believe the freedom’s we have in America are mandatory and universal, but to many around the world the United States is the promise land. My blog this week will attempt to display the conscience effort put forth by our forefathers and the lawmakers that came after them, to make America “the land of the free.”

A person can not truly be free unless allowed to take part in the political process. The United States government is put in place to act on the behalf of the citizen. If a large percentage of the citizens are not allowed to vote, the political representative is not getting a valid opinion of the citizens. The left out percentage of the population still falls under the jurisdiction of the law, but has no say in the passing of the law. This is a form of slavery that does not need whips and chains; it is control by exclusion, and legislated oppression.

America took notice of this injustice and amended the laws of the constitution. Freedom to vote for African Americans came in 1965. Many of our parents were born in a time when African American people were not allowed to vote. Our current president was born in a time when people of his ethnicity could not vote. Ironically, African Americans still have low voter turnout. You would think, with all the time and effort people put into gaining civil rights, a person would at least take advantage of it.

The most surprising aspect of freedom is that people take it for granted. Not only do they not take advantage of it, they complain about how the country is ran after the fact. I feel that people that do not vote make the decision, through indifference, to accept what ever they are given. It is much easier to point fingers at the problem, than to get your hands dirty searching for a solution.

Imagine living in a country like Saudi Arabia where women can not vote, drive, or even walk the streets alone. When compared to the United States, Saudi Arabia is not another world, it is another universe. At the same time a woman walks into Starbucks, wearing tight jeans, to order an over priced latte, a woman, in Saudi Arabia, is baking in the dessert sun, in a thick black robe with nothing exposed but her eyes and hands. 

We, as American’s, need to develop a sense of pride in our country. The United States may not be perfect, but it is still the world leader in freedom. We need to be conscience of what is going on in the world around us. Everywhere is being Americanized. This is a show of admiration. When we compare America’s problems with the problems of a country like Saudi Arabia our complaints seem petty and ignorant. It’s funny that everyone sees how great a nation we live in except us.

Read Me

The projection of nonverbal cues is a multifaceted topic. It varies with the observer's background, culture, gender, and age. The image a person portrays can often be far from who that person truly is. My nonverbal cues are just morsels of me, but are still worth examination.

 I usually sit in the very front and center of a classroom. This is not an attempt to get in good with the professor or to make myself seem more driven than other students. Gaining knowledge amuses me. My seating selection is a nonverbal cue of interest in what is been taught. When a person goes to a boxing match they would always prefer to sit ringside, this is the same principal I apply to school. Also it allows me to block everyone out except the professor. 

The way a person walks sends nonverbal cues that can be interrupted many ways. I walk with my head up looking around taking in my environment. The nonverbal cues in the way I walk are awareness yet comfort in my surroundings. My way of walking does not change weather I'm walking down Crenshaw Boulevard in, Baldwin Hills or Rodeo Drive, in Beverly Hills. I express confidence when I walk.

The most interesting nonverbal cues are facial expression. A person is often unaware of their facial expression, so it gives you a more honest cue. I usually have a squinted-eye look of inspection. I want to have ample knowledge of everything I come in contact with. My facial expression signals my curiosity and a need for understanding.

In addition I am consumed with introspection. I think about how I am affecting everything I come in contact with. How does a person perceive me? What am I doing to help people? Am I setting a good example for my family and young black men without father figures? These and many other questions cross my mind, as I sit wide-eyed staring off into space.

Style of dress is the most fickle nonverbal cue. It is the cliché of judging a book by its cover. My style of dress hints at many things from day to day. Thursday's I usually wear sweats or basketball shorts. It is my last day of class for the week. I just throw on some clothes I do not have to iron and go. On a Saturday if I'm going to hang out with friends I may wear creased jeans and a button down shirt. This style is still comfortable, but also dressed to look nice.

Nonverbal cue are useful, but can be very subjective. If you are interested in whom a person is you should go up to them and start a conversation. When we allow nonverbal cues to dominate our perception of a person we create a mental description that may not be true. How a person walks, talks, and looks should not be speculated on to the extent of dislike or fear. Heavy dependence on nonverbal cues is the seed of prejudice.

Politically Correctness

Barack Obama president of the United States of America approaches the podium of a news conference. The reporter from the Los Angeles Times asks, “Mr. President, why are the tax cuts for middle class Americans taking so long to be passed through congress?" The president answers, "Well the rich bastards, that call themselves the republican party, agreed to the tax cuts, but they also want to add tax cuts for millionaires, that do not need them." the president's actual  response was far more tactful, but  can you imagine the controversy if he would have addressed the republicans as" rich bastards"? Political correctness is a vital part of communicating with known adversaries.

Political correctness is a style of language, created by American culture, which we use when presenting ideas to an audience of diverse social, economical, and ethnic backgrounds. On the surface it may seem like it is used to spare the feeling of particular groups. In actuality it is much more about the speaker developing his ethos with the audience. In the response by the president in the earlier paragraph, Barack calling the republicans "rich bastards" was counter productive to getting his goal of tax cuts accomplished. The republicans that were on the fence about tax cut have been swayed negatively by the president’s response. Now it will be even more difficult to get the tax cuts passed. It would have been more helpful to his cause to refuse to answer the reporter.

Political correctness is used in much more intimate situations than the political world. A person very rarely shows you there true self upon the first few encounters. We all wear a mask of civility to shape the perception of the people we are communicating with.  There is a certain amount of “feeling out" you go through before you get a clear picture of who a person is. We use political correct language to give people a presentable appearance of who we are, and to not offend them. Eventually we develop a comfort level with a person and open up to them about are view that may not be part of popular opinion.

Political correctness is a tool of persuasion. When a speaker is not sure of the audience’s background, he uses a certain amount of tact to keep them receptive to his cause. Political correctness also creates a respect with the audience despite agreement or disagreement with the speaker’s ideas.

 A person that feels disrespected is less receptive to persuasion. The speaker may have an idea that can change your life for the better, but their approach can destroy there discussion at the introduction.

Political correctness is a necessary part of communication. It would be nice if you could talk to everyone frankly and they would get exactly what is being communicated to them, but it is not possible. There is a strong belief that what a person implies, is more important than what they communicate. Political correctness is a safe guard to get you ideas transmitted as clearly as possible.