Jsam009's Blog

Racial Profiling

jsam009 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:36:18 +0000

I think that racial profiling is still a big issue today. In many case’s, I have witnessed people being profiled based on their ethnicity . In one instance i’ve seen three young black men had the police called on them because they were sleeping in their car in a suburban parking lot. Directly across the street was three young white men vandalizing a car. This social experiment that people were more inclined to call out three innocent black young males rather taking action against 3 white males. People are treated differently based on their color . Black men and women are a prime example of racial profiling. This happens in most case’s because there is racial tension between people or that some men and women have a negative outlook on African-Americans and vice versa. This has been going on for over 40 years and is still going on today. Racial profiling should not be tolerated and should be permissible.

Cross fire blog post

jsam009 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:03:24 +0000

Well from what I can gather is that my blog definitely entails some of John Stewart’s criticism traits in my blog. What stands out the most in my blog is the injustice that the bloggers make about racial profiling and discrimination. Most of the time, the blog just points out the prejudice that goes on in the United States. The blog is for everyone to post on and it is universal. It discusses articles about racial inequality and how those actions affect everyone else. When I see sarcasm in the blog it may be in the title of the blog or in the title of the blog. I also see John’s criticism in the response to the blog because of clashing views of the racial case. Rather then, the blog being just one person’s views, it can have a broad range of people’s views. An example of a blog with John Stewart’s criticisms was on the website blog of rights. The example would be profile me not an interesting blog about president Obama and his campaigns and how he is handling the war on racism. This person goes into discussing his methods on dealing with this issue. The blogger claims the Obama should make a discrimination act that would prohibit people from being racist. This would have a huge impact on society. There would be many positive and negative impacts on society. In the end of the Blog the writer writes, “Go ACLU”. This might be in some sense sarcasm that could be seen in John’s debate on crossfire.

Article Contrast Blog

jsam009 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:43:50 +0000

The article that I found on NPR discussed how Black and Hispanic children were banned from a club pool because of their race. This article did a good job of explaining the facts in the case and how it affected the families involved, along with the club. The length was not too long and it was appropriate for my remix because they were able to depict all of the important aspects of racial discrimination from the incident. Mainly, the article was well written and made a great summarization of the case. The ending of the article was not direct. It left an interesting remark about how the world will deal with the issue about racism tomorrow. This was interesting to me because stood out to me like a reported sign off line. This article was more liberal then the other website. It used more emotion towards racism and focused on how this affected the children and community.
The second article was similar to the first article because of how it organized. The French Minister exclaimed that he did not make any racist remarks and that he was only making jokes about people’s origins. Both had bold headlines and three different sub topics in the case that were addressed. However, this editorial talks about the French Minister and his racist remarks against Arabs. Quotes were used in this article to make it seemed more directly associated with the French Minister. This one seemed more like an interview of a person, while the last article was a summary. These quotes came directly from the Minister. The length of this article was short and well written. Like the first article, it was under a page but used more quotes from the source of its topic. This website seemed more conservative because of its European background.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113104717

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/09/20099112148825980.html

remix blog

jsam009 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:13:15 +0000

For my project, I decided to do my remix about discrimination of race. I decided to do this because I focused on racial images and underlying rhetorical ideas. This would be a next step in my realization by showing another way discrimination can be looked at. I also think that the idea of discrimination is very old and outdated and I would like to and my classmate’s discrimination is still real and going on today.
My audience for the remix would generally target people who have been racially discriminated against and perhaps anybody that interacts with people. I would target everybody mainly because racism affects everybody whether we choose to ignore it or not. However, I think this remix will help shed some light on today’s pop culture clothing, music, E.T.C. In my video I would like to use images from famous clothing stores to show how they market their product to people. This will help to show who clothing lines generally market towards. I think that Abercrombie and Hollister will make a good example because of it recent history involving discrimination. I also plan show use audio clips from famous rap artists who preach about discrimination.
I am going to remix the original videos through the video software we used in class. Audacity will also be very handy in making my tracks to embellish my topic about discrimination. This will be kind of difficult because I don’t have much experience with video production software. However, I am experienced with music software for many years so I am not sure how the project will turn out. My hope is that I can successfully combine the software’s and make the tracks synchronized.

link to black or white

jsam009 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:16:15 +0000

Rhetorical Approach: It’s Never Black Or White

jsam009 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:23:16 +0000

Rhetorical Approach: It’s Never Black Or White

In the music video Black Or White, Michael Jackson (MJ) illustrates his vision of racial unity. Michael Jackson was born in August 29, 1958 and over the years has grown to be the “king of pop”. He is considered the best pop artist of all time (worldwide). MJ released Black or White in October 1991. The song clearly shows several underlying rhetorical devices that exemplify MJ’s logic, credibility and ability to capture emotion. The songs focus is aimed at racial equality, tranquility and peace. MJ’s small use of logos in the video proves that it doesn’t matter what color a person is, but that they’re still a person. Meaning, “It Don’t Matter If You’re Black Or White.” He uses his successful career and popular celebrity status as a worldwide singer to establish credibility in the audience. Because the whole world was in love with his music, he had the ability to persuade and influence young and old people. Lastly, MJ uses images of war, racism, diversity, and utopianism to evoke a reaction that will make the audience desire equality.
The video begins when a young white child (Macaulay Culkin) jams out to his rock and roll music that’s being played rather loud from his room. The young boys father comes upstairs to yell at him. The son gets upset and then plots to get back at his father. The son hooks up his guitar to high-powered amplifiers and goes downstairs into his living room where his father is sitting. The young boy say “Take this!” and blasts music so loud that it blew his father to Africa, which is where the video begins.
This was an interesting place for MJ to start the video because of where ancient black culture began. In the video you see a tribe of African natives on the prowl for a lion when all of a sudden MJ jumps into the center of the pack and begins singing and dancing with the natives in an a authentic African style dance routine. MJ of course adds his own personal flare to the dance. He’s dressed in white long sleeved shirt, a white V-neck t-shirt and tight black leather pants. Perhaps he chooses that particular outfit to signify segregation of black and white people. In addition, MJ is wearing westernized clothing throughout the video. This is problematic because he separating himself from the African natives when his video is supposed to be about racial equality. This also leads to the conclusion that MJ wanted the Africans to be perceived as the classic native stereotype. This was also interesting because the Africans were focused on hunting the lion until Michael popped onto the set. Then they miraculously jump into a synchronized dance with the pop star. I think MJ decided to do this because he wanted to show that the natives don’t live up to their primitive stereotype and that they can be talented dancers or just normal modernized people.
MJ then jumps off the African set and walks onto another set with a bunch of Indonesian women dancing in a traditional style dance. MJ then walks away from the women into a circle of American Indians and dances with them. As soon as they start dancing, they are teleported to America. This brings MJ’s credibility into view because he makes Indonesian women dress in traditional attire to replicate the traditional racial stereotype. In reality, not all Indonesian women dress like that. There is clearly a lack of logic in this part of the video because MJ cannot teleport to other continents. This brings out the more unrealistic parts of his video. At this point in the video MJ’s message to the audience was, “It Don’t Matter If You’re Black Or White”, ethnic stereotypes are false, and that everyone is the same regardless of race. His use of pathos and ethos did a good job at capturing people’s attention at recognizing racist labels that have falsely tagged cultures.
MJ then dances with an Indian woman on a polluted highway and then dances with the Russians in Russia. MJ then continues to repeat addressing racial and ethnic stereotypes so he could show that they are morally wrong. This brings MJ’s logic into light because he had people of different races dress in their stereotypical clothing to make people question whether or not they actually dress that way in real life. The verse sung during these scenes is where MJ tells the audience that its morally wrong to discriminate:
They Print My Message In The Saturday Sun
I Had To Tell Them I Ain’t Second To None
And I Told About Equality
An It’s True Either You’re Wrong Or You’re Right
It does so by mentioning that he isn’t second to anybody meaning that he isn’t less then anyone. This stanza brings equality to the audience’s attention and reminds them that MJ takes his racial background seriously.
The video transitions into a snow globe, which could depict that the world is like a snow globe because it is enclosed and that we are all stuck on this planet together. Then the video fades out onto a black and white baby on a model of planet earth. This idea of the black and white baby playing on top of planet earth may suggest MJ’s dream that future races could co-exist with each other in harmony. Maybe it indicates that if we can conquer racism then we could be “on top of the world”.
MJ discusses his standings on people from other races wanting relations with him or his family:
Don’t Tell Me You Agree With Me
When I Saw You Kicking Dirt In My Eye
But, If You’re Thinkin’ About My Baby
It Don’t Matter If You’re Black Or White
I Said If
You’re Thinkin’ Of Being My Baby
It Don’t Matter If You’re Black Or White
I Said If
You’re Thinkin’ Of Being My Brother
It Don’t Matter If You’re Black Or White
This verse adds to MJ’s integrity because it says that he is accepting of all black or white people that want to be involved with him in some way. This makes people think that he is a true advocate to what he is singing. This verse is also quite powerful in the sense that MJ is a heartwarming and a standup man (sung throughout song).
One of the bigger rhetorical devices that stand out in the video is when MJ walks through the fire filled screen. Fire is used to grab the audience’s attention because it’s threatening, vibrant. He appeals to all races when he sings:
I Ain’t Scared Of Your Brother,
I Ain’t Scared Of No Sheets,
I Ain’t Scare Of Nobody,
Girl When The Goin’ Gets Mean.
MJ is trying to get the point across that he isn’t scared of anything, but rather that he is against war and racism. During this part of the video, his voice changes from a very positive attitude to an angry tone. This adds to his pathos because he is trying to get the audience angry and upset with racism and war. Clips of battle and cross-burnings show specific problems in society that MJ feels we need to eradicate. He chooses to include the KKK because it personally impacts him because of his former ethnic background (2:34-2:43).
MJ creates a picture of a utopia where all the countries come together in unison. MJ is advocating peace and freedom. He persuades the audience that this is what the world needs to do in order to be happy. This pertains to MJ’s logic because it’s physically impossible to bring all of those countries together. Secondly, a utopia could never happen in today’s world because people grow up in different parts of the world and have different ideals. The last part of the video is a bunch of different people from different races and ethnic backgrounds singing MJ’s song. After each line, a person from one race morphs into a person from another race. This adds to MJ’s need to show that we are all so similar. This is meant to make people think that maybe we aren’t all so different. With MJ’s use of technology, every race and gender is recognized which makes it seem that everybody is the same and that we are all human. By the end of the video, the audience has been persuaded by MJ’s ethos to believe that racial ethnic stereotypes are not true. He also put the idea in people’s heads that the answer to all our problems would be to create a utopian society. He tells the audience how to do this by rising up against racism, war and intolerance. MJ used pathos to get this message across by dressing people up in stereotypical garments and by showing graphic images. This video definitely lacked logos because MJ was singing his dreams. In this case, dreams don’t have to be logical. Thus, it made it easier for MJ to influence people with ethos and pathos.

REMIX..REMIX…

jsam009 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:25:13 +0000

A remix could be a number of different things for different people. In my opinion, a remix would be a re-vision of an original artwork. That artwork could be anything from a painting to a song. I personally have made remixes of songs and I define a remix as an art on top of art. I feel like a remix is made up of layers that fall on top of an original piece. Those layers can add things to an artwork, cover it up or blend into it to make something brand new. This is what I would do with my music and it helps to look at songs as layers mixed in together in synchronized order. The same goes for video because it is built in layers in a very similar way like music. The videos I watched employed what I considered a remix because they had many different layers of song and video compilation blended to make a harmonized piece. I feel that the point of a remix is to make something out of something that’s already reached its peak. I’d mix different parts of songs together because I felt that each part had something interesting to it. I would then combine all these interesting parts of a song together to make an entire new song that had just as much uniqueness and originality as the originals themselves. The point is to bring something new to the table, something that nobody else has thought of doing. It promotes creativity and helps people get a message out through their point of view.

my video post

jsam009 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:19:37 +0000

I ve decided to use the video black and white by michael jackson. i choose this viedo because there is alot of retorical themes that are displayed through this video. At first the video takes place in a young boys home and then shoots off into Africa. There in Africa, Michael Jackson is dancing and singing to the natives while they are hunting the lions. This was intresting because Michael Jackson was wearing his usual attire and the natives were dressed in traditional clothing. Then Michael switches the video into another place. They go off the set and then he is in the studio. I thought this was cool because it was all on the studio set. After that Michael goes onto other sets and dances and sings with other cultures. This was cool because it showed that he was cultured and accepted everyone for their uniqueness and there background. Afterwards, Michael then protrays wars and people being hurt in a video which he shoots himself out of. I thought this was intresting and it shows alot of different experinces that different people go through. Then the video takes a turn to random people of differnet races all singing together. However, after a few verses, the person is morphed into another person and is then morphed into another person. I think that this will help me establish pathos in the video through the emtion from the song. Lastly, I could use Michael’s ethos to help me make clear to the audience about what he is trying to say.

My idea’s

jsam009 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:29:25 +0000

The first video I have considered using was the song/video Call on me by Eric Prydz. I choose this video because it exhibits a lot of pathos and imagery with the girls dancing. It also displays logos that dancing to this song will make you fit. However the only drawback I noticed was the ethos. I think it might be somewhat of a difficult challenge figuring out where I can put that in. But overall I think it could make a good example of a rhetorical analysis. The song Black and White by Michael Jackson was a good example because Michael talks about how it doesn’t matter what ethnicity a person is. There is a lot of imagery because the video takes place in many different places. I could see the logos behind Michael Jackson and his thoughts on it doesn’t matter if your black or white. The ethos in this video might be viewable be because he’s singing the song and it seems like he knows what he’s talking about. The only drawback I see at this point would be his credibility or maybe pathos but I am not sure. The last video I have chosen to use for my rhetorical analysis is Juicy, by Biggie Smalls. I considered this because the one Biggie Smalls was a lyrical genius and has really good play on words in this song. The way he describes his life through this song is very interesting and can make a great rhetorical analysis. The only drawback with using this video is that some of the lyrics in his song might be inappropriate for a rhetorical analysis and I don’t know the boundaries with the project.

Call on me- Eric Prydz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_fCqg92qks

Black or White – Michael Jackson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI9OYMRwN1Q

Juicy- Biggie Smalls

Retorical Strategies

jsam009 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:03:37 +0000

After watching the four campaign videos, I noticed several instances where logos and pathos were applied as strategies to win over voters in each of their upcoming campaigns. Each Politician has their own unique style in how they used these rhetorical strategies.
In the first video with president Eisenhower used rhetorical strategies such as logos to show the viewers of the commercials that he was the best for his job through credible support
The Clinton commercial showed examples of Ethos, Pathos and Logos. In the commercial, Clinton was seen as a strong public figure that exemplified moral character and could be seen doing work in the background. Clinton working in the background was designed to evoke emotion from the audience into believing that he’s a hard working guy.
The Ronald Regan commercial also utilized Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Logos was used the most because the speaker would bring up facts to prove to the audience that Regan was the right candidate for president and that he’ll keep our country safe and secure. Regan’s commercial also used pathos to evoke emotion and happiness in the audience by showing them examples of what America has turned into during his four years as president. Using clips of couples getting married and little kids running around makes people feel good about the country.
The George bush commercial demonstrates Pathos and Logos throughout the commercial. Bush’s main topic he discussed was the war and how he’s seen all the tragedy the war has brought to him and his family. This rhetorical strategy is Pathos because Bush is trying to evoke a sad response from the audience by describing all the terrible things that’s happened during the Iraq war. He then goes into saying that he will defend America at all costs. This strategy was ethos because he using his own word as evidence that he will never let the country down no matter what.