Plagiarism is the act of borrowing or copying another person’s work without giving credit. The goal of plagiarism is to pass the work off as one’s own and not get caught. “Remixing” or sampling is a mixture of sources and can be done without plagiarizing if the original source is given credit, the idea or piece of work is borrowed from a highly visible, even iconic, form or if the original creator authorizes the use of their idea, logo, slogan, etc. Remixing and plagiarizing differ because in plagiarism, the offending party wants to take credit for work that is not their own while remixing blends together numerous ideas.
Chapter 8: Manhood raises the question of what is stereotypically cool in America. The opening pages cite that images of James Dean and Marlon Brando usually come to mind, and that these two American icons reinforce a national taboo: the young white male is epitomizes cool. The chapter then goes on to explain how black males have been portrayed throughout American history as seductive, threatening and even “primitive.” Rice brings up that the African-American culture is often labeled as sexual and disgruntled, and that television shows, songs and movies reflect the stereotype of the threatening “angry black male” in today’s society. The chapter contains lyrics from rap songs that tend to reinforce these stigmas– lyrics that contain words like “thug” “Benz” and “glock.” Rice points out the prominence of gangsta culture in America, and even compares it to the myths and mythological characters of ancient Greece. He closes the chapter with a brief history of christened Cassius Clay, better known as Muhammad Ali and his fight with the American government. After dodging the draft in 1967, Ali was on a mission to define himself as “the greatest.” He was on a mission to define himself as cool instead of succumbing to society’s definition of the African-American male. The chapter ends with the notion that cool writing can be done through film scripts, music lyrics and television shows in much the same way that black stereotype has been appropriated.
In Chapter 9: Attitude, Rice begins by describing how young black males acheive their “cool pose” or a self-image of cool. He sites author Kim Connor, who describes the idea of cool as necessary for survival. Young black males project this cool manhood through image with clothes and speech, but it is “the establishment of a physical and mental front, a way of preventing emotional feelings from escaping and being freely expressed.” One of the most important tools in examining the “cool pose” is the practice of ethnography. Ethnography can apply to cool writing because it allows the writer to become immersed in another’s culture, making it easier to write about the third party. Authors and scientists begin with a single question or thought about the culture and then through ethnography and methodology attempt to answer that question to appease both the culture of study and the audience.
