Our group defined plagiarism as using someone else’s work for your own personal gain, whether it is grades, finance, or even just recognition. Remix is taking part of someone else’s work and changing it to make it your own. The main difference between the two would be that plagiarism is directly copying another’s work, where as remix would be changing or adding to someone else’s work.
Chapter eight begins by asserting that coolness is male dominated. It also speaks on how coolness is often associated with the “bad boy” image, where the audience mistrusts the character, but still knows that he is the good guy. It then begins to explore how the African American cool figure differs from the white. It compares the “cool-named” African American figures to Snoopy of Peanuts, in that both equate being cool with always being on the lookout for sexual adventure. Rice then turns to Norman Mailer’s essay “The White Negro.” Mailer speculated that post WWII white males in order to escape the trauma in their lives began to behave in the same way as African-Americans. Mailer viewed the African-American experience as an animalistic chase for sexual pleasure with out the any intellectual pursuit. Mailer’s views are said to exemplify how cool can inspire racism, and stereotypes. Stereotypes, Rice asserts, are culturally formed. The next section talks about the “angry black man” stereotype, and where it comes from. TV shows like Shaft, Superfly, and even MTV’s The Real World portray African-American males as angry persons. Music is also a means by which the angry black male is shown. Labels like Death Row created the “gangsta” style image within the hip-hop realm. The gangsta image is synonymous with an outlaw image and a familiarity with violence. When artists allow the gangsta image to carry over into their real lives, they often are subjected to real dangers, and some are even killed. For someone living in poverty, however, the gangsta image is a chance to create a new image for himself, or herself. There are some female gangstas as well. Lil Kim, Da Brat, and Foxy Brown are just a few. The next section shows how rappers use commodities, or object, to help communicate their point. They also use specific terms know only to their genre. Next Rice talks about the “angry black man” figure in sports, focusing on the importance of Muhammad Ali. Ali changed his name because he felt it was too white and he refused to fight in war. Ali projected himself outwardly as an angry person. With everything he tried to “fight the system.” Early black TV shows derived from minstrel shows also contributed to creating the black male stereotype. Some of them showed African-American males as being lazy and un-educated. The chapter closes by saying that there are two African-American types of cool: passive and active cultural participant.
I chose the activity with Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back album cover. In this image, Chuck D and Flavor Flav are trying to convey a gangsta image of coolness. Their dress and stances, and the fact that they are behind bars makes them seem cool in the gangsta sense. However the heavy text and the crosshair on the profile of an officer also indicate their gangsta image.
In chapter nine, Rice begins by talking about rituals. Marlene Kim Connor is sited as identifying black rituals as: establish manhood through image, creating slang terms, and using fashion to create symbols of the black experience. Connor calls these rituals survival tools for street life. Cool is a means of creating meaning in their lives. Cool poses are seen as another way of expression. Posing is equated with wearing a mask, which signifies separation and unhappiness with mainstream culture. The last section of this chapter focuses on the documentary writing of Connors and Majors. They collect the facts, and then create their thesis.
