The rap class that I'm teaching this semester is writing intensive. There are two requirements (I think... I hope) for a class to fulfill this criteria: 1) we must talk about writing at some point, and 2) the student must have an opportunity to revise and resubmit a paper based on instructor feedback. No problem.
(I have 80 students. That's a lot of reading)
Submitted for your approval and discussion, a pastiche of quotations/anecdotes that have been swimming around in my head regarding writing and language.
1. Summarized from Russell Potter, Spectacular Vernaculars (a book that I'm reading now; I wish I had read it a long time ago):
Received Standard English (RSE) is "proper" English as taught in schools and universities. There is no good reason that this vernacular is privileged other than the Eight Guys in a Mountain Hideout say it is. Black Vernacular English (BVE) is an(other) expressive dialect, a vernacular form of English. Speakers of BVE are often looked upon as poorly educated, of a lower social status. In fact, the Urban Dictionary defines Ebonics [closely related to, if not synonymous with BVE--please correct me if I'm wrong!] as follows [!]:
Taken together with other regional/cultural dialects (do you call it "soda" or "pop"?), all of these vernaculars can be abstracted to something called the English language.
2. Henry Louis Gates quotes this article in The Signifyin(g) Monkey, suggesting that what constitutes a basic skill set for some might not constitute a basic skill set for others. Standardized tests are perhaps a bit too standardized.
3. Bill Cosby's "Pound Cake" speech (excerpt below; full text here
4. Summarized from Diane Ravitch, The Language Police:
In an effort to minimize the disparities on standardized test scores, testing companies started examining questions for bias. Racial bias was first (on the heels of the civil rights movement): eliminate questions that might give members of one race an unfair advantage over the other. Then gender bias: omit questions that might give men an unfair advantage over women, and vice versa. [etc. etc. etc.] Then geographic bias: people who live in the plains can't possibly know what a mountain is--questions involving mountains give an unfair advantage to people from Colorado. Avoid inflammatory topics (death, suicide, abortion, poverty, unemployment); avoid topics that might show a bias of privilege (yachting, debutante ball, junk bond)... what are we left with?
Questions for discussion:
(I have 80 students. That's a lot of reading)
Submitted for your approval and discussion, a pastiche of quotations/anecdotes that have been swimming around in my head regarding writing and language.
1. Summarized from Russell Potter, Spectacular Vernaculars (a book that I'm reading now; I wish I had read it a long time ago):
Received Standard English (RSE) is "proper" English as taught in schools and universities. There is no good reason that this vernacular is privileged other than the Eight Guys in a Mountain Hideout say it is. Black Vernacular English (BVE) is an(other) expressive dialect, a vernacular form of English. Speakers of BVE are often looked upon as poorly educated, of a lower social status. In fact, the Urban Dictionary defines Ebonics [closely related to, if not synonymous with BVE--please correct me if I'm wrong!] as follows [!]:
A poor excuse for a failure to grasp the basics of english. When in doubt, throw an "izzle" sound in the middle of any word of just string random thoughts together and insinuate that they actually mean something. When backed into a corner, you can always claim that it has something to do with a sort of symbolism or is a defining trait that makes your race great, versus own up to the fact that it is essentially laziness at it's finest.[Let's disregard the writer's misuses of RSE for the moment...]
Taken together with other regional/cultural dialects (do you call it "soda" or "pop"?), all of these vernaculars can be abstracted to something called the English language.
2. Henry Louis Gates quotes this article in The Signifyin(g) Monkey, suggesting that what constitutes a basic skill set for some might not constitute a basic skill set for others. Standardized tests are perhaps a bit too standardized.
3. Bill Cosby's "Pound Cake" speech (excerpt below; full text here
It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. “Why you ain't where you is go, ra,” I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk (laughter). Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with “why you ain't...” You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this?
4. Summarized from Diane Ravitch, The Language Police:
In an effort to minimize the disparities on standardized test scores, testing companies started examining questions for bias. Racial bias was first (on the heels of the civil rights movement): eliminate questions that might give members of one race an unfair advantage over the other. Then gender bias: omit questions that might give men an unfair advantage over women, and vice versa. [etc. etc. etc.] Then geographic bias: people who live in the plains can't possibly know what a mountain is--questions involving mountains give an unfair advantage to people from Colorado. Avoid inflammatory topics (death, suicide, abortion, poverty, unemployment); avoid topics that might show a bias of privilege (yachting, debutante ball, junk bond)... what are we left with?
The NES [National Evaluation Systems] guidelines admit what others leave implicit. Their goal is to create a portrait of an "ideal toward which society is striving." To reach this goal, children will encounter on their tests a world in which equal numbers of men, women, and racial groups participate fully in all activities and all roles. It will be a world in which older persons suffer no constraints because of their age, a world in which persons with a handicap are entirely unaffected by their handicap" (58)
Questions for discussion:
- What does this have to do with a writing intensive course on rap music?
What does this have to do with rap music at all?
Could we abstract these arguments into the realm of music to examine claims that "rap is not music?" Or, BVE:RSE::rap:music?