Reflexivity

Dialogue: Identities and Bullying
western Massachusetts

shielding ourselves from the light?

This screenshot of a future technological wasteland is from Katy Perry’s music video, E.T., featuring Kanye West. A brief scene near the end includes two museum-style placards denoting a problematic relation between homo sapiens and other species sharing Earth. In 2011, what lenses are we using to block knowledge of extinctions coming within mere decades?

A complicated, evolutionary relationship unfolds over the course of Katy Perry’s song.  Listening past the dominating lyrics, fluctuations of volume mark incursions of alternate reality, loud bursts punctuating the sensual quality of the steady soft tones. The softer sounds persist, providing solid ground for the ethereal. It’s as if there’s a conversation within the music between the physical and the spiritual.

“What if we learn bad things?”

In the class I’m teaching on Media and Culture, several students recently attended DayGlow’s Escape Reality Tour. Some of them enjoyed themselves so much they are practically desperate to repeat the experience. I have to admit, it sounds incredible, a kind of collective audience culture that I know about by reference not personal experience. This generation’s style of celebrating the body with dance-and-party is in high form at remix concerts by performers like Girl Talk – who, I’m just sortof starting to wonder – may have taken the musical form originated by rappers & hip hop artists and are now pushing that envelope in their own directions.

I’m not a musicologist, so don’t take my unresearched hypothesis as fact. What really strikes me is a difference in tone and intent (technically, what linguistic anthropologists call “indexicality“) between white-skinned remixers and many of their brown-skinned inspirations. Again, my exposure is limited, but sample this youtube video taken during the DayGlow show at UMass which captures lead performer “STARKILLERS” emblazoned across the monster projection screen, and a pounding lyric repeats “SATISFACTION”  several times.

What’s going on? I juxtapose these (predominately white) college student’s talk about DayGlow with their selection of hip hop songs as soundtracks for individual midterm video projects. Ten of twenty-one, nearly 50%, of the songs selected come from the genre of hip hop. What themes (if any) are present within this music? Is there a coherent conversation, or do the lyrics and sounds represent essentially random and disconnected topics? Kenny Alfonso responds to an earlier blogentry, Hip Hop plays with structure, explaining:

Kanye, as well as many other artists, have been trying for years to portray their struggles to the world, and make it evident that just because someone is successful in the music industry, television industry, etc., doesn’t mean that they live the perfect life. While reading deeper into the lyrics of my favorite hip hop artists, I gained more respect for all of them, and realize that their lives might not be as eas[y] as everyone might think.

Kenny signals a painful fact: the ability to escape reality is a privilege.

Everyone needs entertainment

This past weekend, I attended a Gala Fundraiser in memory of a wannabe Morehouse Man who took his life two years ago in the nearby urban setting of Springfield. There were 350 people in attendance, including me and Tiffany.

excerpt from an essay by Tiffany Griffin

She knew at least a dozen people there but kept me company throughout the evening, despite my nosiness about her texting (Hi Ashley!) and Facebook activities   Come on – I had to know if she was carrying an extra battery pack so she could stay plugged in!  She met another young person at our table; I returned from getting dessert to see them communicating nonverbally. “Are you showing her your rings?” I asked. “Something like that,” she replied.  Uh huh. Not for me to know!

Anti-bullying applies to everyone

I learned of Carl Joseph’s suicide because I was facilitating a dialogue about identity and bullying at Renaissance High School on the second anniversary of his death. Tiffany is one of several dozen students from six high schools preparing to meet each other at South Hadley High School on April 30. Students from the different schools have expressed a mix of trepidation and excitement about getting past the stereotypes they hold about each other. Can these youth find reasons to bond with each other despite the stereotypes, rather than staying within comfort zones of familiar identification with people they already know or identify with as ‘the same as me’?

Six $500 and seven $1000 college scholarships were given to the winners of an essay contest about the effects of bullying in their lives. In presenting the awards, Regina Jeames read a sentence from each student’s essay. First-place winner Peter Nassar writes that we need to “end the savagery.” “Bullying can follow you home,” warns Jason Dinnall. Quinn Hegarty emphasizes “dissolving isolation” while Benjamin Gelinas laments “wasted potential.” Kabrillen Jones admonishes: “Look into the eyes of our children.” The core challenge is articulated by Stephanie Collins: “It takes one person to stand up and say, ‘That’s not right.’”

What’s this got to do with Hip Hop?

Dancing – to hip hop – capped the official ceremonies at Carl’s Gala. Hip Hop is what young people are listening to – all kinds of youth, from diverse backgrounds and various motivations. The intensity of living out loud and taking things on as they come was in high evidence throughout the Gala. Nikki Minaj’s Go Hard music video ft Lil Wayne captures the sentiment (warning: potentially offensive lyrics):

“Yo SB I think its my time.

You know why?

My tears have dried and I know that

no weapon formed against me will prosper. And I

truly believe that my haters are my motivators…”

Sirdeaner Walker, Carl’s mother, is a fount of inspiration and goodwill. Her activism and compassion are evident in a series of interviews with 22News. Gwynnetta Sneed received overflowing praise for her vision and follow-through in creating the Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover Foundation and making the Gala happen. We got to witness her character in action, public misbehavior inviting public rebuke.  Members of my community also made me feel proud. I had been wondering about their involvement, not sure of the details of Carl’s story.

“It is considered a given in group and organizational life that issues are taken up by whatever group is most affected by them; however, often that group is then accused of taking up only these issues for reasons of self-interest rather than for the benefit of the whole” (Connolly and Noumair, p. 328 in Off White).

Near the end of the event, one of Sirdeaner Walker’s co-workers approached and thanked me, assuming I was a member of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. (I look the type, wink!) Her approach allowed me the chance to ask about GLSEN’s presence.

It turns out that GLSEN offered help . . . and their help was welcomed! This embodies the sentiment expressed by Susan Skaza in her essay about how to stop bullying by “simply being a good example.” Here are two communities – stereotypically riven by homophobia, heterosexism, and racism – joining together in a common cause to end bullying of everyone’s children, for any reason.

I  thought it was especially impressive when the Christian minister, Reverend Peter Sylver, said he didn’t know what God thinks about what people do when they go to sleep, but he knows what God expects of us during the day: radical love.

Radical Love

The Chinese fortune reads, "Opportunities multiply as they are seized, they die when neglected."

Whatever one’s spiritual beliefs, including agnostics and atheists, the savagery of bullying is only going to end when members of groups reach out, radically, across differences to forge new bonds on the basis of shared experiences or common values. Bullying is children’s version of grown-up violence. As long as adults continue to justify and promote brutal competition over planetary resources, children will act out what they see modeled. Radical love means embracing the foreign, accepting the alien.

This brings us back to Hip Hop. Katy Perry is pop, but for some reason Kanye decided she must have something to say to Hip Hop, otherwise he would not have contributed ‘bookends’ to her video. The layers of that conversation can be interpreted in many different ways. For me, what matters is the moment when conversation – the trading of verses – turns to dialogue.

Dialogue is the special form of communication in which participants are open enough to allow themselves to be changed by interacting with the foreign and alien other. Change of this kind is the ultimate evidence of radical love.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Dialogue: Identities
Whiteness (Race), Gender, Culture…

Do some suicides matter more than others?

It just so happened that our third dialogue session on identities came on the second anniversary of an 11-year-old’s suicide. Some high school students from Springfield offered a trenchant analysis of why the 2009 suicide of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover received less sustained public attention than that of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince in 2010. In contrast with the perception that “people are always bullied” in Springfield – where Carl lived and died – “South Hadley always gets good press.”  The novelty of “something bad happening there” drew the media spotlight. Kamari, Noelani, Tiffany, Jerrico, Allie, Ashley and Tory had no difficulty naming stereotypes associated with area high schools, including those held by others about them.

Frustration and humor poured out of these young people in equal measure, spinning out in multiple directions and toward a range of targets. These high school juniors are in a bind and they know it. Refreshingly, they sense that high school students from other schools in western Massachusetts are also bound up in their own situations. The strangeness of social hierarchies based on assumptions about identity clearly exasperates them; telling jokes to keep each other laughing is a social coping strategy.

Naming the superficial

Most of the contact between high school youth occurs through sports. “You see what people in other towns think and it’s not very nice.” I was discouraged to learn only negative stories, mainly about South Hadley. I suspect South Hadley topped out the stereotype list both because they are hosting the multi-high school Dialogue Summit on April 30 and because of disparities of public interest in the two suicides.

Some stereotypes about students at South Hadley High School are

• “notorious” and “known for being effective at bullying;”
• “bad” in competition, swearing loudly despite the presence of young kids in the bleachers;
• “They gave me attitude – crazy attitude;” and
• “are always talking junk” and “yelling swears.”

The stereotype scenario became more complicated when we asked how these students at Renaissance High School think they are viewed by others. It depends upon where those other high school students are located. There’s one view from outside of Springfield that lumps all Springfield High Schools together: “ghetto thugs, everyone wearing do-rags, swearing, using guns, smoking dope and selling drugs – both at the same time.” This list was generated with the dull verbal tone of routine and placed in context: “This is what is shown in the media.”

Specifically, these Renaissance high schoolers imagine that their peers from South Hadley and Amherst probably assume they’re

• “loud” and “obnoxious;”
• “fight” and “steal;”
• will “kill them;” and
• “Dress like hoochies.” (“How do you spell that?” I asked. “H-o-o-c-h-i-e-s. You can throw an extra ‘o’ in there if you want.”)

These youth face a different set of stereotypes from their contemporaries in other Springfield high schools. This view came up when asked what they wanted others to know that contradicts the stereotypes. “I don’t think we can technically defend our school,” said Tory. Huh? I didn’t understand – “technically”?

“They always have a problem if you go to Renaissance:
‘you’re smart and stuck up.’”

Interestingly, these Renaissance youth don’t display extremely negative attitudes toward the other Springfield high schools. “All the bad schools have something good about them.” For instance, “Sci-Tech is good, it’s just loose.”  Loose meant “30 kids outside” without administrative/adult supervision: “that would never happen here.” Commerce has programs like 1B and 9th Grade Teams (among others), and a legacy. “My dad went to Commerce when it was good… they didn’t play.”

Going in with a Clean Slate

While the students were talking about these stereotypes, I was wondering how addressing these stereotypes directly might unfold during the upcoming Multi-High School Summit. Dialogue co-facilitator Taos asked the important question about how they want to approach the Summit. Kamari responded instantly, “I’m going in with a clean slate.”  They are excited! A little nervous but eager nonetheless.

From their point-of-view, neither South Hadley nor Amherst High School are very diverse. By “diversity” the students meant “not predominately one race” – then they had a bit of debate about whether Renaissance is diverse or not. From one view, “Springfield is 75% minorities,” which “isn’t very diverse.” When asked about the label, “minority,” Noelani smiled:  “We’re the majority here, but not everywhere else.” The slightly more-detailed demographic breakdown (provided by the students) is 36% Hispanic, 25% Black, 26% White, and .03% Asian.
Those block percentages suggest cultural homogeneity, but most of the Renaissance youth participating in these dialogues have parents who do not share the same ethnic profile with each other.

My hypothesis is that growing up in a family where everyone doesn’t look like the same ‘type’ or even behave – culturally – in the same ways has provided these youth with a neat ability of balancing differences. The evidence is threefold (at least):

1. there is no uniformity of identity among students in the dialogue group (most of whom hang together much of the time);
2. their ability to perceive beyond stereotypes, and also to ‘understand’ and be able to explain why people from outside Springfield seem unable to exercise such insight in return; and
3. their refusal to demonize their contemporaries living in Springfield, even though the vise of being misunderstood/misrepresented both from without and within must suck.

Identities are fluid

The communicative skillset demonstrated by these Renaissance juniors suggests an intuitive comprehension that “identity” is not a single, solid, unchanging thing.  We’ve just begun to explore if it is helpful to separate stereotypes associated with the body from stereotypes associated with the mind. Specifically, does learning how to recognize when one is ‘trapped’ by a stereotype based on body help one make the shift to perceiving another based on the consciousness of their brain?  Generalizations about awareness and intelligence can lead to troubled relationships, too, so I am not posing this as any kind of universal answer. I am suggesting that recognizing when a shift from body to brain would enhance a relationship, and then practicing enough to be able to pull it off when it matters, are crucial skills for navigating the increasingly complex mixing and blending of cultural ways-of-being in society today.

Please Note:

A fundraiser for an anti-bullying scholarship in memory of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover will be held this upcoming April 16, 2011. Walker’s mother has become a national leader in the struggle to curb bullying in school, recently meeting with President Obama because of her activism, locally and nationally, to eliminate bullying in schools.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Amherst, MA

Boundaries or Identities?

Lately I’ve been wondering which comes first, or if this is a classic chicken-and-egg dynamic. Talking about whiteness raises interesting identity questions about belonging – to whom, when and where, how much. The privilege of being known on the basis of mind rather than body is one of the core features of whiteness: white people (like me) might notice attractive white people but would consider the physical as an extension of the mental. In contrast, white people (like me) might notice attractive brown people and stop there, as if the physical is the entire package.

You can see how this works by watching the strategic representation co-constructed by Director Hype Williams and Rihanna, as she is featured in the Kanye West video “All of the Lights” with Kid Cudi and a host of others: Charlie Wilson, John Legend, Tony Williams, Alicia Keys, La Roux, The Dream, Ryan Leslie, Alvin Fields and Ken Lewis. The reflection of whiteness back at itself is heavily dosed with gender, too.

The Rihanna thing is intense. The mournful tones of the introduction frame an ominous future for young girls growing up in a body-centric world. Not that the prospects for men are so much better – read the lyrics. We are all under surveillance of one kind or another most of the time, it’s just that the surveillance is so unobtrusive we can ignore it. Ignore it routinely enough and you’ll forget it’s happening!

My Hip Hop Education

I learn through interaction, talking about ideas and observing responses until I locate a stance that reflects the kind of ethos I want to project into the social world. Teaching allows me to test and assess some of the effects of acting consistently within that ethos, especially where it rubs against conformity. This semester, at least a third of the students in a Communication course on Media and Culture are proactively engaged in cultivating their own ethical stance in today’s fast-forward society. Together, we are all working to develop collective intelligence.

My hip hop education merged with my teaching in a surprising way. The cultural anthropologist and digital ethnographer Micheal Wesch – described as the “Head Honcho” by one of my students – commented on three videos submitted as midterm projects by students in my class to his call for “Visions of Students Today.” In one of his comments, it is obvious that he misunderstood something about hip hop, which I – roughly six hours ahead of Professor Wesch on the learning curve, haha! – was able to recognize.

Given a penchant for using my own mistakes to extend the learning process for myself and possibly others, I engaged:

Michael Wesch, thank you for joining our conversation! I am going to drag you into this lesson, too. An interesting coincidence of timing occurred with your comment to Jamar’s video “My Life, My Eyes, My World” and me learning about Hip Hop. I juxtapose our mistakes (!) to see if there is anything to be learned from them.

I shared all the gory detail with my students because it allowed me to provide them with an immediate and non-academic example of the communication phenomena of juxtaposition and articulation.

Juxtaposition and Articulation

In the All of the Lights video, Rihanna’s adult female body – the physical manifestation of her person – is juxtaposed with rousing lyrics and an exciting musical beat in a saccade. The combined visual and auditory stimuli articulates the dark female body as an object of desire. Because the body is foregrounded, considerations of mind fade from consciousness.

Popularity: 3% [?]