Klarinet Archive - Posting 000568.txt from 1996/02

From: thehat@-----.ORG
Subj: Re: rap music
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 23:32:15 -0500

Could we please stick to the list topic!

In a message dated 02-18-96 INTERNET: FBVB@-----.BITNET wrote to ** ALL **:
IF> This is the continuation of my response to Bethany:

IF> from Chaika, "Language: The Social Mirror"

IF> p. 218

IF> "The game" is the way things are. Labov et al point out that the
IF> toasts do not claim that the game pays off in any way. The
IF> satisfaction comes from playing with dignity, and, according to the
IF> rules. The rules dictate that one never complains about what
IF> happens. Justice is not expected, nor is injustice bemoaned.
IF> Heroism consists of great courage as it does in the middle-class
IF> world, but, in the toasts, the courage consists partly of being
IF> willing to face the penalties of crime. Certainly, these are
IF> poems of despair. Achilles had a battlefield with potential honor.
IF> Beowulf could become a bonafide hero by killing Grendel. These were
IF> heroes to their entire people. African Americans in the slums often
IF> saw no way to become the kinds of heroes general American society set
IF> up(4), at least not before the 1960's and the first glimmerings of
IF> the Civil Rights movement. This does not mean all black males sought
IF> their honor in playing the game of drugs and pimps. Most Blacks did
IF> not and do not. But the message was the same to all: "You keep on
IF> tryin' as you go down cryin'. You take all odds" and you don't
IF> complain. ------------------------------------- (4) Even in World War
IF> II, most Blacks were relegated to janitorial and other personal
IF> service capacities. The Army camps were segregated, and Blacks were
IF> given little battlefield operation. This in a war which stressed
IF> human rights as its motivation.
IF> ----------------------------------------- p. 219 The toasts
IF> taught other lessons as well. Clearly, throughout, no sympathy is to
IF> be shown, no self-pity, no pity for others. This is well-illustrated
IF> in "The Sinking of the Titanic" when Shine, the hero, starts swimming
IF> across the Atlantic away from the disaster. He encounters several
IF> doomed passengers who plead with him to save them. Despite the
IF> rewards they promise, he rebuffs them all harshly and coldly.
IF> Finally, he meets a crying baby.

IF> 7. Shine said, "Baby, baby, please don't cry.
IF> All little m--s got a time to die. You got eight
IF> little fingers and two little thumbs And your black
IF> ass goes when the wagon comes."

IF> Labov et al (1968, p.60) compare this to Achilles' speech in the
IF> "Iliad".

IF> 8. Ay friend thou too must die: why lamentest thou?
IF> Petroklos too is dead, who was better far than thou.
IF> See thou not also what manner of man am I might and
IF> goodliness? Yet over me too hang death and forceful
IF> fate.

IF> However, Achilles says this to another adult, not a helpless babe.
IF> What can this mean, and why is it in the toast? Certainly, blacks
IF> love their babies as others do. Clearly, Shine shows some feeling
IF> for the baby, "Please don't cry." In fact, the baby is the only one
IF> of the doomed to whom Shine uses politeness markers. To the others
IF> he is brutal. We have ample evidence from this toast and others such
IF> as "The Fall" that pity for others is to be squelched at all costs.
IF> Many verses in "The Fall" are devoted to first establishing that the
IF> prostitute served her man fantastically well. When she becomes ill,
IF> however, he throws her out and, again, several verses recount the
IF> particular heartlessness with which he does so, such as:

IF> 8. You had your run. Now you done... I
IF> can't make no swag off some swayback nag. Whose
IF> thoroughbred days are past. Why I'd look damn silly
IF> puttin' a cripple filly. On a track that's way too
IF> fast. (p. 57)

IF> My interpretation of such passages is that they are intended to
IF> underscore an important message to the urban slum dweller. It is not
IF> good in that life to have too much pity for others. In a world as
IF> harsh as that pictured in

IF> p. 220 these toasts, the only way to survive is to cut off
IF> compassion. The passage from the "Iliad" had the same message for
IF> the ancient Greek youths: In war one must not be compassionate. In
IF> essence, the world of toasts is a world always at war. Just as
IF> Shine's swimming the ocean to safety is a tremendous exaggeration, so
IF> is his encounter with the baby. It is the message "be dispassionate"
IF> carried to the point of hyperbole. African American
IF> storytelling is suffused with tales that teach people not to trust,
IF> not to pity. Thsi theme has even been grafted onto stories
IF> originally from Africa, such as the talking animal genre like the
IF> "Bre'r Rabbit" stories. The difference is that in Africa, these
IF> stories were used to teach children to beware of antisocial creatures
IF> who disrupted friendship. In America, these were changed so that
IF> they taught instead that everyone must look out for him- or herself.
IF> Thus are the realities of society mirrored in speech activities.
IF> The attitude toward women in the toasts goes beyond mere lack of
IF> pity. It is actively hostile.

IF> (to be continued)

Ciao,
DAVID
-> Alice4Mac 2.4.4 E QWK Eval:04Feb96
Origin: Alice strikes back =