Thursday, February 28, 2013
Family Guy and Language
First of all, thank y’all for participating so much in our presentation. We really appreciate it. There was a lot of great discussion today in class. While working on our group presentation, Stanton brought up a family guy episode. We ended up watching the clip and found it interesting. Here are a couple clips from that episode:
During the presentation, we talked about language as a way to create distance between the colonizer and the colonized. The higher form/more educated way of language became a privilege that the colonized was not privy to. This was just another way to ensure the structure of oppression. The lacking of this language for the colonized was an impairment because it prevented them from obtaining better jobs and a better way of life. Based off of our conversation in class and what we have learned about oppression, what does everyone think of these clips? What types of comments do they make on the current state of our society? At the end of class, we talked a little bit about the "post-colonial" period. How do clips like these influence thoughts about this period? Dr. J brought up the example of immigrants needing to learn at least a basic amount of English in order to survive in America. This seems to prove the point that language is very important.
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To my understanding, "post colonial" only really only means that we are not colonizing any longer. The colonial systems placed since the days of the founding fathers are still evident, especially in the rules and regulations placed on Immigrants today who don’t speak English.
ReplyDeleteRecently I was listen in on David Banner's state of hip hop presentation last week and his message revealed another way of viewing the current state of society. When we ask ourselves why black students aren't motivated to go to college and become functioning members of society, we can find our answer in hip hop. David Banner proposed that hip hop is like a system that parallels that of slavery with the general population who listen to it being the field slaves, the rappers being the yard/house slaves and the plantation owners being the owners of the recording labels. He makes this classification because the owners of recording labels (rich white men who profit in billions) approve all the music on the music on the radios. It is an oppressive society because the music now motivates the youth to acquire "chains and whips" (gold necklaces and fancy cars) the same instruments that were designed for bondage during times of slavery.
If you ask a white male what he wants in life he will probably say, I want to go to college like my parents and grandparents, then either pick up their business or get an entry level job in corporate America. Ask a black male the same question and you find that often they don't know what they want out of life and most often, they just want to acquire "chains and whips". Now I am not saying that every black child wants this out of life, but there is some truth to Dr. Banner's message.