Dr. Jared A. Ball
Quotes
I don't know if it is from burnout, exhaustion, senioritis, or some combination of all of the above but I really struggled with this article. I picked three quotes that jumped out at me. Please respond and comment because I would love to hear what others think about this. Looking forward to class and feeling less confused - hopefully.
"Ours must be a concern over how, in this case hip-hop, can demonstrate the existence and need to overthrown the colonial status or the very existence of colony."
This is a really powerful statement. That one medium could express the need to - and I think at times does - overthrown the colonial status and/or the very existence of colony. Thinking about colonization as a white person is a bit uncomfortable and I find myself thanking God that I'm not English! Here is a genre of music that transcends what a typical genre is. It is about records or getting on the radio, but rather it is about a message of overthrowing centuries upon centuries of oppression. Wow. That's some serious stuff. I cannot think of any other medium - other than black spirituals - that come close to this. Eddie Izzard is one of my favorite comedians and I think he finds exactly why it is music coming out of the black community that is so powerful.
The part I'm talking about begins at the 3:26 mark. I recommend the entire clip - and all of his stuff for that matter.
Out of deep oppression comes a form of expression that is so powerful it can call and challenge the greatest institution - or at least one of the greatest institutions of all time - colonization.
"The goal was not to reduce the issue to the failings of this or that individual but to draw attention to the colonizing process of which requires use of members of the colonized population to mouth the views of the colonizer."
This is one of the sentences I had to read a few times to figure out what it means - I think. I think what this is talking about is normalization: the process by which oppressed groups change their behavior to mimic that of the dominant ideology. An example of this is the character Will in the hit show Will & Grace. Will is very much a straight man - or at least he often acts that way. Many scholars write about Will & Grace as a straight relationship without sex. (I wish I hadn't sold back one of my books from POL 350 (which was cross run with WMST) last semester which had a great article on this). I'm not really sure what Ball was getting at with this quote but my guess is that it is important to note the ways that popular hip-hop is attempted to be normalized to fit dominant ideology which derails the objective of drawing attention to the oppression of colonialism.
The last quote - at least in terms of this blog entry - that really jumped out at me was this one:
"However, it misses that important point of colonialism which is that individual or even small group collective agency is no even match for the power of mass media and communication or their ideological content which they are employed and design." I think Margaret Mead would disagree with Dr. Ball here. I'm pretty confused by this. I was under the impression that much of what Dr. Ball is saying would echo Dr. Mead, no this quote. Or, does this quote speak to the magnitude of colonialism? I'm not really sure. This just struck me as a very powerful reminder of the magnitude, and over whelming power of dominant ideology.
Comment/Question/yada yada yada for class
What do you think of this final quote: However, it misses that important point of colonialism which is that individual or even small group collective agency is no even match for the power of mass media and communication or their ideological content which they are employed and design."? What does it mean to you?
Hi Dante,
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't, I recommend reading all four parts. It made so much more sense when I did!
Regarding your response to the second excerpt, "The goal was not to reduce the issue to the failings of this or that individual but to draw attention to the colonizing process of which requires use of members of the colonized population to mouth the views of the colonizer..."
I disagree that Ball is arguing that the oppressed group is mimicking the dominant ideology. In fact he is arguing that hip-hop is being produced and disseminated by the colonizers - not its citizens - and it is in the best interest of the colonizers to produce hip-hop that promotes the degradation of Black America because it helps perpetuate their subjugation, keeping the media elite in power. Ball argues that popular hip-hop is not an accurate reflection of Black America, nor is it Black America promoting dominant ideology, but it is a mirror of the colonialism in effect today that requires Black America to teach and promote an identity that serves the ruling elite.
Let me know your thoughts after reading this!
Dante,
ReplyDeleteI like you found myself struggling with this reading assignment. I don't know if you are like me in the sense that I wrote my blog post thinking that I kind of grasped it but then at the end thinking that maybe I completely missed the point and was wrong. I also look forward to discussing this in class to see what others thought.
Good stuff everyone. I posted a response to this post for my most recent blog. The video was funny Dante. Jane I hope to read all 4 parts before class tomorrow, I want to be as informed as possible. Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteDante,
ReplyDeleteI think we all became confused from this article. I had to re-read the entire thing more then once. I might have gotten it by now, but there's probably alot that is going to be clarified in class.