Text 1 Response

Text 1

This excerpt from the autobiography, “The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole” follows the conventions of a memoir. Although not all autobiographies are memoirs, this text is a memoir because it is a reflection of her life. It offers her voice, it includes dialogue, it reflects on her past and so there are instances of which she offers hindsight wisdom, and it is a retelling of several larger anecdotes. As a result of this being memoir, it does not aim to persuade or influence a specific audience. It is more of a personal narrative and aims to retell events.

This text follows Seacole as she is surrounded by victims of yellow fever, a highly fatal disease. In the 1850’s, yellow fever was an epidemic that victimized the people of the island of Jamaica. Seacole was taking care of the people who were struck by the disease. She retells the story of how the island was dreadful and negatively impacted. Along the several stories mentioned, one discusses the journey of a young man who passed away as a result of the disease. Seacole found herself highly attached to the, ”light hearted and good young man”. She found her relationship with him reminiscent of a mother- son relationship. She discusses the grief that comes along with loss after attachment. Through her hindsight wisdom, she delivers the message that no one should be ashamed of the fear of death. She tries to convey the message that one’s perspective on death and life is only based on how afraid they are.

The author establishes a sad and sorrowful tone through her choice of language and content. Her discussion of loss and death conveys a mournful tone and an intense mood. The atmosphere is heavy and leaves the reader with a sense of loss. The text starts off with the line, “I stayed in Jamaica 8 months out of the year 1853, still remembered in the island for its suffering and gloom”. Automatically, Seacole has set the mood. It is clear that the rest of the text will not be happy and that the atmosphere is dark.

The story is from a bias point of view. It is not objective because she is retelling her own story and stating her own thoughts and experiences. Although it is not meant to be persuasive, it focuses specifically on one person’s perspective rather than allowing the reader to have their own perspective. The story does use pronouns because it is a retelling of her life events. She is using “I” and “You” in order to make the story seem more personal and allow the reader to engage with it more. Using pronouns is a way the author uses to hook the reader. Because it is deeply personal and sad and is written as a sad conversation, the reader feels engaged with it. There is a lot of direct speech used, again, in order to make it seem like a personal conversation. The story also uses a lot of imagery. This helps set the atmosphere and the mood.

Written Task 1

Amirah Abualeez

Written Task 1

Word count for rationale: 275

Word count for Written Task: 991

Rationale

This interview with musical duo, Calle 13, explores the vulgar and politically targeted language and theme of their music. I will be using the question and answer format because it allows me to pick which things get asked and be able to construct the responses in a way that allows the reader to understand the overall message. Using an interview with Calle 13 and “Democracy Now” and secondary sources such as, “Calle 13, On Being Loved And Hated In Latin America” By Jasmine Garsd, I have been able to compile a list of questions and answers that allow the reader to step into the shoes of Calle 13 and understand the purpose behind their music. This written task will explore the correlation between language and cultural/societal context while also touching up on how the specific language and context of the music have made a both negative and positive impact in their society.

This interview will be conducted by “Foreign Affairs Magazine” because they cover stories about international affairs and political issues worldwide, without taking a stance on the subjects. The interview will neither be completely formal or completely casual, seeing as Calle 13 does not sing in formal language but they also have a serious undertone. Because the interview is in a political magazine, the targeted audience is meant to be an older audience who is more interested in the message of their music rather than an audience who just “enjoys” the music. The interview will build on itself by starting with questions about the music and content specifically and then will go on to explore the language and overall impact in society.

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Foreign Affairs Magazine

Calle 13- Latin America’s Most Controversial Artists

Calle 13 (Street 13) was formed by stepbrothers René Pérez Joglar and Eduardo José Cabra Martínez. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, the two siblings decided to chase their dreams by traveling around Latin America and performing. What started off as two siblings rapping about raunchy and vulgar music evolved into an international phenomenon whose message extends far beyond the Latin world.

You began your career with raunchy and unfiltered music and then you shifted to a more politically targeted genre. Why did you have such a sudden change?

From the beginning, our music has always had a small political streak in it. Our music did not completely shift but rather the political stances we had continued to grow. Back when we began our career, our political positions were not strong. We began going around Latin America and we began seeing all the problems that people face daily. One of our fans began asking us to talk about our thoughts on certain topics. Soon enough, it was two fans that were asking us. Eventually, we had thousands of people that began wanting us to publically discuss these issues. We began breaking certain barriers and eventually, we paved our status as a socially mindful band.

Who would you say your target audience is and why? Does your language affect who your audience is?

Frankly, our target audience is anyone who has ever been oppressed, denied rights, or unjustly treated. We aim to educate and empower the society that has been blinded by the higher powers. We try to educate the youth of our society on how to grow up and understand the world around them and not be brainwashed by the threats of society. The fact that our language is not filtered has limited our audience because not every parent wants their child listening to raunchy music. But this language is necessary to effectively communicate our message.

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Many of your songs refer to society as “brainwashed”, such as in the song, “Multiviral” where you say, “The one who dictates/ Wants to get you sick to sell you drugs/ And we take those pills”. How does this change people’s views of your songs?

That is a very tough subject because many people have a hard time understanding what is around them and seeing the truth. Because we are very blunt about certain topics, society is a bit taken back when they see that we are directly stating that they are brainwashed. At the end of the day, there are two types of people. The people that shut their computer and never listen to us again, and the people that open their eyes and understand what we are saying.

Why do you think your music makes a large portion of Latin America uncomfortable? One of your most famous songs repeats the line, “Let’s behave badly”. Don’t you believe this could have a negative impact on society?

Many will say that our music is “rude and disrespectful” and that it is not something that they will allow their children to listen to. It is obvious that people have developed deep hatred and disgust for us. The matter of the fact is that the reason that many people have hatred towards our music is because we have exposed the ugly truth of societies such as Puerto Rico. We uncover things that the people of Puerto Rico certainly would not want the rest of the world to know. In a society like Puerto Rico where people discuss the issues of corruption, the high unemployment rate, or the poor and dirty neighborhoods over a cup of tea, we bring these issues to light. We are hated not because we are raunchy or wrong, we are hated because we are right.

How do you think the actual language of your songs and your choice of words have an impact on the theme and the message of your music? Do you think your language can negatively impact your message?

It is clear that we use vulgar and angry words to express our messages. We break many sexual, political, and social barriers and we do not do so with formal wording. That would never get our message across. We use Puerto Rico’s street lingo in order for people to listen and understand something they would not otherwise. Because we use curse words and slang, we are able to reach a wider audience and include everyone from the lowest class to the richest. No one would listen to us talk about police brutality if it were worded in a way that is meant for students in school to read. It is not unusual that our language has turned away a large amount of people. If we lose some people because of the use of our language, we also gain an entire new audience because of it. We use such vulgar and angry sounding words because we are angry. We have learned that it is not only the content that is vital to delivering our message, it is also the language.

What impact would you like your music to have in the long run?

That’s a very simple question. We want our music to empower and educate. We want to empower the people who feel like they do not have a say in society and who feel like they are constantly targeted by higher powers. We want to show them that we are all Latin America and Latin America sticks together. We want to educate the youth of our society to grow up and not hide and do something about the problems. Although we are just standing on stage and singing, we believe our music can have a lasting influence. We do not only speak about our political stances, we are the voice for millions of people who are too afraid to voice their opinions.

Thank you very much for your cooperation. 

Works Cited

"Calle 13's René "Residente" Pérez on Revolutionary Music." Interview. Democracy Now. Democracy Now, 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.

Garsd, Jasmine. "Calle 13, On Being Loved And Hated In Latin America." NPR. NPR, 5 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.

Joglar, René, and Eduardo Martinez. MultiViral. Calle 13. Visitante, 2014. CD.

Llorente, Elizabeth. "The Accidental Activist: Calle 13's Residente Says His Fiery Politics Are Just 'Social Causes'" Fox News Latino. FOX News Network, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.

How Technology Impacts Language

I got my first phone when I was 10 years old. It had about four numbers on them: my mom, my dad, my home, and 911. Yet the one thing that I was excited about was that I could finally start texting like all of my friends have been doing for the last year or so. I must admit that when I started texting, I texted like I had no idea about any basic grammar rules. I used abbreviations and no punctuation constantly. Did it make me seem cool at the time? Yes. Do I still use it now? No. I constantly hear that "texting makes you dumb" or it is an "international phenomenon that has deteriorated the youth mind".  I like to think I'm not so dumb now. I don't use "luv" instead of  "love" or "u" instead of "you" in school. It might shock some adults that, yes, I know how to properly spell. If you read my texts from about 5th to 9th grade, you would probably think that I had zero knowledge about basic English and that me using that language made me dumb. I understand how nauseating it is to hear adults constantly bashing on the fact that teenagers are texting too much and hurting their minds. It is a relief to hear people like David Crystal and John McWhorter have some faith in the youth today. They both have very strong positions on why texting and technology does not have a negative impact on society today, yet they both do so with different arguments.

David Crystal argues that texting and technology actually improves writing and spelling. He believes that "textspeak" is actually language evolving positively. He believes that the whole point of the style is to "suit a particular technology  where space is at a premium". It is not like people use textspeak as a reason of laziness or low vocabulary, it is only because they have adapted the language to fit their specific needs. Crystal has developed several arguments of why textspeak is not negative. Firstly, there are not as many abbreviations in texts as people think. It is not every word that is spelled differently and abbreviated. Secondly, kids did not make up these abbreviations, thus they cannot be blamed for using lower vocabulary. It is not a modern invention. Lastly, he claims that the more you text, the higher your literacy scores. just because someone uses text language constantly, does not mean they don't know the proper spelling. His main point is: children are not as dumb as you may think.

John McWhorter also believes that technology has a had a positive impact on society, but in a different light. He states that just as in formal speech where we can speak what we write, we also write as we speak. For example, if I were to write a speech for English class, I would use formal language. But when we speak to other people, we speak casually. So in that way, we write casually when texting. It is not so much that texting and technology abuses language, it is just that we are simply writing what we are thinking in our head. His second point addresses the fact that people think that technology lessens people academic abilities. He argues with that statement by stating that people have always had problems with spelling and punctuation and teachers have always been complaining about it, even before texting was developed. So texting has not "made peoples vocabulary and grammar skills less", because that has always existed, even dating back to 63 B.C. 

Both McWhorter and Crystal make compelling arguments on this issue and we can see both differences and similarities. The first similarity is that textspeak does not affect academic abilities because youth today did not invent textspeak and complaints about poor language has existed long before technology arised. This completely cancels out the popular argument that "technology makes you dumb". Another similarity is that children as not as dumb and uneducated as many people think. It is common to use common language for all age and that people that use a lot of technology can differentiate between academic and casual language. A difference that these two have is that McWhorter does not mention anything about how technology is evolving language positively. Although he does touch up on how some words have changed meaning, Crystal is mostly the one that shows that language is constantly evolving through technology. Another difference is that Crystal backs a lot of his theories on statistics and studies that he has conducted. McWhorter mostly backs his ideas up with a social context rather than numbers and statistics. Overall, as a student who has grown up in the era where texting and technology have exploded, I have heard arguments about this topic so many times. I have read so many articles on how adults think we text and speak. Believe it or not, I do not talk like that and neither do any of my friends. I don't believe that textspeak has negatively influenced my academic skills. It is truly refreshing to hear people like McWhorter and Crystal share such compelling arguments on this topic.

Issues on Cultural Appropriation

“5 things white people need to learn about cultural appropriation”

Amirah Abualeez

October 6, 2014

Dear Editor,

I would like to start off with stating that although there are some points in your article that I agree with, I have found some issues that have raised several questions. It is no doubt that culture appropriation becomes a problem especially when the culture being appropriated is a minority. I agree with the fact “Cultural appropriation is not okay. In fact, it comes with strains of prejudice and, within a larger system of colonial whiteness, racism.” With that being said, that very sentence has a problem of its own. You have specifically targeted the white population and have stated that cultural appropriation roots from white prejudice. When in reality, all cultures are equally guilty of appropriating other cultures. To add on to that, you have specifically based your article off of the media and show business industry, targeting stars such as “Katy Perry”. You then continue to list five things that these stars should follow in order to “appreciate culture rather than appropriate it”. I believe that although your article had a good message behind it, it was poorly executed and showed hints of racism and ignorance on the authors side.

To start off, you begin your article by stating, “If you’re Katy Perry, for example, you believe it’s A-OK to don corn rows and gel down your baby hair, put on some long fingernails and so-called sassy mannerisms with a ‘blaccent’ and slang to portray how you believe certain black women behave and speak.” Firstly, I did not hear the so called “blaccent” that Katy Perry attempted. I also don’t believe that Katy Perry incorporating watermelon in her music video is a racist appropriation of black culture. Katy Perry likes watermelon. I like watermelon. It is small comments like these that make it seem like you did not know what you were writing about and instead you were targeting these acts “just for fun”. Cultural appropriation is a serious topic but you have twisted it into something that is silly and that people will not take seriously. The music and media industry is a large industry and artists do not portray other cultures in a racist persona. They portray other cultures in order to reach a wider variety of audience. Iggy Azalea does not change her Australian accent for interviews because she is racist. She changes her accent because that is what the business requires. Please do your research next time and open your mind to other ideas and points of views before stating yours publically.

In conclusion, I have found both good and bad things in your article. I do agree with the fact that in order for artists and other cultures to be able to “appreciate instead of appropriate other cultures”, one must have solid knowledge on that culture through research and personal experience so their acts cannot be misconstrued as racist or disrespectful. With that being said, I also believe that you need to do your research too. Just because a culture or an individual may seem like they are appropriating a different culture, does not mean that they don’t appreciate or respect that culture. Culture appropriation becomes an issue when there is racism, disrespect, and prejudice involved. I believe your article has some good intentions behind it, but it needs to be better executed.

Thank you,

Amirah Abualeez

Raha International School 

References: 

Clifton, Derrick. "5 Things White People Need to Learn about Cultural Appropriation." The Daily Dot. N.p., 5 Aug. 2014. Web. 6 Oct. 2014.