"Our Art is a Reflection of our Reality"

Our Art is a Reflection of our Reality

I believe in this statement very highly. It is so true and as a writer I know what he means. When I come up with a new story to write, one of the most important things is coming up with characters. Usually, authors base their characters on people they know and the setting of the story is based on their past or present. The traits of the characters could even be based on the lifestyle of the author. When I write I usually do these very same things, basing my story on what is going on in the world or what has already happened and not in a non-fictional way. I use fake settings and characters to reflect my reality and it is very easy to do that.

With the movie and the history it is based on, the reality is very dark, unwelcome, and violent and so the songs that are written are dark, unwelcome, and violent. Also, they used it as a way to describe their reality, they didn’t create fake names and places, and they used the real things to get their statement out there. They used a mirror, reflection, to get people to see what was going on but then the fame started to get to their heads and they started to turn on each other and again they reflected this in their songs.

So, they went from writing music to pay the bills to writing music to spread a statement then to roast each other. Using these song lyrics you can see their lives and what they had to go through with each other and then without each other.

Also, the way they use the tone of their voice in the songs also reflects what they were going through. It was anger and frustration when they sang about the police and government. When they first started out their songs were about dreams of owning a cool car and house and it evolved into hatred for the police and the tone of their voices really showed that. Then when they started to roast each other you could tell how much more anger was in their voices because what is worst then being betrayed by your brothers. That is probably a huge factor in their songs. If people just read the lyrics it probably wouldn’t have had a huge effect on the public but with words they were able to just bash down obstacles and rile up crowds.

With books I can’t say the words for people to hear instead I have to get people invested into characters so that they feel what the characters are feeling and they can come up with their own voices for the characters in their heads. Also, not everybody reads but I can guarantee everybody listens to music, unless you’re deaf. It probably didn’t even start out as a political statement when they were all getting together. They were probably just trying to pay the bills and live the dream of life in the U.S.A.

They call their work art and you see, in the movie, many of the authorities saying that rap is not art. So the statement Ice Cube makes, not only let’s people know that their songs reflect their lives but that they also consider their songs a form of art and it is. Art is everywhere around you and you probably don’t notice it. The books you read, the flag you pledge to, and even the technology you use are all forms of art. So, who were to authorities to say that the NWA’s art was not art at all? It just shows how much the world has changed in just the past two decades. The actual definition for art is just the expression of human creativity and they for sure expressed themselves with every song they wrote and if that is not art than I don’t know what is. I don’t listen to that kind of music but the movie really shows how much of an impact the music had on not only the audience and authorities but also the performers themselves. The songs they created were all that they had. They knew that if they failed that they would have nothing which is probably the craziest thing about this story is that they went for it anyways.

Now if everybody worked as hard as they did at whatever goals they wanted to accomplish, they would probably accomplish them. Everybody has a goal and it is accomplish-able, you just have to work for it no matter what happens. They achieved their goals and went above and beyond but they started to go too far and started to get caught up in their fame and this lead the ultimate breaking up of their group. First you had Ice Cube leave because they were starting to leave him out of things, then you have Dr. Dre leaving because he saw how much they lost sight of their end goal. Now today you see just how far that got them with the death of Eazy-E. Ice Cube is an actor in movies and the rest are just spread out. Now you have people such as Snoop Dog taking the reins on what the NWA started.

To get back on track, their lives are very much so reflected in their songs. The movie shows this by them getting harassed by the police and then they wrote a song saying to eff the police. This is also probably their biggest breakthrough as it gave them the attention they needed when the F.B.I. gave them that notice and even the police speaking to them backstage meant that their statement was definitely getting out there. I am not really a fan of the movie but I do like history and even though this deals with music, it brings attention to how terrible life could be, even in the United States of America. Their art reflected their lives.

Flat Tax or Flat Tire

            My opinion is simple; I would like to have a flat tax rate. This was even used for a short time after the Civil War and people were fine with it. It worked. This “Fair Tax” we have is not fair and the flat tax would be. Everyone would be giving out the same percentage. Say it is 10%, all you are doing is taking a zero off of your income and paying that. So if you made say $300,000, all you would have to pay is $30,000 leaving you with $270,000. This would be the best way especially for times like these. The federal government relied on sales tax before income tax and they were doing just fine and fair tax didn’t even arrive until the 1990s. Income tax didn’t arrive until 1913 with the 16^th amendment. I just think that they want more and more money. By “they” I mean the government. I mean people we don’t get to elect, people who are just hired get to make up our laws and regulations and are paid with our money. That just seems a little weird and I am not really a fan of that. So flat tax is the way to go and who knows, maybe it will actually help with our terrible economy which is just going to keep getting worse. Also with flat tax we might actually be able to get the unemployment rate reduced. Maybe crime rates would also go down because people would actually be able to hold a job and keep a good chunk of money. If this makes federal workers angry than they should quit because if they actually cared about what the laws and regulations they make did they shouldn’t care what they get paid and what we have to pay.

Criminal Deviance

At the Oregon Social Learning Center, Tom Dishion and his colleagues studied if deviant behavior was affected by deviant talk. So he had 13 and 14 year old kids be interviewed about some of the activities they did. Very few out of the kids said they never did criminal deviant acts. The others admitted to it though and a lot of it. Some of the kids even said the same things as others and this proved that when a kid does a criminal deviant act, he or she is never alone. Delinquents will always act in groups. The things that the kids admitted to were getting drunk and doing drugs. Some even admitted to victimizing girls and were proud of it. Tom found it astonishing at how open the kids were and furthered his research with the next part of his experiment. He now had his colleagues laugh whenever one of the delinquents mentioned a criminal deviant act and he found out that the kids would talk more on the subject the more laughter they got. These kids were being recorded and yet they just did not care about how much they said because all they wanted was some attention.

Mike Tyson and Freddie Gray: Failed by Society or Themselves

I believe that they both failed themselves. Starting with Mike, I know that he grew up in a bad neighborhood where he was expected to do things. Or was he because the person that asked him what he was doing was not a part of the gun shooting. By this I believe that Mr. Tyson did have a choice and that he did not say that in the article so that he could look like a victim. Then he went on to be a great success within boxing so I guess you could say that he was not failed by society which again leaves that fact that he failed himself. He has to live with what he said in the article and no amount of fame is going to change that. Just because you say you grow up in a horrible environment doesn’t mean you have to be horrible yourself. I know that this just sounds horrible and that Mike Tyson was a victim but was he. He, just like everyone else, had choices and he just made those choices out of, more than likely, fear.

Now, Freddie Gray definitely failed himself. The article is very clear about that. You can’t expect to get a job when you have a huge criminal record. Seriously he was a big time criminal and he tried to get a job and he even expected the person to say yes. Just like Mike Tyson and everyone else, Mr. Gray had choices and he didn’t make bad ones out of fear, he probably made them out of knowledge. What he did is probably all he knew how to do. This does not mean that people should take pity on him and hire him. The amount of trouble he could have caused may be unimaginable and you can’t blame them for not hiring him. He was even known to the police so what he did was one huge thing or a lot of multiple little, but bad, things. So I don’t think society failed Freddie Gray. He definitely failed himself.

Both of these men failed themselves. 

Racism: Western or Universal

Race and Racism (Western Colonialism)

So, if racism was supposedly started in the 15^th century, then the founding of America was right along with it since that also happened in the 15^th century. America was discovered in 1492 and the 15^th century was the 1400's. One of the lines I read in the article was about how powerful societies will always look at lesser people as inferior and the reason I liked it was because it shows that history will repeat itself. Also, I do believe that they may be right in the article when they explain how Africans were not Christians and that because of this they were treated like heathens, and that this was the start of racism. Then as I touched on before with America, colonization of the world began. Columbus set out on his voyages and the Portuguese imitated. For colonization, these explorers believed they needed free labor so this is where slavery came in. Then revolutions began and soon it came to the 20^th century. This is where racism takes off again because there is no longer slavery so all every one believed was that they had to be prejudice. This is where civil rights movements started and how we ended up where we are today.

How Racist Are We?

Everyone is racist and some may not know it yet. Everyone is racist but racism doesn’t have to be bad. You can be racist against a group because it is the truth and may make some things more efficient. Anyways, there is racism everywhere and the article states this fact. There is no escape so why not make it better instead of viewing it as an awful thing. Then it moves on to telling the difference between individualism and racism. With racism you judge a person by their skin color and maybe where they and/or their parents are from. With individualism you judge a person by their intelligence and capabilities. Then it moves on to explain how racism is not just a white people problem. The article also says that the human race has much more in common when you are an individual rather than being in a group. When in a group the majority rules and there is no swaying but when individual you make your own decisions. The only problem with this is that as an individual, your voice will not be heard.  This is all saying that racism is the perspective of a group and not of an individual like the world would want us to believe.

Cultural Bias for Racism

Researchers wanted to figure out why people would even be racist, sexist and ageist against their own people. They say that some studies have shown these things to be universal. Then they found out that media and literature could very well be contributing to these stereotypes. The reason they contribute is because they all show the very same things over and over again. By doing this, it just strengthens it in people’s heads about what is right and what is wrong. The research went on to study participants and the answers they gave over prejudice questions. The studied it both positively and negatively. Their response times were also taken into account with the study. They found that the work “black” was used more with words such as lazy and musical but not goofy. The word “white” was used more with words such as greedy and successful. This just went to show that people are now more acceptable of stereotypes than before. People have grown accustomed to sayings and act more upon gut reaction than behavior. A way they say to fix is not to put stereotypes out there as clearly or people are going to latch on to it and quickly.

Opinion

I personally believe that racism is a Western concept and not universal. I also believe that media has played a big part in escalating things very quickly. The third article states, “Literature, movies, TV, radio and the Internet all contribute to the problem by exhibiting the same stereotypes that others work so hard to snuff out.” I believe that racism started in the 15^th century which is the 1400's. During this time period, the mindset to go out and explore was huge. Europe wanted to colonize everywhere but they wanted more man power. The first article states, “In the Iberian cities of Seville and Lisbon, witnessing who labored for whom daily solidified the association between blackness and slavery.” With this the Europeans sought out Africans to enslave, not because they were racist against them but because it was what was accepted at the time. Over time they began to treat Africans badly because of their beliefs not because of their race. The Africans were not Christians so they were treated as heathen. Also, like I said, they were not enslaved because of racism they were enslaved because it would be more efficient. The second article states, “I discriminate in favor of people I think can hold down a job and do decently at it.” I don’t think that racism is everywhere just yet but it will be. Again, I believe it is a Western concept.

Lord of the Flies Blog

Prompt 1

Everyone knows that death is a part of life. Everybody also knows that this death can be brought on earlier by certain things such as storms, disease, and murder. Every single person on this earth can kill anyone they want because everyone knows how. Some people on this planet kill for sport and some kill in defense. Is there an in between? We may never know because we would first have to come to accept that sometimes killing in defense and for sport can sometimes be the same thing. It all depends on the savagery of the person. Some people would rather not give the luxury of death. These are the insane people that are on this earth.

Prompt 2                

If the separation between being civilized and savaged was no longer there, which would take over? This all depends on the person and their moral standings. It depends on which part of them is stronger. Most people would say that savagery would be the one to take over, but I don’t believe that to be true in all cases. Sometimes it may look like savagery when a person kills another person but it could also be fear.  Savagery just seems like it is the stronger of the two but really it is the weaker just disguising itself as the stronger through intimidation.

Prompt 3                

Civilization is created through the coming together of people. With civilization comes society. Now, are people controlling society or being controlled? I believe that people are controlled by society. This is why whenever there is someone who breaks off and rebels for his or her own cause, people immediately go against that person.  They are always thrown into the belief that they have rights and that the people are in charge when in fact they are doing exactly what society expects them to do. Say you have an apple and that the apple represents society and the seeds in the core are people. Now you cut the apple in half and expect the seeds to stay but every once in a while a seed will fall out and what do you do with it? You throw it away.

The "Lottery"

1. No. I realized something was wrong when they sort of redrew. He lulls us by using the word lottery and having people gather together telling jokes and smiling.
2. A small town. It makes it all seem isolated and strange. It makes me anticipate the ending more.
3. All of them seem to have a role and act as if it is normal. She was the one who said it wasn't fair and then she becomes the winner.
4. Lottery is ironic because it usually is great to be the winner. Also it is ironic when Mrs. Hutchinson says it isn't fair for her husband and then she ends up drawing and winning the lottery.
5. Graves is the easiest one of the lot. It obviously points to death so it is a symbol. Another one is that the lottery is held in the summer and the official is named Summers.
7. The black box and spot symbolize death. Black is usually the color of death and the box being battered means that it has been around for a while which makes it tradition. Tradition is not something people like to get rid of.
8. She is using it as an analogy.
9. Certain religious groups.
10. War itself.

Lottery today is a way to win money and most people look at it as a necessity. The lottery in the story tells us a lot more about human nature. It tells that tradition is not easily let go. A man, named Warner from the story, was the oldest in the town and he was telling everyone to hurry it up and stone the woman quickly so he can go back home. This also says, especially for today, how much the human race has grown to except violence. Back in the 60’s, BBC started up a show and it soon got cancelled because it was too violent. This show was later revived and 2005 and now we have TV shows that are so violent that they get better ratings the more violent they are. The Walking Dead (an amazing show) is one of these. The show is so violent that people from the 60’s or earlier would never have green lit it to air on TV. Since this story was written after World War II, I can see the point she was trying to get across. Times have changed significantly and they are just going to keep changing through time.