The Hip Hop Generation 1st and 2nd Chunk

The hip hop generation has faced a plethora of problems, economical and social, in the wake of the new emerging rap culture. Although rap has given these generators a lifestyle and culture of thier own that differs greatly from that of the baby boomers before them, it has also given them many a crisis as stated above. According to Kitwana, the hip hop generation has had harder times getting jobs and have faced problems such as class warefare and animosity within thier own race.

The race war, policing, incarceration and the containment of black youth. The hip hop generators, a group of African Americans that was born within the years of 1964 and 1984 all face an ever growing series of crisis in their culture. One that is common even in today’s youth is the prison crisis. According to Kitwana, the prison crisis affects black Americans the most with an outstanding 62 percent of black men is state prisons. This factor along with the “mandatory minimums”, corruption within the justice system, and the decline of black power sets a rather grim outlook for black Americans. But, this is not the only crisis Kitwana touches upon. Within the hip hop generation, there seems to be a divide of the sexes; conflict that can be clearly seen in rap music that depicts women as “bitches, gold diggers, hos, hoodrats, chickenheads, pigeons, and so on.”(pg85)

Clarification: What does Kitwana mean by saying that "Tupac and Tyson are irredeemable misogynist"?

Application: Do you think that most, if not all, of the problems stated so far by Kitwana are still affecting black youth in this day and age?

“Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space”

In Brett Staples’ “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space”, the fear connected to harmless black men by women, and sometimes even men, is brought to light. According to Staples’, even as an African American male s “just walk on by” they are immediately associated with criminals or worse. In an essay like structure, Staple’s conveys his subject in a chronological order, once referring back to his child hood in Pennsylvania, telling of how he was oblivious to this connection because of the backdrop of violence in his “angry industrial town”. It seems that the author has a small rage towards the constant association, and the ability he has to alter public space.
Vocabulary:
Affluent: Rich, Wealthy, Prosperous.
Unwieldy: Awkward, Heavy, Bulky, and Cumbersome.
Rhetorical Terms
Anecdote:
Pg 205 “My first victim was a woman…”
Pg 207 “Another time I was on assignment…”
Imagery:
Pg 205 “...a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair…”
Onomonopiea: “
Pg 206 “Thunk, thunk, thunk…”
Aporia:
Pg 206 “It is not altogether clear to me how…”
Questions:
Clarification:
What does Staple mean by “perilous flavor”?
Application:
How would you personally feel if you had the ability to alter public space in the same manner as Staples?
Style: If less pedantic language was used in Staple’s article, would it change the meaning of it at all?
Quotation:
“Virtually everybody seems to sense that a mugger wouldn’t be warbling bright sunny selections from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.”

Discover Magizine Precies "Quest for a Second Earth"

By: Robert Kunzig

Jeffery Klugar’s article Global Warming Heats Up, discusses both the signigicant and insignificant effects of global warming on the planet Earth. One of the more major problems Klugar brings to light is the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps. “the world could be locked in to an eventual rise in sea levels of as much as 20 feet.” he states. Klugar continues to show how dire the situation has become by stating that that number could rise by the year 2010. A 2006 report from Nasa states the last twenty years on Earth have been the hottest on record, and the tempertures only continue to rise. Klugar creates this interseting article while using many stats, quotes, data, facts and expert opinions to stress the fact that our planet is becoming “ill” and may not survive for much longer at the rate things are going at the moment.
Discussion: Do you think that global warming is a problem that should be dealt with as quickly as possible? Or do you think it should be put aside till other problems are solved?

Clarification:what did Klugar mean by "nature's stricking back at us"?

Stiff;; 3rd Chunk

In the last few chapters of Stiff, Roach continues to describe the ways humans can be used after they pass on by using, excerpts, quotes, facts, and rhetorical questions. The uses of human cadavars continue to grow, as Roach explores the past. Hot blood from a deceased gladiator was belived to be an elixer that could cure many diseases such as "ecezema, palsy and even vertigo."(224) While some of the past uses of cadavars as medicine are less that desireable to those in modern days, in the past these practices were popular and ever growing. Later Roach tells of an "enviromentaly friendly" way of using cadavars as compost. In the very last chapter of Stiff, the author roises the rhetorical question of What will happen to not only her, but us, when we pass on from this world.

Clarification:
On page 224 when Roach mentions the "Mummy Elixer", is she talking about the mellified mummies?

Application:
If it meant that you could possibly save a person's life, would you eat and drink nothing but hunny for the last month of your life and then mellify your body?

Stiff 3rd Chunk, Pg #146-219

Mary Roach continues on in the next few chapters to further describe how cadavars are used, how said cadavers were distinguished from the living, and Roach even raises the question of what makes a person a person. First, the author explains how the dead were used to prove the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin by using many quotes and historical facts. Later, Roach chronicels her experience at California's San Fransisco Medical Center. She states that the difference between the living and the dead. The living are "flanked by caregivers with long strides and set faces, steadying IV's, pumping ambu bags, barreling into double doors."(167), while the dead are " wheeled by a single person, calmly and with little notice." But as she continues on, Roach relizes that a beating heart cadavar is "flanked by caregivers with long strides and set faces, steadying IV's, pumping ambu bags, barreling into double doors."

Clarification: Pg 204
Was Gamahut alive for a short amount of time, when Laborde ran the currents through his head. Was his head attatched to his body, or was it just Gamahut's head?

Application:
In your oppinion, what makes a person a person? Do you think that a beating heart cadavar could be classified as a person, or is a person classified by thier soul, spirit or personality? Or maybe even thier brain function?

Stiff 2nd Chunk (Pg 74-148)

In Marry Roach's Stiff, she explores the many uses that cadavars have, in not only anatomical reasearch but how they can be used in vehicular crash tests, to understand the severity of chest injuries in them, as well as to understand, by looking at the cadavar's wounds, what actually happened in a plane crash. All the while she is explaining the benefits of these cadavars, she adds in imagery, humor, and anecdotes about heself concerning the topic at hand. Earlier in the chapter Roach uses vivid imagery to describe what happend to a live person simulating the impacts of a real car crash. This man named Albert King was "slammed in the chest by a twenty-two-pound metal pendulum. He has hurled one knee repetedly against a metal bar outfitted with a load cell."(pg 94) (a load cell is a device that converts force into electrical signals.) By telling of the many injuries a real person, who can feel pain, goes through, Roach hilights the use of cadavars, who feel no pain at all. Roach then uses expert opinions to explain that just by looking at the wounds of a victim one can determine the cause of a plane crash and the events that unfolded. With the further use of anecdotes and historical facts, Roach tells of research done many years ago as to why a man falls to the floor after being shot.
Discussion Questions:
Clarification: In the first few pages of chapter five, did Roach or her colleage ever refer to the "victims" or "survivors" of the plane crash as cadavars?
Application: Do you think that it is better to use cadavars in place of animals in things such as bullet research?