Students were instructed to write a three paragraph response to Felicia Pride's narrative from The Message: "Me, Myself and I." Some students gave me their responses, others needed more time and can post them here with a works cited section of the short essay.
Bring your books: The Spoken Word Revolution to class on Thursday, October 8. We will spend the first part of the class reading and discussing poetry, followed by the three students who will present their essays on "writers" or "graffiti artists." Each essay needs to be about four pages, excluding the works cited. I am finding the essays I have read so far, with one exception, Ilene's, to be lacking in depth and scholarship.
Only one student brought his essay to class for a peer review, so I gave him feedback. The essays are due the day of the presentation; if you come late and miss the presentation, we can try to squeeze you in on another day, but the moment might not come back around. The paper is still due with the planning sheets the day stated on the assignment sheet unless other arrangements have been made in advance.
Unfortunately, you are not graded solely on the presentations, rather on the writing as well. Some of you are not demonstrating your ability to do research and use the information gleaned to support and prove the thesis. All papers need to use minimally three sources, one needs to be from the databases or library resources. Idf your computer won't allow you to format your paper correctly, go to the writing center and get help. Student papers which do not have proper MLA will not get passing grades. I am interested in content and this is the most important part of the writing process, but the form has to be correct too.
All revisions need to be completed with a narrative stating what you did to the essays in question--step-by-step revision process or rewriting. These essays need to be in within the week and if you think you might need extra help, then get back to me by the next class meeting.
You will only get from this class what you put into it. I was surprised that no one who is presenting on graffitti watch Style Wars, a classic.
Since we are writing about art description is certainly one of the writing modes students should consider using. Many students do not know proper MLA formatting for an essay. I stated at the beginning of the class and it is in the syllabus, if you need help come to my office hours or make an appointment with me. Also, students need to bring a grammar style book to class (Diana Hacker Rules for Writers is recommended and it is in the bookstore.)
For homework in The Spoken Word Revolution (2004), read: the Introduction (10-11; 32-33), Hip Hop Poetry (38-41, 55-59). You can skim the poetry between the sections if you like.
Oh, I gave students a copy of another Dyson essay from Know What I Mean, Track 3 looks at the language of the genre, specifically its poets and the place language has in black culture. It ties in well to the reading from The Spoken Word Revolution which also looks at the oral tradition.
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Dexter English
Me, Myself and I
As I read this essay I can’t help but to agree with everything she has to say. I once got caught up in trying to be “real” and in the process almost forgot who I really was behind. In Me, Myself, and I she goes on to say she once dated a man who would be two different people; a boyfriend, and in a sense a want to be while he was around his friends.
“I remember dating a guy, an aspiring rapper, who any time he got around other people (especially his boys), his voice and speech changed, went from high-pitched to low and dark. He altered his stance; he walked slower and with a more defined bop….(pg10)”
Her boyfriend, clearly stuck between realities, couldn’t manage to keep it real enough to maintain a healthy relationship.
I feel we all go through the stage of finding ourselves, which isn’t a bad thing at all. The beautiful thing about loosing yourself is the wonderful things you discover on the way to finding yourself. Like what don’t and do you really like, who are and aren’t your true friends and who to trust. “This gap between “keeping it real” and actually being real is becoming so wide that at times we’re liable to fall in as we try to decipher which is which and who is who (pg 10).” Keeping from falling into that gap is crucial to finding yourself, if you fall into that gap finding yourself is seemingly impossible.
On the way to finding yourself a lot of people want to be someone else, Jay-Z for example, because you see the lifestyle, the money and respect and how often they use the word “real.” However; trying to become something so many people strive to be you no longer own the power to be unique, yourself, because you fall into the crowd that look just like you, after the same thing, you become a “cardboard cutout. (pg 11)”
Melissa Carpenter
Me, Myself and I
In the essay by Felicia Pride "Me, Myself and I", she discusses the concept of how people are afraid to be themselves in a society that constantly passes judgment and tries to label people to be certain way. The reflection by De La Soul gives us a deeper insight on what it means to be an individual, and to honestly deep down, love yourself for who you are; not what society makes you.
When Felicia pride explains the meaning of what De La Soul was trying to project to people she used many key points that I found interesting. One concept she explained was:
"As society, we like labels, boxes, and other ways to confine and categorize. We prejudge folks on various characteristics before they even open their mouths. Hair: you must light incense, meditate, and be peace-loving if you rock a natural style. Background: you must be ghetto if you grew up in the inner city. Musical tastes: you must want to be white if you listen to punk rock. There's always a level of disappointment for outsiders when we don't live up to misconceptions. Even if you're comfortable in your skin, and know exactly who you are, others aggressively attempt to promote their own idea of who you should be." (pg 11)
In my opinion this statement shows that society will stereotype you, or judge you just because you look or act a certain way. That is unfair because you can't truely know how someone is unless you take the time to get to know them. By Felicia Pride writing this essay I feel that she gave a great piece of information for people to think about. It gave me a lot of things to think about and I totally agreed with what she said.
Itzel Diaz
Professor Sabir
English 1B
October 6, 2009
Felicia pride recalls the importance of fighting for ones “character”; personally and identity are the only things that we own. The song “Me Myself and I” was De La Soul response to the need of recapturing the “real” persona that lives within them.
Being real is something that has been misinterpreted by many Hip-hop artists. Pride expresses her disagreement to what rappers call “keep it real”.
Let’s face it, in the celebfest, pseudo-reality world we live it, it is much easier to sell an image, because representing the true you implies that (1) you’re comfortable in your skin and many of us aren’t; (2) you’re not concerned with how people will receive the fullness of you; and (3) you truly know who you are and accept that person. (Pride 10)
The phrase “being real” is commonly use by some rappers to express their authenticity, and the phrase “keep it real” is used to express their lyrics connection to reality. But when it comes to expressing reality most hip-hop artist decide to only express certain reality, the reality that the media has already set for them,. A lot of rappers do not longer express who they really are; they have limited themselves to portray the image that they think other want to see.
Keeping our “character” and real identity depends only on us. As individuals is important to know what we think about ourselves. Like Felicia says, “we shouldn’t spend our nights worrying about how others view us, but it is worthwhile to prevent any infringements on our character.” (11) Knowing who we are and not letting others tells us who we can or not be is the key to keeping our real identity.
Ilene Lee
English 1B
Professor Sabir
TTH 9-10:50
Understanding that one’s true identity can be possible is extremely crucial in the eyes of hip hop audiences. In Felicia Pride’s response to “Me, Myself and I”, ideals of profiling and false representation is stated to describe the way people identify themselves to others. People constantly feel that there is a certain way they should behave and display in the presence of others. Pride breaks down the qualities that constitute what representing one’s true identity is and counters these characteristics with the main idea that people choose to express false profiles because it is more convenient (10). By creating an illusion and image that is more acceptable, people dodge the critiques of others. They do not need to feel scrutinized for their qualities because they represent what society expects of them.
Pride goes on to further explain the reasons behind these actions and provide personal anecdotes to give a sense of reality within this problem. She goes on to define the expectations of what society demands and includes new ideas that I never really considered. Here, she articulates the negative aspect of society’s expectations and set images of people,
“As a society, we like labels, boxes, and other ways to confine and categorize…There’s always a level of disappointment for outsiders when we don’t live up to misconceptions. Even if you’re comfortable in your skin, and know exactly who you are, others aggressively attempt to promote their own idea of who you should be.” (11).
In her analysis, I realized that we, as a society, are very judgmental when we approach new people and their personalities. We create this ideal that people feel they need to live up to and impress our views. Despite how confident someone may be, others still continue to tear at their characteristics and find flaws to undermine them. Similarly to Pride’s last essay to “Not Enough, I see a connection with societies’ unquenchable hunger for acceptance and perfection. Nothing ever seems to be good enough for everyone to just accept what is.
Although the future of societies’ expectations may look bleak, Pride stresses the importance of defending one’s personal beliefs and thoughts. We all should embody these traits about ourselves and love the spirit and soul that we possess. The power to defy the expectations that others hold depends on one’s abilities to do so for their own identities. We are in control of how we want to be perceived and we shouldn’t let others hold us back from our identities. Perfectly stated, Pride says “a city is built when folks pave their own streets” (11). We determine the futures we want; it all lies in our hands.
Felicia Pride's "Me, Myself, and I" has a strong message on staying true to yourself. I think in today's world, so many of us live trying to impress or be better than others. I see people acting completely different around different groups of people.
Is an alter ego just one way to conform to multiple groups of people?
It seems that people dont try to identify to themselves, but to others. Pride states that people expect you to act a certain way just by how you look or dress.
"As society, we like labels, boxes, and other ways to confine and categorize. We prejudge folks on various characteristics before they even open their mouths." Maybe this could be an explanation why we are always trying to conform
I think the root of this issue lies within the individual. People would not be able to judge us by our appearance if we did not try to "play the part". I mean that people dressing or acting to fit into a certain social group is what makes others able to judge them.
Maybe this is a trial and error process. When growing up most of us could say we have gone through some interesting stages. Maybe us Americans try out the different chairs until we find the one we are most comfortable in. We are not born with our sense of personality or who we are, it is environmental and social factors that make up our complex personalities.
Pride couldn't truly expressed this any better. People really have lost a sense of who they are. We are striving to stay true to others, when we should be striving to stay true to ourselves.
Jose Vasquez
Me Myself and I
In Me Myself and I Felicia Pride talks about people who want to be something that they are not. She talks about how people become someone else when they feel that they have to show a diffrent persona. She talks about how society catergories people by simply judging you by the color of your skin, how you speak, and your appearance.
Jose Vasquez
Response to Me Myself and I
Felicia pride talks about how some people try to be someone they are not. She talks about how some people always act a certain way just to simply fit in with the people that they want to hang out with. She feels that people do not stay true to themselves because they always want to fit in with society. Felicia Pride talks about how people change who they are due to the fact that they feel that they have to fit in with how the media labels you.
Felicia Pride also talks about how man change the way they act when their is people around. She describes dating a man who always changed his tone of voice because man want to always be seen as tough and with strong persona character. She felt that if he had two sides as a person he would be a very tough person to trust.
I have witness exactly what Felicia Pride is trying to explain in me myself and I. I have experienced situations myself when some people act a way at a certain place and a different way at a certain time. Some girls act a certain way when they are with their lovers and when they go home they act totally different.I feel that some people try to please others instead of pleasing themselves. When people stereotype you, many feel that they have to follow that.
Some people expect you to be a certain way simply by the fact where you live. Many people feel that if you were raised in the ghetto either you do drugs or someone in your family does. They expect you to be a person with no manners and very disrespectful. Its not fair that people make assumptions of who you are simply because you were raised a different way that they were raised. Always stay true to yourself and do not pay attention to others.
Jose Vasquez
Response to Me Myself and I
Felicia pride talks about how some people try to be someone they are not. She talks about how some people always act a certain way just to simply fit in with the people that they want to hang out with. She feels that people do not stay true to themselves because they always want to fit in with society. Felicia Pride talks about how people change who they are due to the fact that they feel that they have to fit in with how the media labels you.
Felicia Pride also talks about how man change the way they act when their is people around. She describes dating a man who always changed his tone of voice because man want to always be seen as tough and with strong persona character. She felt that if he had two sides as a person he would be a very tough person to trust.
I have witness exactly what Felicia Pride is trying to explain in me myself and I. I have experienced situations myself when some people act a way at a certain place and a different way at a certain time. Some girls act a certain way when they are with their lovers and when they go home they act totally different.I feel that some people try to please others instead of pleasing themselves. When people stereotype you, many feel that they have to follow that.
Some people expect you to be a certain way simply by the fact where you live. Many people feel that if you were raised in the ghetto either you do drugs or someone in your family does. They expect you to be a person with no manners and very disrespectful. Its not fair that people make assumptions of who you are simply because you were raised a different way that they were raised. Always stay true to yourself and do not pay attention to others.
Jose Vasquez
Response to Me Myself and I
Felicia pride talks about how some people try to be someone they are not. She talks about how some people always act a certain way just to simply fit in with the people that they want to hang out with. She feels that people do not stay true to themselves because they always want to fit in with society. Felicia Pride talks about how people change who they are due to the fact that they feel that they have to fit in with how the media labels you.
Felicia Pride also talks about how man change the way they act when their is people around. She describes dating a man who always changed his tone of voice because man want to always be seen as tough and with strong persona character. She felt that if he had two sides as a person he would be a very tough person to trust.
I have witness exactly what Felicia Pride is trying to explain in me myself and I. I have experienced situations myself when some people act a way at a certain place and a different way at a certain time. Some girls act a certain way when they are with their lovers and when they go home they act totally different.I feel that some people try to please others instead of pleasing themselves. When people stereotype you, many feel that they have to follow that.
Some people expect you to be a certain way simply by the fact where you live. Many people feel that if you were raised in the ghetto either you do drugs or someone in your family does. They expect you to be a person with no manners and very disrespectful. Its not fair that people make assumptions of who you are simply because you were raised a different way that they were raised. Always stay true to yourself and do not pay attention to others.
Munkhjin Munkhbaatar
English 1B
Me, Myself and I
After reading Me, Myself and I by Felicia Pride the first thing that came in my mind was am I and my friends are being themselves or they just trying to become someone else that they are not. When I really thought of my friends sometimes I realize that some of my friends are acting differently in front of different people like they are trying to act like they are cool guys. Felicia Pride talks about how important it is to find their identity because if you can’t find your own identity it will be like you are lost in the woods.
“Hair: you must light incense, meditate, and be peace-loving if you rock a natural style. Background: you must be ghetto if you grew up in the inner city. Musical Tastes: you must want to be white if you listen to punk rock. There’s always a level of disappointment for outsiders when we don’t live up to misconceptions. Even if you’re comfortable in your skin, and know exactly who you are, others aggressively attempt to promote their own idea of who you should be.” (Pride 11). There will always be a judgement because of our skin colors.
Life is about finding our true identity and following our dreams and believes to achieve and complete them. We are not going to gain anything trying to be someone else that we are not.
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