Exactly. Those executives are letting racism, > sexism, and poor taste drive the machine.
just to swerve this topic a bit more off road- I'll come at from where I'm most now, around kids. Where the "machine" starts to influence at its earliest. >From a music standpoint, I've noticed that the kids (who are four) are insane about NSync,Brittany Spears, Backstreet Boys and...Michael Jackson. When I pull out a new CD for the class these are the five names that roll off their tongues first. If it's not those five-it might as well be foreign. There are two boys who are most into Michael Jackson.(You haven't lived till you've seen a four year old do the moon walk). One is incredibly artistic AND the other day made the comment that Michael Jackson is white. We had to break it to him he wasn't. Though he insisted he was for a while. If it matters the little boy is NOT white. I found this incredibly interesting. I've noticed what the children do react most to is beats. When I scroll through a CD to find a song the two things they respond to most are 1)repeated lyrics and 2)a lot of bass and beat. That's what they respond to most out of the five formentioned. I've put in Stevie Wonder for the two that praise MJ, and they said literally "this isn't funky". I nearly keeled over. They respond to jazz-but mostly the stuff heavy in drums and horns. The one who incredibly artistic (and thought MJ was white) loves Telefon Tel Aviv and instrumental. BUT most music is judged on the scale of if they can dance to it like NSync or not. What I'm getting at is my pure observation that I think the machine, on a musical level, starts at a very early age. There's so much being walloped at the public by mass media that consumption has turned us into informational termites-not satisfied until all the wood is gone, but then we just look for another structure to destroy. On a social level, at least in our classroom, the barriers of race aren't there very much. However kids of like nationalities tend to group and stick together. If anything most present is the boundry of gender.female vs. male and so on. The ones who have it the toughest are the boys with all sisters or the girls with all brothers who sit on the fence inbetween. We can talk about the "machine" and how it effects us until we are blue. I think it's obvious that we know who the demons are here..it's just a matter if you make it your choice to challenge them on a daily basis or you are one to choose your battles. For me, the most important things I get out of these discussions is the lesson to question things that seem a bit too easy and try and kick the machine as often as possible. I don't think it will ever be broken (though maybe when we get a black, female US president) but at least it personally feels good to challenge it as much as can, as often as I can. d __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Greetings - Send FREE e-cards for every occasion! http://greetings.yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
