My Prewriting for my CAP Interdisciplinary Research Project.

*Warning!* The following prewriting is inherently unorganized, random and may be offensive to some readers. DO NOT attempt to read thinking there is some point.


START:

So immediately when I saw this paragraph from the prompt :

Assignment Description:

This linked project has several parts which will span the final weeks of the course. The Interdisciplinary Research Project (IRP) is a collaborative assignment on a selected theme from the topics in CAP 121. Based on your research topic and interests, you will be teamed with 2-3 colleagues with which you will work closely for the remainder of the semester. The class schedule details the time allotted for each phase of the project. In selecting a research topic, consider what you have learned about the Multiculturalism and its influence on American culture, politics, and values. Here is a list of broad themes to guide you in choosing a topic:

Immigration and Assimilation

Media and Cultural Representations

Belief and Spirituality

Gender and Sexuality

The last part grabbed me and said… ohhh… you could go for broke and really ask some solid questions about sexuality since we dealt with it earlier in the class when reading the Toni Morrison novel. You could ask what is the concept of virginity look like in America today? And what is its meaning and value? What is it that historically makes it wrong for women not to be virgins but men shouldn’t be ones. And what about what is virginity and how the term has changed. Then you could turn that around and ask those questions of African American females and how that affects their 'worth' in society, considered they already have two strikes of being 'black' and 'female'....

Orrrrr… if I didn’t totally want to go for shock and awe considering I do have to make a presentation on this and I may not want to be that gutsy, I could always go for the Belief and Spirituality card by asking questions like (and since I am ‘highly encouraged’ but not required to connect this to my previous assignments *grroowwwlll*) …. Lost it.. stupid distracting side discussions in class...

Ok… so what about looking at the multiculturalism of Barack Obama (Half black/half white anybody?) and seeing how that affects his popularity between whites and blacks in his voting base…. Plus the fact that he has Hussien in his name… that whole thing… and he’s a Christian… he’s one walking contradiction. Charming man though, god love him…he claims he’s not too many years far removed from middle class America as he and his wife were once struggling law students themselves… not long off at least… but I feel that excuse dosen’t cut it because of the fact that true middle/working class Americans mostly haven’t gone to college, let alone law school…. Difference there that’s huge… but whatever.. Oh... and there's the fact that he was raised by his white grandmother... how did that atmosphere/environment affect how he is seen by black voters?

Multiculturalism and its influence on American culture, politics, and values.:

Straight from the prompt… hmm.. You know I really think Barack could be an icon for that statement, use him as a magnifying glass...but perhaps not…it’s so clichéd….and I do hate being clichéd… But then.. I suppose a lot of people could be used in a similar fashion to look at such an idea…

They want me to use the image I used for my VRA to continue where I’m going with this project… ick.. no fun… don’t want to do it! Bill Bojangles Robinson and African American Film History doesn’t speak multiculturalism to me... I suppose it could... but I'm not feeling it right now. I feel like I could do more with this.

"Constructed Blackness"

8 Mile: Main character is more accepted among black community than white community. But then that cannot be argued in a way because of the ‘White Trash’ moniker

Malcolm x

Spike Lee’s Bamboozled.

School Days Spike Lee’s

The Boondocks

Is Black race…. Or is it a ‘state of mind’? Is Black how you act, how you talk, how you dress,etc. or is it your history, the color of your skin, your ancestry?

How white males construct ‘blackness’ in order to confirm their manhood.

Look at sales of ‘rap brands’ i.e. music, clothing etc. and sales in suburbia or to white consumers

Ex. Eminem is more black than some actual ‘black’ people I know.

Black individuals ‘acting white’ and their acceptance in the black community.

And that folks is my prewriting thus far...


Special thanks to one very cool and talented former Professor for his advice and help in locating sources and giving some much needed life to my ideas for my CAP project... You are incredibly helpful and I bow before thy greatness.



See you later Space Cowboy...