Racism and Unity in World War II Analyzing If He Hollers Let Him Go - Literature Essay Samples

World War II had a profound impact on American culture. Essentially every person in the country was affected in some way, but the war’s impact of African Americans was unique. Although African Americans were indeed Americans they were often treated like the enemy on the home front. Racism ran rampant in American society, even troops abroad were segregated. In some cases, people were able to see past this racism and view the war as a way to unite people to think of the greater good. Others only saw the war as an example of racism. The novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go, by Chester Himes demonstrates this concept. In the story, a black man sees the war as an extension of racism, but is urged by a white man to use the war as a tool to forget hostility in favor of unity. The racial condition of blacks and whites directly affected the ways in which they interpreted the war. Because of his racial condition, the black man is unable to see the war from the white man’s point of vie w. Contemporary critical analysis of If He Hollers Let Him Go has also made the connection between the character’s racial condition and their perspective on the war. The individual characters in the novel are representative of larger groups. Notable writers in African American literature such as Henry Louis Gates have commented on the racism many blacks endured during World War II. In the very beginning of If He Hollers Let Him Go, Himes introduces the protagonist, Bob Jones, as he is waking up. Almost immediately, Jones begins to feel an intense fear creeping up on him. Jones says that he â€Å"began feeling scaredIt came along with consciousness† (2). He explains that he wakes up in this way every day and remarks that this fear â€Å"came into my head first, somewhere back of my closed eyes, moves slowly underneath my skull to the base of my brain, cold and hollow I felt torn all loose inside, shriveled, paralyzed, as if after a while I’d have to get up and die†. (2). The explanation of Jones’ fear helps to emphasize how strong it is. It is not simply an emotion. His fear actually affects him physically, making him feel â€Å"cold and hollow†. Also, by using the words â€Å"shriveled† and â€Å"paralyzed† the Jones makes clear how debilitating his fear is. The cause of his fear is told later in the passage. Jones later reveals that the events of World War II are what contribute to his fears. Jones says that â€Å"Every day now I’d been waking up that way, ever since the war began† (3). This suggests to the reader that it was the onset of World War II that triggered these feelings. While the stress of living in a country at war could possibly be a factor in his fear, Jones explains that a more important factor is the racism that resulted from the outbreak of the war. Jones thinks to himself, â€Å"Maybe I’d been scared all my life, but I didn’t know about it until after Pearl Harbor† (3). When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and waged war on America they sparked an incredible amount of hostility towards the Japanese in America. The reason why this upsets Jones so much is because he compares the prejudice towards the Japanese to the racism towards blacks in America. Being black, Jones experiences this racism first hand. He explains how he has been denie d service in restaurants on the basis of race, and when applying for jobs, he â€Å"kept on getting refused while white boys were hired from the line behind [him]† (3). The character of Jones is representative of a larger group of African Americans. Jones’s feelings in this scene are not unique to just him. Many blacks during this time felt the same way. In an article about military inequality, Henry Louis Gates explains how African Americans viewed World War II. He writes that â€Å"it was difficult for African Americans not to see the hypocrisy between conditions at home and the noble war aims† (pbs.org). Gates makes the same connection between race and the war effort as Jones does in the novel. Because of the overwhelming amount of racism on the home front, many African Americans saw the war as a continuation of that racism. Later in the article, Gates builds upon this idea, commenting on how â€Å"because of the gap between the promise and performance of American freedom when it came to race relations, many black people frankly felt alienated from the war effort† (pbs.org). Further into the passage, Jones states that he became even more aware of his fear when he saw that Japanese were being sent away to internment camps, â€Å"Maybe it wasn’t until I’d seen them send the Japanese away that I’d noticed [the fear]† (3). He considers how unfair this punishment is, saying â€Å"It was taking a man up by the roots and locking him up without a chance. Without a trial. Without a charge. Without even giving him a chance to say one word† (3). Here, Jones is drawing a parallel between the Japanese and African Americans. In America, blacks were denied service or jobs â€Å"without a chance†; without a second thought, and the Japanese in America were being sent away from their homes â€Å"without a chance†. In both instances, groups of people are being punished purely because of their race. The racism towards Japanese makes Jones fear that America could just as easily order African Americans to be put away in internment camps, or inflict some similar treatment upon them. He states that â€Å"It was thinking about if they ever did that to me, Robert Jones, Mrs. Jones’s dark son, that started me to getting scared† (3). With these words, Jones is clearly stating that he feels threatened by the events of World War II. Jones uses the term, â€Å"Mrs. Jones’s dark son† to describe himself, making clear that he believes his racial condition is an important factor in his identity. Every morning, he wakes up with the fear that the extremely racist treatment towards the Japanese could also be inflicted upon him. In fact, Jones believes that he is even likely to receive this treatment because he has a similar skin color as the Japanese as Jones is a lighter skinned African American. He states â€Å"I was the same color as the Japanese and I couldn†™t tell the difference. ‘A yeller-bellied Jap’ coulda meant me too. I could always feel race trouble, serious trouble, never more than two feet off† (4). By saying that he was the â€Å"same color as the Japanese† Jones is explicitly acknowledging his similarity to the Japanese. Not only are they the same color, but he believes that they also face the same treatment in America. This connection is what creates fear for Jones. The racism that Jones encounters daily influences him to see the racism towards the Japanese during the war as indirectly affecting him. In an article which analyses If He Hollers Let Him Go, the author, Lynn M. Itagaki also drew this same conclusion. She explains how in the novel, Jones felt that he could potentially be victimized by the racist acts against the Japanese. Itagaki writes that â€Å"By addressing himself formally as ‘Robet Jones,’ Bob at once resists racism and becomes subject to it, marking himself as a potential victim. In noting his ‘yellow skin’, Bob recognizes the literal similarities of skin color and race that could possibly ally him with the Japanese† (68). It is clear that Jones’ racial condition affects the way he views the events of World War II. The opening passage of If He Hollers Let Him Go demonstrates how the racial issues African Americans dealt with on the home front affected the way they interpreted the war. Because of the war, Japanese Americans were being mistreated on the basis of race which frightened African Americans into believing the racism they endured on the homefront could escalate to the level of racism against the Japanese. Other parts of the novel also show how characters’ racial condition affects their perspective of the war. In Chapter 13, Jones is speaking with a union steward named Herbie, and protesting what he believes is racist treatment he has been receiving at work. Jones asks for the steward to reprimand a white woman who he had an altercation with while working. She made a racial slur towards him, and when he made one towards her, he was demoted. Jones tells Herbie â€Å"I want you to tell her she has to work with Negroes here or lose her job† (113). The conversation becomes heated as Jones continues to voice his frustration over the racism he feels is so prevalent at his job. Herbie retorts, saying â€Å"Thats the trouble with you colored peopleYou forget we’re in a war. This isn’t any time for private gripes. We’re fighting facism-we’re not fighting the companies and we’re not fighting each other-we’re all fighting fascism together and in order to beat fascism we got to have unity† (114). In this instance, Herbie is urging Jones to recogn ize the war as a symbol of patriotic solidarity. He repeatedly uses the term â€Å"we† to refer to America, which suggests that he feels unified by World War II. By saying â€Å"we’re all fighting fascism together† Herbie is stressing his belief that Americans are all invested in the battle against fascism, a common enemy. He asks that Jones forgets his â€Å"private gripes† and consider the larger picture. From his perspective as a white man, Herbie is able to see the war as an example of unification. This view differs from Jones’, who, as mentioned earlier, saw the war as an example of racism in America. However, by referring to Jones’ issue as a â€Å"trouble with you colored people†, Herbie suggests that Jones’ racial complaint hinders the ability of other Americans (the â€Å"we†) to be unified. This suggests that Herbie may not feel unified with African Americans, even when he is trying to inspire unity. Jones responds to Herbie’s comment angrily, shouting â€Å"What the hell do I care about unity, or the war either, for that matter, as long as I’m kicked around by every white person who comes along? Let the white people get some goddamned unity† (115). With this statement, Jones is saying that the racism he encounters is what prevents him from caring about unity. The phrase â€Å"kicked around by every white person who comes along† emphasizes the amount of racism Jones encounters. He feels that in every single interaction he has with a white, he is being â€Å"kicked around†, or racially abused in some way. Because of this, Jones does not have the motivation to â€Å"care about unity, or the war either†. This instance is an example of how Jones’ racial condition affects the way he views the war. He is unable to see the war from Herbie’s perspective, because unity with whites is something he could not possibly imagine. Further into the chapter, Jones considers what the effects would be if African Americans rejected the war by refusing to work in the military or war industries. He says, â€Å"I wondered what would happen if all the Negroes in America would refuse to serve in the armed forces, refuse to work in war production until the Jim Crow pattern was abolished† (116). With this comment, Jones is showing how the racism he is subjected to every day, â€Å"the Jim Crow pattern† affects his perspective of World War II. It prevents him from wanting to support the war. Then, he speculates that â€Å"the white folks would no doubt go right on fighting the war without us. They’d kill us maybe; but they couldn’t kill us all. And if they did they’d have one hell of a job of burying us† (116). Here, Jones is explaining that he feels that white people are indifferent to blacks, and would not care if every African American were to completely abandon the war effort. Again, this shows how Jones’ racial condition influences his attitude towards the war. The racism he feels from whites makes him consider neglecting the war effort altogether. This is another reason why he protests Herbie’s reaction to his complaint. Jones fears that if he loses his position at his job, he could be drafted. As mentioned previously, Jones’ attitude towards the war demonstrates that he does not support it, and to be drafted would be to support a cause he does not believe in. Although African Americans were not the direct enemy of America in World War II, many blacks felt victimized by the events of the war. The novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go, by Chester Himes discusses this idea. In the novel, the protagonist, Bob Jones feels this way. He makes a connection between the mistreatment of the Japanese and the racism he encounters in his daily life. When the Japanese were put in internment camps, Jones began to fear that such extreme racism treatment could also be inflicted upon him. This leads him to view the war in a fearful way. Later in the novel, Jones is confronted by a white man who encourages him to see the war as a reason to unite with his fellow Americans, black and white. However, because of Jones’ racial condition, he could only see the racist aspects of World War II. Modern writers have explained that many other African Americans during the war also felt this way. Even today, many African Americans’s racial condition influences their perception of current events. For example, the riots in Ferguson stemming from the grand jury decision not to charge a white police man who shot and killed a black man are a similar to the events in If He Hollers Let Him Go. Many African Americans feel they are not well represented by the American justice system, and believe that the jury favored the white police man because of his race. Because of the racism many African Americans feel is still prevalent in society, they view the incident as an extension of racism. Others, however believe the case is simply a criminal justice issue, and not one that pertains to race. Wether or not the the decision was fair, the racial condition of onlookers affects their perception of the case in the same way that Jones’ and Herbie’s race affected their view on World War II. Works Cited Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. What Was Black America’s Double War? PBS. PBS, 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. . Himes, Chester B. If He Hollers Let Him Go. New York: Da Capo, 1945. Print. Itagaki, Lynn M. Transgressing Race and Community in Chester Himess If He Hollers Let Him Go African American Review 37.1 (2003): 65-80. JSTOR. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. .

Gre Argument Essay Examples - How to Write the Best Argument Possible

Gre Argument Essay Examples - How to Write the Best Argument PossibleWhen you are trying to compose a one-argument essay you are usually faced with the problem of how to write the best possible argument. This can be difficult because you have to make a convincing argument for your own point of view without sounding like an arguer. Well, this is definitely one of the hardest aspects of writing an argument essay.You need to get your facts right so that you don't sound like an arguer. The best way to prepare for an argument is to learn to read well and use your notes well. You need to use a note card which allows you to note down any interesting ideas you are thinking of. In addition, you need to consider the point that you are making rather than simply go on automatic pilot.The most important part is to take notes for each argument, particularly if you are going for an argument that will be put to a vote. However, make sure that you do not write down ideas about your own personal persp ective. Writing such words will appear as if you are asking your own opinion rather than a fact based one.So, when writing about yourself, it would be better to make it a personal story. You can talk about your own family, your friends, your work, your family or anything else that could fit in. When it comes to personal stories, it is important to start from where you are in the argument. This will allow you to end where you would like to be in the argument rather than leaving it where you started.Arguments can come across as flimsy. It is up to you to make them a compelling argument. This will require you to write well and remember to stay focused on the topic at hand.Writing good arguments requires more than just writing. You also need to stay focused on the thesis of the argument and the points you want to make.Good writing will keep your readers interested and follow your arguments. Hopefully, you will get some good practice out of it.

Essay about Euthanasia - 1510 Words

Introduction Euthanasia continues to be a subject of ethical debate. It is defined as the administration of lethal drugs by someone other than the person concerned with the explicit intention of ending a patient’s life, at the latter’s explicit request (Quaghebeur, de Casterle, Gastmans, 2009). An unprecedented number of people in the United States today live well into their late adult years. Improved medical and public health practices, increasing life expectancies, and the â€Å"graying† of the baby boom generation have all contributed to this phenomenon (Moulton, Hill, Burdette, 2006). Euthanasia has been and always will be a topic of debate in the United States because Americans are living longer. Oregon, Washington, and Montana†¦show more content†¦Research Question and Thesis The purpose of this research is to examine euthanasia. The physician behind such a controversial topic and the variety of religious beliefs compared. In my opinion I believe someone’s life is in God’s hands. I’m not so sure how I would feel if I was approached by a loved one who was suffering with a terminal disease and I was asked to assist in ending their life. Key Terms Euthanasia is the intentional administration of lethal drugs in order to terminate painlessly the life of a patient suffering from an incurable condition deemed unbearable. Voluntary euthanasia is the intentional administration of lethal drugs in order to terminate painlessly the life of a patient suffering from an incurable condition deemed unbearable by the patient, at the patient’s request. Non-voluntary euthanasia is the intentional administration of lethal drugs in order to terminate painlessly the life of a patient suffering from an incurable condition deemed unbearable, not at this patient’s request. Physician assisted suicide is a physician intentionally assisting a patient, at this patient’s request, to terminate his or her life. Dr. Jack Kevorkian Dr. Jack Kevorkian is an Armenian-American pathologist who served in the Army in the Korean War. He was also known as Doctor Death. Dr. Kevorkian once stated â€Å"My aim in helping the patient was not to cause death. My aim was to end suffering. It’s got to be decriminalized.† Dr.Show MoreRelatedEuthanasia Essay : Euthanasia And Euthanasia863 Words   |  4 PagesThis is why Euthanasia is important and summarizing the research that I found on Euthanasia. Euthanasia is important because there is a lot of arguments about Euthanasia. Some people support it and some people do not support Euthanasia (Euthanasia and assisted suicide- Arguments). Euthanasia allows people to be free from physical pain. It is the hastening of death of a patient to prevent further sufferings (Euthanasia Revisited). The religious argument states God chooses when human life ends. 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In particular, in association with its impending legislation within Australian states. (The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists,2012) Various types of euthanasia are recognised,Read MoreEuthanasia Essay : Euthanasia And Euthanasia Essay1223 Words   |  5 Pages Euthanasia James Dudley Euthanasia continues to be an ongoing issue in modern society. Over the course of history, there has been a multitude of debates that have tried to justify assisted suicide, or euthanasia. Gallup’s study in 2013 openly shows this statistic by showing that over 75 percent of Americans trust that euthanasia should be acceptable. However, what Americans don’t comprehend is that making any form of euthanasia legal infringes upon the right to life as stated in the constitutionRead MoreThe Issue Of Euthanasia And Euthanasia2073 Words   |  9 Pageslife is beyond toleration or they feel as though there is no point to living, the issue of euthanasia often arises. Euthanasia is technically defined as â€Å"the act or practice of killing someone who is very sick or injured in order to prevent any more suffering†. In america people have the right to end their life. The topic of euthanasia is one that is highly disputed among people over the world.† Euthanasia means killing someone who is very sick to prevent more suffering† (Weaver 1). An example ofRead MoreEuthanasi Euthanasia And Euthanasia1515 Words   |  7 Pagesetymology of the word ‘euthanasia’ originates from the Greek language which has a literal meaning of â€Å"good death†. Other names for euthanasia are ‘assisted suicide’ and ‘mercy killing’. Euthanasia is done when the person is suffering from a terminal illness such as cancer, and then steps are taken to end the person’s life so that they no longer have to suffer. [Helga Kuhse. July 1992. Bioethics News. The World Federation of Right to Die Societies. http://www.worldrtd.net/euthanasia-fact-sheet. AccessedRead MoreEuthanasia And The Death Of Euthanasia1351 Words   |  6 Pagesfor the dying who request euthanasia to be able to end their suffering. Euthanasia is con sidered a â€Å"gentle and easy death† because it comes from the Greek words, Eu meaning good and Thanatosis meaning death. Euthanasia is illegal in most of the United States. However, assisted suicide, is legal in six different states. The states that assisted suicide is legal in are California, Oregon, Colorado, Washington DC, Vermont and Washington. The key difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide is whoRead MoreEuthanasia Essay : The Euthanasia989 Words   |  4 Pagesthe euthanasia process and what to expect. The euthanasia can take place in the privacy of your own home or you may choose to have it done at your veterinarian’s office. Your veterinarian may offer at home euthanasia or you may be able to locate a veterinary service that does at home euthanasia such as Home To Heaven. This is a personal choice and should be made with you and your pet’s comfort in mind. Additionally, you may want to decide if you wish to be present during the eu thanasia. SomeRead MoreEuthanasi Euthanasia And Euthanasia861 Words   |  4 PagesEuthanasia, the practice of medically terminating life in order to relieve pain and suffering of a patient, has been a complex and controversial topic since its conception. In ancient Greece and Rome attitudes toward active euthanasia, and suicide had tended to be tolerant. However, the rise of the Christian faith reinforced the views of the Hippocratic Oath, a swearing of ethical conduct historically taken by physicians. This shift concluded a medical consensus in opposition of euthanasia. IssuesRead MoreThe Debate About Euthanasia And Euthanasia1631 Words   |  7 PagesThe debates about euthanasia date all the way back to the 12th century. During this time, Christian values increased the public’s opinion against euthanasia. The church taught its followers that euthanasia not only injured individual people and their communities, but also violated God’s authority over life. This idea spread far and wide throughout the public until the 18th century when the renaissance and reformation writers attacked the church and its teachings. However, the public did not pay much

Spatial Interaction in Supply and Demand

Spatial interaction is the flow of products, people, services, or information among places, in response to localized supply and demand. It is a transportation supply and demand relationship that is often expressed over a geographical space. Spatial interactions usually include a variety of movements such as travel, migration, transmission of information, journeys to work or shopping, retailing activities, or freight distribution. Edward Ullman, perhaps the leading transportation geographer of the twentieth century, more formally addressed interaction as complementarity (a deficit of a good or product in one place and a ​surplus in another), transferability (possibility of transport of the good or product at a cost that the market will bear), and lack of intervening opportunities (where a similar good or product that is not available at a closer distance). Complementarity The first factor necessary for interaction to take place is complementarity. In order for the trade to take place, there has to be a surplus of the desired product in one area and a shortage of demand for that same product in another area. The greater the distance, between trip origin and trip destination, the less likelihood of a trip occurring and the lower the frequency of trips. An example of complementarity would be that you live in San Francisco, California and want to go to Disneyland for a vacation, which is located in Anaheim near Los Angeles, California. In this example, the product is Disneyland, a destination theme park, where San Francisco has two regional theme parks, but no destination theme park. Transferability The second factor necessary for interaction to take place is transferability. In some cases, it is simply not feasible to transport certain goods (or people) a great distance because the transportation costs are too high in comparison to the price of the product. In all other cases where the transportation costs are not out of line with price, we say that the product is transferable or that transferability exists. Using our Disneyland trip example, we need to know how many people are going, and the amount of time we have to do the trip (both travel time and time at the destination). If only one person is traveling to Disneyland and they need to travel in the same day, then flying may be the most realistic option of transferability at approximately $250 round-trip; however, it is the most expensive option on a per person basis. If a small number of people are traveling, and three days are available for the trip (two days for travel and one day at the park), then driving down in a personal car, a rental car or taking the train may be a realistic option. A car rental would be approximately $100 for a three-day rental (with for to six people in the car) not including fuel, or approximately $120 round-trip per person taking the train (i.e., either Amtraks Coast Starlight or the San Joaquin routes). If one is traveling with a large group of people (assuming 50 people or so), then it may make sense to charter a bus, which would cost approximately $2,500 or about $50 per person. As one can see, transferability can be accomplished by one of several different modes of transportation depending on the number of people, distance, the average cost to transport each person, and the time available for travel. Lack of Intervening Opportunities The third factor necessary for interaction to take place in the absence or lack of intervening opportunities. There may be a situation where complementarity exists between an area with a high demand for a product and several areas with a supply of that same product in excess of local demand. In this particular case, the first area would be unlikely to trade with all three suppliers, but would instead trade with the supplier that was closest or least costly. In our example of the trip to Disneyland, Is there any other destination theme park identical to Disneyland, providing an intervening opportunity between San Francisco and Los Angeles? The obvious answer would be no. However, if the question was, Is there any other regional theme park between San Francisco and Los Angeles that could be a potential intervening opportunity, then the answer would be yes, since Great America (Santa Clara, California), Magic Mountain (Santa Clarita, California), and Knotts Berry Farm (Buena Park, California) are all regional theme parks located between San Francisco and Anaheim. As you can see from this example, there are numerous factors that could affect complementarity, transferability, and lack of intervening opportunities. There are many other examples of these concepts in our daily lives, when it comes to planning your next vacation, watching the freight trains roll through your town or neighborhood, seeing the trucks on the highway, or when you ship a package overseas.

Agent Based Models ( Abm ) - 2005 Words

Agents Based Models (ABM) - Introduction to ABM A model is a representation of a real system and thus, it is an abstraction of the reality 4. â€Å"The word â€Å"modeling† comes from the Latin word modellus which describes a typical human way of coping with the reality† (Schichl, n.d.). Models can take various forms such as mathematical equation, drawing, computer code, etc. However, there is a common purpose of all designed models, which is to simplify the complexity presented in the real system or problem. Therefore, models usually contain only the main aspects of the real system (not all details). Macal and North (2006) believe that ‘‘There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the term ‘agent’, although definitions tend to agree on more points than they disagree’’. It seems very complicated to extract agent characteristics from the literature in a consistent and constant perspective, because they are utilised in different ways (Bonabeau 2002). Agent-based modelling (ABM) is able to simulate the individual activities by measuring their behaviour and results over time for developing models of cities (Crooks 2006). Agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) is a new approach to modeling systems comprised of autonomous, interacting agents. Agent-based modeling is a new analytical method for the social sciences, but one that is quickly becoming popular. ABMS promises to have far-reaching effects on the way that businesses use computers to support decision-making andShow MoreRelatedAgent Based Models ( Abm )2001 Words   |  9 PagesAgents Based Models (ABM) A model is a representation of a real system and thus, it is an abstraction of the reality 4. â€Å"The word â€Å"modeling† comes from the Latin word modellus which describes a typical human way of coping with the reality† (Schichl, n.d.). 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We focus on H u b N e t [5], a technological infrastructure for facilitating participatory simulations [6], run these activities with participants, and discuss learning experiences afforded by these activities. INTRODUCTION NetLogo [3] is a multi-agent programmingRead MoreManagement Accounting3474 Words   |  14 Pages |1,040.00 |520 x  £2.00 |1,040.00 | | | | | | | |Stripping agent |320 x  £4.50 |1,440.00 |320 x  £4.00 |1,280.00 | | | | | |

The Significance of Dreams and Dreaming in A Midsummer...

The Significance of Dreams and Dreaming in A Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare In Pucks final speech of the play he says: â€Å"And this weak and idle theme No more yielding than a dream† It has been argued that Shakespeare structured the play around the notion of a dream. Explore the significance of dreams and dreaming in the play, both as a theme and dramatic device. There are several definitions of a dream, although no one can really define a dream, it is what we make it. The first theory is that it is a mixture of images, accumulated from your thoughts or experiences, that happen whilst you are asleep. It could also be a fantasy you experience whilst your semi-conscious†¦show more content†¦Shakespeare used the play and Pucks final speech to dismiss the horrible image of fairies, and for them to be seen as helpful, beautiful creatures with wings which we now imagine today. They may have expected the themes of arranged marriages or power over women as this went on a lot in the 16th century and although these themes do shine through in the play, love reigns overall, â€Å"So shall all the couples three, Ever true in loving be† said by Oberon at the end, meaning the three couples shall love each other for ever even if things stand in their way. The settings in the play are very appropriate for exploring dreams as there are contrasts between the real world and the dream world. The city of Athens being the real world shows order, rigid ness, control and man made things whereas the woods, being just outside the city of Athens is very different. It shows no authority, darkness, mystery because you never know what lurks in the woods, and is a completely natural habitat, just the place you would dream of fairies living. Its very ironic that these two completely different settings are side by side and yet the humans know nothing of what lives in woods but the fairies know of the humans. It relates to dreaming as when you dream, you escaped the control of the real world, just like theShow MoreRelatedA Midsummer Night s Dream By William Shakespeare1751 Words   |  8 Pages What types of dream really impress you in your life? Would that be funny dreams, weird dreams, scary dreams, risque dreams, dramatic dreams, lif e-changing dreams, and even lucid dream stories. As a matter of fact, people’s dreams can be a kind of illusion because dreams skew their daily life into confusion—people cannot recognize reality and unreality easily. Similarly, love not only is imaginative, but also can make people get confused just like dream. The comedic

History of Rock and Roll free essay sample

Course Books and Resources: Required Katherine Charleston- Rock Music Styles, A History (sixth edition, but fifth edition is k) Course Requirements: You will be expected to do all readings for each week, and watch the videos hat are inbred in the lecture. The readings will always have a lecture section, and a reading from the textbook. Weekly tests will draw from both sources. I have a monitor to check if you have watched the videos, so be sure to do all listening, and absorb the music you are hearing. The entire point of this class is hear and the sounds and understand their historical and cultural context. Grading Grading will be based on: I Weekly Test Questions from that weeks readings I Midterm paper (Due in week six) See below I I Final examination 1 concert review (Due the last week of class) To pass this class you must complete all assigned items. We may still listen to the radio stations, dance and sing along to the old favorites or the new hits, but when we gather in serious intellectual or political forums, to share our views on the great issues and ideas of the day, we leave rock n OLL behind, back in the closet where old baseball gloves and Barbie dolls gather dust.Especially for the Baby Boom generation, which grew up on rock n roll, and certainly took It seriously in youth, this desertion, or embarrassment, or hesitation, or whatever it is, casts a sad pall over approaching middle age: sure, in our youth we believed in all those great ideals, but that was when we were young and carefree; now weve got responsibilities, and well, its just not so simple as all that.In defiance of this trend, and in view of the apparent retreats from idealism that have permeated the sat decade or two, this book celebrates rock n roll as a legitimate art form, and more, as a strong current In American and world culture, which contains a cen tral and coherent Ideology, as viable as any other Ideology competing for primacy on the world intellectual stage. I present these themes as justification, and excuse, for examining rock n roll music, history, personalities, and ideas from the standpoint of the unifying ideas and trends that have remained with rock from the beginning. Rock n roll can be described in such cohesive terms only if it is more than Just a popular consumer entertainment medium: It must be a self-contained movement, which adherents choose to Join, and by so choosing accept Its terms. In turn, rock n roll can only be a movement if all of its widely disparate strains and offshoots are in some way connected to a common, unifying origin.This is in fact true; every rock musician today, from Alabama to Australia, from Sinad OConnor to Axle Rose, can trace his or her roots directly to a single moment in history, the springboard of all rock music and culture, the explosive events of the mid-sass that first introduced he Idea of rock n roll to the world. It is the themes and artistic styles of that very special, very brief time, that spawned the movement, and that subsequent artists, from Dylan and the Beetles through Midnight Oil and Public Enemy, have merely refined and redefined.The sass were comparatively safe and innocent, and rock n roll est ablished a foundation for the ideals that youth could pursue in such an environment. When issues of race relations, war, sexuality, drugs, ecology, and world hunger arose in later years, rock n roll was forced, like every other ideology, to eared on and reveling in rock n roll as a lifestyle only heightens the significance of their common response, as expressed in and through the music.What we of the rock generations lack, then, is not a belief system, or a serious foundation for political, social, and creative expression, but simply a willingness to accept that what we have is good enough. Believers in Socialism or Conservatism or Buddhism have no more coherent, sophisticated, or relevant conceptual system of how humans should interact, should respond to common problems and needs, and should understand their place in the universe. Its Just that there are a lot more solemn, tedious books written about those ideologies, and their promoters dont typically gross $1 5-million on a world tour.So this book tries to be slightly more of the solemn variety, although not tedious, and certainly entertaining, in the tradition of the genre, despite its serious intent. It traces the sources of rock n rolls meaning, the paths which that meaning has taken over time and the performers and events that have shaped it, and how rock n roll has confronted the many and potent challenges that have faced its millions of followers throughout the past four decades. In attempting to paint this unified portrait, I have been responding to a perceived need, a need that is within myself as much as in any other rock n roll fan.When listening to countless heartfelt rock anthems, ballads, protests, and love songs, I have shared the feeling of purpose and hope contained therein. Then, when looking at the outside world, I have witnessed the frustration, hypocrisy, and despair that so regularly dominate headlines and events, and it always seems that rock n roll is very distant from these sad realities. The politicians and power centersthe Establishmentare almost always so UN-hip, so far removed from the simple, sincere sentiments of the music.If we listen to the cynics, then this is because rock n roll is kid stuff, and has no place at negotiating tables or decision makers desks. I prefer not to accept that view, to remain defiantly naively idealist. I prefer to assert that not only is rock n roll ideology real and viable, but that maybe its time has come. In this vein, Changing the World: Rock n Roll Culture and Ideology proceeds roughly along historical lines, discussing the evolution of the music and the culture, pausing each time it encounters an issue with which rock n roll has been especially concerned.It leads toward a coherent, albeit dynamic, conception of the cultures ideology, and of its meaning for those of us who, in our way, believe in rock n roll. All you really need to know about the origins of rock n roll is that it started with slavery. The history books can give you the details; whats important is that rock n roll can be traced in a direct line to an utterly unnatural phenomenon: the forced uprooting of tens of thousands of Africans from their native lands and cultures, and their reincorporation to a new world as different from what they had known as black is different from white.Add in the fact that families were split apart, slaves from different tribes were thrown together on the same plantations, and, of course, these reluctant visitors were chained, whipped, imprisoned, and compelled to perform excruciating hard labor for barely subsistence nourishment. Keep in mind that these conditions continued, on this continent, for well over a century, until less than 150 I realize that this is hardly news, but sometimes it seems that white years ago.Americans have forgotten, or want to forget, that slavery ever existed, let alone so Think of the condition that European culture had achieved by the mid-sass: the emergenc e of Impressionist art; the great novels of Hugo, Flutter, Tolstoy, and Dickens; the intellectual enlightenment of De Touchline and Descartes; the revolutionary ferment of Marx. Any average liberal arts student encounters most of these great cultural developments to some degree: the core of modern Western civilization was formulating overseas.Meanwhile, Americans still thrashed fellow humans into pitiful servitude, and treated them legally as no more than personal repertory. This unavoidable element of our nations history is ignored over and over by ideological chauvinists who oppose Affirmative Action and civil rights legislation, who decry reverse discrimination and claim it is unfair to try to force integration or to ameliorate African Americans disadvantages at the expense of innocent European Americans. That anyone could find in the predominance of poverty within black communities in America anything but the continuing legacy of human bondage is unfathomable, and truly frightening. The only conceivable explanation is that some people keep forgetting about slavery. Why the hell are so many blacks stuck in hopeless ghetto lives, resorting to drugs, crime, and violence to fill the void of their existence?Because their great great great grandfathers were slaves; their great great grandfathers were illiterate, disenfranchised sharecroppers; their great grandfathers were dirt poor farmers or laborers who moved to Northern cities when the Depression wiped out what meager opportunities remained in the South; their grandfathers were equally poor children of the first ghettos, Jobless and uneducated, with no hope for escape; and their fathers found scarcely better chances despite the rookeries of the post-War years, the hope of the civil rights movement, and the slowly emerging sense of unity among African Americans as a race.Many of todays young blacks, of course, cannot look back through a lineage of fathers, grandfathers, and so on, because so many fathers, themselves often little more than children, disappeared before or soon after their progeny were born. Such is the cycle of deprivation where hope is unknown. Public policy and individual determination have only dented this tragic legacy; for the majority of African Americans today, slaverys evil scars remain open.Yet the white establishment forgets about slavery, forgets about blacks, really. A Roots comes along and poignantly revives the suppressed collective memory for a while, but amnesia soon returns. When a Jesse Jackson persists in underlining the injustice between the races, white America is concerned, or bemused, or insulted, but only occasionally inspired, the way they should be, the way otherwise despairing blacks are inspired. Other countries have endured slavery and pay the price in their own way.In America, slavery was more dominant, more integral to the nations economic and social fabric than anywhere else, and in the most wealthy and advanced country on earth, slaverys price is the highest of all and the bill has not been paid in full. To understand rock n roll, therefore, we must understand what slavery was, and where it left the sons and daughters of Africans who knew nothing of the European roots of American culture. For slavery provides the perfect rationale, the perfect explanation for why rock n roll should stand apart from other musical forms, as a cultural revolution unto itself.Every society, after all, has its indigenous music, which serves as entertainment, history. Rock n roll, certainly, is modern American folk music in these respects, successor to Stephen Foster and Cole Porter. But that is only a minor facet of rock n rolls place in American, indeed in world society since 1955, and the larger elements of rocks influence reach far beyond the traditional cultural adhesive status of other folk musics.To solidify this claim, and to explain it, we can point directly to slavery, which forcibly mixed the radically different elements of two cultures in a boiling cauldron, bringing to white, rural, agrarian America a series of rhythmic and vocal radiation that originated on the other side of the planet in Africa, and adding an important spiritual, melancholy, almost fatalistic sensibility that grew up by itself in the slaves imprisoned souls.This last ingredient is crucial: they didnt sing the Blues back in Africa. Rock n roll is an African-American hybrid, but its strongest root is the very suffering, and survival, of generations of slaves, who lea rned how music could help a man to transcend earthly pain for a while. The Blues sings of sadness, toil, and loss, but the reason for singing the Blues is to relieve the hurt these things cause.The Blues, with its simple, repetitive rhythms and chords and lyrical phrases, provides a comforting communal message that musician and audience can share, as long as they know where the singer is coming from. Its no wonder that Blues singers were so popular during the Depression, especially in the South, between both black and white audiences. Its also easy to understand the strong bonds between the Blues and Gospel music: from a secular point of view, singing about the Lord lifting you up and singing about the Blues falling down like rain are spiritually equivalent acts.So while the musical innovations brought to America by the Africans involved rhythm primarily, along with new variations on the use of the human voice for both melody and rhythm, their more fundamental contribution to the legacy that was to spawn rock n roll was the use of the music itself for emotional, spiritual purposes. The rhythms especially, of course, figured prominently in this application, because the drudgery of repetitious work picking endless bales of cotton, chopping wood, etc. Loud be relieved somewhat by a superimposed musical rhythm. In this way the function and form of the music reinforced themselves. Wh en the Blues evolved into a more general style in the decades following emancipation, the repetitious element remained intact, partly because it made the music easy to learn for folks who had no access to refined teaching or expensive instruments. The spiritual function also remained, but evolved, as the oppression of the slaves transformed into mere deprivation, hopelessness grew into mere purposelessness.But it is not nearly sufficient to identify black musical heritage from slave work songs through Ragtime, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, R, and the like, and simply extrapolate the line further to encompass Rock n Roll. Rock n rolls starts from these foundations, but it adds more, and what it principally adds is white America, both in the music and in the audience. White America slowly discovered the endearing, inspiring musical heritage that had become central to African Americans lives, and, establishing a tradition that is practiced to this day, began to imitate and adapt black music.Thus the hybrid forms arrived; at one time or another, rock n roll has incorporated Country and Western, Swing, Classical, Big Band, Folk, and even Tin Pan Alley musical elements, Just as it has incorporated Blues, RB, and the other inherently black m usic, although clearly without the presence of African slaves and their descendants there would have been no rock n roll to speak of. Its harder to say that without whites there wouldnt have been rock n roll, partly because its hard to imagine what that would mean in practiceAmerican Apartheid, perhaps: no opportunity for or attempts at cultural integration.But since white America was where all the wealth and power lay, there was never any question that the natural economic evolution of black musicor other arts, or business, or politicswould be toward gaining white favor, if only to share in the pie. White America, on the other hand, must have taken to black music solely because it was enjoyable, since there was no pecuniary incentive in the pre-civil rights era to embrace the relatively isolated, unknown African American culture.In any event, the two groups met and formed the first and strongest cross-cultural art form in America. Rock n roll belongs to that heritage only: the meeting of peoples. In America, such a meeting on practical physical terms was unique after the Civil War, although the history of international immigration and assimilation in the New World forms something of a recent for the learning of alien traditions in this country that is probably unheard of anywhere else. To my knowledge, no other country publicly acknowledges SST.Patriots Day, the Chinese New Year, Marci Grass, Halloween, SST. Valentines Day, all the Jewish religious holidays, and the full spectrum of Christian holidays to anything approaching the degree that the United States does. More than a token recognition of international coexistence, however, rock n roll has become a culture unto itself. It is in fact one of the few uniquely identifiable elements of what can be described as American culture: something that does not exist anywhere else in the world except as derived from its American roots.Some other such elements might include our preoccupation with television, professional team sports, and automobiles, and perhaps our capitalist industrial imperative High Techwhatever that means, presumably industrial applications of post-World War II scientific research, especially in semiconductors and in the physical and biological sciencesmay also be a part of American culture, but it is moving and changing so fast across the globe that it is perhaps one of the first features of World culture.If so, it might compete with post-sass rock n roll for that honor, since rock has long since moved well across almost all national boundaries. Lest we forget, it is worth cont emplating briefly the other significant historical events between the emancipation of the slaves and the birth of this intercultural infant in the mid-sass. A couple stands out: World Wars II and l. The first was important, in this context, mostly for indirect reasons, I. . , it set the stage for the second. The time period and circumstances of World War I also brought about rapid developments in the technology of radio communication, hose commercial application starting in the sass lay the single most vital industrial foundation for rock n rolls eventual emergence. Quite simply, prior to radio, there was almost no means of hearing music without being present at its live performance.The occasional exception was for the fortunate few owners of phonographs, and the fortunate fewer among musicians who had their music recorded. Of course, radio and recording technology have been cohabitation since the earliest amateur broadcasters spun classical discs into makeshift transmitters and recorded music predates the twentieth century, but only with the advent of radio id records obtain the vehicle to become a truly mass medium.Perhaps the oldest truism in what has come to be called the Recording Industry is that people wont buy a record unless theyve heard it first Radio created a means for people to sample records, and thus the opportunity for record sales to produce significant profits significant enough by the middle of the century to make millionaires out of a few recording artists, and to create an incentive for countless small time entrepreneurs to get into the business of finding, developing, and marketing such artists on their own independent record labels. That radio is the spinal chord in this industrys nervous system is fairly obvious today; what is worth remembering is how relatively new radio is to the history of music. Its dramatic rise as an entertainment medium in the late sass, and dominance of American culture in the subsequent two decades before televisions ascension, directly and crucially paralleled the transformations and cross-pollination of musical styles that finally became rock n roll.In a way, although most nostalgic memories of the Golden Days of radio focus on proto- television-type dramas, comedies, news flashes, and advertisements, radios most enduring legacy may be this musical metamorphosis that began with the inception of radio technology and reached maturity Just as radio was giving way to television in Americas living rooms.Indeed, even radios relative fall from prominence as a multi- faceted, universal entertainment source may have spurred rock n rolls success, because with television taking over all the ser ial and variety programs, there was a lot of spare air time needing to be filled, and recorded music was the ideal, inexpensive choice. During radios heyday, however, music was only one of a potpourri of elections available along the dialbut it was this very diversity of programming that allowed music itself to evolve.Never before had it been possible for different racial and regional populations to encounter each others native musical styles without actually venturing out to a live performance, which in the case of the Blues might have meant an impromptu backyard boogie session, or Just as likely a spirited gathering behind state prison walls; or in the case of white country music, a hoedown on the farm. In either event, white and black music lovers would not have felt articulacy comfortable in the others environment. With radios non- discriminatory access to transmissions from anywhere within the vicinitywhich on a clear night can amount to hundreds of miles in any directionwidely diverse groups could meet and learn about each other without having to travel, or to hang out where they were drastically out of place. It was even possible to encounter appealing, unfamiliar music somewhere along the dial and not realize how relatively alien was its source.That is, it was no secret that certain stations or programs played primarily lack or race music, and more often than not vocal distinctions alone would reveal a singers ethnicity, but to notice those distinctions one had to be reasonably aware of the other group in the first place, and furthermore one had to be thinking in terms of racial differences, rather than music for its own sake. For many listeners, it was enough to discover something different and exciting on the radio; they could enjoy it without worrying about its larger social significance .And when the audience consisted of musicians themselvespeople who were interested in developing their tit the inspiration afforded by a new sound. Imagine how that odd beat, or use of guitar or horns, or that funny lyrical twist or uplifting voice, crackling across the evening airwaves, must have sounded to the musical entrepreneurs of the sass and sass. Imagine how hearing Blues greats like Bessie Smith and Robert Johnson for the first time affected fledgling composers struggling to adapt their songs to contemporary tastes. Even the Jazz giants of the eraLouis Armstrong, Count Babies, Duke Longtime, and the restextended their influence through radio play and record ales, as well as through movies and sheet music distribution, to reach distant audiences that would have been inaccessible otherwise, and their consequent effect upon the growth of such hybrid forms as Western Swing and urban Jump Blues was considerable.Still, the bulk of this musical experimentation was taking place far from the awareness of the general public, at what might be thought of as the cutting edge of U. S. Cultural development. Most Americans were little concerned with music at all, as the country struggled to withstand the ravages of the Depression, and hurtled once again toward War overseas. What music they did attend to consist mostly of Hollywood and Broadway show tunes, big band numbers, and the crooning of such emerging stars as Being Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and the Andrews Sisters.Music itself, although always important, was simply not as central an element of average Americans daily lives as it has been for those of us who grew up in the Rock Era. There were, of course, neither stereos nor any equipment capable of reproducing music at a quality level remotely approaching live or in-studio sound. Most rock fans, I would guess, would soon tire of the music if the best sound systems they had available were equivalent to sass vintage monaural phonographs, or even the best radios of the time.In such an environment, a catchy tune and sing-along lyrics were about the best one could expect to hold a wide audiences interest; its doubtful that a fuzz-box and Hendrix-style feedback would have made much of an impression. Owning a large record collection, which today is as common as filling a few bookshelves with paperbacks, was for seriously devoted fans only, usually Classical or Jazz aficionados. Life in the sass and sass Just involved other sets of tastes, interests, and priorities for the majority of the population.And as of December 7, 1941, the principal preoccupation of virtually the entire population became the War. Now heres ano ther topic that a lot of us dont keep in perspective, I think. The War. The entire rock n roll era, the entire rock generation, has been a post-War phenomenon, which means that nearly all of us, almost everyone involved with and interested in rock, did not experience and does not remember the War. As the years go by, the percentage of the U. S. Population answering to that description grows larger and larger; weve long since been a majority. As a post-War child myself, by bout 14 years, I can no better speak from personal knowledge of that period than I can of slavery or the Depression, but I sensein my parents and grandparents, in the older generation of politicians, businessperson, retirees, and veterans, in the recollections of books, films photographs, headlinessomething of the meaning of the War for those who lived through it.Or perhaps more accurately, I sense the absence of that meaning for those of us who did not know the War. For America, World War II lasted only 3 years and 8 months: not long from the point of view of adulthood soon become blurred as we grow and change and encounter perpetual newness through life. Change, in fact, is so constant for us these days that the mid-sass, say, 1974 through 1978, seem ancient and largely irrelevant to todays world.For those who lived through the War, however, I believe it was different. For two or three entire generations of Americansschool children, young adults, older citizens, all of the 100 million or so people living and aware in this country during the years 1941 through 1945the War became the most significant, indelible memory of their lives, coloring and shaping and controlling their every thought and perception of the world for all the decades that followed.This is to say nothing in particular of those who actually fought in the War, and came home injured or heroic or not at all; nor do I refer at the moment to Europeans and their front yard view of th e War, nor even to the refugees who fled here from destruction and genocideall these were naturally changed forever by World War II: they were among its victims.Im pointing rather to the vast group of Americans who had no direct personal involvement with the Hell-on-Earth occurring overseas, who simply stayed home and did their part, sending off sons and husbands and brothers to fight, buying war nods, writing letters, running air raid drills, watching newsreels, and hoping that the boys would come home safely. This was by far the majority of Americans: the spectators to the War, the audience. They had no idea, Just as those of us who never went near Vietnam have no idea, what the war was really like, in the trenches, the camps, the airplanes and ships. But because they were the audience, and because the show was so absolutely all encompassing, they too were profoundly affected by it, forever. Four years may be short to present memories, but imagine watching a movie that lasts for four years.A movie that is excruciatingly tense, with thousands of subplots, spectacular heroes and heroines, hideous villains, constant gut-wrenching plot twists, tremendous poignancy, anguish, excitement, fear, and whose ending cataclysmic and Joyous, horrifying and exultantis uncertain until the very last hours. You go to bed with the latest developments on your mind; you wake up to learn what has happened while you slept, while the four-year movie played continuously.And you have no choice but to watch it, to follow the story, because it is on every screen, covered on the front pages of every newspaper, every day, bulletins flashing from very radio, and everyone around you is watching at the same time. For four years. Now try to imagine, more than all of this, that its no movie, its real life, out there, somewhere: its colossal evil and immeasurable fear, untold sacrifice and suffering, superhuman heroism, pain and death, glory and triumph, every day, unrelenting, overwhelming.You may not experience any of it yourself, but you are acutely aware at every breathing moment that it is happening, that its outcome is supremely important to your future, the worlds future, theres little you can do to help but you re compelled to Join in with everyone else and try, and even when those occasional moments arrive when some nearby distraction takes your attention away, you only feel all the more inside how insignificant is everything in your life in comparison with whats happening over there, in the War.Try to imagine it, and realize that you cannot possibly begin to imagine it, but know that for tens of millions of Americans, your parents and grandparents, it happened. Dont think for a nanosecond that hasnt been a World War Ill: the Koreans and Vietnamese and Iraqis are but a blip on the screen by any standard of comparison. The bottom line on World War II is that modern American history began when it ended; World War II was the Genesis, the Big Bang, that set in motion all that has occurred in the subsequent decades; nothing since that time is unrelated to the War.So its all very good to talk about historical trends in American music from a detached perspective: Blues, Jazz, Swing, Tin Pan Alley, Rhythm and Blues, Country, Rock n Roll .. . And, Oh yeah, those patriotic songs during the War era. But the truth is that life stopped, evolution ceased, and music was swallowed along with the rest of America by the War, and what it spit out afterward was not simply a continuation of what had already been going on before, but a new, different, clean slate: post-War music, or a post-War stage on which to strike up a brand new band.Because the War generations, you see, were destined to live with the War, and all of its trappings, permanently thereafter. The image of the War would remain vivid in infinite glorifying films, shows, stories, fiction and truth. The music of the era would continue too, in Sinatra and Glen Miller tunes, in Duke Longtime and Ella Fitzgerald, in all the stars and sounds that rose to reminisce in that time, and whose entertaining provided bittersweet respite from the anxiety and intensity.For the War generation, new music, invented afterward, could serve no purpose, perhaps because there was no purpose left to serve. With War over, there was less reason for these veterans to become passionate, to look for escapes or inspirations; placid, repetitive entertainment, basking in the mellow glow of victory over despair, might be enough. Rock n roll fans and critics tend to deride Tin Pan Alley crooners for their slow, syrupy love songs, with no beat and sleepy tiring arrangements, but Im not sure we always understand where that audience of Music of Your Life listeners is coming from.Why would they need upbeat, loud, exciting, fast music like rock n roll? They had World War II, enough excitement to last a lifetime, thank you. If we begin to understand that perspective, then we can find some insight into how rock n roll did appeal to the post-War generation. By 1954, anyone who was a teenager was personally unacquainted with World War II; even a 19 year-old had only been ten when it ended, and the younger teens had been infants while the War raged.By the mid-sass, the Baby Boomkids born in droves to ret urning soldiers and their wives, and to the generally Jubilant and prosperous population of post-War Americawas starting to grow up, and to listen to rock n roll. This vast new chunk of humanity between our shores could not possibly share the feelings and memories of their parents, could not know what the War had meant, and how profoundly it had influenced the older generations. They could not, in truth, share their parents complacency with the post-War world, peaceful and prosperous and entertaining as it was in contrast to what came before.If anything, it was the absence of any great challenge, whether war, depression, industrialization, or political change that spawned the celebrated restlessness of young Americans in the sass. The symbol of the generation, James Deans Rebel Without a Cause, testified to the itching need of teenagers to discover some purpose in their lives. Whereas a decade before, every moment of every day had brought vitally important developments and concerns that affected the entire country, mid-sass daily life was, conflict and the Cold War were disturbing, but remote and ultimately meaningless to ids.The situation was a little different for young African Americans, however. Their restlessness did find an outlet, a purpose, in their own hometowns: the cause of Justice and dignity. Perhapsand this is only a guessthe presence of an un derlying sense of purpose embodied in the emerging black music of the time is what appealed so much to white youth. It wasnt the lyrics, really. The Blues talked of pain, but usually man/woman pain, not social injustice.The newer, upbeat style known as Rhythm and Blues as often spoke of dance, or cars, or sex, or dreamy love, as it did of hurt. It may have been that specific words werent necessary, that the feeling of the music was enough. Black music in the late ass and early ass was finding newer and stronger means to express the solidarity felt within the black community, how that community differed from the white controlled world, and how, in truth, African Americans were becoming proud of the difference.Music itself, with a steady, upbeat rhythm, was central to the community identity, and the pleasures and passions of life that blacks expressed through their music may have seemed more immediate and authentic because of the composers and performers real ensue of alienation. The political purpose of civil rights was only Just beginning to surface as a unifying cause among blacks, and it was ar guably the tightening of the community through cultural communication that gave rise to civil rights awareness in the first place, not the other way around. Thus, the purposefulness to be found in black music was perhaps no more complicated than the Joy with which the made it, the Joy of a close-knit people discovering themselves. Most white Americans lacked any sense of group alienationafter all, their kind had ruled the land for centuries UT white teenagers, who felt cut off from their parents past, might have been attracted to black communal expressions because of their own emerging sense of loneliness.Liking black music was tantamount to wanting to Join the group. In any event, the rock n roll legends tell of how it slowly became apparent to a few foresighted record store owners, and then disc Jockeys, and then producers, that black music was appealing to more and more young whites, that a new social trend was underway, far from the mainstream of popular entertainment, but not so far that here wasnt any money to be made from it.Sometime in the early sass, the term Rhythm and Blues entered the popular lexicon, and a handful of entrepr eneurs began trying to exploit the commercial possibilities of this newly defined genre. Hindsight relates that the likes of Alan Freed, Sam and Dewey Phillips, the Briar and Chess Brothers, and Emmet Retune were visionaries who single-maidenly forged ahead through the doubts and rejection of the traditional radio and recording industry establishment and arrived at the glorious new horizon that they had always received before them.