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| WELCOME
to August, 2008 - 'NEWS OF HOPE'
August - the number one
vacation month of the year.
Enjoy these last fleeting weeks
of summer before the flurry of
new school year activity starts
up once again!
As you’re whiling away your
time in the sun under a shaded
umbrella with a lemonade, ice
tea or new Starbucks’
creation, we’ve created a
newsletter to tickle your
thoughts and rearrange your
perspectives!
With the help of Veronica
Garcia, our college-intern from
last year who is back in
California for the summer,
we’re looking at CLIQUES,
SUBCULTURES and some of the
terminology of today’s pop
TEEN and COLLEGE cultures. Check
it out and you may become Hip
Hop or Hipster in style with
your kids at home or in the
classroom this fall!
Wishing you a month of long
summer days and, perhaps if
you’re like me, cool mornings
and late afternoons plucking,
pruning and planting in the
garden!
AUGUST NEWS OF HOPE CONTENTS:
• Hip Hop Culture: More than
Meets the Eye
• Cooler than the Cool Kids?:
Hipster Subculture
• The Nerd Revolution
• Rethinking the Jock Image
• What Happens when Mom’s
are Cliquing, too?
Pictured above:
Left to Right:
Pic 1: Susie at the Western
States Youth to Youth Conference
- communicating to some Hip Hop
and Hipster kids through
culturally-friendly 'Julio' and
the common language of feelings!
Pic 2: Veronica Garcia, our past
college intern who has
researched and written much of
this month's thought-provoking
newsletter! THANKS, Veronica!
Pic 3: Susie aka
"Julio" in the garden
feeding and fussing with the
plants!
SPECIAL SERVICE REQUEST: Help
share the insights and support
in the NEWS OF HOPE
Newsletter by forwarding it
on to others with a suggestion
that they email us to receive a
free monthly copy as well.
THANKS for your support!
You
can always find interesting past
newsletter topics on our
website!
|
|
 Hip
Hop Culture: More than Meets the
Eye
America’s younger generation
is being wooed by the flashy
hip-hop lifestyle, which has
gone increasingly mainstream --
from baggy fashions and
bejeweled 'grillz' to 'pimp and
ho' slang.
But a growing chorus of cultural
critics is wondering "At
what cost?"
According to G. Jeffrey
Macdonald in his article, “
Not a Black Thing’:
‘Ghettonation’ examines
youth behavior” in the USA
Today, April 17, 2007,
“‘Ghetto’ styles, from
wearing gaudy jewelry to using
the n-word in ordinary
conversation, have caught on
with teens and young adults who
aren't black, yet who seem to
enjoy imitating famous hip-hop
artists such as 50 Cent and
Three 6 Mafia.”
The "ghetto-ization"
of America, which includes
everything from baggy clothes to
racial slurs and slacker
attitudes, is triggering concern
far beyond urban neighborhoods.
For example, in 2007, when white
radio host Don Imus lost his job
at CBS after he used
"ho" (hip-hop slang
for "whore") on the
air and drew widespread
condemnation.
Meanwhile, Macdonald says that
some worry that white youth are
getting too comfortable adopting
hip-hop norms, which, in the
wrong hands, seem to mock the
culture of poor blacks.
Journalist Cora Daniels, who is
35 and black, worries about a
downward cultural spiral where
suburban boys work as pimps,
middle-class girls aspire to
dance like strippers and
dropping out of school is often
seen as a badge of honor.
Others have noticed a blurring
of urban and suburban youth
cultures: A 2004 Manhattan
Institute for Policy Research
report concluded that
"suburban public high
school students have sex, drink,
smoke, use illegal drugs, and
engage in delinquent behavior as
often as urban" students.
Daniels believes "the bar
has dropped so low (for
acceptable behavior) that we
don't even know where it is
anymore." She emphasizes
that "this is not a black
thing. It's a national
thing."
Others, however, see less
harmful dynamics at work. Bakari
Kitwana, author of Why White
Kids Love Hip Hop and a convener
of campus dialogues on hip-hop
culture, says suburban kids
forget their own identities
through hip-hop culture and
often mean no offense by
claiming "ghetto"
styles.
"I think the values have
always been there and were
suppressed" before hip-hop
made it OK to celebrate
materialism, Kitwana says. As a
society, "We've taught
young people that money is more
important than anything else.
Then we expect them not to act
like that?"
Yet despite the
“ghetto-ization” of hip hop
culture, it is also important to
recognize hip hop’s ability to
transcend ethnic and racial
barriers and foster solidarity
and tolerance. For many young
people, hip hop culture enforces
notions of family and unity.
In “From the Fringe: The Hip
Hop Culture and Ethnic
Relations,” a paper presented
by R. Reese in 1998, Reese notes
that “because of its enormous
cross-over appeal, the hip hop
culture is a potentially great
unifier of diverse populations.
Although created by black youth
on the street, hip hop's
influence has become worldwide.
Approximately 75% of the rap and
hip hop audience is nonblack.”
Russell Simmons, known as the
godfather of hip-hop uses the
enormous popularity of hip-hop
-- the language, the clothes,
the stars -- to spotlight some
of the political issues that he
says most directly affect its
fans.
In her article, “Hip Hop is
Enlisted in Social Causes,”
Felicia R. Lee in the New York
Times, June 22, 2002, Some
applaud the effort to connect
activism to an art form started
in the 1970's by poor black
youths in ghettos. "There
has always been a war for the
soul of hip-hop culture,"
said Manning Marable, the
director of the Institute for
Research in African-American
Studies at Columbia University.
According to Simmons, “Hip hop
has transcended beyond just
music. It has become a lifestyle
and/or a culture for people
worldwide. Hip hop is an
attitude and hip hop is a
language in which a kid from
Detroit can relate to a kid in
Hong Kong. Seventy-five percent
of our audience is nonblack
kids. Now you have kids in
Beverly Hills are now sensitive
to situations in Compton.”
From
"'Not
a black thing': 'Ghettonation'
examines youth behavior"
by G. Jeffrey Macdonald, USA
Today, April 17, 2007
“From
the Fringe: The Hip Hop Culture
and Ethnic Relations” by
R. Reese, Presented at the Far
West and Popular Culture
Conference (February 1998)
"“Hip
Hop is Enlisted in Social
Causes” by Felicia R. Lee,
the New York Times, June
22, 2002
A
taste of Hip Hop enables LEGACY
OF HOPE to cross
cultural/ethnic boundaries and
deliver a HEALTHY CHOICE
message! |
|
 --By:
Erica F.Carter
Cooler
than the Cool Kids?: Hipster
Subculture
According to Wikipedia, “a
hipster is a person who is
strongly associated with a
subculture that has been
deemed 'hip.'
The term was used originally
in the 1940s and 1950s to
describe aficionados of jazz,
and it eventually described
many members of the Beat
Generation, but its usage
declined in the 1960s, with
the advent of hippies. Since
the mid 1990s, the word
"hipster"
has been redefined to refer to
members of a different
subculture. Modern hipsters
are those devoted to ironic
retro fashions, indie music
and film, alternative comics,
and other forms of expression
outside the mainstream.”
In North America, the term
hipster began being used to
describe “young,
well-educated urban middle
class and upper class adults
with leftist, liberal, or
libertarian social and
political views and interests
in a non-mainstream fashion
and cultural aesthetic.”
Chas Bowie, a columnist for
the Portland Mercury,
provides personal insight into
the hipster phenomenon, a
trend that is becoming more
pervasive not only on college
campuses, but among high
school students wishing to
emulate their previous role
models.
According to Bowie, the word
“hipster” conjures images
of "someone overly
concerned with fashion,
possessive of a
condescendingly dismissive
attitude toward everything
outside their insular realm, a
sheep-like trend follower, and
an infuriatingly
non-individualized personality
who likes whatever band
Pitchfork tells them to and
whose shoes cost more than a
day's wages."
“When I think of the worst
end of the hipster sliding
scale,” Bowie writes, “my
mind goes straight to the
too-cool-for-me guy at my
video store, who's always too
involved in watching the
collected music videos of Hall
& Oates on the overhead TV
to make eye contact while I
rent my movie. He's always
wearing lame ironic T-shirts,
and his attitude reeks of
smug... hipsterness.”
“I have yet to meet one
person who defines themselves
as a hipster,” Bowie writes.
“which begs the question: What
is a hipster, anyway?
According to Bowie, “the
term ‘hipster’ is used to
point to somebody who enjoys
art, good films, and music
that you won't hear on most
Clear Channel stations.
"They are generally
uninterested in climbing
corporate ladders and would
instead rather work somewhere
that allowed them the freedom
to pursue creative endeavors,
like their
band/crafts/activism/MP3 blog/whatever.
They're probably down with
recreational drug use, prefer
bikes to cars (at least
ideologically) and have more
interesting homes than
decidedly suburban
non-hipsters. As it stands
right now, we have no term to
designate this group of
individuals, except for the
word ‘hipster.’”
The word "hipster,"
however, has been so abused-by
hipsters that it fails to
designate anything specific
anymore, if it ever did at
all. Bowie writes: “Trust
fund boys who dress like
Interpol and do coke in
overpriced lofts could be
called hipsters as easily as
the dreadlocked chick in PBR
flip flops buying organic
spelt for her kid's birthday
cupcakes."
How can both of these people
fall under the same
stereotype? Bowie asks.
"It's a pretty simple
equation if you boil it down:
Neither one (happily) works in
a cubicle in the 'burbs;
they're united by a general
distaste for mainstream
popular culture (though each
has their guilty pleasures
[hello, Top Model!]) and a
vehement hatred for George
Walker Bush; and though their
individual tastes may differ,
they wholeheartedly concur
that there's nothing good on
the radio.”
From
The
H-Word Or, How I Learned to
Stop Worrying and Love the
Word "Hipster"
by Chas Bowie, The Portland
Mercury, June 7, 2007
Hipster
Subculture, Wikipedia
|
|
| The
Nerd Revolution
 In
his article, “Nerd
Culture is trendier than
ever, but is it cool to
be one?” Chicago,
Tribune, June 8, 2008,
Patrick Reardon makes an
interesting observation:
“Since the creation of
the Internet and the
rise of Bill Gates,
nerdiness has been a hip
and ironic fashion
choice. In urban
enclaves where the young
and cool live, geeky
accouterments--thick-framed
glasses, striped polo
shirts, white socks--are
everywhere.”
But make no mistake:
It's still no fun being
a real nerd, whether
you're an adult or a
child.
"If you ask kids,
'Are nerds cool?' they
say, 'Absolutely not.'
Nerds are hateful,"
says David Anderegg, a
New England-based
clinical child
psychologist and author
of a recent study of
nerds.
"The idea of nerds
is in," says
Benjamin Nugent, a
self-confessed former
nerd and author of the
newly published
"American Nerd: The
Story of My People"
(Scribner), "but
nerds themselves are not
really in."
"Nerds,"
Nugent says, "are
perceived as authentic
because they're unable
to follow trends.
Authenticity is always
in--or a gesture toward
authenticity is always
in. Nerds are perceived
as people who just have
to pursue what they're
interested in and ignore
what's supposed to be
cool."
As a result, he says,
"it's cool to
pretend you're one of
these people."
Anderegg, whose book
"Nerds: Who They
Are and Why We Need More
of Them," says the
idea of a nerd is simply
that--an idea, a
stereotype. "It's
not like a monarch
butterfly that you can
go out and find and
study. There's no
objective reality. Nerds
don't exist," he
says.
The word
"nerd" is
simply a term that's
used, particularly in
schools, to label
outsiders and exclude
them.
And it works all too
well, Anderegg says.
Reardon writes that it
works so well that, in
fact, in elementary
school American children
generally shy away from
science and mathematics
or underperform in the
classroom to avoid the
label. "Some
kids," he says,
"could be getting
straight A's, but they
get straight C's because
they don't want anybody
to think they're
nerdy."
According to Anderegg,
"It is very painful
in the short run for
kids to be labeled as
nerds because, in middle
school, it is a term of
contempt. I have had
child patients who have
attempted suicide
because of the shunning
that goes along with
perceived nerdiness. But
in the longer run,
nerd-labeled kids
usually get over it when
they find like-minded
kids later in high
school or, more often,
in college."
The “Nerd Girls” in
Jessica Bennett and
Jennie Yabroff’s
article, “Revenge of
the Nerdettes” in Newsweek,
June 16, 2008, are
examples of “nerds”
finding their niche in
college.
According to Bennett and
Yabroff, the Nerd Girls
may not look like your
stereotypical
pocket-protector-loving
misfits, but they're
part of a growing breed
of young women who are
claiming the nerd label
for themselves. In doing
so, they're challenging
the notion of what a
geek should look like,
either by intentionally
sexing up their tech
personas, or by simply
finding no disconnect
between their geeky
pursuits and more
traditionally girly
interests such as
fashion, makeup and high
heels.
“For a long time,
there's been this
stereotype that either
you're ugly and smart or
cute and not suited for
careers in math, science
or engineering,” says
Annalee Newitz, the
co-editor of “She's
Such a Geek!," a
2006 anthology of women
writing about math, tech
and science. “One of
the big differences
between Generation X
geeks and girls in their
teens now is really just
an attitude—an
indication that they're
much more
comfortable.”
Bennett and Yabroff
state that “today's
girl geeks are members
of the first generation
to have been truly
reared on technology.
They grew up on gender
neutral movies like
“Hackers” and “The
Matrix," and saw
the transformation of
Willow on “Buffy the
Vampire Slayer” from
awkward geek to smart
and sassy sex symbol.
They've watched the
geeky pursuits of
technology and comic
books transform from
fringe subculture to pop
mainstream, and they've
capitalized on that
geek-chic mentality to
elbow their way into
it.”
Or, to quote Bill Gates,
America’s most famous
(and richest) nerd,
“Be nice to nerds.
Chances are you’ll end
up working for one.”
From
"Nerd Culture is
Trendier than Ever, but
is it Cool to be
One?" by Patrick T.
Reardon, The Chicago
Tribune, June 8,
2008
"Revenge
of the Nerdette"
by Jessica Bennett and
Jennie Yabroff, Newsweek,
June 16, 2008
I
(Susie) was a
math/computer science
major, cheer leader and
dance minor! Being smart
and having fun DO mix!
|
Rethinking
the Jock Image
The nerd has always been
the antithesis of the
“jock.”David
Anderegg, the child
psychologist in the
aforementioned Chicago
Tribute article
asserts that the idea of
nerdiness is “rooted
in a particularly
American kind of
anti-intellectualism
that goes back to one of
this nation's premier
intellectuals, Ralph
Waldo Emerson. In
Emerson's view, European
scholars were dried-up
thinkers while their
U.S. counterparts were
men of action.”
In other words, says
article author Patrick
Reardon, “even in the
arena of the mind, the
best and brightest
Americans are jocks, and
those who think too
much, like those
desiccated Europeans,
are nerds.”
Yet Anderegg and
Reardon’s conclusions
about the nerd-jock
dichotomy aren’t
exactly aligned with
common stereotypes of
jocks. According to the
Wikipedia entry on
jocks, jocks are
stereotypically
“muscular/athletic,
but not conversely not
considered
intelligent.” Other
stereotypes include:
-Often perceived as
getting preferential
treatment solely due to
athletic ability
-Popular among
classmates or students
similar to his own
clique
-Competitive
-Bullying, cruel and
mean
Furthermore, in his
article, “’Jock
Culture’ Permeates
Life,” USA Today,
April 10, 2008, Robert
Lipsyte writes that jock
culture is the
“incubator for most
definitions for manly
success. For many
Americans, certainly for
the majority American
boys, the most vivid and
lasting lessons are
learned in the sports
they play and
watch."
Star athletes on every
level are role models
for younger athletes and
fans. But. “what
happens when the
cheaters and their
admirers become police
officers, CEOs, members
of Congress?” Lipsyte
asks. According to
Lyspite, “the jock
credo ‘winning is
everything’ becomes
the credo of the Wall
Street Jock pushing the
trading envelope until
the system implodes, the
Washington Jock lying to
the public until the
world explodes. If you
can get away with it in
the field house, why not
in the White House?”
But there are many
athletes who break the
jock stereotype, such as
the high school students
in Selena Roberts’s
article, “Jocks
Against Bullies” in Sports
Illustrated, July 7,
2008.
Jesus Salazar, a 17 year
old athlete at Del Mar
High School in San Jose
is proof a helmet
doesn't necessarily
obstruct a teenager's
ability to look beyond
himself. "I don't
see [much bullying] at
Del Mar, but in other
places kids get angry at
[athletes] because they
may say, 'Oh, you're a
football player, you
think you're
better,'" Salavar
says.
Michele Livingstone, a
swimmer at Branham High,
is another athlete who
is not self-immersed.
Along with Salavar and
other athletes,
Livingstone recently
attended a three-hour
antibullying workshop
called Expect Respect,
organized by Project
Cornerstone, a Bay Area
alliance developed after
the Columbine massacre.
Members of different
school-age status groups
are enlisted--from club
leaders and prom queens
to quarterbacks and
wrestlers. The goal of
the six-year-old
program, which has
extended to more than
300 San Jose--area
schools, is to engage
students in solutions.
Roberts says that the
workshop dialogues
aren't so much about
"squares and
geeks" but about
kids who have no one and
who can't find any label
to fit but loner. They
are often the targeted.
"If it's a physical
confrontation, you have
a chance to fight
back," Livingstone
says. "It's the
emotional stuff--the
online stuff--that
leaves the scars."
Roberts ends her article
with an optimistic
image: it is true that
some tormentors do wear
jerseys. At least in the
hallways of Del Mar and
Branham High, some
athletes try to wear
capes.
From
"'Jock
Culture' Permeates
Life" by Robert
Lipsyte, USA Today,
April 10, 2008
Jock
(athlete) Subculture,
Wikipedia
"Jocks Against
Bullies," by Selena
Roberts, Sports
Illustrated, July 7,
2008
|
What
Happens when Mom's are
Cliquing, Too?
Why do subcultures
matter? Because, as in
popular media portrayals
of jocks and nerds, they
have a tendency to
create cliques that
affect the psychological
well being of their
members and, perhaps
more significantly,
their non members.
While subcultures can
provide a sense of
belonging and identity,
their status as an
exclusive group can
create a sense of
entitlement or elitism
that can carry into
adulthood.
Randi Hutter-Epstein’s
article in the New
York Times June 10,
2003, “When the
Children Play Well, but
the Parent’s
Don’t,” serves as an
example of the danger of
cliques.
According to
Hutter-Epsteing, when it
comes to budding
friendships among
children, sometimes the
grown-ups can be more of
a problem than the
children.
''It's definitely come
up where I prefer my
children to be with
certain friends and not
with others simply
because I don't want to
hang out with the
parents,'' says Dr.
Sherry Marlowe, a
pediatrician and mother
of three from Maryland.
A New York City mother
said she recently took
her kindergartner to a
play date, where her
daughter had fun but
where she was the
outcast among a gaggle
of gossipy mothers. ''I
went because my daughter
likes the other girls,
but next time I'm
sending the baby
sitter,'' she said.
It was the same
situation for Judith
Warner of Washington, a
mother of a toddler, who
is writing a book about
contemporary motherhood.
Ms. Warner said sticky
situations occurred when
one parent suddenly
stopped asking for play
dates. ''What do you
say?'' she said. ''I
notice our children are
no longer having play
dates? Is it me? It is
my child? You feel like
you are back in the
sixth grade. I had a
friend who had to talk
about it with her
therapist, she was so
traumatized.'
Stephanie Payab, a
mother of two young
girls in Los Angeles,
said she was warned when
her daughter started
nursery school about a
clique of girls. ''But
it turned out to be a
clique of mothers, who
were excluding other
mothers from the play
groups,'' Payab said.
''And naturally these
were the girls my
daughter adored. I guess
I thought when I was
done with high school
these things would go
away, but they didn't.''
From “When
the Children Play Well,
but the Parents Don't”
by Randi Hutter Epstein,
the New York Times,
June 10, 2003
In our opinion at
LEGACY, Emotional
Wisdom means a level
of awareness and
responsibility for how
we impose our feelings
and fears on others. At
the backbone of Emotional
Wisdom is Emotional
Maturity which begins
with acknowledging our
emotional wounds and the
insecurities they breed.
LEGACY
OF HOPE opens the door
to emotional awareness
and growth for youth and
adults |
|
|
AVAILABLE
ONLY AT
LEGACY...
LEGACY offers
more support to
parents and
teens --
* 52 Ways
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* LESSONS
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Undeniably
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All
LEGACY PRODUCTS
available here
|
|
|
|
BOOK A LEGACY OF HOPE
PROGRAM FOR YOUR EVENT,
COMMUNITY, COLLEGE OR SCHOOL
NOW IS THE TIME TO BOOK A
LEGACY OF HOPE PROGRAM FOR
2008-2009 SCHOOL YEAR.
Susie is an NCAA-approved
speaker to bring alcohol and
drug education and health and
wellness issues to college
students. NCAA colleges
get a stipend from NCAA as
well.
LEGACY OF HOPE raises
the important issues, creates
dramatic awareness, and guides
youth/adults to healthy
choices.
BE A PROACTIVE SCHOOL &
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HOPE uncover those teens
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For middle schools, high
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development, mental health
professionals, law
enforcement, and companies who
employ teens and young adults.
Email or call to let us know
about your objectives and how
we can help you make an
impact. 800-707-1977 |
|
| |
From all of us at LEGACY ...
Susie Vanderlip, CSP, CPAE - Ken Vanderlip,
PhD
Newsletter Assistant:
Veronica Garcia
800-707-1977 |
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