We are a group of college freshman in the University of Maryland's Scholars Program. As young adults, we have gone through about 13 years of education and we have unique perspectives about contemporary and historical concepts. In choosing the texts, we based this blog on songs because we have found that social changes are best seen through the arts. Music, as a form of art, embodies the social spirit of the nation during turbulent time periods. "Glory" came out in a unique time because it commemorated the anniversary of the Selma Marches, referencing the Civil Rights Movement. "Is It Because I'm Black" also focused on the struggles of the people involved in the Civil Rights Movement, but it gave a slightly different perspective because it was written during the time of the actual Movement. The idea of parity is important to us because even though the Civil Rights Movement occurred almost half a century ago, inequality between races is still brought up in American society today.
Both texts we have chosen argue against racial inequality and the injustices that take place throughout America because of the differences in skin color. "Glory", by John Legend and Common and "Is It because I'm black" by Syl Johnson are the two texts being analyzed. The exigence of these two texts are both racial problems. "Is it because I'm black" is mainly driven by the civil rights movement while "Glory" is driven by today's racial problems. "Is it because I'm black" stresses how much of a disadvantage people of colored skin really were at during the 1960's, and "Glory" stresses the racial problems today (ex: Ferguson) and relates them back to the civil rights movement and the whole theme of inequality. In our blog we show how the two texts are connected through related issues, some directly and some indirectly. Common directly relates the two time periods in "Glory" when he relates Rosa Parks and Ferguson, and the two songs have an obvious relation because of the topics they cover.
The majority of African Americans today have experienced some sort of racism, making racism relevant to all of American society. We live in a time where race should no longer be an issue, yet it is still one of the largest concerns, especially for African Americans. Here and now the "black lives matter" movement is taking the United States by storm: making national news, covering social media sites, and even protesting in the streets, demanding the voice of the black community to be heard. This movement sends the message that blacks and whites still remain unequal and that their life matters just as much as the next person. We hope our blog allows its readers to better understand the Civil Rights Movement and see that it is still relevant fifty years later.
Because our blog focuses on the rhetorical elements of two songs from different time periods, focusing on the Civil Rights Movement, the order in which we made our posts was very important when it came to having our audience understand the continuing importance of our songs. The order in which we posted was Kairos, Audience Analysis, Stasis theory, Ethos, Pathos, Logos, Genre, and Aural elements. We decided to post in this way because we wanted our audience to understand the importance of when these songs were produced, what that reaction would've been, and an expansion on those reactions based on the rhetorical elements and qualities that each song possessed. We proved our major argument through song analysis in each blog post. We chose this system because it is the most comprehensive system that breaks down our songs into their simplest form while delivering our points to our audience in an easy-to-understand fashion.
Whether or not you agree that racism is still a major issue in modern American society, it is hard to ignore the tragic stories on the front page of newspapers and the depressing statistics regarding the disparity in African American employment compared to the rest of the population. Please be aware that words carry a lot of strength and thus think before leaving a comment whether it may be read as racist. Nevertheless, we hope that you as the reader can have a better understanding of the rhetorical strategies used by song writers of the Civil Rights movement from the 60s and 70s to today. Enjoy!
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