Author: Frankie

When you think of London, you think skyscrapers, monuments and nice areas but not poverty, but unfortunately that is what you see the most. London is home to over eight million people although in 2015, 8000 people slept rough.  The streets of London is very different than the photos, people who visit know and the people who live here have known for years. Great Britain isn’t so great after all.

England is said to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world with one of the highest population, so why is there so much homelessness in the U.K that is ignored?

Food poverty is a big part of poverty in the U.K. Glance into a Food Bank and see that the word ‘proud’ isn’t what come to mind, but many other things. Embarrassment, sometime . Scared , yes. Or Injustice, of course. it is estimated that between April-September 2015 that over half a million people visited a food bank and over 180,000 of them being children.

Many people struggle with money and food due to benefit delays and benefit cuts, this can happen for all different reasons. Missing appointments, being late to an appointment and even writing the wrong job number down. it is estimated 27.45% of people who entered a food bank was due to benefit delays and 42.52% visit due to benefit cuts.

Homelessness is a big part of poverty in the U.K.  It is said that

Breaking time, stopping time and thinking.

To be safer driver you need to understand the factors that affect a cars stopping distance.

The stopping distance depends on two factors:

1. Thinking distance: its takes time for a driver to react to a situation. During this reaction the car carries on moving. The thinking distance  is the distance traveled in between the driver realizing he needs to brake and actually braking.

2. Braking distance: The braking distance is the distance taken to stop once the brakes are applied.

Forces and Motions

Thinking distance can be increased by:

Greater Speed

Tiredness

Alcohol and Drugs

distractions

In this essay I will be explaining the various language techniques that Ron Suskind uses to present the difficulties of Cedric’s education in part one an part two of his articles. Cedric goes through many difficulties when in Ballou high and MIT such as receiving abuse from other students, struggling with work at MIT and violence. Throughout the articles Suskind uses various devices to suggest that it was difficult for Cedric to get an education. Cedric grows up in a very poor area with little education hebhas to lock himself in his room just to feel safe and not to feel threatened by the other people in the city.

A writing technique that Ron Suskind uses is a metaphor we can see this in the text when its says “the arduous odyssey of Cedric” this suggest that Cedric has a long hard journey to success. We know this  because the word “Arduous” means a long hard struggle and the word “odyssey” is taken from a Greek myth where a man goes on a long hard journey to get home and has to face monsters and different trials. This is the same as Cedric’s difficulties at school because it suggest that Cedric has to go on  a long hard journey to get an education.

The metaphor “the Arduous Odyssey” Is alike this metaphor “i tell him the people on the sideline are already out of the race” The writer suggests that there are a collective of people on the journey where as in “The Arduous Odyssey” quote it suggests that Cedric  is on the journey on his own. When Suskind says ‘the people on the sideline’ he is talking about the people in the school that have given up and already failed, we can see this because the people on the sidelines are Cedrics bullies and the criminals at the school.

This differs to the quote that shows the difficulties of getting an education is Cedrics school is  ‘Failure is persuasive, even suductive.’ Here Ron Suskind I implying that in Ballou high failure is expected from the students, when Suskind says failure is persuasive he is saying that students would rather be fail than succeed alike when Suskind says failure is suductive, we understand that he is implying that people want to fail and that they are attracted to the thought of failure and giving up. The people that think of failure as seductive  want to fail and it is something that the strive for.

Another quote that Suskind uses is ” I tell him the people on the sideline are already out of the race” this quote is a metaphor use by the writer, the writer suggest that the people on the sideline are the students that have already failed at Ballou High and have no even attempted to start the race where as people like Cedric are going to get an education he deserves at the school and has a chance of getting accepted into MIT.

However this quote is different to  “Crime infested ward.”  The writer suggests Ballou High is a place filled with criminals and in the text it says that bodies were found in schools as well as people being stabbed. The writer implies that kids that attend the school are more interested in going to prison than getting an education.

This quote shows us that the people on the sideline are just there for distraction and how his teacher is telling him to avoid them and to continue the race to get in to MIT. The other quote suggests that the school Cedric goes to is getting a virus spread around  and affecting him and his education, his area is also getting this virus because of the dangers in his area and how he has to lock him self in his house to concentrate. Many students that attend Ballou High have given up and dont try to get back into the race that they started. One of Cedrics Worst tormentors is named Philip and he was of the smatest in his school

Another language device Suskind uses is a metaphor. We can see this in the quote ‘being a minority and a high achiever means you have to carry extra baggage about who you are and where you belong’ Here Suskind implies that the ‘extra baggage’  We understand that ‘extra baggage’ could symbolise that cedric is a minority in his society and has to work twice as hard as everyone else. Suskind uses the term ‘extra baggage’ shows that Cedrics ethnicity is weighing him down.

This quote is similar to “But where I start from so far behind where some other kids are, I have to run twice the distance to catch up.” Here the writer compares Cedrics journey to get an education as a race, he describes it as tiring, intense and that there can only be one winner, also he says its competitive, you only have one chance and you have to train a lot to succeed just like getting an education. in Ballou High he didn’t have an education when he got to MIT he has to try twice as hard in class and study twice as long at home, in Ballou High the teachers don’t teach their students and it is almost certain that failure is expected. In Ballou High success is not a option for some but unlike Cedric who is one of the few at the school with a glimpse of hope in the outside world.

“I know this may sound crazy,” he says, shaking his head. “But I guess I’m sort of comfortable there, at my school. Comfortable in this place that I hate.” Here the writer suggests that after getting rejected from MIT, Cedric goes back to the place that he hates, Ballou High School. This quote is similar but also ironic because Cedric was complaining that he didn’t have good education like everyone else in MIT but after being rejected from MIT he chooses to go back to Ballou High even though he spent all of his time there being bullied and hiding in a classroom doing extra work.

In conclusion Ron Suskind uses a variety of language devices to show how Cedric’s education is difficult, the best quote Suskind uses is ” The Arduous Odyssey of Cedric” The writer uses a metaphor to describe the struggle that Cedric has to face on the journey of getting an education and getting accepted in MIT.

Question: summaries Cedric’s perception of the challenges he face at M.I.T and Ballou high school.

Quote 1: “For Cedric. M.I.T has taken on almost mythic proportions. It presents the culmination of everything he has worked for, his ticket to escape poverty.:

the quote is a metaphor.

its means that M.I.T has asked a lot of the of the students trying to get into the university

One of the rappers we have studied in class is Kendrick Lamar and his song ‘The blacker the berry’, Kendrick Lamar was born and raised in Compton he started rapping with his stage name being  K-dot. Then one of his songs caught the eye of a label company called Top Dawg Entertainment who signed him. He first got recognition because kf his first retail release  ‘Overly Dedicated’, the following year Lamar released his first album called Section.80 which included his debut single ‘HiiipoWeR’ but by that time he had already collaborated with rappers like: The Game, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne. Lamar secured a major-label record deal with Aftermath and Interscope Records, in 2012. His major-label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city, was released in October 2012 to critical success. The record contained the Top 40 singles Swimming Pools, Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe, and Poetic Justice. It debuted at number two on the U.S.

Repetition can be used for effect.

The repetition in the song is: “The blacker the berry, The sweeter the juice. Kendrick Lamar is trying to say “The blacker you are, the better you are”

perhaps he is trying to say black people stand out.

Kendrick Lamar is trying to say instead of hiding your blackness, embrace it.

The repetition helps to emphasise the key point “being black is positive”

The song criticises the reel indirectly  by saying that “You hate me don’t you?” I think this means that because he is black that the white Americans don’t like him or his community. But he makes good points by saying “I know you hate me just as much as you hate yourself.”

“Running high from police, throw nine in the sewer”

“Fuck 911 police don’t come”

“Dad did time cause he sold drugs for me”

“Had Jabar on the streets till the sun came up”

I think that the quote “fuck 911, police don’t come” is very social conscious because Vince is saying that the police are racist

How do the Emcees we have studied criticise the Reel?

“2 columns for Who is and who ain’t a N***as”

“It’s dangerous to dream”

“This is business,no faces,just lines and statistics”

“Young blood can’t spell but they can rock you at PlayStation”

“Powerlift the powerless up out of this towering furnace”

Eight year olds found 8mils”

“Like I got 16 to 32 bars to rock it/but only 15% of profits ever see my pockets”

“Even if you get out of prison still living/join the 5 other million still under state supervision”

“This is business, no faces, just lines and statistics”

Do you think the N-Word is a bad word and should it be used in Hip-Hop?

I think the word is bad but it can be used as a complement.

I think he is saying that he will doing anything for his friends.

It is different to other song because he has used the word Negus instead of the N-Word. Negus means royalty or kings, he is using both words to make one that means black royalty.

“See N***a was first used in the Deep South, rolling out the dome out the white mans mouth”

I chose this because when black people were slaves white people called black people N***a’s.

In my essay I will be talking about the reel. The Reel is when people act a certain way to ‘fit in’ people do this because of the way music had portrayed them, The Reel is a concept created by a writer called M.K Asante, A show Reel is in the cinema to show a movie, a show reel is used for entertainment, so M.K Asante is saying the rappers that talk about Guns,Drugs,Money and Girls are lying they are rapping those thing to get money.

Hip-Hop was made in the South Bronx it focused on emceeing, break beats and house parties.
Hip-hop started out to be when emcees would speak or chant rhyming lyrics it was called commercial hip-hop. Hip-hop as we know it today started to become popular when a rap group called “sugar hill gang” made a song called rappers delight, major companies such as CBS, Polygram, Warner, BMG, Capitol-EMI and MCA started purchasing the labels. The record labels didn’t think they would get profit talking about police brutality and social issues so they decided to change what they were rapping about, the things they rapped about was guns, money, drugs and girls. When the rappers changed there lyrics White Suburban people liked to listen to the new lyrics and bought the songs, the White suburban customers explained that they “enjoy the hyper violent lyrics.”

Mos Def

At the moment we are studying a rapper called Mos Def in one of his songs called Mathematics has lots of quotes to criticise the reel. The quote that I’m choosing to use is “This is business, no faces, just lines and statistics” If I break the quote down I think he means when he says “This is business” I think he means that because how music has changed now the emcees don’t have a choice about what they want to rap about. When he says “no faces” I think he means, because rappers rap about what sells they are only know because of their record labels. And when he says “just lines and statistics” I think he means by saying lines he is talking about the bars and when he says statistics he means their profits.

Akala

Another artist we are studying is named Akala he has appeared on the Television program SBTV where he is discreetly criticising the Reel in his song, one of his quotes is ‘Just thought that killing should not be glorified, silly me
Apparently murdering man has become an aspiration’ Akala is saying that killing people should not be an aspiration and implies that killing has been norma in society  . He also says
‘Sorry kids let me apologise before I go further
Unfortunately I don’t rap about how many man I’ve have murdered’ Akala is apologising for not being a stereotypical liar that raps about girls, money, guns and drugs.

Mick Jenkins

Mick Jenkins is a rapper we have studied he has many songs that criticise the reel one of them is called Martyrs in this song Mick Jenkins refers to hanging as a double entendre chilling with your friends and to be lynched, to be lynched means to be hanged by a tree, in his song he says ” Ima get all this money, Ima buy all this shit, Ima fuck some many hoes, N*gga ima fuck yo bitch”, here Mick Jenkins adopts the mindset of the youth nowadays, the youth think this way because of the change in music since Hip-Hop began.

Kendrick Lamar

We have studied a rapper Called Kendrick Lamar and his song “The Blacker the Berry”  Kendrick Lamar uses repetition on his song “The Blacker the Berry” to talk and criticise the way white people treat black, Kendrick Lamar explains how to be blacker is to be better and that they shouldnt be intimidated by the whites in his song “The Blacker the Berry” Kendrick says “The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice
The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice The blacker the berry, the bigger I shoot”  i think he is saying is that black people should not angered or upset with there race because black people are just as equal as white people, he shows this by saying “I said they treat me like a slave, cah’ me black
Woi, we feel a whole heap of pain, cah’ we black
And man a say they put me in a chain, cah’ we black”