Monday, October 01, 2007


October 1

Today in the early English 201 class only a few students completed the assignment given last week, so in class they responded to a prompt: the assignment was to answer one of the questions posed last week and use support from Dyson's book. The question was: 2. What influences did Leila Steinberg have on the beginning of Tupac's career? (Chapter 3).

We also listened to Brenda's Got a Baby (1991) and Keep Ya Head Up (1993). The homework assignment was to discuss how the second song was a letter of hope for Brenda. Students were to use use: 1 quote, 1 block quote and 1 paraphrase.

We spoke of prototypes and characters, how Brenda was a type...not necessarily unique. She was not an isolated incidence of a child faced with choices such as the one Tupac describes. I walked around and gave students sticky notes sheets to mark the pages in Hacker that have to do with citations pp. 406-423.

Homework for English 201 1-3
Watch the 60 Minutes episode on Vince Young. He reminds me of Brenda. You might also look at Clarence Thomas' interview. He reminds me of Tupac, especially Tupac's relationship with his grandfather. Thomas' and Afeni were hard on their sons. They were exacting and almost brutally honest. Thomas didn't appreciate this until recently when he began to write his memoir, named after his grandfather. He said he wanted to get back to what was important in his life. Tupac, from early on reflects the values his mother instilled in him. He to strayed and unlike Thomas, was killed before he could turn back to the kid who said, "When I grow up I want to be a revolutionary!"

Choose one of the interviews and explore the similarities and differences in the characters profiles: Brenda and Vince Young, or Tupac Shaku and chief justice, Clarence Thomas.

In a short expository essay, discuss the analogy I point out. The essay should be minimally 250 words. Use Dyson, the interview and the lyrics from the song about Brenda to support your claims. Post here by 1 p.m. Wednesday, October 3.

Don't forget to include a works cited at the end of your essay. We practiced citing from Hacker's Basic Format for a Book, a musical composition, and we got stuck when citing a TV show, so we went with the broadcast interview. Ask a librarian if you get stuck here.

Students had great feedback on the "Hip Hop Against America" (BET).

Field Trip Friday, October 5
We spoke about going on a field trip Friday to the Oakland Museum to see a film on Graffiti writing. I can get tickets. Let me know if you want to go and if you want to bring a guest.

The Color Purple
I am getting tickets for the Color Purple for the Tuesday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m. performance. Tickets are $25 each. If you want to go I am collecting money orders Thursday. My Wednesday class I need the money Wednesday. I am getting the tickets Friday. They will mail them to us.

Vince young. On 60 min.

I do agree that Vince Young and Brenda had similar situation. Vince Young was a struggling youth, his mother was on drugs and she was an alcoholic. Moreover, his father was in jail. Vince found him self with the wrong crowd. When his mother got him a car, she seen him with some bad people she was like, “Vince get out that car “. In the interview, he said that he and his mother were eating “syrup sandwiches”. One day when he was young, he had to clean the yard and everybody was making fun of him, and he was like “I don’t want to be a joke anymore.” He started working hard in school. In the song Brenda has, a baby, by Tupac Suhkur, is a similar story with Brenda’s mother who was on drugs like Vince mother. There was a problem in the house-hole both did not have a positive role model so they both had hard life, but Brenda try to sell drugs, and her body. She never tried to finish school. She was murdered in the song “Brenda’s got a baby.” It is sad that these negative things happen to us young black youth. I think that was so bad about Brenda is that she could have made it but the way Pac did the song was like there was no hope. In real life people make it out of bad situation if the try and put towards the effort.
Vince Young and Brenda has slim to none similarities Yes, the both came from the ghettos, and yes they both had non-responsible parents. As Tupac express in “Brenda’s Got a Baby,” “Now Brenda never really knows her mom and her dad was a junky.” Vince young’s father was in prison and his mother had an addiction. She was addicted to that pipe, weed, drugs, and maybe more. Both had to deal with tribulations in life, but who doesn’t.
That’s when the similarities end. Beginning with, hard childhood, and ending with trying to find away out. Getting something to click, in there mind, to make a change. Vince Young wasn’t, “12 years old and having a baby.” As Brenda was, in the popular song. Nor was Young, “Prostituting, fair slang, and her name...” Young is very much alive, not “slanged” .Also his name, well, very much living. Everywhere, everybody knows the boys name.
If you’re talking about life, overall life issue, than yes, they have similar situation. No question. Young and Brenda life is the same, but details and personal problems differ. Overall they both had to grow up fast and learn from the streets. Not at HOME. Brenda didn’t make it for us to know, she died. But, I felt, like Young she would had.
debbie adame
Tupac and Clarence
In class we disscus about similiraties and we compared the lifes that made them so commen. I choose Tupac and Clarence.They both face stradegies and obsticles that made them strong and able reach to sucess. Tupac is singer and Clarence is a judge. Beacuse of their sucess, today like me, a lot of poeple look up to them as their role model. Today, theres a lot of stuff published about them. Like Tupac, theres a book called "Holler if u hear me" by the author "Dyson". For Clarence he has been in the all kinds of newspapers like "Los Angeles Times" and even in the news"CBS".

The lifes of this to two men are very similiar and have a lot of commend.Clarence like Tupac, grew up with out a father. They became well know because they manage to express their feelings, thoughts, and concerns. They did not care wether people liked or dislike the way they express life. They always spoke about reality. For example Tupac wrote poems and sang music, like "Holler if u hear me". Clarence wrote a "memoir" sixteen years ago.
Tupac and Clarence are the most influential men in the coountry. With their great success, they became great Ledears and role models. Their lifes became history. They leave a great legacy behind that teaches us a lot influential and positive viewing.
Vince and Brenda were similar. They both went through very similar situations. Vince's mother was on drugs as well as Brenda's. They didn't have much communication with their family so they had a hard life. Vince didn't want "to be a joke anymore," he wanted to change. Brenda also wanted to change, she had a baby and she needed to give him a good life, only that she went into the wrong direction, she started prostitution. On the other hand Vince wanted change so he started doing better in school and in football. Both of them didn't have a good life when they were young, they wanted to change and they did, only that Vince went into the positive life and unfourtunately Brenda died.
Vince Young and Brenda had some similarities between them, but they also had a lot of differences. Some of the similarities that Brenda and Vince had was that they both struggled with their childhood. Brenda had a mother addicted drugs and hardly knew her dad. Vince also had a mother addicted drugs and a father in jail. So they both had to deal with a difficult childhood.
Some of the differences that they had was that Vince Young applied himself in school and became active in sports, which ultimately got him to where he is today. Brenda did not go to school, she had a baby, and started to sell drugs and her body for money. The outcome for Brenda is death, but Vince is still living and has a great future ahead of him. So other than their difficult childhood, Brenda and Vince are different.
Vince Young/Brenda

The contrast between Vince and Brenda are very similar. They both came from addicted mother, and know fathers. When I watch the tape, Vince mention that there were times when he didn't get the chance to eat meat, only syruip and bread. More or so that he lack money because his mother was out drinking and doing drugs.Very similar to Brenda with her mother. Vince also said that there were so many people that took advantage of his mother in the condition she was end.So he never seen nothing, no compasion, nolove, and know money. Brenda who was identical to Vince seeing know love or money made a choice, she choose to make her own way. She choose to sale crack and ended up getting rob. Vince choose to run with the wrong crowd and started to get in alot of fights.
These two are both victioms of abusive family, but they both had choices. These choices are thought through and remebered, yet there is only one to make. Vince Young happen to make a positive decision to focus on football,school, and stay away from thing that didn't matter. Vince is now a successful football star( quarterback)who has inspired many young adult in the same situation by choosen to stay in school and into somethin he loved. Unlike Brenda who choosed to sale her body and crack lead her to death.
in my opinion i feel that vince young's story defitnitly compares with bredas story.As children they both grew up in broken abandoned homeswith parents that were on drugs. there lives as african americans were very stuggle within the commuinty around them. i strongly feel that they can relate on a level that someother indivisuals couldnt relate on. the only diference between vince and brenda is that vince story ended on a more positve note, he's a proffessionl football player with a bright futuer. unfortunatley brenda in her story had a baby and a short life.
Vince young and brenda had very similar situations. vince's mother was an acoholic, and he grew up with out a father due to him being in jail. same to brenda having no one there for her to show her affection, and the love that a twelve year old girl should have caused her to do other things and wounded up pregenant which put her in a sitiation worse to what she was in before " i dont want to be a joke anymore" something that vince said, so he decided to work harder at what it was that he wanted and go for it. luckly his role model steve macnere motivated him to do other wise. on the other cheek brenda did not have that so in result she failed her life, and another. so yes they do share the same qulities as far as struggles in the household, and the neglection of affection, but in cases of making it. in the song brenda got a baby tupac talks about how brenda begins to sell her body for money. this shows how she had to find other ways to mske it. brenda didi not have nothing as well as no one to help her gain anything. she never tried to finsih school as to vince wanted and pushed to finish.
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