Coming up: vocabulary quiz on rhetorical terms tomorrow / Wednesday. (another copy below)
In class: Organizing your argumentative essay / exploring "Rap Lyrics on Trial"
Directions:
1.read through as a class
2. read through independently, and answer the following questions on the back of the sheet. Follow standard language conventions; these will be collected.
1. What is the question being posed by the speaker?
2 .What evidence was used to convince Mr. Skinner?
3. How are "gangsta" lyrics presented to a court?
4. What is the counter argument presented to explain why "gangsta" lyrics are misrepresented?
5. What needs to happen to correct the misinterpretation of "gangsta" rap?
Rap Lyrics on Trial
By Erik Nielson and Charis E. Kubrinthe Opinion article. As you
read, highlight + label examples oU a
different color highlighter for each Rhetorical Appeal.
1 SHOULD
rap lyrics be used in court as evidence of a crime?
2
Next week, the Supreme Court of New Jersey will hear a
case that could help decide just that. At issue is a prosecutor’s
extensive use of rap lyrics, composed by a man named Vonte Skinner, as evidence
of his involvement in a 2005 shooting.
3
During Mr. Skinner’s trial in 2008, the prosecutor read
the jury 13 pages of violent lyrics written by Mr. Skinner, even though
all of the lyrics were composed before the shooting (in some cases, years
before) and none of them mentioned the victim or specific details about the
crime.
4 In keeping with rap’s “gangsta”
subgenre, the lyrics read like an ode to violent street life, with lines like
“In the hood, I am a threat / It’s written on my arm and signed in blood
on my Tech” — a reference to a Tec-9 handgun. “I’m in love with you, death.”
5
The other evidence against Mr. Skinner was largely
testimony from witnesses who changed their stories multiple times. And
yet, the jury found him guilty of attempted murder, and he was sentenced to 30
years in prison.
6 But in 2012, the conviction was
overturned by an appellate court that ruled that the lyrics
should never have been admitted as evidence. The majority opinion
stated, “We have a significant doubt about whether the jurors would have found
defendant guilty if they had not been required to listen to the extended
reading of these disturbing and highly prejudicial lyrics.” The state appealed
the ruling to the Supreme Court.
7
Mr. Skinner’s case is far from unique. Rap lyrics and videos
are turning up as evidence in courtrooms across
the country with alarming regularity. Last year, the
American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey found that in 18 cases in which
various courts considered the admissibility of rap as evidence, the lyrics were
allowed nearly 80 percent of the time.
8
As expert witnesses who have testified in such cases, we
have observed firsthand how prosecutors misrepresent
rap music to judges and juries, who rarely understand the genre conventions of
gangsta rap or the industry forces that drive aspiring rappers to adopt this
style. One common tactic is to present a defendant’s raps as autobiography.
Even when defendants use a stage name to signal their creation of a fictional
first-person narrator, rap about exploits that are exaggerated to the point of
absurdity, and make use of figurative language, prosecutors will insist that
the lyrics are effectively rhymed confessions. No other form of fictional
expression is exploited this way in the courts.
9 Admittedly, the complex and creative
manipulation of identity in rap helps account for its treatment in court. Nobody believes that Johnny Cash
shot a man in Reno or that Bret Easton Ellis carried out the gory murders described
in “American Psycho”; neither artist claimed that he was writing
autobiographically. That’s not always the case with rappers. Many remain in
character long after they leave the recording studio, trying to establish their
authenticity by convincing listeners that they live the lives they rap about.
Those familiar with the genre understand that this posturing is often nothing
more than a marketing pose.
10 But for the uninitiated, it is easy
to conflate these artists with their art. It becomes easier still when that art reinforces stereotypes about young
men of color — who are almost exclusively the defendants in these cases
— as violent, hypersexual and dangerous. If
that’s what jurors see, what are the chances for a fair trial?
11 To address this question, Stuart
Fischoff, a psychologist at California State University, Los Angeles, conducted a study in the late 1990s
to measure the impact of gangsta rap lyrics on juries. Participants were given
basic biographical information about a hypothetical 18-year-old black male, but
only some were shown a set of his violent, sexually explicit rap lyrics. Those
who read the lyrics were significantly more likely to believe the man was
capable of committing a murder than those who did not.
12
More than a decade later, this bias appears to persist,
leaving rap music as vulnerable as ever to judicial
abuse. Although appellate courts in Massachusetts and
Maryland have recently reversed convictions after citing prosecutors for their
improper use of rap lyrics or videos as evidence, most similar appeals are
unsuccessful. Just this summer the Supreme Court of Nevada upheld the
admissibility of rap lyrics as evidence in a first-degree murder case. A
definitive ruling by the Supreme Court of New Jersey rejecting this use of rap
music could help turn the tide.
13
In anticipation of Mr. Skinner’s case, the American Civil
Liberties Union of New Jersey filed an amicus* brief
arguing that rap lyrics, however unsavory they might be, are
“artistic expressions entitled to constitutional protection.” For scholars and
fans of hip-hop, this is a statement of the obvious. In today’s court system,
sadly, it is not.
Amicus briefs advise the court of relevant, additional information or arguments that the court might wish to consider.
*******************************************************************************
Device Definition
1. anaphora the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses
2. epistrophe the repetition of a word at the end of each phrase or clause: “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
3. analogy the comparison of two pairs that have the same relationship. The key is to ascertain the relationship between the first so you can choose the correct second pair. Part to whole, opposites, results of are types of relationships you should find
4. apostrophe interruption of thought to directly address a person or a personification: “So, I ask you, dear reader, what would you have me do?”
5. * imagery language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching
6. counterpoints contrasting ideas such as black/white, darkness/light, good/bad
7. * hyperbole exaggeration or overstatement
8. irony an expression, often humorous or sarcastic, that exposes perversity or absurdity
Aristotelian Appeals
9. logos appeals to the head using logic, numbers, explanations, and facts. Through Logos, a writer aims at a person's intellect. The idea is that if you are logical, you will understand
10. ethos appeals to the conscience, ethics, morals, standards, values, principles
11. pathos appeals to the heart, emotions, sympathy, passions,
sentimentality
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