Hate Media: The Poisoning of Minds

Immigration. It is a word that stirs people in different ways. For those who have lived the word, it brings memories of a struggle to survive and seek a better life. For others, it is a word that brings to mind a political policy that is broken and in dire need of repair. But for some, it is a word that arises boiling levels of hatred and anger. These extreme emotions can be seen vented on cable television stations, they can be heard on far-right wing radio shows, and they can be acted out by those filled with a blind rage.

In doing research for a recent college paper I was struck to find how many negative comments were posted online after nearly every article I read on immigration. It seemed that just the mention of immigration influenced people to bring out their most vicious opinions. I began to wonder, “How is such deep hatred instilled in people?” Unfortunately, this question would take years, and even a lifetime to properly address. What I have witnessed, however, is that those who fill their eyes and ears with hate, see and hear only more hate in the world. On many occasions I have listened to people repeat the negative views that they have heard on political radio, and seen on political TV stations that stimulate contempt for immigrants. I’m not the only one who has witnessed the damaging affects that hate radio and TV has on the minds of people.

In January, The National Hispanic Media Coalition and the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center, asked the FCC to investigate the pervasiveness of hate speech on public airwaves and how it affects the Latino community. The members requesting the investigation felt that the media was perpetuating much of the hatred and negative views against Latinos, immigrant and citizens. Their views were based on a recent rise in hate crimes towards Latinos.

According to a report put out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “in 2007, Hispanics comprised 61.7 percent of victims of crimes motivated by a bias toward the victims’ ethnicity or national origin.” The report states that the number of Hispanic victims of racial attacks rose from 639 in 2002, to 830 in 2007. These statistics offer proof that there is a growing hostility toward people of Hispanic origin. I believe that it is important for the FCC to do a full investigation to find how much of a role hate media plays in perpetuation such acts of violence. The spread of dangerous anti-immigrant rhetoric can only persuade people to believe that their anger is indeed acceptable. However, this anger is not accepted when it results in the beating and murder of innocent human beings.

In December of 2008 an Ecuadorian man died after he was bludgeoned with a glass bottle and a baseball bat. Witnesses of the attack over heard the aggressors yelling anti-Hispanic slurs at the man while he was being beaten. In the same year a 25-year-old, Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala, was beaten and killed by teenagers who were overheard yelling, “Go back to Mexico!” And in Patchogue, New York last year, seven high school students killed 37-year-old Marcelo Lucero after beating him and stabbing him in the chest. The teenagers committed the murder after spending their day targeting other Hispanics in less deadly hate crimes. Again I ask myself, “How is such hatred instilled in people?” The factor of hate radio and television is difficult to ignore. Do these station realize that dangerous rhetoric breeds dangerous actions?

In conclusion I turn to the future. President Obama has announced that he plans to address immigration reform within his first term as President. With this announcement I cannot help but have a sense of uneasiness. I have this feeling because I know that there are those in the U.S. that are extremely anti-immigration, and that some are more than willing to vent their anger over the airwaves. Those who write about and condone hate speech must be aware of the deadly effect that if can produce. And those who have negative views of immigrants should seriously consider the ramifications that occur when people blindly judge each other. One only needs to look to the past to see the disastrous effects of discrimination, division, and misguided hatred.

In Good Taste

Who: The Mars Volta, an octet featuring Omar A Rodriguez-Lopez (former At the Drive-In guitarist), Cedric Bixler Zavala (former At the Drive-In lead singer), Juan Alderete, Free Moral Agent’s Isaiah Ikey Owens, Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez, Adrian Terrazas, Pablo Hinojos-Gonzalez, and drum prodigy Thomas Pridgen.

Sounds Like: Carlos Santana’s original group on crack. No, not his work from the late 90’s; the good stuff from the 70’s, but much more up-tempo, with a dash of Rush, Led Zeppelin, Larry Harlow, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez himself. Lopez states, “Our band is not for us to describe.” Therefore, what you hear, what you think they sound like is correct, there is no wrong answer.

Vital Stats:

• Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala disbanded At the Drive-In at the peak of their success to form The Mars Volta because they simply said, “We were just bored with the music and the direction it was taking.”
  
  
• After four years with drummer Jon Theodore, the group was forced to kick him out of the band due to his laziness and antics. Eventually the band recruited drum prodigy, Thomas Pridgen. He won the Guitar Center Drum-Off at age 9 and a year later became the youngest recipient of a Zildjian endorsement in the nearly 400 year history of the company. According to lead singer, Bixler-Zavala, in terms of drumming, “I guess you could say, Jon played at like level 2 of Tetris, and Thomas plays at level 32, Thomas brought us back to life.”
  
  
• Prior to the release of their first LP, De-loused in the Comatorium, Sound manipulator, Jeremy Michael Ward died from a drug overdose. The band vowed to never do hard drugs again and dedicated their next album, Frances the Mute was in memory of Jeremy Ward. Frances the mute was based on a journal/diary that Jeremy found and his life.

Hear it now: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez recently released his third solo-album, Old Money, in January of this year. Also, keep an eye out for The Mars Volta’s 5th studio release, Octahedron, available in June.

Let’s purify the tainted souls, or at least build an army to stave off mindless rock music. Go to your local record store and expand your mind, listen to the abstract, the talented, and the unique.

In Bad Taste

Like ants assembling at a picnic, people line-up daily, follow suit, and attend sub-par alt-rock concerts. These once pure souls drift to the dark side of musical idiocracy. Maybe that’s a little harsh, but it’s hard to deny the debauchery committed in propelling crappy rock bands to success.

You may have heard some of these stellar bands I speak of: Seether, Staind, Breaking Benjamin, Nickelback, Clutch, and Puddle of Mudd. Though the list is endless, like everything it has a beginning and hopefully an end.

The origins of this atypical genre date back to 1995. As the grunge band era faded, musical mediocrity lurked in the shadows. Fueled by extreme depression and suicidal thoughts, Staind pierced main stream society’s heart and needless to say, she loved the sound. The bands most notable song to date is, Mudshovel, off 1997’s album, Dysfunction. As I listen to Mudshovel , front man, Aaron Lewis seems to be filled with angst and energy. All in all, the song isn’t bad. The guitar play is raw and aggressive. And the bass-line is alluring from start to end. However, after Mudshovel, this genre took a shit and died!

I wish I were speaking literally, but to the dismay of many, the alt-rock genre thrives; spawning similar bands regularly. Ever hear of the aforementioned band, Seether? Like Staind, they convey an imagery of the utterly depressed. In addition, there is a stark resemblance between lead singer, Shaun Morgan and Lewis’ voice. Coincidence or copy cat? You be the judge.

The best part about these bands is how they express their lowly emotional state and provided below is a preview of their Grammy Award worthy lyrical content.

“Produce the demons within us
Pointless trials but don't be late
Cause someone's always pissed off
Disrespect me cause I'm ugly
Don't give me your stupid pity.”

It’s as if Seether channeled energy directly from Led Zeppelin’s 1969 debut album to produce this astounding piece of work, right down to the name of the song, “Dazed and Abused.” Now that’s creative! That should be a copyright infringement or something. Seether should examine Led Zeppelin’s song "Dazed and Confused" because it’s apparent that’s exactly what they are, that or just dumb. While they’re at it, they should also try to listen to the composition and orchestration, so they can attempt to enhance their own music.

Leading me to the question, do these bands need to enhance their music? You already know my opinion, but I’ll say it anyway, they should be forced to STOP making music, and fans…please stop contributing to their success! It’s obvious the bands are thriving or have at least had a couple hits on the radio. By no means are they one hit wonders. So what is their recipe for success and why do people love their music? I believe it comes down to a few key components:

1.) Nauseatingly catchy hooks that imprint on your mind, driving some listeners mad (Repetitive airplay doesn’t help either).

2.) Lyrical content: Self loathing, depressing, and at times degrading towards women. An 8th grader could write this stuff.

3.) Simple, plain-bland music with no depth or layers.

Perhaps music like this is similar to writing? Sometimes it’s a good idea to be short and concise with your writing to meet the audience’s needs. You have to be direct and to the point to convey the message, keep it simple right? None of these bands are conveying much of a message though and it’s clear they ARE keeping it simple. No need to dumb it down here. That said, I can’t entirely hate on these bands as they have some sort of music talent. I mean they can play their instruments.

In my opinion, music and writing are one in the same, both are an art. Writing is very technical, intricate, and can be difficult. In addition, there are various tasks and steps one must take before completing a solid piece of work. Music should be the same. Believe it or not, there are many bands out there today that push the boundaries. These bands write technically sound music with depth, layers, and careful orchestration. The problem is…they don’t get the recognition they deserve and probably never will as long bands like Seether and Staind exist, but maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be? So, without further adieu, I give you a highly abstract band of substance and in my opinion, one of a kind: (Refer to Next Post)

Community college

With the state of the economy and rapid growth in student population nation wide, community colleges are looking more appealing than ever for young Latinos. It is important that we make sure that these young students are fully aware of the opportunities that are available to them at community college. A good first step in this process would be to ensure that high school students are instructed on how to complete a FAFSA form, and how to transfer from a community college to a four-year institution.

With a massive increase in the number of Latino students in today’s public schools, many will soon be considering college. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the Latino student population has almost doubled since 1990. Currently the nation’s public schools contain approximately 10 million Latino students, which translate to about one-fifth of the entire U.S. student public school population. This means that many young Latinos will soon be graduating and asking: What’s next? In 2005, only 12 percent of Latinos 25 and older had received a bachelor’s degree, a startling number when you consider the ramifications this could mean to today’s increasing Latino community. One way to boost the number of Latino students gaining a bachelor’s degree is to bring them more awareness of today’s community colleges.

Many young Latinos graduating high school will be the first in their families to attend college. This generational issue means that they will have much less help when trying to understand the process of applying for and paying for a college education. When I graduated high school I wanted to attend college but had no idea where to start. My parents had never gone to college, and they were also unfamiliar with the necessary steps to get into a university. I grew up in a low-income home and the sheer cost of attending a university was enough for my parents to suggest that I instead join the military. At the time, I did not know how to apply for financial aid, and I was not aware of the ability to transfer into a four-year university from a community college. Four years after high school I finally learned how to apply for aid, take transferable classes, and apply to a university. It turned out that I decided not to join the military, and I did eventually get into The University of Texas through transferring from Austin Community College. I figured this process out mostly on my own, and learning it has enabled me to assist my siblings and other family members who now have goals to enter college. I still wonder if I would have started college earlier had someone explained to me, while I was in high school, all that community colleges have to offer.

Many have criticized the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, for being overly confusing and hindering many young students ability to gain loans. This process can be especially perplexing for first generation Latino students because it will be the first time that they or their parents have ever seen the form. This issue has encouraged the Sallie Mae fund start a bilingual “How to Pay for College” national bus tour. Sallie Mae is the company that provides most of the loans to students seeking aid. The bus tour travels to low-income, pre-dominantly Latino schools to inform the students and community about the financial aid process. This bus tour is a great first step in assisting first generation college students to find a way to go to and pay for college. By making the FAFSA easier to fill out, barriers that I encountered when considering a higher education will be removed.

According to a report put out by New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, almost 98 percent of Latino students say that they have a desire to go to college. Further 60 percent of young Latinos say that neither of their parents has attended college. When I look at these numbers I see a reflection of myself. I know that if I would have been given more information about community college, I most likely would have begun attending one right after high school. By giving high school Latino students crucial information about the opportunities of community college, I’m certain that many more of the 98 percent who dream of going to a university will achieve their goal. I know I did. Thanks community college.

Handguns on Campus

By: James Fritz

KUT reported on March 30th that a Texas House committee had begun working on a bill that could allow handguns on college campuses.

Since the report, the house bill, called HB 1893, has moved out of the Texas Public Safety Committee and will proceed next to the Texas House for a full vote.

Under the current form of the bill a licensed gun owner would be able to carry a concealed handgun on campus.

The bill states that an “institution of higher education or private or independent institution of higher education” in Texas would not be able to adopt any rules that prohibited a licensed owner from carrying their gun on campus.

The bill does, however, give an institution the authority to make their own rules regarding the storage of handguns “in dormitories or other residential buildings that are owned or operated by the institution and located on the campus of the institution.”

If the bill passes a house vote, it will then move to a senate committee for further review.

If you would like to learn more about HB 1893, visit its page at the Texas Legislature Online.

Coming to a Police car near you

By: James Fritz

The Austin Police Department is in the process of using a $42,979 grant approved by the Austin City Council for the purchase of a license plate scanning device.

License plate scanning devices are mounted in police vehicles and are used to rapidly photograph license plates, and then cross-check the license plate numbers on a connected police database.

Sergeant Oliver Tate of the Austin Police Department said that officers have been researching and reviewing different scanners for over a year.

The APD is considering the purchase of a portable scanning device that is capable of being moved to different vehicles, or a more permanent device that is mounted to only one car.

“The price tag of these readers depends on the package,” said Sergeant Tate. “A big part of the price is the size of the server that you are going to use.”

In Louisiana, some police agencies have pooled together funds and purchased a large server that costs between 2 and 3 hundred thousand dollars. The agencies that participate share their information throughout the different police stations. This sort of model is not planned on being practiced in Austin, and the city will purchase a less expensive server said Tate.

The license plate scanner will be used by the Austin Police Department to search for vehicles that have been stolen, or are associated with missing children or missing elderly people.

Tate said that the technology can eventually be used for additional purposes.

“We have the ability to search license plates of vehicles of people who have an outstanding warrant. For instance a traffic warrant or a speeding ticket in that particular vehicle with that license plate.”

El Paso Auto Theft Task Force Police Sgt. Robert Gomez said that his unit has used a license plate scanning device for a little over a year. He said it has proven effective in apprehending stolen vehicles.

Gomez said that his department has also used the scanning device to “find vehicles with outstanding parking tickets, vehicles associated with registered sex offenders, and amber and silver alert vehicles.”

The license plate scanning device has stirred some controversy that the technology involved may infringe on civil rights issues.

"When any new technology becomes available, peoples’ privacy is always in question,” said Gomez.

Gomez argues that the license plate scanner is only speeding up the process that an officer already does with a pen and pad.

“The bottom line is it’s a plate on the outside of your vehicle and anybody can see it. I can stand on the street corner with a note pad and write down license plates. The only difference is that this does it faster.”

All of the information that is recorded by El Paso’s scanning device is stored in a database for future searches. Gomez said that the stored information is useful in investigations.

“If a vehicle is stolen in an area where we run the LPR [license plate reader] we can try to see if we ran it while we were in that area to try and locate a better time frame for where it was stolen,” said Gomez. “It will help us in the investigation. It stores a picture of the license plate of the car and the location.”

Corinna Spencer-Scheurich, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, believes that technology like the license plate scanning device require more oversight in the way they are used by police departments.

“An officer writing down a license plate number is one thing, it may even be proper to have a camera that can do that. But the problem is that there is abuse inherently possible in the system,” said Scheurich.

Departments utilizing license plate scanning technology vary over how they gather and store the information they acquire. Some discard the information that is not used in specific vehicle searches, and others, like the El Paso Police Department, keep information for future investigations.

Scheurich said that there needs to be limitations in place that set legal rules on how the technology is used..

“We need checks and balances to ensure that it doesn’t cross the line into something that is unconstitutional.”

The Austin Police department is in the process of acquiring working license plate scanning machine demos. They plan to begin long term testing with the device within the next few weeks.

NPR+API = Music post

This week I began editing and submitting stories for NPR's Application Programming Interface system, or API. The API allows you classify NPR and other NPR affiliate programs into a unique web application. I found the programs below, converted them to Java script, via API, and then copy/pasted the code into Blogger's HTML page. And here it is... check it out, it seems pretty cool. I'm gonna start listening to these right now.

Unwelcome Spirits Haunt \'The Bedlam in Goliath\'

January 29, 2008 | NPR· When The Mars Volta purchased a ouija board in a Jerusalem curio shop and began to use it, the band had no idea how much it would affect its recording. Listening to The Bedlam in Goliath, the paranormal talk might not seem like such a publicity stunt.

| MP3 | 

 

 

Nine Inch Nails: \'Ghosts\' of Songs

April 14, 2008 | NPR· Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor spent most of the 1990s belting out misanthropic anthems for young people decked out in dark eyeliner and combat boots. On Ghosts I-IV, Reznor drops the singing and puts his thick soundscapes in the center ring. It\'s a whole new world.

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Ahmir Thompson Reflects On His \'Roots\'

March 13, 2009 | NPR· Drummer Ahmir Thompson, also known as "Questlove," talked with Fresh Air in 2003 about his career in the hip-hop group The Roots.

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Guest DJ Thom Yorke

February 14, 2008 | NPR· Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke shares some of his favorite music with All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen. The two talk about Radiohead\'s latest work, In Rainbows and listen to some of the artists Yorke admires, including German electronica group Modeselektor, rap duo Madvillain, techno group Autechre and more.

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Hot Chip Finds Magic in the \'Dark\'

February 7, 2008 | NPR· The British electro-pop band Hot Chip samples and tweaks old sounds to create new songs. The group performs work from its latest album, Made in the Dark.

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Music from Belize, Folk Artist Patty Larkin, Lightspeed Champion, More

January 24, 2008 | NPR· This week features music from the late Central American artist Andy Palacio, a preview of new music from Patty Larkin, folk-driven rock from Lightspeed Champion, a return from the Kinks\' Ray Davies and the British electronic pop group Hot Chip. With host Bob Boilen.

| MP3 |

 

 

Galactic With Mr. Lif On Mountain Stage

September 15, 2008 | NPR· For its latest album, the New Orleans funk band laced a new element on top of its groove-based jams: hip-hop MCs. On tour, Galactic visited Mountain Stage with one of its guest stars, Boston rapper Mr. Lif.

Make your own application here: API