Eloquence

Rationale

As a teacher in an urban setting, the most recurring question I ask myself is, "How can I make this content relevant for my students?" My students are quick to dismiss a more traditional lesson as boring or useless, and I often don't blame them. It is our job as educators to pinpoint the universal tropes in the literature of the Western Canon that transcend the past. My students will eschew a history or English lesson that lacks a foundational correlation to their lives. The core concept of this unit, that successful rhetoric has the power to captivate populations and actually change the way people view a particular issue, is forever relevant because it affects our students daily: good rhetoric informs their aesthetic taste, moves their emotions, positions them to act. This unit will empower my students to be more than readers: they will be critics. By critiquing the successes and failures of Jay Z and Kendrick Lamar's rhetoric, and applying that same lens to Abraham Lincoln and Edward Everett's speeches at Gettysburg, they will learn that, though the specifics of what constitutes "eloquence" may change depending on the time or population, true eloquence conveys a sense of authenticity to the audience. In other words, the audience hears it and feels it to be true (n.b. regardless of whether what is said is or is not true).

I believe that the most empowered citizens are informed critics. Critical thinkers are able to speak with authority and conviction about their perspective; they are also able to write clearly and effectively to convey that perspective and persuade others to listen. Critical thinkers are credible. My students are – naturally, as teenagers – already chomping at the bit of rudimentary cultural criticism. I can hear it in their fervor to deliver remarks such as, "this is great!" or "this sucks!" This unit will provide them with a more nuanced rubric to evaluate the merit of literature and consumer media. Moreover, it will show them that the nuances of eloquent rhetoric already jive with the intuition of their ear. Their aesthetic tastes don't exist in some vacuum far removed from the legacies of great speakers: the past and the present are connected.

It is extremely important that hip hop be the resource I use to connect students with the literature of the past for two reasons, the first is the obvious reason that my students already enjoy hip hop and identify with it; the second reason is controversial, but is of central focus in the unit. Mainstream hip hop, also known as gangsta rap, has been under fire by many, ranging from first wave hip hop artists who have disowned the contemporary style to mainstream news networks, for "causing" an epidemic of violence and misogyny in America. Cultural theorist bell hooks, on the contrary, sees gangsta rap as "a reflection of dominant values in our culture rather than as an 'aberrant' psychological standpoint." ¹In other words, while misogyny and violence are obviously negative and socially unacceptable, their presence in hip hop music is symptomatic of their ubiquity in mainstream culture at large. Notably, it is the messenger, the young black male, who is condemned as the sole perpetrator of violence and misogyny. However controversial the content of popular hip hop might be, much of it tells a story of actual life in an urban setting, and I argue that it is a story that deserves a listen. How Kendrick Lamar rhetorically negotiates with the mourning of deaths from gang violence is a key discussion point in the unit, and will be paralleled with the rhetoric Lincoln uses in his funeral oration that also negotiates with how we mourn for the dead.