9.2     Aw yeah:
        THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TUPAC SHAKUR
        Ethnic Studies 98, 2 units, MW 12-1, 155 Kroeber
        Tupac Shakur made a significant impact on current and
        future generations.
        This class will explore the nature of Tupac's significance. Class
        discussions, analysis of poetry and songs, guest speakers, films, and
        literature will be utilized to accomplish this exploration.
        Course Coordinator(s): Felipe Macay, lipo24@excite.com, 636-1995
        \_ This isn't real.  You can't earn credits for this.  Please tell me
           this is a joke you made up and not from the class catalog.
           \_ This should satisfy the L&S philosophy & values requirement
              since all of those classes are detached from reality.
           \_ this _is_ a class, and I am taking it - for the units of course.
              and the large reader is _quite_ humourous.
              \_ If you do take this class tell us what the makeup of the
                 class is.  I bet you there's a bunch of whore chicks
                 dressed in nasty clothes and guys who shave the sides of
                 their heads but let their tops grow out really long,
                 wear their visors upside down and backwards, Tommy
                 Hilfiger shirts and stupid frat jackets, and baggy pants so
                 baggy that you need rubber bands, and drive stupid suped up
                 Honda Civics that don't do anything but scrape the ground
                 and vibrate
           \_ I once saw an MTV "News Report" saying that Tupac Shakur's
              death is the most important event in the 1990's. Now, if
              that isn't intelligent journalism then I don't know what
              is.  I once associated myself with the MTV generation.
              Now I'm just ashamed to even know about it. Unfortunately,
              half the dumbshits in this school think that the entire
              world revolves around (c)rap.
                \_ I'm not the world's biggest rap music fan, but how do
                   you get off saying something like this? it is the most
                   powerful influence in youth culture in America, with
                   the possible exception of religion.  So what do you
                   think the world revolves around? c++? Britney Spears?
                   William Faulkner?
                   \_ I didn't say it revolved around anything.  But in
                      a decade when we've seen Yitsak Rabin, Mark
                      McGuire, John Glenn, and many world leaders make
                      history, and massive world events like the Balkan
                      conflict how can you say the Tupac's death is
                      "the major historical turning point in the 1990's"?
                      \_ Mark McGuire? this is a joke, right? and what
                         kind of history has Glenn made this decade?
                         being an old man in the middle of a public
                         relations stunt?
                         \_ Oh yeah, and Tupac is something I want my
                            kids to remember about the 1990's.  In our
                            US History books twenty years later we'll
                            have "Tupac Shakur's death throws America
                            into turmoil" instead of "Mark McGuire makes
                            history".  I hate baseball more than anyone
                            else but I know what's historically
                            significant
                            \_ How could you have missed the nationwide
                               riots that occurred as a result of Tupac
                               being shot?
                                \_ Riots because one black drug dealer was
                                   shot by another black drug dealer?
                \_ Take it or leave it, hiphop is an interesting social and
                   artistic phenomenon. I personally find it fascinating
                   that it provokes the extreme reactions in people that it
                   obviously does. You don't see people going out and
                   speaking out against the evils of broadcasting bubblegum
                   oldies or classical music, and the fact that gangsta rap
                   is both widely popular and widely reviled points out that
                   there are two widely-held and diametrically opposed
                   viewpoints on it; add in a flashy celebrity personality
                   such as Tupac, and you get something which could be the
                   makings of an excellent opportunity for bringing people who
                   were merely passive listeners or passively disgusted
                   together to talk. (I can't help but imagine that the above
                   poster, for one, will be in attendance in order to set
                   everyone straight. And of course I'm being wildly idealistic,
                   but if there's going to be any intellectual discussion of
                   ideas on this campus, it's not going to be in the stagnant
                   code farms of the EECS dep't.)
                   \_ Pfft.  As if there's going to be any serious intellectual
                      discussion of ideas within Ethnic Studies . . . I quickly
                      learned that the way to an A in my Ethnic Studies class
                      was to *never* debate the statements of my (communist-
                      lesbian-of-color) TA, but to merely absorb her spouting
                      and regurgitate it in my next essay or exam.  I sure
                      hope this ES98 is a DECal class . . .
                      \_ it's pretty sad but I think this is about the only
                         thing that I learned in my years at Cal -- just give
                         them what they want and nothing more
                   \_ Artistic?  Yeah right.  You want art and culture, try
                      listening to the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Van
                      Morrison, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Dave Matthes, Barry
                      White, Mozart, swing, jazz, blues, whatever.  I admit,
                      even I listen to bubble gum shit too but at least I admit
                      that the crap I listen to on the radio is bubble gum.
                      Rap is exactly that - bubble gum, but with minorities
                      dressed in flashy clothing and singing to a variation
                      of the same tune.  It's bubble gum and it's not
                      something worth studying for artistic and cultural
                      reasons in an academic institution.
                      \_ we can't have a "colored" storming these ivory
                         towers now, can we?  what's more "bubble gum"
                         \_ I wasn't being racist.  I was just pointing
                            out how a lot or rap was.  How many rap
                            music out there is about someone's hatred
                            for white people.  By the way, I'm not white
                            myself neither is Bob Marley. ax may be a KKK
                            but I'm not.
                                \_ How did I get associated with the KKK?
                                   My last name is Spanish, for God's sake.
                                   Although I wouldn't mind getting under a
                                   white sheet with yer mom.  -ax
                         than just about all of paul mccartney's beatles'
                         songs?
                         \_ Most of modern day music has some form of
                            derivation of something that the Beatles did.
                            It may be bubble gum now since you've heard
                            much of it over and over in alternative music
                            but back then it was new material.
                         \_ There will truly be no peace and justice in
                            AmeriKKKa until bh stops talking about the damn
                            Beatles and becomes a Tupac fan instead!  Stop
                            this professorial racism!
                \_ you all speak like the decadent bourgeiouse larvae you
                   are.  The 3rd world cares not about your mtv or your
                   decadent ways.  The time will grow near.
                   \_ This was posted as a joke but the real joke was that,
                      during the three weeks I spent in West Africa last
                      year, the most common T-shirts I saw were Tupac shirts.
                      Most of the folks I asked had no idea who he was or that
                      he had been dead for a year. They just liked the shirts.
                      Probably distributed by the same source that flooded
                      West Africa with the Madonna decal that is on every
                      damned taxi in the country. -ulysses
                \_ I'm sure that Tupac Shakur played a pretty significant
                   role in the life of the woman he raped and sodomized.
                   Maybe the class will take a look at that aspect of
                   his life as well.
                   \_ Only one woman?  how small-time!
                     \_ one *conviction*
                   \_ She was just a footsoldier in the revolution.
        \_ HE'S DEAD, GET A LIFE!!!!