Spring Break
The Daily OrangeLil' Kim course not appropriate
By Ben Hawken
Posted: 11/18/04, 2:26 AM EST Section: Opinion
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After this semester, however, we get to add another scholastic honor to our prestigious intellectual repertoire - we are the school with the class about Lil' Kim.
According to a report from CNN, the class instructs students to "read Kim's song lyrics as literary texts."
Move over Robert Frost, there is a new poet du jour in America!
I think we can all agree that Frost did some great work, but he never went so far as to say, "N****s ain't sh*t but they still can trick, All they can do for me is suck my cl*t."
According Greg Thomas, the instructor of the ETS course "Hip-Hop Eshu: Queen B@#$H 101 - The Life & Times of Lil' Kim, the course focuses on "her lyricism and the lyrical persona and how they articulate certain things that gender studies have been trying to grapple with."
It is certainly true that sentiments shared by Kim, such as her memories of how one man "sucked the p*ss out of my p**sy," are ideas that are rarely discussed in America's classrooms. This is probably because this course doesn't belong in a classroom - it belongs carved into a bathroom stall at a truck stop.
What, I ask, is Kim trying to "grapple" with in her lyrics? It's not like she's using euphemisms that can be unlocked for some kind of scholarly, in-depth analysis. Kim is not trying to explain something metaphorically when she says, "N****s give they life to be with me for one night, I let you c*m in me, while you stick it in the booty, Lick the n*t off, then stick it back in the c**tie."
On the day Kim visited her star-struck class, she was able to watch as they presented projects based on the subject matter they had spent the semester studying. After one student finished reading a five-page essay about Kim, the rapper said, "I looked at you, girl, and I saw myself for a minute."
I'm not sure, but I think Kim just called that girl a slut.
Bottom line, a school as great as SU has too much class to offer this course.
BEN HAWKEN IS A GRADUATE STUDENT IN PUBLIC RELATIONS. YOU CAN E-MAIL HIM AT BRHAWKEN@SYR.EDU.
