HW # 28 - Informal Research - Internet, Magazines, and TV Shows

Cool (African philosophy). Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 10 December, 2009
http://infao5501.ag5.mpi-sb.mpg.de:8080/topx/archive?link=Wikipedia-Lip6-2/1576344.x
This is an interesting article about the concept of cool in popular culture coming from
black jazz musicians beginning in the 1920s. Their idea of cool came from a West African concept of the “mask of the cool,” where cool is “composure, dignity in being and comportment and a practiced stoicism… It is a way of being, a way of walking in the world.” In African culture opposite forces create balance so the concept of hot is equally important. Cool represents “stillness, calm and strength.” Heat represents “energy, strength, and movement.” The two mix together well in African movement, dance, music, and art. The word “hip” comes from the African work “hipi” meaning to open up the eyes and be aware. African Americans used it to mean something “fashionable and current.”

This article is helpful for information about the start of the idea of cool and how African-American uses of the word were taken up by mainstream white culture.



Will America Ever Be Cool Again. iNewsit Blog, n.d. Web. 8 December, 2009
http://www.inewsit.com/blogs/entry/Will-America-Ever-Be-Cool-Again

This is a blog in the form of a letter to the editor from a Staten Island Ferry souvenir seller who says that tourists are not interested in buying American stuff because “Bush trashed the American Brand” and even Obama’s “Yes I can” hoodies aren’t selling now. The editor says that a recent survey by Pew ranks the U.S. as 117 on the cool index now. “Only Russia, China, the UK, and Zimbabwe were considered less cool than the U.S.

This is a humorous article about how the U.S. used to be cool and now is not. There is
a lot that is true in it as it talks about what has been cool and uncool in America over time. It is hare on other countries too. “China hasn’t been cool since Confucius…Italy has a seventy-three year old President who brags to teenage girls about his sexual prowess.



Marc, 25 Acts of Body Language to Avoid.. 7 July, 2008. Mark and Angel Hack Life.
9 December, 2009 http://www.marcandangel.com/2008/07/07/25-acts-of-body-language-to-avoid

This is a list of common gestures and other body movements that make us uncool when
we do them. Examples are: holding objects in front of you and sending a message of shyness or wanting to be separate from the person in front of us, crossing your arms and sending a message of “defensive resistance” or arrogance.

The list is interesting in that makes the reader aware of how a lot of what can make people look uncool they aren’t even conscious of doing.



Bharadwaj, Ajay. In Bhatinda, blood donation is considered cool. 27 February, 2006. DNA Read the world. Web. 8 December, 2009 http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_in-bhatinda-blood-donation-is-considered-cool-10

This article is about a certain district in India where people take great pride in giving
blood over and over. It didn’t used to be that way. People who needed blood there 30 years ago used not to be able to get any. Then a man who nearly lost his daughter because there wasn’t a single unit of blood for her started a campaign that now has 10,000 donors. He made it cool to give blood.

The article gives another perspective on cool and that is the idea that people can make change for the better in a society by changing behavior to make something that needs to be done seem cool to do.