One of my faculty colleagues asked about showing Eminem's free style criticism of President Trump in class. Students had been asking about it. The hesitation from my colleague is less about the medium and style of Eminem's presentation, and more about the language. My response, and reasoning, follows below.
I suspect this is for your ****** class, right? If so, absolutely.
For those who might feel offended by the accusations and language from Eminem, you might remind everyone of Trump's baseless Birther Moments, his "son of a bitches" comment (with reference to the NFL's kneelers), his Billy Bush-Access Hollywood comments, and how he's exposed the presidency to this level of discourse. No president should be able to engage an audience at the level that Trump has, and expect to walk away unscathed because they expect the trappings of the office to protect them from push back and ridicule.
Perhaps more importantly, Eminem is addressing substantive policy and social issues. In her day, Harriet Beecher Stowe did pretty much the same thing. Trump made the decision to bring these issues - in the manner that he did - to forefront of America's political scene. The messenger and the medium shouldn't matter, given our current environment.
Have fun with it.
For the two people left in the world who haven't seen Eminem's piece, I'm posting it below, or click here. Fair warning: language content might offend a few people.
- Mark
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