Comments on: Majoring in Minstrelsy: White Students, Blackface and the Failure of Mainstream Multiculturalism

By: marandaNJ

marandaNJ — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:28:10 +0000

I agree Jessica. African American rap music, even the subsection referred to that does reference criminality should not cause Any Race to view this as a reflection of black community life. It’s entertainment, nothing more. Correct? Is it OK with you, however, if singing about crime makes me not want to listen? As Time said, it’s MY PROBLEM. I have no right to suggest that black Americans consider changing this part of their culture. Sorry I mentioned MY PROBLEM.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:20:02 +0000

The black community is not responsible for the actions of white racists. There is no “one thing” we should ask them to do to “decrease the tendency of white America” to be racist – expressions of their lives via music, art, film, anything shouldn’t be seen as bait for racists. You’re blaming the victim, here. This is the same line of logic that tells women not to dress provocatively because it might “cause” men to rape them.

By: marandaNJ

marandaNJ — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:32:30 +0000

Yes, I know what ebonics means.It’s African American Vernacular English or Black English as linguists call it. In fact, many people think it is a development from SAE,when in fact it developed alongside and separately from standard English. Black English is one of hundreds of the world’s variations upon not standard English, but the Now Extinct Ancestor of all English.
In America, though, SAE is the language employers usually want potential employees to use.It’s the ‘type of English’ taught in schools and used on the SAT.
As far as rap, I’ll just defer to you. If you say that the impression I have of rap music is merely my perception, and the rest of the country doesn’t see it as a negative lens through which to view black Americans, I understand and accept this.

By: Tim Wise

Tim Wise — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:09:10 +0000

maranda…do you really think that black people are applying for jobs speaking what you call “ebonics?” (Do you even know what that word means, by the way? )

My God, your understanding of black reality is sad. You seem to have a one dimensional view of rap music, as evidenced by your assumption that it’s all about thug behavior, violence, etc. If you believe that, that demonstrates your own ignorance of the genre. it is not black people’s job to correct your ignorance. Got that?

Your views of rap are YOUR problem. If you decide to tell black people to shape up, or correct one small aspect of black culture, based on YOUR misunderstanding of that culture, and your conflation of rap with blackness, and only one part of rap, at that, then that is horribly unfair of you, and yes, a replication of white supremacy. Do you lecture fans of country music the same way, given the history of lyrics in country music that are violent, about drinking, cheating, etc? I’m betting dollars to doughnuts the answer is no…

By: marandaNJ

marandaNJ — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:33:40 +0000

Say what you will. I’m white and I guess I know the impression that rap music has made on middle class whites as opposed to very admirable blacks such as Martin Luther King or Michelle Obama or Oprah Winfrey. You wanna diminish racism? The message is conduct yourself with self-respect and dignity. If you believe that this is white supremacy speaking, then so be it. Just a word to the wise.
I hate racism too, just in case you were ruminating about that. I just believe there are things the black community could do to help diminish racism As Well as the white community. I’ve said this before, but black people are Not helpless, clueless beings who are incapable of heeding some advice or initiating change.
Every ethnic group has to struggle to present the world with a more positive image than a negative one. If a black man applies, for example, for a job, and tells me he was denied the job because of his race and he was neatly dressed and spoke Standard American English..heck yeah..I’d believe him. But if he was shabbily dressed and spoke in ebonics so that I could barely understand him, I’d have to wonder if it was racism at work or 1.the fact that he was shabbily dressed and 2. spoke ebonics. If I advised him to dress neater and learn SAE to obtain a job, does that make me cruel or merely giving advice to someone who May [not necessarily but May] need it?

By: Kristen

Kristen — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:12:22 +0000

This is precisely why we have to begin with an acknowledgment that the particular rap songs and artists that you’re referring to are a mere subsection. You use a criticism of rap music to point your finger at the entire black community for not doing more to help white people see them as nice folk. (Pardon me, but this still sounds like self-blame to me.) You ask them “why not highlight Positive Accomplishments in the black community?” What you are ignoring or unaware of is that there are plenty of fantastic songs and artists in rap and r&b that do just this. Guess what? White people – the biggest consumers of rap music – don’t love it and don’t buy it. The biggest record labels don’t sign or market these particular artists. So your finger is pointing at the wrong community.

By: marandaNJ

marandaNJ — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:28:17 +0000

First of all it’s a gross misinterpretation of what I wrote to claim I’m ‘blaming’black people for the cruel frat parties. That’s not what I said.
I said that the black community can do One Thing [note I said One Thing] to decrease the tendency of white America [when white America does this] to ridicule the ghetto communities. Also, yes, I’m very aware historically of the use of black face farce to ridicule blacks. In the 1800′s these shows were considered high comedy. It was wrong then, and it’s wrong now.
However, can we please stay in the present moment for a change and not keep looking at history for Why Things Happen Today? Rap music does make a mockery of the ghetto. Not All Rap Music, but enough so that it’s CONTRIBUTED to the negative images other Americans [and not just white America either] have of African Americans.
My very logical point was why not highlight Positive Accomplishments in the black community? Are you going to argue this point also? Something wrong with this? Instead of making music about “hoes” and selling cocaine.
Also, alot of people [including a fair amount of black women]think rap music is insulting regarding its references to using women and then dumping them.
When any race can do something to eliminate negative images of their own race, why in the world would they not want to?
Why perpetuate negative images When You Don’t Have To?

By: Kristen

Kristen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:10:16 +0000

I have to disagree with this argument about rap music.

(But let’s first acknowledge that you’re referring to only a small portion of a quite diverse genre of music. So, for instance, when it comes to social critiques of inequality, storytelling, and wordplay in music, you go straight for rap and don’t bother with any other genre. You are just reifying this faulty notion that rap is one-dimensional and bad.)

This is a popular argument that a lot of people like, but it’s flawed in its misuse of causation. Music is potentially powerful on some levels, sure, but do we really have evidence that rap music in particular – and no other music from other genres – causes problems where there would be none otherwise? (You imply this with “it opened a few door which were better left unopened.”) That, if all this music that “Has Not Exactly helped the image of the ghetto” were eradicated from the face of the earth, these racist college parties and other transgressions would abate? It’s an argument that blames black people for the racism directed towards them. I for one can’t square this with my logic.

It’s also an argument that points to exactly what Tim Wise was talking about – a lack of historical knowledge – because white people’s blackface parties have been going on way before the advent of rap music, even way before white colleges admitted their first black students, and even at times when black communities were segregated and at the apex of solidarity. So who you gonna blame now?

By: Racial Incidents on Campus & The Failure of Colorblindness : Asian-Nation : Asian American News, Issues, & Current Events Blog

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:14:30 +0000

[...] colleagues at RacismReview.com quote activist Tim Wise in analyzing in depth the sociological meanings and implications of these [...]

By: marandaNJ

marandaNJ — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:36:35 +0000

Ok, once again I have to open my big mouth. I am just elaborating on one small part of Tim’s post [the majority of which I totally agree with]
Tim said: “In other words, white kids are just copying what they see on MTV, and if black folks can glamorize the ghetto, why can’t they? That rappers, for good or ill, are often telling stories about their own lives and communities from which they come (or at least with which they have some familiarity), while white co-eds are engaging in vulgar voyeurism devoid of authenticity escapes them.”
I have always held the belief that rap music which glorifies crime and using illegal drugs and fathers leaving young women pregnant and calling women “hoes” Has Not Exactly helped the image of the ghetto. This then was partially responsible for white college kids thinking it was “just fine” to also make a huge joke out of ghetto ills. In other words,it opened a few door which were better left unopened.
Nobody should take pride in “packin” guns and creating neighborhoods no better than battle fields where law abiding blacks are scared to death. Yet rap music does hold an “in your face” covert message to the white community. It says, “I’m a criminal and I’m black and what ya gonna do bout it?”
This is not the entire reason that college students hold these tasteless and cruel parties. I am merely stating the harm that rap has done the black community in general. Martin Luther King would not have found rap comical or something to be proud of. He wanted to elevate African Americans, not celebrate crime or lack of responsiblity in your own community.
The major problem with rap is the message that if blacks can imitate their own shortcomings [and all human beings have shortcomings, so let's not pretend they don't] then white kids think it’s permissible to also do so.
Imagine, if you will, a style of music that glorified white people’s crimes. “I live in a trailer park an’ keep a rifle over ma doah. Jes in case I see someone ah don’t like! Ah’d blow someone away in a New York minuuuute! Ah loves my gun and it loves me! Ma wife had 8 kids when I met her! Pappy of each one she don’t know! Ah don’t care! Man, ah don’t care! I jes use her when the beer runs out!”
Apologies for my crummy lyrics. The point is, it glorifies immoral behavior and what does this message transmit to the world at large?
This is not the primary reason, again, for the cruel frat parties. I’m just saying there is something the black community can do to diminish Some of This. It’s to be proud of moral behavior, not commend activities that do not respect other people In Their Own Communities.