I used to care about hip-hop. I don't anymore. What I mean when I say that is that I used to believe that hip-hop was important in an extra-musical way, that it said something vital to and about society. I no longer believe that. It's just music to me now.

Seeing it this way has freed me up to criticize it in ways I'd never have considered permissible a few years ago. A few years ago, I believed that hip-hop not only said something important about black culture in America, but that it was the dominant voice of black culture in America. Thus, to criticize hip-hop was, in a way, a racist act in itself, because I was condeming black folks' chosen cultural message/outlet/whatever.

This was, I now realize, a fear-based stance. I was bending over backwards to prove how racially sensitive I could be, and in the process short-circuiting debate, within myself and with others. But as I grew up, I encountered a wider range of black folks than I'd known in school, and I realized that there were a bunch of 'em who didn't feel like hip-hop spoke to them, either. It may seem absurd, but I've often found that members of one group tend to assume that members of other groups think monolithically, so learning that lots of black folks found hip-hop's materialism and sexual politics as repugnant as I did was a major revelation to white suburban me.

Now, in 2004, I love the very few good records I hear, hate all the bad ones I see all over MTV and BET, and am indifferent to everything in between, and more importantly, I no longer look at hip-hop as being The Future. Not musically, not linguistically, not sartorially, and surely not philosophically. Yesterday, Jon said that blues and jazz were dead to him. I feel that hip-hop is almost as dead, at least in terms of messages it offers society. The materialism and repulsive sexual attitudes have really taken over, especially now that the music seems to have seized the pop charts almost completely.

I'm wondering now whether the increasing number of black folks who find 50 Cent and Lil Jon and Mystikal and all the others like them as repugnant as white churchgoin' folks find Marilyn Manson will rise up and do anything about it, or whether they will, in Joe Carducci's phrase, allow their children to buffalo them into cultural submission.

Some random thoughts. Taking a gander at the latest addition to the Bags link list I was a bit taken aback by the idea of a Hip Hop Generation. What are the precepts of membership? Who’s ‘in’ and who’s ‘out’? I’ve never really been a follower of hip hop music and culture. My flirtations ended with De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest and The Jungle Brothers in the early 90s. So what I know comes almost completely from what I read.

My mother’s side of the family is black, my father’s white. By the estimation of some this qualifies me to the categories of ‘bi-racial,’ ‘mulatto,’ etc. Do I feel kinship to these classifications? Not really. Have I been on the receiving end of racist behavior as a result of them? Definitely.

When I was eight a group of kids followed me home from school shouting epithets and taunts and throwing snowballs. They stopped short of my house when my father came outside to greet me. Seeing me sobbing he ushered me inside, fixed me a cup of cocoa and asked me what had happened. After listening to me choke through the story, he smiled, gave me a hug and asked me, “Derek, what do you think you are?” I sat for awhile, tears drying between sips of cocoa and finally answered: “I guess I’m tan.” He smiled again and answered, “Then that’s what you are.” I smiled back and felt a lot better. It taught me a valuable lesson. People can identify with whatever they want. But the flipside is that their own identification sometimes has little bearing on whether the larger community accepts them as a member.

I used to take comfort in the fact that ‘race’ is a social construct, not a biological certainty. These days it seems a luxury that doesn’t fit well with reality. Whether it’s an accurately ascribed/adopted trait or not, the consequences of race are very real.

Chapelle’s an interesting case. His show is funny a lot of the time, but I tend to stop short at the characterizations of him as brave and courageous. His shtick for much of the first season was opening the show by marveling at that he hadn’t been cancelled yet. By my estimation the reason behind his continued success isn’t the bravery of his material, it’s the fact that it sells ad space & garners viewers. He’s found a comedic reservoir that resonates with the public. Here’s an interesting recent article from Slate

Looks like my attempt to hyperlink is faulty, here’s the Slate article url: http://www.slate.com/id/2096599

Interesting post, Derek. Thanks for your candor. Can you explain this a bit more for me though?-

"I used to take comfort in the fact that ‘race’ is a social construct, not a biological certainty. These days it seems a luxury that doesn’t fit well with reality."

I don't really understand what it was that first comforted you, but that turned out to be a luxury. Thanks.

Thanks, Walt. When my parents were considering marriage they were hit with all sorts of absurd concerns from their respective families, ie. what about your kids? They’re going to turn out to be inferior some how, etc. My folks dismissed the assertions, but they still had an undeniable effect on their relationship. Prior to finally tying the knot, they broke up at least a dozen times, and later were estranged from my Dad’s side of the family for many years.

As for me, I took comfort in the realization that given their societal roots, racial differences aren’t biologically absolute. That fundamentally I really wasn’t genetically different/inferior to anyone else. It might seem silly with hindsight, but when I was growing up & forming an identity these sorts of worries crept into my head. That I should somehow be ashamed of my ‘race.’ That I needed to necessarily claim/justify membership to one race or the other. The problem was compounded by having the ‘racial’ differences between me and my peers accentuated by situations like the one I recounted above.

I see such thinking as a luxury now because the social aspects of race are usually far more prevalent & powerful than the biological realities. I can argue til’ I’m blue in the face that there’s no appreciable biological difference between say black and white (and actually have), but the ingrained societal differences, inequities, whatever you want to call them, that are the byproduct still exist.

Thanks, Derek. That's interesting. I can imagine other not so thoughtful and accurate (but perhaps also not so sensitive) types taking their comfort from the thought that they've gotten the best of both sets of (illusory) "race genes"--making them superior to any of their "purer" ancestors.

Anyhow, FWIW, it seems to me (here in my ivory tower) that in times in which "race-based" inequities are apparently omnipresent, it is as important as ever (and no luxury at all!) to remind everybody that "races" are artificial, rather than natural, kinds.

BWTHDIK?

My own understanding of satire is that it has to be informed by a strong moral point-of-view. Whether that's the case with the Chapelle's comedy and comedy like it, I've yet to decide. But here is an interesting "tome" (apologies to hardbop Chris) for you all to check out:

On the real side : laughing, lying, and signifying -- the underground tradition of African-American humor. / Mel Watkins.
New York : Simon & Schuster, 1994.

Walt, I’m with you on the importance. My point is that such reminding can often fall on deaf or even adamantly oppositional ears.

Joe, I guess I don’t really see a strong moral point to Chappelle’s comedy other than that none of us is completely immune to the rigmarole that is race.