black people in the media came from my exposure to rap music and the "masks" that many black rappers use to attract listeners. All these discussions reminded me of a song titled "White Privilege" made by one of my favorite rappers, a white rapper called Macklemore. The song talks about how white rappers like himself are essentially invading the rap culture created by black people, and the importance of recognizing that although "good music is good music regardless of what you look like" it "doesn't change the fact that this culture's not mine" (lyrics from White Privilege, read all the lyrics here). He talks about how hip hop was created to counteract the struggles of being black in a horribly racist society, a struggle that he's never been through. He also mentions an idea that I have observed in the past but never really thought much of. The fact that the majority of fans at rap concerts tend to be white, even if the performer is black. Thinking back about the times I saw Kanye West and Nas & Damien Marley, I definitely recall seeing this. I would say the audience was at least 80-90% white, and seeing as the concerts were both in Chicago, that is not the ratio you would expect to see. I also noticed this line in the song, which I liked: "we still owe them 40 acres now we've stolen their 16 bars"
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
White Privilege
During Mondays class we talked briefly about the Grammys. We had been discussing the portrayal of black people in the media and performance before that, and the two topics relate heavily. A lot of the portrayals that I listed during Friday's class about 
black people in the media came from my exposure to rap music and the "masks" that many black rappers use to attract listeners. All these discussions reminded me of a song titled "White Privilege" made by one of my favorite rappers, a white rapper called Macklemore. The song talks about how white rappers like himself are essentially invading the rap culture created by black people, and the importance of recognizing that although "good music is good music regardless of what you look like" it "doesn't change the fact that this culture's not mine" (lyrics from White Privilege, read all the lyrics here). He talks about how hip hop was created to counteract the struggles of being black in a horribly racist society, a struggle that he's never been through. He also mentions an idea that I have observed in the past but never really thought much of. The fact that the majority of fans at rap concerts tend to be white, even if the performer is black. Thinking back about the times I saw Kanye West and Nas & Damien Marley, I definitely recall seeing this. I would say the audience was at least 80-90% white, and seeing as the concerts were both in Chicago, that is not the ratio you would expect to see. I also noticed this line in the song, which I liked: "we still owe them 40 acres now we've stolen their 16 bars"
black people in the media came from my exposure to rap music and the "masks" that many black rappers use to attract listeners. All these discussions reminded me of a song titled "White Privilege" made by one of my favorite rappers, a white rapper called Macklemore. The song talks about how white rappers like himself are essentially invading the rap culture created by black people, and the importance of recognizing that although "good music is good music regardless of what you look like" it "doesn't change the fact that this culture's not mine" (lyrics from White Privilege, read all the lyrics here). He talks about how hip hop was created to counteract the struggles of being black in a horribly racist society, a struggle that he's never been through. He also mentions an idea that I have observed in the past but never really thought much of. The fact that the majority of fans at rap concerts tend to be white, even if the performer is black. Thinking back about the times I saw Kanye West and Nas & Damien Marley, I definitely recall seeing this. I would say the audience was at least 80-90% white, and seeing as the concerts were both in Chicago, that is not the ratio you would expect to see. I also noticed this line in the song, which I liked: "we still owe them 40 acres now we've stolen their 16 bars"
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I really enjoyed this blog post. I was really struck when Macklemore said "this culture's not mine". Even though the hardships may not have been the same couldn't Macklemore or similar white rappers gone through hardships similar that have influenced them? Or is that although people go through different hardships that it cannot be considered a part of the rap culture. I also thought it was interesting that you observed the audience at the Kanye concert to be "80-90% white". Why do think that more white people attended the concert or what draws the white people to go to concerts? Is it simply because of popularity?
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