Rap as Poetry

Poetry is no longer something that we curl up to with a cup of tea. Instead, we take it in through earbuds. And America has never loved it more. -John McWhorter

While rap is a form of music many people really like, it is also disliked by many. Rap is often disliked for profanity, drug and sexual references, and lack of traditional musical elements. While these are valid points, there are also many reasons why people like rap, and prefer it to other forms of music. The main reason for many people is that it often has a more powerful meaning than music, such as pop, that is mostly written for a catchy tune over a powerful message. One line in a song we read a while ago was, "The people at the label say they want something to repeat/ But all my people really want something for the streets." 

I think another interesting thing about rap is how male-dominated it is. I actually wrote the first paragraph the day Linus and Jonah presented, but after that I was worried about posting it. I thought that my knowledge on rap was to shallow, and I may get judged for posting about rap. Although I still may get judged, a discussion we had in class earlier this week made me realize that rap is male dominated, and other people realize this too. It's just the way it has been, and probably will for a while. More female rappers are starting to become more popular, but I can say that on my phone I have 2 female rappers, while I have at least 10 male rappers. This could be partially due to my musical taste, or to the fact that most of the rap I listen to is because of my brother, but I think it is agreed that rap is male dominated.

Toning it Down

In the beginning of White Boy Shuffle we see Gunnar as "the funny black kid" who pulls a lot of pranks, and cracks a lot of jokes. As the book progresses we see that the tone of the novel gets a little darker, and Gunnar seems to be in an almost depressed state.

When Gunnar writes a letter to his wife, Yoshiko, he says things like "I miss you so much it hurts." Although Gunnar is a poet, I never really took him as the hopeless romantic. He seems to assume this role when him and his wife move to Boston. Gunnar leaves his family and the gang behind, with the exception of Scoby, and attends one college class. He tries to join clubs to no avail. He seems to be cast as the "black guy." As Gunnar tries to discover himself outside of Hillside and basketball, he has many encounters with different people. Gunnar was made fun of in his English class until they knew who he was, then they worshiped him. He tries to fit in with a couple clubs, all of which are racially connected, and eventually he turns back to basketball. He goes back to his old nonchalant attitude, and he is no longer the star. Gunnar and Nick both get booed and things thrown at them. This really seem to effect on Nick. When writing to Yoshiko he says that she should make and appointment for Scoby to see a councelor, and half jokingly says that she should make one for Gunnar too.

As the book goes on it seems to get less funny. I think that this is not because of Beatty's writing, but because of Gunnar's thoughts and actions. Gunnar tends to crack less jokes, mess around less with the guys, and just hang around with Yoshiko. Beatty still tends to put in jokes, but overall it seems that Gunnar has lost interest in trying to be funny. I guess it could be said that he didn't need to try to be funny. Although ridiculed by fans, he was a great basketball player, and a writer that his whole class loved. He was getting a book of his works published, but he doesn't seem to care all that much.

After Gunnar's encounter with the Harvard recruiter, it seems like his view on basketball, especially Ivy League basketball, lowered. He doesn't want to have to deal with nasty, pushy recruiters, so he would rather spend his time in the library reading. Gunnar doesn't have the same drive he had in the beginning. I can't say that he had a lot of drive to be good at basketball, but he put a lot of effort into becoming a great writer and poet. When his chance comes to show off to the class, and be the superstar underground black poet, he denies it. He runs around campus naked to get away from them, instead of reveling in the fact that he was a known poet that people really like; including being his teacher's favorite poet.

Bamboozled

The story of  Bamboozled follows a black Harvard educated writer, Pierre Delacroix, that is told to write "more black things." His white boss, Thomas Dunwitty, says that he is more black than the Pierre, and "proves" this by testing Pierre, on the knowledge of black athletes. Throughout conversations with Dunwitty, his boss, he calls him "nigger." Dunwitty claims he is entitled to use that word because he is married to a black women and has two mixed children. Dunwitty accuses Delacroix for portraying blacks in a positive light, and tells him to write something for the streets. Delacroix gets upset and decides to cast the two homeless black men that tap dance in front of his office in a minstrel show. He puts the main characters in blackface and has them telling extremely racist jokes; figuring he would get fired. The network loved the idea and immediately put it on a test run. Soon the audience started coming dressed in blackface and proclaiming that "I'm a nigger too!" Eventually this upsets one of the leads and he quits. Then Mantan (who the show is named after) refuses to put on blackface and does his tap routine in his street clothes. This infuriates the boss and he fires him right there.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie. Through most of the first part I was laughing at how ridiculous Dunwitty was, such as calling Delacroix "brother man," but towards the end it started to get rather dark. Although it was still funny, like when Dunwitty, the two leads, and a woman sit down to talk about the show's social issues she states that "She has  PhD in African American Studies" and Mantan replies "So you fucked a black man in college, yes continue, great niggerologist." This definitely shows the racial prejudice that they face. Manray and Womack (the leads) get more and more frustrated with how the show is being received. We see them every night angrily scraping blackface on and then having to happily put on a dance performance. At one point Pierre proclaims that he "doesn't want to have to do with anything black for at least a week" after they put together the minstrel show.

This movie showed many social issues that are often disregarded, such as Dunwitty telling Delacroix that he is more black, or that people would dress in blackface and call themselves niggers in the spirit of television. This movie was so powerful and brought so many different ideas to light. At one point towards the end Sloan, Delacroix's assistant says she is tired of being called "nigger." That line really stuck with me. She was a very educated women working for very powerful people, but her brother and his friends still called her "nigger." Sloan wanted to move past that and be seen as more than just a black person, but that's all they could see.

At the end of this movie I didn't know how to react. Overall this movie was rather entertaining, and had me laughing, but at the end I sat through the credits not knowing how I should feel. Something very dramatic happened at the end that changed everything and made the movie rather dark. Thinking back to all the times I was laughing, I realize that most of them were racially charged. It's interesting how as a culture we try to move past racism and be accepting, but we still find humor in racial jokes, and put racially offensive things in movies, books, and music.

If you have the chance I would recommend this movie.

Children in black history

One part of Ethnic Notions that particularly stuck out to me was how much of a role children played. The children, or "pickaninnies,"are depicted with large eyes, giant red lips, unkempt hair, and often naked. Sometimes they are shown with watermelons and fried chicken, stereotypical foods of black culture. This all implies that the parents neglect the kids. Kids grew up seeing black people depicted in such a negative manner, it only influenced negative images further. These portrayals were shown in cartoons, movies, and even toys given to children. Here are some examples:

Above image reads "Look me over, Buddy... I'm a real brunette!"

As I was researching this I tried to remember my first real encounter with racial divides. Although this is not the very first, I thought I would share it anyway. I was in second grade and I went to a mostly white Catholic school. In second grade a large family moved from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Champaign and they came to my school. One of the boys was in my class. I was a little confused at first why there was someone of a different race who had a rather thick foreign accent come to our class, but after about 5 minutes I got over it and went back to doing whatever second graders do. 

I wasn't raised in a culture with these harmful pickaninny toys and cartoons that could influence my opinion of another person before I actually met them. Children are usually easily influenced by things they see on TV or play with. They have to have that new cereal because it obviously tastes better than the generic kind, because that's what the commercial said. If I had grown up in a place where these toys and cartoons were common, I probably would have judged my new classmate on things that may not apply to him. 

Although racial prejudice is still out there, I think things like getting rid of these toys and making sure people know where they came from, and how hurtful they are, we are taking steps in the right direction.