In class on Wednesday, Alex posed a question along the lines
of, how can a society that has a history of hating black people be so heavily influenced
by black culture (just for clarification, these are my words, not Alex’s)? This
question has an interesting answer tracing all the way back to the birth of
this nation (no pun intended) and deserves a thorough answer. Christopher Small’s
book Music of the Common Tongue does a really good job of breaking it
down. I highly recommend it along with the documentary Blacking Up: Hip-Hop’s Remix of Race and Identity. The book focuses
more on the Blues and African/African-American roots in American culture while the
documentary focuses on this issue more through the lens of history and hip-hop.
It’s no coincidence that the dominant culture is, and has been, fascinated with
black culture throughout this countries lifetime. I’d say that this topic is one
that I hope we would have discussed if the class were longer.
This is a link to
the documentary.
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