Music Choice Reflecting Cultural Pride: Black Heavy Metal Fan Criticized

On NPR today there was an interview with Laina Dawes in which she talked about the experiences behind her book What are You Doing Here about being a black heavy metal fan.

She talked of the fallacy behind the fact, ”There’s still a lot of resistance in terms of who should be listening to what genre of music based on their gender and their ethnicity,”

Then she goes on to comment:

“In black communities, music is so integral in terms of a storytelling mechanism. Back in the blues era, African-American women were actually able to talk about their hardships and sorrows through music, and be very personal. [The same is true of] hip-hop because it’s also obviously a black-centric music form. When I was in my 20s and hip-hop was coming out, a lot of black people felt that if you listened to hip-hop, that means that you’re really black, that you’re proud of yourself, that you know who you are. So when black people listen to ‘white-centric’ music — which is rock ‘n’ roll, country, heavy metal, punk, hardcore — it’s seen that they are somehow not proud of who they are.”

What strikes me as a white person is that I do not have this problematic expectation.  I am not expected to listen to music rooted in white culture and then told that I lack pride in my white culture if I listen to music from other traditions.  My listening to the blues does not lead people to say I lack authentic whiteness.  My interest in world music aligns me with a certain group of hip NPR listening aficionados, rather than labeling me a traitor to my roots.

Were I a white person who had a clear connection to the European countries of my heritage,  I might be expected to appreciate the music of that country’s past.  However, if I listened to other music, I do not think I would be thought of lacking pride in that heritage.

A side note, what would the music of white culture be?  Country? Classical? Gregorian chants?

 

The Rooney Rule: White Privilege Means Not Being a Token Interview

With the firing of many NFL coaches and general managers on Monday, there are many openings to be filled.   All the articles I have read about these openings have mentioned the Rooney Rule, the NFL policy that requires that at least one candidate of color be interviewed for an opening.  These mentions are usually near the end of articles after the article reviews all of the candidates, most if not all of whom are white.  In particular, the Cleveland Browns my beloved, bedraggled hometown team has a clear list of coaches in whom they are interested.  There pictures were plastered all over the front of the sports section.  None of these fine football minds happen to be people of color, so the Browns at some point will have to bring in a candidate of color to fulfill the Rooney Rule.  As I have noted before, the rule is positive in that it forces those in positions of power to broaden their pool and reach beyond the so called old boys network.  However, I do wonder how it works for the actual candidates who are brought in to fulfill the Rooney Rule.

I am reminded of conversations with educators of color who are mid level administrators and find themselves often called by search consultants to be candidates for division head or headmaster positions.  They have to suss out whether they are being called to make the pool diverse or if they are being called because they have a legitimate shot at the job.  I heard many talk of disappointment when they realized they were not a serious candidate, but had thought they were and had invested time and emotional energy in the search process.

That is one part of white privilege I and the white potential hires in the NFL benefit from.  We know that if we are invited to interview for a job, we are not being invited just because a person of our race is needed to diversify the pool.

Chip Kelly, supposedly the top candidate to coach the Browns (from U. Oregon website)

Residential Segregation and City Council Representation

The ongoing  impact of past residential segregation came to my mind recently.  I was reading an article about the redrawing of Cleveland City Council districts needed due to the loss of population and the subsequent mandated reduction of seats.  Even though the majority of the population loss was on the historically black East Side, only one seat was to be lost in that region while another seat was to be taken elsewhere.  This balance was necessary because the city, while 37.3%  white according to the 2010 census, has a majority white council and the loss of two traditionally black seats would exacerbate the fact that the council does not look like the population it represents.

The article made me think about the recent work my students did in reading about the role of race in Cleveland history. They looked into the way the densely populated East Side was the only area open to black migrants coming to Cleveland as part of the Great Migration, while the West Side (a larger area geographically) was reserved for whites.  This split was affirmed through education policy that engaged in various strategies to continue to provide a mostly separate educational facilities.

The legal (and illegal) underpinnings of this split are gone.  However, when I look at today’s news and the current make up of City Council, I can not help but note how history continues to influence politics and representation today.  If there had been no past restrictions as to where migrants of different races could live, what would the City Council look like today?  It actually might look the same depending on the voters and the candidates, but there would certainly be different electoral dynamics.

 

Happy Family Doll Sets (Caucasian, Asian, African-American)

Looking through the Play Matters catalog I came across a dollhouse and the families one can buy to play with in the doll house.

We have “Happy Family Caucasian”

We have “Happy Family African American”

 

and we have “Happy Family Asian”

 

I have many questions about these ways of representing race in America.

1. Why is the only man wearing a tie in the Asian family?

2. Why is there an extra baby in the African American family?

3. How did these facial features get identified with the different races?

4. Can I special order a multiracial family or do I have to get two sets and mix them myself?

5. Are we to assume that the couples are heterosexual based on the even numbers, or could some of the families include same sex couples?

Then compare those families to these family play sets I found at S&S.

Caucasian Family Play Set

 

Hispanic Family Play Set

 

Asian Family Play Set

 

African American Family Play Set

 

I find this latter range of four sets more appealing (if racially segregated toys can be appealing).  Odd discrepancies do not jump out here except for the number of books shown in each family.  Is it intentional that more members of the Asian family are holding books and the one daughter is the only figure holding two books? Why is she the only figure wearing a skirt?

I think I will hand these images to some students to analyze as artifacts and draw conclusions.

 

Jump Start’s Take on Being Mixed

I think this comic presents a great, humorous take on multiracial identity.

 

Whiteness and the NBA

Team photo of the Timberwolves

Last NBA season I posted an entry about the whiteness of the LA Lakers and how ESPN deemed the fact they could put an all white team on the court noteworthy.  Now there are questions about the Minnesota Timberwolves which contrary to the overall demographics of the NBA had an opening roster with 5 black players out of a total of 15.  On the one hand, there are conspiracy theories stating that the team did this to appeal to their mostly white Minnesota fan base.  On the other hand there are officials and commentators who point out that for a variety of basketball related reasons the team just came together this way.  Then there are other pundits who say the conspiracy theorists are just saying what they are because as African-Americans they feel their dominance is being threatened by the whitening of the NBA (mostly through the increasing number of European players).  Lastly, there is the way Rich Adelman the team coach has referred to the team as a, “”smart team, a very smart team” a use of the word “smart” that has in the past been the standard language of praise for athletically limited white players.

I tend to side with those who see this as happenstance that occurred due to a variety of factors over time, not a throwback to the old days when teams like the Boston Celtics were clearly and deliberately white.  Still, all the theories and comments do make one think, and Adelman needs to find some synonyms.  Now if they had only signed Jeremy Lin; too bad they already had a point guard.

 

Langston Hughes on Black Art

The first paragraph of an essay I am teaching tomorrow, Langston Hughes’s “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”:

One of the most promising of the young Negro poets said to me once, “I want to be a poet–not a Negro poet,” meaning, I believe, “I want to write like a white poet”; meaning subconsciously, “I would like to be a white poet”; meaning behind that, “I would like to be white.” And I was sorry the young man said that, for no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself. And I doubted then that, with his desire to run away spiritually from his race, this boy would ever be a great poet. But this is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America–this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.

This piece is from 1926, but it still has resonance today.  I wonder if anyone has ever said, “I want to be a poet–not a white poet (or other artist)” or is the lack of the need for such statement a sign of the racial obliviousness American culture allows whites.

Pastel drawing of Hughes by Winold Reiss

 

“Civilization” from Jungle Book

I have been teaching a unit on the atrocities in King Leopold’s Belgian Congo and my mind is full of stories of amputated hands, forced servitude, rubber quotas, taxation, whippings, and mass depopulation.  So it was rather jarring to hear behind me this morning on our phonograph a happy voice sing, “So bongo, bongo, bongo, he don’t wanna leave the Congo.”  It turns out that my daughter was listening to an old “Songs from the Jungle Book” record and the song was “Civilization” by Bob Hilliard and Carl Sigman.

Curious as to what kind of indoctrination was involved here (and whether that record needed to mysteriously disappear), I looked up the lyrics.  The song purports to present an indigenous Congolese perspective on civilization in which the speaker looks at the flaws of modern life and states that he would rather remain in the jungle with “my spears.”

On the one hand, it is not as bad as say Rudyard Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden” in that it is not singing an ode to the forced civilization of the indigenous peoples; instead, it is a critique of civilization at its flaws including in the end a reference to the atomic bomb.  It also makes fun of the media images of Africa presented on the “newsreel.” On the other hand, it presents a picture of Africans as  happy, innocent jungle dwellers  while creating a false dichotomy between urban and suburban European/American life and unsophisticated jungle life.  Meanwhile, on a larger, more problematic level, it is a song by non-African white people singing on behalf of Africans.

Given these facts I think the album will not be disappearing, but it will be properly deconstructed say ten years from now after an assigned reading of King Leopold’s Ghost.

Here is a clip of the song.

Here are the full lyrics.

Civilization Lyrics
by Bob Hilliard & Carl Sigman

Each morning, a missionary advertises neon sign
He tells the native population that civilization is fine
And three educated savages holler from a bamboo tree
That civilization is a thing for me to see

So bongo, bongo, bongo, I don’t wanna leave the Congo, oh no no no no no
Bingo, bangle, bungle, I’m so happy in the jungle, I refuse to go
Don’t want no bright lights, false teeth, doorbells, landlords, I make it clear
That no matter how they coax him, I’ll stay right here

I looked through a magazine the missionary’s wife concealed (Magazine? What happens?)
I see how people who are civilized bung you with automobile (You know you can get hurt that
way Daniel?)
At the movies they have got to pay many coconuts to see (What do they see, Darling?)
Uncivilized pictures that the newsreel takes of me

So bongo, bongo, bongo, he don’t wanna leave the Congo, oh no no no no no
Bingo, bangle, bungle, he’s so happy in the jungle, he refuse to go
Don’t want no penthouse, bathtub, streetcars, taxis, noise in my ear
So, no matter how they coax him, I’ll stay right here

They hurry like savages to get aboard an iron train
And though it’s smokey and it’s crowded, they’re too civilized to complain
When they’ve got two weeks vacation, they hurry to vacation ground (What do they do, Darling?)
They swim and they fish, but that’s what I do all year round

So bongo, bongo, bongo, I don’t wanna leave the Congo, oh no no no no no
Bingo, bangle, bungle, I’m so happy in the jungle, I refuse to go
Don’t want no jailhouse, shotgun, fish-hooks, golf clubs, I got my spears
So, no matter how they coax him, I’ll stay right here

They have things like the atom bomb, so I think I’ll stay where I “ahm”
Civilization, I’ll stay right here!

51% of Americans Express Anti-Black Attitudes: AP Survey

According to an AP survey:

“In all, 51 percent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent in a similar 2008 survey. When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 percent, up from 49 percent during the last presidential election. In both tests, the share of Americans expressing pro-black attitudes fell” (Washington Post).

This information saddens me even though it does show some progress over time.  Of course it does not show that electing  Barack Obama has turned America into a racial nirvana.

Here are two of sets of questions and results from the AP PDF.  The explicit section of the question relied on a series of questions such as these using a range of adjectives both positive, like dependable, and negative, like lazy.

 

Certainly the fact fewer people see the phrase “Determined to Succeed” as applying to blacks shows bias.  However, I know I would be one of the people who refused to answer on the grounds that I find it inappropriate to make such large scale generalizations.  I wonder how many people like me who try to be racially progressive took themselves out of the mix on principle.

 

 

Rep. Keith Ellison on Whiteness

This interview with Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) is worth reading for his meditations on the evolution of race and identity as America moves toward being more than 50% people of color.

This answer particularly struck me for its comments on the meaninglessness or at least the challenges posed by terms like white and black.

The Root: As more Americans have nonwhite ancestry, will the definition of whiteness itself be affected, or will we need a new word for “minority”?

Keith Ellison: Both of those things will be true. At the end of the day, I’m not sure we’ll be using the word “minority” anymore. It may just sort of become an anachronism. There is a chance that white people might be able to reclaim their own heritage for the first time in many years.

What is it to be white? It does mean something to be Norwegian. It means something to be Polish or German or Spanish. But “white” is simply a catchall for “light-skinned person.” It doesn’t really mean anything. It’s basically an invention to suit the slaveocracy in America during [the] antebellum [period], and it still works today because of that legacy of Jim Crow … So yes, the idea of whiteness might decline in terms of its meaning as well.

And in my district, for example, it’s difficult even to just say “black” people. We have the highest percentage of Somalis in the whole country. We’re either first or second in the number of Liberians. The reality is, when you say “black” people, who are you talking about? The Somalis? The Liberians?

And now, in Minnesota, we’ve started talking in terms of “traditional African Americans,” and what we mean is, those people whose ancestors were brought from West Africa and made to work for free for a few centuries in the South, and then their families immigrated to the North — or didn’t.