Comments

1. Wendi Muse wrote:

   carmen, this video of bell hooks is amazing. thanks for showcasing it here! i think her take on mainstream rap and its patronage as a form of colonialism is really interesting. i’ve never thought of it in that way. of course, i’ve viewed rap as a means of escape for certain groups (much like how jazz/blues and jazz culture were viewed in the 20s), but never in the sense that it was via a colonial gaze. yay for bell hooks

   Posted 19 Jun 2007 at 1:29 pm ¶

2. Rachel S. wrote:

   Around the same time, there was a famous interview with Ice Cube and Angela Davis, making some similar points.

   Posted 19 Jun 2007 at 3:15 pm ¶

3. eric daniels wrote:

   I know you aren’t going to print my post Carmen because of past trangressions, but for once a Black Feminist has it right. I do not always agree with bell Hooks but in her 9 minute presentation she hits the nail right on the head on the “comodification of Blackness” as presented by media. Most is being digested as the transgressive nature of Black Americans and the culture’s worst elements has been going on since the minstrel shows and scientific race studies of the 1850’s.

   What is going on in 2007 is the same play but with coprorate and multicultural support along with the politcal, scientific, and moral judgments. Like Paul Mooney said, “Americans want to be black but they really don’t wanna pay the price to be black”. Hooks is on to something very profound in our relationship to mass media except one thing, Black entertainers cooning for dollars have gone on since the 1850’s, like the minstrel and vaudville shows of their day many didn’t care of the results to our relationships then as today.

   for every Bert Williams you had Stephin Fetchits, Matan Moreland and like today, for every Van Hunt you have 50 Cent and Tiffany “New York” Pollard who feel that ‘getting paid” was more important than making sure Black Americans were not were portrayed with those negative elements. Black American culture in 2007 is now a commodity to be pimped in the worst ways instead of rich cultural tapestry of music, art, language dance and intellectual beauty.

   Posted 20 Jun 2007 at 4:09 am ¶

4. LM wrote:

   Good stuff, Carmen & Chris. Thanks.

   Posted 20 Jun 2007 at 9:05 am ¶

5. Michelle wrote:

   I agree with most of what she says about hip-hop especially when she mentioned hip-hop videos re-enforcing the racial colour caste system with the majority of women in the videos being light-skinned with long straight hair. whenever this issue is discussed some complain about the replacement of dark-skinned women with light-skinned to white women, while others say they have no problem with the exploitation of women in those videos as long as its white women.

   my favourite vid from hooks is her analysis of the film by Larry Clark ‘Kids’

   Posted 20 Jun 2007 at 11:33 am ¶

6. Malena wrote:

   bell hooks is soooo refreshing. i needed that. thanks

   Posted 20 Jun 2007 at 12:55 pm ¶

7. eric daniels wrote:

   Michelle, I would like to ask video directors and record labels why don’t they cast a diversity of black women, but since we are not in those meetings could it be that record labels and the marketing departments are casting light- skinned Black Women because they feel it would cover their bases with men (and some women) of all colors in regards to videos.

   Hooks is right that is has reinforced the colorism that exists in Black America but that can also be that way in Latin Music also of the more dark- skinned the woman the less he/she is worth. But we have to remember that this post 1993 Chornic era Hip- Hop when the music became a commodity and record labels were able to bring in bigger budgets so maybe it is Hollywood standards that are at play here.

   Posted 20 Jun 2007 at 6:51 pm ¶

8. Ehav Ever wrote:

   I think this though begs the question of, What exactly is blackness, and what does it mean to be black?

   Some of the rappers who were shown in the video in their own interviews talk as if their videos and images are true to “black culture” while those who are against those images say that it is not black culture. This then makes me wonder if there are differences in “Black Culture” or if skin color is not an accurate method of determining culture.

   For example, think about the following comparison.

   Black person #1 Grew up in a crime ridden neighborhood in lets say in Compton. Not very religious, but if they had to choose Christian, but no real denomination or adherence to it. High school education, no plans of college. Never left the Compton neighborhood where they grew up.

   Black person #2 Grew up in a military home, traveled the world, speaks several languages. college educated and this person is Baptist and lives in a predominately African American suburb neighborhood.

   Black person #3 Their family moved from Jamaica to the Bay Area and they grew up in a Jamaican neighborhood. The family is Muslim (following the Sunni method). College educated and speaks Patwa, English, and can read Arabic.

   Black person #4 Grew up Jewish. Lived in a Persian Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, speaks English, Farsi, and Hebrew. Educated ad Jewish schools, travels, and college educated.

   Black person #5 Grew up in Ethiopia. Moved to America to go to school. Grew up in a poor Ethiopian community in Addis Ababa. Is a part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Speaks Amharic primarily, but also English. Works pay their way through college in the medical field. Travels to Ethiopia once every 2 years to visit family.

   Using these five examples, the question then becomes do they all share the same culture simply because they can be called “black”? If the skin color is the only thing they have in common, can one still claim that they are all black? If the answer is yes, and all skin color is the only thing they have in common, how does the issue them play out?

   If their cultural differences are known up front, how does the rap imagery then affect each person?

   Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 11:42 am ¶

9. Wendi Muse wrote:

   that’s an excellent point. i think that the “culture” they share, if you want to bend the definition a little and call it that, is one of representation and its effects. “oppression” if you will, though that is not necessarily the word i am looking for. they may have shared experiences with regard to how they are treated by others…as well as how the images that are perpetuated via mainstream hip hop (and other generally popular images of black people) affect how/(why) people treat them (the way they do). even though their background cultures (religion, customs, geographic location) may differ, they *may* have a shared experience with racism (in the US) as they will not be wearing signs that say “Hey, I’m not an American black. I’m an African/Caribbean/South American one” etc. The treatment may be the same.

   Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 12:59 pm ¶

10. Ehav Ever wrote:

    Greetings Wendi,

    Interestingly enough, a few friends of mine who are Ethiopian Israelis spoke about this a bit. They said that they had never experienced the idea that skin color connected them with people who weren’t Ethiopian Jews. As far as they were ever concerned they were Jewish first, Ethiopian next, and then from a certain local last. Skin color never played into it. (Even in Israel calling someone black, which there are other terms for this, could mean you are talking about Ethiopian Jews, Yemenite Jews, Moroccan Jews, North African Jews, the Hebrew Israelites in Dimona, etc.

    When they lived in Ethiopia they were oppressed by Ethiopian Christians and Muslims, who looked really no different from them. They said when they came to America it was weird for people white and black to identify them as being black i.e. connected to people who weren’t Ethiopian Jews. They recognized a definite distinction between themselves and African Americans, Africans from other countries, and even other Ethiopian ethnic groups.

    A few of them seemed to suggest that it was weird also when African Americans approached them as if they were the same people because of their skin color. It is sometimes easy to tell if someone is Ethiopian, but they seemed to suggest that sometimes they caught heat from African Americans, on the whole if your skin color is this your a brother or sister thing.

    What is interesting is in Israel there are some Ethiopian Israelis who have left their own culture and started imitating the hip-hop culture they see on TV. Part of the reason is because they see the videos with the money, the bling, etc. and they think Wow those African Americans have it made over there in America. In fact when I was in Ethiopia several years ago many of my friends did not believe that there was poverty in America because of the rap videos and what they see on TV.

    I am African American and Jewish, some ancestors from Spain, Senegal, France, etc. I am mostly around Yemenite Jews and Moroccan Jews. What I have found mainly in the Jewish sector, is that if someone who is Jewish and knows a few languages and is connected to a community from North Africa, the Middle East, etc. that you normally aren’t considered black in the American sense of the word. Some of my from close friends from India once said the same thing. They said that they didn’t really consider me black because I am Jewish, spoke a second language, and I had been overseas. They considered me Jewish first, and everything later. The same went for African Americans who were visibly (due to dress and language) Muslim.

    This I think also is the problem with images that come out of the rap world and things like it. It gives the impression that African Americans who don’t met certain criteria for not being considered.

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 3:18 pm ¶

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