Bergman Homework
ASSIGNMENT: MINSTRELSY AND HIP HOP
Starr and Waterman suggest that the popularity of Minstrelsy can be understood as more than a projection of white racism and that “working-class white youth expressed their own sense of marginalization through an identification with African American cultural forms (Starr/Waterman 2007, p.19).” In addition, it was during the Minstrel era that “the most pernicious stereotypes of black people,” including “the big-city knife toting dandy (the “bad negro”) - became enduring images in mainstream American culture, disseminated by an emerging entertainment industry and patronized by a predominantly white mass audience.” (Starr/Waterman 2007, p.21).
Like Minstrelsy, Hip Hop music is steeped in images and iconography relating to African American culture and is popular with predominantly white audiences. Author Bakari Kitwana explores the multi-racial appeal of Hip Hop music in his book Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America
Hear Kitwana's interview with Tavis Smiley at
http://www.archive.org/details/SmileyAndKitwana or http://chirb.it/2INOb8
and answer the following questions:
Why does Kitwana suggest that white kids love Hip Hop?
The young white Americans are struggling with the question of what it actually means to be young, white, and American. He also sees young white kids in crisis of their identity. What are the most important similarities and differences in the presentation of Hip Hop music and Minstrelsy?
They are similar because white people expressed identification with what people believe hip hop is an “African American cultural form. What is different though is that I don’t think anybody is using white racism for liking hip-hop everybody just enjoys the music.
Do you think that white audiences in the late 20th Century and early 21st Century express “their own sense of marginalization through identification with African American cultural forms” like Hip Hop
Starr and Waterman suggest that the popularity of Minstrelsy can be understood as more than a projection of white racism and that “working-class white youth expressed their own sense of marginalization through an identification with African American cultural forms (Starr/Waterman 2007, p.19).” In addition, it was during the Minstrel era that “the most pernicious stereotypes of black people,” including “the big-city knife toting dandy (the “bad negro”) - became enduring images in mainstream American culture, disseminated by an emerging entertainment industry and patronized by a predominantly white mass audience.” (Starr/Waterman 2007, p.21).
Like Minstrelsy, Hip Hop music is steeped in images and iconography relating to African American culture and is popular with predominantly white audiences. Author Bakari Kitwana explores the multi-racial appeal of Hip Hop music in his book Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America
Hear Kitwana's interview with Tavis Smiley at
http://www.archive.org/details/SmileyAndKitwana or http://chirb.it/2INOb8
and answer the following questions:
Why does Kitwana suggest that white kids love Hip Hop?
The young white Americans are struggling with the question of what it actually means to be young, white, and American. He also sees young white kids in crisis of their identity. What are the most important similarities and differences in the presentation of Hip Hop music and Minstrelsy?
They are similar because white people expressed identification with what people believe hip hop is an “African American cultural form. What is different though is that I don’t think anybody is using white racism for liking hip-hop everybody just enjoys the music.
Do you think that white audiences in the late 20th Century and early 21st Century express “their own sense of marginalization through identification with African American cultural forms” like Hip Hop