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Originally Posted by billege
I will take a relisten to BEP’s song, and consider the lyrics through the lens suggested. My initial disgust at the lyrical content likely did prevent me from considering it for what it is. I appreciate the heads up on that. Does most of the BEP’s music contain commentary of this type? Yeah, I did know Fergie is white.
Thanks also for the book link, I will check that out. I expect it will be deeper. Especially considering I didn’t write a book, I asked a question based on some thoughts I had after watching some TV and listening to the radio the past couple days.
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I want to make clear that I in no way shape or form meant to dig you for your comments. I thought they were interesting and raised good points: points that have been raised by scholars, black or otherwise.
Alansmith's comments just rolled into my inbox, and I must say I agree with your assessment over his.
The reason I stated out that Cornel West provided a deeper analyses isn't because I thought yours was shallow in a negative sense--both your and my post scratches at the surface of a very complex issue that can't really be done justice in a quick posting. Maybe I could pull it off the shelf and give a try, but basically I think you would find that text stimulating and enlightening. It would definately shed light on what you are perceiving among other things you haven't raised here.
I could say that I meant his book will give a deeper analysis than I am going to provide. My comment wasn't intended to make you feel like you offered up some crappy commentary. West is a very influencial figure in race relations literature. Partly because he's intelligent but also because, to be blunt about it, he's a black man at Princeton. The two are related, but also congeal into a very powerful messenger.
Omi and Winant are considered the pinnacle of race relations studies. Just do like this 'omi and winant' on google and you will get good hits (Michael Omi and Howard Winant, btw). Cornel West took a lot of flak for writing that book I pointed you to because he wrote it as a non-academic piece.
One thing I would like to point out to you is the notion of multiple marginality. Because you have begun to shift your perspective from racial to gender. But I want you to know that the two are not mutually exclusive. The idea is that marginal groups can have multiple levels of marginalization. Watch how this plays out:
1) a homosexual, white male >> marginalized due to sexuality
2) a homosexual, black male >> marginalized due to sexuality, compounded by racism
3) a homosexual, black woman >> marginalized due to sexuality, compounded by racism, compounded by gender relations
so we would notice that the 3rd individual experiences the most discrimination and feels the most assaulted by the status quo: in regards to her sexuality, her race, her gender (she might be, for example, face discrimination from black males, straight non-white males, straight females, homosexual non-black males, homosexual non-black females, & etc.)
The BEPs music, in my opinion, holds some substantial social commentary within it. They also strive and achieve good dance music, but they manage to lace stimulating lyrics in some of it. I attribute this to the fact that they are all minorities (and I still have to check whether their black member is afro-american; I haven't yet).