I asked my roommates what they thought the contemporary purpose of Rap and Hip-Hop was. What does not surprise me, is what most of us missed, (the most important part) the sociopolitical side …

Katy thinks it is a creative platform, Sarah said it is a space to sing against “The Man” and Christine knew it to be a social commentary, especially where racism and inequality is concerned.

Christine goes on to mention that artists like Eminem, Macklemore and Iggy Azalea are also part of the Rap and Hip-Hop culture (then she cautioned me especially around Iggy), So I googled …

“Hip hop was birthed out of the civil rights movement.” This is a culture that came from pain and oppression. It was the byproduct [of white oppression] (Newman).

If anyone bothers to read between the headlines or just takes on board anything Minaj says, we would see that the focus on personal “beefs” is an unhelpful diversion. Minaj is political, and wants to talk seriously about racism (Moore).

It turns out many people in the hip-hop community feel that Azalea is actively working against black interests because she appropriates traditionally black styles and totally divorces them from their political content (Barnes).

My search revealed that Iggy’s light skin is not the problem, but her ignorance is…

• She ignored the history of the genre she claims to be apart of,
• She failed to see where her voice fits within that history and culture,
• Out of her ignorance, she undermines’ voices that are speaking out against injustice, social issues (especially racial ones) that have fought for so long to be noticed and heard.

I have some inner angst, against the idea that only dark-skinned people can be apart of the Rap and Hip-Hop Culture. Telling a White, Blonde, Australian Woman, she can’t be apart of the Rap and Hip-Hop culture, sounds a lot like racism. How can we end racism if we still continue to use it?

The origins of Rap and Hip-Hop are important! They should never be forgotten and especially the should not be ignored … but Rap and Hip-Hop is more than just its origins. If it is to continue to be a space that speaks against all spheres of social injustice then it needs to include all spheres of speakers (just not the ignorant ones).

Works Cited

Barnes, T. (2014, December 22). Hip-Hop’s Huge Problem With Iggy Azalea Just Blew Up – And She Completely Deserves It. Retrieved November 24, 2015, from http://mic.com/articles/107012/hip-hop-s-huge-problem-with-iggy-azalea-just-blew-up-and-she-completely-deserves-it#.DjD5dkGpn

Moore, S. (2015, August 31). Nicki Minaj has something serious to say about race. We should listen to her. Retrieved November 24, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/31/nicki-minaj-confront-racism-catfight

Newman, J. (2014, December 30). Macklemore Talks Race, White Privilege and ‘Thrift Shop’ Backlash. Retrieved November 24, 2015, from http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/macklemore-race-white-privilege-thrift-shop-backlash-interview-20141230

White, Theresa, and Theresa Renee White. Journal of Black Studies: Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott and Nicki Minaj: Fashionistin’ Black Female Sexuality in Hip-Hop Culture – Girl Power Or Overpowered?. 44 Vol. Sage Publications, 09/01/2013. Web. 15 Sep. 2015.

This week I got into an argument with a mono-racial friend of mine. Just your run of the mill semantic’s battle.  How is it possible that what is being said is less harmful than what is not being said?

Until recently, I identified as mixed person. What “mixed” also says is, that I am a product of two pure beings, therefore I am not pure. That frustrates me. We have boxes and binaries in our society, that I believe no one person can truly fill. Why is it, when I  first meet someone, there first instinct is to categorize me.

Identifying mixed-race people for the untrained eye is often akin to meeting an alien. Why then, when you get to know me, do I become “too this and too that” (17 Struggles Of Being Mixed-Race).

Oddly Enough, “Racial Mathematics” don’t follow the rules of addition. ½ < 1 but I am not less than. *knock knock* *whose there* please stop calling me half this half that. It is not like my left side is black and my right side is white  — I am as white as I am black and as black as I am white … all at the same time! My dad is fully white and my mom is fully black, so doesn’t it make sense, that I am fully both?  

Cornell and Seely seem to think that our “desires and fantasies come to us from the place of the “other”, rather than our own conscious ego”, even our “uniqueness resides in our fantasy”. I think this is mostly true. Often, I know more about myself,  by knowing what I am not. Your uniqueness resides in the fact, that You are different than Me. You view the world from a different context than I do. So aren’t we all little bit “Other”?

As if white women are the only people on this earth, allowed to love Pumpkin Spice Lattes! I actually don’t drink coffee but Google told me, it was the most most common “white women stereotype”. I apologize for having to say it, just to prove my point. Are we not toddlers, trying to force a triangle block in to the circle spot? Wouldn’t it better if just got rid of the boxes we don’t clearly fit into?

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Works Cited

Cornell, D., and S. D. Seely. “There’s Nothing Revolutionary about a Blowjob.” Social Text (2014): 1-23. Print.

“17 Struggles Of Being Mixed-Race.” Thought Catalog. The Thought & Expression Co., 15 Oct. 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.

Please understand that the context in which I read Christie’s Better off Dead, is with the lens of being bi-racial. This will probably (fingers crossed) make more sense later.

Who would ave thunk, that scary movies that included; slow walking, brain hungry, crazed beings, come from a culturally loaded, deep history. Or how Zombie Media intentionally offers  its viewer, a social critique, if you are willing to look past the gore. Which I can’t but yeh! for those who can stomach it, and then write about it, in a safer, more visually digestible manner.

Yet whether you like zombies or not, the bottom line remains: This is a genre with a rich history that seeks to do more than just scare the living daylights out of you. (Elliot, 2013)

Professor Lori MacIntosh, introduced the idea that Zombie Media speaks to a specific moment in cultural ideology. That we can actually plot, significant moments in a culture’s history using Zombie Fiction. I am almost positive that she was just talking to Western culture, but I digress … In the case of Halperin’s White Zombie, there are concepts that still ring true today. For example, the concept that it is better “to be destroyed than to intermix (Christie, 16).

In the realm of fiction, there is no redemption for zombies AND IF, by some chance, you have managed to become a zombie-human hybrid, well—it is just better to be destroyed. So what does that mean in #reallife for the non-fiction version of a zombie-human hybrid?

Congratulations 2010s for being more progressive than the 1930s! Because, when I fill out a survey, I can now tick the “other” box.

 

Works Cited

Christie, Deborah, and Sarah Juliet Lauro. “”They Are Not Men…they Are Dead Bodies!” From Cannibal to Zombie and Back Again.”Better off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-human. 1st ed. New York: Fordham UP New York, 2011. 9-23.Print.

Elliott, Scott. “The Deeper Message of ‘The Walking Dead'” RELEVANT Magazine. RELEVANT Media Group, 15 Feb. 2013. Web. 9 Oct. 2015.