White Boy Shuffle

So after having finished White Boy Shuffle and had some time to think about it, I would like to use this post to just sorta set out my thoughts on the book, and just generally how I reacted to it.
I really liked White Boy Shuffle. It was very interesting, both in plot and in style, and never failed to grab my attention and emotion. I think that this book, more than any of the other ones that we read, made me think hard about my own life, and how things are right now. The issues brought up in White Boy Shuffle felt like they were much more relevant than those in previous books, particularly the minstrel dynamics which were revealed. Reading WBS has made me think a lot more about how I act and how I see others act than most books I have read. I think that there is still a lot more I can and should think about that this book has brought to light, and the issues and questions it asks can be pondered probably indefinitely. White Boy Shuffle made me think about white culture, if it exists, and how it relates to and interacts with black culture. It made me think about individuals, and how they are more complex than anyone other than themselves (and often not even themselves) realize. Both of those things are questions that do not really have answers. They are just things that you have to be aware of and think about all the time, but after reading White Boy Shuffle I am much more aware of them.
One thing that possible can be answered is the question of how it feels to be a star. Both Nick and Gunnar are idolized at points in the book, and neither of them really appreciate it. Nick goes so far as to purposefully do worse at what he is great at, and Gunnar runs away and takes of his clothes. Gunnar is also idolized to an extent for his basketball prowess, but it does not seem to effect him as much as Nick, probably because he seems to care more about poetry than about basketball, so it is more of a joke to him. That seems to be Gunnar's way of dealing with being idolized. He finds the humor in it and focuses on that to keep him sane. It is strange to read about people hating their fame, because we so often dream of fame, but it does make sense when you think about it, because they are having their personalities and humanity stripped away from them. No one sees them as people, merely as famous basketball players or famous poets.
The other question which is brought up is that of death and suicide and when/if suicide is a good choice. I do not want to try to answer this in any way on a blog, because I think it is something that has to be examined personally, but I do find the many different opinions on it interesting in the book, and very thought provoking. The idea that killing yourself is the best way to further your goals, and to support a movement or cause is relatively unfamiliar, but I think warrants at least a little thought, even if you totally disagree with it. I fail to understand to reasoning behind these suicides, but I think it is important that I try to. I think that sums up my experience with White Boy Shuffle pretty well: "I don't understand a lot of it but I can tell it is important that I do."
I would be very interested to hear about what other people have made of these questions, or especially any other questions you thought were raised by the book.

SOLHOT reactions

So I just got back from seeing SOLHOT perform. What I enjoyed most about this event was Truth's rapping (especially a very incredible freestyle that she did) and Cleva's rapping. Cleva (I have no idea how to spell that correctly) has an album, Golden, coming out on the 18th, and I have been inspired to buy that after hearing her perform. She had an amazing energy about her, and infused all of her songs with a lot of passion. It was very moving to hear her and Truth rap, because I could see how much effort had gone into what they were saying, and how much they cared about their songs. I was siting near a man who had produced Cleva's last song, and it was neat for me to see him nodding to the beat, mouthing the words, and sort of conducting the music with his hands as Cleva rapped, all while recording her performance. Through his actions, I could see how many people had put a lot of their time and effort to make these songs exist, and it made me feel honored to be hearing them.
One thing that really stuck with me was not a song, but something that Cleva said about her group. She explained that their motto is "everything is great", and that starting from that mindset really makes her a much happier person. She went on to tell us that her album is sort of about her going from a place where she could not even having so positive a mindset, to actually having it (although as she pointed out, attaining that happiness and positivity is an ongoing process). I just found it interesting to hear her take on the album, and to understand how it shaped and was shaped by her life. Sometimes I think of music as completely separate from an artist's life, but lately have been more and more aware that the music evolves with them, and I have begun to appreciate an artists works as part of their journey, as well as stand-alone pieces. The room where Cleva was performing was definitely a very happy and joyous place, and it was hard to imagine even the thought of being sad at points, and part of what made Cleva's songs so good was that through them she could make me picture sadness and see trouble, even though I was in a place so distant from it.
One thing that I found sort of funny about this whole event was that, at one point, we were asked to get up and dance to get more energy, and all I could muster was a little leaning from side to side, which struck me as very similar to the "white boy shuffle" that Gunnar just described in the book.
I am really glad that I went to this event, because it helped me view poetry and music in a much more personal way, and see all of the work that goes into a successful poem or song. It made rap much more accessible to me, because I was able to see that these amazing rappers were totally human as well.

My thoughts on Ethnic Notions and the subtle danger of neo-minstrelsy

So I was talking some about this to Kai this morning, but what I took out of this movie, and my own experiences and thoughts, is that minstrelsy is really a problem when people don't see it as an issue. I think it is not about saying "black people are dirty scum and lazy" or anything that explicit. The issue is that, for example, the cartoons can be funny. Bugs Bunny is a funny guy, and I can totally see myself enjoying that cartoon as a kid, and not seeing anything wrong with it at all. I cringe to think about it, but I do have memories (some painfully recent) of watching extremely racist minstrel things, and thoroughly enjoying watching some exaggeratedly grotesque black man shuck and jive across my computer screen, eating giant watermelons. I can completely see how if I was more exposed to those sorts of things, and was raised with minstrel cartoons as my main form of entertainment, it would alter how I saw real black people. I wouldn't necessarily explicitly think that all black people are horrible and savage for example, but when I saw a black person I think I would instinctively compare them to the racist propaganda I had been fed, and I would not be able to look at them without seeing that Sambo or Coon image superimposed on their own face.
The problem with minstrelsy, and the reason it is a problem still, is not because it is explicitly calling all black people savage or horrible or stupid--although it does that too (but far less nowadays)--but because it discolors (pun intended, sorry) my and other peoples views of black people. It is easy picture these propagandized minstrel images when you see a black person if you grew up in a household with "Black Americana" and those images in your mind will forever keep you from seeing black people as wholly human, and disconnect the real people from their grotesque fictional counterparts. I optimistically think that few people are outright racist. Actually no that is wrong, but at least the majority of people are not explicitly racist. However, the ideas popularized through minstrel icons shade the popular view of black people for the worse, and taint how they are perceived. The minstrel propaganda is subtle, and hard to identify in this day and age, but it effects our views of black people just the same, and is even harder to separate from reality because there are fewer clearly racist images like those we saw during the movie. There is just, for example, B.A. being inevitably surprised to be knocked out and flown around the world--although I must admit, by the middle of the second season he does begin to suspect something might be up--and his rage at awakening to discover he has been transferred to a new continent. His apparent eagerness to be violent may also tend towards minstrelsy at points. I do not know if his character as a whole is a minstrel (I think not) but there are definitely aspects of the character which reflect minstrel dynamics, and subtly effect consumers views of black people, especially if they live in a relatively sheltered community (like Uni) and are do not interact with actual black people to see that they are as human as everyone else, and not exactly the popular depictions that are seen.

Too Deep To Dumb Down

I want to address some of the things that I didn't have time to during my poetry reading. I think that we did cover a lot of the main ideas and themes , but there is just so much to say about this truly incredible poem.
I think we talked some about the height imagery that is present in this song, but I am just going to go through it and list all of the times I see it:

• dumb it down
• like a chicken or a deer (?)
• going over n****s head
• we don't care about the weather (?)
• distance from the earring to the ground
• stewardess in a Lear
• she's flying
• I feel I'm flying by em
• my mind's on cloud nine
• and in a mine
• Pimps see the wings
• on the Underground King
• to infinity and beyond
• flying on Pegasus
• flying on a pheasant
• get up out the hood
• best-fed F-F jet in the nest
• who exudes. . . . excess depth
• around these leagues
• chest-high and rising
• almost touching the knees of stewardess and the pilot
• lucky they make you fly with personal floating devices
• make it rain
• you make a boat
• I make a plane
• make it drain
• filling it up again

wow. So that was a lot. I admit I was sort of loose on my interpretation of height imagery (e.g. chickens because they can fly seems kinda iffy to me), but even given that I found it astounding how many height related terms Lupe could fit into one song. Also the contradictory meanings of height language is interesting--Lupe is good because he is deep but he doesn't want to dumb it down, and at the same time he is going over peoples heads. Lyrically flying above them while staying grounded. One more way depth sort of comes into this song is in the lines "the writer of the quotes for the ghosts/who supplier of the notes to the living". Height might not be immediately evident in this, but I take it to mean that he is writing quotes (lines) for ghosts (ghost writers) who supply the notes to the living (people actually getting credit for the work). Basically Lu is saying that sure we can look one step deeper than the surface to find the ghost writers, but he is ghost writing for the ghost writers, one step deeper still.
I think that by working all of this height imagery into his song, Lupe manages to further his argument that he will not dumb down his songs. His lyrics are so intricate that he can say seemingly off-topic things ("Pimps see the wings on the Underground King/who's also Klingon, to infinity and beyond"). It is possible to find meaning in these lines, such as Pimp C being a member of the Underground Kings and having wings on his logo, but it is hard to see what this has to do with the main idea of not dumbing it down. What Lupe is doing is using intricate but off-topic lines like this to prove that he isn't going to dumb down. Lupe could never mention not dumbing it down (and he doesn't that much, because he wrote the title and hooks after the verses) and yet his crazy lyrics argue for him, and back up his implied argument with their skill and intricacy.