Why do white people criticize one another for being white?

Who cares? Why do black people talk back to the screen at movies?

In other words "white" is a fine term becuz it means something real and pretending it doesn't is like pretending that "black" means nothing and racism vanished with the civil rights movement.

It's not being white so much as *acting* in a "white" way which of course is something determined by context etc. Blackpeopleloveus.com to thread.

Also That Girl's comment makes plenty of sense when you consider that hip-hop songs are *about* surving and indie songs are *about* being losers v. often -- so which do you want to identify more with? On the other hand compare/contrast another typically "black" genre like classic jazz and fewer people will say its about "surviving" and then you can be like jazz v. buttrock fite and get an answer like "one is cerebral wanking and the other is about having a good time -- hmm which do i pick?"

How many media references to 50 Cent are about his record as opposed to his life and history and sales and pronouncements? The ratio is poor, which really means that everyone is reviewing, basically, his "blackness." Which is exactly what he's trading in...as is Eminem, really, too--8 Mile is an entire treatise on Rabbit's/Eminem's black-credentials, and the reason he's the coolest guy in America has at least something to do with the fact that he is a successful Euro-American in a field that is dominated by African-Americans (cue Presley, G.Michael's solo career, the Dallas Mavericks)--and what we are buying, too.

But we want to be 'better' than that, less sucked-in, more objective, harder-edged than the other suckers out there--so we want to question the critical status quo that will intensely question/analyze/mention most of the tracks on the Malkmus record, but basically ignore Killer Mike's and Lil Kim's and Bryan McKnight's music in favor of recounting their history or their famous friends or their fashion sense. So we throw around terms like 'white' with impunity because it's "not supposed to be done". Isn't that something like that?

Cynical, clear-eyed Neudonym asks: Don't we do it because we kind of like to be assholes?

And I'm sure somebody's going to say 'yeah well not all big bands were black, look at Ellington he was successful yada yada' but I think it's pretty much undeniable that a lot of black music in the 20th century was introduced to a wider audience in a form that was often quite distanced from the idiom it was supposed to represent.

As for why we still do it, I'm going to go with force of habit.

I am white, but not the 'white' of the thread title.

I never think of myself as white though, or black, or any other colour.

I don't think I'm particularly similar to all the other people who have approximately the same skin colour as me.

I'd prefer to align myself with, say, all the other music lovers, or all those people who prefer cats to dogs. At least those groupings would tell you something about the way I think/feel/behave/value.

Some may look at me and think, "Ok, she's obviously got some street cred to her. She could blend in with a hip-hop and R&B loving crowd and wouldn't look totally out of place at a rap show." But you know what? I would feel utterly and completely lost in those sorts of places. I have no inner street cred to speak of. The homeys in the ghetto wouldn't exactly be down with me listening to Scritti Politti. I'm so out of this particular circle that I don't even know if that last sentence makes me sound like an even "whiter" person. I am essentially the Steve Martin character in the movie Bringing Down the House.

Point being, it could very well be possible to consider oneself unhip and totally not down with "it" (whatever "it" is) no matter what one's outward appearances may be. So if you have porcelain white skin and fine facial features, don't think that automatically makes you unhip or not "clued in" to the ways of the street, because I know for damn sure my OWN olive skin and big lips and Roman nose could not even BEGIN to give me an instant ticket to the World of the Ethnic Cool.

I get told I´m a fake Puertorican all the time, just ´cuz I´m white.

I think we are at at the ass-end of identity politcs in this country.

It is six years later, we have a black president in the USA (since this thread is US-oriented). Do you think we have made significant progress in that time WRT stereotypes about music consumers?

http://thehurstreview.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/fleet-foxes-lp.jpg

Is this "too white" thing just about bad marketing and careless reporting?

oh good

bacon

Are you asking whether black people have started going to Roots shows?

The truth about this is ineffable, yet you effers keep effing.

i was one of those people in high school & some of college who described things, pejoratively, as 'white' (i had a radio show called 'renegades of funk' LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL)... anyway my self-loathing cycle arrived and i did this complete 180 a few years ago and now privilege and prize music that i once would have disparagingly called 'white' (i.e. dadrock, balearic, & in particular the intersection btw the two) (im not sure that my reason for doing this reversal is, um, 'racial' in nature; i mean, i wasnt checking out hall & oates instead of mos def because i had gone stormfront--though i think there was a certain kind of racial discomfort i began to feel abt my position w/r/t rap music & maybe my shift toward the dadrockearic axis was a desire to return to a less fraught place)

anyway i now listen to i guess "white boy" music (incl. even some indie bands!!!!!! who are of course the 'whitest' of the 'white') but id never think of calling it 'white' approvingly. not really shocking, obviously, since its sort of troubling to be going around using 'white' as a compliment. i guess i just wanted to share.

Results 1 - 10 of about 518,000 for "too white".

Results 1 - 10 of about 3,020,000 for "bottle opener".

i guess i only use "white" to describe music or a performance that is going for a style rooted in black or latin culture, but missing the mark (no matter the ethnicity of the performers).

xxxpost hall & oates are pretty funky white boys tho

i'm white btw
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/original/15_sasha_lgl.jpg

http://www.google.com/search?q=white+bottle+opener&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

According to the Hall and Oates biography, Hall upon learning that "I Can't Go For That" had gone to Number One on the R and B chart, wrote in his diary,"I'm the head soul brother in the US. Where to now?"

white people are the worst

i would love to read the rest of that diary

"i guess i only use "white" to describe music or a performance that is going for a style rooted in black or latin culture, but missing the mark (no matter the ethnicity of the performers).

― meat of beef (Jordan)"

how long was this thread before someone finally stepped in with the easy common sense answer to the question?

white people post like this

http://www.ussteel.com/corp/images/logo_top.jpg