― sammy, Saturday, 29 March 2003 01:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
Who cares? Why do black people talk back to the screen at movies?
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 29 March 2003 01:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
― James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 29 March 2003 02:03 (twenty-one years ago) link
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?"
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Saturday, 29 March 2003 02:13 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 29 March 2003 02:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
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?
― Neudonym, Saturday, 29 March 2003 12:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
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.
― Dave M. (rotten03), Saturday, 29 March 2003 13:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
― matt riedl (veal), Saturday, 29 March 2003 14:53 (twenty-one years ago) link
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.
― mei (mei), Saturday, 29 March 2003 15:06 (twenty-one years ago) link
― nickn (nickn), Sunday, 30 March 2003 04:13 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 3 July 2003 17:13 (twenty years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:16 (twenty years ago) link
― cheese, Monday, 1 September 2003 10:12 (twenty years ago) link
― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 1 September 2003 10:55 (twenty years ago) link
― Shmuel Marmorstein (shmuel), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 00:13 (twenty years ago) link
― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 01:35 (twenty years ago) link
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.
― Just Deanna (Dee the Lurker), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 02:27 (twenty years ago) link
I get told I´m a fake Puertorican all the time, just ´cuz I´m white.
― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 02:38 (twenty years ago) link
― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 03:17 (twenty years ago) link
― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 03:19 (twenty years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 03:25 (twenty years ago) link
― dave q, Tuesday, 2 September 2003 06:41 (twenty years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 14:32 (twenty years ago) link
― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 14:43 (twenty years ago) link
I think we are at at the ass-end of identity politcs in this country.
― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 19:17 (twenty years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 19:41 (twenty years ago) link
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 19:58 (twenty years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 20:00 (twenty years ago) link
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 20:15 (twenty years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 20:20 (twenty years ago) link
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?
― u s steel, Monday, 30 March 2009 16:18 (fifteen years ago) link
http://thehurstreview.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/fleet-foxes-lp.jpg
― tenderhoos (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 30 March 2009 16:19 (fifteen years ago) link
Is this "too white" thing just about bad marketing and careless reporting?
― u s steel, Monday, 30 March 2009 16:22 (fifteen years ago) link
oh good
― no one is ever ready for the STAKK ATTAKK (jjjusten), Monday, 30 March 2009 16:29 (fifteen years ago) link
bacon
― Mr. Que, Monday, 30 March 2009 16:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Are you asking whether black people have started going to Roots shows?
― Comprehensive Nuclear Suggest-Ban Treaty (Hurting 2), Monday, 30 March 2009 16:36 (fifteen years ago) link
The truth about this is ineffable, yet you effers keep effing.
― M.V., Monday, 30 March 2009 16:36 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Monday, 30 March 2009 16:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Results 1 - 10 of about 518,000 for "too white".
― velko, Monday, 30 March 2009 16:39 (fifteen years ago) link
Results 1 - 10 of about 3,020,000 for "bottle opener".
― no one is ever ready for the STAKK ATTAKK (jjjusten), Monday, 30 March 2009 16:42 (fifteen years ago) link
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), Monday, 30 March 2009 16:43 (fifteen years ago) link
xxxpost hall & oates are pretty funky white boys tho
― if you like it then you shoulda put a donk on it (bernard snowy), Monday, 30 March 2009 16:47 (fifteen years ago) link
i'm white btwhttp://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/original/15_sasha_lgl.jpg
― velko, Monday, 30 March 2009 16:48 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― BADGES DON'T GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO WALTZ OFF WITH A BABY (HI DERE), Monday, 30 March 2009 16:48 (fifteen years ago) link
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?"
― if you like it then you shoulda put a donk on it (bernard snowy), Monday, 30 March 2009 16:49 (fifteen years ago) link
white people are the worst
― ice cr?m, Monday, 30 March 2009 16:52 (fifteen years ago) link
i would love to read the rest of that diary
― meat of beef (Jordan), Monday, 30 March 2009 16:54 (fifteen years ago) link
"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?
― pipecock, Monday, 30 March 2009 17:29 (fifteen years ago) link
white people post like this
― hello my name is peter francis geraci are you in debt (omar little), Monday, 30 March 2009 17:30 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.ussteel.com/corp/images/logo_top.jpg
― eman, Monday, 30 March 2009 18:10 (fifteen years ago) link