what a woman who could have joined the D.A.R. has learned about the socially-constructed, political notion of "race" by just paying attention and NOT keeping her mouth shut...
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Beauty and the Beat
After seeing this on Facebook and watching it twice, I showed it to Boxer, who said, "Show it again" and then, "You gotta post this on your blog."
Okay. Here it is.
White Girl sings, "There's must be more than this to a hood rat's life!"
I found it mildly amusing, but now that I give it some thought, I think it's how the white people around me tend to view black people. They want to believe there's something more, but all they have to fall back on are stereotypes.
I guess my gut feeling is that I hate it when black people go out of their way to reinforce those stereotypes.
That was my immediate reaction, TDg. But the more I think about it, the more I think the obviously extremely talented folks that put this together are saying, "Hey! How could anybody think this is all there is to Black people and Black people's lives?" Unfortunately, I suspect this level of irony may be too sophisticated for some people who are viewing it to get past the stereotypes. So it's taken as "clever," which then, as you say, reinforces the stereotypes.
I always believed that some people want to see black people as negative stereotypes, especially whites to make themselves feel good and(or) not be ridden with guilt or shame.
So, it wouldn't surprise me that there will be a lot of them that will find this amusing without second guessing themselves.
Sadly, some blacks believe that this is all that there is to be black in this country. And it's those black people that most white people adore.
3 comments:
My daughter showed me this, this past weekend.
I found it mildly amusing, but now that I give it some thought, I think it's how the white people around me tend to view black people. They want to believe there's something more, but all they have to fall back on are stereotypes.
I guess my gut feeling is that I hate it when black people go out of their way to reinforce those stereotypes.
That was my immediate reaction, TDg. But the more I think about it, the more I think the obviously extremely talented folks that put this together are saying, "Hey! How could anybody think this is all there is to Black people and Black people's lives?" Unfortunately, I suspect this level of irony may be too sophisticated for some people who are viewing it to get past the stereotypes. So it's taken as "clever," which then, as you say, reinforces the stereotypes.
Are there any alternate views out there?
I always believed that some people want to see black people as negative stereotypes, especially whites to make themselves feel good and(or) not be ridden with guilt or shame.
So, it wouldn't surprise me that there will be a lot of them that will find this amusing without second guessing themselves.
Sadly, some blacks believe that this is all that there is to be black in this country. And it's those black people that most white people adore.
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