This morning I had the opportunity to have a great discussion on the radio with Sharon Kay on 88.1 FM WFSK in Memphis. The hour long radio show had us discussing many elements of Hip Hop. One of the issues that came up was that apology given earlier this week from a one Mr. Kanye West to George Bush. That was an interesting conversation and one that has had many Hip Hop heads talking all week long.
Do I agree with the apology? Well, yes and no. While I am all about looking back and reflecting on life, growth, and our own mistakes, I’m also not one to apologize for truth and the “calling it like it is” vernacular seen so well from Hip Hop culture. The apology sends a mixed message as to what was really happening at that time during those fatal days following hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Mississippi. Moreover, it diminishes the reality and legacy of classism and racism which was seen so well in 2005.
Kanye has been on a bit of a quest to find meaning. As I’ve asserted in the past, Kanye’s life is an interesting one. On the one end you have an extremely talented person who shows no signs of slowing down. However on the other you have a person who has had some major setbacks in his life and with the death of his mother, only adds to the complexity of issues; compound that with no one with the ability or the access to let Kanye know there is come “crap” in his life and you have someone who is, at points, barreling down the track of life at dangerous speeds. Hence, I respect Kanye for coming out and admitting the error of his ways.
That said, let’s take this a bit further and see the deeper issues at hand. First, Kanye’s comments were a broader statement and criticism of the attitude and ethos from the government at that time towards the people of New Orleans and Mississippi. Michael Eric Dyson states, “West was suggesting that the government had callously broken its compact with its poor black citizens and that it had forgotten them because it had not taken their plain to heart. West’s claim that ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people’ was a claim not about Bush’s personal life, but rather his professional life” (Come Hell or High Water p. 28). Therefore, we begin to see the systems, which have so often been against many ethnic minorities, come to realization right before our eyes through the advent of live video those days in September of 2005; Kanye was merely calling out the madness of discrimination.
Second, it diminishes the face of classism and racism. By apologizing, it now opens up the door for “See, I told you it was never really that way!” It clears a pathway for those who are unaware of the legacy of racism and classism to dismiss the depth of Kanye’s words and the even deeper issues of race and ethnicity in this country. The apology pushes the very complex, difficulty, yet necessary conversation regarding race in this country further away from the center of conversations. Moreover, it makes it look like Kanye was, once again, just “acting like a nut.”
Third, it makes Kanye look a bit schizophrenic. No, I do not mean the brutha is mentally ill. However, with this apology, I have heard many say that Kanye’s point just doesn’t’ hold water…I mean look what happened with him and Taylor Swift. Thus, this is just one more notch on the“You people are just making this stuff up” social belt.
Fourth and lastly, we have yet to really deal with those issues regarding race and ethnicity stemming from those weeks in September of 2005. Once again, Dyson reminds us that “Bush’s claim that race played no role in the recovery efforts betrayed a simplistic understanding of how complex a force like race operates in the culture” (p. 31). It is never easy to discuss race. And for those in dominant culture who have never really had to deal with race in the way ethnic minorities have, or continue to be frustrated because “We’re still talking about this” have never really seen the historical tradition of racism in this country. Yes, race and ethnicity are multifaceted and with the emergence of “mixed” people groups, we have an even more intricate road ahead of us. Kanye’s apology does not help the conversation regarding race and ethnicity. Moreover, it takes us back a few steps.
Take a trip down to the 9th Ward in New Orleans and you will see that not much has changed. More importantly, greed has settled in and the land is being divided up through the process of gentrification. Most of the people I have interviewed who lived through the horrific ordeal have told me that the city just “doesn’t want them back.” When you have over 200,000 people displaced, there will always be room for “change.” What change will happen still remains to be seen. But the problems of the poor still remain at large.
The last issue here is of course, class. Because there were just as many poor White’s in that mess during the flooding as there were Blacks. In fact, many of the faces you saw in the videos from New Orleans were of poor working class White’s who were just as “messed up” as the Blacks were. Kanye’s comments also included them. How you say? The niggarization process, which Cornel West has suggested is the process of marginalizing and oppressing a people group similar to the way Blacks have been in this country and at times adhering to some of the same methods of discrimination (e.g. locked out of jobs, a lack of access to education, a disparity in resources). In many ways poor White’s are in some of the same boats Blacks are; particularly because society has forgotten about them too. Kanye, though indirectly, was addressing those issues too.
So, in the end, we have some items on our cultural and social table we need to discuss. Does Kanye have that much power and say so Dan? No, of course not. What I’m merely referring to here is the social and cultural significance of both his statements and the state of our country. I’m hoping we can continue to move forward and engage in these very serious discussions. Moreover, I’m hoping that the world in the next 15 years will begin to see some of the more serious problems regarding race, class, and gender. Here’s hoping that the discussion and ensuing solutions continue!
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