Side note: Mac Phipps went to literal PRISON for TWENTY-ONE MOTHERFUCKING YEARS because the legal system, along with the rest of US society, takes violence in rap music literally, even as it takes violence in white music figuratively. This is not a frivolous concern.

#music #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #hiphop #NPR #LouderThanARiot #Blackademia

1. Just good ole white Christian music, where the talented creative performers are having a bit of a laugh.

2. This is definitely that violent, degenerate hippity-hoppety nonsense, why don't these thugs do something about their culture?

3. Ha ha, just a fun little bit of fancy!

4. Seriously, these rappers keep confessing to their literal crimes in their horrible... can you even really call it music?

5. This is obviously a CRITIQUE of violence, and in no way should this be taken seriously.

6. Listen, I"m not racist, but-

#music #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #hiphop #NPR #LouderThanARiot #Blackademia

2/ To that end, I wonder if (without Googling) you can tell which of the following song lyrics are a) more of that dangerous violent thug mentality that is endemic specifically to hip hop, or b) simply light-hearted, ironic, or critical imaginative pieces by talented white musicians. No cheating!

#music #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #hiphop #NPR #LouderThanARiot #Blackademia

1/ In an amazing bit of serendipity, I've been listening to various podcasts, and this episode from "Louder Than a Riot" popped up. It deals exactly with the different way in which Black music is (literally!) criminalized for dealing with the same themes that white music does:

#music #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #hiphop #NPR #LouderThanARiot #Blackademia

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/13/923405080/lyrics-on-trial-mac-phipps-pt-2

Look y'all. I'm not saying there aren't things that are problematic (in terms of violence, misogyny, LGBTQ+phobia, capitalism) in hip hop, and other parts of Black culture. I'm not insane.

What I'm saying is, those same elements are in all parts of white culture as well, because America - like all modern political systems - glorifies violence, misogyny, LGBTQ+phobia, and capitalism.

Don't judge Black culture more harshly than you judge white culture for doing the exact same things. That's it.

#music #hiphop #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #Blackademia

@BigEatie @davidnjoku

It's not entirely surprising that there is a general consensus that Black music (hip hop) is somehow worse, more violent, and more degenerate than white music (rock, pop, metal), even though they mirror the exact same themes far more often than acknowledged.

This is part of a long history of Black culture being evaluated qualitatively differently, and in ways that "prove" Black intellectual inferiority or degeneracy in comparison to whites. The narratives on jazz when it first emerged are so eerily similar to the current narratives on hip hop that you could take a commentary on jazz in the 1930s, and put it in the media today as commentary on hip hop. Extremely ironic, considering jazz is now overwhelmingly white.

#music #hiphop #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #jazz #Blackademia

@BigEatie @davidnjoku

I'm not saying hip hop DOESN'T glorify violence. That would be absurd. Some of my favourite songs ("Thug Love," "Gimme the Loot," "Beatbox," "Slide") are absolutely like that.

However:

1) I don't see any evidence to say that the glorification of violence in hip hop is qualitatively different than the glorification of violence in white culture. Besides the songs mentioned, one of the TOP MOVIES in America in the past few years was theJOHN WICK series, which is nonstop white guy violence. Somehow that's Ok to everybody, though.

2) The "glorification" of violence is way overstated, as a lot of the "gangsta" rap music is highly critical of violence, even as it's being depicted - "C.R.E.A.M" is a great example.

3) A lot of the "glorification" is also clearly and unmistakeably parodic or exaggerated storytelling. "Gimme the Loot" is *obviously* hyperbole for the sake of a story.

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #Blackademia #music #hiphop

@davidnjoku

(Side note: "Gimme the Loot" is a fantastic song, and one of the best examples of storytelling in rap, alongside "Shakey Dog" by Ghostface, and "Brenda's Got a Baby" by Tupac).

#hiphop #music #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #Blackademia

@davidnjoku

I dunno, man. There are still a LOT of rock/pop/country songs about murder, drugs, and misogyny that make it on the radio. Just off the top of my head:

Janie's Got a Gun
Pumped Up Kicks
Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Goodbye, Earl
Black River Killer
Cocaine
Cocaine Blues
Sweet Leaf
Psycho Killer
Bohemian Rhapsody
Blurred Lines
Night Train (Jason Aldean)
Nightrain (GnR)
Drunk on a Plane
Country Girl (Shake It For Me)
Smoke a Little Smoke
Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
Hey Joe
Love is Murder

Pop, rock, and metal aka white people music all have violence, drugs, and misogyny on the radio ALL the time. I think you're just not registering it in the same way you're registering the exact same themes in hip hop.

#music #hiphop #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #Blackademia

@davidnjoku

Let me tip the scales to you being angry at your younger self.

1) Hip-hop is not even close to being the only music that has misogyny, aggression, murder, and drug culture. Country, rock, metal, and pop (and all their various iterations) are chock-full of songs with all of that. The difference is, society tends to treat white people singing about mass murder (e.g. "Black River Killer" by Blitzen Trapper) as imagination, and Black people singing about murder (e.g. "Gimme the Loot" by Biggie) as literal, since society does not believe Black people are capable of imaginative storytelling.

2) Hip-hop was never, ever, ever - and STILL is not - solely about "gangsta shit." There has always been a Missy, Dead Prez, noname, MF DOOM, Digable Planets, Mos Def. Always. The question is, what gets picked up by dominant society for commercialization to white people.

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #Blackademia #music #hiphop

I mean, this is kinda cool, but before everyone gets too excited, remember that Tucker Carlson replaced Bill O'Reilly, and somehow managed to be even more fascist and white supremacist than him. At this rate, the person Fox hires to replace Carlson will probably be the reanimated corpse of Goebbels (gifted article).

#politics #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #Blackademia #media #FoxNews

https://wapo.st/3NaW4fc

@Greenseer @Lowie

Here's my favourite tidbit on Winston "Eew, Indians are gross" Churchill: near the end of WWII, Roosevelt pointed out that it was hypocritical to claim the war was for freedom and liberty and against global tyranny, and yet Britain wanted to retain its colonial territories. In response, Churchill said adamantly, that under no circumstances would Britain give up its imperial design over nonwhite races.

In response, the Jamaican writer Roger Mais wrote the following piece, commenting on the fact that the British war effort was being supported by the very nonwhite people that the UK was determined to maintain subjugated under its deliberate police of global white supremacy.

It's one of the most insightful and poignant things I've ever read:

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #politics #Blackademia #WinstonChurchill #UK

http://www.impossibleobjectsmarfa.com/fragments/now-we-know-by-roger-mais

This is a good article, but it misses something crucial. It states: "[Scott's] presence makes the Republican brand more palatable to those who want an American conservatism without the racial resentment."

Fundamentally untrue. Scott's presence makes the GOP more palatable to those who want conservatism without the *appearance* of racial resentment. Scott and his supporters are 100% fine with the white nationalist policies and ideology of the GOP. They just don't want to be called on it, and Scott gives them enough plausible deniability to get by.

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #politics #Blackademia

https://wapo.st/40rVJHM

See, for white society in general, it does not matter if you as a Black person are "highly intelligent," a "gifted soul," or not. The very first thing they see, and often the ONLY thing they see is your Blackness. You could be a dual Juilliard and Harvard grad with a PhD in neuroscience - if you knock on the wrong white person's door, all they will see is "Negro savage." They killed Elijah McClain. They killed John Crawford. They roughed up Henry Louis Gates for going into his *OWN HOUSE.*

Respectability politics will not save us. Only anti-racism will.

I'm so tired, y'all.

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #politics #BLM #Blackademia

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ralph-yarl-shooting-victim-highly-intelligent-gentle-soul-former-teach-rcna80024

@Purrtail

That's 100% right. In the 30s, Keynes was worried about automation, because he knew that automation and industrialization would increase productivity to the extent that we didn't need labour to meet all of humanity's needs, and thus he was concerned about what we were going to do with all our free time. So, he strongly recommended that people take up hobbies, and learn to find good pastimes.

What he never imagined was that automation would be used to make labour even MORE insecure, continue extracting wealth from the working class, and further entrench poverty and desperation.

#politics #economics #Blackademia

Good god, how many emails can one person possibly receive?

#DepartmentChairProblems #Blackademia #AcademicMastodon

Black Liberation is impossible without women's liberation and LGBTQ+ liberation and anti-capitalism, if only for the simple fact that women, labour, and LGBTQ+ people comprise a majority of the Black population. Patriarchy will not save us. All those manosphere brothas are not interested in real Black liberation. They just want to be on top of a continued system of injustice.

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #Blackademia

@Greenseer

I'm not an expert in Queer Theory, but from what little I know, I'd say:

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. There's a phenomenon called "homonationalism," which occurs when the quest for LGBTQ+ equality is framed as a quest to participate equally in the institutions of the nation-state. In doing so, the struggle for LGBTQ+ equality gets appropriated to validate state violence, e.g., "gay people are just as good as straight in working for the cops."

Notably, this occurs for every population of marginalized groups - Black capitalism is another example of equality struggles perpetuating oppression.

Shon Faye, an actual expert in Queer Theory explains it really well here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l3shYm6Jao&ab_channel=NovaraMedia

#lgbtq #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #QueerTheory #Blackademia

@bookish

If *I'M* giving a "free standing full length talk," I'd expect it to max out at 45 mins.

However, I have learned from bitter experience that the general practice among academics is absolutely 100% without a doubt "until a hook ejects" them.

#academia #AcademicMastodon #Blackademia

Nooooo, it's time to grade :( :( :(

#academia #Blackademia