Sunday, January 09, 2005
Invisible Colonialism
Randy Moss is the hardest thing to come out of the NFL: dude is gangsta in a way that messes with the ubiquity of the term "class" and disabuses joy on the football field. After scoring on the breathless Packers, he decided to do a fake "mooning" to the folks at Lambeau field: and the (gasp!) Fox announcers went off on homeboy like it said Ron Artest, Jr. on his license. I thought it was hilarious. then, I felt all weirded out when Howie Long, Terry Bradshaw called him "classless" and kept reiterating that Moss didnt "get it". and then I became confused: what is there to get? from whom are you getting it? how did Moss fit that mountain of hair under that helmet? will Paul McCartney flash his boobs to the Super Bowl audience in the name of tradition?
I'm simply wondering like black scholars Kwame Anthony Appiah, Paul Gilroy and some lady who wrote a column on Wes Anderson for some journal I cant think of right now: are we living in postracial times?
short answer: non.
long answer: oui.
regardless, heres some wordthought to munch on. Classical Rap Philosopher Greg Tate crumbles hip-hop's history in the broader context of hyper-moneywanting, diamond-studded toasters and the absence of real talk about race in American politics. Beef with Tate is minimal, though I wonder why does he never address the contemporary reality of hiphop as a multiplicity of races as progress. Its like saying I wish rock would have never gotten in the hand of white folk: both Minor Threat and Bad Brains are delicious. Regardless, hiphop is now more than black culture (even Chuck D realizes this), but in ways that complicate the argument. Where is Beans in all this? Dizzee? Anticon? Tate at one point in time recognizes his sorta-anachronistic theorizing by saying he is an old-school Pan Africanist and even if Tribe gets their MPC's together in the next week its not going to matter: change is the only currency relevant to hiphop. Alas, I agree with everything else: hiphop (the way we all knew it) is dead.
bring on the yellow afros!
but, hold your breath Cornel West because race still matters.
I just keep seeing purple.
(we need more of you)
