A Critical Race Theory interpretation of Afrocentric messages in Hip Hop

Luis A. Caraballo-Burgos SYG 6126.7887 Final Paper April 25, 2010

As long as you can be convinced you never did anything, you can never do anything. - Malcolm X

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Within the genre and culture of Hip Hop one is able to find a whole host of issues which lend themselves to a critique. To that end this paper will situate a critique of Hip Hop through the lens provided by critical race theory which has over the last several decades become a primarily pervasive theoretical framework for understanding, interpreting, and critiquing issues of race and ethnicity in the social sciences, particularly sociology. Critical race scholars at times write about their own experiences with racism to depict, anecdotally, issues that have far reaching and much greater influence in contemporary society than can often be understood through larger macro-level descriptions. In Hip Hop, the most vocal proponents have tended to write about their own, or their interpretations of others, experiences in order to authenticate themselves within the culture. This paper will focus around one of the less popular concepts that Hip Hop has endeavored upon, the pro-Black, African pride, Afrocentric aesthetic that was popularized by groups and performers such as: A Tribe Called Quest, X-Clan, 3rd Base and Public Enemy, and continued by performers such as: dead prez, Common, Mos Def and Talib Kweli. I will first introduce the biases inherent to this paper. I will then continue by presenting a brief history of the racial dynamics that created Hip Hop. Following that discussion, I will discuss the four main tenets or themes of critical race theory that will inform this critique. Finally, I will discuss issues of identity and the support of and discomfort with Afrocentric messages. Authors aligned with critical race theory have astutely recognized that although the civil rights movements of the 1960s helped to drive the United States towards racial equality in the eyes of the law, the pace of such movements slowed dramatically in the years since the mid1970s (Delgado 1995). Critical race theory attempts to develop an understanding of the socializing mechanisms built in to our American society that have trained us to be observant and

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critical of perceived and misperceived racism. The pressures and stresses of racism become an inherent part of our identity. The pressure and stresses provided by the culture industry that has perverted much of the loudest voices in Hip Hop have also become part of the identity of those who associate themselves with Hip Hop (Adorno & Horkheimer 1993; hooks 1990). Beginning Assertions and Biases Towards the notion of critique, this paper is predicated on a two predominating ideas; that critical race theory provides valuable insight into, especially, American1 society which other social theories miss or ignore, and that Hip Hop is a valuable tool for the creation of multiethnic, multiracial creative space. This paper will present what would best be described as insider research. I am a part of the Hip Hop cultural community, both in name and in practice. It is the first set of community linkages I have aimed to create when moving to a new city for at least the last nine years. When not focusing on academic pursuits, my attention is on Hip Hop, which has taught me so much. This insider insight that I have on the subject is, of course, somewhat problematic as I am by all accounts native, and am therefore much more willing to explain or excuse negative behavior. However, as with most science I am attempting here to be as objective as possible without turning individuals or groups into objects. The value in being an insider, however, lies in that much of what takes place in the Hip Hop community has a certain esoteric quality, and is therefore difficult for outsiders to interpret or understand. In this critique I will argue that the color blind method by which some have decided to deal with race and racialized issues is a fallacy, in that it cannot solve the problems that have been entrenched through generations of pervasive thought and in the current dismissiveness of the struggles of people of color (Bonilla-Silva 2006; pond cummings 2010; Wise 2010). I am of

The United States of Americas society.

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the mind that ignoring or attempting to ignore the ways in which the skin color or perceived ethnicity of a person affects their daily lives only leads to further promoting the growth of racial disparities. This is not meant by any means to be an indictment of anyone or any group, as from my perspective many of those outside of the dominant group fall into the same trappings. This logic has, however, led me to believe that too many people spend time trying to be not racist instead of being anti-racists, which to my mind should be the goal (Bonilla-Silva 2006:15). Finally another major assumption is that essentialism is a to be cast as essentially negative. That is to say, to assume that the same struggle is taking place in the hearts and minds of all people of color is ridiculous. To assume that the history that ties groups of people together strips them of any differentiation is, to me, foolish. I will, however, suggest that to some extent the essentialism that comes out in some forms of Hip Hop is in fact more a reaction to forced feelings of inferiority, than it is any sense of superiority over another person or group. It is with that particular point in mind that I will discuss the pro-Black or pro-African messages of Hip Hop. A (Brief) Introduction to Hip Hop Hip Hop has grown from a primarily Black and Latino cultural expression into a movement that brings together people of all races from all over the world (Chang 2005). The power of Hip Hop can be felt in the global society now, more than ever, as it has become a powerful force in popular culture, especially in popular music. Evidence of Hip Hops spread is visible throughout the world. Created in the U.S. in the same communities that gave birth to Jazz, Latin Jazz, Boogaloo, and later Salsa, Hip Hop is by all accounts and American culture and musical form born in the inner city of New York. As a culture Hip Hop has grown particularly out of the African tradition which also influenced much of the culture of the Caribbean. DJ Kool

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Herc, considered to be the first Hip Hop DJ, is of Jamaican descent (Chang 2005:22). Many of the first B-Boys, or breakdancers, were of Puerto Rican descent (Flores 2000:79-112). Hip Hop is inherently competitive by nature and borrows much of its practice from the past generations methods of storytelling, music arranging, dancing, and art. Hip Hop is primarily comprised of four distinct yet somehow intertwined parts, or elements, personified in the DJ, the MC, the BBoy, and the Graffiti Writer. Although of different beginnings, these four elements came together in the early 1970s to become Hip Hop culture (Pray 2001). Being Hip Hop has become an identity label for those who accept it for themselves. Not all blacks and Latinos are Hip Hop by simple birth, nor do black and Latino people hold exclusive rights to the label. Identity formation is an important part of literature on race and ethnicity, because common identity is at the heart of understanding why social groups form. However, understanding the Hip Hop identity, and the ideology it is then supposed create, is as problematic as understanding what it is to be Latino, Asian American, black or white. The reality is that race or ethnicity does not predispose individuals to embrace any given worldview and this is also the case with the Hip Hop Identity. Colorfully poetic, artistic and even fictional depictions of real social issues are a somewhat avant garde method by which to disseminate stories, facts, and ethnographies in sociology and other social sciences (Emerson 2001; pond cummings 2010). Hip Hop, however, has been poetically telling stories both real and fictional for at least 25 years. Although we assume songs as colorful as Fuck tha Police by N.W.A. (1988) or Fuck the Police by J Dilla (2001) are negative in that they do, perhaps, glamorize violence, they can also be viewed as a reaction to and depiction of negative interactions between those without power and the state. From my perspective, they are more powerful depictions of real world issues than passively read

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news article because they create a more powerful emotional response. If we are to allow that sociology should be transformative it is necessary that the response to stimuli be more than thought. In many ways critical race scholars work to create the same types of stimuli that we see in these Hip Hop messages (Delgado 1995; Delgado & Stefancic 2001; pond cummings 2010). Central Concepts of Critical Race Theory Critical race theory as a method of thinking about issues of race is situated in the realities of the post-Civil Rights Movement era after the 1970s. As described by Richard Delgado (1995) it holds four basic themes in most of its writings. The first, that racism is normal, not atypical in American society. That racism is not an aberration but part of the typical experiences, sometimes overt and at other times very much concealed, of people of color. It is with that idea that Du Bois (1897; 1903; 1920) situated many of his works, for only with that in mind could one hope to break these methods of domination. Second, that scholars need not accept the unfair or one-sided way that American society is organized, nor the dominant forms of producing academic knowledge or critique as they are also stained by the plague of racism; in that sense it is inherently activist theory. Narrative is seen as an important quality in describing what may be otherwise ignored issues. The lived realities, the stories of actual people, are important to understanding why critical race scholars write about the topics that they do. This line of reasoning comes from idea of the social construction of race, racial classification and society at large. The social construction doctrine arguing that race as an idea has much less to do with biological or genetic realities and much more to do with the way in which society creates and abandons the categories in which people are placed or relegated. Much of what is discussed within the context of critical race theory is critiqued understanding that accepted forms of domination, hegemony, or what is

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sometimes couched as common sense, need not be accepted or acceptable. Although genetic and biological differences were the accepted truth for much of and prior to the twentieth century, those ideas have since been challenged as inherently racist. The third central concept is that of interest-convergence, meaning that powerful white elites will tolerate and encourage advances for people of color only when those advances also promote white interests. That dimension of racism, which promotes the interests of whites, is important because it leads one to consider the idea that large and powerful segments of society have very little reason to work towards the eradication of systemic racism. Finally, critical race theory situates context as very important part of its interpretation of the racial issues that it explores. That is that there are historical, social, political, cultural and economic issues that must be taken into account when interpreting issues of race and race relations. Critical race theory, as it descends from critical legal theory and originally situated in the practice of law, held that each case that could come before a judge and jury could have multiple correct and incorrect outcomes. Introductions to critical race theory show this point by adding context to a story piece by piece in order to show the fallacy of so called equal interpretations and application of the law. These differences, the way that peoples race and ethnicity is socially constructed, can change depending on the political and social realities of different historical periods. They would not, however, be visible without a thorough understanding of political and historical realities in which those differences formed. As its basis, critical race theory gathers inspiration form Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois, Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, and Malcolm X, among others (Delgado 1995; Delgado & Stefancic 2001). Hip Hop and the Afrocentric Aesthetic

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With those four central tenets in mind, I wish to now turn attention to the ways in which one particular aspect of Hip Hop, the Afrocentric aesthetic is reflective of some of those arguments made in critical race theory. As I wish to tie both macro and micro level Hip Hop communities together, I will discuss both in this analysis of Afrocentric messages. Although it is easy to claim that Hip Hop is music about struggle in that there are, for me, so many examples of music in the vein, it is important to realize that Hip Hop has always had a more party side to it that is also very important and relevant when discussing the culture. This party side is seen throughout much of the popular culture presentations of Hip Hop and is the pre-cursor to what is considered the gangsta aesthetic that attracts so much attention. As such critiques which tend to focus on popular culture disseminations of Hip Hop tend to focus around that particularly pervasive party side of Hip Hop that tends to glamorize certain negatively constructed activities. As I have discussed, if one were to watch corporate depictions of Hip Hop music, we would be led to believe that that music is only able to speak about a very limited amount of subjects. Mainly guns and killing black people, selling drugs to black people, and finally objectifying and conquering as many women that are not too dark as possible. What is important for me is finding a balance, and to my mind Afrocentric messages do in fact work to balance this disparity. hooks (1990) analysis of acceptable images of black people and particularly the buffoonish way in which the Afrocentric black person is portrayed in mass media is informative as it begins towards explaining why these messages have been relegated to ridiculousness. All too often we have been led to believe that simply ignoring race will lead one to the end of one of the more pervasive of societys ills (Bonilla-Silva 2006; pond cummings 2010; Wise 2010). Within Hip Hop I have seen that messages that I perceive as acceptable and normal

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are not acceptable for a majority of white audience members or participants. The common theme seems to be, were not all bad, or why am I going to listen to something that tells me Im racist. If we are to allow that racism is normal central part of the way in which American society is organized, than here we have an example of the perception of racism or reverse racism, as an account of how messages that are Afrocentric are perceived by white members of the audience. The second theme that is important to critical race theory is that of social construction of reality. There are, of course, in the Afrocentric songs, messages that hope to uplift and to empower some of the relegated segments of American society. However, it seems that, particularly, white members of the Hip Hop community are uncomfortable or unappreciative of songs that do not offer deracialized or nonracial messages. I have seen first hand the booing and the back turning that can go on with in the context of a show if a performer is delivering messages that are Afrocentric, because they are socially interpreted as being inherently antiwhite. This zero-sum method of looking at the world creates a negative space in that it does not allow for the aggrandizement2 of ones cultural or ethnic background, only of ones self. As some critical race scholars have noted there are certain inherent pulls for individualism that come from all sides of the political spectrum and many different groups of people as it is a celebrated quality in America (pond cummings 2010). This is problematic, as it seems to argue that there is only one way in which we should conceive of ourselves as Americans, and as such is in effect arguing against essentialism with more essentialism. Considering interest convergence as an idea within Hip Hop is important at both the macro and micro levels, however given the frame by which that idea is presented it is more

This concept that has always been a central part of Hip Hop culture.

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applicable to macro level assessment. Again, critical race theory presents the idea that advances for people of color will only be allowed in the context of advances for powerful white elites. It seems that most of the messages that are associated with Afrocentricity are condemned to being unpopular by the forces that control the culture industry. That is, it is very rare in contemporary popular culture presentations of Hip Hop to see images or messages that are empowering to people of color at least from my own biased viewpoint. This has in fact led some artists3 to challenge listeners to turn off the radio. Finally, the context in which these ideas form is important to understanding their utility. Many are presented with an image of Hip Hop, from its beginnings to the present, as party music. What some fail to realize is that at many of the first jams4 there was actually time taken out during the midst of the party to simply have someone go on to the stage and read something educational to the crowd, and then go right back to the party (Chang 2006). This realization leads me to believe that Hip Hop should be understood as an educational tool, as it has in fact been used as a method to deliver otherwise ignored messages to masses of people who would other wise believe that their ancestors left them with little or nothing to celebrate. This idea is one that I explore in light of the opening quote. Concluding Remarks If one is to allow that critical race theory provides an important lens through which to see and understand racial disparity in the United States, it should be evident that understanding the dynamics that created and fuel the cultural movement of Hip Hop would also be illuminated by critical race theory. While I am limited in the amount of discussion I may undertake here, it is

See dead prez or Mos Def. A Hip Hop party, particularly one that incorporates multiple elements of the culture, such as rapping, deejaying, breakdancing or graffiti.
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clear that certain racial messages are clearly still uncomfortable for white members of the Hip Hop community. I have aimed to come to grasp with the realities that would make individuals who are a part of the Hip Hop community uncomfortable with messages that have been central to the formation of Hip Hop as a genre of music and a socio-cultural movement. If one begins to ask why there is a discomfort, there are four general themes which critical race theory provides that seem to go towards an answer. White members of the Hip Hop community seem to fear being blamed for actions which they did not take part in, yet benefit from materially, spiritually and socially. I have enjoyed Hip Hop as a cross-ethnic, multiracial meeting place that has created for me opportunities to socialize with people with whom I may have had no other contact. We5 must, however, remember that the discourse of ancestral aggrandizement should not lead any of us to question our value or validity as members of the Hip Hop community, as Hip Hop has developed with moving towards destroying those cleavages in mind. The idea inherent in the opening quote is one that has informed this paper and much of my work and thought process about issues of race. Malcolm X, as a figure that is celebrated amongst critical race scholars, seems a relevant choice given the subject matter. I am of the mind that understanding history is important to understanding the present condition. To that end, it is wholly important that we see that the reality of racism in this country caused information and messages to be transmitted in a way that seemed to omit many of the positive images of black and brown people which would lead to empowerment. I am also of the mind the Hip Hop and social sciences both have the power to be transformative, as I have seen that transformation in my own life, and it is with that in mind that I approached the critique.

Hip Hop People.

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pond cummings, andr douglas. 2010. "A Furious Kinship: Critical Race Theory and The Hip Hop Nation." University of Louisville Law Review 48:499-577. Pray, Doug. 2001. "Scratch." New York: Palm Pictures. Rose, Tricia. Summer 1991. "Fear of a Black Planet: Rap Music and Black Cultural Politics in the 1990s." The Journal of Negro Education 60:276-290. Sullivan, Rachel E. 2003. "Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, But What About the Message?" Journal of Black Studies 33:605-622. Wise, Tim. 2010. Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity New York, NY: City Lights Publishers.