I found what we learned about minstrelsy and black-face to be very interesting, I had not heard of either of them before this class. I did know however that there was a major influence by African Americans on Rock n' Roll and I was not surprised to see that it goes deeper into the history of American music.
On the other hand, I was a little taken back by what our guest speaker had to say, or more the way that she said it. I think that she had a lot of educational, captivating information but her personal bias was blocking her message from getting completely across. By saying, "white people" and then explaining what she meant by "white people" by saying, "what you guys look like" is inappropriate for a college professor to say. That is offensive. I also think she went too far when speaking about traces of black-face in society today. Justin Timberlake is a black-face performer? Does that mean that listening to JT is supporting the oppression of African Americans? I think that is so far reached it is actually absurd. And going as far to say the only reason Eminem is not a black-face performer is because he grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood? What? That is a total contradiction on her part. Her entire lecture was very unprofessional.
I don't know much about either JT or Eminem, but I do know that JT is supposed to be like the white Michael Jackson, however he started off very well in the Mickey Mouse Club, probably to a middle class family. Typical white upbringing, white privilege shall we? Eminem on the other hand, grew up in Detroit and had a hard time, living in poverty, I believe, but rose to the top. This is much more close to a black than a white upbringing. (Without white privilege) He got a lotttt of shit for becoming a rapper because he was white.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me laugh because people say all the time, there's black people, and then there's black people. No one ever has a problem with this, no one ever says anything about it, they just keep their mouth shut and it's acceptable, but when it happens the other way around, it's unacceptable.
So is there white people, and then white people? I don't think that way of thinking is accpetable on either side. And because JT comes from a middle class family he's not allowed to cast a black girl for his music video? If your going to have that way of thinking you might as well be moving backwards in time not forward.
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