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ch-scene - Re: "Is Stephin Merritt a racist because he doesn't like hip-hop?"

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  • From: Duncan Murrell <duncan AT rattlejar.com>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: "Is Stephin Merritt a racist because he doesn't like hip-hop?"
  • Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 09:34:59 -0500

In one of those posts someone (Steve Albini?) touched on this, but what's the answer when you reverse the question: Are you _not_ a racist if you love music made by people who don't look like you?

I've met plenty of crackers here in New Orleans who don't just like, but LOVE everything even passingly associated with "black" music. They would leap into a puddle and let Ellis Marsalis walk on their backs so as not to soil his shoes, they go "into the hood" (as they say) to see brass bands or Kermit Ruffins at Vaughns, Fats Domino can just stand on the stage for a couple of minutes and the entire city goes wild. And even Juvenile (hometown hero) packed the joint at JazzFest. DJ Soul Sistah is a local radio legend who plays to an almost exclusively white crowd at a place called Mimi's on Sunday nights.

I won't generalize about these fans, but I will say (and I'm sure that anyone familiar with the history of jazz and the blues already knows this) that loving music made by black musicians does not inoculate against racism. I sense myself about to get caught in a logical fallacy, so I'll stop. But at least we know that if Stephin Merritt loved hip-hop, we'd still know nothing about his racial attitudes. Thus, the whole question seems foolish.

And, anyway, his critics seem to be privileging what's popular, leaving this question: is it possible that Stephin Merritt's bigger problem is with the state of popular music in general, of which "black" music is, and always has been in America, a significant part? Albini gets at that question directly. What if he didn't love my favorite salsa and Cuban bands? Or what if he really dislikes Django Reinhardt and new gypsy swing? Does he hate gypsies? They've limited the question to concern only that music that falls within their own experience and taste, and is that any less "racist" by their silly standards?

It's hard not to wonder whether they're just not pissed that he doesn't like their favorite acts.

d




On May 12, 2006, at 8:41 AM, grady wrote:

Probably already discussed to death on that other, hipper music list
you're all on, but it's Friday and I got precious little to do at work
at present:

htt








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