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

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Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

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  • From: Chris Calloway <ifoufo AT yahoo.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 13:40:27 -0700 (PDT)

--- grady <grady AT ibiblio.org> 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:

i meant to post this kerfuffle last week but had too
much to do at work. so everything works out.

duncan, a slight adjustment to the converse avoids the
fallacy:

i submit to you, frere-jones and hopper are racists
for a) minimizing racism to what's in your record
collection and b) equating embrace of popular culture
with opposing racism. black people are internally
oppressed by a lot of popular culture shoved at them.
and wiggas are some of the worst racists in suburbia,
little more than shuffling minstrels without the 1920s
black face, echoing and amplifying internal
oppression, giving it increased economic force.

that said, david byrne has a thing for missy elliot
and i like the new toni braxton. it's as unreliable an
indicator as racist southern frat boys who party to
beach music.

the larger question, though, was equivocated to be:
how much does "white content" dominate your long term
canonical personal taste, rather than, "do you like
the latest outkast?" i say it should be reframed as
political rather than artistic. if you were to list
what aesthetics were important or of value to the
world, rather than you personally, what would that
content look like? that is, you can recognize
coltrane is of great value and importance, without
being a fan. otherwise we level the political to the
aesthetic, and that's a fascist tendency, kinda like
expecting indie rockers to be "progressive."

3





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