From Lorraine: Spectacle

The chapter on spectacle was as infuriating as the others on the grounds...you know what, I reckon it's safe to assume that for the rest of this course/book that Modernists and Habermas have and may even continue to ignore the history and the burdens of inequality, especially in the United States. I emphasize the US because we are one of the most pluralistic societies in the world, and have more of a foothold on giving women and minorities the shaft...after all, we've been doing it ever since some holier-than-thou white folks landed on this land mass, beginning with the Native Americans.

That said, I grow weary of the fact that the Modernist's approach to Black culture is a negative one, boiling down to the sentiment of "If only you people (read:black people) would be more like us, then no one would give you any problems and you'd have a legitimate voice in the public sphere." I guess the same can be said regarding Modernists and working class folks as well.

I grew up in a lower class family, and as a result, lived in minority neighborhoods and was (and still am) the token white chick. I also took Political Economy and am very well aware of the fact that economics is used as a weapon against the working class and minorities. I'm well aware of the "double consciousness" conundrum that African American in this country face. The thing, I guess, that no one wants to seem to talk about is the awkward subject of white privilege--if you're white, you automatically have some privilege in this country, and more so if you're a male. Racism and prejudice in this country is systemic, from language to policy. For example: The widely held belief that "Ebonics" or African American English isn't a language or dialect, but rather language deficiency. It is indeed a language: it has it's own set of rules, just like English. Another example: that rap music promotes violence and drug use. Rap, in its inception, was primarily political...just listen to "The Message" by Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five or "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy.

One thing I have noticed, as the token white chick, is that rap shares something with punk and heavy metal: Rebellion against authority. Instead of a Monty Python clip, I have found, for your listening and visual pleasure, "Warhead" by Otep, a female-fronted, politically inclined heavy metal group. I see a comparison of this to Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" in the respect that it's a calling out of unjust politics and calls for empowerment.