Peace to everyone that felt the need to respond to my most recent post about racial prejudice. Apologies to everyone who read it looking for a persuasive essay filled with supporting arguments and instead were met with a half-hearted attempt to explain my warped views on social inclusion and community assertiveness. My writing was lacking again, mostly because I didn’t write enough (professional writer I am not) and for pointing that out to me in a dickhead kind of way I want to thank RHS from Oh Word. Well, here I go again. Take it for what it’s worth.
I despise racism. This stems from the fact I’ve encountered it on the fucked side one too many times. But also because I view it as counter-productive to the goals of a certain movement that I follow with interest. To question this very personal belief is wholly obnoxious. But that’s beside the point. I understand the urge because the only representation of “G” online are my posts on grandgood.com. But if people think that’s all there is to me, or any other individual with a limited online identity, what else will they so easily choose to believe? Could it be that the sum of my posts do not represent me in my entirety? Could it be that one’s decision to simplify people and jump to conclusions about their personal beliefs is an attempt to more easily fit them into one’s own world view or self image? “You not like racism? That’s unbelievable, you never mentioned that to me before?” Is that considered an aversion to dissonance? Whatever. Back to what I was saying. One of the interesting things about my personal experiences with racial prejudice is that the people fucking me have been of a variety of races. Getting snuffed by a black fist or white fist while being called whiteboy or spic, same shit basically. Having an almost-Caucasian Argentinian, who comes from a neighboring country and probably shares some of the same blood with you, call you a fathead peasant? Just as upsetting. Sometimes my skin was too dark and sometimes it was too light, one of the perks of living in an ethnically diverse neighborhood. When I was younger I responded by stepping to people on some “what now!” shit. As I got older though I came to believe that violence is not always the most effective response or deterrent, especially when what you’re looking for is acceptance, not revenge. My mindset switched. I started to read about people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi. My violent responses, although satisfying to a certain extent, didn’t force people to open their minds to understand where I was coming from, it actually helped to seal their minds more securely. This is a personal belief based on personal experiences. For the most part I believe it to be true. Can I imagine a scenario where organized violence is required? Yes. But let’s not get into that.
Thinking back to my childhood, I can’t help but feel as though I migrated towards hip-hop culture to escape feelings of social exclusion. And before panties get in a bunch, let me just state, I use the term hip-hop loosely. I am only going on 29 years old. Hip-hop to me was a very different experience than hip-hop was to Grandmaster Caz or what is now to Lil Mama. Whatever. I can’t find another term for it that I like. And while I’m at it, let me clarify my use of the term racism also. I don’t mean racial consciousness or racial identification, something that would relate more closely to racialism. In this context I invoke the definition you might find in and odd place like Webster’s Dictionary. Here it is for you lazy folk:
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
Yeah, so there it is. I don’t believe in this sort of racism. It’s just the way I see things at this time. But lets take it back for a sec. So for a variety of reasons I remember feeling most comfortable among heads that were into hip-hop. It’s where I felt relaxed and safe and I could stand still. It was sort of like a family born, we would gather up all the soldiers and form into an invincible swarm of kids, and then it was on again, drinking straight from the bottle warm gin drippin’ down my…pardon. What I was saying was, hip-hop embraced me as a youngster. Skip a couple of years and I’m in college. Again I start bumping into these instances of racism and social exclusion, manifested one prominent way via a variety of social cliques. These cliques tended to be defined by race. A lot of Chinese joined the Chinese fraternity. Indians joined the South-East Asia club, so forth and so on. Where do I end up? Zulu Nation. Well, actually, let’s call it Project 5. Yeah, the official NYU chapter of Zulu Nation was revoked my first or second year there due to some violence. But that’s another story. I remember Project 5 as being racially diverse. But our viewpoints were similar. And so was our passion for what we understood to be hip-hop. By the way, here’s a recent statement from the founder of Zulu Nation, Afrika Bambaataa, where he touches on race and musical xenophobia:
I, Afrika Bambaataa, have heard it all, read it all, in many magazines throughout the world, and seen almost all in this continuing bullshit about which rappers are better, east coast v west coast, Miami bass hip-hop is bullshit, British Rappers sound funny rapping, electro funk, techno rappers are soft, I like hardcore rap and beats, this one group is like that, old school vs new school, Rap wouldn’t be rap if it wasn’t for the battles, I’m the quickest, baddest rapper, deejay around, Go Go music in Washington D. C. is dead. It’s all about hip-house or house music all night long. I dis you, you dis me, my crew will take you out or kick your ass, fuck this or that, Nigger, Bitch, Nigguz, Nigguh, Hoe, Hooker, Bitches with Problems, Hoes with Attitudes.
Just look at yourselves, sounding like a bunch of fools, who really don’t have any true knowledge of self and knowledge of hip-hop culture and what it’s all about. First of all, let me tell you that the music (beats) that makes up hip-hop, comes from different nationalities and races, especially from black people, and if you think I am a brother who don’t know what he is talking about, just check out many of the music, beats, grooves and sounds that many of your rappers use to make their records or rap over. Hip-hop music in general is colorless and not racist. It comes from many categories in music, for example: Hip-hop music is made up from other forms of music like funk, soul, rhythm & blues, jazz, rock heavy l, salsa, soca (calypso), TV shows, kiddie shows, horror movies, techno, pop, disco, african, arabic, reggae -etc. . . . and if you use any records from these categories, you will see that the music is made by people from different races or nationalities from all over the planet, but it’s roots start with black people.
So yeah, I don’t understand why anyone would attempt to remotely defend any form of racism. And I can’t stress this enough, I’m not talking about racial consciousness. Anyone who thought that is kind of dense because it simply wasn’t what I said. I’m not saying we shouldn’t learn about the way race has and will continue to impact society. I’m just saying race should not be our defining quality as human beings. And in addition, race barriers serve to fragment our society, even among people who I believe should have common goals of empowerment and social reform. I tend to see the world through an economist’s glasses. I’m not saying I am an economist, I just tend to read about certain theories and subscribe to certain schools of thought. I personally would prefer to see individuals and groups identify themselves more enthusiastically according to social class instead of race or culture. That’s me. It might not fit with other people’s beliefs or goals but whatever. We all have progressive political movements that we monitor. Just so happens the one that I tend to be interested in the most doesn’t work well if race is the defining human experience. Workers of the world unite!…um, except if you’re Caucasian…but maybe if you’re yellowish. And to extrapolate that I do not see the importance of race because I choose to denounce racism, whether in the formation of hip-hop or any culture, besides being offensive, is just a reach.
Unfortunately my time is up! New 4 year record, 33 minutes on a post! Would have been 15 if I didn’t have three fingers in splints. My pinky is getting numb now and for that I will never forgive RHS. Making me explain myself and shit.
Yo, who’s hitting up APT this Friday? One time out!
