Monday, January 27, 2014
Subtle Racism
Let's look at the winners of the Grammy Awards in the rap and R&B categories:
Best rap performance:“Thrift Shop,” Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz
Best rap song: “Thrift Shop” Ben Haggerty & Ryan Lewis
Best rap album: “The Heist,” Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
Best R&B performance: “Something,” Snarky Puppy With Lalah Hathaway
Best R&B song: “Pusher Love Girl,” James Fauntleroy, Jerome Harmon, Timothy Mosley and Justin Timberlake
Best R&B album: “Girl On Fire,” Alicia Keys
Best urban contemporary album: “Unapologetic,” Rihanna
That's 7 categories, 5 wins for (songs performed by) white men and 2 for black women.
Where are the black men? Eric Benet and Anthony Hamilton both had excellent albums in the R&B categories and Kendrick Lamar and Drake also had great entries in the rap categories but somehow the white people keep winning. And there is a history of this happening in these categories.
The reason is some kind of subtle, unintentional racism. The people who vote for these awards are not exposed to enough of the music in these categories so they go with who they know. And invariably and unfortunately, the white acts (Macklemore, Eminem, Justin Timberlake and Robin Thicke) seem to get all the media attention, making this a self-fulfilling prophecy of institutional racism.
There's also the fact that these artists seem to have embraced the more pop side of their genres, in order to appeal to a mass audience, so once again, we have this vicious cycle.
I am not saying anyone does this intentionally, or even realizes it's going on, which makes it so hard to stop.
One thing I do notice from this is a kind of reverse racism, the Donovan McNabb Effect. Everyone in the white media feels guilty about this inherent racism so when they see a black person doing well, they totally exaggerate how great this person is as if to say "I'm not a racist, I loved Lupita Nyong'o in 12 Years a Slave."
I love Lupita and think she is gorgeous and wonderful, and surely a fine actress. But it is clear to me, at least some of the attention focused on her is out of guilt or an attempt to prove one's open-mindedness, not based on her looks or talent or performance.
#controversy
ReplyDeleteVery interesting and thought provoking post. I completely agree that much of this unintended subtle racism is just that - for 90% of people I'm sure it's not an effort to vote only for white people. But they're still voting for white people more so than for other races when there is an option.
ReplyDeleteI see a lot of parallels between this issue in entertainment and in sports, and particularly in basketball, which is dominated by African-Americans. Sometimes there is a tendency to overrate white players, particularly in college, and they often become fan favorites. See Jimmer Fredette, Adam Morrison, etc.
But the flip side is a lot of white people tend to hate on white basketball players, and view them as undeserving or unathletic, even when that is not so. See Duke University, generally, for dozens of examples.
Again, I don't think this is the same as the vile type of racism that seeks to put down an entire race of people based on skin color, but as you aptly noted it's much more subtle and largely unintentional. Interesting stuff.