He is from a poor American black background.
And he hardly has a unique viewpoint.

I'd say that being pissed off about slavery is something that is less of an issue for white youkaydians. That's not to say of course that we can't agree that slavery was an abomination and one of humankind's lowest actions, but surely for a young man from an enforced diaspora he's going to have a bigger chip on his shoulder than you or I do, no?
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 18:56, 1 reply, 15 years ago)

I'd take that as an insult to my empathy.

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 19:07, Reply)

I'm sure you would.
I was referring specifically to KRS-One's Sound of da Police.

One of my favourite songs as it happens, but there is a difference between feeling empathy for, and identifying with, a minority group and actually being a part of that group.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 19:09, Reply)

Should I be fucking pissed,
that my Irish Catholic ancestors on my mother's side were treated as scum? That they too were robbed of their land, and barely more than slaves in a lot of cases, that Catholics were so badly treated, and the law of the land is still that at the highest position you cannot be a Catholic?

No I'm not saying it's the same as the slavery of black people. I'm pointing out that it's a bit futile blaming everything on it
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 19:22, Reply)

Excluded from the highest position?
I didn't know Catholics couldn't win X-Factor.
(Zoz prayed for twink on, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 19:25, Reply)

Catholicism hasn't resulted in you being treated as second class citizens for the last 300 or so years.
And ongoing to this day, you're at Oxford, right? Entire communities that are denied access to the kind of opportunities you have through systemic racism, extending to effective apartheid and enforced poverty, have a justifiable right to feel anger about those conditions.

Surely as a student of history you must see that?
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 19:29, Reply)

I'm not denying their right to feel anger
I'm denying that they have a right to cling onto an us and them mentality. As long as that sticks around, there can't be any sort of moving forward from the past.

Other communities comprised of a certain race percentage are faced with exactly the same problems. It is demeaning and insulting to segregate by race (exactly as you are doing.) The problem isn't colour, it's class and money, and for some black rapper to whine about it, just means self segregation from a problem that is *everyon*'s problem
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 19:42, Reply)

I don't segregate by race.
Just pointing out that hip hop culture has come from a community that has had poverty forced on them.

That's why it's based on sampling- kids that couldn't afford to buy drums, guitars, saxophones etc used what they had access to, which was their parents' record collections and turntables.

It's the unique background to it that fascinates me, and informs the whole culture, from graf to rhyming. One doesn't have to be black to either like or make hip hop, just as one doesn't have to be American to make techno, or white to like folk. I abhor any attempts to pigeonhole entire artforms and cultures according to race or anything else.

And I agree that the past has to stay there. But there is nothing wrong with recognising historical wrongs and directing anger at those wrongs.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 19:50, Reply)