Do Asian-americans use hip hop to hurt blacks?

[AcousticDoc]

http://nathanielturner.com/werealcoolkenyon.htm

Interesting article. Do you guys agree on his points?

[atlasien]

He makes some valid points but I disagree with the overall direction of the argument.

1. I think it's important to recognize that although Asians don't have white privilege, we do have "non-black privilege".

2. Asians can also be guilty of appropriating culture.

But in general, he's demanding a burning ideological purity that's just unrealistic and divisive. His other articles are like that too. Instead of talking about how different groups can work together, it's always about how certain interests need to be subordinated to other interests. For example, in another article, the author says he's a black gay man opposed to gay marriage because it's anti-black :eek: (he does vaguely acknowledge the fact that a lot of black gays and lesbians would violently disagree with his position).

I think destructive criticism can be useful, but its usefulness diminishes if it's never accompanied by constructive criticism.

[Candide]

Too long, didn't read all, but the guy seems to assume that there's this united Asian American front out to steal the hip hop culture from blacks and destroy them. There are a lot of AAs who just couldn't care less about hip hop. I'm not even sure if those who are into hip-hop are a big enough number for AAs as a whole to be generalised like that.

[theme]

I think he just wants non-blacks to pay a lot of money and buy into Hip Hop and make black people rich, but he doesn't want any non-blacks to have any creative input into the products they are purchasing. It seems like a fear of competition and a mild sense of xenophobia almost. Oliver Wang is right in saying that hip hop lives and die by the dollar. AAs make up a measly 5% of the population, does he really think we would have the power to destroy hip hop? If there ever is an AA to make it, it will be blacks and whites using him to make more money. And that's all there is to it.

[Scowl]

I think he just wants non-blacks to pay a lot of money and buy into Hip Hop and make black people rich

Actually, I'd say that hip hop makes more white people much richer than it does blacks.

I dunno, I find myself agreeing with this guy. I don't know if I agree with his assertion that hip hop is used by AAs as a weapon against black people, but I'm not decided on whether or not it furthers a white American agenda. I'll need to think on that some more.

The main point that I agree with is that hip hop comes from black culture. I mean, this is something that everyone knows. And there's nothing wrong with being a part of it, but proper respect needs to be paid, and I can understand why he would get pissed at the de-emphasis of black people and culture when talking about hip hop. Of course, it was an AA event, so AAs would naturally be the focus. Does an emphasis on AAs in hip hop mean a de-emphasis on blacks in hip hop? I would think not, but I wasn't there to see what it was all about.

As I understand it, a lot of black people see AAs as white people part two, and I can't say that there isn't any truth in that. We all know about how our cultures have been misappropriated by non-Asians, but I suppose it is only natural and human for people to not want to see how they might be doing the same things that they rail against others for.

My question/statement was: In all of the talk thus far, we have conveniently skirted around the issue of race. But let’s be real, when we’re talking about hip-hop and hip-hop culture, we mean Black people, which you de-emphasized and de-historicized in your intro talk, Mr Wang . . . Now, we know about the history of Black popular culture being appropriated and stolen by whites, as in the case of Blues, Jazz, and Rock & Roll.

And now there’s hip-hop, and since we live in this multi-racial state which still positions Blackness socio-economically and politically at the bottom, how does the presence of Asian Americans in hip-hop, this black cultural artform, look any different than that of white folks in Jazz, Blues, and Rock & Roll?

I think he asked a very valid question. Did it need to be as incendiary as it was? I dunno.

[little mixed girl]

i don't think that asians or any other group uses hip-hop to "harm" blacks.

i also think that if a person is really into that type of music then they should be able to participate in making it.

however, i will agree that hip-hop came out of black areas and then spread out as an artform.

if a group wants to use hip-hop to express themselves then that's fine, but they also need to think about how they would feel if another group used something from their culture to express themselves.