Underground White Hip-Hop Snobbery

Dective Mat writes (the link isn’t working as of now):

Oh hip hop…what has happened to you…I really don’t know what to expect out of you anymore. At least I know what crap to expect from the commercialized mainstream. But the underground? I completely give up. It’s not a flourishing culture that addresses the needs of urban youth anymore. Now, it’s just a pissing contest between suburban snobs to see who knows the most unknown underground artists. The underground is depressing. At any given underground show, the crowd will be filled with college-aged suburban guys who somehow discovered their consciousness in school, and now dive blindly into anything labeled as “underground”. You must like Hieroglyphics, Atmosphere, and Aesop Rock or else you “aren’t hip hop”. They’ll always come at you with their collection of trendy underground groups, telling you “this is REAL hip hop”, when in actuallity, theres little diversity in the styles they listen to.

“4th of July Needs Some Pazaz! Not History!”

SteveAudio posts:

How far from institutionalized racism have we come in America? Well, you’d think a 4th of July parade in Huntington Beach would be miles away from any controversy:

Organizers of Surf City’s Fourth of July parade said Wednesday they would let the producer of the documentary chronicling the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster school-desegregation case take part this year.

Parade officials reversed a decision to deny Sandra Robbie’s application for her Magical History Tour bus on grounds that it lacked entertainment value.

I suppose the American Revolution, which is what the holiday is about, was chocked full of entertainment value, too. What with people dying for . . . you know, freedom.

“4th of July Needs Some Pazaz! Not History!”

SteveAudio posts:

How far from institutionalized racism have we come in America? Well, you’d think a 4th of July parade in Huntington Beach would be miles away from any controversy:

Organizers of Surf City’s Fourth of July parade said Wednesday they would let the producer of the documentary chronicling the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster school-desegregation case take part this year.

Parade officials reversed a decision to deny Sandra Robbie’s application for her Magical History Tour bus on grounds that it lacked entertainment value.

I suppose the American Revolution, which is what the holiday is about, was chocked full of entertainment value, too. What with people dying for . . . you know, freedom.

Racism, Sexism and the Video Game Industry

Latoya Peterson, from Racialicious, blogs:

To illustrate the issue of racism, let’s play a little game. Off the top of your head, name 5 black video game characters. Now, exclude any characters that were not main characters. Now exclude any that appear in a sports game or hip-hop based game. Finally, exclude any characters that embody stereotypical representations of African Americans. (Yes, that means excluding CJ from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.) How many are left in your list?