Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black CultureWhite kids from the ’burbs are throwing up gang signs. The 2001 Grammy winner for best rap artist was as white as rice. And blond-haired sorority sisters are sporting FUBU gear. What is going on in American culture that’s giving our nation a racial-identity crisis? Following the trail blazed by Norman Mailer’s controversial essay “The White Negro,” Everything but the Burden brings together voices from music, popular culture, the literary world, and the media speaking about how from Brooklyn to the Badlands white people are co-opting black styles of music, dance, dress, and slang. In this collection, the essayists examine how whites seem to be taking on, as editor Greg Tate’s mother used to tell him, “everything but the burden”–from fetishizing black athletes to spinning the ghetto lifestyle into a glamorous commodity. Is this a way of shaking off the fear of the unknown? A flattering indicator of appreciation? Or is it a more complicated cultural exchange? The pieces in Everything but the Burden explore the line between hero-worship and paternalism. Among the book’s twelve essays are Vernon Reid’s “Steely Dan Understood as the Apotheosis of ‘The White Negro,’” Carl Hancock Rux’s “The Beats: America’s First ‘Wiggas,’” and Greg Tate’s own introductory essay “Nigs ’R Us.” Other contributors include: Hilton Als, Beth Coleman, Tony Green, Robin Kelley, Arthur Jafa, Gary Dauphin, Michaela Angela Davis, dream hampton, and Manthia diAwara. |
Contents
The New White Negro by Carl Hancock | |
Scenes from Umkovu a play by Eisa Davis | |
Reds Whites and Blues People by Robin D G Kelley | |
Pimp Notes on Autonomy by Beth Coleman | |
Spiritual Darkness and HipHop by Melvin Gibbs | |
Yoked in Gowanus by Jonathan Lethem | |
Skinned by Cassandra Lane | |
Ali Foreman Mailer and Me by Tony Green | |
Malick Sidibé and James Brown by Manthia Diawara | |
The Black Asianphile by Latasha Natasha Diggs | |
AfroKinky Human Hair by Meri NanaAma Danquah | |
My AlienMy Self or More Reading at Work by Renée Green I | |
My Black Death by Arthur Jafa | |
Contributors Notes | |
Understood as the Redemption of the White Negro A conversation between Greg Tate and Vernon Reid | |
The Life and Times of Americas Comic Prophet of Race by Hilton A15 10 The Beautiful Ones by Michaela Angela Davis | |
Acknowledgments Permissions Copyright Page | |
Other editions - View all
Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture Greg Tate Limited preview - 2003 |
Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture Greg Tate No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
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