2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Hip Hop Debated By Audience At AACC
Erin Alicandro
Issue date: 10/25/05 Section: Focus
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Kitwana started his presentation introducing his book as the subject of much controversy and Monday night's lecture-turned-debate was no exception.
Kitwana said he feels the way races interact has changed over the years; white people are feeling some of the economic strife blacks have faced for years. He cited the fact that credit card debt has tripled, tuition increases at schools are the highest in 25 years and with George W. Bush as president there has been the biggest decline in jobs since the great depression. Kitwana said more and more of the issues that matter to young blacks and young whites are the same. There is a "declining sense of white privilege," he said. He also cited other problems faced by young people alike, including a decrease in effective public schools and alienation "across the board among young people." Because of this commonality between young people, hip hop has gotten a more cross-cultural audience, according to Kitwana.
"The white audience is significant because any agenda labeled a black agenda is not going very far" and the most viable way to move that agenda is to use hip hop, Kitwana said.
He thinks the hip hop community can use its cross-cultural influence to support progressive political agendas in support of "school systems that work," "jobs that pay a living wage" and universal health care.
Kitwana said there are three popular theories as to why white kids have joined the hip hop culture, but he doesn't agree with them. These include, the idea that white kids are drawn to hop hop as "a forbidden narrative," "the black tastemaker theory," which is the idea that everything going on with black kids today is going to go mainstream tomorrow and the white supremacy theory, which indicates white kids are engaging in hip hop to promote the white supremacy cause.
Hip hop culture was first defined by a cultural movement, followed by a political movement. In the 1980s activists were disconnected from hip hop because hip hop was lesser known and composed of grass-roots local groups, he said. In the 1990s "Raptivists" began to define the hip hop political agenda in their lyrics, he said. And finally, by the 2004 election, political interest groups like the Hip Hop Summit Action network and Young Voter Alliance merged hip hop and politics.