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RADICAL TEACHER 10
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Droppin‟ Knowledge on Race:
Hip-Hop, White Adolescents, and Anti-Racism
Education
By Steven Netcoh
“SPREAD LOVE: COMMANDANTE BIGGIE” ARTISTS: JOHN GARCIA, CERN ONE, SEAN MEENAN
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS TINSON
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1. White Kids and Hip Hop
Though white adolescents comprise a large percentage
of Hip Hop‟s audience, relatively few academic studies
examine why they readily gravitate toward the music and
how they engage with the culture. The majority of
scholarship on white adolescents and Hip Hop focuses on
how these individuals adapt the music and culture to their
local settings. Rodriguez (2006) investigates the racial
ideologies of politically conscious Hip-Hop fans primarily in
Northampton, Massachusetts. Hayes (2004) examines how
white Canadian youth in rural Ontario identified with Hip
Hop to distinguish themselves from their racially and
culturally homogenous home community. Cutler (1999)
explores how a white teenager from one of New York City‟s
wealthiest neighborhoods aligned with Hip-Hop by adopting
African American vernacular English and stereotypical
features of urban street culture such as gang membership
and drug use. Each of these studies illustrates the unique
ways that white adolescents have incorporated Hip Hop
into their lives in disparate local settings.
One text that provides a more overarching view of
white adolescents‟ engagement with Hip Hop is Kitwana‟s
(2005) Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers,
Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America. In the
book, Kitwana argues Hip Hop has a critical role to play in
moving America beyond its old racial politics, which he
defines as being “characterized by adherence to stark
differences—cultural, personal and political—between Black
and white . . . cultural territorialism on both sides, and . . .
uncritical acceptance of stereotypes, also on both sides.”
He believes Hip Hop will bring America toward a new racial
politics, which is “marked by nuance, complexity . . . and a
sort of fluidity between cultures” (pp. xiv-xv). According to
Kitwana, Hip Hop creates grounds for youth of diverse
racial backgrounds to converge and share their common
interest in the music and culture (p. xiv). Within these
spaces, youth can collectively “explore” new conceptions of
race that transcend understandings of racial boundaries as
fixed and biological. Kitwana argues Hip Hop is a “vehicle
to educate and bring down the walls of ignorance when it
comes to American race relations” (p. 132).
While Hip Hop may expose whites to diverse racial
representations and create spaces for youth of all races to
share a common interest in Hip Hop, the notion that the
music alone can facilitate significant transformation in
white Americans‟ racial ideologies is rather idealistic. Hip
Hop has become a staple of a media culture that promotes
consumerism and self-gratification while “devaluing
citizenship” (Yousman, 2003, p. 370). Mainstream Hip Hop
serves primarily as a spectacle for its audiences and rarely
invites critical social or political dialogue (Watts, 1997).
Most consumers perceive Hip Hop strictly as a form of
entertainment and fail to comprehend or ignore its capacity
as an agent for critical discourse on race. Provided the
media culture in which Hip Hop is produced and consumed,
it is unrealistic to assume the music can independently
affect any comprehensive change in white adolescents‟
racial ideologies and politics.
The minimal scholarship on Hip Hop and its white
audience supports the notion that rap music has been
limited in its capacity to mobilize racially just ideologies
and politics in white youth (Hayes, 2004; Rodriguez,
2006). One study indicates Hip Hop may in fact hinder
racial progress as many whites use stereotypical
representations of black males and females in Hip Hop to
legitimize discrimination against black Americans in both
“personal” and “political behaviors” (Reyna, Brandt, & Viki,
2009, p. 374). Additionally, Hip Hop has been a prominent
cultural force for over twenty years, yet there has been
little change in white Americans‟ racial discourse,
ideologies, or politics. Since Hip Hop entered the
mainstream, color-blindness has been solidified as the
dominant racial ideology, and the belief that the United
States is a “post-racial” society has been accepted as
“common sense” (Bonilla-Silva, 2006; Winant, 2002, p.
33). Hip-Hop has been unable to destabilize these
prevalent notions that mask the degree to which racism is
institutionalized in American society and prevent the United
States from realizing true racial equality.
The minimal scholarship on Hip
Hop and its white audience
supports the notion that rap music
has been limited in its capacity to
mobilize racially just ideologies and
politics in white youth.
Given Hip Hop‟s limits in mobilizing racially just
ideologies and politics in its white listener population, I
draw on critical media studies scholarship to argue that
secondary and post-secondary schools provide useful
spaces for white adolescents to deconstruct Hip Hop‟s
representations of and discourses on race and participate
in meaningful dialogue about race as an embedded feature
of America‟s social institutions. Though most Hip Hop is
produced for a media culture that is market and
consumption driven, it can serve as an arena to challenge
the foundations of America‟s racial order when its
representations, discourses, and ideologies of race are
made subjects of explicit and critical investigation.
Secondary and post-secondary classrooms provide spaces
to maximize Hip Hop‟s democratic potential by examining,
among other subjects, Rick Ross‟s constructions of
authenticity, Lupe Fiasco‟s anti-racism discourse, Nas‟s
challenges of color-blindness, and Eminem‟s rearticulation
of whiteness.
2. Race, Racial Ideology, and Whiteness
Before examining Hip Hop‟s racial representations,
discourses, and ideologies, it is instructive to outline the
theories of race from which this study works. Although
race is commonly understood as a biological characteristic,
there is little dispute among social scientists that it is a
socially constructed entity. Humans created race as a
means to organize and structure the social world, and thus
it has no grounding in nature or biology. As Bonilla-Silva
(2006) contends, “notions of racial difference are human
creations rather than eternal, essential categories” (p. 8).
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All racial classifications are flawed as they incorrectly
assume homogeneity across a range of “nationalities,
geographical origins, languages, dialects, and cultural
traditions” (Keating, 1995, p. 911). Broad racial categories
cannot possibly account for the diversity contained within
them, which thus highlights their arbitrary nature.
Because race is socially constructed, it is
impermanent, unfixed, and subject to change. Omi and
Winant (1993) assert the meaning of race is “defined and
contested throughout society, in both collective action and
personal practice. In the process, racial categories
themselves are formed, transformed, destroyed, and re-
formed” (p. 61). Racial categories have been updated and
revised throughout history to encompass different groups
of people. For much of the nineteenth century, “White,”
“Negro,” and “Indian” were the only recognized racial
categories in the United States (Keating, 1995, p. 911). In
California, Mexican immigrants were classified as “white,”
which afforded them all the rights and privileges of white
Americans while Chinese immigrants were labeled “Indian”
and thus “denied the political rights accorded to whites”
(Omi & Winant, 1993, p. 82). Since their categorization as
“white” and “Indian,” both Chinese and Mexican Americans
have been reclassified into various racial groups such as
“Orientals,” “Asians,” “Persons of Spanish Mother Tongue,”
and “Hispanics” (Keating, 1995, p. 911). This process of
continual racial reclassification underscores the subjective
nature of race.
Though race is fluid and unfixed, it produces real
effects in the social world. Bonilla-Silva (2006) uses the
term “racial structure” to describe how race has historically
provided privileges to those with white skin and restricted
the distribution of economic, political, and social capital to
those with darker skin (p. 9). This inequality persists
today as a variety of statistics suggest some racial groups
face institutional disadvantages in America‟s racialized
social structure. A report released by the Bureau of Justice
Statistics showed that as of December 2010, black males
were imprisoned at a rate “nearly 7 times higher than
white non-Hispanic males” (Guerino, Harrison, & Sabol,
2011). Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
shows that the unemployment rate for black Americans has
consistently remained around double the jobless rate for
white Americans during the past thirty years
(“Unemployment Rates,” 2010). Cited are just a few
statistics that suggest racial inequality is embedded in
America‟s social structure and that race functions as a
mechanism to order the social world.
Because race is socially
constructed, it is impermanent,
unfixed, and subject to change.
While race is an integral feature of social structures, it
is also experienced at the micro social level. As Omi and
Winant (2008) note, “Race always operates at the
crossroads of identity and social structure” (p. 1565). All
representations of race inevitably “invoke social structures,
power relations, lived experiences of identity and
difference” (Omi & Winant, 2008, p. 1570). Racial
signification is thus inseparable from the larger racialized
structure that shapes individuals‟ social experiences. When
people interpret representations of race, they immediately
draw on “preconceived notions” created within and
perpetuated by the racialized social structure. White
people who signify “blackness” in their speech, dress, or
body movements are understood to be acting “against their
race.” These individuals might face discrimination or social
stigmatization because they do not conform to their racial
scripts. As such, all racial representation is understood
and experienced within an established racial order (Omi &
Winant, 1993, p. 59).
Individuals and groups develop racial ideologies to
interpret and explain their varied experiences with race.
Bonilla-Silva (2006) defines racial ideology as “the racially
based frameworks used by actors to explain and justify
(dominant race) or challenge (subordinate race or races)
the racial status quo” (p. 9). A variety of racial ideologies
exist within racial structures and engage in a perpetual
struggle for dominance. Color-blindness is arguably the
dominant racial ideology in America, and it “disconnect[s]
race from the power relations in which inequality and racial
discourses are embedded” (Bonilla-Silva, 2006; Rodriguez,
2006, p. 646). Color-blindness presumes race
inconsequential in individuals‟ social experiences and
opportunities. People who employ color-blind ideologies
claim they “don‟t see any color, just people” and tend to
believe racism no longer affects society (Bonilla-Silva,
2006, p. 1). Conversely, those who adopt more
progressive racial ideologies recognize race as an
organizing feature of social structures and thus advocate
policies that directly redress institutionalized racism and
past racial oppression (Omi & Winant, 1993, p. 57).
Whiteness is implicated in the maintenance of
structural racism, and it serves as a “site of racial,
economic, and political privilege” (Giroux, 1997, p. 290).
Lipsitz (1998) uses the term “possessive investment in
whiteness” to describe white America‟s collective interest in
protecting white supremacy and dedicates a book-length
study to examining how white privilege has been created
and sustained in the United States. He illustrates how
discrimination in housing markets, inequality in the
education system, and “intergenerational transfers of
inherited wealth that pass on the spoils of discrimination to
succeeding generations” has provided whiteness a “cash
value” and contributed to “the racialized hierarchies of our
society” (p. vii). In a similar investigation of white
privilege, Harris (1995) examines how whiteness has been
afforded property value in American society and provides
“a host of public, private and psychological benefits” (p.
286). Harris deconstructs the legal implications of
“whiteness as property” to demonstrate how the “judicial
definition of racial identity based on white supremacy
reproduced . . . racial subordination at the institutional
level” (p. 284).
Lipsitz and Harris‟s analyses are examples of
“Whiteness Studies,” which is a field of scholarship that
emerged to unveil the institutionalized advantages and
privileges of whiteness. Dyer (1988) argues it is
imperative to unmask the privileges of whiteness because
“[W]hite power secures its dominance by seeming not to
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be anything in particular” (p. 44). As a result of its
“invisibility,” “‟whiteness‟ operates as the unacknowledged
standard or norm against which all so-called „minorities‟
are measured” (Keating, 1995, p. 905). Academics who
study whiteness attempt to destabilize its normalcy and
call attention to its role in racial oppression and exclusion.
Such a focus on the insidious nature of whiteness and the
social effects of institutionalized white supremacy provides
grounds for whites to become aware of their “dysconscious
racism” and recognize their collective involvement in racial
inequality (King, 1991).
3. Hip Hop, Color-Blindness, and Racial Stereotyping
Provided Kitwana‟s argument about Hip Hop as a
“vehicle to educate” about race and transform America‟s
racial ideologies and politics, one might expect white
adolescents at Hip Hop concerts where artists critique
“racist hypocrisies” and “rap about black nationalism” to
recognize white privilege and display some semblance of
understanding racism as an institutionalized feature of
American society (Rodriguez, 2006, p. 653). To the
contrary, Jason Rodriguez demonstrates in “Color-Blind
Ideology and the Cultural Appropriation of Hip-Hop” that
the majority of participants in his study displayed color-
blind ideologies in their discourse on race and Hip Hop.
Rodriguez conducted participant observation research at
twenty Hip-Hop concerts, primarily in Northampton,
Massachusetts, to examine how white Hip Hop fans
understand their participation in an “unmistakably African
American art form” (p. 648). Rodriguez found that the
majority of those he interviewed recognized race as a
“salient” feature of others‟ lives while simultaneously
denying its significance in their own (p. 657).
Most participants claimed they were attracted to
“conscious” Hip Hop‟s “radical politics,” but they refrained
from associating with its racialized politics. Rodriguez
attributes his participants‟ reluctance to adopt Hip Hop‟s
racial politics to their color-blind ideologies, which are
defined by race neutral social and political outlooks (p.
654). Such color-blindness was reflected in a number of
the interviewees‟ comments about Hip Hop and race. One
participant asserted, “Well, with Public Enemy or Dead
Prez, they say a lot about black people, and you know, it‟s
like black music, but you have to make it . . . a bridge
between the race differences, and you have to realize that
it‟s all just people no matter what the color of your skin”
(p. 661). The majority of participants in the study made
similar “rhetorical maneuvers” to downplay the significance
of race in American life. Rodriguez argues that these white
adolescents‟ color-blind ideologies allowed them to justify
their participation in Hip Hop by “taking a racially-coded art
form and turning it into a color-blind one” (p. 663).
Rodriguez‟s research illustrates, at least in one locale,
Hip Hop‟s limits in independently mobilizing progressive
racial ideologies in its white audience. Although the white
adolescents in his study attended concerts where race was
a focus of the artists‟ lyrical and performative content, they
remained ignorant, at least in their discourse, of white
privilege and structural racism. The participants‟
engagement with racially progressive and sometimes
radical Hip Hop did not destabilize their color-blind
ideologies nor did it prompt them to adopt more
progressive racial politics. Rodriguez suggests the overtly
racialized nature of the music may have exacerbated the
interviewees‟ color-blindness as they worked to justify their
presence in the scene by asserting the irrelevance of race
in their lives and ignoring the privileges of their white
identities.
In a similar attempt to investigate white youths‟
participation in Hip Hop, Hayes (2004) studied how white
Canadian youth in rural Ontario interpreted Hip Hop music
and adopted aspects of the culture to distinguish
themselves from their racially and culturally homogenous
community. Hayes found that the majority of participants
in his study had little to no interaction with black people
and thus displayed “limited understandings of the
complexity and diversity of blackness.” He argues the
youth came to understand “all black people as the
embodiments of rap culture” as they “distill[ed] the
heterogeneity of black identity to a handful of racial
stereotypes” (p. 67). For these youth, Hip Hop artists such
as Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. represented
authentic black culture because they rapped about life on
the streets of America‟s inner cities and the struggles they
faced as young black males. Consequently, these youths‟
performances of Hip Hop culture reinforced their
predominantly white town‟s understanding of the black
male experience as characterized by “violence, crime, and
poverty” (p. 65).
While Hayes believes in Hip Hop‟s potential to facilitate
meaningful dialogue about race in urban spaces that are
culturally diverse, he is pessimistic about its capacity to
mobilize progressive racial ideologies and politics in racially
homogenous communities. He argues that the youth in his
study were unable to move beyond their stereotypical
understandings of race to investigate the heterogeneity of
blackness and race in general. Further, he asserts their
inability to “overcome local perceptions of race” prevented
them from taking any significant steps toward “progressive
race relations” and “displac[ing] their town‟s unspoken yet
pervasive whiteness” (p. 80). While the youths‟ adoption
of Hip Hop presented opportunities to destabilize the
normalcy of whiteness in their town, they ultimately
reinforced its power with their fixed representations of and
discourses on race. Hayes‟s research suggests that Hip
Hop may negatively impact racial progress in
predominantly white communities as many white youth
uncritically accept detrimental stereotypes presented in Hip
Hop as authentic representations of “blackness.”
Reyna et. al.‟s (2009) “Blame It on Hip-Hop: Anti-Rap
Attitudes as a Proxy for Prejudice” also demonstrates the
potential dangers of Hip Hop‟s representations of race. The
authors conducted three different studies, two of which are
instructive for the current analysis, to determine if and how
“non-Blacks [could] use their stereotypes of rap to justify
prejudice and discrimination against Blacks─especially the
Black urban poor” (p. 364). In the first study, they found
white participants‟ negative attitudes toward Hip Hop music
were associated with negative beliefs about black
Americans and anti-black policy stances. The authors
attribute the relationship between distaste for rap music
and anti-black policy positions to what they term
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“responsibility stereotypes” associated with Hip Hop music
such as the notion that all rappers advocate “get rich quick
through crime and violence” lifestyles (p. 364). These
stereotypes suggest rappers violate “important societal
values,” are responsible for their impoverished and violent
living conditions, and thus do not deserve the benefits of
favorable social policies (p. 364).
To obtain more current data and improve the
methodology of their first investigation, Reyna et. al.
conducted a second study in which they surveyed 98
participants about their attitudes toward Hip Hop, the black
community, and race relations in America. The second
study corroborated their analysis of the 1993 GSS data as
the results indicated that, once again, white respondents‟
anti-rap attitudes were associated with both negative
feelings toward black Americans and anti-black policy
positions. The authors found that the responsibility
stereotype was a primary factor in whites‟ discriminatory
attitudes. According to Reyna et. al., “responsibility
stereotypes fully accounted for the relationship between
anti-rap attitudes and street crime policies, as well as anti-
rap attitudes and opposition to policies designed to help
Blacks that do not fit the stereotype portrayed by rap
(affirmative action for qualified Blacks)” (p. 371). These
results suggest that whites‟ discriminatory attitudes and
politics toward black people extended beyond just those
who fit rap‟s stereotypical representations of “blackness” to
black Americans in general.
During approximately the past
twenty-five years, movements have
emerged within the fields of cultural
studies, communication, and
education, among others, to
demonstrate the necessity for
media education and literacy
programs that equip youth with the
skills to deconstruct and critically
interrogate the media they
consume.
The aforementioned studies indicate that Hip Hop may
encourage color-blindness in certain locales and a general
acceptance of injurious racial stereotypes by its white
audience. With little formal knowledge of how race
functions in society, many whites adopt the dominant racial
ideology of color-blindness, and Hip Hop becomes one
channel through which their color-blindness is deployed.
Additionally, Hip Hop is wrought with stereotypical
representations of black males and females that many
white listeners internalize and mobilize in their racial
politics and attitudes toward black people. Such
acceptance of deleterious stereotypes is evident in the
research of Hayes (2004) and Reyna et. al. (2009) who
found that many white participants used representations of
black males and females in Hip Hop as a “proxy” for
discriminatory personal and political attitudes toward all
black people (p. 361).
This scholarship on Hip Hop and its white audience
underscores the importance of mediating Hip Hop‟s racial
representations and discourses. While Hip Hop has
potential to mobilize racially just ideologies and politics in
its white audience, many white listeners internalize rap
music‟s stereotypical portrayals of race while they remain
ignorant of its more progressive racial discourses. The
existing research on Hip Hop and white listeners suggests
further measures must be taken to minimize rap music‟s
negative influence on the struggle for racial justice and
maximize its democratic potential. In the rest of this
essay, I build on critical media studies scholarship to
illustrate how secondary and post-secondary schools
provide useful spaces for white adolescents to deconstruct
Hip Hop‟s stereotypical representations of race, develop
anti-racism voices, destabilize color-blindness, and
rearticulate their whiteness.
4. Hip Hop, Race, and Education
During approximately the past twenty-five years,
movements have emerged within the fields of cultural
studies, communication, and education, among others, to
demonstrate the necessity for media education and literacy
programs that equip youth with the skills to deconstruct
and critically interrogate the media they consume (Kubey,
2003). Advancements in technology have led to an
inundation of media in individuals‟ daily lives, which
necessitates “critical approaches that make us aware of
how media construct meanings, influence and educate
audiences, and impose their messages and values” (Kellner
& Share, 2007, p. 4). Advocates of critical media
education argue schools are prime spaces to deconstruct
the media‟s representations of the social world and
empower youth to both critically read and produce their
own media texts. Many theorists assert critical media
education will help students situate the media in their
social and historical contexts and investigate the
intersections of “media and society, information and
power” (Ferguson, 1998; Kellner & Share, 2007, p. 6).
Media education as a whole is more a theoretical
framework than a concrete set of practices, but the
ultimate goal of the movement is for students to become
independently critical of media so they can effectively
navigate the ideologies, discourses, and representations
they encounter in the media landscape (Buckingham,
2003).
Within the critical media education movement,
scholarship has emerged to examine how Hip Hop can be
mobilized in schools to empower youth and facilitate
students‟ development into socially and politically active
citizens (Morrell & Duncan-Andrade, 2005; Scherpf, 2001;
Daspit, 1999). This research locates Hip Hop as a site of
resistance to oppressive power relationships and argues its
energy can be channeled into transformative pedagogies in
the classroom. Because Hip Hop “invokes
counterhegemonic voices from the margins,” some
academics argue it is a prime location to challenge
America‟s dominant politics and forge multicultural
coalitions (Scherpf, 2001, p. 107). The following analysis
builds on this research by specifically examining how Hip
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Hop can be deployed in secondary and post-secondary
classrooms to help white adolescents interrogate the
genre‟s representations of and discourses on race and
develop racially just ideologies and politics in their personal
lives
1
.
To begin, I will focus on the controversy surrounding
Rick Ross and his disputed employment as a corrections
officer. Ross, who is one of contemporary Hip Hop‟s
biggest stars, has fashioned an image of himself as a
hustler and ruthless drug dealer. Hit songs such as
“Hustlin‟” and “Aston Martin Music” characterize Ross as a
feared drug pusher who has amassed tremendous wealth
from his involvement in trafficking narcotics. Ross had his
authenticity called into question in 2008, however, when a
photograph surfaced of him graduating from the Florida
Department of Corrections‟s training academy for
corrections officers (Eells, 2012). When the photograph
was exposed to the public, Ross first denied its legitimacy
claiming he had been digitally added to the picture. As
further evidence surfaced to support the validity of the
photograph, Ross fabricated a story claiming he had taken
the job to start selling drugs to inmates in prison (Eells,
2012). Knowing his reputation and authenticity could be
damaged by revelations of his employment as a corrections
officer, Ross resorted to lying and distorting the truth to
protect the public self-image he had so carefully crafted.
While many rappers like Rick Ross claim their lyrics
about drug dealing and violence are reflections of their life
experiences as young black men in America, their
narratives are often hyperbolic spectacles that gloss over
the details of their lives that do not conform to their
constructed images. Rick Ross‟s biography reveals that he
became a corrections officer to escape the life of crime in
which many of his friends were entrenched. When his best
friend was incarcerated on felony drug charges, Ross
decided it was time to distance himself from the “street
life,” and he subsequently sought employment with the
Florida Department of Corrections (Eells, 2012). While
Ross publicly touts his successes as a drug kingpin, his
biography exposes a more complex image of a man looking
to remove himself from the drug game.
Within the critical media
education movement, scholarship
has emerged to examine how Hip
Hop can be mobilized in schools to
empower youth and facilitate
students’ development into socially
and politically active citizens.
Secondary and post-secondary schools can serve as
arenas to debate and deconstruct the controversy
surrounding Rick Ross‟s employment as a corrections
officer. By critically examining Ross‟s self-representation,
claims to authenticity, and biography, white adolescents
can explore how stereotypical portrayals of black males in
Hip Hop are often hyperbolic representations of rappers‟
lived experiences.
2
After studying the discrepancies
between Rick Ross‟s biography and his public persona,
white students could delve further into the realm of identity
construction in Hip Hop by performing research on artists
to explore how their life stories compare with the images
they have created for themselves in the recording industry.
While some rappers write rhymes from their true life
experiences, many embellish their backgrounds to appear
“hard” and earn “street cred” in the Hip Hop industry.
Regardless of the truth in each rapper‟s public image, an
examination of Hip Hop artists‟ biographies can help white
youth see through, if only to a minor degree, the
glamorization of real life hardships and tragedies in Hip-
Hop and recognize the devastating effects of
institutionalized racism. This research could lead to
presentations or campaigns in which students educate their
peers and communities at large about the pressure Hip Hop
artists face to conform to injurious stereotypes in order to
succeed in the music industry. If Rick Ross did not create
“The Boss,” would he still be one of the most popular
rappers in the industry today? What role do fans play in
the popularization and perpetuation of these media
stereotypes? These are questions white adolescents could
ask within the context of their projects to help those in
their communities interrogate representations of black
males in popular culture that are often passively accepted
as true to life depictions.
While many mainstream rappers like Rick Ross
promulgate stereotypical portrayals of black males, some
Hip Hop artists expose and rail against racist power
structures that function to provide privilege to certain
groups while limiting opportunities and freedoms for
others. Though racism is not the predominant subject of
Lupe Fiasco‟s lyrical content, his commentary on race and
its implication in institutionalized inequality is present in
many of his recent compositions. Lupe‟s discourse extends
beyond the common conception of racism as a
“black/white” issue to demonstrate how many racial groups
have been oppressed by white power and privilege. In one
of his most recent radio standards, “Around My Way,” Lupe
begins by referencing Pine Ridge, the site of the Wounded
Knee Massacre and the American Indian Movement‟s
standoff with the federal government, and other violence
against American Indians to call attention to Native
Americans‟ struggle against white racism throughout the
history of the United States. Within the same verse, he
addresses the U.S. government‟s sluggish response to
Hurricane Katrina and corporate benefits of the American
occupation of Iraq to illustrate more contemporary
examples of racism perpetrated by the predominantly
white American government. Together, these lines help
interrogate, as Lupe puts it, why “poverty is chocolate and
privilege vanilla” (Fiasco, 2012).
Another Lupe Fiasco song, “All Black Everything,”
demonstrates the prominent role that race has played in
American society throughout the country‟s history and
imagines life without race as a defining feature of social
life. The song begs the questions, what would America look
like if slavery had not existed, and how would America be
different if segregation was not a part of the country‟s
history? Without race as a organizing aspect of social
relationships, Lupe imagines America as a more peaceful
society in which “racism has no context,” black Americans
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have equal opportunities for upward social mobility, and
the social ills that stem from institutionalized racism have
all disappeared (Fiasco, 2011). In the final verse of the
song, he acknowledges that his vision is idealistic and that
nothing can be done to erase the racial atrocities of the
past, but he encourages all Americans to work together to
create a better future by turning inward, reflecting on how
race and racism affect people‟s lives, and taking action to
end racial oppression.
Lupe Fiasco‟s songs provide openings for white
adolescents to reflect on how race is implicated in power
dynamics that structure the social world and voice their
opposition to racial oppression. By critically dissecting
“Around My Way” in secondary and post-secondary
classrooms, white adolescents can examine how white
racism has afflicted a multitude of racial groups and served
to advance white power and privilege around the world. It
is important for white youth to see specific ways that
racism is more than a “black/white” issue and continues to
affect people both in the United States and across the
globe. Lupe‟s commentary in “Around My Way” is just one
example of the rapper speaking out against racism in both
his music and public discourse. He can serve as a model
for white adolescents to identify racism in the United
States or internationally and voice their opposition to it in a
rap song, video, public service announcement or
community-wide anti-racism
campaign. These students
can join Lupe Fiasco in his
efforts to expose and oppose
institutionalized racism by
carving out spaces for their
anti-racism voices in their
local communities.
White adolescents should
also be encouraged to
consider the questions that
“All Black Everything”
inherently asks, which make
the song an ideal site for
reflection on the implications
of race in secondary and post-
secondary classrooms. What
would America look like if slavery had not existed? How
would America be different if segregation was not a part of
the country‟s history? These questions can help white
adolescents examine contemporary social dynamics and
structures through an historical lens to better understand
how past racism has shaped present social realities. Lupe‟s
call for reflection and action on racial oppression at the end
of the song could also serve as a starting point for white
adolescents to develop action plans to combat racism and
create a more racially just society. What concrete steps
can individuals take to realize Lupe‟s vision for a more
racially equitable society? What steps can groups and
organizations take? The last verse of “All Black
Everything” calls on youth to take agency in shaping a
more racially just future. Secondary and post-secondary
classrooms serve as prime sites for white adolescents to
heed Lupe‟s call and determine what they and others can
do to ensure the world is more racially equal in the future.
Nas is another rapper whose music and public
discourse can help white adolescents disrupt America‟s
dominant ideology of race. Nas has specifically used his
music as a platform to challenge color-blindness and
America‟s racial politics. In 2007, Nas propelled race into
the national conversation with the announcement that his
upcoming studio album would be titled Nigger. The title
prompted debates in both black and white communities
about “the N-word” and its place in contemporary
American discourse (Reyna et. al., 2009). The album title
forced race into the public‟s consciousness, at least for a
short time, and invited critical dialogue on both the
historical and contemporary implications of race in
American society. In addition to the title, a number of
songs on the album such as “America,” “N.I.G.G.E.R. (The
Slave and the Master),” and “Black President” critique
dominant racial politics in the United States and invite
critical reflection on how race continues to work to the
advantage of some and to the detriment of others in
American society.
“America” in particular challenges color-blindness and
interrogates contemporary manifestations of structural
racism. In the first verse of the song, Nas describes his
ascent from a poor youth in
the projects to a rich and
famous international Hip Hop
star. Within the context of
this narrative, he describes an
encounter with an “old
German” who calls Nas a thug
and looks at the rapper‟s
Mercedes Benz suspiciously as
if to wonder where he earned
the money to drive such an
expensive car (Nas, 2008).
The underlying commentary
of these lines is that America
is far from a color-blind
society as black men with
money are shrouded in clouds
of suspicion, skepticism, and
doubt. The second verse of “America” addresses the
degree to which racism is embedded in America‟s social
fabric and provides examples of racial injustice in America‟s
legal and education systems. Nas asserts white police
officers are more frequently acquitted of crimes than black
officers and that the education system inadequately serves
black youth as they are underrepresented in prestigious
career fields such as aeronautics. He also calls for a critical
examination of America‟s “law books” to expose the racism
embedded within the criminal justice system (Nas, 2008).
“America” effectively undermines claims to color-blindness
by highlighting the ways race continues to influence and
shape individuals‟ social experiences and life opportunities.
Nas‟s commentary on his now untitled album can be
mobilized in secondary and post-secondary classrooms to
invite white adolescents to interrogate race‟s role in
American society and expose them to an alternative racial
discourse that undermines claims to color-blindness.
URBAN ART GALLERY PHOTO BY CARLOS MCBRIDE
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Within the context of studying “America,” teachers can
instruct their students to venture into their local or nearby
communities, observe social interactions, and draw
conclusions about the validity of Nas‟s challenges to color-
blindness. Are black males more frequently surveilled in
retail stores than white males? Are black males treated
differently in public spaces than white males? Students
might also perform research to investigate Nas‟s assertions
about racism in the criminal justice system. Are black
police officers more frequently convicted of crimes than
white officers? Are black Americans unfairly targeted by
the criminal justice system? Such assignments, paired
with critical examinations of Nas‟s lyrics, could help white
adolescents see through claims to color-blindness in
America by identifying actual instances of racial
discrimination in their local communities and the country at
large. Though not all white adolescents will necessarily
subscribe to Nas‟s ideology of race and might seek out
ways to discredit his claims, challenging their color-
blindness is an important first step to helping them
understand the ways race continues to structure the social
world and impact individuals‟ life experiences.
Eminem‟s music also undermines color-blindness, but
his racial discourse aims primarily to expose white
privilege. Like Nas, Eminem has been a prominent figure
in Hip Hop for over a decade, and he continues to hold the
spotlight as one of America‟s most popular rappers. Rather
than downplay the significance of his white identity,
Eminem often highlights the privileges he receives from his
whiteness. For example, in “White America” he raps:
Look at these eyes, baby blue, baby just like
yourself
If they were brown, Shady lose…
Look at my sales, let's do the math
If I was black, I would've sold half
While many white Americans assert the United States
is a color-blind country in which race has no bearing on
individuals‟ opportunities and social experiences, Eminem
acknowledges that his whiteness has, more likely than not,
played a critical role in his success as a rapper. Rather
than adopt color-blindness to justify his participation in Hip
Hop, he undermines such an ideology by unmasking his
white privilege. Eminem‟s racial discourse renders
whiteness visible as a site of power and privilege and
exposes its inconspicuous and often uncontested nature.
Along with his exposition of white privilege, Eminem
challenges fixed and discrete understandings of race in his
self-representation. According to Rodman (2006), Eminem
“manages to perform „Blackness‟ and „Whiteness‟
simultaneously, blending the two in ways that erase
precisely the same racial boundaries that White America
has worked the hardest to maintain over the past several
centuries” (p. 109). Eminem‟s self-representation
demonstrates race‟s fluidity and destabilizes the notion
that there are inherently “black” or “white” ways of acting.
As a white man who was raised in a “predominantly Black
Detroit neighborhood” and who often signifies “blackness”
in his speech, dress, and body movements, Eminem blurs
the lines between “black” and “white” to illustrate that race
is socially constructed and maintained (Fraley, 2009, p.
48). His presence in Hip Hop undermines the dominant
notion that there are natural distinctions among racial
groups and illustrates that human differences often
attributed to race are in fact products of socialization.
Eminem‟s discourse on and representation of race
serve as sites where white adolescents can reflect on their
racial identities and reconceptualize their own whiteness.
Giroux (1997) argues that pedagogies of whiteness begin
with “a critical engagement rather than a denial of
„Whiteness‟” (p. 299). Eminem‟s racial discourse provides
a model for white adolescents to critically engage their
whiteness as he frequently acknowledges and exposes his
own white privilege. White youth should be invited to
follow Eminem‟s lead by interrogating their whiteness and
investigating its role both in their own social experiences
and larger systems of domination. White students might
ask themselves, what privileges do I receive from my
whiteness? How would my life be different if I was not
white? How can I minimize the negative effects of my
whiteness? As Chaisson (2004) notes, “Whites becoming
conscious of their participation in whiteness is the first step
to achieving racial justice and equity” (p. 348). Even if
they cannot or refuse to identify white privilege in their
own lives, Eminem‟s racial discourse exposes youth to
alternative conceptions of whiteness and encourages
critical reflection on race.
While discussions of race and
racism are often discouraged in
schools, it is imperative that
adolescents are provided spaces to
participate in open conversations
about race and encouraged to
develop new understandings of how
it functions in society.
While examinations of whiteness can provoke a range
of emotions from guilt to anger in white adolescents, both
Giroux‟s pedagogy of whiteness and Eminem‟s
representation of race offer frameworks for whites to
transcend the oppressive aspects of their racial identities
(Chaisson, 2004; Keating, 1995). Giroux‟s pedagogy of
whiteness defines “racial identities as multiple, porous,
complex, and shifting,” which he argues “provide[s]
theoretical openings for educators and students to move
beyond framing Whiteness as either good or bad, racially
innocent or intractably racist” (p. 299). Eminem‟s
representation of whiteness provides the ground for white
adolescents to recognize the socially constructed and fluid
nature of race as he undermines dominant perceptions of
racial boundaries as fixed and discrete. Reconceptualizing
racial identities as fluid and multifaceted allows white
adolescents to view their whiteness through lenses of
possibility and optimism. Rather than frame all whites as
oppressive, Giroux‟s pedagogy and Eminem‟s
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representation of whiteness afford space for white youth to
rearticulate their racial identities in ways that resist
domination and work for the cause of racial justice. Within
the context of examining Eminem‟s fluid racial identity,
students could be asked to develop action plans that
outline specific steps they can take to build upon on the
liberatory aspects of their white identities and minimize the
more oppressive features of their whiteness. Performing
such an activity would help white adolescents view their
whiteness in a more positive light while identifying specific
ways they can become more active in the struggle for
racial justice.
5. Conclusion
The present analysis merely scratches the surface of
Hip Hop‟s potential to mobilize racially just ideologies and
politics in white adolescents, and it should serve as a
preliminary investigation of Hip Hop pedagogies of race
and whiteness. The dearth of literature documenting Hip
Hop‟s employment in anti-racism curricula necessitates an
initial examination of the possibilities for how the music
and culture can be used to teach white adolescents about
race and racism. With its diverse racial representations
and discourses, Hip Hop is a prime location for white
adolescents to explore new conceptions of race and
interrogate their own whiteness and larger systems of
racial oppression, and it must be recognized as such
3
. The
existing research on Hip Hop and white youth suggests,
however, that it is necessary to explicitly examine rap
music‟s discourses on and representations of race to mine
its democratic and liberatory potential. Independently, Hip
Hop has been unable to communicate the intricacies of
race to its white audience, and it may encourage color-
blindness and acceptance of injurious racial stereotypes in
certain settings. With direct and critical inquiry in
secondary and post-secondary classrooms, however, Hip
Hop has the capacity to expose white adolescents to
diverse racial representations and discourses that
undermine dominant paradigms of race and invite youth to
reflect on how race operates in their own lives and society
at large.
While discussions of race and racism are often
discouraged in schools, it is imperative that adolescents
are provided spaces to participate in open conversations
about race and encouraged to develop new understandings
of how it functions in society (Lewis, 2001; Castagno,
2008). Hip Hop can serve as a vehicle for such dialogue in
secondary and post-secondary schools as it affords
counternarratives to America‟s dominant racial discourse
and stereotypical racial representations that are ripe for
critical deconstruction. As one of today‟s most popular
youth cultures, Hip Hop is an invaluable pedagogical
resource that can be utilized to bridge adolescents‟ out-of-
school literacies with educational investigations of race
(Hull & Schultz, 2001). Partially removing Hip-Hop from its
consumerist context and inserting it in a more civically
oriented arena provides a greater possibility for the music
and culture to facilitate meaningful transformation in white
adolescents‟ racial ideologies and politics.
Future scholarship within the present line of inquiry
might employ qualitative research to investigate how white
adolescents respond to critical examinations of Hip Hop‟s
racial representations and discourses. Some potential
questions for future research are: how do white
adolescents interpret Hip Hop‟s challenges of color-
blindness? What are the implications of using Hip Hop as a
lens to examine white privilege? How do adolescents‟
ideologies of race change after sustained inquiry of Hip
Hop‟s racial representations and discourses? Investigating
these questions would identify some pragmatic implications
of mobilizing Hip Hop in schools to teach about race and
afford deeper insight into how white adolescents perceive
Hip Hop‟s racial commentary. Though existing scholarship
suggests a negative correlation between white youths‟
engagement with Hip Hop and their understanding of race,
the present analysis maintains a positive outlook on the
convergence of white adolescents, Hip Hop, and race and
calls for further analysis of Hip Hop pedagogies of race and
whiteness.
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Notes
1.
While some middle grades teachers could choose to
implement the following approaches in their classrooms, the
explicit content of some songs and advanced level of the Hip-
Hop texts locate secondary and post-secondary classrooms as
more suitable sites for these methods.
2.
The more recent controversy surrounding Ross‟s line from
Rocko‟s “UOENO” that seemingly condones rape also presents
an opportunity for educators to deconstruct Ross‟s song lyrics
and examine the inconsistencies between his music, his public
assertions, and his actual history with the subjects of his
lyrics.
3.
It is important to note here that Hip Hop‟s relevance in
the classroom extends far beyond its use as a pedagogical tool
to educate white adolescents about race and racism in the
United States and should not be its sole or primary function.
It is well documented that Hip-Hop can and has been utilized
as a culturally relevant, liberatory, and empowering core of
classroom instruction for marginalized youth of color (Duncan-
Andrade & Morrell, 2005; Emdin, 2010; Hill, 2009; Seidel,
2011). The present analysis is meant to serve as a
supplement to the extensive body of research that
demonstrates Hip-Hop‟s relevance in social justice-oriented
educational initiatives.
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