We don't want to care more about ethnicity, we want to care less. We don't want ethnicity to matter more than it does today, we want it to matter less. Right?
Please help me understand how it's useful to have a special version of punk for black people.
I think that any kind of discrimination produces more discrimination. When you create and attempt to sustain an environment that might be considered engaging in "'positive' discrimination" (a term that seems kind of like a joke to me), over time, it generates further--both "positive" and "negative"--discrimination.
We sometimes hear from people who try to rationalize //why it is// that such things arise, but who don't consider the full effects that these environments create in a society where we wish to view all people as equals.
It's a good question, and I think it parallels questions about efforts to attract more women into engineering. One answer might be that when people feel excluded, it can help to provide a subspace where they feel privileged. The hope is that by attracting an initial group, the field itself can be improved so that future people like them do not feel excluded. Carving out a niche for Afropunk may provide a path of entry for musicians create music that would otherwise not be created.
Another possible answer is that the goal is not to create "punk for black people", but to create (or describe) an entirely new genre. Just as one can have East Coast and West Coast punk scenes, where the participants aren't necessarily limited to their geographic origin, perhaps the goal is to have room to allow for specialization. I don't know if it is there yet, but where it really becomes interesting is when the Afropunk scene is defined by style, rather than ethnicity.
>We don't want to care more about ethnicity, we want to care less. We don't want ethnicity to matter more than it does today, we want it to matter less. Right?
No, we just want it to stop matter in a wrong guy.
People shouldn't forgo their ethnicity/race.
That's assimilation and it's also racist. It's like saying that they way to stop the issue of racism if for people not to feel black, hispanic, etc, and not celebrate their culture.
I live a block from where the Afropunk festival was held yesterday and today in Fort Greene. Some good music - but mostly not. In a superficial sense it FELT like fashion and politics masquerading as musical subculture. Oh wait...
7 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 22.8 ms ] threadPlease help me understand how it's useful to have a special version of punk for black people.
We sometimes hear from people who try to rationalize //why it is// that such things arise, but who don't consider the full effects that these environments create in a society where we wish to view all people as equals.
Another possible answer is that the goal is not to create "punk for black people", but to create (or describe) an entirely new genre. Just as one can have East Coast and West Coast punk scenes, where the participants aren't necessarily limited to their geographic origin, perhaps the goal is to have room to allow for specialization. I don't know if it is there yet, but where it really becomes interesting is when the Afropunk scene is defined by style, rather than ethnicity.
This article captures some positive aspects of each of these answers: http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/afropunk-before-a.... It also includes a link to "AFROPUNK: The Movie", which has it's own answers.
No, we just want it to stop matter in a wrong guy.
People shouldn't forgo their ethnicity/race.
That's assimilation and it's also racist. It's like saying that they way to stop the issue of racism if for people not to feel black, hispanic, etc, and not celebrate their culture.