Jokes and “Post-Racial” USA
Apr
22
Jokes are fun and may often signify familiarity and some level of informality/comradeship between two people. However, with jokes about race, it is often a fine line and many times, we don’t know when we have crossed it. Take, for example, rapper Asher Roth of the “I love College” fame. In early 2009, Roth (white), on a visit to Rutger’s University, tweeted:
“Been a day of rest and relaxation, sorry Twitter- hanging out with nappy headed hoes.”
allegedly to make fun of Don Imus, who had made a similar remark of Rutger’s University’s women basketball team. He later explained himself, apologized and then deleted the offensive tweets. But not before social media went wild. Interestingly, and maybe unrelated to the racial comment is Roth’s take on black rappers’ materialism and extravagant lifestyle when there is starvation in Africa, to paraphrase.
I found this YouTube video from March 2009 by hip-hop blogger, John Randolph, aka JaySmooth.
In a later YouTube video, Randolph spoke to a friend of his, Dan Charnas, who was one of the first writers of Source magazine (a hip hop magazine), and whom according to Randolph “has a lot of experience being a white guy in hip hop.”
What do you think? Is there a lesson for us to learn from Asher Roth and hip hop in general? Are there instances where race jokes are okay? Do the jokes make us more aware of “race” or can they serve as a means of getting past racism?
Sourced:
TheLoop21.com | Asher Roth’s bad joke about ‘nappy-headed hoes’
Davey D’s Hip-Hop Corner | Rapper Asher Roth says Black Rappers Talk too Much About Money
Racialicious | Asher Roth and the Politics of Race in Hip Hop
cat2catie
Racial humility and capital materialism… not black or hip hop materialism! Makes me wonder if there is black money or white money. Aren’t we all our brother’s keeper…white blue, yellow, brown, black, green…. I am my brother’s keeper regardless of race.