Colorlines - White Privilege II
March 9, 2016 10:37 AM   Subscribe

Colorlines (w/ Jay Smooth) talks about White Privilege II, the Macklemore/Ryan Lewis single, with the artists. The article has context, but here's the direct video also.
posted by neuromodulator (9 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Good for them. I'd wondered what Jay Smooth was up to. Hadn't seen a video of his in months. I'm not a Macklemore fan and he seems mediocre to me so it has been quite interesting to see him get big name artists on some of his recent releases. When KRS showed up, I knew I had to listen. And KRS's verse was rather good. I guess the great but also interesting thing for me as someone who listens to rap (and you might want to add that tag to the post) is that for whatever reasons I've been able to witness these happenings without feeling like it was taking over my whole field of vision. Macklemore is so restrained in that video its kind of offputting, but at the same time, he's putting his money where his mouth is so that's refreshing.

I think I liked one of his very first songs what seems like a decade ago, which meant I wouldn't turn it off if it was on, but I was never feeling him like that. The note from the page is great:

"All we ask is that you listen to all eight minutes and 42 seconds of "White Privilege II," watch our video in its entirety and visit whiteprivilege2.com to see what groups Macklemore & Ryan Lewis plan to put their time and money into. Then talk."

Like, we can't trust you to know what the hell is even going on because so many people who know nothing about hip hop will try to put in their 2 cents, so here's some instructions on how to behave so you're not saying dumb things.
posted by cashman at 12:00 PM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]


I wish this video had been around a couple weeks ago when I got into a heated facebook discussion about White Privilege II. I'm so glad they took the time to do this.
posted by redsparkler at 12:08 PM on March 9, 2016


It's like, yes, I'm glad someone is talking about this and raising the level of conversation about it. But why does it have to be this We are the world corny ass dude doing it? Where is like Eminem or Bubba Sparxx or Sage Francis some semi-talented white rapper? The whole situation should be on a final exam in Utilitarianism 101.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:55 PM on March 9, 2016 [3 favorites]


All we ask is that you listen to all eight minutes and 42 seconds of "White Privilege II,"

9 minutes of Macklemore is a high bar
posted by Hoopo at 1:38 PM on March 9, 2016 [7 favorites]


9 minutes of Macklemore is a high bar

That's like 2.25 Thrift Shops, which just skates underneath the legal threshold for torture.
posted by jgooden at 2:04 PM on March 9, 2016


Potomac - maybe he's doing it because he's the only one people are willing to hear. There's a bit in the video where they say that corny ass white dudes need to speak up -because- other corny ass white people only listen to other white people.

Like. Right now dude is the corny ass white rapper that my mom doesn't hate and that my niece and nephew are allowed to listen to, so it's GOOD that he's speaking up, because he's the guy they'll listen to. You think they'll listen to Slim Shady? Hell no. "I can't be racist I like rap" racists don't listen to Eminem because he's too close to not being white for their tastes.

You wanna reach whitebread, you gotta -be- whitebread apparently.
posted by FritoKAL at 2:07 PM on March 9, 2016 [5 favorites]


You wanna reach whitebread, you gotta -be- whitebread apparently.

I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay oversimplifyling, but Ta-Nehisi Coates essentially made this point in Between the World and Me.
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 8:15 PM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


As a white person, this song is very uncomfortable to listen to. Perhaps that is a sign that it says something important.
posted by domo at 5:46 AM on March 10, 2016


9 minutes of Macklemore is a high bar

Opinions vary.

I really wasn't sure how to think about this song when I first heard it, most of the Mack & RL stuff I like tends to lean towards the faster or thoughtful (I'm thinking B-Boys and Life is Cinema here) but after a couple of rounds in my playlists the more I heard the more I appreciated this one.

Particular one part:
They're chanting out, "Black Lives Matter," but I don't say it back
Is it okay for me to say? I don't know, so I watch and stand
In front of a line of police that look the same as me
Only separated by a badge, a baton, a can of Mace, a mask
A shield, a gun with gloves and hands that gives an alibi
In case somebody dies behind a bullet that flies out of the 9
Takes another child's life on sight.
The way this escalates in speed and fury perfectly parallels my reaction when I hear about another police shooting. I've heard the anger towards cops things done a hundred different ways and liked more than I've disliked. But I've never heard it expressed like this and it really resonated for me.

I know the song isn't for everyone, and I get that some of the points he's making seem obvious to me, but being in a new place around new people has made me realize how not-obvious this actually is. My last job had me working in a mostly minority environment, and I think I took for granted how good it was to have that constant reminder of the differences; people my age, doing the same job, traveling the same roads in the same kinds of cars getting pulled over monthly and me, despite driving like I'm on a racetrack, never once in almost a decade seeing the red and blues in my mirror. It's only one example, but it's a loud one in my head. Every time I see three or four police cruisers gathered around one car with a black kid looking confused and angry while his vehicle is searched reminds me that right-here-and-now this thing is happening.

There is a part late in the song where he has what are ostensibly quotes from white people complaining about the concept of "white privilege" and I'm amazed at how often I now hear sentiments that would fit right in here.

A lot of songs that push the racism-is-real buttons fill me with burning rage that makes me want to return violent action with violent action. This is one of the few that makes me want to talk and change minds.
posted by quin at 4:03 PM on March 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


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