I don't like to think of myself as prejudiced. I have the good fortune to come from an educated, intelligent family which has always encouraged me to define myself independently of mainstream culture. I was homeschooled by an anthropologist, and thus was able to name the evil and folly of ethnocentrism before most of my cohorts. More than that, I was raised Baha'i, being taught that all of the different forms of culture and color and thought that humanity expresses are what makes us so beautiful; that beyond it being an atrocity to others to judge people's worth based on external things that don't matter, it would harm deeply me to keep myself from recognizing humanity's essential unity as one species.
All the same, I find that I am very rooted in White, Middle-class, American culture. I have been introduced to some hip-hop artists lately, and while the educated and more broad-minded part of me has not been surprised at all to be amazed by some of their music, the closed-minded white-privileged part of me is beckoning to the rest of white America to look at these expressions of Black culture in the inner cities: Guys, there's art here! And truth, and hope, and beauty.
I know I am behind a lot of people in this realization. I'm grateful that I am so rarely judged as harshly as I deserve to be for shortcomings like this.
The song I'm listening to today that inspired this post is Get By by Talib Kweli, from Brooklyn.
There is a whole lot of world out there to fall in love with, friends!
Ha, and here is a link to lyrics for Get By. I also love Dinosaur Comics, like this one.
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Talib Kweli is very good rapper to fall in love with. My favorite is Ms. Hill
ReplyDeletethanks! That is a really sweet song!
ReplyDeleteI am at work and so cannot listen to the awesome, but I will endeavor to remember to do so when I get home. I am always on the hunt for new awesome music. Human expression through music is just so..unexplainably wonderful.
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