AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC INFLUENCE: A BILLBOARD APPROACH

America has a large picture of its History, not only because of its broad and wide area, but because of all the important events which took place during the Independence, slavery, segregation, etc. Music has an important place in the racial history of the United States of America, and we could recognize several genres which has different kinds of African American roots, such as soul, blues and jazz. American society has evolved, and they are aware of all the racism which took place there in the past, so they are conscious about how delicate is this fact in their history, and I have no doubt about their absolute respect regarding this situation. However, the importance of African American music doesn’t have all the recognition it deserves, because several contemporary musicians are not aware about their influence, either direct or indirect, never less important.

African American history has a lot of awkward phases, which have determined the way people see life, and that was perfectly expressed through music. The way people use art to express their feelings is a very common one, and probably writing music and making it is a good way to capture in words a situation, in this way, sorrow, suffering, and maybe joy or hope. African American people have expressed their history composing songs which belong to genres (now commonly recognized) such as blues or jazz, but they have influenced different kind of artists like Elvis and The Rolling Stones, who we could easily label as rock artists. Music has evolved, and African American music has its own place in our History, even if we don’t have any clue about this kind of roots. We’re involved into something bigger than us, and this entry's objective is to illustrate a little bit how African American music has its own influence on almost everything we listen to, no matter if the artist is black or white. 

I will take as a reference the Top 10 Billboard chart, regarding the pop genre, which could be commonly considered as white music. The top songs on the Billboard charts are a clear reference about what is America listening to, so this information is a good way to make the analysis about the real roots.

At first, we could take a look at May 17th week’s top pop songs chart, as I still keep in my mind a white man commentary about pop music: “white music is anything on a top 40 radio station that suburban teenagers listen to” on a iamOTHER video from his channel on Youtube, called Stereotypes – what color is your music?. Is that commentary the common notion about pop music? Is this guy just being ignorant? I don’t care, because even though white people know or not the roots of the music they listen to, I will confirm that African American music has more influence that we can see with a naked eye.

This is important, so you can check the 4:50 minute:

This guy's opinion is extremely wrong, because we are going to see that African American music means a lot to the Pop genre.

The most important pop song on the chart is Just give me a reason, performed by Pink, featuring Nate Ruess. Pink considers that her most representative influence lays on Madonna and Janis Joplin: both white. However, there is a remarkable and doubtless African American indirect root: Janis Joplin’s musical influences, who are all black ladies (Aretha Franklin, Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton and Billie Holiday). As we can see, with a naked eye it would be impossible to spot, but the most important pop song wouldn’t probably rise to the top without the power of African American music on Janis Joplin’s work. It would be tedious if I analyze song by song, so I will just highlight important cases, such as Rihanna (second place with Stay), who is an African American artist (only white music on the top 40? Really?), and there’s nothing more to explain: she has risen to the top pop charts, with direct African American roots.

Rihanna, white music performer, according to this guy 

Maybe we wouldn’t ever know about this female artist if she wouldn’t listen to Aaliyah, Janet Jackson, or Toni Braxton, all African American ladies, and all R&B or Soul artists. These songs are followed by other hits performed by Bruno Mars (R&B by Keith Sweat and Jodeci), Macklemore (white American rapper, directly influenced by Nas, or Freestyle Fellowship, both hip hop artists) and Maroon 5 (Direct influences with Prince, Stevie Wonder or Al Green). As we can see, excluding some exceptions (Icona Pop and Krewella gained force because EDM has got an ascendant acceptance in American society nowadays), African American music presence on the top charts of pop music is remarkable and inevitable, because even if these artists are not aware about this kind of roots, they exist. Maybe this white guy from the video needs to take a look on this charts, and he will absolutely change his mind about his “white music” idea, because the trends of pop show that black people have helped almost every artist to get there in an inspirational way, and part of the pop success needs to be conceded to African American music. In addition, the King of pop himself was African American, so half of the throne is occupied by a black guy, nothing more to explain there.

THE BLACK EYED PEAS CASE

In America, race and racism are very delicate topics, since a lasting slavery era took place there, and black people suffered a lot because of the treatment the received back then. Social and racial segregation were commonly seen in almost everything there: Television, food, territory, politics, religion and even music. I have already written about how there’s color in music, and how in America we can see several examples about that when we go out there and look at the kind of people who listen to certain kind of music. In a conventional way, we could assume that white people have some genres for them, as lack, Latin or Asian have some genres for each of them. In a conventional way, we could think that depending on your skin color, you should or would grow up listening at certain kind of music, and if you got talent, you should or would probably make it as an artist of that music. As time has gone by, people are facing and understanding different cultures, and it leads to the fact that we cannot be sure about color in music anymore, however, we can still see barriers that difficult people to success with different kinds of music, and unfortunately, the main barrier seems to be your skin color. We can see exceptions, and the most interesting case about how race is not supposed to be a barrier, is the worldwide known hip hop group: The Black Eyed Peas:

Throughout the History of humanity, and in a more representative way, throughout the History of the United States of America, we have seen how different races and cultures gather geographically or musically. Music, as religion, has become a difference maker in the American society, and every ethnicity behave different and listen to different kinds of music. There are even stereotypes which have been created around different types of music, say, hip hop to black people, salsa to Latin people, or country music to white people. We are used to watch black guys rapping and being successful with R&B or hip hop hits, and we are used to watch white people being successful with Rock and Roll, or Country music as well, so we have grown with all these stereotypes that have been created there, and we also know that it’s really difficult to overcome this kind of barriers. There is a more deep background on this topic: the way people are growing up there. Black communities are really closed among them, and they have created that barrier after all the suffering they had to deal with in the past, when they were slaves, treated like rare specimens, like tools. Even nowadays, black people still feel discriminated, and they are not the only group which feels this, because Latin and Asian people still deal with this discrimination. In America, there are neighborhoods full of black people only, as there are neighborhoods full of Latin, white or Asian people: they grow up separated and that put some conditions over the music they start to like. 

Certain examples come out with the charts: According to Billboard, the hottest pop songs are performed by artists like Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, Swedish House Mafia and Calvin Harris: all white people. The hottest R&B/ Hip hop hits are performed by artists like Drake, Jay Z, Lil’ Wayne, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, etc., all African Americans. When we go to Latin music, even though this will look pretty obvious, the hottest songs are performed by people like Daddy Yankee, Romeo Santos, Don Omar, etc., all Latinos.  

William James Adams, known by will.i.am, is a black guy, born in Los Angeles (California), and one of the founders of the concept of the group we know as The Black Eyed Peas. Allan Pineda, known as apl.de.ap, is a Philippine man, and cofounder of the first concept of this group: Atban klann. The next member is Jaime Luis Gómez, known as Taboo on stage, he was born in LA, but his father is Mexican, so he has clear Latin roots. The last member of the group, who was included in the last place (2002) as the main voice, is Stacy Ann Ferguson, whose artistic name is Fergie; she has Irish and Scottish roots, including the fact that her parents and her were born in California.

We link hip hop to black people, and even though we can see exceptions like Eminem, The Beastie Boys or Fat Joe, it is inevitable for them to be associated, because of all the reasons I have already mentioned. It is really important to point out The BEP importance here, because this is a hip hop group conformed by a black guy, a half-Latin guy, a half-Asian man and a white lady: explosive.

IT’S NOT JUST A COTTON PLANT

Through almost 4 months now, we have been taking a look at all the African American music background, and as an individual thought, I think we have to analyze and consider all the facts which surround a society environment, because we could be really surprised with how wrong are we. Four months ago, I had a completely different position on African American society, and I had even been pointed as a racist person, however, I took this entire story to clear my thoughts and to have a different concept. It’s man’s man’s man’s world, performed by James Brown should be a good example to show to all of you, that now I know something about this topic, and I will never have the same concept about African American people I had a few months ago, never.

This video shows us a black man, inside a comfortable house, in a snowy day. Behind him, a cotton plant lies in a jar, and it works as a time machine, because it immediately takes this man to his childhood, which took place on the cotton plantations of Barnwell, South Carolina. The streets are empty, and a Gospel church shows up, and it’s full of black people, who are praying and singing to their Lord: they just want to be heard, they just want their voice to rise to heaven. Then, a terrible memory goes back to this guy mind: he looks at himself as a boy who plays the harmonica, just as  his old fellows did, and a drunk adult (probably his father, or even his stepfather) beats him so hard, that his little musical instrument ends up on the floor.

Those were hard times for African American society, since they had to deal with a terribly racist white society, who had this awful belief about them being the better race, the superior race. White people were so racist, that they couldn’t stand the fact of them sharing a sink with them: they were “colored”, they were “different”, and they were worth “less”. White society was so sick, that they even hung black men in trees, and this was considered a ritual, an insane leak of evil which soiled American ground. This kid had lived all of these kinds of darkness, as he even had to grow up with a sinful behavior, which included delinquency (caused by a discriminative society) and a couple of years behind the cold bars of jail. Time went by, and black people were sick of that illogical discrimination: they gathered, they rose, they wanted all the American people to feel the Black power, and they had a charismatic leader, who took charge of this anger ship. Martin Luther King was shot dead by a white man (not surprisingly at all, they were just sick), and It worked as a catalyst to the black power rise. They were heard and felt during the 1968 Olympic Games, when Tommie Smith made the black power salute in front of thousands of people after winning a gold medal there.

Eyes down, hard times, no doubt.

This man began his singing career, and all we can see is representative instruments of the music that was born in an African American world, such as saxophones and trombones. African American people has given so much to music, and it has put its influence on so many genres, that this man’s success in a man’s man’s world is a good way to show how you can take all the bad experiences you have left behind and take advantage of them in order to become a better person. The kid that grew up in a cotton field, being discriminated and humiliated, took all the dust off his shoulders and now looks at his current town from the top, in his house full of memories, memories that come out every time he looks at that plant, that is not just a cotton plant.

SWING OF CHANGE: THE POWER OF MUSIC

Sometimes, the way to achieve great things is simpler than we think.

There were harder times behind American society’s back, times when people used to have a serious problem with the way they looked at any person who had different skin color, different thoughts, or just different manners. During those hard times, black people were treated as animals, and it was a long time after when they got their freedom, however, they were not free.

We can make a good picture of this situation if we take a look at this short clip: http://vimeo.com/30272990

We take place in an American street, where we can find Harry’s Cut, a little barber shop owned by a white guy named Harry. This guy is an elegant barber, who only works with white people (that’s what I meant with “they were not free”, because that society separated white people from black people, and even if white people were not allowed to treat black people as slaves, they were indirectly allowed to exclude them from their own stuff: is that being free and equal?) and he loves his phonograph, and he puts some military music on it. The phonograph stopped working, and he was lucky that day, because his white customer was able to fix it, but the machine had to leave the place: Harry would be without any music for the next few days.

Then, music came back to Harry’s Cut, but it came in the form of an unsynchronized and joyful sound of a trumpet. Harry was really surprised when he noticed who was playing that trumpet: a black man standing on the sidewalk. The context which surrounded Harry was a racist society, as I already showed, so he found unacceptable for his beliefs to let him play there, and he went after the black musician. As he grabbed the trumpet, the black guy disappeared, and he was left there all alone, with that shiny instrument.

Harry goes back to his barber shop, and he feels nostalgic, because he is missing his military music, as he looks at his past as a sergeant playing a trumpet, with a really structured music, which made him happy. He cleaned up the trumpet, and he started to play a squared melody, with a defined structure which never walked away the organized tempo. That trumpet belonged to a black guy, a joyful man who had been discriminated in every aspect, and that trumpet got used to a different kind of melody: that melody that comes from our heart, with no structure, with no tempo or pre-defined hierarchy. This trumpet started to syncopate, and Harry didn't like the swing, so he tried to force his trumpet to play structured music, with no messy rhythm or similar.

Music is powerful, and it’s the only capable of making people change their minds, manners or positions against any topic. This is not the exception, and the Jazz penetrated Harry’s heart, and this strange swing filled his racist mind. Harry was a different man, and after enjoying a rhythm which was invented by black people, he understood that racism is not correct, and he changed his mind about the way he used to serve people, so he decided to allow everybody to access his barber shop and get a treat.

THE JAZZ ESCALATION

I have been learning about African American society for almost three months now, and I have discovered a lot of factors I hadn’t recognized in the past. Maybe my mind has changed a little around everything which regards African American descendants, and maybe I could develop a whole new position about all the matters which surround American society. I have also discovered several kinds of music which I didn't know they were born from African American people, and it has been a really good experience.

Besides Gospel, R&B or Blues, there’s Jazz. I am not completely familiar with Jazz, but as far as I know, I enjoy it. Jazz music is pleasant, diverse and smooth, so it gets easy for us to enjoy it when we have certain mood. Regarding Jazz, there are different types of sub-genres, such as Bebop, Cool Jazz or Groove Jazz.

After listening to all of the different kinds of Jazz we can find out there, I found more likely for me the Brazilian Jazz, because I like smooth music, and even though almost every kind of Jazz has that feature, the fact of being Brazilian gives it more freshness (I’m just guessing here). I have also learned a little bit about Bossa Nova, and I know Jazz has been a direct influence on it: since I liked bossa nova, it is not surprising that I liked Brazilian Jazz as well. I think this kind of music would help me to think and meditate when I have to read, study or simply relax, so I find it really helpful for any of those situations. I have also liked that Brazilian Jazz is more structured than other kind of Jazz, and I have to admit that I am not a big fan of messy music. I want to highlight Modern Mainstream and Groove Jazz as well, because I have also found them really interesting.

I have also found a specific subgenre which I wasn’t comfortable with: Bebop. As soon as I read the description I was afraid I wasn’t going to enjoy it: “The revolutionary music that married swing rhythm with adventurous improvisation”. Improvisation: that’s the deal breaker. When I have that word surrounding my head, and mixing it with the fact that we are talking about Jazz, I knew it was not going to sound okay for me. As I had expected, the frenzy of this subgenre was not likely for my objective, which is to chill out and relax. I don’t find this messy music a good way to relax, so as soon as I listened to Bebop, it became to stress. Maybe we could find Jazz music as a highly messy genre, however, we can also find some structured subgenres, which help us to organize our own ideas even when it gets difficult. My point is, if you are trying to relax and clear your mind in order to organize your ideas, you will not succeed if you are listening to a frenetic, messy and unstructured music, with an inevitable rain of instruments and improvising that will mix up even more your thoughts.

My taste regarding Jazz music moves along with the objective I have: Relax. If a Jazz subgenre is not smooth, soft and organized, maybe it would not be adequate for me, and I think I have explained in a good way throughout this entry.

LET'S DO THE UNTHINKABLE

It is always a pleasure to watch Alicia Keys on a video, and it would be even better if part of my course grade depends on writing about her and her music.

As I said, stunning.

The relation between the course and this video is evident: At first, an African American lady (stunningly beautiful) whose music has obvious African American roots, and who has been influenced by several African American artists. Then, the video: the environment, the neighborhood, her family, the guy who causes the controversy, the fight between her brother and the White guy, etc.

Yes, I know, I'm in love.

This song lyrics are perfect for the video, because she is trying to do the unthinkable, and black people, very probably risen being racist and discriminative, couldn't stand the fact that one member of the family is getting closer to a white guy, because she is supposed to follow the tradition and get along with a black fellow, member of a black family, and it would be even better if they are part of the neighborhood where this video takes place.

It is actually funny how we always think about racism as a one way behavior against black people, even the fact of saying black people is considered as racism. But, is it completely accurate? We need to see the other side of the story: why do they feel insulted when we say black, but we just don’t feel anything when the say white? I mean, aren’t you a black guy? What’s the big deal? Racist behavior is a completely different state of society, racism can be considered and shown in the motion picture Django unchained, where white people treat black guys as animals, literally.

I think black people is even more racist than white people, since they are always acting like they are being discriminated, insulted, etc., even though they are not [1]. This video is a sample of this theory (the black card), and racism (racism from white people and racism from black people as well) has become so deep in America, that entire neighborhoods are completely inhabited by black people, and they can’t stand a white person who breaks in their space. The white guy gets punished because they had fallen in love with a lady who was part of a black family, a black neighborhood, a racist neighborhood.  The lady’s brother, who beats up and threatens the white guy, is a clear sample of a black guy who hates white people (for no reason, I mean, slaver people has been gone long time ago) and is trying to get back at them committing acts of pure racism.

It's actually difficult to concentrate on the video when we are watching her as the main character!

I want to apologize if you can’t stand the term black, but I find it really helpful to shorten my ideas, and I don’t find it racist at all, I am not a racist guy, I swear.

---

[1] I used to work for a customer care center which provides a free cellphone to American people who need it, and once I had to talk to a black guy who wasn’t eligible because he didn’t have a valid address to register him. His reaction was: I am not getting a phone because I’m black, right? SAY IT! So we can clearly see how black people act as victims even if white, Latin or Asian people are not doing anything racist.

“YOU CAN SING BLUES, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO LIVE IT”

Maybe we can think about any other musical genre and simply affirm that this fact is actually accurate and easy to explain.

Maybe we could think about a rapper, a rock singer, even a tropical music artist, and easily check on their story, in order to make sure that the artist's life has nothing to do with their musical genre: we can eventually think about some other genre they could sing, and there would be no problem there. Now I have to think about blues, and the main idea that keeps rounding my head is: "be careful, this is not completely true..." but, why?

It's simultaneously easy and hard to explain, because we could think about a black man who can make great blues and we can easily think that (even though it was his parents, or his grandparents) has lived the terrible slavery times there. I think it's important to clarify that we are thinking about the context of the Cadillac Records movie, around mid-20^th Century, when the musical industry was still making its first steps.

19th century blues had their roots on a tangible fact: sorrow, suffering, depression; even though the musical industry was taking all the original intentions of the composer, and was making the artists make their pieces in order to get rich, and bring their work to an audience, instead of a story and a feeling.

Therefore, it depends on the context and the time we put this sentence on, because it is always important to make this kind of clarifications, we have to analyze all the facts which surround a topic, and even more if we talk about something regarding culture and music. So, if we take this sentence, and put it before the mid-20^th Century, I wouldn’t agree, because blues were a way to express all the important feelings that surrounded black people lives during that time, and it’s just inaccurate and even not correct to say you can sing blues without feeling it during that time. Now we can think about the boom of the musical industry, when that enormous monster began to feed on the talented artists: that time changes everything, because seemingly nowadays the only thing that matters is the audience, and the money it would bring with a musical hit. That sentence will get all the sense here, because you only need to sing fair, get good lyrics, and that’s it.

I think this sentence: you can sing blues, but you don’t have to live it, should work with the fact that the musical industry has been taking advantage of the audience, and music has a different definition nowadays, which was possibly born there, with the good music, with the real blues. 

THE PAST, THE ROOTS, THE ORIGIN

This is just another day on the road, and maybe this guy is just thinking. Maybe he thinks about what he has left behind him, and what did his father, his mother and all of their friends left behind them, when they embraced freedom.

As he walks down the road, he put his memories in front of him, and he remembers how her mother used to serve to an elegant, wealthy white guy who treated her really bad. He also remembers how his father used to work hard every day, with no right to rest a little. His father and all the black adults he lived with used to be treated like beasts, humiliated and discriminated. He lived a very traumatic childhood, since he wasn’t able to play, or enjoy the company of some friends. He didn’t even had the right to be educated, or even orientated in order for him to grow spiritually. They suffered a lot there, they had miserable lives and they were extremely sad, they felt humiliated, discriminated and constantly threatened: they just used to feel blue.

The night comes, and the insane person who treats them like beasts goes to sleep, they are allowed to get some energy during the night. All the slaves used to sleep together, and they took advantage of the night to gather and share some feelings with all their fellows. They had nothing to celebrate, they used to gather and share their sorrow, their sadness. The kid watches his dad singing some chants about how he feels, and how sorry he is about being in captivity, suffering and losing his strength day by day. They gathered every night and sang, they started to enjoy it, and it became a usual thing to do when they used to get some time for them.

This kid grew up listening to his dad’s lyrics. This kid grew up with the sorrow, but at the same time the emotion and the faith his dad used to put on his songs. This kid developed a musical taste, and he tried to sing then. Time went by, and everything changed for black people in America: they were supposed to be treated fairly, without any kind of discrimination or threatening: they were finally free.

They were finally allowed to have their own home, their own jobs and their own outfits. They were allowed to sing in public, and they were finally allowed to play some instruments. This guy kept developing his musical taste, and he was more than happy to sing along with his father and their folks. They still kept the sorrow and the suffering they had to face in the past, and the indelible stings of a terrible experience.

This guy lost his father because he got week and sick, and his dream was to become a great artist. He started walking the road by playing some unknown music, which gained some field and was becoming popular. He continued, he followed the road and he became an elegant man, with the skills of a remarkable artist. He keeps walking down the road, and he never forgets the sorrow, he never forgets what made him follow his dream, he never forgets feeling blue. 

RELIGION AND MUSIC

Does religion affect the kind of music I listen to? I don’t think it does, or at least in a radical way. I have been analyzing this question and I am completely sure that there are kinds of music that I am never going to enjoy at all, like all these satanic, dark, aggressive bands and all that stuff.

I could consider myself as a Christian, even though I have some doubts on going to an organized church every Sunday in order to listen to a person who reads for me things that I can read for myself and make deep reflections on my own. However, I read the Bible and I try to follow its canons in order for me to grow as a human being and follow my metaphysical beliefs. Whit all of this taken, I would never see me listening to music which talks about Allah, Ganesh or anything like that. However, if we analyze all the canons that the Bible suggests for a complete human being, in order for them to save themselves and have a pure life, there’s a lot of behaviors which wouldn’t allow us to listen to some kind of additional music in addition.

I checked at my playlists and I found Wakeup call by Maroon 5: “6 foot tall, came without a warning, so I had to shoot him dead…” – As we know, the Bible states that NOBODY besides GOD can take another person’s life out, so if we were really strict, I would have to avoid this song.

Another canon that would be violated is the fact that we are forced to HELP and SUPPORT the other people, friends or enemies by equal. Santiago Cruz says fuiste mi Verdugo y la culpable de que hoy me alivie tu fracaso (…) No vengas a pedirme que te abrace y que recoja los pedazos. No vengas, porque así me sentí. These lyrics states that this guy is feeling good after his ex’s failure, and he is not going to give her the support she is looking for. Bible is clear, and he would be forced to support her, or at least avoid that betrayal behavior (me sabe bien tu pesadilla).

The last canon, and probably the most relevant and violated is the sexual behavior. Bible FORBIDS ANY KIND of sexual encounter between a man and a woman unless they are already married, so if we take that to music, we will see that a large list of songs should be eliminated: Esta noche haremos el amor bailando; I know you see me looking at me and you already know I wanna f** you; Girl I got you so hot and I know you like. We can go on, because sex is the topic with the widest reach in music, and almost every artist use sex at least in one of their songs, even if it is not explicit there. If we were strictly compliant with the Bible, I shouldn’t be listening to any of the Reggaton, Hip-Hop or Salsa artist, because they use sex in almost every song.

Religion does not affect my musical taste, and if I were forced to modify my playlists in order to be coherent with the Bible, there would be a really serious change there, because there is a touch of SIN inside almost every song.

IS THERE COLOR IN MUSIC?

I know this is going to look really out of any academical but my answer is going to show how sure I am about this thesis: Sure, of course, no doubt! There’s color in music, and there’s color in everything until black people stop using racism as an excuse to feel abused, threatened and hurt. Why am I so sure about the color in music? Let’s use a really problematic word: the N-word. I know this word is a really delicate term, and I am aware about all the repercussions about this topic, however, I feel it is necessary to get over it and analyze the color in music, using this word as an example. Before my analysis, I want to clarify that I am going to take that word out from the lyrics, and every time I use it, is because I am going to quote the song, even though I am not feeling uncomfortable with it, because it’s just a word, and its power is measured with the power you give to it.

Why do black people feel so comfortable using the n-word EVEN IN THEIR SONGS? What would happen if a white rapper use it in a song? Here are some examples:

I WANNA F*CK YOU (Akon) – You ain’t lonely, handful of niggers and they all got cheese…

DILEMMA (Nelly) - I know how niggers start actin trippin out here about their girls…

P.I.M.P (50 Cent) - I ain't that nigger trying to holla cause I want some head, I'm that nigger trying to holla cause I want some bread…

YOUNG, WILD AND FREE (Wiz Khalifa) - Keep it real with my niggers, keep it playing for these hoes

As we can see, they are COMPLETELY COMFORTABLE using that word, they use it in order to talk to a friend, to themselves, even to unknown people. So, if they sing and the use that word even in MOVIES (Bad boys, with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, to put just one example: they use that word 10 TIMES in one single scene) without any harmful purpose, why do they feel bad when a white person use that word, even when they don’t want to be offensive or discriminative? They are getting the right to use the n-word just because they have an African lineage?

Unfair, and that’s a clear example of why I think there’s color in music, because black people keep feeling discriminated when a white person use that word: Can you picture Eminem using the n-word in one of his songs? What would happen if he goes I got a gang of niggas walking with my clique (Jay-Z)? Can we even picture it? I’m sure we can’t, because that would be racist, but if a black guy goes and say it in a hit of the size of Empire State of mind, that’s completely okay: double standard.

This word is making people get the wrong concept about race, and the music itself is affected by their own discrimination. Can you picture a white guy listening to this kind of music, and singing it in front of black people? That would be racist, even if the record has been made by a black guy? White people avoid this kind of music, because they have fear to this word, and it has become too powerful nowadays.

THE AUNT JEMIMA ICON

I really did not know anything about this controversial product logo, I only know this mix makes really good pancakes. When I got the message, stating that “In 1989, the image of Aunt Jemima was updated by removing her headband and giving her pearl earrings and a lace collar” I thought that was some kind of racial thing against black people and their traditions. But I always get surprised when I read something about race in America: this time, black people felt that the image of Aunt Jemima was being offensive and stereotypical, and they pushed Quaker until they finally changed the outfit of this lovely and worldwide recognized lady.

The Aunt Jemima topic is really deep, and I think this is a great opportunity to know even more about the American society. The evolution of the logo has shown how race is extremely delicate in America, and a harmless product can make such a controversy, even though the brand members didn’t want to.

The image of the “mammy” was created by the owners (RT Davis Milling Co), when they hired a freed slave lady to dress like a mammy, and offer the product with the flavor and tradition they needed, in order to get people and customers all over America. The image of the mammy, with the overweight, the dress, the bandanna, etc. was used for a very long time, and the product became famous nationwide: They succeeded, and the product got into every American household. After Quaker bought the brand (1926), the stereotype became more aggressive, and I think the problem began when they used language the way they did: Time fo’ dee-licious Aunt Jemima’s (…) ready-mixed fo’ you! Or Folks sho’ cheer for fluffy, energizin’ Pancakes! I mean, it’s really good that the product image is a black loving lady, but why do they have to write the ads that way? I think they were really offensive, and black people reacted, stating that they feel offended by the product image. The Aunt Jemima concept was getting offensive, and people were using it as a stereotype, so the brand needed a change, in order to stop race conflicts between the American cultures.

There's no need to put this kind of written language there

Black people were heard around 20 years later, and Quaker put some earrings and an elegant outfit on Aunt Jemima, removing some extra weight, the bandanna, and all the stereotypes. Some people didn’t understand the change, because they were used to the stereotypical image, even if they didn’t picture her that way. The important result here is that black people were quiet, and they felt completely comfortable with the new Aunt Jemima, and I think that’s the important thing: to get all the society to feel good with the brand, and to eliminate stereotypes which aim to any race, or any kind of people who are different, think different, act different, etc.

This is the current Aunt Jemima icon

I think I’ll keep the brand the way it is, because we can see an elegant black lady, who makes her pancakes with love and warmth. In addition, the brand logo is not showing any stereotype and everybody feel good and comfortable with it, so the last update works, and that’s the only thing that matters.

Source: Aunt Jemima: Negative Stereotype or Iconic Brand? Through Zena’s eyes, 2011.

http://zmblackhistorymonth2011.blogspot.com/2011/02/feb-13-aunt-jemima-negative-stereotype.html