The text is interesting. She discusses the "Negro as Presented in American Literature." In the simplest terms she believes "an authentic portrait, at once aesthetic and true to life, presenting the black man as free American citizen, not the humble slave of Uncle Tom's Cabin--but the man, divinely struggling and aspiring yet tragically warped and distorted by the adverse winds of circumstance, has not yet been painted" (382).
*I'd like to note that had she known who Tupac was, she'd change her mind."
She has a vision in her head of the modern Negro and believes that her people are poorly represented or rather "have not yet been painted." I don't if this be from her own race or the other by contrast. She alludes to "The devil is always painted black--by white painters" (383) which suggests that she wants her people to have a voice. The "white painters" are painting her peoples as "all, more or less, have a point to prove or a mission to accomplish, and thus their art has been almost uniformly perverted to serve their ends.
I'm thinking about what to make out of all of this. Stay tuned for some insightful connections.
1 comment:
While I love me some Tupac, I have to wonder if she really would change her mind completely to her statement, or if she would argue that Tupac is merely the creation of the white man? Yes, I will give you that Tupac and many other 90's (and some present day) rappers were able to "struggling and aspiring", but were they "tragically warped and distorted by the adverse winds of circumstance"? First off, cooper mentions that the "writings of the first class will be the ones to withstand the ravages of time", so that those writing to propagate will be lost throughout the centuries, as most "isms" have been (according to her). Now, as honest as the writings of JayZ, Tupac, Biggie Smalls, and others, is; these men wrote with a "purpose or lesson"... "they mean to fetter you with their one idea, whatever it is, and make you, if possible, ride their hobby" (Cooper 381). In considering the black community (and according to survey of hip-hop courses+other writings) black rap was intended as a non-violent battle between two; one is always trying to outrhyme or outrap the other in order to gain dominance, so there is nothing about rapping that would qualify the rapper in the first group. As such, will rap truly withstand the sands of time or will it be forgotten generations from now?
Second, and probably more importantly, the second part of Cooper's statement, the "tragically warped and distorted", really fails to capture the black rapper. I can understand that the black stereotype is not the most positive, but in considering the idea of re/presentation, the propagation of the modern black stereotype could be very much due to the presentation of Tupac and other black rappers. JayZ's song "99 problems (But a Bi*ch ain't one)" is written about him hustling drugs across a highway on the East Coast during a time that police would pull over "suspicious" cars to use drug dogs (said bitches) to search for drugs. In an interview given to NPR (as a rap junkie I heard it), he talks about all of the problems he was in at the time, but how he'd pass other cars that had been pulled over, yet never was. (Hence the 99 problems). I fail to believe the idea that Cooper would think this as "tragically warped and distorted by adverse winds", but rather, as the representation of an individual which creates a presentation of the greater whole. While I give you the points that yes, Tupac's lyrics are more uplifting or more positive than many others, his too still paints him as a "thug" occasionally. Though he struggles for equality between the black and white, and wonders why his people need to suffer as they do, he admits to drug use and other illegal activity. The presentation of his niche creates a stereotype, a genre (if you will), of what it is to be a black man growing up in poverty.
I think there has been progress in getting the black opinion/perspective out (more so male than female), however, if Cooper argues that the honest writer who writes solely "to please", I wonder just how much progress has been made?
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