This
week I am watching and listening to a lot of stuff that I would normally avoid
like the plague. I will be glad when it's over. I do it though, because I
believe that it matters. The representations we make and popularize matter. The
choices are not always made consciously, but they are still choices. If you're
new here, I'm pretty much all about consciousness and thinking about what you
do.
The
videos that were foremost in my mind were "Hard Out Here" by Lily
Allen and "Hello Kitty" by Avril Lavigne, which naturally reminded me
of Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Girls, although I did not know of a specific video
for that; it was more that she made them accessories for her life.
Doing
some searching, other things that came up were Sky Ferreira's "I Blame
Myself", as well as "Royals" by Lorde and "D.R.U.G.S."
by Iggy Azalea, but more for lyrics than video issues.
One
thing that both Ferreira and Allen said in their defense was that they just
picked the best dancers, and wouldn't it be wrong to pick other people based on
race? This is leading us into the same area where people argue that Affirmative
Action is wrong because it involves discrimination, and I want to see if I can
deconstruct that.
First,
remember that thing about the writing staff for "The Colbert Report"
being 100% white and almost 100% male. Colbert said it wasn't deliberate, and
that he only looks at writing. That's just how it worked out.
That
also ignores that in terms of networking and getting doors opened and knowing where
to ask, white males are at an advantage. By not casting a broader net, you can
miss excellent writers. The other factor, and possibly more relevant one, is
that the white males are probably going to be more similar to him in their
points of view, and appear more desirable.
That
doesn't have to be conscious. It's possible that if you dug deeper you would
also notice some similarities in geography or marital status or educational
background -- there are many factors that contribute to our worldview -- but
when you surround yourself with people who think the same way, you miss out on
other relevant thoughts. The humor can get kind of repetitive, and every now
and then you get a bit that is appallingly tone-deaf.
So
let's look at "I Blame Myself". Ferreira appears to be a drug dealer,
working with other dealers. She is white, but the other dealers and their
customers are all dark-skinned. The cops are white. She is arrested, and
apparently tries to use sex to evade the charges, or at least to profess her self-loathing.
The
dancers are fine, as far as that goes, but I suspect there was also a feeling
that the final configuration that came with that looked right, and part of that
feeling that it looked right was because the drug dealers were black.
Perhaps
I am being somewhat influenced by a picture posted of Lebron James recently
where it was said that he looked like a Jamaican drug dealer, and no, I think
he looks like he is going on vacation. I am not sure what part of the picture
says "drug dealer" other than his race. I'm trying to imagine someone
white in the same outfit getting the same comment, and I can't. They might get
mocked for the shirt, but not for looking like a drug dealer.
The
sad thing about this is how far the belief is from reality. White Americans are
as or more likely to use drugs as the black population, and they deal too. Most
buyers buy from people of the same race and economic status. However, people of
color are much more likely to get arrested, and that image does not help.
(You
can find some information at http://www.policymic.com/articles/89653/7-actual-facts-that-prove-white-privilege-exists-in-america,
but anyone who has not yet read Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow
should.)
I
in no way mean to imply that this was a deliberate choice, but I do think it's
a good rule of thumb to step back and take a look at these things. Oh, all of
the drug dealers and users are black, that's interesting. Is that really what I
want to say? This brings us to Lily Allen.
(I'm
not sure I can say anything about Avril Lavigne. Yes, she is using them as
props, yes they are dehumanized, but I'm having a hard time getting past how
vapid it is. Here's further reading; have at it:
So,
"Hard Out There", immediately followed by "for a b*tch, which
seems like it must be inspired by "Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from Hustle
& Flow, which, for what it's worth, I believe was actually more
racially balanced than Allen's video. Once again the defense is that these were
just the best dancers, and the reason she is more covered up than they are is
only because their bodies are better, and she is in no way putting them down
when she says that she does not need to shake for you because she has a brain.
Just because you hired these women specifically for the purpose of shaking, how
could that possibly be construed as any kind of comment on them?
The
thing is, there is a spark of something valuable in the beginning. On an
operating table, facing rejections without cosmetic surgery, being criticized
for letting herself go after having two children by an old guy whom no one
expects or needs to be attractive, yes, there is a point there that people can
relate to. You then go on and reject the image of the black women, when they
were never your competition. They're not getting liposuction; they have padding
and that is what they are shaking. Best yet, you are rejecting them after
putting them through the same poses and moves and objectification the average
video does.
There
are different options for making the same point. She could have compared
herself to ridiculously thin mannequins and watched them come apart, or fall
over and shatter, triumphing in substance over appearance. I don't know if
there was some previous image she had, but maybe she could find herself not
fitting into that, and then being welcomed by the twerkers, and accepting their
warmth and embrace of a larger size while still being vibrant and desirable. She
could have walked past display cases of various stereotyped women and freed
them all, allowing them to be real humans. Instead, she went with a resolution
that while it may have been empowering for her plays into anti-blackness.
And
here, I may be unduly influenced by recent comments about Lupita Nyong'o and
Rupert Everett's comments about Beyonce.
It
is somewhat interesting to me that of the various women mentioned here, only
Sky Ferreira is from the United States. New Zealand, Australia, and Canada all have their own
experiences with colonialism and aboriginal issues, and oddly, all via England. There may be other
differences where when they criticize hip hop culture it is coming from a
different place, and so they make the wrong criticisms, but without knowing why.
We
will spend more time on racism later, beyond music videos. The point I want to
make right now is that we need to think about it. It's common with accusations
of racism to either deny it, or to say "Well everybody's racist."
Neither of those is really thought out, and both of those are for ending the
discussion. That leaves us where we are, which is not good enough.
In
other words, while it is obvious that if you are openly promoting racism you
suck, you can also suck by upholding an existing bad structure. Don't suck.
Hard
Out Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0CazRHB0so
Hello
Kitty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiaYDPRedWQ
I
Blame Myself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWo7SC-tG4U
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