Get Out and Angry Black White Boy
The first thing I thought when I read about Con Donner's project was "holy shit, this is straight out of Get Out." Of course, it's not, because Angry Black White Boy was published long before Get Out came out. But the idea of hypnotizing people into acting like other races is a lot like Get Out.
Warning: if anyone hasn't seen Get Out, spoilers are ahead if you care. For those who haven't seen it, Get Out is a Jordan Peele horror film about a black man (Chris) who goes with his white girlfriend to visit her parents for a weekend. It turns out that the family actually runs a business that hypnotizes black people and transplants white buyer's brains into the black person's body (which acts as a host), keeping the host's consciousness sunken and unable to act while the white person's mind has complete control over the black person's body. Chris is the next intended victim to this process, sold to a blind white man who wants to be able to use the black man's photography skills. The white family in charge of this business hosts an auction during the movie for potential buyers to bid on Chris. The auction is presented as an annual party they host, and before Chris sneaks out, he interacts with many white people in an awkward manner. The white people at the party ask invasive questions in an attempt to determine whether or not Chris would be a good purchase for their specific needs. But more importantly for our purposes here, they awkwardly insert how they admire or like specific black people/black culture. One man talks about his love of golf, then adds how he enjoys Tiger Woods. Another states that "black is in fashion," when white had been in fashion for centuries before. It's essentially a lot of racial fetishization (it probably has a different term, I just can't come up with it, but it's basically white people trying not to be racist and failing) in just the way to make you uncomfortable. I don't think I can describe it well enough, so watch the video below from 0:27-1:53 to see it for yourself. (Here's the link if the embedded video doesn't work.)
And of course, white people appropriated jazz and blues. This is probably the most well-known example of white people stealing something black people created in order to look cool. Jazz and blues started in black communities, white people took it, and eventually we got rock and roll. In this case especially, black people were exploited and did not obtain commercial success like white people copying jazz did. Just look at Elvis Presley, whose big hit "Hound Dog" was originally recorded four years earlier by a black woman by the name of Big Mama Thornton -- a blues singer. You can argue that it wasn't really plagiarism, but the main point is a white man became famous off of a black woman's song and a black genre of music.
Warning: if anyone hasn't seen Get Out, spoilers are ahead if you care. For those who haven't seen it, Get Out is a Jordan Peele horror film about a black man (Chris) who goes with his white girlfriend to visit her parents for a weekend. It turns out that the family actually runs a business that hypnotizes black people and transplants white buyer's brains into the black person's body (which acts as a host), keeping the host's consciousness sunken and unable to act while the white person's mind has complete control over the black person's body. Chris is the next intended victim to this process, sold to a blind white man who wants to be able to use the black man's photography skills. The white family in charge of this business hosts an auction during the movie for potential buyers to bid on Chris. The auction is presented as an annual party they host, and before Chris sneaks out, he interacts with many white people in an awkward manner. The white people at the party ask invasive questions in an attempt to determine whether or not Chris would be a good purchase for their specific needs. But more importantly for our purposes here, they awkwardly insert how they admire or like specific black people/black culture. One man talks about his love of golf, then adds how he enjoys Tiger Woods. Another states that "black is in fashion," when white had been in fashion for centuries before. It's essentially a lot of racial fetishization (it probably has a different term, I just can't come up with it, but it's basically white people trying not to be racist and failing) in just the way to make you uncomfortable. I don't think I can describe it well enough, so watch the video below from 0:27-1:53 to see it for yourself. (Here's the link if the embedded video doesn't work.)
The white people in this scene hail blackness and black culture as "cool" and the thing to be. For some of them, it's part of the reason they want to buy a black person's body. We see this same concept in Angry Black White Boy with Con Donner's business. His business started with white people wanting to be white again, but notably he says that "More and more of my clients come from the entertainment world. Everybody there wants to be black" and that more white kids are coming in to be black (297). Because the fact of the matter is, black culture has been appropriated by white people as "cool."
Our slang almost entirely comes from black vernacular (a lot of it comes from drag culture, and black drag culture in particular). It originates in black communities, and is then stolen by corporations and celebrities who spread it to a larger platform and erase the history behind it. Slang is inherently used so that one appears more hip, down with the kids, etc, and it's pretty unanimously viewed as cool.
But it's not just slang. White people have stolen black fashion, music, and a multitude of other things that originated in black communities. They've hailed them as cool and trendy, and noticeably, they're things that younger generations do to be cool. Remember sagging your pants? Rap and hip-hop artists popularized that from prisons, where prisoners weren't allowed to wear belts in case they tried to commit suicide. Of course, prisons are disproportionately populated by black people (in particular, gangs), meaning the popularization of sagging pants in hip-hop made gang culture mainstream. By 1995, it was in mainstream teen culture as something trendy, and that lasted into the 2000s. Again, it was adopted by white people as something "cool" -- I'm sure you can remember seeing at least one white boy in middle school who regularly sagged his pants. Just look at Justin Bieber.
And of course, white people appropriated jazz and blues. This is probably the most well-known example of white people stealing something black people created in order to look cool. Jazz and blues started in black communities, white people took it, and eventually we got rock and roll. In this case especially, black people were exploited and did not obtain commercial success like white people copying jazz did. Just look at Elvis Presley, whose big hit "Hound Dog" was originally recorded four years earlier by a black woman by the name of Big Mama Thornton -- a blues singer. You can argue that it wasn't really plagiarism, but the main point is a white man became famous off of a black woman's song and a black genre of music.
To bring it all together, here's what I'm trying to say: Macon Detornay is nothing new. He is the physical manifestation of white people stealing black culture to look cool. Think what you will of his motivations, but everything about him embodying hip-hop culture is just what we've seen countless other white people do to be cool. Macon says he does this stuff to essentially be "woke" and racially conscious, but there's a strong underlying sense that he's trying to be cool too. Just like the white buyers in Get Out, he views hip-hop (and therefore, black) culture as cool. He at least rejects Con Donner's proposal, but overall he is quite simply white people stealing black culture wrapped up into one person.
This is such a great blog post. When you first talked to me about Angry Black White Boy being like Get Out I was really into it but this post just cemented that all down and made me think so much. You're so right, both Angry Black White Boy and Get out serve in some ways to exaggerate a phenomenon of white culture and a pattern where white people have stolen from black people over and over again. We even see that the white family in get out are kind of "woke"--what with the whole "voted or Obama" thing and that to me is really reminiscent of Macon. Not to even mention the whole hypnotism parallel. Crazy stuff, really insightful and thoughtful.
ReplyDeleteWhile I feel a little called out by this, (particularly the Elvis reference as well as my own usage of what I would call "twitter language" which is exactly that you're talking about with the slang and use of drag culture), these are all really good points to consider. You can also look at this as his own hypocrisy, the way he looks down upon white kids who are into the "new hip-hop" as lesser for not knowing the roots, when he similarly is trying to use black culture, if perhaps for different reasons. This is also painfully familiar to me, reminiscent of the people who act as "gatekeepers" to other fans, the ones who try to say people can't become a legitimate fan of something if they weren't a fan from the beginning, before that thing was popular.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the way Mr. Leff talked about how black culture is turned into the "trendy" way to act. A lot of people try to take up mannerisms, but don't care about the culture. I think Macon was trying to prove that you can do both, but as we see he failed miserably. Black face is probably one of the worst manifestations of it and Macon does not respond appropriately.
ReplyDeleteI love this blog post!! Get Out was such a good movie and I loved the way you connected the similarities between the movie and Angry Black White Boy to general American race culture. I think the way you outline Macon's view of black culture is spot on. While I'm a little less ready to condemn Macon's motivation as so straightforward, what you said about him seeing rap culture as "cool" seems sort of right to me. There's a clear line between, say, black-cultural appropriation and racial consciousness, and I feel like Macon often falls on the wrong side of that line.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that Macon is in a long line of literary examples of what Norman Mailer called "White Negroes," or white men (usually men) who affix their identities to black culture in a range of ways. (The more contemporary and derisive term, which Macon uses, but only derisively, would be "wigga," a word I don't like to use, for a range of reasons.) One difference between Macon and these other cross-cultural wannabes--and it doesn't necessarily exonerate him--is that Macon is fully aware of this history, and takes pains to distinguish himself from the usual white kid going through a hip-hop phase. He disses Jack Kerouac, the Beastie Boys, Vanilla Ice, even John Brown, all as a way to set himself apart from this historical tradition. Check out his riff on "backpack rappers" at the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe, who all want to appropriate hip-hop culture without "paying dues" like he's done. And to his credit, Macon has done his homework, and we can say that he goes about his project with more self-awareness than the average Bieber or Kardashian.
ReplyDelete