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Critical Race Theory Interpretation of Messages in Hip Hop Paper

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Psychology

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SYG 6126

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A Critical Race Theory interpretation of

Afrocentric messages in Hip Hop

Luis A. Caraballo-Burgos

SYG 6126.7887

Final Paper

April 25, 2010

As long as you can be convinced you never did anything, you can never do anything.

- Malcolm X

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Caraballo

Within the genre and culture of Hip Hop one is able to find a whole host of issues which

lend themselves to a critique. To that end this paper will situate a critique of Hip Hop through

the lens provided by critical race theory which has over the last several decades become a

primarily pervasive theoretical framework for understanding, interpreting, and critiquing issues

of race and ethnicity in the social sciences, particularly sociology. Critical race scholars at times

write about their own experiences with racism to depict, anecdotally, issues that have far

reaching and much greater influence in contemporary society than can often be understood

through larger macro-level descriptions. In Hip Hop, the most vocal proponents have tended to

write about their own, or their interpretations of others, experiences in order to authenticate

themselves within the culture. This paper will focus around one of the less popular concepts that

Hip Hop has endeavored upon, the pro-Black, African pride, Afrocentric aesthetic that was

popularized by groups and performers such as: A Tribe Called Quest, X-Clan, 3rd Base and

Public Enemy, and continued by performers such as: dead prez, Common, Mos Def and Talib

Kweli. I will first introduce the biases inherent to this paper. I will then continue by presenting

a brief history of the racial dynamics that created Hip Hop. Following that discussion, I will

discuss the four main tenets or themes of critical race theory that will inform this critique.

Finally, I will discuss issues of identity and the support of and discomfort with Afrocentric

messages.

Authors aligned with critical race theory have astutely recognized that although the civil

rights movements of the 1960s helped to drive the United States towards racial equality in the

eyes of the law, the pace of such movements slowed dramatically in the years since the mid-

1970s (Delgado 1995). Critical race theory attempts to develop an understanding of the

socializing mechanisms built in to our American society that have trained us to be observant and

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A Critical Race Theory interpretation of Afrocentric messages in Hip Hop Luis A. Caraballo-Burgos SYG 6126.7887 Final Paper April 25, 2010 As long as you can be convinced you never did anything, you can never do anything. - Malcolm X Caraballo 1 Within the genre and culture of Hip Hop one is able to find a whole host of issues which lend themselves to a critique. To that end this paper will situate a critique of Hip Hop through the lens provided by critical race theory which has over the last several decades become a primarily pervasive theoretical framework for understanding, interpreting, and critiquing issues of race and ethnicity in the social sciences, particularly sociology. Critical race scholars at times write about their own experiences with racism to depict, anecdotally, issues that have far reaching and much greater influence in contemporary society than can often be understood through larger macro-level descriptions. In Hip Hop, the most vocal proponents have tended to write about their own, or their interpretations of others, experiences in order to authenticate themselves within the culture. This paper will focus around one of the less popular concepts that Hip Hop has endeavored upon, the pro-Black, African pride, Afrocentric aesthetic that was popularized by groups and performers such as: A Tribe Called Quest, X-Clan, 3rd Base and Public Enemy, and continued by performers such as: dead prez, Common, Mos Def and Talib Kweli. I will first introduce the bia ...
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Tags: Critical Race Theory Messages in Hip Hop Hip Hop American society racism