I Guess I Really Am a "White Blogger"

As my photo above depicts, I am indeed a white blogger. It's not something I ever imagined having to write in all my years covering hip-hop, an art created predominantly by black males. Maybe it's that the term, "white blogger," seems to suggest something akin to white supremacy... or maybe I just didn't want to be part of the stories I write. But today, I was invited on NPR's "News & Notes," a show about African American perspectives, because I am a white blogger. (You can listen to the segment, "Obama-Era Race Relations In Black and White" here.)

Perhaps I was a little out of my league, answering questions from the show's venerable host Tony Cox and answering them in juxtaposition to Dan Agin, a Neuroscientist and author of numerous essays about the differences of race right here on the Huffington Post. Together, they have at least 50 more years of experience speaking on the subject (and on the radio) than I have at the start of my career.

But sitting in that chair, in NPR's Culver City studios, I was immediately taken aback, and even overwhelmed, that I was there as a representative of white America. When Tony asked about my defensive body language, I wasn't defending white perspectives, I was on guard about my mere inclusion as a representative of that. In the professional setting, I've always referred to myself as "the rap dude." Not very professional, I know, but it's definitely indicative of my self-perception as a member of the media.

I'm not Stephen Colbert; I do in fact see race... just not always the implications of my own. Race, and more broadly, poverty (an affliction that disproportionately effects black America) has always been a point of passion in my writing. When covering hip-hop culture, it'd be damn-near irresponsible to not touch on the sickening injustices and deplorable conditions in places like Houston's Third Worldish Third Ward. Race is very much a part of that, and no, President Obama hasn't fixed it in his first week of office.

When I had to tell the Houston cab company that I was a white journalist just so they'd send a car to one of America's most dangerous ghettos, my race was relevant. Some of the errant eyes I catch in the company of Wu-Tang's entourage certainly has something to do with race. Differences and prejudices exist, but I get much worse from rockist music critics when I identify with the hip-hop community and say that Young Jeezy is my rapper of right now.

And to paraphrase Jeezy for my own accord, my president is black... and my girlfriend's too. It's not a cop-out to prove my enlightened views on race, it's just a fact. The hip-hop generation that helped push Obama over the top might be more comfortable with his position of unrivaled power then those before us, but as Dan Agin repeatedly pointed out, America is a fragmented society too pluralistic for definitive comments on this country's ideas in this "post-racial" world... and that only time will tell.

But I'd argue that the differing views on race may be more generational then we discussed on "News & Notes." Surely there will always be deranged members of society hellbent on white supremacy, but the people in my age bracket--from liberal Los Angeles to the rural Connecticut trailer parks of my youth -- are happy to see this moment in history come. That Obama's inauguration wasn't a shift in white perception of black America, but the welcome inevitability that someone who listens to Jay-Z is now the face of this country. Of course, Dan is an Emeritus Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, while I'm just a rap dude.

Comments

[Gloria Creech]

I enjoyed your interview on News and Notes. I enjoyed it so much that I was moved to search you out at the Huffington Post.

[Eclectic Radical]

I have to agree with the 'rockists' who object to Mr. Perkins' choice of cultural identification, being far from a fan of hip hop. It's almost as bad as country music, thus proving that people of any race who can't sing or play instruments can still make a living in the music business.

That said, I have to agree with Mr. Perkins on the issues of race and poverty and their linkage but I also have to point out that the white rural areas of the country are generally as third-world-like as the black urban areas. I live in the rather inaccurately named 'Tri-Cities' area of Tennessee, which as a whole is smaller than the single city of your choice. The numbers don't compare (neither the number of people in poverty nor the violent crime rate) because of the lower population overall, but the poverty does. Drugs, violence, unemployment, and public assistance are all as much the norm here.

On the flip side, at higher rungs of the economic ladder, money opens doors. Black businessmen are likely to be conservative Republicans and to mix in the same circles as white businessmen.

I'd say that whites and blacks have more in common than ever before, and it's time that the poor whites realized it the way the wealthy blacks have.

[Brandon Perkins - Huffpost Blogger]

While your inference that hip-hop artists are talentless (I think that's what you were trying to say) is wholly ignorant, I do agree with most of your other sentiments. I grew up in a poor rural area, full of trailer parks, bowling alleys and heroin. It's certainly not Appalachia, but many people there are stuck in the same cycles of poverty that inflict urban centers in this country. I tried to point out that poverty strikes black America disproportionately, but certainly not exclusively.

[Charmed]

I believe it's a generational thing also.....

[WorldGriot]

Race is the device that divides in America because it is so convenient; one doesn't have to work at seeing the distinction which makes it so easy to group people across the divide. In Northern Ireland,
and the Arab world, religion is that device. We have played this game so long that we no longer know which came first the device or the divide. Your generation gives me as much hope as my generation of the 60's did when we declared war, racism and poverty to be anathema to our democratic values. Nevertheless, 40 years later, we still divide. Things are better because of what we began and even we were surprised by how much better with the election of Obama. But the one thing we have not known how to do is how to divorce this desire to divide. I am now 64 and sometime within the next 30 years, I expect to be a memory. I hope that before I go, I see your generation do what we could not and merge all of these toxic dividing lines into a robust embracing circle. DON'T GIVE UP NO MATTER WHO CATEGORIZES YOU. "the world is unfolding as it should".

[kottison]

Keep it real bruh

[ZimboChick]

Real talk!

[ohioan73]

The most disturbing thing about racism is when people accuse you of things you would never dream of doing just because someone who looks like you did it. When you're a black atheist liberal-type who wants gay people to marry and be equal, it hurts to hear gay people call you the "n" word, for example. I can imagine how you felt being broadly categorized with other people with the same level of melanin as if there isn't a such thing as political diversity in a race of people.

[RavenBassLady]

Thank you for your comment, Ohioan73--I happen to be a Black, Wiccan, Gothic/Old School Punk , Liberal Lesbian-- and I fully appreciate how being pegged as something you are not (because you fit the phenotype of a certain group) can be painful and bewildering.( And sometimes, very funny.)

As for Mr. Perkins... yep, this is what it feels like to be a minority. Hang in there. :-)

[Dan Agin - Huffpost Blogger]

Brandon, you were not out of your league. Your generation is the only league that counts now--with or without hip-hop. All best, Dan.