Posted on 07/15/2008 4:11:36 PM PDT by forkinsocket
If Barack Obama is the most admired black man in America right now, it may be no exaggeration to say that John McWhorter is a candidate for the unpopularity prize. Which is an odd thing to say about a courteous academic from the arcane realm of linguistics. Yet by venturing onto the mean streets of hiphop with a dispassionate critique of a multimillion-dollar industry, he risks becoming a target of drive-by shootings by enraged academics, book reviewers and bloggers.
McWhorter is not all that surprised that critics have given him a pummelling. He lets out a sigh of resignation: By its very nature, this book cannot be received fairly. Its difficult for people to separate feelings from thought. Tempers are going to have to cool.
So, what is the incendiary message of his book? Interestingly enough, McWhorter doesnt align himself with that beleaguered minority of sceptics who see rap as a cultural dead end, a bloated, bragging perversion of the American Dream. He may be in his forties, he may be a devotee of musical theatre (Cole Porter is one of his deities, and he met his wife at a sing-along cabaret bar), yet McWhorter admires the best that rap has to offer. He likes the Roots; he occasionally listens to Snoop Dogg while cooking dinner.
All of which makes him sound like your average right-on professor. McWhorters animus is reserved for those pundits and intellectuals who see in hiphop the makings of a social revolution, guided by rappers whose outspoken commentaries on race, poverty and violence have made them, in the famous words of Public Enemys Chuck D, Black Americas CNN.
Nothing could be further from the truth, McWhorter argues.
(Excerpt) Read more at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk ...
Like a lot of what he said...but then he said he is a huge supporter of BHO...after that I couldn't hear him anymore.
I got halfway through the article, got bored, decided I couldn’t care less about rap, hiphop or whatever you call it. So I put on some Santana. John Bonamassa is next.
BUMP. I corresponded with McWhorter a few times while he was still at UC Berzerkly...he speaks the truth more than black America wants to hear.
It's the same kind of moral bankruptcy that led Kurt Cobain to make millions singing about how depressed he was. Only (c)rap doesn't even have a decent melody. And the lyrics are just puerile.
Yeah, Joe Bonamassa is pretty good too! Sorry man, I couldn’t resist.
Typical stupid media hyperbole. Few people outside newshounds and pundits even know who the heck McWhorter is!!! He couldn’t POSSIBLY be “the most hated black man in the country”!
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