Macklemore and the insincerity of White Liberalism
By now most of us are aware of Macklemore winning the Grammy for Best Rap Album over the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Jay Z, Drake, and Kanye West. There has been lots of discussion about whether or not Macklemore should be considered hip-hop, White Privilege (euphemism for White Supremacy), and who amongst these artists actually made the best album.
Macklemore then added another layer to the discussion by sending Kendrick Lamar a text saying "You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have. It's weird and sucks that I robbed you...". Then Macklemore took the strange step of posting a screen shot of his text to Kendrick on Instagram.
In my eyes, this entire series of events is like a parable and metaphor of the false friendship that so-called White Liberals claim to extend to Blacks.
First, the name of Macklemore's album is "The Heist". A heist is a ROBBERY. The album isn't about larceny, burglary, armed robbery, stealing, credit card fraud or anything else that might pertain to a heist of any sort, so what does he mean by "The Heist"? The Heist of what? From who?
After winning the Best Rap Album Grammy, Macklemore texted Kendrick Lamar saying "You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have. It's weird and sucks that I robbed you." By this it would appear that WHAT he was heisting was the grammy award from Kendrick Lamar. The text to Kendrick was a private confession and apology to the victim, and posting the screen shot on instagram was the public confession.
This whole drama is a microcosm of the White Liberal stance on the system of White Supremacy. At the end of Macklemore's text to Kendrick Lamar he writes "I appreciate you as an artist and a friend. Much Love."
IF you consider someone a FRIEND, and you APPRECIATE them as such, how could you self admittedly ROB them, confess this robbery to them, yet not give to them what YOU are saying should rightfully be their's? Either you don't actually consider this person your friend, but you don't want THEM to know that or you don't actually believe that what you have is rightfully theirs. Or we are left with the third alternative that you want to be seen as gracious and magnanimous by denouncing injustice while continuing to reap and keep the benefits of this very same injustice. However we look at it, we are left to conclude that what this person says is INSINCERE.
This is the very same insincerity and duality that so called White Liberals practice in their everyday lives. They denounce White Supremacy with their words, they pay lip service to solidarity with oppressed Blacks and express a verbal desire for justice, yet they will not give up the benefits that this very same Supremacy affords them. Macklemore is using the fact that he was "given" the award by the grammy committee as an out. HE didn't vote for himself, someone else did. He simply excepted the award. It's the same with White Supremacy in our society. White people of today feel that they are not accountable for the slavery and oppression of Blacks for over 400 years. They didn't enslave or trade or lynch or beat anyone. But they have knowingly inherited and accepted the benefits created by the actions of their predecessors and they want to continue to enjoy them without making amends. White liberals openly acknowledge the injustice of our society and the disadvantaged state Blacks have been placed in. They tell us that it sucks. They wish that it never happened. But they never say "how can I make amends".
If Macklemore was sincere, he would have never accepted the award in the first place. Or upon reflection he would have held a press conference to say he was giving it back. If White Liberals were sincere they would insist on REPARATIONS for Black people. They call White Supremacy by the less sinister sounding name White Privilege. If they were sincere in their disapproval of it, they wouldn't accept this "privilege". They would give it back.
I don't believe that Macklemore or most other White people for that matter hate Black people. I believe they practice White Supremacy not out of hate but because it benefits them...and because they can. For some Whites, liberalism is a consciously strategic-a war tactic of disarming your enemy by feigning friendship with them. With others it's a more subconscious attempt to reconcile wanting to be absolved of responsibility for the crimes of White Supremacy while wanting to also benefit from the comforts those crimes have provided.
For Blacks it doesn't really matter what the motive of White Supremacist is. What's more important is that we become better at recognizing White Supremacy for what it is, in ALL it's forms. The next step is to then empower ourselves with the means to deny White Supremacy any success.
White people don't hate us, they're just doing them. We gotta do us
