Shadow Boxing

the special technique of

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[hemlocksmoothies]

cause indie rock = white

and you know we don’t critique whiteness in AMURIKA

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oh and you know, why dont we trying worrying about the misogyny in reality instead of in rap music 

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Monson & Gooding-Williams

Robert Gooding-Williams writes in Look, A Negro about the idea of receptivity stemming from Kant, specifically the relationship between Nietzsche and Stanley Cavell’s readings which Gooding-Williams describes as gendered and raced.

According to Gooding-Williams’ read of Nietzsche, the will to truth is self-estranging and can be countered by beauty. Beauty is a will to power, one that moves the body, and one that can cure the self-estrangement of the sublime. Nietzsche feminizes receptivity (think of the submission to passions and desires that is necessary for Nietzsche) in order to counter the sublime.

Stanley Cavell, on Gooding-Williams’ reading, through his works suggests that black masculinity can be beneficial to society because of its ability to be a good supplement to American white masculinity. It is the recuperation of the other into the economy of the same. (59-60) Basically, blackness works in the service of whiteness – whiteness uses blackness as a tool.

Ingrid Monson writes in The Problem with White Hipness that “In problematizing "white hipness" I mean to call attention to the interrelationships among the music, gender, class, and social diversity of African Americans, on the one hand; and the function of African Americans as a symbol of social conscience, sexual freedom, and resistance to the dominant order in the imagination of liberal white Americans, on the other.” (398)

Perhaps what Gooding-Williams is describing in her piece (specifically the stuff about Cavell) is exactly what Monson is talking about at the end of that last quote. It seems that blackness (as a symbol for African American culture) is being used as a tool for sexual freedom and resistance to the dominant order but only for the benefit of whiteness. Monson also talks about how the media (white media) portrayed the jazz musicians which was often in ways which highlighted certain characteristics that were not of importance to the artists themselves. Furthermore, the caricatures portrayed by the media perpetuated racial myths and stereotypes about black culture.

The result of all of this is a very complicated relationship between the intersection of race, gender, class, and culture and appropriation by the hegemonic white power. Thinking in the context of neoliberalism and deregulation, it seems that there has been a shift in our conception of the individual in neoliberal economics. Some people have been tempted to argue that since the market now rules everything that race disappears in social discourse. However, this limited view fails to understand the way in which the market is structurally and epistemological founded in whiteness. So, I am wondering what the role of blackness or black culture might play in contemporary society? Does the seemingly increase of blackness in popular culture actually indicate a rise in cross cultural pluralistic flourishing? Or does it show another way in which blackness is becoming a tool for white culture? How do post-enlightenment conceptions of identity play into neoliberalism?

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Sean Carter Explains Neoliberal Economics in 3 mins 20 secs. 

Could make 40 off a brick but onee rhyme could beat that

And if somebody woulda told 'em that Hov' would sell clothing..

Not in this lifetime, wasn't in my right mind

That's another difference that's between me and them

I smarten up, open the market up

http://rapgenius.com/Jay-z-u-dont-know-lyrics

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A rapper’s red scare

Lupe Fiasco’s management takes control of his Twitter feed following Marxist theory debate UPDATED

STAHP YOU’RE KILLING ME LUPE 

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i fuck with french 

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curren$y is always dope - analyze that

[anarchomarxism-deactivated20130]

[foucaultsghost]

why in the fuck is he wearing a fluorescent safety vest?

[englishmajorandcoffee-deactivat]

He is being a philosophical garbage man

[zizekfashion]

Why do you assume it is not the height of fashion?

http://zizekfashion.tumblr.com/

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SMASH + BANG

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ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? IS THIS NOT WHY YOU ARE HERE?

Reading the Nealon and Read was interesting and seemed to fit well into discussion from last class. What I am interested in exploring is the relationship between the shift from MCM formulations of capital to MM (finance-investment-casino) and how that plays into the concept of the entrepreneurial spirit. Nealon says: “The force of the new globalized economic Empire – the empire one spies from Caesar’s Palace – doesn’t primarily turn outward in an expansive, colonialist or consumerist assimilation. Now, it turns inward toward intensi!cation of existing ‘biopolitical’ resources. The final product, in the end, is you and me.” (82) On the same token, Read argues that with neoliberalism “the terms “labor” and “human capital” intersect, overcoming in terminology their longstanding opposition; the former becomes the activity and the latter becomes the effects of the activity, its history. From this intersection the discourse of the economy becomes an entire way of life, a common sense in which every action--crime, marriage, higher education and so on--can be charted according to a calculus of maximum output for minimum expenditure; it can be seen as an investment.” (31)

If traditional capitalism utilized exclusion and alienation specifically in terms of labor than neoliberal capitalism focuses on inclusion. Could it be perhaps that Capital (machines, factories, etc) are no longer part of the formula and has been replaced by the human subjectivity. Our subjectivities have now become the place of economic surplus – or we have become the factory. I think this is related to the concept of intensification. As neoliberalism deregulates and allows for everything it no longer has the ability or desire to overtake or assimilate. Instead it focuses on getting the last drop out of what is allowed – which is now (quasi)anything. What does this do to the status of the other? Does the other still exists as something opposed to our subjectivities or does it now stand as an opportunity for intensification. If the latter is true than what impact does this have on how we constitute our identities? 

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Yesterday. pt.2

Hannah linked to an interesting article entitled No One Cares That You Don’t Like a Popular Rapper wrote by Skinny Friedman. The basic premise of the article is that the opinions of music critics are increasingly worthless in regards to popularity and success – specifically writers. As Friedman explains, one problem is that the critics in popular music publications are often in no position to even critique the music they are writing about. You have a bunch of twenty something year old white boys writing about rap who, as Friedman says, “either ignore or don’t understand the fundamental disconnect between themselves“ and the music that they are critiquing. While I would not be willing to say this is completely incorrect – I think he is exploring some interesting area.

Yesterday we talked briefly about the idea of the appropriation by neoliberal capitalism. There is a way in which neoliberalism wants to appropriate the affectual dimensions of the music without the implicit understanding that comes along with that affect. The result in relation to rap music could now be that the appropriation has taken place to such a degree that the implicit understanding is no longer close to what it used to be. Also, with the rise of neoliberal/post-commodity capitalism the idea of the entrepreneurial spirit and the theme of the hustle found in rap music seem to have aligned perfectly. So there is a combination of processes taking place that have resulted in what we now would understand as rap music. My point is that if the rap game is about the hustle AND neoliberal ecomonic theory is about the hustle than maybe rich college educated white guys stand in closer relation to these artists than we think. While clearly someone that does not have a historical understanding of the culture/events/processes/structures that are involved in rap music, coupled with a true passion for music, should not be taken seriously as a critic. However, we need to be careful in assuming that based on perceived status – they are completely disconnected from the elements of culture necessary to understand and critique said music. 

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he specializes in alternative medicine - that is alternative to this planet 

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scratching

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this is my shit