Overlapping oppressions and the gay pride parade today

I just saw an excellent guest post on the blog Stuff White People Do regarding the interconnectedness of multiple oppressions. It writes about famous Gender Studies professor Judith Butler refusing an award from an LGBT rights organization that's racist and anti-immigrant. I applaud Judith Butler for doing this, and it made me think once again about how LGBT rights groups have ignored other overlapping kinds of oppression.

Back in February, I wrote a guest post for that same blog about how the idea of gays as homogeneously white and wealthy is perpetuated. Months later, the stereotype clearly continues, but thank God Butler and others want to challenge such stereotypes and white gay racism itself. Additionally, I am writing about racism and classism after a long day of walking and watching the gay pride Parade in Chicago. The parade appears in a very gentrified neighborhood, around Wrigley Field and a host of other attractions, a neighborhood that I admittedly have supported by sometimes shopping in some stores there. Therefore, I think it would be hypocritical for me to attack the gentrification of East Lakeview/"Boystown," but I will admit that what disturbed me more was what Michel Foucault called the masking of power, which has much to do with power structures advancing business and profits and little to do with advancing all marginalized people's rights.

LGBT culture today has powerful allies in some corporations and other institutions--or so it seems. Many of these institutions are for wealthy clients, which means they can espouse any pro-LGBT message they want in order for it to add to their profits. That's not to say that there aren't any genuine pro-LGBT businesses out there. But many of those promoted in parades like the one today are for wealthy LGBT people only, which is not truly pro-LGBT rights when you think about it, since other LGBT people with less money are excluded. This also means that the stereotype of gay people being all white and wealthy is once again perpetuated.

And to be fair, there were some organizations at the parade that serve non-white, non-wealthy people, instead of just consumption of products some LGBT folks can afford. I was encouraged by organizations that were specifically affiliated with blacks, Asians, Latinos, and other groups. I was encouraged by the slogan I heard one organization say: "Power to the people, no one is illegal!" I was encouraged by multiple religious organizations that help LGBT people of different faiths hopefully find a sense of meaning in their faiths. I was encouraged by a couple of parade floats that encouraged sending a strong message to Democrats and Republicans alike that LGBT people are tired of waiting for their rights and that political independence is an option. I was encouraged by the presence of organizations like PFLAG that have strong histories of alliances with LGBT youth, for example.

But I was more than discouraged by the majority of businesses promoting their products with gay-friendly logos and slogans, but without advocating any real action, as far as I could tell, beyond consumption. I was discouraged, albeit less so, by the number of political candidates who likely have not (if in office) promoted, or will not promote, LGBT rights beyond election season.

And yet, I came home, checked some blogs, and found that Judith Butler and others are standing up against racism, classism, and xenophobia in addition to homophobia, transphobia, and patriarchy.

And I remembered, if we truly support LGBT people and the rights they deserve, we must support all LGBT people, not just a wealthy constituency therein. So as long as businesses support LGBT rights but not for people of color and immigrants, including LGBT ones; as long as white racism and owning-class classism are rampant in such communities as "Boystown"; as long as the voices of LGBT people of color are discounted in the service of continuing "the way things are"--as long as these things continue, we have a lot of work to do.

Personally, I may have to start by finding out where my money really goes, really consuming less, and researching what purposes the co-opting and assimilation of LGBT culture in wealthy society really serve.

And now I ask: what can you do, personally, and what can we do, collectively?

Summer 2010- read up to today- entry 6

Tricia Rose, The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why it Matters, 2008- finished
Elijah Wald, How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'N' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music, up to p. 137

The Hip Hop Wars is incredible, perhaps even indispensable for those interested in hip hop and larger cultural debates surrounding it.
How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'N' Roll seems more of an alternative piece of historiography than one of history--it points to larger assumptions made by traditional critics and historians about popular music, which makes it quite useful for those with a strong background in American music history. However, it so far doesn't seem as useful to general readers who might want a consumer's guide to "the greats" of American popular music; it takes up a much larger, more daunting task of attempting to reconstruct what people actually listened to at various times, and how they listened to it (like through recordings and other technological developments).

Contemporary Readings column- requesting your input

I am currently deciding on the books for my fall column on Contemporary Readings on History, Politics, and Culture. Feel free to suggest additional readings--I'm particularly interested in a new-ish book (2007-now) about class and economics, and possibly one about gender as well--but as of now, the books are:

The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--And Why it Matters, Tricia Rose
Everything But the Coffee: Learning About America from Starbucks, Bryant Simon
"They Take Our Jobs!" and 20 other Myths About Immigration, Aviva Chomsky
That's Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation, ed. Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama, Tim Wise
How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music, Elijah Wald
Judaism Does Not Equal Israel, Marc Ellis

Summer 2010- read up to today- entry 5

Tim Wise, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son- revised and updated edition, 2008- finished
Tricia Rose, The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why it Matters, 2008- up to p. 74
Michael Kimmel, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, 2008- up to p. 23

White Like Me proved quite an inspiring and useful memoir that I highly recommend. So far, The Hip Hop Wars is fantastic as well, an ambitious book that fairly assesses arguments about hip hop music and culture for their strengths and weaknesses. Guyland, at least from its introduction, seems that it will be far less revelatory than other literature I've read from Kimmel--specifically the essential essay, "Masculinity as Homophobia."

Summer 2010- read up to today- entry 4

In the last few days, I have read:

Tim Wise, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, up to p. 157- revised and updated edition, 2008
Steve Jones and Kevin Featherly, "Re-viewing Rock Writing: Narratives of Popular Music Criticism"- pp. 19-38 in Pop Music and the Press, ed. Steve Jones, 2002
Tricia Rose, The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--And Why it Matters, up to p. 30

I've decided on a number of books I want to read for a college newspaper column in the fall--something like "Alternative Views: Readings on Contemporary Society." The Hip Hop Wars will be one of the books, I presume, as will books on immigration, gay rights, race, and religion, among others. More to come.

Summer 2010- read up to today- entry 3

In the last week, I have read:

Tim Wise, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, up to p. 126- revised and updated edition, 2008

In addition, I hope to read soon:

An article on themes in rock music criticism
Mariama Ba, Une si Longue Lettre (the French version of So Long a Letter)
Peggy Macintosh, "White Privilege and Male Privilege" (full-length essay- I think I'd previously read an abridged version)
Michael S. Kimmel, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men
Essays from Black on White: Black Writers On What it Means to be White. ed. David Roediger

Summer 2010- read up to today- entry 2

In the last 24 hours I've read:

Robert Palmer, "Liner notes for Ray Charles, The Birth of Soul"- 1991, collected in Blues & Chaos: The Music Writings of Robert Palmer, 2009
Tim Wise, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, up to p. 40- revised and updated edition, 2008

Will continue to update.

Why does country music sound white? Nostalgia?

Last year for an academic independent study called "Race, sexual orientation, and pop culture theory," I read an article by Geoff Mann called "Why does country music sound white? Race and the voice of nostalgia" which argues that nostalgia is the characteristic that marks American country music as racially white. This means that according to Mann, whites, as opposed to people of color, cling to a desire for an idealized set of historical circumstances, manifest in the instrumentation, lyrics, and other aesthetic and musical dimensions of country music. I have a couple thoughts on this that have stuck with me since reading the article.

You could certainly argue that across class and geographic region, whites in the U.S. cling to the past more than groups of color. As one example, Confederates argue that the American South should have won the Civil War of the 1860s as a matter of states' rights, with some deeming the antebellum south as representing an ideal society. Of course, the South would only have been ideal for those in power, and slaves were not in that position. So the idea of nostalgia usually works by ignoring the more complex nature of history--that is, as interpreted by and within different groups, well, differently.

As a quite different example, upper-class whites--think of the kinds of hipsters and yuppies described in the blog Stuff White People Like--love older music and studying history from an idealized perspective. Unquestionably, I've listened to lots of older music in my lifetime, more because my tastes are rooted in what I grew up hearing than because of convictions about newer music lacking quality. But the point is that nostalgia cuts across class lines, so even if country music is more associated with lower-class whites than, say, indie rock, there is merit to saying white people love nostalgia.

But is nostalgia exclusive to white people? In my opinion, doubtfully. I suspect that part of nostalgia in, for example, African-American culture is more about generation and class than about race--think of some older blacks who broadly devalue hip hop as opposed to jazz or any other, older forms of music dominated by black musicians.

And another question arises: if country music sounds white--an idea with which I agree--is such music largely nostalgic? The first counter-example that comes to my mind is Steve Earle's 1986 track "Someday", which is about as contrary to nostalgia (with lines like "There ain't a lot that you can do in this town" and "I'm gonna get out of here someday") as a song gets. Aesthetically, it still contains the vocal and instrumental "twang" that Mann writes about as marking whiteness in country music. At the same time, I must note that Earle and his music are as opposed to the mainstream politics and style of Nashville as country music can be, so perhaps nostalgia is something that marks commercial, mainstream country music as white.

But what about such alternative artists as Earle, Gillian Welch, and Lucinda Williams? What makes their music sound white, if it indeed does contain similar aesthetic traits as at least some, more traditional country music (as opposed to most pop-country on the radio)?

Discuss.