Speaker stresses youth, cultural integration

Bakari Kitwana's last visit to UNC was under different circumstances.

Kitwana, a hip-hop journalist who spoke in Wilson Library on Thursday, was rejected from the master's program in English in 1988. But, he said, it is a good thing he wasn't accepted.

"I'd probably be standing here talking about some egghead book that 50 other people have read," he told the audience with a laugh.

Instead, the former executive editor of The Source magazine, spoke on his provocatively titled new book "Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes and the New Reality of Race in America." The reading was sponsored both by the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History and by the Bull's Head Bookshop.

Kitwana said that he likes to "give academics a hard time because they give me a hard time," but that he was nevertheless adamant about the sophisticated and intellectual dialogue he hoped his book would stimulate.

The book explores the cross-cultural appeal of hip-hop music.

"There is something new that is happening," he said. "Young white Americans have access to black culture, and it's changed the way black and white kids are interacting."

Kitwana said he wanted to examine the misconceptions surrounding white hip-hop fans, arguing that they are either vilified for stealing black culture or snubbed by whites for embracing it.

But he stressed that white people who enjoy hip hop also must have an appreciation for its origins.

The broad appeal of hip hop, Kitwana said, creates an unprecedented vehicle for political action.

"There are issues that mean a lot to young people across race," he said. "A youth agenda that cuts across race is a much harder animal to defeat."

This role of popular culture in political struggle will be explored throughout the year in various programs offered by the Stone Center. Kitwana's reading, and the subsequent symposium with journalist Raquel Rivera Thursday, kicked off the center's yearlong initiative.

"We need to reorient folks so they understand that in every legitimate substantive movement there has been a cultural component," said center Director Joseph Jordan.

Students said conversations about the accepted notions of race and its implications for politics are important, though controversial.

"Race and hip hop is kind of the elephant in the room," said Martin Johnson, a recent UNC graduate who attended the event.

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.