Asher Roth and the Racial Crossroads.

White rappers can’t win, can they?

well said…though Asher Roth doesn’t really seem sincere enough in my opinion to warrant this kind of respectful commentary–if he was genuinely trying to make it as a white rapper, with legitimate reverence for the art form, instead of a blindly entitled assumption that he can break into any medium without really applying himself, then this thoughtful feedback might be better deserved…

I haven’t heard this guy’s music, so.

But based on this pull quote from one of the links above, I feel comfortable going where Jay Smooth wouldn’t: Roth is indeed racist:

Em was almost a black guy. My background is more stereotypically white.

AAARRRGGGHHH. Eminem is poor, so he’s “almost black.” Roth is suburban affluent, so he’s “more white.”

Dear. Fucking. God. While the “as a suburban kid, the content of (gansta) rap isn’t something I can relate to” is a fair enough statement, if one is willing to read “relate” as meaning something like “authentically represent or voice” rather than “understand fellow human feeling,” so that yes, in *theory* someone writing rhymes full of suburban angst is just fine, this kid clearly doesn’t get it.

Which would be clear anyway, from the fact that he seems to equate not only “poor = black, suburban affluent = white,” but also “gansta rap = rap.” Kid hasn’t heard De La Soul? Tribe Called Quest? 90% of the output of LL Cool J?

Jesus. *I* know more about rap than this idiot “rap artist.”

I dunno, I have not heard his album, and I will basically never listen to it because it sounds like trash. Until I do I cannot really take what Levine and Smooth say seriously. If you want to make a judgment without listening to the album, thats your style.

Overall, I dunno if I should wade into this thing because a) I REALLY have no interest in educating myself on Roth’s stuff and b) because even though I do know a lil’ about some of the theoretical framework Levine, Peterson, and BPD use I still do not agree with it (privilege, white supremacy, and racism as a system). Still, the thing that I am curious about is how much does Roth actually know about any of this? I mean Em gets credit for problematizing Whiteness, though I dunno just how much Whiteness Studies or Critical Theory he has read (he might just be an Organic Intellectual or sumthin), but Roth, even if one grants that Roth is a racist and perpetuates White Supremacy, is either ignorant or stupid? Let me see, a kid younger than me, has a degree in elementary education, and who makes more money than I do by doing something that he likes? He might be ignorant about hip hop, but christ so are a lot of people. When I was in one of my grad seminars last year and told people that bboying, djing, and graf are kind of important, the kids just told me that stuff is for whites and asians (meaning of course that its not legit) and I was furious. I dunno if Roth has an encyclopedic knowledge of pre 89 mcs or anything(which I doubt cause considering his age he probably got started with Jay-Z who, along with Puffy, screwed over mainstream rap but I digress) but whatev, I never considered him a head anyways. I mean, what is more annoying to a black fan, the white kid who only knows the big radio hits or the white kid who knows EVERYTHING about every mc ever, who goes to all the shows? A lot of people would argue that the latter is a thief and no better than the former (and by a lot of people, I mean some of the kids I have talked to and an AAS professor who gave a talk at my uni). Basically I think that this dude is not important and not worth a sustained attack or defense. Hell, he performed at my uni last month but he was not even worth my time back then.

I think the point that “it is not difficult at all for me to imagine a young teenage suburban guy who likes rap but thinks it mostly revolves around tales/images about drugs/crime/rims/bling/”hos”, etc.” is what is problematic to me about Roth and his statements. Modern racism and white privilege are systemic issues in need of systemic solutions. They are also often explained away as individual ignorance.
The problem is that this young man was raised in an environment where white=suburb and black = rap = rims, bling, hos. This is what I think Jay Smooth is pointing out … we as a society are in a place where we need to check ourselves and our understandings of race rather than presume that everything is hunky-dory and our ignorance will be excused.

i wonder if people are working of off different definitions of racist, white entitlement, and white privilege? also, different understanding about what “relatable” means, and what makes an artwork relatable?

from the reading i did, it looks like young is perhaps thinking of these things as being fueled by intent, but the understanding that blackink, gd, shani-o, bpd, and others seem to have looks to me like their talking about systemic shit, which winslowarob referenced in one of his posts.

for folx who view these things systemically, looking at the social, historical, and cultural framing and submerged assumptions that inform what people say and how they think is a necessary piece of parsing out meaning and implications, i think.

now that i think about it, this perhaps applies even to those who don’t view these things systemically, like winslowarob.

young, is that part of why you feel as if people aren’t speaking to your concerns, because they’re not engaged in showing you that asher roth set out to be a “racist driven by white privilege/white entitlement, etc.”?

I just have one thought about this and I am really interested in what you all have to say about this. If he were black and said the things that he is quoted as saying would he be considered racist? Or is that an irrelevant issue? I ask because the quotes that I have read so far I could see being said by someone black.

@young_

Are you a publicist for Roth or something? You seem pretty ambitious to defend him. Did you ever think Roth may be a xenophobe? Maybe even subconsiously. I think he pretty much is a young stupid white stoner kid who feels he IS better than others. He does not have a degree and if he would have gone further than his sophmore year he would have seen that college is not just party time 7 days a week. The first two years let you get adjusted to college but in order to get your degree you have to put forth an effort, which in some interviews he said did not, even in his song he says I cannot tell you what I learned from school. In another interview he talks about knowing 11, 12, 13 year old kids are his audience, yet he raps about driving while getting stoned and kegstands. Just what every parent wants in a role model. In the interview his mom says “He certainly does have a sense of duty and responsibility.” Yeah riiiiiiiight, how nieve is she too. She must not be on tour with him. My honest opinion of him is that he is a lazy slacker who puts very little effort into his music, which will eventually come out in the wash!

I’m really surprised that these bloggers let young run the okeydoke on em.

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