If you don't mind sharing - Do you choose your own gifs/images to embed? I am cackling at "the No. 1 rule of the white fight club: Never admit you are white!"
I love this piece. I've been embarking on my own sort of reclamation of a genre I love by learning to play the banjo. Which only in the context of whiteness would be odd/different for a Black woman to do.
I reclaimed my love for the banjo and “folk” music long ago (1998) after listening to an album called “From Mali to Memphis: An African American Odyssey”. It was a musical journey which connected so many dots for me. Whiteness exists only as a reaction to Blackness. Blackness is incomprehensible to them, except as a threat to their existence only because they made up the rules of the race game.
The erasure of Blackness from country music was foundational to its creation as a genre. Did you point out in the Dolly essay that record execs in the 1920s distinguished "race records" from "hillbilly music" to create separate markets for styles that may not have been seen as distinct before? Lesley Riddle, a Black musician who either wrote or collected a great number of the Carter Family's songs, played an immensely important role in the birth of the genre, but probably few Carter Family fans knew his name during the time the group was recording. Mike Seeger tracked Riddle down and persuaded him to return to performing in 1965. He died in 1979, just as Reagan was reasserting the Whiteness of country to make it the Republican soundtrack.
Insightful dissection of country music as a vehicle for whiteness as default. As a total aside, I met my bio father two years ago. I have 3rd/4th cousins who have a country band. I haven't met them yet but I have visited where we are from - Carriere, MS. The family church is Hart's Chapel, which is a couple towns over.
I think I see where you're headed? The McPherson book gives an example of how Dolly Parton's character in "Steel Magnolias" fills the role of racial difference through exploiting her class difference. In a similar way, southern whiteness works as a sanitized "racial other". It is exploited but I don't think I would go so far as saying that it is stigmatized. It *is* a site of extraction, though. That is for sure.
If you don't mind sharing - Do you choose your own gifs/images to embed? I am cackling at "the No. 1 rule of the white fight club: Never admit you are white!"
That’s Lauren. lol She is frighteningly good at interpreting my voice.
I love this piece. I've been embarking on my own sort of reclamation of a genre I love by learning to play the banjo. Which only in the context of whiteness would be odd/different for a Black woman to do.
I have taken up acoustic guitar the last year after abandoning it when I was young. Maybe all of this was coming from the same place.
I reclaimed my love for the banjo and “folk” music long ago (1998) after listening to an album called “From Mali to Memphis: An African American Odyssey”. It was a musical journey which connected so many dots for me. Whiteness exists only as a reaction to Blackness. Blackness is incomprehensible to them, except as a threat to their existence only because they made up the rules of the race game.
Can't wait to check out your playlist!
The erasure of Blackness from country music was foundational to its creation as a genre. Did you point out in the Dolly essay that record execs in the 1920s distinguished "race records" from "hillbilly music" to create separate markets for styles that may not have been seen as distinct before? Lesley Riddle, a Black musician who either wrote or collected a great number of the Carter Family's songs, played an immensely important role in the birth of the genre, but probably few Carter Family fans knew his name during the time the group was recording. Mike Seeger tracked Riddle down and persuaded him to return to performing in 1965. He died in 1979, just as Reagan was reasserting the Whiteness of country to make it the Republican soundtrack.
No I didn’t point that out. It wasn’t exactly germane to the argument. I will be discussing other digressions over the coming weeks.
Insightful dissection of country music as a vehicle for whiteness as default. As a total aside, I met my bio father two years ago. I have 3rd/4th cousins who have a country band. I haven't met them yet but I have visited where we are from - Carriere, MS. The family church is Hart's Chapel, which is a couple towns over.
Yall might enjoy this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_bMgoPAlTY
I think I see where you're headed? The McPherson book gives an example of how Dolly Parton's character in "Steel Magnolias" fills the role of racial difference through exploiting her class difference. In a similar way, southern whiteness works as a sanitized "racial other". It is exploited but I don't think I would go so far as saying that it is stigmatized. It *is* a site of extraction, though. That is for sure.