1) It plays to multiple stereotypes: Black fathers not caring for their children, blacks being generally under-educated, even black people needing to work more on their personal hygiene (which I confess I haven't even heard of before.)
2) It attempts to correct what it perceives as problems, not directly with the way that blacks are perceived in society, but rather with the ways that it perceives these problems to be aggravated by the African-American community (especially the younger members of that community.)
I am interested in both the positive and negative aspects of this video, especially as it might relate to the black community castigating those it deems "too white" or "too conciliatory." I'm not sure how this issue has fared in contemporary African-American studies, but I know that it was at one time a fairly important counter-argument against blacks in the US overcoming status discrepancies by obtaining a better education, speaking English more "correctly," and that sort of thing.
I'm going to link to the video twice. The first will be the clean version. If you are easily offended, I'd watch this one:
However, the clean version has most of the lyrics cut out, to the point where it is actually difficult to understand what is being said roughly 70 percent of the time. If you are less easily offended, or just desperate to hear the song without irritating gaps, then here's the original version:
More context: this aired on B.E.T., where it would have been a little more obviously satirical. Bomani Armah also wrote an editorial for the Washington Post calling on Barack Obama to show his 'white side': http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032102746.html
ReplyDeleteJonMarke: I remember this! (I remember Dirk singing this very happily.) I also remember that the only kid in the dorm who could potentially be perceived as an African American thought it was hilarious and spot-on. On the other hand, she was very determined *not* to be an African American most of the time.