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We Need To Own Up - Blog Posts

7 years ago

What I think "This Is America" means for us white people

To add onto the other "This Is America" interpretations, I think that part of the point of the dancing with all the surrounding chaos was to show the spread of parts of African-American culture (such as rap and different dances) into white appreciation and focus without the acknowledgement of the pain that the community that makes it is suffering. We white people can take in those elements that we like without having to worry about also experiencing the 'less appealing' parts of the culture like police brutality, gun violence, homelessness, poverty and other things that come as the product of systemic racism (which in America was made by our race). Maybe we would recognize it better if *some artist* paired depictions of the art we all love with depictions of black bodies being brutalized and desecrated at every turn. I think that's why he says at the end "America / I just checked my following list and / You motherfuckers owe me" -- because it's not fair that American culture can be taking in the richness and beauty of one of its subsets without owning up to the hardships it gave that subset to have birthed this art in the first place.

If we are going to appreciate African-American art, we have to support the African Americans who make it.


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