Eminem (was: Influenced by GR?)

[jbor]

I think it might be a little extreme to say that chauvinism and macho 
bullshit (in art as in life) are down to (contemporary? 20th C?)
African-American culture alone. There's often a healthy dose of irony in
those "baby got booty" and "my posse/gun/car/jewellery/bankdraft is bigger
than yours" anthems too. I think you need to look elsewhere for the roots of
serious patriarchal attitudes. In fact, slavery and racial oppression
thoroughly emasculated traditional African societal arrangements and largely
served to valorise the Negro mother as the authoritative voice from within
those cultures once they were transplanted to North American soil. Enslaved,
the black man was objectified, dehumanised. Music and dance became a medium
of escape, rebellion, subversion. White boys (Elvis, the Stones, Slothrop in
the Roseland Ballroom) never really understood this, but they liked the
beat.

best

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>From: Thomas Eckhardt <uzs7lz at uni-bonn.de>
>Subject: Re: Eminem (was: Influenced by GR?)
>Date: Sun, Jul 23, 2000, 8:47 AM
>

> It is also an art form, whose sometimes
> ridiculously exaggerated assertions of manhood have a long history in
> African-American culture and may perhaps be traced back to the effects
> slavery and racism have had on the minds of the suppressed