In class yesterday we had a really interesting conversation
about Kanye West. It was interesting to hear that the majority of the class
thinks he is crazy and believe it’s his own fault for how we perceive him. He
is known for going on rants pertaining to a number of topics where he becomes
aggressive with people in interviews and lashes out on people on his twitter
page. For yesterdays class we read an article about him from the website Gawker titled, “Kanye West Knows You
Think He Sounded Nuts On Kimmel.” Cord Jefferson, the author of the article
talks about how we understand Kanye West as a text, due to the frames mass
media uses to shape our opinion about him. I don’t think Kanye is crazy, he is
definitely misunderstood and it is unfortunate that he comes across as this
crazy black man. As the media continues to portray this image of him, it is no
wonder he can never catch a break and be taken seriously when he speaks his
mind. He will always be perceived as someone who is hot-tempered and nuts
because of how he is framed in the media, as a black man who is assertive and
who should not be taken seriously. I believe it is largely due to the fact that
he is black. He is ignored and put down because of his race. I don’t think a
white man would receive the same kind of negative attention when put in similar
situations as Kanye. Does anyone have an example of a white celebrity who is
called crazy/backlashed for speaking his/her mind, and who is only portrayed as
that? Why does the media choose to frame Kanye as crazy and not as a successful
black songwriter, recording artist, record producer and fashion designer?
I also learned about the concept of microaggression as we
talked about Kanye. Micro aggression is the idea that there are day-to-day acts
that make people of color aware of their status. Minorities are not on the same
plane as everyone else. You feel the aggression internally but no one else
recognizes it. When Kanye is repeatedly called crazy in the media, it is part
of the micro aggression. Have any of you experienced microaggression?
I somewhat agree with your point that Kanye may be looked at more, and is always percieved as a crazy person because he is Black, however with some of the things that he has done, he kind of had it coming to him. But as for an example of a white person who has been called "crazy" for the things he says is Rush Limbaugh, the radio talk show host. He's mainly been scrutinized for the things he's said about women and the topic of abortions (as well as other things), but to your point he hasn't been looked at at hard as society has looked at the things that Kanye says/does, and I do agree that race does play a part in it.
ReplyDeleteAs for examples of microaggression, I used to go to a public high school and was at the top of my class (in all of my classes), and one thing that all of my teachers (who were white) have said to me, and I never thought about until I left high school was that they would give me prase and say things like "you're a very articulate person Damian," and "you are a very good student compared to the other kids in the class" (which the other kids were mostly Black students because the school was predominantly Black). This didn't really bother me that much, but it was like they havent seen a Black student trying to be educated in school.
Thanks for sharing that Damien. I have had similar situations like that in school as well, where teachers would often compare me to other black students. Of course I didn’t think anything of it either until now, after learning what microagression is. I have also had people say things like, "I don't think of you as black, I see you as a normal person.” I don’t think the person said it to intentionally hurt my feelings or put me down in any kind of way, but the comment was definitely a subtle dig in my opinion.
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