Sunday, September 13, 2009
Hip-hop's 'Multiculturalism' and 'Polyculturalism'
This week in our readings, Robin D.G. Kelley argues polyculturalism, unlike multiculturalism, recognizes that there are problems with simplistically conflating race and culture. Polyculturalism acknowledges the inter-related connections and fluidity between cultures and their intersections. Multiculturalism keeps cultures separated and static--allowing them to relate alongside one another. In the case of Hip-hop in the United States, discussions of "race" often conflate African American identity and culture. However,the history of culture of Hip-hop is often separated from the people that produce it. In defining the keywords of polyculturalism and multiculturalism in relationship to Hip-hop this week,think about the ways that the meaning of Blackness has shifted since Hip-hop's inception.
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In Robin Kelley's article "People in Me," he makes the point that "polyculturalism" is different than "multiculturalism," especially in the context of music and Hip-hop. Polyculturalism, to him, is the acceptance of many different cultures and the resulting blend from those cultures, whereas multiculturalism is stacking cultures against each other and merely comparing them, not acknowledging that they’re interdependent on each other (2,3).
ReplyDeleteHowever, in the Forman & Neal reading (Samuels 149), race is divided biracially- black and white. For example, it says that “… rap broke through to a mass white audience.” (149). The article does not address how other cultures are blended into the Hip-hop music scene and how there are influences from both; the article depicts race as a dichotomy with no room for blending. According to the Kelley article, this depiction would show the multiculturalism of Hip-hop. The Chang article (Tate et al. 36) also highlights the importance of multiculturalism in Hip-hop but makes no mention of polyculturalism.
It is important to note, much like Kelley did, that there is a polyculturalism to Hip-hop because it was created from people with mixed backgrounds. Culture is not static, and neither should the music that is being produced.
Multiculturalism:
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of multiculturalism, I envision a celebration of diversity, like Black History Month, or a class that discusses several cultures separately, but never a group of people that has more than one culture. In “Got Next: A Roundtable on Identity and Aesthetics after Multiculturalism,” Mark Anthony Neal describes multiculturalism as resources for African American students. I would describe multiculturalism in the same way due to the Multicultural Resource Center we have at KU. Also, multiculturalism can be considered an ideology, because of the way diversity is taught in school. As children, we are taught to embrace other cultures and ideas, but we never study a mixture of many cultures.
Polyculturalism:
I believe that polyculturalism is the study of a group that encompasses many cultures, as the way Robin Kelley describes himself in “People in Me.” He explains that he isn’t just black, but his family is full of diversity, and his family’s culture isn’t the stereotypical “black culture.” His family’s culture embraces many other cultures, including Indian and Jamaican. Kelley also explains his view on multiculturalism and polyculturalism, which I think is the perfect explanation: “I think the term ‘polycultural’ works a lot better than ‘multicultural,’ since the latter often implies that cultures are fixed, discrete entities that exist side by side -- a kind of zoological approach to culture. Such a view of multiculturalism not only obscures power relations, but often reifies race and gender differences.” Kelley’s family shows the diversity it takes to describe polyculturalism: there are many cultures that combine to form one set of values for a family, and the cultures cannot be separated from each other to answer the question “What are you?”
Tosin Morohunfola: Blackness has evolved over the years and continues to mean different things to different people. In 1988, “What Schoolly D meant by blackness was abundantly clear. Scholly D was a misogynist and a thug.” (Forman & Neal, 150-151) And since Hip-Hop is much more than just music, Scholly D’s personal life personifying this sort of blackness then became the Hip-Hop definition he chose to live by. They bled together, interchangeable.
ReplyDeleteBut this examination of blackness comes from a multicultural lens, which is both good and bad. There’s a “good multiculturalism which talks about the multiplicity of human cultural interactions” (Chang, 38) but there’s also “administrative traps that multiculturalism” falls into (Chang, 39). For some uncalled-for reason, multiculturalism connotes multiple concrete cultures. So the natural pit-fall of multiculturalism is an incomplete allowance for newer incarnations of culture. But we are a changing people and our allowance is found in the term polycultural: “all peoples in the Western world are products of a variety of different "cultures" -- living cultures, not dead ones.” (Kelley, 2) Though I hate to do so, we can almost justify Scholly D’s definition of Blackness by the mere fact that his experience, as an individual, is its own unique polyculture.
In Robin Kelley’s article “People in Me,” he explains the difference between multiculturalism and polyculturalism. Multiculturalism goes to include the cultures that are otherwise underrepresented in order to emphasis a facade of diversity. The idea of multiculturalism lacks the initiative that cultures are very much interrelated and are not fixed things that do not change over time. Robin Kelley believes polyculturalism is a much more appropriate word to describe cultures and their interaction with each other. Polyculturalism is a term to illustrate how cultures are very much interconnected. For example, being an African American can mean you came from a variety of backgrounds. An African American person could have a Jamaican background or West African or Caribbean or the many other places that black American’s ancestors originated from. In relation to hip-hop, multiculturalism and polyculturalism play a big role in explaining the cultural influence on the music. Hip-hop music tells a story about the life and struggles of the artist and the culture in which they grew up in. So, while multiculturalism can very well help explain the diversity between cultures, polyculturalism is more suitable for describing the relation between and fluidity of cultures.
ReplyDeleteOn a personal level, multiculturalism emphasizes the broad spectrum of multiple ways in which different cultures come to be, amongst their differences. It’s an interesting notion in the sense that it’s a huge diverse group, yet a commonality in the sense that it’s acceptance takes control resulting in it to be multicultural. Polyculturalism is a concept that is interrelated to multiculturalism in that it defines people as one world, connected within diversity. The concept of blackness stems from multiculturalism itself. Multiculturalism would not be cultural without the various cultures submerged in it, as blackness portrays an example. This is emphasized directly in Robin Kelly’s article “People in Me, “ as he dominantly shows the overoccuring concept of multiculturalism in relation to blackness and the other dependent cultures that play a role amongst various cultures. This leads me to my understanding that Kelly makes it a point that the preconceived notion of “multiculturalism” and “polyculturalism” would not further exist without examples such as diverse hip hop relations towards the black community.
ReplyDeleteIn the article “People In Me,” Robin Kelley defines multiculturalism and polyculturalism as two completely different things. Kelley argues that the term “multiculturalism” implies that cultures are separated and distinctly different although this enables the people of one culture to relate to another culture (2). Kelley believes that the term “polycultural” is a more accurate term to describe black cultural. He defines polyculturalism as a cultural fusion, where more than one cultural come together to create a brand new cultural, all its own. He argues, “that most black people in the Americas are products of a variety of different "cultures" -- living cultures, not dead ones. These cultures live in and through us everyday, with almost no self-consciousness about hierarchy or meaning” (2). For hip-hop, polyculturalism has made it into what it is today. Hip-hop music and culture has always borrowed from other cultures from around the world. From the beats to the fashion to the graffiti, all aspects of hip-hop can be traced from another culture. The term “blackness” now has a bigger meaning after applying polyculturalism to it. Blackness is no longer just one specific culture but is composed of many different cultures.
ReplyDeletePolyculturalism and Multiculturalism
ReplyDeletePolyculturalism and multiculturalism are two very strong and influential concepts. Both of these have their positives and also there negatives.
Multiculturalism allows people to show and enjoy the differences that each individual culture has. Multiculturalism allows others to see what a certain person believes and why they do certain things. A couple of things have been brought to the forefront when having a multiculturalist view point. Supporting the festivals and holidays of minorities as well as listening and supporting the music and arts from the other cultures. But there are also negatives. Multiculturalism does not recognize the fact that there are many overlapping qualities of different cultures. However polycuturalists have seen the light.
From the other side of the spectrum is the polyculturalist point of view. They believe that “all of the world’s cultures are inter-related”(Prashad)* Many of the people that believe in the polyculturalist idea, believe that the idea of multiculturalism is a negative and incorrect way of looking at the world. By viewing everyone as a whole, you are more able to se the similarities rather than the differences, which make the people of different cultures more friendly towards one another.
Prashad*-- quote came from the book "Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity"
As defined in our lecture, multiculturalism is defined diversity, implies ideas that there are “differences” that have to and should be addressed, co-existing, embodied representation/divers world views, and physical diversification. I took this to mean that multiculturalism is simply diverse people living in the same world. Polyculturalism, on the other hand, as defined by lecture is addressing issues of power and privilege in institutions, places of business and cultural spaces. I took this to mean that polyculturalism is the interaction of all of these diverse cultures living and working together. Robin Kelley writes in his “People in Me” that multiculturalism “implies that cultures are fixed, discrete entities that exist side by side—a kind of zoological approach to culture.” (pg 1) Kelley’s definition reifies race and gender differences. Kelley also suggests here that there is no real integration of cultures in multiculturalism. He shows us that multiculturalism is more of a fixed definition, whereas, polyculturalism is more of a broader term used for the integration of several cultures in our society. In Got Next, ViJay Prashad offers an additional definition to multiculturalism by stating that it is an “ideology” because it is an “institutional management of diversity.” (pg 37) Prashad’s definition reaffirms the ideal displayed earlier that multiculturalism is diversity but not interaction. Interaction is why we are moving towards a polyculturalism. In relating to the other question posed by Professor Hodges, blackness had changed since the inception of Hip-Hop because blackness now refers to a culture a way of rapping, singing, dancing, etc. it is a culture and not a skin color based on where your ancestors come from.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not we recognize it, polyculturalism affects each and everyone one of us. From our interactions with friends, to our favorite movies, the foods we love, and even the music we listen to, it’s clear that we have lived in a polycultural world since people began to travel off the African continent. By creating a new output from varied cultural influences, Hip-hop illustrates how multiculuralism can become polyculturalism. Hip-hop melds many aspects of different cultures throughout the globe to create the MC’s lyrics, DJ’s beats, B-Boy’s moves, as well as their styles of dress. Whether it’s the white suburban boys that David Samuels has written about, or Scratch’s Filipinos that look up to DJ Q-Bert, this blending of cultures is what makes Hip-hop so appealing to people from every walk of life.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Robin Kelley, when describing a person of different ethnicities and races, the term polycultural should be used. The term polycultural means that cultures are allowed to blend and mix together to produce one entity. Polyculturalism is the idea that many cultures combine and work together without set boundaries to produce different cultures within individuals. For example, although I may be looked at as Caucasian, my background is composed of German-American, Irish-American, and Italian-American. Instead of each culture being separated, each can still be distinct but also combine to form the whole. In his article, "People in Me", Kelley argues that the idea of polyculturalism is a better term to use than "multiculturalism" when explaining the presence of various cultures. Multiculturalism is the idea that races and cultures may be working together, but are still separated and bounded entities. Kelley shares his belief that describing cultures as multicultural can lead to an emphasis on cultural differences and minimize the idea of cultural similarities and cooperativeness. In his article "The Rap on Rap", David Samuels uses the idea of polyculturalism to illistrate the connection between different races (mainly Whites and Blacks) and hip-hop culture. As hip-hop became more popular in the 1980s among people of non-African American communities, many of the people listening to the genre were white males. White listeners deviated from the customary idea that "black music" was listened to only by people in the black community. White people could identify with the "blackness" hip-hop was assoicated with and helped bring it to the forefront of American culture with television shows such as "Yo! MTV Raps". Hip-hop is an example of polyculturalism because the boundaries of White, Black, Asian, Hispanic and more are erased and each culture flows into another to produce what hip-hop is today.
ReplyDeleteAn important point that Kelley touches on in his piece is the phrase “polycultural enigma” (2). With many different backgrounds and cultures intertwining, it is not important to identify how they ended up that way, but instead understand that their characteristics have changed what they are now. As he also describes that blackness, black culture, and black life are difficult to identify (2), we get the understanding that there is no binary definition of culture. Even in the Hip-hop culture there is no binary. Many other backgrounds and cultures shape entirely different facets of Hip-hop. There is no static explanation of Blackness, but rather a dynamic answer that forms around the particular model or example at hand. Samuels states “that no one can steal a culture” (153). It is inherent and unable to be reproduced. Culture is shaped from experiences, backgrounds, and ideals. Music can be used to represent these differences, but can never be taken as a definite explanation of a particular culture.
ReplyDeleteMulticulturalism: In David Samuel's article "The Rap on Rap", he emphasizes how less black that black has become. Samuel's continuously iterates that the consumer demographic that most tenaciously purchased so called "black music," were white suburban males (Samuels, 1). He also plead that the more defiantly black or in other words representative of the predominately black social class that the rappers were, the bigger the audience, and in turn, the sales became (Samuels, 1,2) The ability to have access to the experiences in a controlled environment is the enticing factor (Samuels, 7). Multiculturalism is the result of this controlled access because through the assimilation of this black street culture, not only do blacks, but now anyone can get the experiences (Samuels, 7). With this vehicle of assimilation in mind, hip-hop music, we can begin to understand Polyculturalism. Polyculturalism is how some people view themselves when they can identify with several different cultures. One way that they may have gained these views of identification is through the process of controlled assimilation. Polyculturalism is where an individual or a group of individuals achieve and internalize acculturation of more than 2 cultures. In the reading "People in me," Kelley speaks about all of the different identities that he holds from birth. For example: his mother is of Jamaican descent, his father is black and American, his brother now lives in Japan, and his sister looks like an Bengalian, Pakistanian or Ethiopian (Kelley, 2). His family also has different features that strike most as not typical of African American (Kelley, 1).
ReplyDeleteWhen using the term polyculturalism you should be talking about a person's race or ethnicity, or about all of the different ideals that is incorporated into different cultures. This idea of polyculturalism is based off the work of Robin Kelley. In "People In Me" Kelley talks about how people can look and act one way but have a complete different background that people don't know about. For example, Kelley talks about how his mother was an african american but doesn't act the way that middle-aged to older african american women are portrayed in hollywood today. Kelley also talks about how blackness has always included polyculturalism in terms of hip hop. A lot of people assume that the artists are african american when most have different backgrounds such as carribean, latin american, and even asian just to name a few. Many of rap's record sales have been from african americans, so people tend to associate it with only them, and tend to leave out the aforementioned other cultures. People don't take into acount that hip hop has always been diverse. It has been this way since hip hop evolved in the 1970's and it still remains the same way today as many artists have multiple dissents of background. It shows hip hop's diversity and how it can relate to people of all races. So for me it appears that Kelley is trying to prove that hip hop is a way of spreading multiculturalism and polyculturalism as it is a way of showing ones culture to give a better understanding to others who weren't quite as aware of it before.
ReplyDeleteRobin Kelley’s article The People In Me said, “it is not our skin or hair or walk or talk that renders black people so incredibly diverse. Rather, it is the fact that most black people in the Americas are products of a variety of different cultures” (pg2). Kelley’s statement is used to explain how she believes polyculturalism is a better way of describing our culture than the word multiculturalism. Our culture has changed in a way so that it’s not just one race living next to a person of another race, but rather people from a mixture of races incorporating other races. As Kelley said in her article, she had to live with “the question” of what race she is all her life. She is not made up of just one particular set race. The issue of having to identify with just one race is similar to the issues brought up in David Samuels The Rap on Rap. Samuels article explained that it’s not just black and white rappers or black and white music. He said, “what whites wanted was not music, but black music, which as a result stopped really being either” (Forman and Neal 153). These statements support the idea that “blackness” is not just based on being the color black, but rather adapting the blackness culture into one’s life.
ReplyDeleteIn Kelley's "People In Me" article, he discusses the issue of multiculturalism vs. polyculturalism. He argues that the term multiculturalism suggests divides between cultures; the idea that cultures can live side-by-side without intermixing or influencing each other. He says that the term polyculturalism is a more apt term for the state of America and the world in general and specifically in hip-hop. Coming from several different cultures himself and being raised by non-traditional "black" parents, the issue of "blackness" in his life is reflected by the current status in hip-hop, which is itself a muddle of different races and cultures that are not divided but rather mixed in with each other. Evidence of this theory is clearly displayed in the fact that there are low-riders being driven in predominantly black neighborhoods with no Latinos or the fact that Robin's own parents burn incense and meditate.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do not agree with everything he says in his article, I do strongly agree with the way he distinguished multicultural from polycultural. Multicultural does imply distinct lines of races combined, were poly may be too jumbled to distinguish, or properly indentify. Although it is not his main application of the notion, I feel it applies perfectly to the Hip Hop culture. Yes, it has been identified as a black culture, but as we discussed in class simply calling it black music would be as false an assumption as calling Kelleys brother white, there is just more to it. Changs Multicultural panel continues to explore this idea in Hip-Hop. I feel Vijay Prashad says it best on p.33 of Total Chaos when speaking on “multiculturalism” he says, “…It was about the institutional management of diversity.” This implies almost of forcing to meet a requirement as we discussed with college admissions. Students of varying backgrounds are admitted, and the school is now multicultural because it has fulfilled its quota. As hip hop has represented the voice of the oppressed population in our country, polyculturalism allows these people, of varying ethnicities and experiences to blend together as an undistinguishable work of art in a way simple multiculturalism would not necessarily imply.
ReplyDeleteThe main idea demonstrated is that race is not biological, but is influenced by culture and experiences. In the article written by Robin Kelley, the author asks a question of self identity. If one does not fit into a certain category of “blackness”, then you not considered African American. Kelley speaks about how her brother struggled to establish his blackness in the African American communities of Los Angeles, and being a “black boy trapped in a white boy’s body”. We can parallel this quote to the Great American Melting Pot analysis; the thought that all races and creeds would melt into society and become one; the issue being that Americans tend to become too indolent that we do clump (or “melt”) everyone into binary labels of “black” and “white” because it is more convenient for us not having to acknowledge all of the differing cultures. I find it very interesting how David Samuels exposes the irony of a white audience playing a role in the development of “gangster rap”. A mixture of Suburban culture’s need for this musical “contraband” and the African American’s need to speak out (multiculturalism) sparked and gave birth to Public Enemy and N.W.A.
ReplyDeleteLiving in the United States; it is very evident to witness polycultural aspects in people each and every day. Our country has been deemed a giant “melting pot” because of multiple races and cultures that have been intertwined and fused together which makes up the idea of polyculturalism. Robin Kelley points out in her article “People in Me” that all people in the western world are products of a mixture of living cultures. The culmination of such diverse cultures has been absorbed by Hip-Hop, and thus is the key for new artists to venture off into uncharted waters. Unlike polyculturalism; the term multiculturalism can be viewed as more ‘black and white.’ People who are multicultural obtain values and traditions that are concrete to a specific culture that may coexist with other cultures, but are not embedded together. In the article “People in Me,” Robin Kelley explains how she dislikes the term ‘multicultural’ because it may be perceived as a zoological approach that focuses on the obvious aspects such as race and gender differences. However, polyculturalism is able to filter through such differences so that people from all corners of the world can engulf themselves in the nature of blackness and Hip-Hop.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, multiculturalism is like one big hat full of pieces of paper representing different cultures. Multiculturalism creates an opportunity for the celebration of different cultures. Each culture has a style, dress, holidays, festivals etc. Each aspect is unique to the culture. In Kelley’s, “People in Me”, he says that the problem with multiculturalism is that it insinuates that each culture is its own and overlapping of cultures isn’t really recognized.
ReplyDeletePolyculturalism is the overlapping and crossing over of different cultures. The identities, ideas, or traditions of one culture often cross over into another. A prime example is the idea of “blackness”. Last week we spent a lot of time on defining “blackness” and whether or not people who aren’t black can share the same black identity. In Kelley’s article, he explained how his mother wasn’t a typical black mother. She didn’t talk like a typical black mom, she meditated and burned incense. I feel like this is another example of polyculturalism because his mom has picked up traditions and habits of another culture.
The world would be a simpler place if it was divided between "black" and "white". But, it is the grey area in which we all live that makes the world interesting. Robin Kelley's article "People in Me", extrapolates on this idea with his exploration of the many aspects of multiculturalism and polyculturalism. He makes the case that all of us share common through-lines of culture. He states, "All of us, and I mean ALL of us are the inheritors of European, African, Native American, and even Asian pasts, even if we can't exactly trace our blood lines to all of these continents". Kelley makes the argument that our cultures have bonded together and our definitions of ourselves is constantly evolving due to this fact. Similar to sampling within Hip-hop, the polycultural world samples customs and social views from one another. Kelley claims that to understand this view does not diminish the quality of a unique culture but it does require an open mind in order to expand the ideas surrounding your ethnic and social background. Therefore, polyculturalism and multiculturalism can be thought of as dynamic ideas that enable individuals to engage society as members of a world culture.
ReplyDeletePolyculturalism recognizes that all cultures are interweaved and have great and terrible influences on one another. Multiculturalism is more separated and is more old fashioned in mindset that each culture had a completely different path from the beginning and stayed different throughout the years with little or no correlation between them. The idea of Polyculturalism is a unifying vision of the world and choses to look at all cultures as equally valid and important, while multiculturalism leaves the door wide open for hatred and discrimination.
ReplyDeleteNot everything in life is simple, complexity defines people’s lives. Two concepts: multiculturalism and polyculturalism are great examples of how things are complex, but it is the complexity that helps us to understand them. Multiculturalism is described by Vijay Prashad in “Got Next” as an “ideology from above” (37). He goes on to talk about how multiculturalism is about celebrating your past. In lecture we discussed how multiculturalism does not recognize that many cultures cannot be separated. It’s hard to relate hip-hop to multiculturalism because hip-hop incorporates many cultures in its beats, words and style; and without that diversity the music wouldn’t be where it is today. Polyculturalsim, its counterpart does however recognize that cultures are all inter-related. Robin Kelley describes in her article that as a child she struggled with the issues of racial identity. Her and her family did not fall into the stereotype of a ‘Harlem family’. Kelley and her family’s issues were dealt with through the idea of polyculturalism. She knew where she came from and embraced it to shape who she would become. Chang’s article “Got Next” describes how ideas such as polyculturalism have explained the “aesthetics and cultural politics of the twenty and twenty-first centuries” (34). The article goes on to explain that hip-hop cannot be left out in that discussion. Hip-hop as a culture and as music allows for people to experience themselves in relation to other cultures.
ReplyDeletePolyculturalism and multiculturalism are two very important element but also very different. Multiculturalism is the separation of cultures within something, although different cultures can learn about it, while polyculturalism is the joining of cultures within something. The reading “The Rap on Rap” by David Samuels explains hip hop in both the poly and multiculturalistic ways, the reading shows multiculturalism when it talks about how hip hop was shaped by White views. White culture wanted music “more defiantly black” and because of this groups like Public Enemy thrived (Samuels 149). “The Rap on Rap” also goes on to state that hip hop is not a cross-cultural understanding, but somewhat of a tolerance of racism (Samuels 153). Polyculturalism seems to be more associated with the beginning of hip hop. DJ Kool Herc would start breaking in the street gathering masses of different people, bringing them together. One part of culture is where something comes from, “The Rap on Rap” talks about how groups like Run-DMC grew up in good communities with wealthy parents while KRS-ONE grew up in ghetto communities. Another suggestion of polyculturalism in hip hop is the teamwork of Run-DMC and Aerosmith to produce the song “Walk This Way”, two very diverse groups, and make a record that goes gold.
ReplyDeleteWhile the two terms sound very similar and appear to mean the same thing, there is a vast difference between the two. Multiculturalism acknowledges that there are different races and cultures, but works to ensure that the different cultures are kept separate. This term allows different cultures to interact with each other, but at the end of the day, you are still African American, Mexican, white, etc. Diversity defines multiculturalism and that can be expressed in hip hop music. Hip hop artists like Schoolly D and Public Enemy focused their songs around Black Nationalism; they eschewed from “white” influences. However, their hip hop songs appealed to the white middle class. It allowed a white suburban kid to get a feel for what life was like as a black man in the streets. Samuels writes that “where the assimilation of black street culture by whites once required a degree of human contact between the races, the street is now available at the flick of a cable channel […] if you’re a suburban white kid and you want to find out what life is like for a black city teenager, you buy a record by N.W.A. It’s like going to an amusement park and getting on a roller coaster ride – records are safe, they’re controlled fear, and you always have the choice of turning it off” (153 Samuels). Hip hop albums became an outlet for whites to experience life in the ghetto, without truly being immersed in it.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, polyculturalism embraces all cultures, and works to even merge them. Robin Kelley wrote that we are not just solely black, white, Latino, etc. We are a combination of them all, whether through bloodline or experience. Kelley writes that “’polycutural’ works a lot better than ‘multicultural,’ since the latter often implies that cultures are fixed, discrete entities that exist side by side – a kind of zoological approach to culture” (2 Kelley). We are all a mixture of cultures and shouldn’t classify ourselves as such. The Beastie Boys was a punk rock band that began to rap. They are a mixture of the two genres and express polyculturalism in their music.
In broad terms, many people may consider polyculturalism and multiculturalism as two similar ideas. However in the article “People In Me,” Robin Kelley argues that the two have very different definitions. To Kelley, polyculturalism is “cultural fusion,” as many cultures combine to create a new culture. Blackness can be considered polyculturalism since many backgrounds and histories came together to create the culture that is behind Hip Hop. As we spoke about in lecture, polyculturalism addresses issues of power within institutions. Kelley defines multiculturalism as separate cultures living together. In this lifestyle, cultures are living and thriving around one another in the same world. When considering these two definitions, I see multiculturalism and polyculturalism as pretty much the same ideas. A world in which many cultures live harmoniously can be considered many cultures merged together as one. This would not be defined as one culture alone, but one culture made up of many. Considering blackness and Hip Hop once again, it can be seen as both a multi and polycultural entity. Not just African American background was instituted to create Hip Hop. As we have looked at in class, Latino, Asian, and many other cultures contributed to the greater category of Hip Hop.
ReplyDeleteIn Robin Kelley’s article “People in Me” the concept of polyculturalism is preferred over multiculturalism. To Kelley multiculturalism “implies that cultures are fixed, discrete entities that exist side by side -- a kind of zoological approach to culture.” By seeing cultures as completely different entities it makes it seem as though people have nothing in common, which is not the case. Polyculturalism reefers to the fact that most people in the Americas are products of a variety of different "cultures"(Kelley).
ReplyDeleteBy trying to market hip hop to a white audience a backlash occurred in the black community. For example in the Samuels article he says that white rock critics praised “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash, but “the reaction on the streets was something less favorable” (Samuels 149). Samuels also states that “the closer rap moved to the white mainstream, the more it became like rock ’n’ roll, a celebration of posturing over rhythm” (Samuels 150). Artists like RUN-DMC and Public Enemy where both from the suburbs with college educated families, but since they acted like they where from the streets that appealed to white people and made those groups popular.
Throughout the history of black music other “races” have been involved, whether it was white artists that would take a black artists song and pass it off as their own or having hip hop produced by white producers. Some might say that “white [people] stole black culture” even though “no one can steal a culture” (Samuels 152-3). I do agree that a culture can not be stolen, but I do feel that an aspect of a culture can be adopted and changed to the point where the original “parents” do not know that aspect of their culture was theirs originally.
This subject, Multiculturalism and Polyculturalism, has always been a hard subject to understand because I have never been put in a situation where I have been mistakenly called or judged by my ethnicity or race. I usually do not often hear, “Are you Irish, German, or French?” just because I am white. Accusations of this sort require further observation such as accent and so on. The article, “People in Me” by Robin Kelley conclusion is how I really feel about this whole subject. “ALL of us are the inheritors of European, African, Native American, and even Asian pasts” (Kelley,4 ) and with this I feel like our blood lines should be something that helps us relate to each other not hate each other. I also feel like the best production of music and even movies is created by people who understand we are made up of different back grounds so let’s use that to our advantage. A good example is the Black Eyed Peas, Jamaican, Filipino-American, Mexican/Native American, and Mexican/Irish/Scottish descents. Multiculturalism and Polyculturalism is how we identify, acknowledge, and learn from each other. It should not be how we treat or judge each other. In the long run we should not be separated with Multiculturalism because separation causes competiveness which then leads to hate. I feel like we should rely on the term Polyculturalism because it brings us together but helps us understand our different blood lines and race.
ReplyDeleteRobin Kelley stated it best when he posed it as “the question” in his 2003 article, “People In Me.” The question he was referring to is the question he receives on a common basis in reference to his nationality, “what are you?” However, the same question can be applied to multiculturalism and polyculturalism, what are you? The “Got Next” article presents multiculturalism as being defined through hip-hip that I find extremely representative. Both hip-hop and multi and polyculturalism focus on the idea of inclusion for everyone and being able to represent everyone within the music and the culture that it portrays. However, like we discussed in class, in trying to include everyone and every culture within the music and everyday life we still desire the distinction between cultures in order to identify with each. Like hip-hop, I believe that we have come to use the terms of multiculturalism and polyculturalism instead of recognizing everything as one cumulative culture because we still crave the ties and the traditions that those individual cultures posses. The individual cultures are a tie to the past that inspire our futures and will continue to contribute to the idea of multi and polyculturalism, especially in music.
ReplyDeleteRobin Kelley states that 'multicultural' often implies that cultures are fixed, discrete entities that exist side by side. Kelley believes that multicultural often refers to race and gender differences. Multiculturalism separates the differences from different cultures. As a result, we often can tell the differences among a variety of cultures. On the contrary, polyculturalism mixes together all the aspects of living cultures rather than focusing on race and gender. Polyculturalism can be found in Hip Hop by looking at all the different ways MCs, DJs, and other artists dress, act, and perform. Polyculturalism allows for people who are not African American to mix in aspects of African American culture into their own style. An example of polyculturism in the hip hop world may be DJ Q-Bert, being of Asian descent. He uses his own style, but he also mixes in the style of previous African American DJs as well. Kelley describes his little brother as having a white father and was born coming out looking just like his father. His brother had to fight his way into blackness because he looked like he was white. Now his brother lives in Tokyo, speaks fluent Japanes, and is marrried to a Korean woman posing as a Japanese woman. This is a prime example of polyculturalism.
ReplyDeleteI believe that polyculturalism is in no way similar to multiculturalism when it comes to hip-hop, just like Robin Kelley’s article explained. Polyculturalism to me is a celebration of all different cultures and groups, but is more focused on the black culture. Multiculturalism is the division of different cultures and groups, in means to keep them separate from each other. Hip-hop was formed around these two elements, and was perceived from four different views(white and black) or (good and ghetto communities). Hip-hops diversity can be explained through multiculturalism with how many different styles and cultures that are expressed in hip-hop music. Polyculturalism focuses on a more set group of people that enjoy the same kind of music and culture. However, I believe the are many problems with this in that multiculturalism does not only affect music but each and every one of our personal lives because we have all experienced it growing up, especially since I came to KU. I experience the polyculturalism view back in my hometown because all of my friends and I supported the same hobbies and beliefs in music and culture for the most part.
ReplyDeleteFrom this week’s assigned readings I was best able to understand the terms “multiculturalism” and “polyculturalism” from “The People in Me” article by Robin Kelley. As Kelley states in his reading “polyculturalism” includes every human on Earth. There are a variety of different cultures that make up a human being. Therefore it is impossible to label someone as African-American, Irish, or European. Polyculturalism is dynamic and always changing whereas Multiculturalism is static and never changing. Multiculturalism refers to accepting other individual’s culture(s). As Vijay Prashad says, “Multiculturalism became about celebration; it became about dealing with your history and your past” (“Got Next”, 37). Multiculturalism deals with what has happened in the past with a particular culture and accepting ideas and the history of other’s cultures. Multiculturalism allows individuals to reflect on what they came from and has also helped contribute to having diversity in organizations and government agencies like the military. To me polyculturalism is something that is always changing and is different for each individual because we have various cultural makeups where as multiculturalism is more of a static idea allowing individuals to look back, celebrate, and learn about a particular culture.
ReplyDeleteMulticulturalism and polyculturalism, although seemingly synonymous, are related yet different terms. Multiculturalsim describes a top-down, institutionalized approach to handling diversity, as defined in both Tate, Prashad, Neal, and Cross roundtable discussion and the Samuels article “The Rap on Rap: The ‘Black’ Music that Isn’t Either.” Their argument assumes the co-optation of civil rights and civil equality movements into a more corporate, governmental ethic that, regardless of its intensions, has slipped the base out from under the movements and effectively deflated their efficacy.
ReplyDeleteTo combat this, Robin Kelley advances his idea of ‘polyculturalism’ to combat multiculturalism’s assumption of static, bounded cultural ideas. He defines polyculturalism to account for the fluid, dynamic dimensions of ever-shifting globalized cultures. Framing this argument in terms of genetic heritage at first, Kelley moves on to express his views that culture is far more than a bloodline. Culture entails all the aesthetic, ideological, and behavioral components of personality, in addition to an actual biological heritage. In his creation of polyculturalism also as a grass-roots term, Kelley attempts to supplant the wide-spread consumption of ideas of multiculturalism with a much more ambiguous (and thus accurate) term.
In Robin Kelley's article "People in me" us say that, "the term "polycultural" works a lot better than "multicultural," since the latter often implies that cultures are fixed, discrete entities that exist side by side". I think that this is a great way to look at that terms of polyculturalism and multiculturalism and it seems to be the same way that the round table discussion of "got next views it too. The characteristics of a culture are not static, they are ever changing and fluid forms. Mark Anthony Neal is quoted in got next as saying"Whats the model African american Culture? Whats the model Puerto Rican Culture that’s represented?". He Is making the comment that the idea of multiculturalism got conservative when trying to create a model for the acquisition of resources. Not all aspects and entities get represented by the model because the culture is always changing and not everyone fits to the mold. Robin Kelley puts it in a way I enjoy when he writes, "Black folks cook with woks, write detective novels, and have been spotted purchasing classical music CDs. What we know as "black culture" has always been fluid, hybrid, and polycultural."
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the text assigned I understood more the differences between multiculturalism and polyculturalism, from a glance before reading, these two terms looked to me about the same. Clearly these words have very different definitions. I personally believe that polyculturalsim is more of an accurate way of speaking about people who have many different cultural backgrounds. The reason I feel this way is partially from previous classes I have taken and also from discussion on Wednesday. What defines race? What makes someone black or white? I come to the conclusion that race isn’t a real tangible category. As we discussed, it is only a social construction an idea that is created by the people who want to separate people into groups. So if race isn’t real then the distinction between cultures is much more blurred than defined. Where polyculturalism is most clearly seen in Hip- Hop is in the use of the term “black” to describe it. Although there probably isn’t a solid perfect explanation for why “blackness” has become a culture instead of a physical word it is very clear to see how it plays a role in Hip-Hop. Blackness isn’t just African Americans, it’s a mixture of many different people because blackness doesn’t only characterize physical appearance but the whole element of the Hip-Hop culture; dress, jewelry, language, ect.
ReplyDeletePeople come from many different places and many different backgrounds. Everyone has their own story to tell if they want to write it. The world is a mix of so many different races, faces and people. Why do people need to ask what they are or where they come from? We as people always have to ask what color you are or what your background is. Why are we forced to ask such questions? Robin D.G Kelley article “The people in me,” talks about how he is always asked what are you? He explains what it feels like to be asked these types of questions all the time. He is from a mixed family of different background, that are black but because he’s different looking has people asking him “what are you?” We are so focused on what is on the outside and wanting to know where you’re from or what your background is to categorize you. I think his story is very interesting to what his family has had to go through on a daily basis. His brother gets asked even more than him because he looks white but is black. I think polyculturalism is a really good word that captures what people are these days. Everyone in this world is a mix of some kind of race or religion. I am mix of a lot of things I’m not even sure about. I think today’s society is a big melting pot of multiculturalism. People take in so many cultures and diverse communities and make them unique to themselves. We all influence each other somehow. In the article from David Samuels he talks about how people in America love rap or hip hop. He describes as a way to experience something you never been before through music. Multiculturism and polyculturalism will always be present in everywhere you go. I recently went to a Tech N9ne concert at the Granada and there were so many different cultures and backgrounds. Each person has their own style and own attitude. There was a large mix of genders, races, and cultures that came together to celebrate music with Tech N9ne. I think music has no color and shouldn’t have one because that the beauty in music. Music is blind; music is art for our ears.
ReplyDeleteIn Robin Kelley’s article, “People in Me,” he is able to break down the difference between multiculturalism and polyculturalism. Although multiculturalism can be defined as acceptance of cultures and diverse worldviews, it doesn’t take into consideration the people with several different mixed cultures. Kelley explains how the term “polycultural works a lot better than multicultural, because “most black people in the Americas are products of a variety of different ‘cultures’ -- living cultures, not dead ones. These cultures live in and through us everyday, with almost no self-consciousness about hierarchy or meaning” (8). Kelley gave an example of how his sister was riding in a Taxi and the cab driver was an immigrant from India. The man gave her a hard time because he thought she was Sri Lankin, but after he found out she was African-American he was courteous and polite. This shows how multiculturalism as comparing cultures and not taking into consideration how many people are polycultural, having several cultures embodied.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the view points that Robin D.G. Kelley that basically says that multiculturalism is a term that only encompasses minorities and is not a term inclusive to the majority. I was on the Multicultural Affairs Committee on Student Senate last year and one goal we had was to give a comprehensive definition for the term multiculturalism and we basically came up with a definition that identifies with anyone that is considered in the minority. To me, multiculturalism just tends to be synonymous with minority. That seems to be the case with Hip-Hop as well, the majority of African American people are not doing the majority of the things we are supposed to represent based on what you see and hear in music. We do not ride in Escalades on 28s, have 10 pounds of diamonds and jewelry on us, do not shoot at police from rooftops like Ice T, and any of that other stuff. Samuels states that “the closer rap moved to the white mainstream, the more it became like rock ’n’ roll, a celebration of posturing over rhythm” (Samuels 150) and that is what a lot of rap is. Kanye West (Due to his VMA outburst he is still fresh on my mind) said “I never could see why people reach a fake ass facade that they could not keep up”. And Hip-Hop seems to have kept up this façade. But now people are being called out on this and Hip-Hop as a genre seems to be a lot more open to different styles making a shift towards polyculturalism rather than being the minority.
ReplyDeleteMulticulturalism promotes the representation of static, self-identifying cultures in our decidedly varied world. These cultures are seen as discrete units, and the multicultural worldview celebrates their differences as essential aspects of human nature; in turn, the separation of cultures fosters the narration of ethnicity for cultural consumption. However, such black-and-white distinctions can be detrimental: witness Robin Kelley’s “People in Me,” in which she argues that polyculturalism is a better term for what modern hip-hop embraces. In her view, the term multiculturalism “obscures power relations” and “reifies race and gender differences.” In other words, things are much more blended at this point, both literally through intermarriage and conceptually through integration by the artists themselves. Although African-Americans are hip-hop’s original and most potent producers, from the beginning their output was informed and augmented by a polycultural feel. This is especially evident in, for example, the influence of Mexican muralists on graffiti, native West Indian dancing on breaking, and even white American folk music on DJs and MCs in their formative years. Although institutionalized multiculturalism had the obvious benefit of indentifying and preserving the core of each culture, it is polyculturalism that is making strides now by righting the grievances of the past.
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