Letters to the Editor
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Aging White Racists Still Not Cool
"More than anything I'm embarrassed. Since when did young black men, heretofore the arbiters of pop culture, become so lame? And since when did the citizens of that culture not know the difference?"
Really, Paul Kix? Really? Are you, a privilege white editor of a certain age, claiming a culture is uncool by writing an article which only names top selling artists.
Does he mention small label artists like Anacron? Hell, he doesn't even mention Lupe Fiasco.
It takes a presumptious racist to act like he knows an entire culture from the most common version.
Also, but did the heyday of funk and soul not involve a few dances which even the most inept of dancers could master? Has club music always involved aboveground and underground hits?
Why yes, yes it has and yet no aging white dude has had the audacity to claim he's cooler than an entire form.
It's funny, now that a mixed race man is running for the white house, Paul Kix can claim he's cooler than an explicitly black music. Is he cooler than blues and jazz as well?
Since when is the vitality of AN ENTIRE MUSICAL FORM to be judged by a selective sample of top 40 hits.
If he was writing about women in rock, would you judge the entire genre based on the latest Avril Lavigne tune? If black guy wrote about how lame rock was based on a list of bands including Linkin Park and Maroon 6, I'm sure this letters section would explode with counter examples.
Kix is too dumb to actually understand the lyrics of "Hip Hop is Dead"...
"If hip hop should die before I wake
I'll put an extended clip inside of my AK
Roll to every station, murder the DJ"
His entire argument is not that hip hop is dead, but that the heavily commercialized version - and refusal to play other types - is killing it. He also name checks MC Ren, who's violent black nationalist albums were not exactly in heavy rotation.
This article isn't about making a well researched or reasoned argument, it's about a white guy making white person generalizations. Something that a lot of other white guys of any age would never have the stones to do. Please, Mr. Kix - shut up. You don't speak for all white dudes over 30.