Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America - Hardcover

Kitwana, Bakari

3.39

193 ratings by Goodreads

9780465037469: Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465037461 ISBN 13: 9780465037469

Publisher: Civitas Books, 2005

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Our national conversation about race is ludicrously out-of-date. Hip-hop is the key to understanding how things are changing. In a provocative book that will appeal to hip-hoppers both black and white and their parents, Bakari Kitwana deftly teases apart the culture of hip-hop to illuminate how race is being lived by young Americans. This topic is ripe, but untried, and Kitwana poses and answers a plethora of questions: Does hip-hop belong to black kids? What in hip-hop appeals to white youth? Is hip-hop different from what rhythm, blues, jazz, and even rock 'n' roll meant to previous generations? How have mass media and consumer culture made hip-hop a unique phenomenon? What does class have to do with it? Are white kids really hip-hop's primary listening audience? How do young Americans think about race, and how has hip-hop influenced their perspective? Are young Americans achieving Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream through hip-hop? Kitwana addresses uncomfortable truths about America's level of comfort with black people, challenging preconceived notions of race. With this brave tour de force, Bakari Kitwana takes his place alongside the greatest African American intellectuals of the past decades.

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From the Back Cover:

"In Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop, Bakari Kitwana writes both of African Americans in hip-hop who demand an inclusive world and of whites who are negotiating the racial landscape. He shares his vision of a hip-hop political movement that gives voice and representation to those long ignored." --Marcyliena Morgan, Founder, Hiphop Archive

"A fearless, bracing, and expansive intellect, Bakari Kitwana persuasively argues that the hip-hop generation has transformed how race is lived in America, and could be ready to transform its political realities, too. Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop confirms his place as one of the most important thinkers of our generation." --Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation

"Bakari Kitwana has provided a myth-busting, stereotype-shattering, paradigm-shifting examination of the complex relationship between white youth and black popular culture. Eschewing tired cliches, refusing racial pieties, and resisting old habits of thought, Kitwana clears a brilliant path to fresh insight." -Michael Eric Dyson, author of Holler If You Hear Me and Is Bill Cosby Right?

"Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop is a provocative book that reveals how hip-hop has altered conventional 'racial politics.' Kitwana does not shy away from the lingering truths, stereotypes, and contradictions related to hip-hop, that result from this nation's long-standing racial hierarchy. He is clear that everyone can enjoy and experience hip-hop-but not at the expense of young Blacks who now, as in the beginning, remain its driving creative force." --Yvonne Bynoe, author of Stand and Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership and Hip Hop Culture

"Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop is a powerful, provocative book. Bakari Kitwana demonstrates not only that hip-hop is vibrantly alive, but also that its importance goes way beyond the usual controversies over lyrics and video images. In fact, it's crucial for understanding youth culture and contemporary racial politics in the United States." --Raquel Z. Rivera, author of New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone

About the Author:

Bakari Kitwana was the Executive Editor of The Source from 1994-98; Editorial Director at Third World Press; and a music reviewer for NPR's All Things Considered . He currently freelances for the Village Voice , Savoy , The Source , and the Progressive , and his weekly column, "Do the Knowledge," is published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer . He is the author of The Rap on Gangsta Rap and The Hip Hop Generation. He lives in Westlake, Ohio.

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