It is no secret I am in fact black. I've brought it up quite a few times, along with my experience with white privilege. It is important to get this information drilled into the brain. With this being said: Let's talk about Macklemore.
On Thursday, the Seattle-based rapper dropped "White Privilege II."
In the eight-minute song, Macklemore tackles his place within the Ferguson protests, the music industry, and America. Featured on the song is Jamila Woods, a black singer and poet from Chicago, along with other People of Color collaborators.
The song, in general, is a powerful reminder of how race plays such a pivotal role in America, especially in today's climate. Macklemore points out his own white privilege and how it only made him more successful than his PoC counterparts.
But the one thing the American dream fails to mention / Is I was many steps ahead to begin with / America feels safe with my music in their systems
White supremacy isn't just a white dude in Idaho / White supremacy protects the privilege I hold / White supremacy is the soil, the foundation, the cement and the flag that flies outside of my home / White supremacy is our country's lineage, designed for us to be indifferent
There is a poignancy within his words, as white supremacy is not just the Ku Klux Klan, it is an ideology that spans past groups and into America in its entirety. From birth we are taught that hate groups are bad, but what do we do when the country we love and belong to was in fact founded on hate and bigotry?
One part I really want to point out, that Macklemore even emphasizes himself is:
We want to dress like, walk like, talk like, dance like, yet we just stand by / We take all we want from black culture, but will we show up for black lives?
Cultural appropriation is no joke bro. Peers who are ready to imitate cultural factors stay quiet when it comes time to own up and fight for the rights of their friends.
Jamila Woods beautifully closes out the song with the stark wake-up call that is much need:
Your silence is a luxury, hip-hop is not a luxury / What I got for me, it is for me / What we made, we made to set us free
Being a bystander to racism only worsens the effect, and gives power to the oppressor. Hip-hop stems from the lives of black people and the struggles faced by the community. The recent #BlackLivesMatter movement was created to pursue an unjust society and protect the well-being of black people in a time where black lives are not guaranteed rights.
I have one qualm about the song:
Dissing other white artists:
You've exploited and stolen the music, the moment / The magic, the passion, the fashion, you toy with / The culture was never yours to make better / You're Miley, you're Elvis, you're Iggy Azalea / You're branded hip-hop, it's so fascist and backwards
The obvious problem with this is that Macklemore is putting himself on a pedestal for calling out artists who are well known to appropriate culture. It is as if he is trying to prove how "woke" he is, and wants a reward for having a conscience and being aware of other people's actions. The song has a very unsubtle tone of white guilt. At one point, Macklemore himself was on the other end of this as he is guilty of making a career off of a music genre that again, is closely associated with the struggles of black people... Way to turn the tables Macklemore.
Overall, Macklemore does a good job of using his celebrity status to bring the issue of white privilege into discussion, though he is using his white privilege to express contempt for white privilege. Believe me, this is not even close to the best song that targets social injustice. Let's leave that to the artists that have actually lived through it.
