Americans have written so many words already concerning last week’s tragedies, for a discussion has to happen. What I can say about the lives lost and the tense nature of the country at the moment and as always is that we can only search for peace. A lot of the tweets and Facebook posts I have seen are about looking for any small action towards peace to actually make progress. My heart aches due to the fatalities and violence that spark from an absence of love. I can say that I, like many others, are confused about how we can even move towards peace after three shootings within four days. I can also say that one way of learning about what the country must do is looking at other perspectives, and many written perspectives will circulate during this time of American grief.
When I was leaving work on Friday, the song “White Privilege II” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis started playing on my Spotify account. Though it was released in January, the song contributes to the conversation so many are having right now, and I want to mention it in case no one else does. I cannot say that I had some miraculous revelation of what I can do to fix the country, but the song offers a unique perspective on the shootings that have made Americans way too accustomed to the phrase, “another shooting.” I have not found some magical conclusion on what to do after the tragedies, but the song makes me keep thinking and is way too appropriate this week to not be written about. Ben Haggerty, also known as Macklemore by his listeners, describes what he sees and experiences as a white man in the business of hip-hop music. His is a perspective that should be recognized when Americans are trying to understand each other.
Ben describes the awkward nature of his attendance at a rally and ponders whether or not he has the authority to use the hashtag “black lives matter.” It is hard to know what authority anyone has to say or do anything at this point in time.
“Is it my place to give my two cents or should I stand on the side and shut my mouth?”
He transitions into a different voice, the voice that tells Macklemore that he has no place taking the culture of hip-hop and making it into an elegantly wealthy, star-studded career.
“Is this about you, well, then what's your intention?”
Macklemore transitions into another voice, the voice of a mom who wants him to take a picture with her kids. She separates him as some prodigy of hip-hop because he is different, and Ben identifies this difference as the white privilege he carries.
“Even an old mom like me likes it cause it's positive
You're the only hip-hop that I let my kids listen to”
Macklemore starts to bring up the confusion of all of the racial issues in our country. He looks back on how being silent and overly careful does nothing. He questions what would happen if everyone started really reading and digging into the depth of the issues on television.
“Some of us scared, some of us defensive
And most of us aren't even paying attention
It seems like we're more concerned with being called racist
Than we actually are with racism”
I can talk about the song all I want, but it is not my song. It is a song that is hitting way too close to this past week that, again, I want to bring it up if no one else is going to because it started playing on my way home from work. I do not have a clear, easy conclusion to this article, but neither does the song. My point is that different perspectives are key to bringing order to this crumbling situation we are in. We cannot love the people around us if we do not know who they are, so I hope to find and read more perspectives surrounding the broken state of the United States.
Know that it has pockets of explicit language, but the song is worth the eight minutes because of the different perspective. Here is the link to the project.
It is this type of article -- one on a topic that everyone is talking about -- that makes me scared of writing because of the reaction that comes from my wording of one topic the wrong way or choosing the wrong song lyric. However, I wrote this anyway because it seems difficult to ignore the disorder in my country when I submit an article every week that contains my thoughts.
