What does it mean to be American?

Since the beginning of the nation, white Americans have suffered from a deep inner uncertainty as to who they really are. One of the ways that has been used to simplify the answer has been to seize upon the presence of black Americans and use them as a marker, a symbol of limits, a metaphor for the ‘outsider.’ Many whites could look at the social position of blacks and feel that color formed an easy and reliable gauge for determining to what extent one was or was not American.

-Ralph Ellison, What America Would Be Like without Blacks

As the descendents of immigrants themselves, how can they determine who is an American… or better yet, how can they define who isn’t an American?

"But this soundtrack asks: What kind of effects did the music Fitzgerald features create? For the twenty-first century, if you want to conjure that odd tug in your gut – that longing to dance too late and drink too much, to kiss a stranger and pretend the rest of your life doesn’t exist – you’re going to need something with a little more bass, a little more electronic flair, a little more snarly rapping in the lyrics. Like it or not, the Great Anti-American Dream Novel is as conflicted as a Jay-Z rap song, both celebrating a culture of excess and deploring the emptiness such a culture creates. Which is why I remain firmly convinced that having Jay-Z produce the soundtrack was an inspired move. Jay-Z is a present day artist who, like Jay Gatsby or F. Scott Fitzgerald himself, has to comment on the benefits or pitfalls of the good life while he’s living knee deep in it. He too is a celebrity that the nation watches, envying his excess, greedy for more details about what he does with the life so many of us secretly long to have. And like Fitzgerald, though unlike Gatsby, Jay-Z both revels in and questions the good life. What was Watch the Throne other than a dizzying oscillation between political critique and celebratory decadence?"

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Melissa Sexton - on Jay-Z and the Gatsby soundtrack

Seriously, what is Watch the Throne if not a modern day homage to The Great Gatsby? I am sure that all [okay, most - I think I can safely hypothesize that it’s 99.9%] of the criticisms of this soundtrack reveal a scant, embarrassing knowledge of hip-hop and completely deny its cultural influence, but I’d also argue that they reveal a thin, superficial reading of The Great Gatsby. The novel, as this article astutely points out, is more than an earnest rejection of the American Dream. To assume that critique is only relevant when absorbed as a period piece is to completely dismantle it, to strip it of its importance. All art, including Luhrmann’s (best) films, and hip-hop, and classic literature, all provide a cultural critique that remains timeless - when you put it against any backdrop, it still resonates.

The Great Gatsby describes a timeless struggle against the American Dream and the pain that comes from aspiring to the unattainable, while glorifying the spoils of the resulting lifestyle and the strength it takes for men to live within the confines of an unforgiving society. That’s, like, exactly what hip-hop does. Haters.

(via carry-onbaggage)

(Source: girlslikegiants.wordpress.com, via carry-onbaggage)

From a 1965 Interview

Question:What contribution can youth, especially students, who are disgusted with racism in this society, make to the black struggle for freedom?

Malcolm X:Whites who are sincere don't accomplish anything by joining Negro organizations and making them integrated. Whites who are sincere should organize among themselves and figure out some strategy to break down prejudice that exists in white communities. This is where they can function more intelligently and more effectively, in the white community itself, and this has never been done.