{"id":2728,"date":"2016-01-28T19:03:17","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T03:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=2728"},"modified":"2016-01-28T19:03:17","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T03:03:17","slug":"the-mack-returns-to-fight-racial-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/the-mack-returns-to-fight-racial-injustice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mack returns to fight racial injustice"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Conner Williams \r\nEditor in Chief<\/pre>\n
\u201cWe take all we want from black culture, but will we show up for black lives?\u201d<\/p>\n
The popular Seattle-based rapper\/producer-duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis recently debuted a new track entitled \u201cWhite Privilege II\u201d that analyzes a variety of different racial issues while simultaneously providing the rapper\u2019s personal narrative on his role in the fight for racial justice.<\/p>\n
The song itself is a mix between Macklemore\u2019s inner conflict with himself about his place in the discussion as well as a social outcry for the end of systematic white privilege.<\/p>\n
Macklemore admits repeatedly that he has exploited hip-hop to benefit himself, saying lines like, \u201cFake and so plastic, you\u2019ve heisted the magic (in reference to his 2012 debut album \u201cThe Heist\u201d), you\u2019ve taken the drums and the accent you rapped in, your brand of hip-hop it\u2019s so fascist and backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while Macklemore is known for creating music that provides a narrative for social justice in many aspects, he questions his motives for doing so repeatedly. The song opens up with the line, \u201cPulled into the parking lot, parked it, zipped up my parka, joined the procession of marchers, in my head like \u2018is this awkward? Should I even be here marching?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Macklemore wishes to show solidarity with Black Americans, but he isn\u2019t quite sure how to do so, as his very presence may be seen as hypocritical or unwanted. He condemned his own use of social media to show support for Mike Brown by saying, \u201cYou can join the march, protest, scream and shout, get on Twitter hash-tag and seem like you\u2019re down, but they see through it all, people believe you now?\u201d<\/p>\n
The rapper received a significant amount of hate when he won the Grammy for album of the year for \u201cThe Heist\u201d over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s \u201cGood Kid, M.A.A.D. City\u201d a few years ago. However, Macklemore posted a photo of a screenshot text he sent to Lamar on his Instagram page in which he admitted that Lamar should have won and that he \u201cgot robbed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many believe that Macklemore won the Grammy because of his ethnicity, which is not something that the rapper would disagree with based on his reaction to the victory, and it is part of the white privilege that he discusses in his new song.
\nThe prevalence of white privilege in our society rears its ugly head in many ways. For example, the rate of incarceration for black men in the United States is about 1 in 15, while that for white men is about 1 in 106, according to the Center for American Progress. Additionally, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime. The U.S. Sentencing Commission also stated that black men receive prison sentences that are 10 percent longer than those of white men for the same crime.<\/p>\n
The third verse of the track consists of a scenario where a woman approaches Macklemore in what sounds like a restaurant. She begins the conversation by saying she knows he\u2019s by himself and that he doesn\u2019t want to be disturbed, but that her kids love his music so much and are always singing, \u201cI\u2019m gonna pop some tags,\u201d and that he is the only hip-hop artists she lets her kids listen to. She praises him for his song \u201cSame Love,\u201d in which he advocates for gay rights. She only lets her kids listen to him because he \u201cgets it,\u201d that \u201call that negative stuff isn\u2019t cool.\u201d \u201cThe b—–s and the hoes and the gangs and the thugs, even the protest outside, so sad and so dumb. If a cop pulls you over, it\u2019s your fault if you run.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was referring to a protest in which participants chanted, \u201cHands up, don\u2019t shoot!\u201d in reference to the killing of Mike Brown when he was shot in August 2014 while he was unarmed. But yes, it was his fault that he was gunned down while he was unarmed. Macklemore shakes his head and puts down his dishes in the background of the conversation.<\/p>\n
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis\u2019 new album \u201cThis Unruly Mess I\u2019ve Made\u201d is set to release on Feb. 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWe take all we want from black culture, but will we show up for black lives?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}