"What goes around comes around I figure/ Now we got White kids callin themselves 'nigger'" --KRS-One, MC's Act Like They Don't Know

I have never spoken with Bakari Kitwana, but I am sure that I like the way he thinks. Kitwana is the author of The Hip Hop Generation (a must read), The Rap on Gangsta Rap and, his latest, Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: wakstas, wiggers, wannabes, and the new reality of race in America.

While the title calls it "new", it is apparent that Kitwana understands that much of the fabric woven in American race relations has been reused and recycled from old cloth. The need for a book on "Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop" is necessary primarily due to the fear of what has already happened to the history of Rock-n-Roll. Would it be possible for the Black originators of hip hop to be erased, forgotten and unnoticed?

Kitwana's book explains the "concentric circles of white hip-hop kids". The smallest circle being composed of those who view hip hop as simply another pop culture form and thus, only occassionally encounter hip hop culture. The second group compose of those who consuce hip-hop at the same level/rate as other "must-have" commodities. And the third, are the die-hard hip hop "practitioners". This model is based on "concentric attitudinal rings" that writer Marc Spiegler and many others have adopted.

It does not appear that Kitwana takes a personal stand on where non-blacks fit into hip hop as an artform or a culture. Kitwana is just fostering a dialogue which can not afford to be silenced. In this book, Kitwana explores race relations, various issues surrounding Eminem, the friction (and yet, disconnect) between urban and suburban culture and (suprisingly to me) the role of interracial dating in hip-hop culture.

Going to college in Ann Arbor, I appreciate this book in a way I never would have understood or believed while I lived in Detroit. I believe there are many dialogues woven into the text of the book that we try to ignore here at U of M, to keep the peace. As far as interracial dating, particularly Black men & NonBlack women, is concerned, I was very suprised that it was mentioned. Yet, I could think of many things that could-have, should-have been said with it's regard to it's profound presence within Hip Hop culture. (Again, this could be because I live in Ann Arbor.)

Overall, I highly recommend this book to any young American. Not just Hip-Hopheads, not just Blacks. I gues, I would recommend this book to anyone who gives a damn. Because even if you don't agree with everything in the text, at least it could bring the beginnning of dialogue that needs to be continued.

I highly recommend, The Hip-Hop Generation by Bakari Kitwana (even more so that this text). And, perhaps you should read the Hip-Hop Generation first.

Love,
Lhea J
http://blackbookshelf.blogspot.com/2006/04/lets-talk-about-race.html ( )