 Everything
But the Burden: What White People are Taking from Black Culture
by Greg Tate
Much of what America has sold to the world in music, fashion, sports,
literature, and politics as uniquely American in character - from modern
art to hip-hop - was uniquely African-American in origin. In this
provocative collection, the contributors dissect the ways in which
dominant white culture seems to be taking on, as editor Greg Tate's
mother used to tell him, "everything but the burden" from African
Americans and appropriating it as its own - from fetish zing black
bodies to spinning the thug life into a glamorous commodity. Is this a
way of shaking off the fear of the unknown? A flattering indicator of
appreciation? Or is it more complicated cultural exchange?
Largely devoted to scrutinizing white Americans' need to acquire
Blackness by any means necessary, Everything but the Burden also
addresses the fascination that desire provokes in a contemporary
generation of African-Americans artists and intellectuals who hold
complicated ideas about whose, exactly Black culture it is.
Broadway Books, 0-7679-0808-2, $23.95 |
