Thursday, October 23, 2003
TURN ON THE RADIO?

This month's Harper's Magazine features an article called "Turn On Tune In: Toward A Progressive Talk Show" by Thomas de Zengotita (which I can't link to because these geezers are Luddites). But hey, it's an interesting read--one dude's take on how liberals can take back talk radio from the Rushes of the world (while championing the word 'progressive', natch).

de Zengotita argues that a progressive needs to be angry, caustic, ironic, and truthful. It needs to call right-wing liars on their lying lies and do it with glee. It needs to be hip (we'll get to the hip-hop part below), interdisciplinary, and nobrow. I found myself agreeing with a lot of the points--even if the guy's humor was a little too, uh, ah hell let's say it, tea-and-crackers-at-the-Club for me.

Of course, there are issues. There are always issues.

de Zengotita is, like a lot of them are, another frustrated white boomer with white boomer frustrations. Like so many other heart-broken white boomers once did, he believes the future of progressivism lies with us, the young people of the world. (He's a professor too, so there you go.) But, alas, like so many other frustrated white boomers, he is mainly looking for another young frustrated white post-boomer to take up his generation's torch. Like Souls of Mischief liked to say, that's when ya lost!

He's ignoring the realities of the hip-hop generation: polycultural, post-white, and proud.

As usual, boomer liberals are looking for love in all the wrong places. They are searching for the next generation folks that look and think like them to tell them what they wanted to say anyway. Doesn't that sound a little self-defeating and Gitlinesque?

Here are just a few of the shows led by non-white post-boomers that already fit de Zengotita's proposal:

Davey D and Weyland Southon--Hard Knock Radio, KPFA (Berkeley)
Cedric Muhammad--Sirius Internet and Radio One (Washington DC)
Adisa Banjoko--Sirius and KNEW (San Francisco)
The Poetess--Reality Talk, KKBT (Los Angeles)
Fidel Rodriguez--Divine Radio KPFK (Los Angeles)
Harry Allen and Rosa Clemente--WBAI (New York City)
Frank Red--The Dungeon (Sacramento)

There are many more.

In any case, check out the Harper's piece and if you agree with me, hell even if you don't, hit them at mailto:letters@harpers.org

Here's the letter I sent today...

To: letters@harpers.org
From: Jeff Chang
Subject: TALK SHOW WOULDN'T BE PROGRESSIVE IF IT WASN'T HIP-HOP


Re: "Turn On, Tune In"

As a loud and proud member of the hip-hop generation, who has spent years in activism and around community and commercial radio, actually subscribes to Harper's, and has often admitted a throat-lumping nostalgia for the good old days of the anti-apartheid movement, I read "Turn On, Tune In" with great interest. I even agreed with most of Mr. de Zengotita's points, especially his insight that progressivism can only be revived by my peers--the post-ironic, post-civil rights, post-political post-boomers.

So I found it amusing--in an Elvis Costello, "used to be disgusted" kind of way--that de Zengotita would, straight out the box, advocate for a SWM host, "an unmarked signifier". Whoa. Doesn't he realize that SWM-ness is just about the most *marked* signifier in the hip-hop generation? Do we need him to start picking up XXL along with his Harper's down at the subway magazine kiosk? If he's not proposing that Eminem be recruited, it certainly raises the question of who has any legitimacy with the hip-hop generation to step up to do this.

In fact, in the boomer liberal's so-far-fruitless search to find someone just like them to say just what they want to say (inevitably, to people who look and think just like them), they've missed the fact that so-called urban radio is the dominant format for people under-30. Who does de Zengotita think young people are getting their cultural cues from? They've missed the fact that there are brilliant, witty, politically tough radio personalities like the Bay Area's Davey D who already command passionately loyal young audiences. They've missed all the outrage young people have been directing towards ghettopoly radio--expressed, for example, in angry local boycotts of Clear Channel, and "Turn Off The Radio" campaigns led by hip-hoppers like Afrika Bambaataa and Dead Prez.

Same old same old.

Get with the program, yall. If you really want to get to us, you'll have to get polycultural and post-white.

Peace,

Jeff

posted by Zentronix @ 10:03 AM   0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

 

Previous posts
Check out this heartbreaking, amazing piece of jou...
Support this! HARD KNOCK RECORDS PRESENTS WHAT AB...
More exit polling data, this time parsed by the Sa...
Great albums demand great writing, for the latest ...
An exit poll from the San Jose Mercury News confir...
Gray Down, California Gets Terminated And so it c...
And now for something completely different. Peep t...
NO ON 54 Just a final note from my stromie Ying S...
WILL THE HIP-HOP GENERATION MAKE THE DIFFERENCE? ...
Just got back from Chicago, and the Hip-Hop and So...


select * from pages where handle = "BlogLinks" #content#

Archives
June 2002
July 2002
August 2002
September 2002
October 2002
November 2002
December 2002
January 2003
February 2003
March 2003
April 2003
May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
 

Email list

Add me to the Can't Stop Won't Stop email list, an irregular update of what's new in our world:

Submit