Notes

Table of contents: Introduction : toward a new radical politics -- Pt. 1. Questions : do white boys want to be black? -- 1. Why white kids love hip-hop -- 2. Identity crisis? : more than acting black -- 3. Erasing blackness : are white suburban kids really hip-hop's primary audience? -- Pt. 2. Answers : from W.E.B. Du Bois to Chuck D -- 4. Wankstas, wiggers, and wannabes : hip-hop, film and white boyz in the hood -- 5. Fear of a culture bandit : Eminem, The Source and America's racial politics (old and new) -- 6. Coalition building across race : organizing the hip-hop voting bloc
Summary: The U.S. national conversation about race is out-of-date and hip-hop is the key to understanding how things are changing. Kitwana teases apart the culture of hip-hop to illuminate how race is being lived by young Americans. He poses and answers a plethora of questions, among them: Does hip-hop belong to black kids? What in hip-hop appeals to white youth? Is hip-hop different from what R&B, jazz, and even rock and roll meant to previous generations? What does class have to do with it? How do young Americans think about race, and how has hip-hop influenced their perspective? Kitwana addresses uncomfortable truths about America's level of comfort with black people, challenging preconceived notions of race