White Privilege. “A right, advantage, or immunity granted to or enjoyed by white persons beyond the common advantage of all others; an exemption in many particular cases from certain burdens or liabilities” -- academic.udayton.edu/race/.
It is a topic that some of our society hasn’t quite grasped yet. Some people do not know they have the upper hand at all, and it needs to be something we all understand. We all need to understand that a lot of our population has this sort of advantage that minorities or non-white people do not. For instance, white artists and white rappers get the most attention, the most controversy, and the most popularity by who they are, not by what they are expressing in their art and music.
Take Iggy Azalea, for example. She is taking from a culture she knows nothing about and turning it into mainstream pop/hip hop. She has gained more attention since she started, mostly because she was a white female rapper that turned hip hop into some sort of pop style. Azalea did this for a while and for a little bit it was fine. But her image started dropping when people realized that she knew nothing about the culture she was taking from, she never acknowledged the fact that Ferguson riots and discriminatory actions were happening, she just began winning awards for things she was taking from other artists and cultures. Azalea is not as popular now, mostly because she has been taking apart a culture built up by a great deal of music. Rap and hip hop has been dominated by African Americans and they are mostly men. Azalea really took apart a genre of music that has been carefully cultivated for decades and it was because she had white privilege. Taking a look back on the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, petitioners targeted Azalea because she won Top Rap Song for “Fancy” with Charli XCX as well as Top Rap Artist. She took home the Top Rap Song which she won over Big Sean, Nicki Minaj, and Bobby Shmurda. Although Billboard did not retract the awards given to Iggy, it certainly opened up may conversations about the reason why petitioners were angry. It did not seem fair to have someone with a different culture trying to brand it as their own.
However, Macklemore is different. He is white, he is a rapper. He is aware of the social and political changes he is making towards the rap scene and he is outspoken on that issue. Releasing now a “White Privilege II” song just last month shed a light on the place that Macklemore stands as a white rapper. He clearly does not want to take away from anyone’s culture, but sees that he needs to address the privilege he has in this world. Macklemore’s audience is a mostly white audience as he mentions in the song, "White Privilege," stating, “When I take a step to the mic is hip hop closer to the end? Cause when I go to shows the majority have white skin.” His duty as a white rapper is to engage his audience in the political aspects of this genre of music. It is a culture. It is a form of expressing yourself through your culture. And if white rappers are taking that away, there will be nothing left. He states again in "White Privilege" that he has, “Claimed a culture that wasn’t mine, the way of the American, hip hop is gentrified. And where will all the people live?… Where’s my place in a music that’s been taken by my race, culturally appropriated by the white face?” And it is a difficult place to be in. But the right thing to do is to speak on these issues, to know they are there and to be aware of the way you might be changing a genre.
Macklemore definitely has a predominately white audience and wants to expose a different audience to the issues that are going around in a way that is different to an audience than, for example, Kendrick Lamar or Kanye. It has a powerful impact that can help better our society. He says in "White Privilege II" that he questions if he should even be marching to support that black lives matter. It is a raw feeling that we get. Is it our place to go out of our way even if it is a different culture getting discriminated against? Should I get into it if my race is the one discriminating but I don’t agree with them? The answer is yes. He goes on to say, “If I’m aware of my privilege and do nothing at all, I don’t know. Hip hop has always been political, yes. It’s the reason why this music connects.”
All in all, be aware of your privilege. It comes with your skin tone, and there is something you can do about it. Be aware of what you are doing and how you might be taking away from a culture that is not yours. Be respectful of others that might not look like you, and be aware of the rights you have. You might have more rights than others even though it states differently in the Declaration of Independence. And if you have a platform to educate others on the issue, use it to your advantage.
Don’t just speak up on an issue that comes and goes. Speak up all the time and be educated on the social and political changes of our society and culture we live in today.
