I think learning about race in class has shown an interesting development towards the attitudes on race throughout American history.

From a modern sensibility, I think we look at race on a surface level. We look at skin alone. Some people might “pass” as another race, to an outsider, due to their skin color.

But in the past, it was about blood. If you had any “blood” of a certain race you were lumped into the race no matter your skin color

We talked in class about Muddy Waters evolution for singing what might be considered “authentic” folk music while he lived in the south and then evolving his music and singing for a more commercial audience of country music and it reminded me of a song from the comedian Bo Burnham, “Country Music (Pandering)”

In the song, Bo Burnham pokes fun at how millionaire country singers make their money from singing relatable folk long songs that working-class farmers can listen to, while the singer is actually strongly disconnected from that lifestyle. Country is no longer the music song by the workers themselves to tell their own story but created to exploit them.

I’ll admit that I have a very difficult to differentiate between the 1& 3 beat and the 2&4 beat unless someone is pointing it out directly to me.

But I do find it interesting that it is clapping to these different beats is a cultural difference. What causes this? Every culture/race have their differences based on how they are raised and the societal norms but something so small has what is the right way of clapping along to the beat of the song is not something I had thought of before

In class, we discussed the idea of minstrel shows in American society and strangely that night I went home and watched the show Full Frontal where they briefly spoke about how our modern cartoons also evolved from minstrel shows. From the design of characters such as Mickey Mouse wearing white gloves and the rubbery way cartoon characters, comes from the movement and style of minstrel shows.

Looking back on a lot of concepts that many would consider “American” you can see where those ideas were taken from black culture. From fashion and music, white America has appropriated from black culture to a point where it has become so mainstream in our society that we can not even tell where it came from.

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