Black/White Interracial Intimacies in Popular Music
Interesting article; click/paste below to read it:
http://www.interracialvoice.com/lester.html
Neal A. Lester, Ph.D. is a professor of English at Arizona State University at Tempe, with specialties in African American literary and cultural studies. Over the years, he has been mapping the various ways American society has resisted on the larger scale "black"/"white" interracial intimacies, both past and present. Nevertheless these unions, unlike unions between other "races," have existed despite social resistance. As such unions have been fairly well acknowledged and documented in film, on television, and in literature, Dr. Lester offers here an examination of such unions in popular music. Having twice taught a very popular course entitled "Black/White Interracial Intimacies in American Culture" at two different universities and having used many of these tunes in conjunction with other texts, he has been surprised to see that no one has addressed these unions in music. Dr. Lester offers in this IV Guest Editorial a cursory glance at such tunes that have weighed in on this continuing American racial dilemma. As the essay reveals, the world of popular music has also not been a welcoming public space for interracial unions.
http://www.interracialvoice.com/lester.html
Neal A. Lester, Ph.D. is a professor of English at Arizona State University at Tempe, with specialties in African American literary and cultural studies. Over the years, he has been mapping the various ways American society has resisted on the larger scale "black"/"white" interracial intimacies, both past and present. Nevertheless these unions, unlike unions between other "races," have existed despite social resistance. As such unions have been fairly well acknowledged and documented in film, on television, and in literature, Dr. Lester offers here an examination of such unions in popular music. Having twice taught a very popular course entitled "Black/White Interracial Intimacies in American Culture" at two different universities and having used many of these tunes in conjunction with other texts, he has been surprised to see that no one has addressed these unions in music. Dr. Lester offers in this IV Guest Editorial a cursory glance at such tunes that have weighed in on this continuing American racial dilemma. As the essay reveals, the world of popular music has also not been a welcoming public space for interracial unions.
