Color Blind Ideology and the Cultural Appropriation of Hip Hop

“The pattern of separating the art from the people leads to an appropriation of aesthetic innovation that not only ‘exploits’ Black cultural forms, commercially and otherwise, but also nullifies the cultural meaning those forms provide for African Americans” (p. 32). Thus, colorblind ideology is consequential for popular culture because it provides those with more racial power the discursive resources to decontextualize cultural objects from the histories and experiences from whence they came. At the same time, popular culture provides a venue in which color-blind ideology is itself produced and reproduced.

—Jason Rodriquez, Color-Blind Ideology and the Cultural Appropriation of Hip-Hop

According to the color-blind ideology, it asserts that everyone in society is the same regardless of their race, culture, or social standing. In an article I’ve read called Color-Blind Ideology and the Cultural Appropriation of Hip Hop, Jason Rodriguez talks about how some of the concertgoers he interviewed use the color-blind ideology to appropriate hip hop and to justify their presence in the hip hop scene even though the participants, themselves, recognizes the importance that race play into people’s lives. I question this belief on colorblindness because by turning a racially coded style of music into a “color-blind” one, aren’t you then denying the part of it that makes it hip hop? How can it be color-blind when one is acknowledging the differences between races in the music??

An example that relates to Colorblindness: In 2010, Jeremy Lin was carrying Harvard University to a league title, and was poised to become one of the first Asian American players in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Jeremy went undrafted for awhile after graduating from college, but found his home with the New York Knicks. This caused an explo sion within the basketball scene, Lin became a basketball star. Knicks fans serenade him during games and teamates and coaches priase and acknowledge how proud they are of him .

Jeremy’s success actually follows a similar breakthrough moment for Asian Americans last year, as the hip-hop group Far East Movement became the first all-Asian American musical group to hit number one on the music charts with their single “Like a G6.”  The cultural emergence of Jeremy Lin and the Far East Movement, demonstrate that Asian Americans are increasingly rising within the mainstream media and popular culture. So one could say that its no longer a "big deal" when we see Asian American faces in the media.

Society no longer considers it “strange” or “unusual” to see Asian Americans in the media or in other prominent positions in U.S. social institutions.

Sounds familiar? its called- colorblindness.

In other words, part of being colorblind is having — an ideal situation in which everyone in U.S. society is considered equal and when social, political, and economic distinctions based on race or ethnicity are no longer important or carry any sort of advantage or disadvantage. So in many respects, Jeremy Lin’s success gives us hope that, as a society, we are moving a little closer to the ideals of colorblindness.