Author Archives: Chloe Henderson

White Walls

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Chloe Henderson

May 16, 2017

Engl 117 Cultural Theory Prof. Thorne

White Walls

He’s mostly known for “poppin’ tags” and going “downtown,” but there are other ways to read Macklemore’s music video “White Walls” than as mere signs of Cadillac admiration – it’s about race. No, not a race between two Cadillacs, I’m talking about the Black, White, Hispanic race that permeates American pop culture. It’s not unusual for Macklemore to talk about more than “the guns and the drugs / The bitches and the hoes and the gangs and the thugs” in his songs, but if the song title of this one wasn’t enough for you, then here it goes.

The music video starts off in the countryside with Macklemore dressed up as a cross between a cowboy and a Mariachi band musician prancing around. As the Hispanic-country music blend finishes and an eagle squawks in the distance (reminiscing the end of traditional Western movies), the words “Starring Mackle Jackson” appear on the screen in cowboy font. Besides being an obvious pun, this name has other connotations.

First, Jackson is of Scottish origin and is a typically white name. It’s also a typical name of many cowboys, especially as “Jack,” such as the infamous cowboys like Jack Helm, Jack Dunlop, and Texas Jack, which could be reasoning as to why Macklemore chose to use this pun during his Western cowboy imitation. The use of cowboys in the beginning and end of “White Walls” could also be a reference to the song by Chris LeDoux, “Cadillac Cowboy,” which is about exactly what it sounds like y’all. But what’s more interesting is the pun’s most prominent association: Michael Jackson. There’s no way to mention Michael Jackson without talking about race – the man bleached his skin and had plastic surgery on every facial feature to completely change his own race while singing “it don’t matter if you’re black or white.” So what’s Macklemore got to do with calling himself “Mackle Jackson?”  

The Washington-state grown liberal Macklemore is has been a champion of racial equality and an adamant supporter of Black Lives Matter for years. Just last January Macklemore released a song, “White Privilege II,” to raise awareness of racial injustice to get more white people to talk about race despite its growing sensitivity and discomfort as a topic of conversation. But Macklemore isn’t the first to talk about race in his songs. In fact, Michael Jackson’s Black or White was an open plea for racial harmony in 1991. So when Macklemore openly equates himself to Michael Jackson, he too is pleading for racial harmony, intermingling, and equality while offering himself as a racial justice advocate like Michael Jackson also did in his songs. Ok, so now back to “White Walls.”

Once the Hispanic-cowboy music fades out and the “White Walls” anthem begins, Macklemore is pictured singing with two identical Black women dressed in 70’s outfits clenching either of his arms. Macklemore is literally surrounded by Blackness belting “I wanna be free / I wanna just live” as if Blackness were a freedom to live away from the constraints of whiteness. This isn’t the only point in the video in which Black culture is offered as a freedom from (or alternative to) whiteness. As the video progresses into the chorus, there is a party going on, but not the usual party you would imagine in a young rapper’s music video. It was a pool party with old women in swimsuits dancing, smoking, drinking, swimming, and even making out with young black men! This is Macklemore screaming for cultural intermingling between even the stereotypically most conservative people (old people) and Blackness. Not only should White people adopt Black culture though, but Black people should also adopt White culture. The video displays a young black man wearing a purple polo and white flat cap playing golf and croquet, typically White sports, as well as young Black men participating in a backyard picnic, a pillar of American White culture. By placing old women and young Black men unexpectedly in cross-racial stereotypical scenes, Macklemore is encouraging the blend of cultures and deletion of racial cultural boundaries while also claiming that participation in other cultures can be an escape for White people from the constraints of their Whiteness.

Other cultures have often been seen as an escape for White people from the expected etiquette and civility that White culture carries. In his book Playing Indian, Philip Deloria argues that throughout history White people have briefly adopted Indian culture to free
themselves from expected White civility, such as when the White colonists dressed as Indians to throw tea in the Atlantic during the Boston Tea Party or when “modern children of angst-ridden upper- and middle-class parents wore feathers and slept in tipis and wigwams at camps with multisyllabic Indian names” or when “World War II descendants made Indian dress and powwow-going into a hobby” (Deloria, 7). In each of these cases, the “uncivilized savagery” and “irrational violence” associated with Native Americans was used as a disguise for White people to dress up and “play Indian” in order to express and free themselves from the constraints of Whiteness. This is analogous to White people today dressing up as Native Americans at music festivals and listening to rock and roll or rap (which both originated from Black culture) that talks about the drugs, sex, and rule breaking that most White conservatives are brought up to keep quiet. In the “White Walls” music video, one older White woman literally deserts her White trash life, White husband, and white trailer park home to go to the pool party to flirt, drink, and deep-throatedly make out with a young tattooed black man. Macklemore capitalizes on the freedom that “playing Indian” or “playing Black” or “playing Hispanic” provides by integrating various races around a common commodity: Cadillacs.

Cadillacs are unique in that they transcend racial boundaries. One historical stereotype
behind Cadillacs were that Cadillac Sedans were driven by old, rich conservative “Amuricans.” This was often seen in the company’s advertisements directed towards wealthy White people who were pictured in extravagant dresses enjoying a better, quieter, more luxurious life with a new Cadillac. The company even used Christianity references to appeal to Whites claiming that Cadillacs are “Where Craftsmanship is aCreed!” (Advertisement, 1960). The rich White community Cadillacs appealed to also included many presidents and elites, such as President Hoover up through President Trump whose security posses solely drive black Cadillac SUV’s. In fact, the Cadillac One has been named the official Presidential State Car of the United States reflecting the car’s popularity among even the most elite and (besides the Obama administration) whitest of the country.

The other historical stereotype behind the “most celebrated and sophisticated cars on the streets of the world” (Advertisement, 1929) was that Cadillac SUV’s were typically driven by Black rappers or gangsters. Interestingly enough, Black people actually saved Cadillac from bankruptcy when sales had plummeted during the Great Depression. Nicholas Dreystadt, the Cadillac manager, had “discovered that the car was very popular with the small black bourgeoisie of successful entertainers, doctors, and ghetto businessmen” (Cray, 279) and that Black men were actually paying White people to buy Cadillacs for them. According to American Professor, David Bell, “a Cadillac was a tool to further Blacks (at least in terms of image) along the road to equality…a solid and substantial symbol for many a Negro that he is as good as any White man…a demonstration that equality can be found” (Bell, 65). When this was discovered in 1932, a new series of advertising directed towards the Black community was initiated, causing Cadillac to be the first motor vehicle to have “diversity marketing” not necessarily by picturing Blacks in advertisements, but by openly selling to Blacks. This continued to spread the Cadillac’s popularity throughout the Black community, eventually leading to the creation of the Pimpmobile in the 1970s which originated in blaxploitation films. These films targeting Black viewers by featuring Black actors, playing funk and soul music soundtracks, and taking place in the ghetto with stereotypical depiction of Blacks dealing with pimps and drug dealers, adding to the rising popularity of Cadillacs in the Black community.

Not only were Cadillacs targeted towards both Blacks and Whites, but Cadillacs were also targeted towards the Hispanic community, especially once they were made into lowriders by Mexican-American Barrio youth in the 1950’s. In fact, in 1953 Cadillac released the Cadillac Eldorado which, as obvious as it sounds, used a name of Spanish origin to appeal to Hispanic buyers. Cadillacs were also frequently featured in the LowRider Magazine as another means of appealing to Hispanics. Unlike many other car companies, Cadillacs both attracted and invited Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics, creating an aura of equality and connectedness among all races and cultures, much like Macklemore does in his songs.

Macklemore surely incorporates each of these Cadillac stereotypes into his “White Walls” music video picturing a young Hispanic boy bouncing in his dad’s lowrider, an old White American man eating a burger in his Cadillac convertible, and a Black rapper “ridin’ real slow in [his] paint wet drippin’ shining like [his] 24’s.” Macklemore uses the different associations with Cadillacs to encourage the intermingling of cultures, races, and ages through this common commodity. But anyone who listens to Macklemore undoubtedly knows that he has a multicultural desire for sharing and equality. But what’s more is that in “White Walls” Macklemore sings, “I’m rollin’ in that same whip that my granddad had” claiming that the ability to share cultures and equally validate other races has been around for generations, just as Cadillacs have been. Yet on the contrary, so also has the ability to discriminate. We get many of our beliefs, values, and physical commodities from generations before us, yet we also get our prejudices from them. According to Professor David Bell, “The Cadillac has no prejudice” (Bell, 65). So by passing down Cadillacs through generations, we are also passing down “a weapon in the war for racial equality” (Bell, 65). However, in “White Walls” Macklemore sings about having “that off-black Cadillac” which makes it sound like although Cadillacs are popular among the Black community, they aren’t entirely Black, they’re “off-black.” So even though Cadillacs are a commonality throughout various cultures, they also have a different meaning in each culture that make them “off-Black,” “off-White,” or “off-hispanic.” The same four wheeled vehicle to a Black, White, or Hispanic person, has different associations for each culture (rich wealth for Whites, fame or status for Blacks, anti-Anglo cultural statements for Hispanics). So when Macklemore sings about Cadillacs, he isn’t just singing about a car. He’s singing about a commodity that has been consumed by Black people, White people, Hispanic people, old people, young people, men, women, and children to express themselves differently, but with a shared basic purpose of driving.

Macklemore recognizes that there’s a stigma against cultural appropriation, and as a White rapper in the hip-hop world, he is fully conscious of his own appropriation of Black culture. In his newest release, White Privilege, he admits his guilt for appropriating Black culture saying, “I give everything I have when I write a rhyme / But that doesn’t change the fact that this culture’s not mine.” Nonetheless, Macklemore’s entire career is attributed to Black culture. But what Macklemore suggests through his songs and particularly through “White Walls” is that cultural appropriation can be used to spread awareness and appreciation of other cultures and to become a more unified community of many races. Some, like James Young, author of Cultural Appropriation in the Arts argue that cultural appropriation “can harm insiders by misrepresenting them in certain ways…by employing bigoted stereotypes [so that] members of these cultures [are] subjected to terrible discrimination” (Young 107-108). And yes, it’s true that cultural appropriation can lead to discrimination, just like any image of another culture can lead to discrimination; but what Macklemore’s “White Walls” suggests is that instead of using cultural appropriation to build stereotypes, cultural appropriation can also be used to break stereotypes by sharing values and traditions of various races through cultural artifacts, like Cadillacs.

Cadillacs are a commodity that have been a “Favorite of All Nations” (Cadillac
advertisement, 1955), and also a favorite of all races since 1955. And like their most recent commercial claims, Cadillacs have “carried a century of humanity – lovers, fighters, leaders”  and have shared the message that “although we’re not the same, we can be one” (Carry Cadillac Commercial, 2017). This, too, is Macklemore’s message, and he uses Cadillacs as a vehicle to share this idea. Just as Cadillac has promoted and embraced shared commodities and culture across races, we too can try to tear down the white walls of white constraint, privilege, and “superiority” to create a more just, equitable society for everybody. A society where we can all “be free” and “just live inside [our] Cadillacs.”

References

Bell, D., & Hollows, J. (2006). Historicizing lifestyle: mediating taste, consumption and identity from the 1900s to 1970s. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Cadillac: Favorite of All Nations [Advertisement]. (1955).

Cadillac La Salle Wherever the Admired and Notable Congregate [Advertisement]. (1929, March).

Cadillac Where Craftsmanship is a Creed [Advertisement]. (1960).

Cray, E. (1980). Chrome Colossus: General Motors and Its Times. Mcgraw-Hill; First Edition edition .

Deloria, P. J. (2007). Playing Indian. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press.

James O. Young, Cultural Appropriation in the Arts (Blackwell Publishing, 2008).

LowRider Area 61 [Advertisement]. (2013). LowRider.

[Recorded by Macklemore, R. Lewis, & Hollis]. (n.d.). White Walls [CD]. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

 

This essay was read by Drew Cohen.

I have written this essay in the style of Greg Tate.

Prompt #6

Your Not-So-Ordinary Culture

Posted on by

Chloe Henderson 

April 19, 2017

English 117 Professor Thorne

Your Not-So-Ordinary Culture

“You can be whoever you want to be.” I don’t know about you, but I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard this. That’s probably because, quite frankly, I am a middle class white girl attending an elite college in the northeast, and I am lucky enough that I probably can be whoever I want to be. But that’s not so true for everybody. And it’s not so ordinary for everybody to hear. Although growing up we often hear about this so-called “American Dream” in high school history classes, in politician’s hopeful yet ingenuine campaign speeches, and in countless CNN articles, for most people the American Dream is quite literally just that – a dream, far fetched and far flung, and it has been for a while now. I’m not just talking about who you can become for your career because I think everyone knows that not everyone is lucky enough to be able to pursue their dream career. I’m talking about culture. I’m talking about what you get to do on a Friday night and how you get to live the rest of the week. I’m talking about why your culture is not so ordinary.

Yes, culture is ordinary in the sense that everybody belongs to, contributes to, and has their own culture (even a lack of culture could be considered a culture in itself). But the type of culture you identify with and are exposed to is greatly dependent on the thickness of your wallet. So although theoretically everybody has access to culture in the same way they have access to gaining wealth by pursuing the so-called “American Dream,” like money, culture isn’t as accessible to everybody as it claims to be, thereby making culture out of the ordinary. Just as there is an elite, middle, and lower class of economic status, so too there is an elite, middle, and lower class of culture. Take for example the beloved 1970s television series, The Waltons, based on the lower class life of author Earl Hamner. The series follows the life of the Walton family growing up during the Great Depression working on their family sawmill in the small rural town of Walton’s Mountain, Virginia in the Blue Ridge Mountains. During each episode, the connection between income and culture becomes undoubtedly clear. In the home of two grandparents, two parents, and seven children, the family’s poverty is not only a central theme of the series, but also a testament to the influence of their family’s income on their culture.

The Waltons live the simple life of a farm family, growing most of their own food, getting milk from their cow and eggs from their chickens, sewing their own clothes, building their own furniture, and sacrificing one thing for another – often manual labor in exchange for goods, such as when the eldest son, JohnBoy, works for a family in exchange for their car. The family has a radio, but is “too poor to have a telephone” nor can they afford other luxuries such as a typewriter or even shoes for the children (until later on in the series after saving money however). The wealthy life of a pair of older single sisters living together down the road from the Waltons is often used to contrast the culture of wealth versus poverty in The Waltons. The affluent sisters wear extravagant clothes for ordinary occasions – diamonds around their necks, feathers in their hair, and elegant dresses – and display their wealth in their home with their decorative lavish portraits, chandeliers, books, record player, and furniture. This greatly contrasts the simple home of the Waltons which has only necessary furniture, utensils, and the occasional decor here or there. The simplicity of their rural life is their culture. And just like any other family, their culture is their income.

One of the most prominent examples of the Waltons family culture is their free time. When they aren’t cleaning, cooking, building furniture, sawing wood, taking care of the children, or fixing things up around the house to make ends meet, the family spends their free time gathered around the radio listening to Franklin D. Roosevelt, playing music with each other, playing games, or walking to the nearby grocery store to buy a strip of licorice Once in awhile when there is an event in town such as a carnival or the local fair, the family will go out, but for the most part, their free time – and thereby some of their culture – is simple and spent at home because of their limited income. Their culture is their money – or lack thereof. For
example, the mother and father of the Waltons family could never afford to go on a honeymoon, so after nineteen years of marriage at a time when they were exhausted and overworked, Grandpa sells his beloved 1864 two cent piece for $20 to the local store, so that Momma and Daddy can take a short-lasted day trip to the beach as their honeymoon. Unlike other families that might travel frequently, the Waltons rarely ever take trips outside of Walton’s Mountain simply because they can’t afford it. Traveling isn’t a part of their culture because neither is a large income. Whereas if the Waltons had more money and were able to travel more, they would have access to wealthier culture. But since they can’t travel freely because of their financial limitations, not all culture is ordinary because it is restricted by economic class.

In 1958 a novelist and critic named Raymond Williams argued that “culture is ordinary” because “every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, its own meanings” (4). However, what Williams fails to recognize in his essay is that not all culture is ordinary because not all culture is accessible to everyone, like high class culture isn’t accessible for the Waltons. Using the example of a high-cultured pretentious tea shop in Oxford compared to his culture as a child growing up in a small farming valley in Wales, Williams argues that culture isn’t restricted to the elite because everyone has their own culture based on their “new observations, comparisons, and meanings,” (4). However, Williams fails to consider that culture is not ordinary because even though everybody has their own culture, not everybody has access to another culture they might want to be a part of. What makes you different from me or anybody else for that matter is the sum of your experiences, which have undoubtedly been influenced by your access, or lack of access, to money. I’m not saying that your values and personality are dependent on your money, because you can’t buy your beliefs. But what I am saying is that your culture depends on your money, chiefly on your access to it. Money is culture, and your money is what makes your culture more or less ordinary.

According to another theory entitled Lewis’s model, there is a “culture of poverty” that “once it comes into existence it tends to perpetuate itself from generation to generation because of its effect on the children… they have usually absorbed the basic values and attitudes of their subculture and are not psychologically geared to take full advantage of changing conditions or increased opportunities which may occur in their lifetime.” (Carmon, 404) Just like Grandpa in The Waltons has “been living in poverty for so long, [he] wouldn’t know how to get along in any other neighborhood.” Lewis’s model also suggested that there are shared personality traits among poor families, such as low self-esteem, pessimism, and loneliness (Carmon, 404). So not only is culture separated by economic class, but it is also perpetuated throughout generations and also has some effect on personality. Even though we would like to think of America as equal among all classes and cultures, it isn’t because there is an elite and middle class. But, there are similar values that trickle down from the elite class to the lower class such as the importance of education, religion, and morals.

Although we might hope that everyone has equal opportunity to become highly educated, poverty hinders this possibility. Neither of the grandparents nor the parents in The Waltons went to college, but they hope to provide this opportunity to their children. The eldest son earns a scholarship to study journalism at  University while another son puts himself through music school by playing piano at the local bar. The eldest daughter becomes a doctor and can afford medical school since her husband is already a doctor, and another daughter puts herself through business school by working as the secretary at the school. Meanwhile for the other three children, college is not an option and they pursue blue-collar jobs as mechanics or for the youngest daughter, as a housewife. Although many of the children pursue higher education, that is not to say that it was easily accessible to them. All of the children in college worked part time jobs while studying to afford their education while their family at home sacrifices financial security and was constantly worried about money. For example, for their eldest son’s high school graduation present, the Walton family gave
him a suit, but when their cow passed away unexpectedly, JohnBoy had to sell his suit to buy a new cow for the family so they have food on the table. Additionally, when the tire on the family’s car flattens, a younger son sacrifices his puppies to sell in order to get the car tire fixed. So although education may seem ordinary in that most of the Walton children study beyond high school, it is extraordinarily hard for them and their family because of their low economic status. This is equally true today. According to Census Bureau data from 2013, 78.5% of students from high income
families enroll in two or four year institutions. Whereas 63.8% of students from middle income families enroll in the same institutions. However, only 45.5% of students from low income families enroll in these academic institutions (American Council on Education, 2015). The disparity in educational opportunities for students from low, middle, and upper income families is evidence that culture is not ordinary.

Although their family encourages them to pursue their educations, the Walton children aren’t always greeted with such optimism by others who see a more realistic future for the poor children. Take for example the episode titled, The Prophecy. In the beginning of this episode, the main character and eldest son of the Walton family who attends Boatwright University on an academic scholarship, is greeted by a professor who hits him hard with a pessimistic, yet realistic truth for the Walton boy’s future as a professional writer. The professor claims that “only half a dozen [people] could support themselves as writers alone… so if you want to be an author and eat two or three times every day, there’s only one way to do it: marry money.” In this scene, the Walton’s economic status and their eldest son’s reality is exposed – his access to pursuing his dream career and culture is crippled by his poor background and lack of access to high culture. Because he doesn’t have the money to sustain himself as a writer alone (according to this professor) and since he hasn’t been exposed to high culture to have the connections to get published, the odds are stacked against JohnBoy to successfully become a writer, once again proving that culture, in the sense of career options, is not ordinary. Religion, on the other hand is a different story.

A large part of the Walton’s culture is their religion. And in this sense, yes, their culture is ordinary because they, just like any other economic class, have faith. Religion is one exception to my claim that culture is not ordinary because religion is universally accessible to everybody. Unlike other forms of culture such as art, education, customs, music, and traditions, you don’t need anything or anyone else to have religion. You have complete control over your beliefs just as the Waltons do; the mother is extremely religious – she prays every night before supper and before bed, attends church every Sunday, and frequently references God and the Bible but at the same time the father is rather atheist. The complete control over their beliefs is the antithesis of the little choice they have over the other aspects of their culture because of their low income. In an article from his book, International Review for the History of Religion, scholar Jakob De Roover argues that religion is universal across cultures and across time periods. De Roover claims that “all cultures have their ‘own’ religions; these also consist of sets of metaphysical beliefs; their practices are expressions of such beliefs; their ethics revolve around norms and values…While there is variety to the content of their beliefs, practices, norms, and laws, what remains invariant is the formal structure of such societies,” (2). This “invariant” structure is the presence of an individual’s beliefs. The fact that your beliefs are your religion and beliefs are constant across classes and culture does make religion ordinary, but not all of your culture.

Culture is not ordinary because neither is money and, let’s face it, your culture is your money. Try looking up the the ritual for newborn babies in India which is a hope to bring prosperity to the family and then tell me then if you still think culture is so ordinary. Or at least if you think an elite culture would do the same. And to that I say goodnight.

This essay was read by Drew Cohen.

References

American Council on Education (2015, November 05). Where Have All the Low-Income Students Gone? Retrieved April 17, 2017, from http://higheredtoday.org/2015/11/25/where-have-all-the-low-income-students-gone/

Carmon, N. (1985). Poverty and Culture: Empirical Evidence and Implications for Public Policy(4th ed., Vol. 28, Pg. 403-417). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

De Roover, J. (2014). NVMEN, International Review for the History of Religion (Vol. 61). Leiden: Brill.

McGreevey, J., & Hamner, E. (Writers). (1972, September 14). The Waltons [Television series episode]. In The Waltons. Los Angeles, California: CBS.

Williams, R. (1958). Raymond Williams on culture and society: essential writings. London: Sage.