{"id":127,"date":"2017-05-15T20:40:03","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T00:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/?p=127"},"modified":"2017-05-15T20:40:03","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T00:40:03","slug":"white-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/uncategorized\/white-walls\/","title":{"rendered":"White Walls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chloe Henderson<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">May 16, 2017 <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Engl 117 Cultural Theory Prof. Thorne<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"MACKLEMORE &amp; RYAN LEWIS - WHITE WALLS - FEAT. SCHOOLBOY Q AND HOLLIS (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8PLifPUIuic?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>White Walls<\/strong> <\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">He\u2019s mostly known for \u201cpoppin\u2019 tags\u201d and going \u201cdowntown,\u201d but there are other ways to read Macklemore\u2019s music video \u201cWhite Walls\u201d than as mere signs of Cadillac admiration \u2013 it\u2019s about race. No, not a race between two Cadillacs, I\u2019m talking about the Black, White, Hispanic race that permeates American pop culture. It\u2019s not unusual\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">for Macklemore to talk about more than \u201cthe guns and the drugs \/ The bitches and the hoes and the gangs and the thugs\u201d in his songs, but if the song title of this one wasn\u2019t enough for you, then here it goes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">T<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-135 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-15-at-8.33.42-PM-300x151.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"131\" \/>he 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 \u201cStarring Mackle Jackson\u201d appear on the screen in cowboy font. Besides being an obvious pun, this name has other connotations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">First, Jackson is of Scottish origin and is a typically white name. It\u2019s also a typical name of many cowboys, especially as \u201cJack,\u201d 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 \u201cWhite Walls\u201d could also be a reference to the song by Chris LeDoux, \u201cCadillac Cowboy<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d which is about exactly what it sounds like y\u2019all. But what\u2019s more interesting is the pun\u2019s most prominent association: Michael Jackson. There\u2019s no way to mention Michael Jackson without talking about race \u2013 the man bleached his skin and had plastic surgery on every facial feature to completely change his own race while singing \u201cit don\u2019t matter if you\u2019re black or white.\u201d So what\u2019s Macklemore got to do with calling himself \u201cMackle Jackson?\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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, \u201cWhite Privilege II<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d 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\u2019t the first to talk about race in his songs. In fact, Michael Jackson\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black or White<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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 \u201cWhite Walls.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once the Hispanic-cowboy music fades out and the \u201cWhite Walls\u201d anthem begins, Macklemore is pictured singing with two identical Black women dressed in 70\u2019s outfits clenching either of his arms. Macklemore is literally surrounded by Blackness belting \u201cI wanna be free \/ I wanna just live\u201d as if Blackness were a freedom to live away from the constraints of whiteness. This isn\u2019t 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 <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-129 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-15-at-8.24.09-PM-300x160.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"229\" height=\"126\" \/>the chorus, there is a party going on, but not the usual party you would imagine in a young rapper\u2019s 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. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Playing Indian<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Philip Deloria <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-136 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-15-at-8.36.58-PM-211x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-15-at-8.36.58-PM-211x300.png 211w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-15-at-8.36.58-PM.png 378w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/>argues that throughout history White people have briefly adopted Indian culture to free<br \/>\nthemselves 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 \u201cmodern children of angst-ridden upper- and middle-class parents wore feathers and slept in tipis and wigwams at camps with multisyllabic Indian names\u201d or when \u201cWorld War II descendants made Indian dress and powwow-going into a hobby\u201d (Deloria, 7). In each of these cases, the \u201cuncivilized savagery\u201d and \u201cirrational violence\u201d associated with Native Americans was <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-130 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-15-at-8.27.57-PM-300x158.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-15-at-8.27.57-PM-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-15-at-8.27.57-PM-768x404.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-15-at-8.27.57-PM-1024x539.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-15-at-8.27.57-PM-500x263.png 500w, https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-15-at-8.27.57-PM.png 1420w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>used as a disguise for White people to dress up and \u201cplay Indian\u201d 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 \u201cWhite Walls\u201d 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 \u201cplaying Indian\u201d or \u201cplaying Black\u201d or \u201cplaying Hispanic\u201d provides by integrating various races around a common commodity: Cadillacs. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cadillacs are unique in that they transcend racial boundaries. One historical stereotype<br \/>\nbehind Cadillacs were that Cadillac Sedans were driven by old, rich conservative \u201cAmuricans.\u201d This was often seen in the company\u2019s advertisements directed towards <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-131 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/e014d6ee50a5d7eacc75aeb9e2df2089-237x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"245\" \/>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 \u201cWhere Craftsmanship is aCreed!\u201d (Advertisement, 1960). The rich White\u00a0community 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\u2019s. In fact, the Cadillac One has been named the official Presidential State Car of the United States reflecting the car\u2019s popularity among even the most elite and (besides the Obama administration) whitest of the country. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The other historical stereotype behind the \u201cmost celebrated and sophisticated cars on the streets of the world\u201d (Advertisement, 1929) was that Cadillac SUV\u2019s 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 \u201cdiscovered that the car was very popular with the small black bourgeoisie of successful entertainers, doctors, and ghetto businessmen\u201d (Cray, 279) and that Black men were actually paying White people to buy Cadillacs for them. According to American Professor, David Bell, \u201ca Cadillac was a tool to further Blacks (at least in terms of image) along the road to equality&#8230;a solid and substantial symbol for many a Negro that he is as good as any White man&#8230;a demonstration that equality can be found\u201d (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 \u201cdiversity marketing\u201d not necessarily by picturing Blacks in advertisements, but by openly selling to Blacks. This continued to spread the Cadillac\u2019s 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. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-132 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/cadillac_1953_eldorado-300x190.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"173\" height=\"114\" \/>Not only were Cadillacs targeted towards both Blacks and Whites,\u00a0but Cadillacs were\u00a0also targeted towards the Hispanic community, especially once they were made into lowriders by Mexican-American Barrio youth in the 1950\u2019s. In fact, in 1953 Cadillac released the Cadillac Eldorado which, as obvious as it sounds, used a\u00a0name of Spanish origin to appeal to Hispanic buyers. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-134 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/ee71bd2d374abb66b98951923cfb472e-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"115\" height=\"156\" \/>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. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Macklemore surely incorporates each of these Cadillac stereotypes into his \u201cWhite Walls\u201d<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">music video picturing a young Hispanic boy bouncing in his dad\u2019s lowrider, an old White American man eating a burger in his Cadillac convertible, and a Black rapper \u201cridin\u2019 real slow in [his] paint wet drippin\u2019 shining like [his] 24\u2019s.\u201d 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\u2019s more is that in \u201cWhite Walls\u201d Macklemore sings, \u201cI\u2019m rollin\u2019 in that same whip that my granddad had\u201d 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, \u201cThe Cadillac has no prejudice\u201d (Bell, 65). So by passing down Cadillacs through generations, we are also passing down \u201ca weapon in the war for racial equality\u201d (Bell, 65). However, in \u201cWhite Walls\u201d Macklemore sings about having \u201cthat off-black Cadillac\u201d which makes it sound like although Cadillacs are popular among the Black community, they aren\u2019t entirely Black, they\u2019re \u201coff-black.\u201d So even though Cadillacs are a commonality throughout various cultures, they also have a different meaning in each culture that make them \u201coff-Black,\u201d \u201coff-White,\u201d or \u201coff-hispanic.\u201d 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\u2019t just singing about a car. He\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Macklemore recognizes that there\u2019s 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, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">White Privilege,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> he admits his guilt for appropriating Black culture saying, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I give everything I have when I write a rhyme \/ But that doesn\u2019t change the fact that this culture\u2019s not mine.\u201d Nonetheless, Macklemore\u2019s entire career is attributed to Black culture. But what Macklemore suggests through his songs and particularly through <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWhite Walls\u201d<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cultural Appropriation in the Arts<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> argue that cultural appropriation \u201ccan harm insiders by misrepresenting them in certain ways\u2026by employing bigoted stereotypes [so that] members of these cultures [are] subjected to terrible discrimination\u201d (Young 107-108). And yes, it\u2019s true that cultural appropriation can lead to discrimination, just like any image of another culture can lead to discrimination; but what Macklemore\u2019s \u201cWhite Walls\u201d 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. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-133 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/files\/2017\/05\/image-20110725142813-212x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"307\" \/>Cadillacs are a commodity that have been a \u201cFavorite of All Nations\u201d (Cadillac<br \/>\nadvertisement, 1955), and also a favorite of all races since 1955. And like their most recent commercial claims, Cadillacs have \u201ccarried a century of humanity \u2013 lovers, fighters, leaders\u201d \u00a0and have shared the message that \u201calthough we\u2019re not the same, we can be one\u201d (Carry Cadillac Commercial, 2017). This, too, is Macklemore\u2019s message, and he uses Cadillacs as a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">vehicle<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 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 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">white walls <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">of white constraint, privilege, and \u201csuperiority\u201d to create a more just, equitable society for everybody. A society where we can all \u201cbe free\u201d and \u201cjust live inside [our] Cadillacs.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">References<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bell, D., &amp; Hollows, J. (2006). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Historicizing lifestyle: mediating taste, consumption and identity from the 1900s to 1970s<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Aldershot: Ashgate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cadillac: Favorite of All Nations [Advertisement]. (1955).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cadillac La Salle Wherever the Admired and Notable Congregate [Advertisement]. (1929, March).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cadillac Where Craftsmanship is a Creed [Advertisement]. (1960).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cray, E. (1980). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chrome Colossus: General Motors and Its Times<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Mcgraw-Hill; First Edition edition .<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Deloria, P. J. (2007). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Playing Indian<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">James O. Young, Cultural Appropriation in the Arts (Blackwell Publishing, 2008). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">LowRider Area 61 [Advertisement]. (2013). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">LowRider<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Recorded by Macklemore, R. Lewis, &amp; Hollis]. (n.d.). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">White Walls<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> [CD]. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This essay was read by <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Drew Cohen<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have written this essay in the style of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Greg Tate<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prompt #6 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chloe Henderson May 16, 2017 Engl 117 Cultural Theory Prof. Thorne White Walls He\u2019s mostly known for \u201cpoppin\u2019 tags\u201d and going \u201cdowntown,\u201d but there are other ways to read Macklemore\u2019s music video \u201cWhite Walls\u201d than as mere signs of Cadillac &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/uncategorized\/white-walls\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1576,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-image"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1576"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}