Cultural Blackness and the Problem of "Cool"
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“Cultural Blackness”, as Thangaraj uses it, broadly refers to the aesthetics and styles created by African Americans, which are accompanied by political meanings that often get lost in the process of appropriation and commodification. The main example he uses to illustrate this point is the iconification of Michael Jordan, who has been turned into a “cool” and harmless symbol of basketball that appeals to non-Black people. Thangaraj contrasts him with his former teammate Craig Hodges, who is politically outspoken and therefore less palatable (Thangaraj 377). Thangaraj observed the use of cultural Blackness among the Indo-Pak basketball members he studied, who used African American slang, clothing, and gesticulations to create and express a sense of masculinity and “coolness” (378).
While cultural Blackness provided an alternative way for these South Asian men to achieve a degree of “American-ness”, they nonetheless positioned themselves above Black people. They sought to distance themselves from Black masculinity where it was characterized as too aggressive, seeing themselves as more “tame” and acceptable players. Thangaraj mentions Mustafa’s use of the word “Kallu” to refer to two players with darker skin and tightly coiled hair. Perceiving them to be bi-racial, Mustafa used this derogatory language to separate those players from South Asian American-ness (384). Su'ad Abdul Khabeer articulates a similar idea in her book Muslim Cool. She explains that Blackness – particularly Black music – attracts non-Black Muslims of colour who find solace in these communities in otherwise white-dominant societies, but will simultaneously take pains to distance themselves from Black people. For instance, Arab and South Asian Muslim communities tend to view Black Muslims as less religious because of the prevalent stereotypes of Black people as being aggressive and hyper-sexual, while second-generation middle-class Arab and South Asians participate in Black Muslim spaces and hip-hop scenes.
Similar ideas are at work in Roach Killa’s music video for “Ghora”, where he imitates the styles popularized by African American rap and hip-hop artists with his clothes and gesticulations. He also boasts an aggressive and hyper-masculine attitude in his lyrics, using slurs he probably should not be using. However, Blitzkrieg’s verse affirms that he does not “shoot guns” and these lyrics are only metaphors. The only bullets he shoots are his rhymes. This is an example of cultural Blackness being appropriated for its aesthetics while its political meanings and associations are not carried over in the final product. Roach Killa’s English verse also oscillates between different kinds of Black vernaculars, sounding like a vague combination of patois and AAVE. As Thangaraj argues, the consumption of Black masculinity tends to obfuscate the heterogeneity of cultural Blackness (377), which appears to be the case with this song.