Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America | 
 enlarge | Author: Bakari Kitwana
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
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Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 308349
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 1
ISBN: 0465037461
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.484249
EAN: 9780465037469
ASIN: 0465037461
Publication Date: May 31, 2005
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Condition: New, unread, unused and in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages, may have a remainder mark.
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Product Description
Our national conversation about race is ludicrously out-of-date. Hip-hop is the key to understanding how things are changing. In a provocative book that will appeal to hip-hoppers both black and white and their parents, Bakari Kitwana deftly teases apart the culture of hip-hop to illuminate how race is being lived by young Americans. This topic is ripe, but untried, and Kitwana poses and answers a plethora of questions: Does hip-hop belong to black kids? What in hip-hop appeals to white youth? Is hip-hop different from what rhythm, blues, jazz, and even rock 'n' roll meant to previous generations? How have mass media and consumer culture made hip-hop a unique phenomenon? What does class have to do with it? Are white kids really hip-hop's primary listening audience? How do young Americans think about race, and how has hip-hop influenced their perspective? Are young Americans achieving Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream through hip-hop? Kitwana addresses uncomfortable truths about America's level of comfort with black people, challenging preconceived notions of race. With this brave tour de force, Bakari Kitwana takes his place alongside the greatest African American intellectuals of the past decades.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 response to lack of culture August 13, 2006
4 out of 13 found this review helpful
You're an idiot. It would literally take me 3 days to write about how wrong you are. So instead I'll paraphrase for your simple, narrow mind.
To say that hip hop is all about blaming whitey over a congo beat might be the most ignorant thing I have ever heard. HIP HOP is a culture, RAP is a genre of music. You are referring to RAP, not hip hop. But even then, not all RAP is what you are describing. Also, if it was, what is wrong with blaming Whitey? You mean to tell me that artists shouldn't use music as a medium to spread a message? Was N.W.A wrong for telling the world about the aubsive LAPD in the late 80's/early 90's? Any way, I doubt you actually read the book, and if you did, your mind obviously is incapable of accepting black people outside of some bubble you have put them in. Grow up, wise up and get a clue.
You're an idiot.
 Lack of Culture July 5, 2006
7 out of 30 found this review helpful
Why do some white kids like hip hop? probably the same reasons why children have tried to shock their parents for ages. Hip hop (what a name)is the product of cultural nihilism, a direct result of the black underclass which seeks to return to the "good old days" of blaming whitey. After all it's whitey who told us are BAD-so Bad we will act.
So there you have it, instead of Black Americans working hard to become successful, many prefer to follow a congo beat while fondling their fake bling-bling while watching underclothed women gyrate their rotund bodies.
Those writers who claim that hip-hop is another culture whites want to steal are delusional at best. When I'm stopped at a stoplight and the car next to me is shaking with a loud bass, all I can think of is: "thank God I lack their culture"!
But let's think about this! Remember the days when the world "culture" actually meant something. If one studies the culture of the Greeks or Romans we see a the long history of a particular society. A history built on art, language, law, philosophy, religion,music, architecture and myth. Hilarious enough, the so-called hiphop culture began with a myth:"the myth that poor latinos and blacks created hiphop out of nothing: (this was a direct quote from a misguided latina at an education conference at UNC.
And the myth continues, according to another site, the author claims that hiphop is instrumental in making social/cultural changes in the larger society.
A recent hiphop conference (pretending to be a political entity) presented the (world),or at least their "hood" with a list of demands, including full reparations for blacks, free education, free health care, all in a beligerant and hostile "gimme" tone.
The angry person who referred to me as an idiot may need to remember the words of the rapper Tony Yayo who raps:" I'm in that brand new range:when I pull up, kid, I turn your brains into red concrete stains." I ask you-and others-is this a culture-or is it verbal poison?
An Original Look at Hip-Hop and Whiteness October 13, 2005
3 out of 9 found this review helpful
Why White Kids Love Hip Hop by Bakari Kitwana is a very well-written book which discusses why white kids, even upper-middle class and upper-class ones, love hip hop, specifically its musical component. I believe Bakari Kitwana puts a completely new spin on this question due to his clear enjoyment and understanding of hip-hop. He is able to look at hip-hop with less prejudice than many authors who have attempted to tackle this question. Kitwana uses convincing reasoning, such as whites' decreasing sense of racial privilege, and strong opinions to advance his arguments on why white kids love hip-hop.
I recommend this eloquent book to any hip-hop enthusiasts especially those interested in the question "why do white kids love hip-hop?" Not to say that this book is by any means perfect, Kitwana has his own unique set of prejudices like anyone and he has a tendency to belittle the work of some less hardcore hip-hop fans. Overall it is a wonderful book, a true must-read in my opinion. This is an adult book but it is not terribly long or difficult to read and while it does feature some necessary racial epithets it doesn't uselessly throw around foul language. A great book for the avid hip-hop listener or anyone who has ever wondered just why white kids love hip-hop.
Why Authors Need Copyeditors September 29, 2005
15 out of 19 found this review helpful
I think that the issue Kitwana attempts to explore in Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop is interesting. But his approach to taking on this topic was both sloppy and simplistic. It starts in the preface, where he says that the hip-hop generation (which in reality covers two generations) is the first one to grow up without experiencing de facto segregation. I'm sure that White suburbanites in Scarsdale and Orange County would be interested in knowing that there are phantom people of color floating around their communities.
Kitwana also overemphasizes the impact of hip-hop on the emergence of African Americans in popular culture and their impact on young Whites during the 1980s and 1990s. He concentrates so much on Michael Jordan and his first Nike ads with Spike Lee that he forgets about Dr. J, Mean Joe Green, and a host of others that paved the road for Jordan in the first place.
But Kitwana's biggest error is in glossing over the distance between Whites embracing hip-hop culture and Whites living anti-racist, social justice oriented lives. Like John Tuturro's character in Do the Right Thing, there are at least as many Whites who are hip-hop lovers but have as stereotypical an opinion of Blacks and other people of color as Whites who listen to honky-tonk. I don't that everything Kitwana says in Why White Kids Love Hip Hop is incorrect -- his book is just selectively incomplete.
No substance, No evidence, Not much fun September 24, 2005
23 out of 26 found this review helpful
*sigh*... I'm always on the lookout for books about hip-hop (as a music form, culture, and generation) as it relates to American culture. More specifically, I'm interested in the social ramifications of the culture as a whole. Thus, when I was given this book by a friend, I was hoping for a good social science read. Unfortunately, I was highly dismayed, finding this particular selection to be a sloppily written manuscript with virtually no empirical evidence anywhere.
For much of this book, the author makes vague statements which are supposed to be evidence (I.E. - "First and foremost among the reasons white kids love hip-hop is the growing sense of alienation from mainstream American life they experienced in the 1980s") but then makes little or no effort to show proof of such theories. This is discouraging.
What makes matters worse is that the author later goes on to dismiss the limited evidence that does exist showing whites are the dominant purchasers of hip-hop albums, and instead of inserting evidence which shows otherwise, he launches into page upon page of bizarre hypothesis' for potential ways blacks might still be the majority purchasers (ironically mentioning bootleg CDs). Ultimately I grew tired of reading his writing which became increasingly less academic.
His "expert" sources are also questionable - while at times he does move towards legitmate figures in the hip-hop community - I felt he vastly stretched for some of the opinions gathered for this book. For instance, I seriously wonder whether it was wise to include a very long section on a 19 year-old white female for who "hip-hop has been mainstream culture" for her entire life. Her priciple credits for being mentioned appear to be that she once dated a black guy, doesn't mind the b-word, and got hooked on hip-hop when she heard "Hypnotize" while developing film. I was not impressed.
If you are looking for an actual intelligent and informed book on hip-hop, please look elsewhere. Reading this, you'll mainly come away with disjointed personal theories of the author, as well as numerous plugs for THE SOURCE magazine.
1/5 Stars
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