Why do white kids love hip-hop?
“Like every generation of young people, they’re in search of an oppositional identity. But what it means to be white and American is in flux now because of the changing economy. Young white Americans are more alienated from mainstream life than they’ve ever been. You have different generations within the generation. The older end grew up with hip-hop when it wasn’t mainstream. The younger kids are turning to hip-hop as pop culture and aren’t drawing distinctions between Britney Spears or Linkin Park and Jay-Z or 50 Cent or Eminem.” How does hip-hop bridge the gap between what you term “old racial politics” and “new racial politics”? “In the ’60s it was very clear: America was racially segregated. ‘Us vs. them’ explained everything. Civil rights legislation reinforced the idea of a new racial policy. We hadn’t had anything like that again until hip-hop. Hip-hop provides an infrastructure that’s ingrained in American culture. It’s a commercial commodity that allows for the rethinking of
