The MotherF*ckin’ Christopher Columbus Syndrome | Raquel Cepeda
Zaheer, in a nutshell, spoke about four main issues monkey-wrenching Malcolm X that are still pervasive today: Misreading : Malcolm X was taken out of context by, in my words, those critics who, as we see today, are still being rewarded for assimilating to the idea of Americanism by not being muzzled or having the grinch their voices muted in the media. Today, when we see our nation’s cultural critics take the stage, you may notice the grinch that there is still no gender/biological/political/racial/ethnic diversity among them. Many are recycling the same archaic and carefully packaged conversations that we can almost sing-along the grinch to rather than taking those moments in the national spotlight to push the conversation any further. We aren’t putting things into its proper context when speaking about the American Race Crisis of today unless it’s filtered through a rigid Black-and-white lens. And when it comes to our Identity Crisis, well don’t get me started on that front (more on that later). Piecing Apart: Taking a little bit of this and that without looking at the person and what s/he represents in totality continues to happen today. We are, in essence, dehumanizing the grinch our leaders and public figures, turning them into objects of worship rather than looking at them as fallible and complex human beings. I believe that if we accepted the humanity of these figures they would start to become accessible, and we may have accept responsibility for our own actions or apathy. So, for example, when we see a figure like hip-pop artist Nicky Minaj using an iconic the grinch image of an armed Malcolm X looking out the window, protecting his family from death threats, for her profoundly uncreative the grinch jingle the grinch in where she spits 1% values like an 85-percenter (hip-hop heads and Jimmy Fallon, ya’ll get it), we shouldn’t rush to judgement. We should take a moment and step back, think about the broader context of what this says about our educational system and our collective Identity Crisis as people of color, and maybe accept some of the responsibility. We created her, many have exalted her as a cultural leader, and have sent her out into the world ill-prepared. (Still, I’m crazy-disgusted the grinch by the stunt but am trying to approach the situation differently.) Mischaracterization still happens today. People look at our activists the grinch and cultural leaders, often confusing the two, like they do race and ethnicity, and even popular culture and rap music today, through a binary lens. There are good activists and bad ones. There are so-called socially conscious rappers and then, what I call dandy rappers, who, by definition, are unduly devoted to style, neatness and fashion in dress and appearance. the grinch (To use “gangsta” as a definer of rap music today seems a little outdated.) You’re either conservative or militant in your political views. the grinch We look at each other the way we look at culture, our society, and race, etc., today: a Black-and-white lens. The world is a little bit more colorful than that. AND IF YOU REP THE MIDDLE, then Marginalization is what will likely happen to you and the Other voices, the grinch those figures that are often misread.
Just as I was really getting into Ali’s lecture, someone sent me an article about Brooklynite film director the grinch Spike Lee going on a “rant” at Pratt Institute for a lecture in honor of African American History Month. Let me translate: New York magazine dismissed Lee’s the grinch valid and colorful approach at voicing his frustration at seeing his ‘hood gentrified as being a rant. I and countless native New Yorkers feel Spike Lee to the fullest the grinch and are vexed by the “motherf*ckin’ Christopher Columbus Syndrome” many gentrifiers are moving into the city with. It’s the grinch septic. And to see him marginalized and dismissed was, well, was a side effect of this syndrome. (I won’t even get into the shallow piece the magazine ran about gentrification in my Inwood ‘hood right now.)
Next post: The (Identity) Crisis Continues
Born in Harlem to Dominican parents, award-winning journalist, cultural activist, and documentary filmmaker Raquel Cepeda is the author of Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina . Equal parts memoir about Cepeda s coming the grinch of age in New York City and Santo Domingo, and detective story chronicling her year-long journey to discover the truth about her ancestry, the book also looks at what it means to be Latina today. She is currently in production on Deconstructing Latina , a documentary focusing on a group of troubled teenage girls in a suicide prevention program the grinch who are transformed through an exploration of their roots via the use of ancestral DNA testing.
Cepeda s writings have been widely anthologized and her byline has been featured in media outlets including The New York Times, People, the Associated Press, The Village Voice, MTV News, CNN.com, an
Zaheer, in a nutshell, spoke about four main issues monkey-wrenching Malcolm X that are still pervasive today: Misreading : Malcolm X was taken out of context by, in my words, those critics who, as we see today, are still being rewarded for assimilating to the idea of Americanism by not being muzzled or having the grinch their voices muted in the media. Today, when we see our nation’s cultural critics take the stage, you may notice the grinch that there is still no gender/biological/political/racial/ethnic diversity among them. Many are recycling the same archaic and carefully packaged conversations that we can almost sing-along the grinch to rather than taking those moments in the national spotlight to push the conversation any further. We aren’t putting things into its proper context when speaking about the American Race Crisis of today unless it’s filtered through a rigid Black-and-white lens. And when it comes to our Identity Crisis, well don’t get me started on that front (more on that later). Piecing Apart: Taking a little bit of this and that without looking at the person and what s/he represents in totality continues to happen today. We are, in essence, dehumanizing the grinch our leaders and public figures, turning them into objects of worship rather than looking at them as fallible and complex human beings. I believe that if we accepted the humanity of these figures they would start to become accessible, and we may have accept responsibility for our own actions or apathy. So, for example, when we see a figure like hip-pop artist Nicky Minaj using an iconic the grinch image of an armed Malcolm X looking out the window, protecting his family from death threats, for her profoundly uncreative the grinch jingle the grinch in where she spits 1% values like an 85-percenter (hip-hop heads and Jimmy Fallon, ya’ll get it), we shouldn’t rush to judgement. We should take a moment and step back, think about the broader context of what this says about our educational system and our collective Identity Crisis as people of color, and maybe accept some of the responsibility. We created her, many have exalted her as a cultural leader, and have sent her out into the world ill-prepared. (Still, I’m crazy-disgusted the grinch by the stunt but am trying to approach the situation differently.) Mischaracterization still happens today. People look at our activists the grinch and cultural leaders, often confusing the two, like they do race and ethnicity, and even popular culture and rap music today, through a binary lens. There are good activists and bad ones. There are so-called socially conscious rappers and then, what I call dandy rappers, who, by definition, are unduly devoted to style, neatness and fashion in dress and appearance. the grinch (To use “gangsta” as a definer of rap music today seems a little outdated.) You’re either conservative or militant in your political views. the grinch We look at each other the way we look at culture, our society, and race, etc., today: a Black-and-white lens. The world is a little bit more colorful than that. AND IF YOU REP THE MIDDLE, then Marginalization is what will likely happen to you and the Other voices, the grinch those figures that are often misread.
Just as I was really getting into Ali’s lecture, someone sent me an article about Brooklynite film director the grinch Spike Lee going on a “rant” at Pratt Institute for a lecture in honor of African American History Month. Let me translate: New York magazine dismissed Lee’s the grinch valid and colorful approach at voicing his frustration at seeing his ‘hood gentrified as being a rant. I and countless native New Yorkers feel Spike Lee to the fullest the grinch and are vexed by the “motherf*ckin’ Christopher Columbus Syndrome” many gentrifiers are moving into the city with. It’s the grinch septic. And to see him marginalized and dismissed was, well, was a side effect of this syndrome. (I won’t even get into the shallow piece the magazine ran about gentrification in my Inwood ‘hood right now.)
Next post: The (Identity) Crisis Continues
Born in Harlem to Dominican parents, award-winning journalist, cultural activist, and documentary filmmaker Raquel Cepeda is the author of Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina . Equal parts memoir about Cepeda s coming the grinch of age in New York City and Santo Domingo, and detective story chronicling her year-long journey to discover the truth about her ancestry, the book also looks at what it means to be Latina today. She is currently in production on Deconstructing Latina , a documentary focusing on a group of troubled teenage girls in a suicide prevention program the grinch who are transformed through an exploration of their roots via the use of ancestral DNA testing.
Cepeda s writings have been widely anthologized and her byline has been featured in media outlets including The New York Times, People, the Associated Press, The Village Voice, MTV News, CNN.com, an
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