The AllMusic.com review for Street Hassle states that I Wanna Be Black “sounds like a bad idea today”.
REALLY?!? I mean, I guess I understand why someone (Who was NOT a record reviewer) might write that, but the song is about White lame-o’s utterly and completely missing any understanding of African-Americans. In their minds black people are not actual people, they’re caricatures, broken down to the lowest common denominator. Yes, the song repeats African-American stereotypes, but IWBB is NOT about black people in any way, it’s about how whites, even those who claim to “love“ ALL PEOPLES, can and do reduce them, in their minds, to racist stereotypes.
The AllMusic.com review for Street Hassle states that I Wanna Be Black “sounds like a bad idea today”.
REALLY?!? I mean, I guess I understand why someone (Who was NOT a record reviewer) might write that, but the song is about White lame-o’s utterly and completely missing any understanding of African-Americans. In their minds black people are not actual people, they’re caricatures, broken down to the lowest common denominator. Yes, the song repeats African-American stereotypes, but IWBB is NOT about black people in any way, it’s about how whites, even those who claim to “love“ ALL PEOPLES, can and do reduce them, in their minds, to racist stereotypes.