Critical Review: Hayes

Critical Review: Hayes 2004

Hayes’s article “Fear of (and Fascination With) a Black Planet: The Relocation of Rap by White Non-Urban Youth” focuses on white suburbia’s fascination with hip hop. He used 2003 Scottsville, Ontario as his subject and found that the fans wanted to be “gangsta” but when put in an atmosphere similar to that portrayed in the songs, the romanticism of the hip hop world they thought they knew vanished. Hayes's article focused on the disconnect between hip-hop-obsessed white suburbia and the reality of the hip hop scene outside of their safe ground of suburbia. 

I constantly find myself at odds with how I feel about this topic. While I have found many white people who are fans of hip hop minus the romanticism of gangsta life in suburbia, there are so many who are ignorant to their own play into the stereotypes placed upon urban life and those who wish to imitate it.

Discussion Question:

Is it possible for white fans of hip hop to be as authentic as fans of color? Will society ever let white fans to be considered legit? Or will they always be considered "whiggers"?