Diversity

[RaspberryJam]

NBC had plenty of tricks up their sleeve this week:

http://tv.gawker.com/5660493/did-you-catch-abeds-storyline-hidden-in-this-weeks-community?skyline=true&s=i

[jimtweedy1977]

Come on, there were at least 3 flavors of whitey at the last Wilco show I went to.

 

I wonder if Rich Whitey was there?

[Robby]

Taken from this week's Entertainment Weekly's SoundBites section

[LouieB]

Mavis Staples

What about her?? White people like her too.

 

LouieB

[ShuckOwens]

I'm relieved that ya'll can take this sudden big-show exposure of, and scathing swipe at the intolerant and exclusionary nature of Wilco's xenophobic fans and music in stride. Even the most enlighted and progressive of us fighting to belly up to the edge of the stage to be seen squealing capo changes in our flat caps, hope & change T's and wayfarer specs have a long way to go when it comes to accepting and including other cultures. Too far apart. White power.

[Guest Speed Racer]

So, uh, white people go to concerts and therefore should feel bad about themselves? It's a shame you don't post more often, huh.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

I'm relieved that ya'll can take this sudden big-show exposure of, and scathing swipe at the intolerant and exclusionary nature of Wilco's xenophobic fans and music in stride. Even the most enlighted and progressive of us fighting to belly up to the edge of the stage to be seen squealing capo changes in our flat caps, hope & change T's and wayfarer specs have a long way to go when it comes to accepting and including other cultures. Too far apart. White power.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

[ShuckOwens]

So, uh, white people go to concerts and therefore should feel bad about themselves? It's a shame you don't post more often, huh.

Wow. That is exactly what I am saying. If deep down you enjoy your Metzger melodies surrounded by a crowd that would make a David Duke rally blush, you really should feel pretty awful about yourself.

[Lukestar]

What about her?? White people like her too.

 

LouieB

 

She's great and, yes, I know. I'm one of them.

I simply wrote her name in (unquoted) reply to the vibe that was coming from this thread when I was reading it that Wilco, and/or Tweedy, do not appeal or relate to diverse enough crowd.

[Magnetized]

Wow. That is exactly what I am saying. If deep down you enjoy your Metzger melodies surrounded by a crowd that would make a David Duke rally blush, you really should feel pretty awful about yourself.

 

Randy Newman once famously said something along the lines of (and I'm misquoting): "Irony doesn't translate well blasting from speakers in a convertible driving down the freeway." I would say the same about a post in a forum. If this is supposed to be an ironic comment on the silliness of trying to paint a band or its fans as racist because the audience isn't sufficiently diverse, then fine. If not, then I think it's moronic.

[ShuckOwens]

There are of course, umpteen different artists or bands that do not interest whichever demographic you choose, and probably never will. The writers could have slipped in 'Toby Keith', or 'Maroon 5', and gotten more mileage... but they decided to get a dig in at a section of the audience that they suspect will tune in, and enjoy a good chuckle at their own expense. A joke about no anglos wanting to attend a Abida Parveen concert is not going to score big laughs.

[kidsmoke]

 

I'm reminded of how Jeff Tweedy described the Wilco fan base in an article about Solid Sound:

 

By all accounts, the three-day festival stands to be civilized and family-friendly. Even so, the town is deploying extra police, and the museum hired extra gallery guards — just in case.

 

Tweedy said there probably won’t be any fist fights at the festival, but given the disposition of Wilco fans, he joked, “There might be some hurt feelings and some passive aggressiveness. A few tears.”

 

 

That bolded bit....it's like Jeff foresaw this thread! Spooky.

[bjorn_skurj]

Hey, I have been to a Maroon 5 concert and they at least had a black dude playing keyboards.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

A joke about no anglos wanting to attend a Abida Parveen concert is not going to score big laughs.

Don't want this quality Parveen reference to go unnoticed.

[caliber66]

Hey, I have been to a Maroon 5 concert and they at least had a black dude playing keyboards.

So? Pat is Filipino.

[ShuckOwens]

Don't want this quality Parveen reference to go unnoticed.

Ever been?

[Sir Stewart]

Remember that series of Volkswagen ads and one didn't have Wilco music in it...and it was the one with black folks in it?

[bjorn_skurj]

Was that the one with "Straight Outta Compton" in it?

[Atticus]

you're all a bunch of linguists

[Sandoz]

Who else just saw Queen Latifa on '30 Rock'.

 

Queen Latifa complaining that NBC is not diverse, "NBC is about as diverse as a Wilco concert".

 

clearly queen latifa doesn't make it to the front row enough. we asians have a knack of getting up there quite often.

[Sir Stewart]

clearly queen latifa doesn't make it to the front row enough. we asians have a knack of getting up there quite often.

 

[tinnitus photography]

Hipsters, man.

 

this was probably the funniest bit of the Matador 21 Emcee'ing, courtesy of Wurster and Scharpling

 

[Chinese Apple]

Imma bring my own microcosmic rainbow coalition to the next Wilco show in Ireland.

 

Also, will try to get a natural-redhead friend to come. They are a true minority, representing only 2 percent of the human population. I recently watched a BBC documentary (F*** Off I'm Ginger) about the discrimination and stereotyping redheads endure.

 

Technically, people with Asiatic genes are a global majority. Together, the populations of India and China make up 40 percent of the world's population. For comparison, Africans represent about 10 percent of the world's population. So, depending on who defines diversity and how, I'm not sure if I count as being a racial minority, being Asian.

 

But, bottom line: I love Wilco.

 

I think if you love Wilco, you are "minority" in the global "music fan" population. Whereas if you love Beyonce or the Beatles, you would be part of a musical majority.

 

In this sense, Queen Latifah could be said to be discriminating against a "minority" when she uttered that line, by stereotyping what a "Wilco fan" is, or isn't.

 

(Ok. I love you, Queen Latifah, and I enjoy 30 Rock, but I just wanted to take this argument to a slightly absurdist extreme.)

 

(Edit: My "love" for HRH Latifah is legitimized by the fact that I bought one of her albums in the early 90s, on cassette tape!

 

And my "enjoyment" of 30 Rock is based on 5 random episodes over a period of two years, which Nate Silver might say is not enough data to formulate any sort of valid opinion.)

[u2roolz]

I don't watch the show regularly, but some anthropologists theorize that humor reveals power in a society. I am interested in issues of race, so enjoy deconstructing popular culture when issues of race come up, even in jest.

 

I understand where you are coming from, but at some point you can't keep doing that or else you'll wind up driving yourself crazy. I'm not saying to sweep it under the table completely, but the more that you keep looking out for it; the more that it seems like it is present everywhere and every time.

 

 

Perhaps then you are a bad reader and read into my post what you wanted to believe.

 

I wanted to address the above comment last week, but then the thread died down pretty quickly. I found it rather hypocritical for this person to tell me that I was reading into their post to believe what I wanted to believe. I'm sure that they read my comment in the middle. I guess that I expected the "you" in the above post to be highlighted to get the point across, but I'm not sure if they realized the hypocrisy there.

 

Basically, it sounds like this person has devised a one way street to look at deconstructing popular culture issues of race when they come up, but when someone else does it then they are either a bad reader or are reading into things too much. I guess that I am posting to let this person know that it is indeed a two way street.

 

If anything I would say that in this case, I was a lazy reader and didn't go back to page 1 to see if your comment had a part 1 to it.

 

Isn't subtext what the reader interprets? I guess I'm interested in instances where you have caused issues of race to come up when you read into them too much. Does that make one a bad reader or sensitive?

 

Once again, not an attack on you. It is just an observation and something that bugged me about this conversation.

[Chinese Apple]

 

Basically, it sounds like this person has devised a one way street to look at deconstructing popular culture issues of race when they come up, but when someone else does it then they are either a bad reader or are reading into things too much. I guess that I am posting to let this person know that it is indeed a two way street.

 

 

Isn't subtext what the reader interprets? I guess I'm interested in instances where you have caused issues of race to come up when you read into them too much. Does that make one a bad reader or sensitive?

 

 

I think when one formulates a theory based on a text, it is standard practice to find specifics in the original text that support it, and also to make it very clear where the text ends and where your analysis begins.

 

How subtexts are perceived reveal as much (if not more) about the subjectivity of the reader as they do the intentions of the author. I'm conscious to make a note of this in my own analysis.

 

In your critical writing (in this thread and in a previous one about the Pixies that I am too lazy this cold Dublin morning to find and link to), you have a way of subjectively paraphrasing rather than quoting the original text, that contradicts my own interpretation of (or intention in) the original text. So, "would likely" becomes paraphrased as "should"; "gentle reminder" is restated as "[i am] offended"; and so on...

 

Perhaps I made a false assumption when I suggested you did not read carefully ("bad reader", word choices I now regret). It was based on the blurred line between your reading/analysis and the actual text.

 

But then, why apply these academic ethics/criteria to your writing, here on a fan forum, about a band, and a TV show? There are no grades here, or degrees to confer, or books to publish.

 

P.S. If you'd like to discuss this further, maybe we should take it elsewhere. This probably bores other people. You are welcome to post on my profile. However, since I hardly have time to watch 30 Rock, I only visit VC periodically and reply times vary.