A Darker Shade of White

A Darker Shade of White
By Wesley Useche

Recently The New Yorker featured an article by one Sasha Frere-Jones: A Paler Shade of White. The author quickly lamented the downfall of African influences in rock music, and specifically criticized the indie rock scene; accusing them of subtle racism.

It’s quite funny what passes for racism today; simply not using African influences in your music automatically makes you a dirty bigot
(apparently in the eyes of Frere-Jones). The article has also had an influence; in a recent review of Animal Curses by Animal Collective Andrew Beckerman, ignoring the album in its entirety, made veiled references and accused Animal Collective of racism.

Now let’s ignore the fact that these writers assume that not being influenced by African music is some form of racism. Lets ignore that these writers have no idea of these artists songwriting process nor there influences. Lets ignore the fact that they use some of the most simple logical fallacies under the blue sky.

Let’s just say for a minute that white rock musicians have abandoned African influences (they haven’t). Where is the African American musician’s African influence? Where’s the Jazz and Blues influence? Where’s the traditional African sounds that these authors so praise? Last I checked the most popular form of African American music was rap, which usually involves a beat form that has been recycled for the past 30 years played over a sample, of usually white music of some form, be it classical, rock, or otherwise.

Meanwhile you see bands and musicians like The Black Keys, John Mayer, The White Stripes, and The Black Crowes all exploring the blues sound. Where are the Black versions of these bands? The simple answer is they don’t exist. The fact is the authors ignored a very obvious flaw in their argument. The sound’s they so attack white rockers for abandoning have been abandoned even more by their own beloved African American artists. But of course, African Americans can’t be racist against African Americans.