Black through white: Hoagy Carmichael and the cultural reproduction of racism

Abstract

The relationship between the black and white elements in the popular music of this century has been intimate and persistent. However, the nature of this relationship has varied from period to period and been mediated by the economic and institutional context in which it has occurred. The ‘free flow’ of musical ideas between black and white has been directed and regulated by numerous distinctly unmusical factors — principally the racist ideologies and practies within which musicians, despite their individual proclivities, have lived and worked.

Embodied minstrelsy, racialization and redemption in reggae

“…One of the persistent ways in which these relations are more widely framed is on the basis that White musicians and consumers are problematically positioned in relation to ‘Black’ and indigenous music. Conceptually, these social relations have been framed in academic literature as ‘black through white’ (Hewitt, 1983) or as ‘white on black’ cultural theft (Hamilton, 2016), which is broadly understood as a continuation of ‘blackface minstrelsy’ (see, for example, Hagstrom Miller, 2010; Lott, 2013; Pickering, 2008; Szwed, 2005) – a set of cultural practices that once involved White performers ‘blacking up’ and performing interpretations of Black or African American music and culture. ‘Blackface minstrelsy’ constitutes an ongoing critique of White musicians that perform or record music that is not perceived to reflect their ethnoracial heritage and thus is considered inauthentic and exploitative.…”