Killer

Hip-hop, since its inception, has constantly been a topic of fierce debate, within and outside the hip-hop community. Inside, graffiti artists, break-dancers, and especially rappers have been internally fighting over the legitimacy of various styles, rappers, and rhymes since the activities themselves began. Outside, uninitiated and often outraged members of society at large criticize and condemn hip-hop culture with concerns ranging from its legitimacy as a cultural movement and art form to the effect it has on children. Music in particular is a sore point between the two groups, as many adults were and are concerned with the influence hip-hop music has on youth culture. Such debates first began to heat up when NWA's Straight Outta Compton came out, and continued through gangsta rap to the perceived excesses and hedonism of modern rap. The chief concern seems to be "how can a bunch of thugs yelling about killing each other and owning money be art?" Indeed, while those inside the community would bristle at their entire community being cast in this light, few would deny that there is in fact rap music being produced and consumed that espouses these beliefs. When the issue is viewed in a racial light (as it often must be, given its origin and primary creators), opponents of hip-hop and rap generally come from two different camps: white Americans who believe such music is barbaric and harmful, and black Americans who view such music as harmful to the perception of black culture.

                The first group, the so-called moral guardians of society, tends to see rap as a whole as indicative of some sort of social malaise, where corrupt youth make this harmful music and their corruption spreads to other children who listen to it. This viewpoint is very clearly seen (in context of graffiti) by Koch, the mayor of New York, interviewed in Style Wars. He states that he believes that the vandalism in his city (and presumably analogs in music, though gangsta rap had not emerged yet) was not the result of youth with too much time on their hands, but instead youth with no moral compass. He viewed this culture as a scourge, something to be kept out of sight. However, some of the concerns of this group, while often voiced too contemptuously,  are valid concerns that many parents had to face. No one, black or white, rich or poor, wants their children listening to music which advocates violence and misogyny, and indeed many hip-hop songs released have been on this topic. However, the question that everyone has a much harder time answering is, "is it art?"

                The second group, while condemning much of popular hip-hop, often still embraces the notion of hip-hop as art. It is truly a black movement, almost entirely unaffected by white influence in terms of the actual music being produced (aside from a desire to consume, and therefore produce, "real" depictions of hood life). Many classic hip-hop artists, such as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, or A Tribe Called Quest, released music talking about issues of the day, and seeking to depict a message instead of glorifying violence. While popular music has drifted in and out of such topics, hip-hop discussing difficult topics has persisted near the spotlight to this day. However, the issue that many black community members have with popular hip-hop is that some see it as a sort of minstrelsy. Artists like Gucci Mane slather themselves in gold jewelry and outlandish clothing and women and in some ways seem like caricatures of themselves, and some people believe that this presents the black community in an unflattering light.

                Nobody anywhere has a clear answer on exactly how much of hip-hop is art, and on what makes some rap art and other rap not art. From the outside, listeners endlessly debate on its impact, and inside, figures prominent in hip-hop endlessly debate on whose style is legitimate and whether materialistic rap is in fact art or not. No matter how much they argue about it, hip-hop is here, and it is constantly being served to the ears and eyes of the populace at large. The movement as a whole considers itself art, and whether other people agree or not it will proliferate as long as the people within it continue to view it as the artistic release of choice. 

Dad

                Throughout most of the novel White Boy Shuffle, the Gunnar Kaufman describes the various events in his life with humor and sarcasm, making a joke out of anything and everything. He describes his extended family history as a tradition of cronyism to the white man, giving their saga almost as a comedy or farce with all of the humor he puts into it. However, the jokes stop completely one generation before his own, and for some reason Gunnar refuses to tell jokes about his father, another crony in the form of a criminal profiler for the LAPD, stating that it hits too close to home. This relationship with his father is quite enigmatic, and is expanded upon very rarely, but by closely examining it we can see many of Gunnar's fears and struggles in a more illuminating context.

                Aside from the introduction, the next mention of Gunnar's father occurs in his color vignettes about his early childhood. Most of the pieces are short and somewhat humorous poems about his life and the daily minutiae he experiences, but when he reaches "black," the tone immediately darkens. He heavily implies that he views himself as unwanted and useless, and then segues into a segment implying that his father molested him at some point in his childhood. This segment in between several humorous ones is so somber and intense that it is quite jarring and uncomfortable to read, and yet, as soon as it is over, it is never mentioned again. Gunnar moves on to his next topic with "after my father molested me" and that is the end of his discussion about the topic. This intensity and then return to the norm is  quite important for the development of Gunnar's character and psyche, however.

                Gunnar rarely mentions his father after this incident, but whenever he is mentioned he pointedly calls him phrases like "piece of shit" and tries to avoid him at all costs. In addition, the context of the rest of the vignette about "black" frames much of the internal conflict Gunnar feels. Many of the issues he faces, such as sexual identity and self-worth, take on a very different color when viewed in light of Gunnar's previous molestation. Indeed, his sense of blackness itself seems influenced by this, as his father was the model Kaufman in terms of living on the white man's terms. Gunnar's molestation by a man who had previously forced him to go along with white culture and racism could be part of the cause for the strong distaste in Gunnar's mouth for going along with the institution. The molestation, by being included in the "black" vignette, is implied to be a facet of his own blackness that he is ashamed of, and yet embraces in opposition to the oppressive culture that his father comes from.

                The second significant incident occurring with Gunnar's father occurs during the LA riots. After a humorous if not surreal foray into the streets and stores turns up little to nothing, Gunnar and his gang friends attempt to secure a safe from a building that is left in the nearby parking lot. The crew barely manages to load it into the truck before Gunnar's father, the cop, shows up and beats Gunnar severely. This event too is presented rather starkly, in contrast to the humor of the rest of the scene. A similar dynamic to the molestation can be seen here as well. Gunnar, wanting to belong to the black community of his friends, is beaten by his father, a black man who has completely embraced the white institution. In a way, Gunnar's father is beating him for being everything that he sees as wrong with "blackness." Of course, the reader has grown up with Gunnar, and recognizes this robbery not as a "black" action but as part of Gunnar's frustration and resentment at the white world, which has boiled over by letting Rodney King's killers free.  This contrast between Gunnar's emerging identity and the hate his father feels for Gunnar's rejection of the institution only cements Gunnar's anti-establishment views further, and pushes him further and further away from activities which he sees as affirming his place in white society, such as basketball player and later poet.

                Gunnar's father, interestingly enough, is mentioned at the very end of the novel. Gunnar wrote a poem about his father's suicide, presented strangely comically as literally swallowing the gun and choking on the trigger. The poem states that his father dreamed of equality and civil liberty but then "woke up and had to go to work," implying that his day to day concerns overrode his ideals. This captures Gunnar's father's attitude quite well, and frames him as someone who goes along with the institution because it's convenient and the path of least resistance. Gunnar has in contrast followed a path more resistant than perhaps anyone else, becoming a black messiah while completely rejecting any authority or identity such a title would give him. This desire to escape Kaufmanism, personified in Gunnar's father, presents a strong and compelling case for Gunnar's development as a man.

Reality

When reading most classical, or at least pre-World War II novels, the issue of "what reality is this" is barely worth considering. Most of the previous novels we have read in this class, with the partial exception of Invisible Man, have concretely taken place in the real world. For example, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, we never need to ask ourselves whether what is happening to Janie is realistic, or if Tea Cake could actually acquire a guitar. However, White Boy Shuffle, a much more contemporary novel, regularly raises questions such as these. Right from the beginning, Beatty plays with our suspension of disbelief, stating to the reader that he is a messiah to black people, their unwilling savior. Initially this can be laughed off, but by the end of the book it is quite clear that he is literally their messiah, and they await his every word to make their next move. For this reason, this novel falls squarely into the territory "postmodern novel."

                It is not useful to bandy about such terms without a clear understanding of what exactly they mean first. A postmodern novel, in contrast to a Modernist novel, is usually written after World War II, and is more concerned with the nature of the narrative's reality and its interaction with other realities (such as our own) as opposed to a Modernist novel's concern with the subjectivity of the narrator. In a postmodern novel, events that are wildly implausible are often woven into historical scenes or backgrounds to give a different perspective on the chosen subject. White Boy Shuffle regularly employs all of these techniques.

                One of the most notable scenes in the novel, where the strange world that Gunnar lives in intersects our world, is when the LA riots begin and Gunnar feels a rage awaken inside himself. Driven to action, he flocks to the street to begin looting and causing general mayhem. The chapter is patently ridiculous - at one point he and his friend Nicholas Scoby stop a truck driver and beat him senseless with loaves of bread. However, the real events that occurred, such as store looting, are placed in this distorted lens to glean new observations. For example, Gunnar goes to an electronics store to rob it, but finds inside an orderly line where looters wait one by one to receive their plunder before casually strolling out. At another point, the Korean woman in Gunnar's neighborhood burns her own store down after the neighbors refuse to burn it down because "she's too black."  This scene, while on the surface quite funny, recontextualizes the riots as a reasonable if not somewhat violent frustration within the black community about their continued oppression.

                Many scenes which are on the surface hilarious are re-interpretations of accepted tropes and social stereotypes. Possibly the most memorable is Gunnar Kaufman's resident gang, the Gun Totin' Hooligans. Aside from the strangely self-referential name, the gang refuses to fight with guns, resorting instead to medieval and unorthodox weapons. At one point, in some twisted, Wagner-be-damned interpretation of the Ride of the Valkyries and gang shoot-outs, the group dresses in drag, drives up to a rival gang, flirts with them and then proceeds to fight them with such instruments as a bleach-filled balloon attached to a crossbow bolt. This scene is worth reading multiple times, because it not only is the depth Gunnar's gang throws themselves into this con hilarious ("I bet your panties are wet, bro"), it also gives a completely different take on gang violence than is normally given. In this bizarre alternate world, gang conflict is not just senseless shootings, it is a sense of honor, a brigade like any army would lead. It is quite important to them. The scene's take on masculinity is also worth noting. The gang is willing to dress fully in drag and commit to femininity for some time, flirting with the members of the rival gang before fighting them, and finishing by singing opera with the radio. Gang culture is traditionally seen as hyper-masculine, almost to the point where it's the primary message presented, but this scene instead casts gangsters as a group of friends who like to goof around and have fun, even if it means quite serious violence.

                There are many, many more examples of the strange reality that Gunnar Kaufman inhabits, but the message to take from the overall theme of differing reality is that Beatty is attempting to re-interpet reality by presenting a reality that is stranger than our own. By regularly making us ask, "is this really happening? Could this really happen?" he is forcing us to examine the event in our own lives as well. Basketball culture, gang life, and what it means to be black are all warped so deeply in this book that we have to ask at some point, "well, what does it mean that Gunnar is preternaturally gifted at basketball and that even though he is literally the black messiah all he wants to do is die?" Only in the answer to these questions can we begin to understand the reality in White Boy Shuffle, and by extension our own reality.