8
Arts & Entertainment
Campus Echo -
Thursday, October 28,1999 f
North Carolina Central University
he underground
sound is the
heart beat of
hip-hop. It’s the
part that keeps
it alive. And ■
alive it was on
Oct. 16 when
backpackers, mcs, and
poets packed the Cat's
Cradle in Chapel Hill.
Once again it was time
for the Duel of the Iron
Mies when the area’s best
underground mcs come to
battle for the title, “Lord
Over AH Mies I Survey.”
It was billed as the WWF
of hip-hop, but forget the
people's elbow it’s about
the people’s mic. The
atmosphere was primed for
a battle of the local heavy
weights. The smell of weed
wafted in the air and
Coronas were raised in cel
ebration. Grafitti was the
wallpaper. DJs Skaz Daddy
and Bro Rabb supplied
beats for the mcs to rock
over.
But before we could wit
ness the titans' battle for
the $175 prize, a
Dreamcast, and most
importantly, respect from their peers,
there was a pre-show of local artist.
Campus Hills, Ti-Fu, Flawless, Taj-
Mahal and Xtended Family gave the
crowd a spoonful of that good ole' Bull
City hip-hop.
'There were judges and hosts as
usual. DJ Madd of Madd Waxx and DJ
Samps of WXDU along with the
“Chosen One” Courtney C. hosted.
There were five judges doing their
.. and the last
shall he first.
Story & photos by Rashaun Rucker
Olomatade stares down the competition.
Jive artist, Truck Turner,
showed his face at the battle.
M
Cha'pel HilVs Ti-Fu flex their muscles at the Duel of the Iron Mies.
NCCV’s DJ 9th Wonder and
Phonte Coleman were among the local stars.
thing. Two were NCCU’s own Truitt
Avery O'Neal, of WNCU, and DJ Ninth
Wonder (Pat Douthit), and the all-see
ing DJ Daddy Rich of Duke's WXDU.
The 16 mcs went head-to-head and
topic to topic. The topics weeded out
the Vanilla Ice-Young MC-Hammer
types. Only real mcs can battle on ran
dom topics. It worked. Mcs came and
went faster than Michael Jackson's
skin tones. In the end only four were
left: Olomatade, Lovejoy, J-Gun and
Central’s Phonte Coleman. Punch-lines
flew faster than the lyson-Norris fight.
Coleman and J-Gun were the punch
lines kings. Coleman delivered several
severe verbal assaults:
“Are y’all really feeling him/he so
wack/he make Master P sound like
Eminem/A fake ass Common Sense
without the confidence.”
In the first battle of the final four.
Olomatade defeated Coleman in a con
troversial battle.
In the second battle, Lovejoy of Ti-
Fu was put to rest quickly by 15-year-
old J-Gun. J-Gun won the battle by tak
ing a jab at Lovejoy's association with
Ti-Fti: “Ti-Fu baby/^you do-do baby/is
your name really Lovejoy/cause I think
you love boys.”
The crowd went crazy. I was sweat
ing because I'm fat and I was feverishly
awaiting the battle of Olomatade and ,1-
Gun. The final battle was not as excit-, ,
ing as I expected.
Instead of Martin against Chris .
Tucker, punch-line for punch-line, it
was more like Rodney Dangerfield
George Bums. With Olomatade getting.^
no respect, the Duel of the Iron Mies ?
lived up to the WWF billing giving the
crowd more smack-downs on mcs than
WWF Raw, minus the Rock.
)AL to
W hether the topic is interracial adoption,
affirmative action, or fair housing-all rest
on a common-sense assumption: race
as we know it (for better or worse) is real.
In America, Eugene Robinson could not pass for
white, but in Brazil he discovered he did not have to
call himseif black-because “black" was more of a
description than a group designation.
Brazilians look at the color of your skin vs. the one-
drop rule in the United States-if you have one drop
of African blood then you are black. In Brazil your
color—“black or brown, tan, taupe, copper, cinna
mon or at least a dozen shades of beige”—deter
mines your racial landscape.
In the United States, African-Americans embrace
the idea of black solidarity or blackness. So what is
blackness? Does it make you more "black" to
attend a black school vs. a white school? Or are you
“black” based on how 'hard and cruel' your world
was as a child?
Can either question speak for your color? Can one
or a group speak for the whole? No. But unfortu
nately the majority is spoken for by a word: Black.
—Tomeika Boweden
T he book, “Coal to Cream," makes one
wonder why so many Americans have a
color complex issue to deal with and why
are we, as Americans, so focused on
race? We should just be able to see a person for
who he or she is, not according to the color of
their skin or race.
—DeShelia Hall
Six Students React
j'l
c,nj
When “Coal to Cream” author, Eugene
Robinson, assistant managing editor at the
Washington Post, was appointed bureau chief
to South America, he was immediately per
plexed by the country's focus on color, rather
than race.
The book’s liner reads;
At first Robinson saw Brazil as a racial para
dise, where people of all hues and colors min
gled together on the beaches... but... his
most basic assumptions were shattered when
he was told he didn’t have to be black in Brazil
if he didn't want to be. The society looked at
people through a broad spectrum of colors,
ranging from "white” to “coffee with milk” to
“after midnight, ” and not as a member of two
rigidly defined races. Like most African
Americans, Robinson always recognized the
existence of color gradations within the black
community-the members of his own family
span the entire range from coal to creamhbut
he never looked at color the same way after
that encounter at Ipanema.
“Coal to Cream” is the story of Robinson’s per
sonal exploration of race, color, identity, cui
ture, and heritage. As he immersed himself in
Brazilian culture, Robinson began to see that
its focus on color and class-as opposed to
race—presents problems of /ts own.
Discrimination and inequality still exist, but *
without a sense of racial identity. The T
Brazilians lack the anger and vocabulary they ^
need to attack or even describe such ills.
C,i
Ultimately, Robinson came to realize that
racial identity, what makes him... a black
American, is a gift of great value~a shared
language of history and experience-rather i
than the burden it had sometimes seemed.
The Campus Echo asked six students to
respond to the book’s Prologue and to review
“Coal to Cream.”
U
Cod to Cream”
sees racism
from a point of
view that is different from what most Americans have experi
enced. The author, Eugene Robinson, thought he had found
the racial “promise land” in Brazil where there was no racism.
However, his beliefs were crushed because he found the
worse kind of racism, one that separates members of the
same group.
The lighter-skinned blacks have the most advantages, while
darker-skinned blacks are considered to be of a lower class.
Although Robinson sees this as different from the U.S., I see
“The breeze:
' blew balmy .... the gritty
' warmth of the sand between
my toes.” Eugene Robinson seems to be describing paradise
in the prologue to his book “Coal to Cream.” Why then is that
serpent called Race winding its way through this paradise of
beauty and innocence as he progresses through the story? As
a visitor to the American culture this seemingly obsession
with race continues to perplex me.
As he described the picturesque city of Rio de Janeiro, his
focus continued to be the racial mix of the country. This sce
nario brought me back to a typical day at school at this histor
ical black college. Of the four classes in my day, three of them
will have discussions centered on race. I have tried and faiied
to understand why race relations play such a significant role
parallels. During slavery in the U.S., lighter-skinned blacks typ
ically had the “softer” jobs like working in the main house or
driving the owner around. The darker-skinned slaves tended to
work in the fields and do the “harder” work around the planta
tion.
This division of the black race in the U.S. has continued to the
present. Although this division is not imposed on our race by
whites, we, African-Americans, impose this division on our
selves because we have been taught indirectly through older
people and media that “bright is right.”
—Vicki McLean
in the life of the average American that I have encountered.
My country is a lot like Brazil with a diverse cultural mix and
the majority race being black. Perhaps that makes it easier to
take for granted the fact that the leaders of my country are
black. But these leaders got there because of their qualifica
tions. They put no limitations on their capabilities because of
injustices against their race in the system.
Eugene Robinson became enlightened about his own prob
lems with racial identity while staying among the Brazilians.
He learned that he did not have to run from his blackness but
rather he needed to embrace it
—Marissa Wiiliams
Who
exactly is consid-
I ered black?
Who’s white?
Who's something else? These are a few
of many questions that author Eugene
Robinson asked himself after his experi
ence in South America.
“She was a small woman with jet black
hair, flaring nostrils, high cheek6ones,
and brown skin at least a couple of
shades darker than mine.” This woman
was trying to tell Robinson that she was
not black, but white. Somebody needs
to wake her up and give her a couple of
‘black lessons.’ It is clear that the
Brazilians look at race very differently
than Americans.
I am what you call a thick boned, with
medium length hair, high cheekbones,
dark brown woman. There is no doubt in
my mind that I am black. No matter
what career field that I'm in or position
that I hold, I will always be black.
Robinson stated in his prologue that
“Race was important: race was trivial.”
The world is taking color and race to the
extreme. I would be a fool to actually
think I could be considered white
because I am not literally the color of
black. Even white people are not really
white. They are in close proximity to
white like black people are to black.
This whole race thing was just made up
to make it easier for every one to keep
up with each other. It is no big deal. So,
just let it be. The way I look at it is, the
world has so many different nationali
ties and so many mixed marriages that
sooner or later this race thing is not
going to matter.
—Marsha Perry
I never thought about how we ;.,
index—or categorize, that „ -
is—people in Sweden until I
came to NCCU. One day we
were discussing “The Bluest J.
Eye" by Toni Morrison, some- ‘ ^
body asked me how he would be
treated if he went to Sweden.
I answered that Americans are
considered “cool” in Sweden, and thatT
he would be treated very well. He . A,
seemed content and we left it at that A
but I spent the rest of the day thinking i'-
about this exchange.l wondered what' .
my answer would have been if it had
been someone who planned to immi-
grate to Sweden from Poland, Turkey, ■
or Albania asking me the same ques- »•
tion. One-fifth of Sweden’s population -‘
consist of immigrants and their desce-
dents. I would like to think that every- ""
one is considered equal, or “cool,” as
in the case of Americans, but I know
that that is not the case.
In Sweden people are not seen as
different and foreign based only on ^
the color of their skin. It also depends;,
on how well you speak the Swedish
language, what country you come
from, and how different your last
name is. I speak flawless Swedish,
and nothing about my appearance
suggest that I am anything but a
native Swede, yet there is one thing
that might present a problem for me
when I return and start applying for
jobs-my last name.
j
.rO
My father is from Bosnia. I have an
Arabic last name. Recent surveys ^
have shown that job applications with ,
foreign sounding last names are often/,
ignored in favor of applicants with
Swedish sounding names.l might
actually have a better chance gettingL—"*
the job if my name sounded
American. ’T". ^
— Jennie Aiabasie^^^