2017-01-25
I've got a face, not just my race
The categories of identity politics are exactly the same as those of racism and sexism, just turned upside down on the scale of intentions. What is truly revolutionary is to erase these categories. The rock revolution of Presley, the Beatles and the Stones was all about blending race. The revolutionary blast of the New York Dolls and Glam Rock was about blending gender. Bowie, of course, did it all, which was continued by (post-Young Americans) Disco and all of his 80s children, including Prince, as well as all electronic music that derived (interestingly, Rock became a reactionary white affair, a bit like Jazz before it).
We're all individuals. "I've got a face, not just my race". Too bad academics and most political parties don't seem to accept that revolution and breakout of these categories.The point is that Identity Politics, rather than working to erase the categories of racism/sexism/homophobia, worked to enhance them, albeit with good intentions. The problem is that those linguistic categories have maintained and indeed enhanced the discourse of racism/sexism/homophobia itself---the good intentions of Identity Politics are a bit like how Graham Greene describes the good intentions of Alden Pyle, the Quiet American: "Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm". If civil rights had instead fought to erase the categories themselves (which many people like Gore Vidal for years have suggested), focusing on individual- rather than group-freedoms, we would not have created monsters like Trump. That is my opinion, anyway. Perpetuating these categories offers no solutions, simply entrenches distinctions among groups of (diverse) people.
We're all individuals. "I've got a face, not just my race". Too bad academics and most political parties don't seem to accept that revolution and breakout of these categories.The point is that Identity Politics, rather than working to erase the categories of racism/sexism/homophobia, worked to enhance them, albeit with good intentions. The problem is that those linguistic categories have maintained and indeed enhanced the discourse of racism/sexism/homophobia itself---the good intentions of Identity Politics are a bit like how Graham Greene describes the good intentions of Alden Pyle, the Quiet American: "Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm". If civil rights had instead fought to erase the categories themselves (which many people like Gore Vidal for years have suggested), focusing on individual- rather than group-freedoms, we would not have created monsters like Trump. That is my opinion, anyway. Perpetuating these categories offers no solutions, simply entrenches distinctions among groups of (diverse) people.
Labels: #Bowie, #Disco, #Gender, #House, #IdentityPolitics, #Music, #Prince, #Race
2016-05-10
PartyUp!
The last Bootique was our last riot before our European hiatus. It was a wonderful Party full of love with people who came to celebrate with us the last few years of the Riot, as well as people who came for the first time. I wanted to celebrate Prince and deliver a Party, and that's what we got. PartyUp is essentially my first set, (second of the night after DJ Angst), which ends with Prince's 1999. But since the Bootique kept the Riot up beyond closing time with amazing people, I also added the last few tracks of the night that I played at 3AM. DJ Angst and E-Trash, will return to our cybernetic DJing somewhere in Europe during the next year, and back in Bloomington sometime in 2017. Tracklist below, podcast for PartyUp on E-Trash's site (Username: apollo, Password: feelingfree).
Labels: #Disco, #DJ, #Funk, #House, #Prince, #Techno
