David Brooks is a Playa Hata
Now that the Times have made their editorial section subscription-only, most missed this inane rant last week from David Brooks. In a nutshell, he blamed the chaos in France on rap music. Obviously, Brooks couldn't be more wrong. The true catalyst was, of course, them shoot 'em up video games those darn French teenagers are always playing. If you missed his column, it's a must read, just for its pure stupidity:
Gangsta, in French
By DAVID BROOKS
After 9/11, everyone knew there was going to be a debate about the future of Islam. We just didn't know the debate would be between Osama bin Laden and Tupac Shakur.Yet those seem to be the lifestyle alternatives that are really on offer for poor young Muslim men in places like France, Britain and maybe even the world beyond. A few highly alienated and fanatical young men commit themselves to the radical Islam of bin Laden. But most find their self-respect by embracing the poses and worldview of American hip-hop and gangsta rap.
One of the striking things about the scenes from France is how thoroughly the rioters have assimilated hip-hop and rap culture. It's not only that they use the same hand gestures as American rappers, wear the same clothes and necklaces, play the same video games, and sit with the same sorts of car stereos at full blast. It's that they seem to have adopted the same poses of exaggerated manhood, the same attitudes about women, money and the police. They seem to have replicated the same sort of gang culture, the same romantic visions of gunslinging drug dealers.In a globalized age it's perhaps inevitable that the culture of resistance gets globalized, too. What we are seeing is what Mark Lilla of the University of Chicago calls a universal culture of the wretched of the earth. The images, modes and attitudes of hip-hop and gangsta rap are so powerful they are having a hegemonic effect across the globe.
American ghetto life, at least as portrayed in rap videos, now defines for the young, poor and disaffected what it means to be oppressed. Gangsta resistance is the most compelling model for how to rebel against that oppression. If you want to stand up and fight The Man, the Notorious B.I.G. shows the way.
This is a reminder that for all the talk about American cultural hegemony, American countercultural hegemony has always been more powerful. America's rebellious countercultural heroes exert more influence around the world than the clean establishment images from Disney and McDonald's. This is our final insult to the anti-Americans; we define how to be anti- American, and the foreigners who attack us are reduced to borrowing our own cliches.
When rap first came to France, American rappers dominated the scene, but now the suburban immigrant neighborhoods have produced their own stars in their own language. French rap lyrics today are like the American gangsta lyrics of about five or 10 years ago, when it was more common to fantasize about cop killings and gang rape.
Most of the lyrics can't be reprinted in this newspaper, but you can get a sense of them from, say, a snippet from a song from Bitter Ministry:
"Another woman takes her beating./This time she's called Brigitte./She's the wife of a cop."Or this from Mr. R's celebrated album "PolitiKment IncorreKt":
"France is a bitch. Don't forget to [deleted] her to exhaustion. You have to treat her like a whore, man! My niggers and my Arabs, our playground is the street with the most guns!"The French gangsta pose is familiar. It is built around the image of the strong, violent hypermacho male, who loudly asserts his dominance and demands respect. The gangsta is a brave, countercultural criminal. He has nothing but rage for the institutions of society: the state and the schools. He shows his own cruel strength by dominating women. It is perhaps no accident that until the riots, the biggest story coming out of these neighborhoods was the rise of astonishing and horrific gang rapes.
In other words, what we are seeing in France will be familiar to anyone who watched gangsta culture rise in this country. You take a population of young men who are oppressed by racism and who face limited opportunities, and you present them with a culture that encourages them to become exactly the sort of people the bigots think they are -- and you call this proud self- assertion and empowerment. You take men who are already suspected by the police because of their color, and you romanticize and encourage criminality so they will be really despised and mistreated. You tell them to defy oppression by embracing self-destruction.
In America, at least, gangsta rap is sort of a game. The gangsta fan ends up in college or law school. But in France, the barriers to ascent are higher. The prejudice is more impermeable, and the labor markets are more rigid. There really is no escape.
Needless to say, Brooks isn't keepin' shit real. [Thanks for the tip, John]
Comments
Mr Brrrrroks, avez-vous déja visité les cités francaises? Je crois que non. Votre article meme que vos avis n'est qu une connerie ....... elo
Posted by: Youry | November 26, 2005 08:49 AM
I can't believe that some prick from USA tries to analyze situation in Europe. Sorry you guys in USA, but you just aren't smart enough to be able to understand to culture that doesn't like hamburgers and coke... Those "Gangstas" in France are just poor kids who have seen to much of MTV and don't want to act a we are used to... Well they got no chance, their next generations will become civilized and they'll start rap about hoes and weed:D
Posted by: Deep Throat | November 26, 2005 06:57 AM
You are stupid.
Posted by: Dj Back | November 25, 2005 03:59 PM
This article is shit.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 25, 2005 01:12 PM
"In America, at least, gangsta rap is sort of a game. The gangsta fan ends up in college or law school."
Oops, except conservative ideology is about destroying the kinds of "big government" social safety nets that would actually make this statement true in America.
Posted by: Eyeraw | November 19, 2005 02:54 PM
David Brooks was also part of the crowd back in the early 90's who thought the Beach Boys were too subversive for Pa Bush's innaugural. What a dweeb!
Hey, did somebody smash David's face up in photoshop? You can't tell me he really looks that goofy!
Posted by: Bryan Hiott | November 18, 2005 08:17 PM
I didn't know they made toupees that simulated male pattern baldness. (yeah, I'm ducking the issue and attacking the person for looking funny. booya)
Posted by: Hayta Hayta | November 15, 2005 03:59 PM
...and I also heard that the French Revolution was incited by Robespierre when he dropped his multi-platnium classic, "Off wit their headz".
Posted by: Ben | November 15, 2005 02:39 PM
To some degree, he's right. It's just sad that, as a journalist, he never saw the need to investigate what the fuck he was editorializing about any further. He shouldn't even be allowed to pontificate on sub-cultures he has never taken the time to learn about. Sure, some of the negative things he says are true - there's a lot of rap music that's just bloated huffing and puffing that doesn't do any good for anything - except, maybe rocking your car with the beat. But he never talks about the side of rap music that represents black people being disenfranchised(and this typifies his whole Republican philosophy) or how hip-hop culture sorts things out for confused people productively and can be about positivity. But most importantly, he can't comprehend that rap music doesn't create these problems or perpetuate them. He should learn to appreciate the arts as a way for people to get their frustrations on the table, at the least. I think we'd be extra screwed without the catharsis rap music provides. It proves what a stodgy, stereotypical, rich, white- guy, with a stick up his butt he is. If we lived in the negative universe he believes to be reality, rap music might actually be what he's describing here.
Posted by: Dookie Brains | November 14, 2005 02:51 PM