Dave Chappell is a unbiased comedian. He makes fun of every race, one at a time. Dave’s stereotype prodding humor has won him acclaim and criticism alike, but his pinpoint accuracy seems to always slip when he attempts to mock the stereotypes of the “white” man. Like so many comics, Chappell has difficulty targeting the cultural center of white America, using as his token image the facade of a well to do uptight businessman.
Unlike the African Americans of the last century, European Americans have never experienced a truly cohesive experience. Instead of one culture and people, as many mentally disturbed white supremacist groups believe, Caucasian America is simply a loosely associated series of subcultures and non-cultures. To put it another way, there is no white culture.
Is white culture Puritan of Mediterranean? Do the Hippies represent our culture, or do the rednecks? The truth is that these clashing subcultures have never truly bonded, and our beginnings as the bastard child of Europe are still evident today. There is simply too much land in America for a single culture to remain whole, and even with the advent of mass media, our regional dialects and quirks are as evident as ever.
If there is a common fashion style, it is only the ubiquitous American style, which is influenced to some degree by Puritan aesthetics, but also has evolved on it’s own without thought to race. The t-shirt, for instance, is not necessarily “white” clothing, or a part of “white” culture. The t-shirt is simply a part of American culture.
During the last century, African Americans have taken hold of their identity from their looted past and reinvigorated themselves as a culture of creativity and innovation. Without access to nationalist identities, and held captive in a land of foreigners, the African Americans melded together into a new and unavoidable cultural identity. Sealed together by the Civil Rights Movement, African American culture has carved a niche for itself in the national and world views.
Hip Hop and Rap are the latest incarnations of African American culture, and possibly the most well known in the world. Their daring reinventions and unnecessary bravado is an attractor to young people of every race and nationality. The phenomenon of the non-black Hip-Hop kid has become so common that it has lost most of it’s humor. But while the racial interchange has diversified the musical movement, the origins and ownership of the genre will always be considered African American.
American Caucasians have no great driving musical genre. Country is loved by some but hated by just as many. Rock and Roll was stolen from African Americans in many ways so it can’t really count, and Techno is just dumb. Our continentally historical grouping just can’t really agree on anything. The only thing we still kind of have going is Christianity, but even that cannot truly describe modern “white culture” because of the growing sect of practicing atheists.
As much as it may pain the deranged proponents of “white solidarity,” we are not a culture, or a people. As Americans we are a people and a culture, and we exist in colorful and prolific sub-cultures, all of which blend is small ways, but never wholly. Unfortunately, this makes it truly impossible to make fun of white people as a group. Sorry Dave.
