Responding to Common Arguments About What Is or Isn’t Offensive

(My wife and I are starting this new website dedicated to resources about commonly-misunderstood social justice concepts.  Hopefully with less bad clip art.  It's not public yet, but here's a sneak preview.)

So you’re out to dinner and your friend’s friend just said something offensive. Maybe it was a sexist remark to the waitress, a homophobic slur under his breath or a racist joke. Whatever it was, you decide to say something, because you’re a decent person.

A: (something offensive)

B: Whoa, come on, man; there’s no need for language like that.

A: Oh great, here comes the PC police.

B: Really, the “PC Police?” What are you, a hacky stand up comic from ten years ago? I just think saying things like what you said is unnecessary. If you’re upset, there are a million different ways you can express that; choosing one that is offensive to a lot of people is just needlessly mean-spirited. Political correctness doesn’t mean censoring your thoughts or emotions; it just means trying to express those thoughts or emotions like less of a jackass.

A: Whatever. I didn’t even mean it in an offensive way.

B: It doesn’t matter what you meant to say. That’s what you said. You don’t get to dictate whether or not other people are “allowed” to be offended. If you set a house on fire and people get hurt, you don’t get off clean because you thought the house was empty. You are responsible for your actions, and your words.

A: It’s okay, I offend all groups equally, I’m an equally-opportunity offender.

B: So you’re someone who likes to participate in the oppression of all kinds of different people? You think that excuses you? That’s a hundred times worse!

A: It’s just a word. You should care more about the real problems in the world.

B: That’s assuming that language doesn’t impact the “real problems” in the world. It does. It’s also assuming that I don’t already care about the “real problems” of the world. I do. It’s possible to care about big issues and little, everyday issues, and the real key is seeing how they’re all intertwined.

A: But it’s freedom of speech!

B: I’m not trying to make it illegal for you to say stupid shit; I’m trying to talk to you directly about why you shouldn’t. That’s a big difference. It’s legal for you commission a painting of yourself riding a unicorn across the Grand Canyon, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it. It’s legal for you to cheat on your partner, eat jellybeans for every meal and listen to the Black Eyed Peas, but that doesn’t mean you should do any of those things. And it’s not like you’re saying offensive things to make some larger point or comment on some grand, radical idea. You’re just being offensive for no reason. To hide behind the “freedom of speech” argument is pretty cowardly.

A: Why are you being so sensitive?

B: Why are you? Why can’t you just apologize for saying something hurtful? Why do the people who say or do offensive things always get so defensive? Why can’t you just admit that you said something you shouldn’t have, try not to do it again and move on? Why do people like you cling so desperately to your “right” to be an insensitive jackass and cry so readily when anyone tries to call you out on it?

A: Fine. But explain to me why it’s offensive.

B: Do I owe you an explanation? It’s not like anyone is arguing that you shouldn’t use the letter “H” or that all proper nouns are racist. That would be inconvenient. The language that the so-called “PC police” want people to avoid is stuff you probably don’t say that much anyway. For example, do non-Black people really need to use the n-word? Like, are you just DYING to use it all the time? Does it offend or sadden you that you’re not “allowed” to use it? Probably not. So don’t use it, ever. Believe it or not, it’s incredibly easy to live your whole life without ever calling someone a “fag” or saying that you “got jewed.” A person kind of has to go out of their way to be offensive, and that’s part of why it can be so frustrating to deal with.

A: Okay, okay. I’m sorry. But I’m really not a bad person.

B: Most people aren’t “bad people.” We all make mistakes, we all have issues to work on and we all could do better. The important thing to remember is that the impact of your language/actions is always more important than your intent. Friendly, decent people can still take part in oppressive systems, and language is one of the most common potentially oppressive systems that we have to deal with. We have to take responsibility for the impact of our words and actions, no matter what the intent behind them may be.

A: Thanks for the lecture, Professor Buzzkill.

B: You’re welcome.

(RELATED: "Invalid Pop Culture Arguments")

10 Responses to the Phrase "Man Up" (spoken-word)

New piece. I really hate those Miller Lite commercials, but it's definitely bigger than just that. Felt good to talk about it on stage.  This is one of the first performances of this piece, and it'll probably be polished some and hopefully filmed more professionally at some point.  But I wanted to post it now.

On a side note, I know there are a ton of spoken-word pieces out there about masculinity.  I've got this one too.  But I think it's important to keep talking about these issues, especially if you can do it in a creative way, or at least have a new angle or hook.  I think there's a bad tendency in spoken-word circles to dismiss any poem that covers well-trod territory (like "here's another hip hop poem," or "here's another domestic violence poem") and while I completely understand where that's coming from and agree that we should be pushing ourselves in terms of subject matter, I ALSO believe that certain topics deserve the attention.  Especially as someone who works with young people--particularly young men-- I like to have three or four of these kinds of poems in my pocket.

Anyways, hope you like it.  Might be a bit of a "preaching to the choir" piece in some ways, but that all depends on with whom we all share it.  Any FB posts, tweets, tumblr posts, re-blogs and whatever are much appreciated, as always.

EDIT: added the words here:

How to Read About Hip Hop

This is the companion piece to my “How to Write About Hip Hop” essay.

A huge part of finding success as an artist today is crafting your narrative. It isn’t enough to just be good— you need a compelling story. And if you don’t have a compelling story, you have to make one the hell up. And it’s not just the artists themselves— publicists, music writers, bloggers, talking heads on Twitter and fans all play this game too and usually go unquestioned. Here are a few examples of how it plays out:

Great Ear for Beats = This is the hip hop equivalent of “he’s got a nice personality.” Of course, production is important, but to describe an MC using this phrase instead of just saying “the beats were great” is like saying “the best part of the movie was the theater’s clean bathrooms.” It’s also another way that hip hop producers go unheralded.

Versatile = Can make horrible club songs, horrible street songs, horrible love songs and horrible filler tracks, all on the same album!

Edgy = Sex and drugs oh no!!! The word “edgy” almost always refers to subject matter that is absolutely shocking to 11-year olds. Artists who try to maintain an aura of edginess very rarely present any real threat to the powers-that-be, or to the status quo, or to anything. Real edginess comes from pushing the audience out of their comfort zone and toward something greater, not just saying naughty words.

Relevant = Relevant to 14-year old white girls.

Emo = Used pejoratively 99% of the time, this word refers to any expression of emotion at all. All earnestness is “over-earnestness.” All drama is melodrama. I hate to use the h-word, but the hipster movement was and is so anti-sincerity that it’s created an incredibly hostile climate for artists who, you know, have feelings. If you’re not a fake heroin kingpin, ironic joke rapper or soulless rhyme-scheme technician, you’re probably “emo.”

Futuristic = OMG synthesizers!

Hungry = This can either mean “hard-working” (see below) or “this MC raps loudly and at an above-average tempo.” It’s easy to fake hunger. It’s also a handy word to use when you’re describing an artist who has no real accomplishments, experience or talent. For example, most good bios talk about concrete things like who you’ve opened for, what awards you’ve won, where you’ve been written up, etc. But if you don’t have any of that stuff, just say that you’re “THE HUNGRIEST RAPPER IN THE GAAAAAME.”

Organic = OMG no synthesizers!

Poetic = Most often refers to lyrics that don’t make any god damn sense. Maybe it’s just because I actually am a poet, but this one irks me. For example, I feel like most people would say that Lupe’s “Dumb it Down” is more “poetic” than, say, “Kick, Push.” But by my definition, “Kick, Push” is a million times more poetic. Poetry isn’t fancy talk and big words—it’s creating work that functions on multiple levels, that says something deeper than the literal meaning. It’s not just abstract, stream-of-conscious babbling. Good poetry doesn’t use complex language to say simple stuff; it uses simple language to express complex ideas.

Amazing/Awesome/Incredible = (vomits) These words fundamentally DON’T MEAN ANYTHING. Stop using them.

Great Flow = Here’s the thing about flow… it’s a foundational element of rapping. 95% of rappers have at least a “good” flow, or they wouldn’t be rapping. And while there are rappers out there who have legitimately great flows—Elzhi, Kendrick Lamar, Gift of Gab, etc., I would argue that most music writers and fans don’t really know enough about hip hop aesthetics to separate “okay” from “good” from “great.” A lot of the time, “great flow” translates to “this rapper knows how to rap on beat,” which is kind of like saying “that truck does a great job spinning its wheels and moving forward.”

Doesn’t Fit into the Traditional Rapper Mold = Usually, this is a euphemism for “this rapper isn’t a scary black guy.” And it’s always presented as both extremely positive and mind-blowingly novel, as though no rapper has ever rapped about anything other than guns and drugs.

Literate = I have no idea what this means when it’s used in hip hop reviews, and it’s used a LOT. I guess it’s good that the MC isn’t just saying “GOBBLE GOBBLE BEEBOO MAGAAAAAA!” over the beats. I mean, I know that “literate” can refer to knowledge and skill (and not just the ability to read & write), but I think words like this perpetuate the whole “this rap over here is smart, and this rap over here is dumb” stereotype that, while sometimes true, is often a gross oversimplification.  I mean, "literate" to whom?  It's a pretty loaded word, in terms of race, class and culture.

Chill = This doesn’t come up in actual reviews as much as it does in breathlessly positive blog posts and show recaps. “Chill” is every underground-rap fan’s favorite fucking word. Your talent doesn’t matter; as long as you’re “chill,” you can build an enormous fan base.

Pretentious = Now, this word has a real meaning and sometimes does apply to hip hop acts.  But it's way overused.  The rap bloggerati know what they like, and anything outside of that narrow, traditionalist range is often called "pretentious."  6/8 time signature?  Pretentious.  Overarching metaphor or concept song?  Pretentious.  Dropping out the drums for four bars?  Pretentious.  Trying to say something new and original?  Go polish your monocle, college-boy.

Hard-Working = Two things here. First, who cares? You could be a brilliant songwriter and not be hard-working, or you could be the best hustler in the universe and still be a wack MC. Secondly, when a writer says that an artist is “hard-working,” it usually means “I’ve seen that artist on a lot of blogs.” That’s what hustle has evolved into—record a million disposable songs, send emails to as many bloggers as possible and hope to get a couple of posts.

And sure, that does take work. But as an artist “hard work” needs to mean something more than that, something beyond the internet, beyond handing out flyers, beyond networking and schmoozing. What’s almost always missing from conversations about hard work is the end goal. What are you actually working for?

I guess it’s a matter of perspective, something that applies to every one of these points, not just the last one. Hip hop writers, publicists and bloggers can get away with a lot of spinning because the average hip hop fan (not to mention artist) doesn’t have a genuine relationship to the culture and won’t pick any of this stuff apart critically. Maybe that sounds harsh, but I think it’s true (and isn’t exclusive to hip hop). So it’s good to keep writers (including me) on their toes.

Did I miss any?

Vote for Guante in Lazerbeak's Rap Contest

So the Doomtree hip hop collective is pretty big up here in MN. And producer Lazerbeak is kind of the cog that makes it all work, at least in my opinion. He's got a new album out now. And when I heard he was having a contest where MCs could rap over one of his beats, I figured why not.

My song is called TATTOOS FOR TODDLERS.  Check it out here:
Guante by Lava Bangers Rap Contest

I wanted to write a fully-realized song for this; it's subject matter that I've tackled before, but it's something I'm passionate about so it was fun to take a crack at it from a new angle. Singing and fast-rapping are two things that I rarely do, and that's pretty much all this song is, so it was a great challenge too. See More Perspective mixed and recorded it. If I don't win, we'll probably just remix it and release it as something else.

If you like it, you can vote for it HERE.
Voting ends on Monday. If I win, I get a million dollars or something. So any re-posts, RTs or forwards are much appreciated.

You can check out the other entries HERE. Shout to Homeless and Analyrical because I know them, haha.

A Call for Submissions: Spoken-Word Poems on Gender

Poets—I’m putting together a series of online compilation CDs, and the first one will be for poems about gender. From deconstructing masculinity or femininity, to talking about gender privilege, to examining (and challenging) gender roles, to anything that relates to this general topic.

Poems can be any style—serious, funny, direct, abstract, etc. Be creative. Me and a small team will choose the poems that work best in the context of the entire project and then make the compilation available free-of-charge for use by social justice educators and anyone else who might be interested.

To submit, email one or more audio files (brand new stuff or old stuff, live recordings or studio recordings, with or without music—as long as they sound good) to me at elguante@gmail.com or send me a link to a track through SoundCloud or Bandcamp or whatever.  DEADLINE: March 1.

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Art has the power to frame social justice issues in a powerful way. There’s so much thought-provoking, high-quality work in our community, and I think consolidating some of it around specific topics will be a great way to reach out to new listeners. Let me know if anyone has any questions.

Video: "Neutral: An Open Letter to Michele Bachmann"

This piece really isn't about Michele Bachmann-- as I say in the poem, she's a convenient figurehead.  The problem here is much bigger, of course.  I'll let the poem speak for itself, but definitely wanted to share some further reading material and ways to plug in:

MINNPOST: "Bullying gay and lesbian kids: How a school district became a suicide contagion area"

A Star Tribune piece about GSAs in the Anoka-Hennepin school district.

A Star Tribune piece about how the neutrality policy is being challenged.

Website for the Southern Poverty Law Center

This page at the MN Activist Project lists a few organizations in the Twin Cities area who do work around LGBTQ rights.  Check them out and get involved.

If anyone knows specific ways that people can plug in, please leave a comment.

Guante & Big Cats!: WINTER IS COMING (free download and album annoucement)

Winter Is Coming (prod. Big Cats!) by Guante

As a duo, we haven't released any new material since last year's "Don't Be Nice" mixtape, although Big Cats! has been making tons of noise with The Tribe & Big Cats!, and I've been doing a bunch of solo stuff.  This song is a free download, and it's also the official announcement for our next album:

"YOU BETTER WEAPONIZE" will be out in 2012.  This song isn't on the album.  But the songs that are on the album are some of our best work ever.  More details to come.  Follow us on FB.

Plus a quick review:  Back in 2010, we released "An Unwelcome Guest," a concept album that fused radical politics with a love story with a zombie story.  It featured guest spots from Haley Bonar, Joe Horton of No Bird Sing, Prolyphic, Big Quarters and Chastity Brown.  Tru Ruts put it out and Strange Famous (Sage Francis' label) helped us out with presale packages.  If you still haven't heard it, give it a listen.  Two years out, I can see a few things that I would have done differently, but it's still an ambitious, musically-cohesive, lyrically-challenging project and we're both proud of it.  Listen to the whole album (and buy it if you like it) at this link.

Finally, here's a link to us performing live on 89.3 The Current's Local Show:


As always, any sharing (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Blogs, word-of-mouth) is definitely appreciated.