Party On
Rightfully, there is a chorus of criticism of white college students who are holding parties mocking the worst stereotypes of African-Americans. I guess it's not cool enough to dress up as important African-American leaders such as Martin Luther King or Jesse Jackson (though, as someone who's Jewish, I have my own issues with Jackson). Instead, it's deemed cool to toss around the "n" word, dress up as gangstas, drink malt liquor, and don black face.
"Where's the harm," these students are asking, noting that they're only mirroring the behavior of African-Americans and that they're only appropriating what they see as cool behavior. "We only want to be like you." Actually, I have my own opinion of the gangsta culture and don't believe African-Americans should behave this way. This type of behavior can be dangerous, marginalizes women, and only reinforces negative stereotypes. Still, it is one thing for African-Americans to act this way and quite another for whites to act this way.
For African-Americans, it diffuses the power of stereotypes by taking a racial epithet and making it part of their lexicon; for whites, as the class in power, it only serves to perpetuate an image, continue to disenfranchise African-Americans, and to deny African-Americans the equal treatment they deserve.
It is also a mockery of African-Americans only to want to mirror their worst behavior, as though it's the only way they behave. Nope, no African-Americans serve in important positions or are doctors or lawyers, no African-Americans are positive role models and leaders. Again, whites may say, "It's only harmless fun, African-Americans behave this way, why can't we?" The reasons why they can't are numerous. As one critic noted, it was once seen as fun to hold lynching parties and no harm was really done, none at all. It is making fun of African-Americans, again perpetuating stereotypes, intimating that all African-Americans behave this way, and continuing the tradition of demeaning them and not taking them seriously by dressing up in black face and making mockery of them by turning them into cartoonish figures in movies who walk around bug-eyed, only capable of saying, "Yes, massa, you sure is right massa."
Where African-Americans have created power systems by using the "n" word or using gangsta themes to skyrocket to success in the rap industry, whites can only keep African-Americans down by appropriating their behavior and saying this is the only way African-Americans behave. A subtle form of racism to be sure, but racism as much as segregation or lynching parties were.