AfroPunk
Here are some ideas from and questions about the film "AfroPunk." Please post a response on the blog today:
At the beginning of the film someone observes, "being Black and being a punk rocker are pretty similar." What do you think is meant by this? Does this idea get explored any further in the documentary?
In what ways does this film counter (or go against) the dominant ideas in society about Black youth? In what ways do the people in the film perpetuate or contradict stereotypes about gender, race, class, youth?
The film's participants suggest that the dominant idea in society about Punk (music and lifestyle) is that it's a "waste of time and self-destructive, but it's actually really about self-learning." One interviewee notes, "the kids in the Punk movement are asking deep questions about their future, about their place in the world and when kids ask those types of questions, people should listen." Throughout the film the people being interviewed contend that Punk is not just a state of mind, but a way of life. It's thought of as a lifestyle -- which is about struggles that are personal, social, and political. They talk about being "caught in a system you don't identify with and can't support." What do you think they mean by this?
posted by Erin @ 11:03 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Being Black in America is synonymous to the concepts of alienation, struggle and overcoming. Similarly, a punk rocker feels outcasted by mainstream society whether it is due to parental, social, or economic factors. So the concepts of being black and entering the punk rocker lifestyle are indeed linked. However, the paradigm of the typical punk rock scene is a lifestyle filled with Caucasians.
Black youth are typically presented to be poverty stricken free-stylin' gangsters that are loud, obnoxious, theives, and druggies running around "the 'hood" in their sparkling clean Jordans. This documentary shows a completely different dimension to Black youth. Females are shown as permed full bodied women who can "shake it like a salt shaka" and braid their men's hair. This documentary on the other hand shows Black men and women alike sporting piercings everywhere and dressing in similar clothing filled with safety pins and other accessories. Men and women both share the same taste in hairstyle as well, such as the love of mohawks. The punk rock movement captured Blacks of all social classes, from the working urban middle class to the bourgousie class.
While the punk rockers may justify their lifestyle with positive aspects. In many ways, it is also in many ways self-destructive. Just because one is asking the right questions doesn't mean living in this lifestyle gives you the right answers. The documentary doesn't explore the punk rocker world of continuous drugs, sex, and alcohol. Being homeless and careerless is a serious and devastating lifestyle, and throwing yourself in a way of life that doesn't promote a stable career, family, or education is not personally my type of scene. But in any case, to each his own.
~Debarshi
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