Papers by Travis Gosa
This essay interrogates the madness of racial discourse in Obamerica. Instead of signaling the be... more This essay interrogates the madness of racial discourse in Obamerica. Instead of signaling the beginning of post-racial America, Obama is further proof that America suffers from racial
schizophrenia, a disorder defined by, “auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, [and] disorganized speech and thinking.” In the madness of Obama-mania, the U.S. prematurely declared victory over racism even when the demography of poverty, wealth, education, and incarceration denotes the continuation of a racialized caste system. Worsening material conditions for Black and poor people in Obamerica has coincided with state sanctioned racial profiling via New York City’s “Stop-and-Frisk” policies, while the killings of Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Kimani Gray, Tamir Rice, and Aiyana Stanley-Jones have reignited concerns that it is open season on young, Black boys and girls.
While the educational difficulties of poor black students are well documented and have been dis- ... more While the educational difficulties of poor black students are well documented and have been dis- cussed extensively, the academic performance of well-off African American children has received much less attention. Even with economic and educational resources in the home, well-off African American youth are not achieving at the levels of their white peers. Why is this? A review of rel- evant literature identifies a set of social processes that pose formidable barriers to the academic and personal development of middle-class African American youth, the closing of the black-white achievement gap, and the preservation of African American family advantage across genera- tions. Constituting a social ecology of African American family life, these processes emanate out- ward from the immediate home environment, through peers and friends, into neighborhoods and schools, and to society at large.
This article examines “Obama-Hop,” rap music about Barack Obama, and the 2008 presidential electi... more This article examines “Obama-Hop,” rap music about Barack Obama, and the 2008 presidential election.1 Rap songs about election year politics were a highly visible aspect of the election (Hamby; NPR). This study provides the first systematic analysis of the political, racial, and gendered discourse of the Obama-Hop movement. While Obama’s campaign was discussed in the framework of “post-racialism” (Crowley), this study shows how Obama’s black masculinity became a major source of identification for rappers. The paper explores how Obama was depicted, embraced, and defended from scrutiny in hip-hop. Based on the review of ninety-seven Obama-themed mixtapes, I show how music was used in an attempt to energize youth toward voting and embracing Obama’s political messages.
This article contributes to existing research on knowledge production and popular racial discours... more This article contributes to existing research on knowledge production and popular racial discourse. Specifically, it explores the production and circulation of conspiracy theories and other stigmatized knowledge in popular culture. The article investigates how hip hop culture uses conspiratorial ideas to challenge racial inequality. The analysis draws on rap lyrics, news articles, and Internet websites to understand better the role of this prominent sub-theme within the contexts of entertainment and calculated identity politics. Hip hop culture is theorized as ‘‘counterknowledge,’’ an alternative knowledge system intended to challenge mainstream knowledge producers such as news media and academia. Building on John Jackson’s notion of ‘‘racial paranoia,’’ I show how hip hop’s alarmist and conspiratorial claims are meant to explain continued race-class disadvantage in an era of supposed color- blindness. This article traces the discourses that shape and influence hip hop including popular culture, prison culture, Black Muslim (‘‘Five Percenter’’) religion, and black books subculture. It reveals how hip hop resembles the ‘‘cultic milieu,’’ a space where disparate countercultural ideas propagate and create unlikely political alliances. Overall, the article seeks to demonstrate that conspiratorial thinking serves multiple purposes, including addressing legitimate but complex political grievances in contemporary society.
This is Ice-T’s “Napoleon moment.” He graduated from the streets, conquered the music industry, a... more This is Ice-T’s “Napoleon moment.” He graduated from the streets, conquered the music industry, and built a multimedia empire. Today, he is laying siege to the ivory tower. Ice-T uses the black noise of reality rap (“gangsta rap”) and thrash metal (via his band Body Count), to expose the hypocrisy of white, middle class normativity and the failure of the politics of middle-class black respectability.
Knowledge of self” refers to the Afro-diasporic mix of spiritual and political consciousness desi... more Knowledge of self” refers to the Afro-diasporic mix of spiritual and political consciousness designed to empower members of oppressed groups. The performance arts of MCing (“rapping”), DJing (“spinning”), breakdancing (“b-girling”), and graffiti (“writing”) are often identified as the “four core elements” of hip-hop, but less attention has been given to the central role of knowledge in the cultural formation of hip-hop culture. This chapter provides a revisionist historiog- raphy of hip-hop knowledge, specifically, its early normative development within the socio-economic realities of the 1970s’ South Bronx. Building on the spatial theories of Murray Forman and Cheryl Keyes, special attention is given to how Afrika Bambaataa attempted to move hip-hop from street consciousness to Afrocentric empowerment.Woven throughout the narrative of this chapter is the theme of tension between knowledge and the commercial impetus of hip-hop. Money, whether from the streets and/or multinational corporations, has helped spread hip-hop culture, but has also served as a major roadblock to making hip-hop part of an emancipatory politic.
This is an amicus brief on rap music that was submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of th... more This is an amicus brief on rap music that was submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the petitioner, Taylor Bell. It includes a number of artists and scholars who signed on to show support.
I wrote this along with Charis E. Kubrin, Travis L. Gosa, and Michael Render (aka "Killer Mike")
Review Essays by Travis Gosa
Public Scholarship by Travis Gosa
hy are so many white men like Michael Dunn angry? Dunn, the man found guilty Saturday on three co... more hy are so many white men like Michael Dunn angry? Dunn, the man found guilty Saturday on three counts of attempted second-degree murder for shooting into a car full of black teenagers at a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station 0 NEW STORIES
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Papers by Travis Gosa
schizophrenia, a disorder defined by, “auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, [and] disorganized speech and thinking.” In the madness of Obama-mania, the U.S. prematurely declared victory over racism even when the demography of poverty, wealth, education, and incarceration denotes the continuation of a racialized caste system. Worsening material conditions for Black and poor people in Obamerica has coincided with state sanctioned racial profiling via New York City’s “Stop-and-Frisk” policies, while the killings of Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Kimani Gray, Tamir Rice, and Aiyana Stanley-Jones have reignited concerns that it is open season on young, Black boys and girls.
I wrote this along with Charis E. Kubrin, Travis L. Gosa, and Michael Render (aka "Killer Mike")
Review Essays by Travis Gosa
Public Scholarship by Travis Gosa