Marcus McCarther---Collective Marginality

In his video Life As A Shorty, Fashawn is able to articulate the identity of a young male growing up in his neighborhood. His story is a universal story in American culture. Most people can relate to the lyrics and imagery displayed in the video. Largely because of rap music, one can tune in to the voices and find faces of America’s Black youth at any point in the day (Kitwana, 342). Although this statement is true, I find it to be problematic. Not all rap music is specifically catered or representative of Black culture or people. There is conscious hip-hop that I feel is entirely underrepresented in hip-hop discourse. This may be for economic reasons but mainstream record companies suppress messages of Black uplift and empowerment. And in the same way as the mainstream media establishes the parameters for national discussion for the nation at large, rap music sets the tone for Black youth (Kitwana, 344). Hip-hop is the embodiment of connective marginality. Connective marginality is the term given as a conceptual frame that encompasses various social and historical realms that form the context for youth participating in hip-hop outside the United States (Osumare, 69). Mired in the historic context of American racism, the global meanings of blackness may signify parallel issues of marginality and difference marked already in other countries (Osumare, 62). This song and video are successful at articulating a message that is both representative and universal at the same time. Fashawn says, “life as a Shorty shouldn’t be so rough.” Given the fact that many of our youth come of age in urban centers blighted with poverty and an educational system overwhelmed and underfunded, it sometimes follows that our kids see themselves as damaged or deficient (Watts, 595). Some might watch this and think this is what it must me like to live in the ghetto but I challenge that. This is what it might be like for many living in lower class, impoverished environments. However, these same experiences might take place in an upper-middle class neighborhood in Orange County, California or even Tokyo, Japan.