Identity and Public Space

Crack Rock by Frank Ocean. The song samples Little Miss Lover by Jimi Hendrix.
Listener discretion is advised, as the song contains foul language, violence, and  images of drug usage. Keep in mind that this song does NOT support drug usage. Instead, it criticizes drug usage.

Frank Ocean is not your stereotypical African American musician.For one, he hates drugs. His 9th track from the Grammy winning debut album channel ORANGE, named Crack Rock-in which Ocean pays hommage to Jimi Hendrix by sampling his song, Little Miss Lover- illustrates a man suffering from crack cocaine abuse, left with nothing but his drug pipe. But with drug abuse proven countless times to be harmful, and musicians blamed as one of the biggest causes of drug abue, this anti-drug movement is becoming more and more widespread.

Frank Ocean is homosexual. Gay. His coming-out was one of the biggest issues in the Black music industry, since the stereotype of the scene is that large amounts of the people there are homophobic.

While others might say that this is no big deal, this was extremely controversial in the scene. Not only were some artists pouring fire on Ocean, it changed the fates of the current music generation, and generations to come. Ocean is the first of its kind, the first major level artist to break the stereotype. This will not only change the way people in the Black music industry react; it will change the way people do profiling on African Americans.

This is more of the things needed to minimize stereotypes, like mentioned in my previous post. We need more people like Brent Staples, who do not match their stereotypes, and more people who understand that public space can be altered in many different ways.

Say that a young African American high school student decided to sing Crack Rock at school, with explicit words filtered out, emphasizing the fact that drugs will hurt you. This also is black man and public space; he only altered the space in a positive way. It's possible.

This, however, is often not the case. Going back to the idea of stereotype threat*, many choose to conform to the stereotypes posed upon them.

That does not mean you should walk out in to the world and act like someone who you aren't. Jeannette Walls, in The Glass Castle, shows readers the importance of keeping the balance between fitting into society and conserving who you are.

"'Just tell the truth,' Mom said.

'That's simple enough."

-Walls, Glass Castle

The outerspace is a large region, large enough to hold 7 billion different types of people. However, that loses its meaning when we are afraid to show who we are. Regardless of race, gender, or the way you can alter public space, you can be who you are. 

* http://warrenleeap.blogspot.com/2013/09/stereotype-threat.html