Yeeeeeeaaaaah booooyyyyyyy!

So my dad has been asking me about Flavor Flav. Apparently, pops is mesmerized by Flav's show, which is a little disconcerting for me, but also helps explain why I call this particular form of entertainment a modern minstrel show.

But before I get into all that, we need to understant eachother.

First (a history lesson for the kids), a "minstrel show" was an early American (particularly Civil War era) stage show which (this is Wikipedia speaking) "portrayed and lampooned blacks in stereotypical and often disparaging ways: as ignorant, lazy, bufoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical." Blacks were usually used in their own disparagement as they performed in front of strictly white crowds.

Second, my dad is a 48-year-old, white, former farm kid, born and raised in southern Kansas. Don't misinterpret this to suggest my father is a racist. He certainly is not. I am merely saying that he has not been exposed to much black culture. In the 1970s in Burrton, Kansas, there was no BET. In fact, I'm not even sure there were black people in Burrton until the early 90s.

My dad watches Flavor Flav the same way he would watch a clown. He views him like some kind of societal side show, which is how most people watch Flavor Flav, I think. That's basically what Flav has become.

This is ironic because Flavor Flav was a member of Public Enemy, which might be the most influencial rap act this side of Tupac. This was a group that transcended rap music, taking it from the party music of the early 80s to a legitimate cultural influence. Chuck D was of course the driving force behind Public Enemy -- even he is a little embarrassed of Flav at this point -- but Flavor Flav was in it. Now, he has devolved into self parody.

My dad would never listen to a Public Enemy record. Until he asked, "where the Flavor Flav guy comes from" he'd never even heard of Public Enemy. But he'll watch Flavor Flav bounce around with a viking helmet on his head, trying to get into Bridget Nielsen's pants. Yeeeeeeah, boooyyyyyyy!

So obviously I'm not black. But I have to wonder what black people think about all this. I'm not sure Flavor Flav, Lil John and the Ying, Yang Twins are as representative of black people as they'd like us to believe.