He was a kid who got isolated, cut off from the real world and became so self-involved and image-focused that it made him weird. Obsessions are like that. 
His influences were Dianna Ross and Little Richard. Diana Ross for the diva attitude and the reinvention of self with plastic surgery. Little Richard for the diva attitude and the skin-bleaching. These people, the Little Richards and the Eartha Kitts and the Diana Rosses and even, to a certain extent, Harry Belafonte, they represent an eccentric subset of African American culture. You find them in the bigger, historically black communities like Harlem and parts of New Orleans. They are usually light-skinned and ostentatiously civilized as if trying to prove something. Their houses have lots of knick-knacks.
The later episodes of the Cosby Show often delve into this sub-culture, also an 80s TV show called Frank's Place
which almost nobody remembers, but which was decades ahead of its time.
It's the product of self-hatred, a need to have an identity, and a need to respect that identity. They want confidence and the trappings of a cultured person, but the definition of "cultured" was formed by an older America that collected tea-sets and art.
His influences were Dianna Ross and Little Richard. Diana Ross for the diva attitude and the reinvention of self with plastic surgery. Little Richard for the diva attitude and the skin-bleaching. These people, the Little Richards and the Eartha Kitts and the Diana Rosses and even, to a certain extent, Harry Belafonte, they represent an eccentric subset of African American culture. You find them in the bigger, historically black communities like Harlem and parts of New Orleans. They are usually light-skinned and ostentatiously civilized as if trying to prove something. Their houses have lots of knick-knacks.
The later episodes of the Cosby Show often delve into this sub-culture, also an 80s TV show called Frank's Place
which almost nobody remembers, but which was decades ahead of its time.
It's the product of self-hatred, a need to have an identity, and a need to respect that identity. They want confidence and the trappings of a cultured person, but the definition of "cultured" was formed by an older America that collected tea-sets and art.
0 comments:
Post a Comment