When you hear people trash the culture, it’s generally because they feel disincluded from the culture. There is a thing called “cultural cool” and it used to mean John Wayne and such, but it came to mean Little Richard / rock-n-roll & Prince, long hair, Afros, ballers & hip hop.
And it often emerged from black culture, initially outright appropriated during the 1950s by Pat Boone etal but unable to be kept from white teenagers who eventually went straight to the source. Ditto jazz a generation before.
The inability to command the culture is part of why conservatives are so pissed off, even when they command much of the government. They cannot bring the culture to heel. And President @BarackObama Obama and @MichelleObama are embraced by the culture in a way the Trumps are not.
Though before he was political and an open birther, Donald Trump was (by hip-hop culture). I interviewed an early aide who told me that Trump’s “cultural cool” was part of what attracted him to his candidacy: that he could be a Republican with mainstream cultural appeal.
But that didn’t happen. The Apprentice got overruled by birtherism and “Mexicans are rapists” racism and away we go. The lack of cultural acceptance still bothers Trump. You see it in his caterwauling at the media.
We will be discussing this with a great panel including @jelani9 @EJDionne & @K_JeanPierre next on @#pmjoy Ahead of the Obama commencement. #GraduateTogether !!
