(AllHipHop News) A new song from an Indigenous brother of Hip-Hop is taking Macklemore to task after writing the controversial song “White Privilege 2.”
Gyasi Ross, a Native of America, responds to the song, requesting that his fellow Seattle peer “pass the mic” and let others speak for themselves. He relayed his exact feelings on the song and offered up “White Privilege III” as a lyrical response to Macklemore’s “well-intentioned piece.”
White Privilege III is obviously a response to Macklemore’s well-intentioned piece, ‘White Privilege II.’ Yet, White Privilege III is much bigger than one song as Macklemore is simply the latest in a very long line of white liberals who chose to play the white savior role and speak for brown-skinned people instead of providing the platform for them to speak for themselves. He’s neither the first nor the greatest, only the latest. We must resist that tendency and push white people who wish to be allies to, instead of attempting to speak for us, passing the mic and leveraging their platforms to let us speak for ourselves. Specifically, if Macklemore indeed wished to limit the universe of parties affected by white privilege and ignore Muslims, Latinos, Natives, Asians, etc. as he did in this song, I suppose that’s his prerogative. Still, if he truly wishes to be an ally he should put marginalized voices to the forefront instead of simply consulting with them and keeping the glory for his white guilt epiphany for himself. The next step in the evolution of the ally is simply to utilize her/his platform and make the introduction, get off the stage and let the stakeholder speak for themselves; for the stakeholder to become the subject and not the object.
Pass the mic.
