Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Prussian Blue and Racism
A couple days ago in class, we watched the documentary about the music duo known as "Prussian Blue". The duo consists of two fourteen year girls whose lyrics are extremely racist and support the ideas of white nationalists. But perhaps the most controversial thing about Prussian Blue is the twins mother, who raised them to be supporters of white supremacy and Neo-Nazism. According to the documentary, the girl's mother would use textbooks issued by racist groups in order to teach her daughters about the racist causes she believed in. I think this is where Prussian Blue gets interesting. Is it the girl's fault for being racist when they raised by a mother who essentially burned the ideas into their minds? Once the girls grew up they eventually renounced the ideas of their mother which proves that it truly was the upbringing to blame. But the girl's mother was raised by a father who was so ingrained in his ideas that he had the swastika branded into his cattle. He also had a swastika sticker on the side of his truck. This was clearly a man who was brutally racist and didn't care who knew it. With this is mind, we can come to conclusion that the twin's mother was likely raised in an environment that was very similar to the one she raised her own children in. This is obliviously a large and complicated problem, so how do we stop these ideas from being spread if parents are raising their children to be racist? While I obliviously do not have a solution I think it is important for people to question everything around them, including the influence of their parents.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Very interesting article! Your post does shine light on the major problem of modern racism today, that being racism has deep, deep, deep roots in southern history. I believe that it most likely started during the slave trade, where whites saw blacks as lesser people because they owned them. These morals were passed down from one generation to another and didn't stop even after the slaves were freed. I believe that it'll take just as much, if not more time to remove white nationalism as it did to root it in.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, you bring up some very interesting points. When it comes down to the racism we see throughout the states, who is to blame? Like you said, it's definitely people who raise their children to think this way but I also think it has to do with the way white supremacists spread their message. Mr. Stewart mentioned in class that often groups like Prussian Blue and other music groups incorporate racist messages into their albums without blatantly stating that they're white supremacists. In addition, people like Richard Spencer who have a larger platform have the ability to get people on their side by phrasing their ideas in a way that people tend to find more reasonable. In general, we need to be careful about the messages we spread around and to future generations.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to build off of the idea you mentioned about how white supremacist groups use music to spread racist beliefs because I think that exploring the morality of the First Amendment when faced with hate speech is fascinating. The fact that hate groups and racist people have platforms like music production and video-sharing websites allowing them to get away with hate speech under protection from the First Amendment is, in my opinion, a controversial concept. On one hand, people have the freedom to express their ideals and beliefs, however I can't help but question why hate groups can get away with spreading falsified information. Although some may argue that humans are able to make their own well-educated/though out decisions, these songs or videos can have a huge amount of influence on them. I think there needs to be more guidelines as to what kinds of ideas one may propose when targeting a specific group of individuals.
DeleteGood post, although I too don't have the solution to the racism problem I don't think anyone ever will. It's hard to crackdown on racism because as years go by it further spreads in the south. You could tackle it by going to the source which are the parents of new coming kids in racist areas. But teaching a new way to raise your kids that is different than what you grew up to believe is close to impossible in most cases. although in this case, the girls of Prussian Blue eventually grow out of their mother's beliefs. I think the most we can do is provide programs that combat their racist ways and let people realize being involved racism isn't the best way to live.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Oliver is starting to say about a gradual change. Obviously, we as a country do not have the same thoughts and ideas as we did when slavery occurred. So how did we change? I think a lot of this has to do with the education that we are receiving. Personally, I believe that nurture trumps nature. For these two girls, they were nurtured by their mother who was nurtured by her father and so on. The fact that their education was solely controlled by their mother was a big factor. For us, we are nurtured by our parents and their ideals, but we also get influenced by our school and out teachers. With this public education, we get influenced by multiple sources with different beliefs. Personally, I have witnessed many students expressing their political views at school. Whether or not we agree, we all learn more about the topic and get a broader scope of what we can believe in. Overall, I think educating people is a solution to this problem but again I don't think it can be done overnight.
ReplyDelete