Complicating Bourdieu's Class and Taste Relationship Through Race... And Hipsters.

This blog post is in three parts:

• I discuss how race complicates Bourdieu's class and taste relationship and how after my viewing of a PBS program informed this analysis.
• I discuss my attempt to listen to NPR and how it may have something to do with our conceptualization of the "human voice." 
• Hipsters...

PBS - Point of View: American Experience

Pierre Bourdieu's essay "The Aesthetic Sense as the Sense of Distinction" is a discussion on the relationship between class and taste, on how class distinctions are constructed through a sense of aesthetic tastes. In other words, taste functions as a mechanism for establishing class divisions/hierarchies. 

Another of Bourdieu's concepts is the idea of cultural capital. Cultural capital are the objects and social practices (style of dress, manner of speech, material objects, etc.) that inform your belonging to a particular class or culture. Taste is cultural capital. The taste attributed to objects and social practices, functions to draw distinctions among groups and class. Cultural capital is thus a matter of taste, where taste is informed by the class or group in question. Thus, taste, as cultural capital, is a way to gain status within a class or group. Groups and classes mark their distinction by laying claim (or what Bourdieu refers to as a pretension), to specific tastes (to particular objects and/or social practices).

However, after watching several PBS programs, the one that I am employing in this post stood out for me because it complicated the relationship between class and taste. Even though taste is often attributed to marking class distinction, there is also a racialized component to this relationship. This was evident in one of the shows I watched. I watched "Point of View (POV)," a television program on PBS that showcases independent non-fiction films. The episode or documentary film I watched was called American Promise. In it we follow the journey of two African American boys, Idris and Seun, and their families as the boys are accepted to and attend a prestigious private school (primarily white) from age five till graduation.

American Promise Film Poster

The two African American families in the documentary had attained an upper middle-class status through education. Taste, as cultural capital can be acquired, inherited and/or bought. In the case of both of these families, their class status was acquired through their education achievement. To distinguish their class status, both families adopted certain tastes of specific cultural capital such as style of dress, manner of speech, material objects, organization of household, parenting practices, etc. In other words, their taste in cultural capital is informed by their class status. Although these tastes mark class distinction, it doesn't take into consideration the ways racial distinctions are marked through taste as well. Upper middle-class taste distinctions are often associated to whiteness, or assumed white. The families in the documentary complicate and challenge this association.

The documentary demonstrates the racialized component to taste. Even though both African American families belonged to the upper-middle class, as indicated by many of their tastes (and distastes as Bourdieu would also contextualize), their race indicates otherwise to others around them. To others, in their same class status, such as the other families at the school (primarily white families), race is the primary indicator of taste. While they know both African American families are of the same class, they still assume distinctions of taste exist on the basis of race.

For example, in one scene, the African American parents at the school all meet up to discuss some of the problems their kids face attending a primarily all white school. One of the parents recounts an encounter her son had with another kid (white) in band class. Her son, playing the saxophone, voiced his dislike of a particular song they were learning. In doing so, the white kid responded with, "you don't like this song because you only like hip-hop." Here, taste distinction was informed through race and not class status. Even though they are upper-middle class, their race still informs what tastes they should and should not have.

In another scene, amongst African American peers, one of the two boys in the documentary, Idris, playing for an outside basketball league on a team composed of all African American boys, is made fun of for his manner of speaking and dressing. They make fun of him saying, "you talk white, you dress white." Idris talks about how this bothers him and how he changes the way he speaks depending on who he is surrounded by. Here, taste, as cultural capital (manner of speaking and style of dress), is also informed by race and not class status. The boys don't see class, they see race.

While the relationship that Bourdieu draws between class and taste (taste as a mechanism for drawing class distinction), is significant, when race is considered, the relationship is complicated. In this sense, I feel further dialogue is needed.

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My Attempt to Listen to NPR

I also attempted to listen to NPR this week and as Jamez noted in his blog post, listening to NPR was also a struggle for me because I feel that it caters to a white liberal base, highly aligned to multiculturalism, and doesn't allude to me.

Speaking of the relationship Bourdieu draws between class and taste, there are only a few NPR programs that I enjoy (Wednesday Become Eclectic and This American Life), which could be an indication of my own class status. Those shows don't focus on class or taste, they are however chosen by me due to my own tastes/distates.

While I grew up in a working class family, as an educated young person of color, by being educated have acquired 1. privilege and 2. different tastes from that of the class/ethnic structure I grew up in (though I still hold on to many of those tastes). Of the shows I do enjoy, I believe I enjoy them because I have acquired certain tastes informed through my status of being educated. as I've acquired privilege through my status of being educated. Wednesdays Become Eclectic is a music show that highlights a mix of independent artists (often folk, indie, hipster and very white), and This American Life, a show that spotlights interesting stories of everyday people through storytelling by those very people (often very middle-class). Though I enjoy these shows for the most part, they still embody the reasons I have a difficult time listening to NPR, or talk radio in general.

I'll demonstrate this through a clip from Parks and Recreation. In the clip Leslie Knope goes on the local public talk radio show called "Thought for Your Thoughts." This is exactly how I feel about talk radio. Though I'll admit it is exaggerated (but isn't that comedy).


http://youtu.be/frChs4i4qWI

This led me to think about the short reading and video clip we looked at on In Media Res about "The Human Voice" by Jim Burress. One point I feel the curator missed here is that the human voice is always gendered, racialized and given class status. Thus, often times, at least for me, the "human voice" that I find on public talk radio is not a voice that calls out to me, or that I find relatable. It is not MY human voice.

The clip above demonstrates what talk radio sounds like to me. It is a human voice, but it is gendered, racialized and given class status in a way that is utterly un-relatable for me.

Race, gender, and class complicated our notions of the human voice, a complication I believe we need to continue to explore.

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Side Note: Hipsters

This was an interesting short clip on taste and cultural capital that I found on PBS. It relates to this week's theme and also directly quotes Bourdieu.

Are You a Hipster? (http://youtu.be/f3xe-Wxio1o)