::THE SLICE REPORT WITH MONA AUSTIN

Historian Dale Cockrell once noted that poor and working-class whites who felt “squeezed politically, economically, and socially from the top, but also from the bottom, invented minstrelsy” as a way of expressing the oppression that marked being members of the majority, but outside of the white norm. Minstrelsy, comedic performances of “blackness” by whites in exaggerated costumes and make-up, cannot be separated fully from the racial derision and stereotyping at its core. By distorting the features and culture of African Americans — including their looks, language, dance, deportment, and character — white Americans were able to codify whiteness across class and geopolitical lines as its antithesis. “The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify.” — Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic The pervasiveness of stereotypical images like these made the civil rights efforts of African Americans even more difficult. The black people represented here...

buzzz worthy. . . In My City Records’ Debut CD Goes On Sale January 21, 2014 HeeSun Lee isn’t your average Hip Hop emcee. Put up for adoption in her native Korea at the age of four months, she was brought to America and raised by Chinese parents in a Christian home on Staten Island. As a teenager, she became a fan of Hip Hop acts ranging from Lauryn Hill and Will Smith to Tupac Shakur. All of Lee’s diverse experiences have fused to create the illuminating backdrop for her sophomore CD “Stereotypes” (In My City Records) that releases on iTunes and other retail outlets on January 21, 2014. Lee’s story is unique in that she credits not only her faith but also Hip Hop for saving her life. “Hip Hop saved me from a lot of things,” she confesses. “My biggest struggle growing up was with my identity and it all correlates with being stereotyped and not knowing where I belonged because I was adopted.” Lee envisions the 16-track C...