Ancestry

In the last line of Angry Black White Boy, it says that Macon joins his ancestors. It never explains who these ancestors are, but there are a few explanations which make sense.

The first of these explanations is that the ancestors are referring to Macon's parents, grandparents, and Cap Ansen. The line would be saying that Macon is joining those before him who either actively participated in racism or ignored it. Macon views all of these people as really bad because even though they may recognize the problem, they don't do anything to fix it. Instead, they just go on with their lives accepting their white privilege and staying happy by remaining ignorant. At the end of the book Macon also wants to return to this state of mind. This interpretation would also make sense as Macon writes "cap" on the bus which shows how he thinks he is getting closer to both Cap Ansen and the Cap that was hated by every member of the graffiti community. Even though he was involved in graffiti culture, comparing himself to one of the most hated just shows how much Macon is struggling with himself right now.

Another interpretation is that the ancestors are referring to the other people like Macon, white people who found the problem of race in America disturbing and wanted to change it. Macon is sort of unique in his approach because he educates himself through hip-hop and takes a very militant viewpoint, but others have come before him. If we take ancestors to mean this, then when Macon fails he is being compared to all of the other whites who sympathized with the cause who also failed. There have been white people who supported the cause and were fairly successful, like the Jewish man in the book, but no one like Macon, who wants to change how white people evaluate racism in America, has ever really gotten anywhere. 

Macon's death makes us question why he is being killed. Is it because he is not identifying with his white ancestors, or is it because he is identifying with those who have tried to change the mindset of white people before him and failed. 

Hip-hop in Angry Black White Boy

This Hip-hop in Angry Black White Boy is somewhat foreign to us. Macon talks about groups like X-clan who are older than what we think the 90s rap scene is really like. This is probably what shaped more of his militant attitude towards race relations.

For me 90s rap is really categorized by Nas' first two albums which were released 1994 and 1996. But Macon is very skeptical of this type of rap scene. Even though it can argued that Nas has socially conscience songs on these albums, with songs like "NY state of mind" speaking about drug violence and even referencing Five Percent philosophy on "The World is Yours," Macon thinks that all of his songs are just bragging about his monetary wealth. Nas is interesting in this case because he intersperses his lyrics with both lines that glorify himself and lines that really talk about the real world and how things aren't all really that great. One example of this can be seen in "The Message" on the album It Was Written where he basically says that he can kill any one that tries to test him, but it has an underlying message of how drugs and gang warfare control the ghetto and controlled his life when he was growing up.

Macon seems to be very set in his ways with categorizing Hip-hop as having to be solely militant to get a point across, but that is not necessarily true. Again with Nas, the lyrical mixture proves a point that while boasting, one can really get at the foundation of what is causing the problems.

There is some substance to the militant views Macon does have. Groups like NWA whose album Straight Outta Compton was released in 1988 have songs like "Fuck Tha Police" which is very aggressive and wants to expose the stupidity and corruption in favor of the police.

Basically, Macon seems to be stuck in his ways concerning newer rap, thinking that it really doesn't show anything, and doesn't add to his ideology. Macon seems to be wrong in some aspects of this, but the progression of Hip-hop in the 90s favors brag raps more than socially and racially conscience songs.