Defeating White Supremacy: One Verse at a Time 

Few musicians ever win the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, but Kendrick Lamar, a Los Angeles-based rapper, is one. Winning such an award speaks to his enormous musical gifts, though more than his musicality, Lamar is recognized for his skillful and ingenious wordplay. Perhaps no song best illustrates Lamar's talents as well as his "The Blacker the Bettey," a song that first premiered on his album, To Pimp a Butterfly. 

In this song, Lamar offers a poignant critique of white supremacy, detailing the way that it has negatively impacted Black America, even if he has managed to rise above the hate. Lamar, more specifically, address white supremacy in lines like the following:

I'm African-American, I'm African

I'm black as the moon, heritage of a small village

Pardon my residence

Came from the bottom of mankind

My hair is nappy, my dick is big, my nose is round and wide

You hate me don't you?

You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture

You're fuckin' evil I want you to recognize that I'm a proud monkey

Although this song is full of many substantial lines, these are arguably the most substantial given that they at once address white supremacy, even as the rapper notes his pride in being African American. Tracing his roots back to Africa, in other words, demonstrates that Kendrick is not afraid to discuss his heritage or culture and that, conversely, he is deeply proud of who he is. In addition, Kendrick actually embraces the stereotypes that white supremcists often use to demean and deride Black Americans. For example, Kendrick states that his "hair is nappy" and that his "nose is round and wide." By describing himself in this way, a way that some might surely find troubling, Lamar is able to once again underscore how he is proud of who he is, though this time his pride stems from his physical attributes, which are clearly African.

As the verse continues, Kendrick then focuses his attention on white supremacy. What is particularly intriguing about how he structures his verse is that before he directly challenges white supremacy, he builds up his culture, himself, and, by extension, African Americans as a whole. Once infused with this pride, Kendrick then poses the question:

“You hate me don’t you?”

after which he states, “You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture.” Based on this question and the following statement, what is clear is that Kendrick is not shy about taking on white supremacy or the institutional racism that accompanies this wrongheaded belief. Of course, many people, both white and Black, would prefer to overlook white supremacy, or at least downplay its role in shaping social affairs in the United States. Kendrick, on the other hand, has no qualms about addressing this ideology, demonstrating that he understands its purpose in trying to stifle Black aspirations, destroy Black culture, and confine Black people to a perpetually subordinate sociocultural position.

                                          

Nevertheless, white supremacy will not deter Lamar from finding pride in who is. The last line of the quoted stanza - You're fuckin' evil I want you to recognize that I'm a proud monkey – fully demonstrates this reality, as Lamar calls evil for what it is, evil, and then embraces another stereotype, that Black people are monkeys, but proceeds the “monkey” with the adjective “proud.” Pride is the most visible quality underlying Kendrick’s verse, which is indeed inspiring given that Black people have faced centuries of discrimination and hatred simply because of the color of their skin. In the end, Lamar is a Black man – and Lamar is proud. And this message is ever more powerful given who he is, his position in life, and his ability to influence scores of people who listen to his music.