> White Americans Find Their Artistic Voice
> By Ian Cooper
>
> Back in February, PBS featured many excellent programs
> in honour of African-American History Month. Now, the people at
> America's revered public broadcaster are gearing up for their
> next big project. Once again they have done a great public
> service by telling the monumental story of the artistic
> achievements of a group of Americans who have been overlooked
> for far too long -- its white community.
>
> PBS has been kind enough to send me an advance copy of
> the series, which will air later this month. The 17-part
> documentary ("I'll Inherit Me a World: European-Americans Find
> Their Voice") chronicles the struggle of white Americans (or
> simply, "Americans," as they prefer to be known) to find a
> genuine cultural identity of their own.
>
> Part 1 ("The Bluest Eye") begins, naturally, with
> European-American achievements in the visual arts. Here, of
> course, context is key: While the paintings of, say, a Norman
> Rockwell may today seem naive -- even primitive -- he
> nonetheless managed to give expression to an idealized white
> experience on American soil which deeply resonated with his
> people. Walt Disney, by contrast, combined a more innovative
> technique with a traditional subject matter, often finding his
> inspiration in the folk tales of his ancestral Europe.
>
> In music, Part 9 ("Lilies of their Field") documents the
> internal struggle between those whites who sought acceptance
> within the dominant musical culture, and those who only wished
> to speak mainly to a white audience. From the "Jazz Age"
> onwards, many white musicians managed to find some success in
> the classical African-American idiom (Benny Goodman, Elvis
> Presley, Kenny G, the Beastie Boys) without entirely abandoning
> their whiteness. Others struck off in new, authentically
> "white" musical directions (Wayne Newton and others of the Vegas
> School), while still others attempted to reclaim their European
> roots (Liberace, at the forefront of the Candelabra Movement).
>
> The breakthrough came in the early 1980's when a truly
> European-American genre of music was born: New Wave. White
> musicians quickly discovered the potential of new technology to
> marry a synthetic sound to a stilted rhythm, producing some of
> the great American music of all time (Devo, A Flock of Seagulls).
> Accompanying this musical revolution was a new ethnic pride, a
> feeling that "white is beautiful." The "Goths," as the movement
> became known, reclaimed the attributes of extreme paleness and
> dead-straight hair, causing an entire generation of European-
> American youths to discard their curling irons and cancel their
> tanning salon memberships.
>
> Of course it is a story not only of triumph but of
> disappoinment. Many young artists in the 1960's attempted to
> rediscover their roots through the "Back to Europe" movement,
> only to find that the romantic Motherland they sought was
> irretrievably lost. One idealistic young poet disembarked at
> Southampton, England, in search of his ancestors, only to
> discover he was in fact Finnish in origin. Jubilation and hope
> quickly turned to disillusionment when the new post-colonial
> European regimes stagnated in a welfare-state liberalism which
> the idealistic white Americans could not tolerate.
>
> An entire episode (Part 15, "So Bright It Shines") is
> rightly devoted to Martha Stewart, who bravely gave a voice to
> an entire generation dislocated in the Great Migration from
> cities to suburbs. Along with other members of the Greenwich
> Renaissance, Stewart began an influential journal ("Living") to
> promote her personal philosophy of lifestyle-as-art (Capitalist
> Domesticism) which involved a peculiarly American mix of
> traditional crafts, media savvy, and business acumen.
>
> All in all, the series should not be missed. It is a
> moving tribute to countless artists who, throughout this
> turbulent century, felt compelled to give expression to the
> comfortable condition of their people, and their burning desire
> for incremental social change.
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Ian Cooper is a graduate student and freelance writer living in
> New York City. Fan mail and offers of gainful employment may be
> sent to ameralien at hotmail.com.