Doug just wrote something from Adolph Reed about narcissism.
I don't mean to diss Reed, but looking at character identification as narcissism is itself not a structural critique. Why? Because using narcissism as the mode of interrogation is itself a study of character, not structure. These modes of analysis are so ubiquitous that it takes a fair among of reflection to figure out a way around them. Why go around? Because I want to understand the structural relations that both oppress and free---in order to change them.
The problem with using narcissism is that you end in character stereotypes or character study, in this case young, black or white, male and female who are attempting to embody or become their mythological personae. Critique of the personae ends in aesthetic quibbling over good and bad, moral attributes, etc, etc. back to Cosby's rant and its counter-critique and we lose the perspective of the social relations between people, their arts in this case mass media, and the concrete conditions of their lives. It's these latter components that need to be addressed, understood, changed. Why? Because if we don't understand the systems in place, we will just move through a sequence of `styles' aesthetic modes, characters, dramas, personifications---all sorts of `brands' that capital is completely geared up to manufacture as yet another round of consumption and supply at a moment's notice.
I gotta get back to painting. I am down to the woodwork in the main room.
CG