UCSB Anthropology Brown Bag Lecture Series Presents:

Identities un-rapping Race: The Role of Hip-Hop in the Identity Formation of Second Generation Indian Americans.

By Nitasha Sharma

The increasing presence of South Asians in the US has challenged current theories of race and inter-ethnic relations. These not-black not-white children of Asian immigrants creatively form conjoined identities amidst often conflicting sets of values, expectations, and affiliations. Some use hip-hop and the messages of rap to strategically negotiate spaces in the folds of intersecting subcultures. Several issues will be explored in this paper. Among these is whether or not Indian American affiliation with hip-hop culture expresses a "legitimate" identification with African-Americans based on shared, yet distinct experiences as people of color in the US. Or are these youths simply mirroring a general national trend of appropriating a current fad? This paper will delve into the processes of identity formation as they become evident in the ways in which hip-hop culture informs and is reformulated by second generation Indian American identity through the medium of cultural commodities.



Wednesday February 11, 1998; 12 noon
HSSB 2001A, The Anthropology Conference Room

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