In Yvonne Bynoe's article entitled "The White Boy Shuffle", the author is trying to convince his audience that suburban, white youth are undermining what the true essence of hip hop culture is by adopting the characteristics of the culture and using them as a vessel for their own teen angst, social rebellion, and self-expression. The author also implies that this "borrowing" of black culture by young white youths perpetuates certain social stigmas and stereotypes of hip-hop culture.
ETHOS
The author, who from his stance on the subject I presume to be an African-American male, seems to be quite well informed on the social and cultural ramifications of the hip-hop culture. When using the film Black and White as an example of hip-hop's appeal to suburban white youth, he states that the film was "hailed by older black intellectualsâ¦these critics have no involvement with rap music and know little about rap aesthete, therefore they were not credible commentators" (p16), giving the impression that the author himself has some involvement, or at least a sense of familiarity with rap music and hip hop culture, thereby making him a "credible commentator" on the matter.
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KRS ONE ApprovalI would not describe the article as being receptive to any opposing viewpoints. The author simply leaves no room for it. He equates the white youth's fascination with hip-hop culture as an act of financial exploitation (p4) and teen rebellion (p6). The author compares the white youth of today to the "White Negroes" of Norman Mailer's essay, The White Negro (p12), who embraced a concept of black culture "which itself was based on racial stereotypes" (p12).
The author does a good job of building a bridge to an audience of African-Americans, or more specifically, young African-Americans who are part of the hip-hop culture that the article pertains to.