Teaching White Power

Chris McKhool is a children's performer... and not a great one at that. His songs are patronising and generally don't give kids the credit they deserve. Around the holiday season he started selling his act called "Celebrate! Holidays of the Global Village". Now don't get offended yet, there's more! His entire act is based on appropriating the music styles and beliefs of different cultures. This in itself can alienate children of various backgrounds, but on top of this he (a white man) positions himself as a member of every posible marginalized cultural group. In his song "Let's All Sing for Kwanzaa" he says: "We will celebrate our self-determination/ creativity and faith/ We will work collectively...". CHRIS MCKHOOL! YOU'RE A WHITE MAN! KWANZAA IS NOT ABOUT YOUR SELF-DETERMINATION! He completely trivializes every holiday he sings about and seems completely oblivious of his own white privilege. Instead of encouraging children to educate themselves about the celebrations of other cultures, he is essentially giving white children permission to view all cultural celebrations as white people's property, and is alienating the children from marginalized groups by diminishing their heritage to a catchy tune.

Since I'm on my letter writing kick of the moment, I encourage all of you to check out Chris McKhool's website and click on the CD title "Celebrate! Holidays of the Global Village". You can listen to clips of the songs there and get outraged yourself. Then, if you're feeling activist-y you could send Mr. McKhool an e-mail at chris@fiddlefire.com. This is just too socially irresponsible to let go. Feel free to copy any of this into your e-mail, or contact me and I can send you a copy of what I wrote and you can just sign your name and forward it on. At least comment here and let me know what you think!