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Irony on center stage
at Public Enemy show
By Came Frov
Irony — sin event or result
that is the opposite of what
is expected
A deep feeling of irony c rept
over me us I watched the? nip
group Public Enemy in the
EMU Ballroom Friday I found
myself entering a trance and
when I came out, I wrote down
a few conclusions
Irony No t The Public En
emy show was expected to bo a
problem The EMU Cultural Fo
rum reportedly hired to profes
sional crew members to pro
vide security The Forum usu
ally uses student volunteers for
this purpose- Extra lighting was
installed to Illuminate the out
side balcony The crowd was
filtered through metal detec
tors Jesse Jac kson doesn't merit
metal detec tors, lull Public: En
emy does?
To ,isk a simple question,
what's up’ Win ihe ruckus ' 1
will admit, when I lirsi heard
about Public: Enemy's appear
irony of his performance on our
s amp us Or he might not
Ironv No it Public Hn
ctnv s performance was pre
sumably tailored to .) black au
dience. or tailored to make a
while audience feel like they
are "in da 'hixxf
During an interlude, Chur k
wanted to know how many
"street" kids were in the house
Most of the people at the slum
probably clutch their wallets
when they ms- a "street" kids,
but tonight they an- one’ Yeah
right' I lived in an inner-city
neighborhood this summer and
1 know that one corn ert doesn't
put one inch of street" into
the blood 1 went to the concert
expecting certain things I ex
pei ted that we would see more
blacks I expected every black
south of Salem to be there That
could he Ignorance on my par!
1 assume, because the media
tells me. that rap music is part
of the black culture I thought
that Public hnemv was the
voice of the blur k people
Mavis' I fell lor the trick Is
anct* i wonuciTii
if anything
hnppnn. 1
nurd th.it
funs unit
Anthrax's funs
did not mix so
v\ oil at the Siih-tn
show last vinir
‘Politics never
done nothin’ for
Flavor Flav.’
Flavor Flav.
Public Enemy
I uum. iitiuiii)
joke to mv how
much they can
make off of us?
It's not a had
I tic a. because
getting 1.000
people to yell.
Racism'” is
the r u p lain
didn't take too lightlv to the
metal fans jumping on thorn
and each other And so I won
dered if our over-zealous rap
loving fraternity member* (not
to stereotype or anything!
would annoy this racially di
verse crowd Not to worry Like
most classrooms on campus, di
versity was to be found only in
speech, but not in person
So, everyone was free to
Jump up and down, do the me
hip-hop-white boy dunce,
^md the crowd generally stayed
calm The concert was even a
little tniring because of the low
sound and political commen
tary.
Irony No. 2 Speaking of
political commentary. I’m glad
it was part of the performance
Chuck 1) derided George Bush
and everyone cheered He
spoke about the new president
and everyone cheered. But
when Flavor Flav took the mike
and said, "Politics never done
nothin' for Flavor Flav.” very
few cheered Flavor Flav hit us
where we live A personal at
tack on our beloved political
system He shook us.
My guess is that Flav do-mi
believe tie owes a system that
has a history of oppression and
that continues to keep musses
of people disadvantaged I
could even go so far as to say
that if given the chance, Flav
could strike out even more He
might call attention to the ra
cial disparity in the audience
Ho might call attention to the
.i suiri i.sji* -. t
lv i! most ol as at. giving lip
diversity hut don't know what
it actually means.
Celebrating diversity doesn't
mean using metal detectors lie
cause the audience members
won't be "peai e-Ioving" hip
pu s It doesn't mean assuming
that there are going to be riots
or confrontations
1 think that it 1 were blai s
and lived in Eugene, i would
have run to the !u ket booth
when Public Enemy's visit was
announced, much the same
way I get excited when an al
ternative" hand comics to town
and I am spared another rendi
tion of "Blowing in the Wind
I pose this question to any
one who knows Please toll me
vvhal s up Tell me what it's
like to live hero loll me what
It's like to have everyone spout
i n g diversity when they
couldn't give the name of one
minority they know on cam
pus Tull me what Public En
emy means to you, if anything
Because I don't know, my com
mentary might he way oil base,
and I may lie victim of my own
political correctness (Say it
isn't so!)
P S To those PE goers who
said they didn't buy the Vanilla
lie album, everyone liked the
sung "Ice. Ice Baby " I don't fm
lievo you.
Currie Fermion is a senior
studying planning and turnnw
run development at the Uni
verst ly
Pass it on.
(please)
Help our successful recycling program on
campus py putting the Oregon Daily f truer jm]
pack m Its original rack when you've ftmsneo
reading it Tnis will allow another person to
read it and/or tx> easily picked up for
recycling
• »i*mo
Public Enemy member flavor Flav worked the crowd during the
band t concert Friday night
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