Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine
Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance
Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust
Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine
Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History
Luxembourg Centre for European Law
Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems
Please join us on Wednesday, 25 March at 16:00 for the second talk of the hybrid Critical Media Studies Lecture Series:
Dr. Jaspal Singh: Hip Hop, Media Virality and Raciogendered Authenticity: The Case of B-Girl Raygun at the Paris Olympicssexuality.
The talk will be followed by a small reception.
Venue: Maison du Savoir, room 3.120 or via Webex.
Abstract
The performance of the white Australian breakdancer B-Girl Raygun at the 2024 Paris Olympics quickly went viral, sparking widespread debate both within and beyond Hip Hop communities. Reactions ranged from ridicule, infantilisation and misogyny to questions about representation and accusations of minstrelsy/blackfacing. Within Hip Hop Kulture, especially among breakers, the viral spread of Raygun’s performance seemed to have brought about deep-seated anxieties about cultural appropriation, misrepresentation and the ongoing influence of colonial power. These anxieties were, as I will argue, expressed in debates around raciogendered authenticity. Drawing on an autoethnographic approach, this talk traces how these discussions unfolded in real time across different audiences. It explores what this moment reveals about how media virality shapes public understandings of culture, identity, institutions and authenticity in a global context.
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