Cool like Me

"Cool like Me"
Page 112 chapter 3
In this section Nakamura talks about the silhouettes the Ipod uses to depict black people dancing as a form of coolness. This is similar to the Matrix Trilogy is signifies the desire that the white body cannot feel or express visually as a black body. She is comparing the Matrix to the Ipod in that black create a sense of cool. Apple is selling their products as cool objects to have by using silhouettes of dancers with dreadlocks, afros and Pheno/steroe/typically black profiles. The Matrix used a similar approach with the Rave scene black bodies moving to the music in a sexually driven state that added to the aspect that they are cool. The title of this blog came from Donnell Alexander where he stated, "Cool derived from having to survive as far as can be imagined from the ideal of white culture, with little more than a spiritual dowry for support. Its' about living on the cusp, on the periphery, diving for scraps... Cool, the basic reason blacks remain in the American cultural mix, is an industry of style that everyone in the world can use."
I agree with Nakamura on this Black actors are usually depicted as cool in their appearance and dance. The usually lead in the area toward fashion and flair. It makes me think of the TV show Welcome Back Kotter which was a late 1970's sitcom. You had a variety of people in this show but the cool guy was Freddie Boom Boom Washington and everything about him was cool. He talked cool, he walked cool he was cool. Whereas the other cast members were not as cool. They usually did something goofy during the show. I was racking my brain trying to think of other movies that showed this type of scenario which I am sure there are many and as soon as I post this they will all come flooding back to me.