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OPINION: When grievance politics impedes simple artistic enjoyment

In the entire pantheon of ridiculous college courses, this past semester’s “Lana Del Rey: Emotional Landscapes of U.S. Settler Colonialism” at Northwestern may have earned a spot in the top ten.

Though taught months ago, the course recently was highlighted on social media.

At first glance you might think such a niche course would garner what — maybe 10 students? Instructor Madeleine Le Cesne was expecting even less than that, according to The Daily Northwestern.

Lo and behold, the class maxed out at 16 students with a wait list of over 40.

Le Cesne, whose research “focuses on porosity and points of seepage as critical relationalities that blur the boundaries between body, object, and land in New Orleans’ past-present-future black creole communities,” had said to herself “I guess Lana is on people’s minds.”

But … do students really ponder how Del Rey’s music “implicates people in the ‘settler-colonial state'” and help them “work toward ‘decolonial futures’”?

With critical theory literally anything is possible, especially if you possess an accompanying grievance mindset.

Incoming Northwestern senior Naya Hemphill apparently saw the connection, and said it’s not hard to see: “If you think about Lana Del Rey [pictured], you think of Americana, and if you think of Americana, you get to colonialism […] it’s so deeply rooted in her music.”

(According to Del Rey’s Wikipedia page the singer cites musical influences ranging from Billie Holliday and Frank Sinatra to Bruce Springsteen and Eminem, along with poetic sparks from Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg. One of her albums is even named “Norman Fucking Rockwell“).

Hemphill said the fact the course was taught via a “non-white perspective” (Instructor Le Cesne is a woman of color) was a reason she signed up for it. She also admits her “Black identity” sometimes gets in the way of her Del Rey fandom.

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Indeed, Le Cesne claims Del Rey’s “Born to Die” invokes, of all things, Manifest Destiny because the singer views the U.S. west coast as a “safety valve.” As such, Le Cesne hopes students will take Native “land back” movements more seriously.

Student Kadin Mills was on board, saying as there’s no Native American course requirement at Northwestern, he hopes classes like Le Cesne’s will make students “take a step back from their settler lives and really assess their positionality as occupiers.”

Mills also said white professors need to teach more about settler colonialism so as to “take the load” off their minority counterparts. (Just remember, however — if this actually happens then the grievance mongers will complain about “colonists” teaching about “their colonialism.” You can’t win.)

I can imagine that if my formative years were happening today, I likely would get lectured about “cultural appropriation” or some other such nonsense as I was (am) partial to the R&B and funk music genres.

In my halcyon junior high school days when the northern part of Delaware played host to the most “draconian” forced busing scheme in the country, my best pal and I had little difficulty establishing friendships with the (98-percent) black students being bused in from downtown Wilmington — because of our music preferences.

After the city kids’ initial shock that white boys from the Wilmington ‘burbs not only heard of bands like Parliament,  Funkadelic, and Heatwave but actually enjoyed their music, the mutually agreeable conversations — and then friendships — between these Caucasians and African Americans flourished.

Were it 2024, however, one of our teachers “invested in the worldmaking potential of critical theory” like Le Cesne might lecture my pal and I about the power differentials inherent in our nascent friendships … not to mention how we can’t legitimately enjoy George Clinton-inspired tunes like “(Not Just) Knee Deep” and “Flashlight” without a requisite knowledge of past prejudice and discrimination.

Course designations for classes like Le Cesne’s all should begin with “FK” — “Fun Killer.”

MORE: Banning ‘cultural appropriation’ is bad for artists and bad for culture

IMAGES: Cinnamon Girl, Abigail Anthony/X

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