Somewhere in the Details

Pat Thomas’ new book Listen, Whitey!, excerpted on page 32, traces the currents of pop culture in the 1960s and ’70s, weaving together details about the genesis of “What’s Going On?,” obscure Motown Records subsidiaries and Bob Dylan, to name just a few. Together, those details illuminate a nuanced story about the Black Power movement.

In one particularly surprising passage, Thomas describes an episode of The Partridge Family set in Detroit. A young Danny Bonaduce persuades the local Black Panthers to perform a musical number with his TV family and, after soulful music has been made, the Black Panthers present the carrot-top kid with a signature beret, making him an honorary member. Bonaduce gratefully proposes starting a chapter of his own when he gets back home. Gee whiz!

In that moment, it’s clear the Black Panthers had hit the mainstream. It’s a perfect pop anachronism, a cultural hiccup where something unexpected happens—a chance mutation in the slow march of sociological progress.

Reading Listen, Whitey! made me wonder about today’s chance mutations. Where is the evidence of shifting cultural plates? With so much change unfolding all around the world, where is the steam now rising to the surface?

The major stuff is apparent, from Arab Spring to gay marriage. But many of the subtlest signs of cultural evolution find their audience via the Internet.

Consider Shit Girls Say, a meme so contagious it has accumulated millions of YouTube viewers and Twitter followers, igniting a wildfire of copycats since it first appeared last December. (Shit Seattleites Say When It Snows, really?) The creators and writers of Shit Girls Say, two gay comedians from Toronto, have hit a nerve. By lovingly capturing the innocuous, interstitial nonsense that pours from the mouths of women on a daily basis (myself included), they have ever so slightly shifted our views of women (this nonsense isn’t dumb, it’s sweet and funny) and of the gay men who so aptly tease and appreciate them.

It’s a double win for awareness and kindness—a pop culture moment that could leave a lasting impression.

See you out there,
LEAH BALTUS
Editor in Chief
leahb@cityartsmagazine.com