Last class, we discussed the second part of how minstrel shows have shaped modern music, this time focusing on the appropriation of Hawaiian techniques and how they have shifted into modern country music. What was especially disturbing to me was the way Garage Band creates clearly racialized characters for their program. I don’t understand why they would not just abstain from creating characters. It makes me think about the illusion of originality and how so many things–especially in the US–are taken from other cultures and people. The dynamics between the takers and those being taken from is always interesting. In the case of Hawaii, tensions are still so high because of the colonialism thrust upon the Hawaiian people, and how racial tensions still exist there. Hawaiian people are so disadvantaged, while the colonizers have the privilege to benefit from their resources and culture.