>if you ask me the anti-intellectual tendency is more the
>shying away from defining what this context is and asking why
>someone would want to erase or reinforce it. just leave it at
>undefined 'black'-ness and trot off

I've had that conversation in the Lesson like a million times over th past decade. Go look me up in the Archives. I just don't feel like talking about it anymore.

But I think it IS extremely anti-intellectual (or maybe in a way OVER-intellectual) to try to strip the social context from the production of music. You don't have to care about it personally if that is your choice, but you're fooling yourself if you think it doesn't matter.