Very interesting topic. I'm going to try an approach this in a nonchalant manner as to belie my black militant heart. Siddhartha might have very well hit the nail right on the head, but seeing as there is a lack of ?blacks? on these forums I figured I?d come and play token negro.
Are you all racist?
No just brainwashed. Your equation of black culture to hip hop makes this quite evident. Let?s take the example of Marylin Manson. He?s surely not the crowning jewel of white culture, but he does or did have a large white fan base. So why isn?t he considered your spokesman? But when you hear 50 cent rap, every word from his mouth is incite into the black man?s psyche. What?s even more peculiar is that 50?s fan based is quite mixed, a lot of white folks buying his albums. Now that?s not to say that hip hop didn?t start as a black movement, it did but that lineage has long ago died. The remnants exist in, Mos def, Talib Kweli, Immortal Technique, Lil Wayne and Jean Grey. (One of these names does not belong, are you informed enough to realize which one?) The days of main stream Public Enemy rappers are no more. So what are the origins of this new stuff? White Execs with deep pockets and poor blacks who not only lack money, but cultural identity. What rap is now, can be compared to a black man selling crack to his own people. What we have to realize is, there?s no poppy fields in Harlem and not too many recording studios. Truthfully, I view 50cent and his contemporaries as modern Sambos and Mammies. Black face and wide grins, replace by Gold chains and rims, if you will. And who was it that put us on to steppn' and fetchn'?
What is black culture?
It doesn?t exist (See: stolen from our land). No, no, wait. Let me be careful, less you all accuse me of copping out by citing an event that few of you can even begin to imagine. I?m really just talking out of my own range though. Like one of you mentioned, I too wonder why we have generations of Black people living here, who are still on welfare? I mean it?s almost as if other races came here willingly in order to better their lives, while we act as though someone physically came and dragged our unruly nappy headed selves into boats and forced us. I don?t get it; you?d think we had endured 225 years of slavery, followed by 100 or so years of blatant oppression or something. It?s all an enigma to me, because now we live in a society where racism is far more subtle and still we don?t thrive? Penned into ghettos, surrounded by drugs, schooled by teachers who could care less? and still we do not thrive? *Throw's hands up*
What about the good blacks? ie well behaved, successful black folk, further ie Oprah.
Oprah is a credit to her race? traitor. What she has done for middle aged white women is simply astonishing. Lose that weight, gain self esteem, buy this book, etc. I love Oprah, while most folks don?t put any effort in to fixing the problem in black culture, she tries. When she?s on her jet and she passes over a Chicago slum, she looks out the window and says ?They need to try harder.? Bravo, bravo. My point is, of course you can see all the problems and possible solutions when you're leaps and bounds removed from them. But don?t tell me a crack baby isn?t trying hard enough, and that?s what we all are the equivalent of. Crack babies struggling to live and you want me to go become a lawer? I?ll give it to Oprah though; her success is of her own making. Unparallel persistence and determination are what placed her where she is and to that I tip my hat. But everyone isn?t that strong and they shouldn?t have to be. We live in a society where many people just fall into preassigned classes with little trouble. When many are born on the path to content middle class lives, why must we start in the woods. I?m a college student and I am the product of persistence, determination and being lucky enough to have a mother that had a vision for her son. I know I won?t be leaving college until I?m handed a PhD. I?ve set my sights on it and in time it will be mine, but I try my best to keep one hand at the backs of my people. Pushing, sometimes dragging them a long. You want to talk about the ?bad? blacks? Look no further then Oprah and those of her brood. They didn?t integrate, they assimilated. They said, ?I don?t have a culture and I don?t care enough about my people to help create one; mind if I just borrow yours?? And you all being good neighbors said, ?Jeb!!! Get my shotgun.? None the less, Uncle Tom and few of his kids ? ten or so ? came back later and stole some of your culture any how. They also took two chickens and a watermelon. Yum, yum indeed.
Is it wrong for you to hear riot and think ?black??
Nope, because I hear corruptor, oppressor, fascist, and I think ?white.?
P.S. I?d still sit across from anyone of you at a table and break bread, just putting my two cents into the juke box.