Tag Archives: NWA

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Oh The Irony

Ya’ll remember when they got mad at NWA for singing “Fuck Tha Police?” They arrested these dudes in Detroit for singing a song. They group never harmed actual police. Remember when Ice-T had to concede to drop the distribution of the song “Cop Killers?” Body Count never did harm to any police. On January 6 these defenders of Whiteness actually KILLED and maimed COPS! But in the Whiteness Manifesto, these murders are merely casualties of war. They rap themselves like Vanilla Ice:

Fuck the police coming straight to The Capitol

My guy lost the election and it’s bull!

Stand by until the leader speaks

We have the authority to kill a Pelosi!

THIS is the game! They never actually cared about POLICE! They ONLY care about the power the police have to enforce Whiteness. As long as Black bodies are being battered and murdered it’s all good! Otherwise… seriously, fuck the police!

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Message to the ‘Bitter’ Black Man

Let me begin with a little background: I love justice, equality and the celebration/respect of diversity.  As such I celebrate the accomplishments of Martin King, Malcolm X, The Black Panther Party movement, Dick Gregory, and Paul Rusesabagina to name a few.  I have marched with Al Sharpton and was friends with the late great Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.  As a matter of fact, I was blessed and privileged to spend a week with Shuttlesworth in his home recording his perspective of his life’s work.  If you don’t know who the man is, dammit Google him! Further I’ve identified with the rap lyrics of Public Enemy!  You might hear me blasting “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” on any given day.  It’s an anthem as far as I’m concerned.

I’m a vivacious reader so I am up on politics, the economy, the incarceration rates of minorities and the very common lack of justice people who look like me receive every day. I saw all this to clarify that I am a free and progressively strong black man.

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With that… this is something that I read that I came across on social media regarding the 4th of July: I don’t understand why so many Black people in the United States are wishing so many other Black people in the United State a happy Independence day. Is it just stupidity? Have we really bought into the idea that we should be proud Americans? Now I think that anytime that you are able to spend with family is a good thing, fireworks are pretty and I personally like barbecued chicken. But to believe in the spirit of the 4th of July? You are joking, right?   The author of this text is Runoko Rashidi.  I don’t know Mr. Rashidi.  But this was my response to my friend who posted it.

Naw we ain’t joking Mr. Rashidi. No one is going to disagree with you that black folk were not afforded freedom or ‘independence’ in 1776. Nor are we where we need to be now. YET, I am an American. No one gets to take my part of what I give to this nation nor that of my ancestors. We built this country. We persevered, survived, and advanced through the fire and through the wall. Yes we will have a long way to go, and yet any black person who does not recognize the blessing that it is to live in a country that regardless of the racism and injustice that I fervently fight EVERYDAY has probably not visited many other countries. EVERY nation and every society has it’s issues and challenges. I don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater to enjoy MY piece of this pie. Perspective is everything Mr. Rashidi. Extremes and accusations of stupidity are unnecessary and counterproductive to the larger struggle. Dammit ‘not’ celebrating the 4th of July is the LEAST of ‘solving’ black folks problems in the US of A!

Again, I don’t know Mr. Rashidi.  I am sure he is a positive and loving person who loves black people.  Thus I am not attacking  him.  However, what I have noticed among some of my Black American contemporaries is a bitter disposition on life, America, our roles and responsibilities.  The above is an example.  Another example is what I see from some other Black folk who have no love or respect for President Obama.  I’ve seen in social media phrases like, “f#@! Obama and the United States,’ or other references to the effect of, “I don’t know why people are worshiping Obama.  The country is going to hell.  He hasn’t done nothing for you.”  Some even brag about not voting as if that’s makes one ‘above the system.”  Excuse me? Let’s let’s step away from the microphone for a minute. Here are a few things you need to know about politics:

1) Everything you love and hate about America is the result of politics.  Whether local, regional or national; access to clean water, food, gas/oil, utilities, roads/highways, trash pick up/disposal, the internet, wages, education, technology and so on. Politics is about power and power decides everything!  People spend millions of dollars in order to be in a position to make power moves.  Some do it by running for political positions.  Others spend money to influence those who will hold the positions.

2) There has been an ongoing movement for more than a century to deny, cheat and suppress the vote from people of color.  Regardless of the imperfections within the system, for me to voluntarily divorce myself from having at least some say is beyond dumb!   You have never heard any other group of people say, “I’m not voting because it doesn’t make a difference…”  Hell if it didn’t make a difference we wouldn’t have cases argued in courts all over America!

3) One of the greatest tricks politicians use is to get a group of people in the bad predicament to vote against their own interest because of racism, and rhetoric as to who the real enemies are.  So while we waddle in the mud over small and insignificant  bigotries, the power brokers are fleecing the nation and swinging every conceivable and possible option towards their advantage.  And yet some of us stand ignorantly, pontificating from on high about how we don’t participate in any political processes.   Ask Eric Cantor if black folk’s votes don’t make a difference! To quote the Miami Heat President we need to, “Get a grip!”

If you have F-U money like Prince you can afford to talk that, “I don’t participate in politics”, BS. (…and even HE is pissing on his ancestors who spilled blood to provide a platform for him)  But the majority of us?  Not so much!

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Sure the system ain’t perfect.  But the IDEAS of system are pretty damn good.  It’s people who are corrupted.  And it’s up to people to hold people in political power accountable.   It’s up to us to become part of the solution in all areas of our lives. We can’t be out here majoring on minors; allowing stupid thinking to stand in the way of us doing what we need to do in order to be the very best we can be…which includes being a vital part of every process that can possibly affect us. We have a right to be angry.  I have personally experienced damn near every basic negative effect of racism known to a black man in America;  Employment discrimination, police brutality, and so forth.

Equally true is some of my most trusted friends, allies, and working relationships are with white men, and black and otherwise.  It’s not our skin that draw us together, but our respective states of mind. We have a right to be angry.   And sometimes anger is good. It can provoke action which can provoke changes. We don’t have to agree with everyone on everything in order to do some things together.  Martin King wasn’t universally beloved.  *many black folks despised him in the midst of the civil rights movement* Neither was Malcolm.  Neither was Mandela.  Also, they were not PERFECT men.  If you dig deep enough there are several things within their philosophies, actions and inaction’s that you would quibble with them on. That doesn’t diminish their worth.  You know why they are praised now?  Because they’re dead!  Being dead excuses one from being judged based on current events, discussions and actions.  The longer they are dead, the more they tend to be immortalized and perfected.  The larger point is that people are flawed, even great people.  And so are you!

So why are black folk so hard on the POTUS.  I’m willing to venture most of his Black critics don’t know a damn thing about his presidency, what he has managed to accomplish in spite of the GOP’s racist resentfulness of his occupation of the White House.

And it ain’t like our sh#! don’t stink.  In spite of our introduction to the Americas via the slave trade, we were not in Africa singing Kumbaya when whitey came along to pluck us from utopia.  We had already done our own share of manipulating, dominating and deceiving one another too.   We fought wars among ourselves, took land and so forth.   So have the Spanish, the Polish, The Irish, Germans, Catholics, Protestants, and so forth.  It’s in man’s nature to desire power, use power, and exert power over others.   Give some of us some extra power now and see what we do with it! It’s up to us to bitch about the problems alone or become the part of the solution.

I’m challenging you bitter black man.  Be a part of the solution.  Otherwise you may want to visit places like The Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Haiti, Honduras, Syria, etc.  THEN tell me as you sit on your computer using the internet for Facebook and Twitter in your clean clothes after taking a hot shower eating the food you bought from the local store with the car you drove me how bad it really is.

I am an American.  This is my damn country too.  It’s only 238 years old.  Check your historical geography and you’ll realize that’s pretty damn young.  I am going to work to make the best out of it for myself, my family and my friends!  I hope you bitter black man will participate with me.  The problems may not have started with you, but you still have to own a major part of the solutions.

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Music Week:The Irony of Hip Hop, Gangster Rap, and Hollywood Success

 

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Growing up during the origins of rap music and what we now call hip hop, I witnessed an art which themes started with, dancing and bragging about personal likes and lighthearted fun.  Later, it expanded as some artist got into heavier subjects dealing with poverty, crime and life in the streets.  “The Message,” by Grandmaster Flash comes to mind.  Then along came the soap opera kind of rap like UTFO’s “Roxanne Roxanne” and Roxanne’s own response.  By the late 80’s, groups like Public Enemy were schooling us about politics and NWA brought a whole new change to the game by bringing gang life rhetoric and storytelling from Compton, California to the world.  I would say to some degree this was hip hop at its heights.  Perhaps I’m a bit aged though.  We still have an element of ghetto life and gangster rap out there, but it lacks the charisma and style of people like Mr. Scarface and The Ghetto Boys. 

 

 

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Hip hop has taken its share of hits from the public and some of it very valid.  From Tipper Gore to many parents, church goers, and culture critics, the lyrics and messages within the music has been widely critiqued and criticized.  Many blame hip hop for the ills of the black community and often in the world.  Sometimes it can be so ridiculous, as Ice Cube said on one of the songs from his new CD, “Raw Footage”, “If I shoot up the college, ain’t nothing to it – gangster rap made me do it.” Cube is one of my favorite rappers because he speaks truth to power.  And even when he’s hard, narcissistic, or brutish he is still creative and entertaining.

 

 

The ironic thing about the rap game now, is its being disdained by a large part of mainstream society when it comes to the content of the music – while on the other hand many artist are being embraced by that same society when it comes to rappers being portrayed in television and cinema. 

 

You got 50 Cent making a movie about his life and getting shot.  Ice-T did a song called, “Cop Killers,” that had almost the whole fraternity of law enforcement officers up in arms.  Now he has played an undercover narcotic officer, transferred to the Special Victims Unit on Law and Order SVU since 2000.  His character is even a Republican.  Maybe John McCain will use Ice’s character to appeal to the black audience.  SIKE!  I don’t know that McCain knows black people exist in this country.  But I digress.

 

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The MOST ironic figure in all of this is the above mentioned Ice Cube.  One of the founding members of the group NWA and one of  it’s primary writers, Cube doled out other American and law enforcement favorites, “F*ck The Police.” After the NWA days, Cube did his own solo projects and none of them have softened up in the least.  The lyrics are still sharp and the language is just as gritty.  Regardless not only has he done the “Friday” and “Barbershop” series, he done the films, “Are We There Yet?’ and “Are We Done Yet?” These are family favorites.  Cube has directed, written or produced 16 films, and after next years, “Welcome Back, Kotter,” where he will play Gabe Kaplan’s teaching character from the 70s sitcom and B.A. Baracus on the film The A-Team, he will have acted in 27.  His current film is another feel good family project, “The Longshots.” 

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This proves that America hates and love’s its hip hop stars.  They are intrigued at their talent but only appreciate it most when it fits their level of comfort.