THE NEW SLAVE MELANOMA
Whether by design or an unintended by-product of racism, the
caging of black progress remains in perpetuity as we concentrate on our
‘victimhood’ as opposed to our way out, our triumph and our true independence (being
unshackled by anything and everything that enslaves us).
I love the music, the marketing, the presentation and even
the valor in Mr. West’s SONG, “New Slaves" but as an individual who wants
the same equality and non-discriminative world that Ye is supposedly fighting
for, I disagree with this approach. I’ll put it this way; Sergio Garcia did not
have to apologize for suggesting that he’ll serve fried chicken to Tiger Woods
at dinner. A lot of people looove fried-chicken, including Blacks so why
apologize for offering food? If my buddy Mark (Italian) was coming over for
lunch, I’ll probably have some pasta and ish on the menu… No one truly cares or
hates Kanye for sleeping with white women and even if they do, it does not prevent
it so what is the issue? He won’t be beaten or jailed for it, of this I am sure…
If Kanye wishes to better the race, he should be encouraging
young blacks to stay away from negativity/slackness. There is injustice in our
society and there will always be more injustice towards the less powerful (least
powerful in the case of Black America). Until we put ourselves in a better
position to negotiate and affect our circumstances, a thousand projected
screens belling out the ills of racism is only an exercise of our sight and
hearing senses.
If the ‘Chief Keef’ was frowned upon and the ‘Justus
Williams’ was promoted, I find it very impossible that the CCA and DEA will be
marching into our communities or HBCU’s for that matter and arresting young
black men pursuing their education and dreams in order to fulfill their quota
for the US prison industrial complex.
As an artist, Mr. West is unparalleled in expressive passion.
I read an article that sought to justify Ye’s ‘activism’. It was a very well
written piece and had enough references (mostly from Ye’s previous work) to satiate
the zealous fan or one-up any doubter in Ye’s mission. I do not doubt his mission. I just happen to
have a different mindset. Obviously, I do not have the reach of Yeezus but I
hope that the 10 people that read this, maybe one person can pick some
positivity from my concepts. My grandpa
once told me that, if I indeed have a bighead and someone made fun of it, I
should just grow a pair and keep it moving. It is provocative and it is
jaw-dropping – New Slaves - but what will it truly accomplish? Some argue that
we need awareness and we need to have a conversation. I say we need to let it
go. Not in the sense of forgetting but in the sense of appreciating our past and
using it as a motivator for the better.
I wanted to write a separate blog-post for the recent
censorship hoopla surrounding certain rappers lyrics, especially that of Rick
Ross and Weezy but for lack of motivation I’m making all this one big post
about misplaced energies. While the overzealous women’s activist group
Ultraviolet paraded the streets protesting Rick, there is a law on the books in
California that essentially acquitted an actual rapist because his victim was
an unwed woman. I don’t have the energy to link it but just google it. This is
what I speak of – misplaced anger/energy in a direction that will yield no
effective change on the injustice that caused said angst. There isn’t one
solution to the plight of ‘black people’ but I think the continuous outlook of ‘us
vs them’ won’t win true equality and/or independence. The world is a thinking
man’s (all humans ie) game. If our real strategy for equality is to cry and
vent our way with any real platform we get, we’ll always be stuck in a position
of victimhood. The moment we evolve to a diverse group of people not defined by
our color, even as proud of it as we remain and become fully entrenched in
every aspect of society, not just sports and entertainment, we will begin to
command true respect which leads to true equality. Think of it this way, the
laws and policies that affect us negatively are not going to be overturned by ‘affirmative
action’. When we build hospitals, schools, roads, businesses, factories, industries
etc and control them, our economic power will change the way we are treated by
our fellow humans.
You may not like the Jews or have some dislike of their position in society but the fact is, they control the financial industry
and from that, they influence societies bottom line, hence, public policy, enough that institutionalized racism can’t
be implemented against them – they are too important – to the world economy . The concept of friends in higher places or political positions - they themselves also occupy powerful/important positions. Independence does not mean depending on your former oppressor to give you
handouts or reparations or whatever you feel is owed to your people. It is
about picking up from whatever they left you with and building something so
valuable from it that you can trade it back to them and everyone else as a
commodity – on your own terms and conditions. This is about pride and we need
to redirect our pride from our prouder past (great ancestry) and use it as a platform
for asserting our importance to the larger world community. 'Gimme gimme' ain't
got we nowhere so let’s try a new approach. Not victimization but
responsibility. This is obviously not a blanket judgment of all black people
but simply an opinion or rebuttal to the school of thought that dwells on the
plight of black people and constantly casts us as victims. I’m sick of being viewed as underprivileged
by default due to my pigmentation and you should be too. We are more than color
and it is about damn time we show it.
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