We elevated entertainers and athletes to the status of cultural giants, and they took that status and spoke to issues they had too little base to grasp. Unlike Ali many have not done the work to understand the current realities of a Black America that is so clearly out of focus. As our cultural heroes moved from rejecting being product spokesman, to being nothing more than products, we lost a voice for social inequity that we had in prior years in Harry Belafonte, Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali. These civil rights activists were replaced with Jay-Z and Charles Barkley, who either through silence or screams echo an ignorance about the current state of our culture.
America has moved forward, but in the process left the families of those subjugated behind as they struggle for access to the American dream. Those without historical context are using individual merit as a cover for the outcome of the country's long dark history.
A few weeks after President Obama’s monumental speech, and the Trayvon Martin rallies have ended we sit in a quiet period. Gone are the calls for civil action that covered CNN, MSNBC and other channels for the last month. Oprah Winfrey stated her opinion.
From the Roaring '20s to the Depressing '30s and back again, America has dealt with cycles of economic growth. But no growth pattern has presented such a possibility of devastating the culture of U.S. capitalism as that which we are on the verge of today.
Criminality has no color, but in America what has happened is we have condensed criminality into a specific look. So we say things like people who have a "SAFE" look usually don't face this or that type of punishment.
An artist simply known as “Drake” has stormed onto the rap scene with a message on the topic line of love that had been traditionally left out of popular hip hop culture. It isn’t the typical (ultra masculine/in control) message relayed by 50 Cent in songs like “21 Questions” or Jay-Z in “Song Cry.” That being a song written around a guy who (of course) did something wrong in the relationship by his own choice. Instead from what I have heard, Drake’s message has the undertone of him being used emotionally in several past relationships. While in many songs the reason is not clear, it appears to be (not because he cheated, was somehow abusive, or for that matter did anything) it is simply because he is Drake, an ordinary guy.
The content delivered by Drake while robust in emotion, often has a somber undertone of pain experienced in past relationships. His whimsical delivery relays a new soul I see arising in black men that goes to the core of their own self-value in this new millennium. A approach that is devoid of independent self-pride, missing the link of masculinity that in my belief is key to a man’s emotional stability. The question is what will these songs leave in their wake as a new generation of little boys listen to them for guidance? Only time can tell. Drake in songs like “Best I Ever Had” with phrases like “You the Best” reverberates a message of an ego stroke that is so strong it leaves no space for improvement.
Under the coat of Drake, the self-proclaimed white knight, there is a visible chink in his armor that rivets to the core of his point. From a spite for being forgotten, to an anger for being turned away — it is all there. Yet, Drake’s message appears to be not just his own, which is why it has stricken a chord in Black American culture. A division in access to the tools that lead to economic success over the last 25 years...
President Barack Obama in 20 minutes delivered on Martin Luther King's dream of social justice in action. He gave a voice to the voiceless, speaking for Trayvon Martin, Medgar Evers and many other nameless African-Americans in U.S. history....
In light of the new Renaissance in African American film and television Wolper states he and his company are continuing their legacy, and developing African American stories around a few of the key social justice moments that deeply affected all of America....
We find ourselves in a time that has illuminated historical cracks the size of the Grand Canyon left in our conscience as a nation. A social conscience fortified by a legacy of human slavery, whites only signs and a drug war gone awry. Last week brought about several race-based decisions from the Supreme Court, one of which struck down a major part of the Voting Rights Act. Setting the stage for what is known as a "come to Jesus" moment in Congress in the coming months, as a divided Congress has a long-needed dialogue on race in this country and its impact, regardless of whether we as a nation elected our first African-American president. Also, the week has brought some of the most stratifying news on the use of the racial slur n****r we have seen nationally in a long while...
