In the aftermath of Sean Taylor's death I still find myself surprised at the consistency in the arguments of pundits who choose to use his murder as an indictment of Rap and Black pop-culture. A staple of their vitriol is the ever-present "Good Old Days" where the Black community was absent of all the ills that currently plague us.
In the mind of these critics every single aspect of American pathology conveniently finds its origins around Rap music and Black pop-culture. What is notable is that several of these individuals are in their 40's and 50's which place them in a very interesting time frame to be so self-righteous.
The imagery, language and sound that currently permeates through Rap/R&B are a reflection of both Blackploitation films and 70's soul music. Both genres are more than 3 decades old and yet when we see their manifestation currently it is supposedly the result of the decadence of todays youth.
When some of these individuals express visceral outrage about: D.L. Hughley, Lil Kim, Snoop etc.I can't help but to be cynical about their anger and disbelief when they were exposed to everything from Pryor, Foxx, The Mack, Pam Grier et al.
There is an inherent flaw in reducing the complexities involved in crime, miseducation and poverty in the Black community that seems to escape many who use it as a basis for self-aggrandizement; and that would be the depiction of Blacks in mainstream media in the first half of the 20th century.
In the first half of the 20th century when the vast majority of Black imagery in mainstream culture was that of Sambo, Mammy, minstrels etc; why didn't the Black community degenerate to that level of behavior? There was less economic prosperity, education and positive imagery in that setting than there is now. If the simplistic 1 to 1 correlation that is being drawn between media depictions and pathology truly existed it should've manifested itself much more prominently back then instead of now.
While we are all guilty of providing a rose colored directors cut of our trips down memory lane; what is going on now is a lot different. What is currently taking place is wilfull revisionism which results in the diminishing of personal responsibility.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
Bible Wars
While at the Youtube home page I noticed a few Juanita Bynum videos and decided to watch them. Even though I am a member of a mega-church I had never heard about her until the incident between her and Thomas Weeks and the subsequent controversy that followed. The comment section of a youtube clip is oftentimes more entertaining than the feature and for each clip that I watched involving Bynum and Weeks this held true.
Comments would range from condemnation, ridicule, support and everything in-between. The statements revealed issues of sexism, patriarchy and religious ideology that have been hallmarks of dissension in the Black Church from time immemorial. What was even more interesting is that posters would have links to their own pastors/Bishops etc. take on the controversy and this is where the real fireworks start.
If you are a member of a Mega-church your pastor almost assuredly got called out as a hypocrite, false prophet and thief and that was just for starters. If your Church leader is a woman, she got called all of the above along with a helping of Jezebels and other very descriptive language thrown in. As I watched, the commentary had an air of familiarity and not just because the clips were all dealing with the same subject matter.
The Bible War clips were starting to seem very similar to the Rap Beef videos that are posted on Youtube. The substance of the conflict in a Beef video is irrelevant for the most part, what is important is diminishing your opponent while at the same time magnifying yourself as much as possible. All of the Bible War clips didn't have that tone but enough did to strike a chord.
The best example of The Bible war clips are the ones involving Pastor Tony Smith. This man needs a televised program ASAP. His candor, charisma and combative nature make each installment a must see experience. I can't do the clips justice so I advise you to watch for yourself. I would pay to see this man on Meet The Faith with a female Church leader on the opposing side.
As in most cases whenever such strong feeling are presented their origin couldn't have taken place in an instant. Issues in the church involving the role of women, materialism, celebrity church leaders and Mega churches were all bubbling under the surface for a long time. Now that things are boiling over it will be interesting to see what comes as a result of it.
Comments would range from condemnation, ridicule, support and everything in-between. The statements revealed issues of sexism, patriarchy and religious ideology that have been hallmarks of dissension in the Black Church from time immemorial. What was even more interesting is that posters would have links to their own pastors/Bishops etc. take on the controversy and this is where the real fireworks start.
If you are a member of a Mega-church your pastor almost assuredly got called out as a hypocrite, false prophet and thief and that was just for starters. If your Church leader is a woman, she got called all of the above along with a helping of Jezebels and other very descriptive language thrown in. As I watched, the commentary had an air of familiarity and not just because the clips were all dealing with the same subject matter.
The Bible War clips were starting to seem very similar to the Rap Beef videos that are posted on Youtube. The substance of the conflict in a Beef video is irrelevant for the most part, what is important is diminishing your opponent while at the same time magnifying yourself as much as possible. All of the Bible War clips didn't have that tone but enough did to strike a chord.
The best example of The Bible war clips are the ones involving Pastor Tony Smith. This man needs a televised program ASAP. His candor, charisma and combative nature make each installment a must see experience. I can't do the clips justice so I advise you to watch for yourself. I would pay to see this man on Meet The Faith with a female Church leader on the opposing side.
As in most cases whenever such strong feeling are presented their origin couldn't have taken place in an instant. Issues in the church involving the role of women, materialism, celebrity church leaders and Mega churches were all bubbling under the surface for a long time. Now that things are boiling over it will be interesting to see what comes as a result of it.
The Black KKK: Uncle Ruckus Strikes Again
At some point I would like to believe that opportunism, even the most base kind gets put aside during certain instances, tragedy being amongst them. This belief is in vain while individuals like Jason Whitlock aka HouseNigger Dujour roam the Earth.
Before the late Sean Taylor's body became cold, Mr. Whitlock took the opportunity to yet again reduce the complexities of crime, poverty and miseducation to being the result of rap music. The inability to support this obviously cheap, predatory and pathetic scapegoating of Rap music would be sufferable if the forces coalescing around this paradigm weren't being given legitimacy.
In Mr. Whitlocks world; life in the Black community exists in a vacum where the realities of miseducation (as enhanced by NCLB), Unemployment and sexism are all non-existant outside of their attachment to Rap. A genre of music in his twisted myopic view is capable of supplanting not only centuries of inequality; but ironically enough personal responsibility as well in determining the reality of Black existence.
What doesn't fit the Rap menace paradigm is that 80% of the music produced from the genre is purchased by Whites. If Rap has not only a correlation but a causatory link to violence, crime and sexism; why don't we see the same level of these pathologies in the White community as we do the Black community? Could it be that the issues at hand are bigger than rap? Along these lines, Rap sales are at a 40% decline while the murder rate in the Black community is simultaneously increasing. By any reasonable standard that is an inverse relationship. So again, the facts don't match up with the claims but that never gets in the way of self-aggrandizement.
We all know Whitlock will be back but hopefully he will have the decency not to prop himself up on the corpse of a young man who was senselessly murdered.
Before the late Sean Taylor's body became cold, Mr. Whitlock took the opportunity to yet again reduce the complexities of crime, poverty and miseducation to being the result of rap music. The inability to support this obviously cheap, predatory and pathetic scapegoating of Rap music would be sufferable if the forces coalescing around this paradigm weren't being given legitimacy.
In Mr. Whitlocks world; life in the Black community exists in a vacum where the realities of miseducation (as enhanced by NCLB), Unemployment and sexism are all non-existant outside of their attachment to Rap. A genre of music in his twisted myopic view is capable of supplanting not only centuries of inequality; but ironically enough personal responsibility as well in determining the reality of Black existence.
What doesn't fit the Rap menace paradigm is that 80% of the music produced from the genre is purchased by Whites. If Rap has not only a correlation but a causatory link to violence, crime and sexism; why don't we see the same level of these pathologies in the White community as we do the Black community? Could it be that the issues at hand are bigger than rap? Along these lines, Rap sales are at a 40% decline while the murder rate in the Black community is simultaneously increasing. By any reasonable standard that is an inverse relationship. So again, the facts don't match up with the claims but that never gets in the way of self-aggrandizement.
We all know Whitlock will be back but hopefully he will have the decency not to prop himself up on the corpse of a young man who was senselessly murdered.
Don Imus: The Immaculate Deception
On a slow newsday the infamous shock jock Don imus uttered the 3 words which will now live in infamy. The combination of these remarks in addition to the off-air instances of racist practices left Imus with the very real prospect of having his career go up in flames. With nothing left to lose, Imus threw a hail mary and blamed the pervasive presence of Rap music as the true culprit behind his using the term Nappy Headed Ho's. Now what should've been a blatantly pathetic and transparent move to avoid personal responsibility; actually worked. Let me repeat that, it worked.
3 words from Imus suddenly became a point of exodus for him as well as a referendum on not only Rap music but Black pop-culture as a whole. What started as a spin move suddenly became the platform for Civil rights relics, pundits and general critics alike to put Rap as the focal point of nearly every pathology that exists in the Black community; with the added bonus of it all happening in a vacum.
After the boycotts, the 2 episode Rap lynching on Oprah, as well as scores of editorials and web based campaigns; where do we stand? Imus is 20 million dollars richer from a settlement victory, has a contract with WABC to begin a show in December and in addition has a TV simulcast deal.
The Immaculate deception could never have worked better.
3 words from Imus suddenly became a point of exodus for him as well as a referendum on not only Rap music but Black pop-culture as a whole. What started as a spin move suddenly became the platform for Civil rights relics, pundits and general critics alike to put Rap as the focal point of nearly every pathology that exists in the Black community; with the added bonus of it all happening in a vacum.
After the boycotts, the 2 episode Rap lynching on Oprah, as well as scores of editorials and web based campaigns; where do we stand? Imus is 20 million dollars richer from a settlement victory, has a contract with WABC to begin a show in December and in addition has a TV simulcast deal.
The Immaculate deception could never have worked better.
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