5 posts tagged “rappers”
A powerful, deeply moving rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by the Grace Baptist Church Cathedral Choir, under the direction of Derrick James, summons back into focus the once proud, respectable and dignified Black America. The video, originally screened at the historic African-American Church Inaugural Ball in Washington, DC on January 18, 2009, traces the path of sacrifice and struggle from slavery to the civil rights movement, finally, to placing the first African-American into the highest office in this nation. This video recognizes and pays homage to remembering, overcoming, and holding sacred all the many struggles, setbacks, and hardships African-Americans endured to simply be treated human and receive entitlement to their rightful liberties. It conveys our strength and undying determination to persevere despite adversity—from without.
For the past 30 years, the prowess spirit of the “Black America” presented in this video seems to have been replaced or diluted with messages of self-destruction, inferiority, and insignificance mostly due to the creation and acceptability of gangsta rap and its associated lifestyle. This mentality has been perpetuated upon our kind, African Americans, by our kind, African Americans. It’s troubling that a race of people can recognize and dissolve an external enemy, but lack the ability to realize, address, and remove “the inside man”—inferior mentalities and degrading lifestyles—who’s causing the great hemorrhage—the continued demise of the African-American community.
The civil rights movement made race relations in America more diverse and open, but at the same time, more complex and challenging. Because of this, blacks were encouraged to remain united and rise up collectively to defeat oppression of the human spirit. Yet today, rather than serving as a dignified foundation to continually pursue collective advancement, the civil rights struggle is now the memorabilia that crowds the lanes of nostalgia, black lines of enlightenment that lay upon unturned history-book pages, and aging memoirs of former civil rights leaders fading again into blank sheets. Many of the younger generation seem to lack understanding of the power of a true race-progression movement built on dignity, thus, attach no significance to or appreciation of all that was endured, sacrificed, and lost; they just live in the here and now.
Rosa Parks worried and warned that young blacks had absolutely no sense and appreciation of the titanic battles that she and the civil rights leaders waged to make America live up to its much-betrayed promise of justice and equality. In a reflective interview years later, she did not absolve herself and other blacks of her generation of blame for [failing] to pass on the torch. She called for a redoubling of the effort to make young blacks, as she put it, “know what it means to be black in America today.”
Gangsta rap, a benefactor of the struggles of the civil rights movement, does indeed have some misplaced values: lack of respect and appreciation for all of the sacrifices of those before it. Saggin’ pants, the call for misogyny, wanton use of the n-word, glorification of thuggery and a gangsta way of life contrasts sharply with the exemplary, respectable and civil mood of their resilient progenitors. However, after watching the following video, one will realize that it’s not too late to re-light the mighty torch and pass it on. An entire generation of young minds have been mislead and misguided; it’s still enough time to reverse the process of self-destruction and stop the internal bleeding.
View this monumental, prideful, uplifting and true account of our African-American spirit:
H. Lewis Smith is the founder and president of UVCC, the United Voices for a Common Cause, Inc., and author of Bury that Sucka: A Scandalous Love Affair with the N-Word. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP2U0jmZjec
One’s level of self-esteem—whether healthy or unhealthy—is a direct result of the environment and is deeply influenced by daily interactions with family, school, peer group, work place, and community.
Self-esteem is the foundation of self image, independent thought, and individuality. It can encourage us to leap bounds beyond the grandest measure, or it can discourage us from pursuing a goal before it even has the ability to ripen into a full thought. Self-esteem is the result of one’s own self-perception—the way one sees oneself in relation to their environment—and strongly reflects the level of self-value one attaches to self.
For years on end, the term “n**ger” has been used in the plight to keep black African-Americans oppressed and miles shy of achieving their God-given potential. Black African-Americans were taught to perceive themselves as something far less than human, and to devalue themselves—to be “n**gers”. As a result of the plight’s effectiveness, healthy self-esteem runs at a deficient level throughout the black African-American community.
Some black African-Americans have realized the ramifications of the term “n**ger”, understand the significance attached to a healthy self-esteem, and refuse to be referred to as a n**ger. This is because they realize the term is an antagonist to a healthy self-persona, and will not permit their own self-perception and self-value to degrade so low that they to refer to themselves as such.
On the contrary, some black African-Americans feel an affinity to the word n**ger—this is what they were taught, so this is their truth. The humility of descending to the level of the n-word is unfeigned submission of one’s mind having been overwhelmed with a weighty sense of their innate misery and self-contempt. Many black African-Americans, unfortunately, are proponents for the self-inflicted use of the n-word. Fortunes have been made by spreading a culture of gangster rap–with its glorification of crime, disrespect for women, saggin' pants, and the perpetuation of a dysfunctional vocabulary. Although this culture has contributed some positivity to the African American race in proving to youths that African Americans can attain success and own God-given creative writing abilities, this “culture” also ensures that countless young Black people will never be able to perform successfully and professionally at a job interview, or function as a civil member of society. Commentary has been made that gangsta rap is an avenue to vent one’s anger. No doubt that anger can spark passion, innovation, and ingenuity. However, the passion and innovation must be communicated in a positive manner to stimulate quality and civility, rather than the glamorization of violence and crime, dolling up drug addictions and the degradation of one’s self-perception. Some gangster rappers argue that they have no impact on the actions of their listeners; however, words are powerful. Whether the story lines are true or not, the avid listeners will perceive them to be such and be influenced by the words of their favorite rapper. Rap can be used as a positive medium to build up a generation of productive society members, or, it can continue to be used as a way to make a buck off of degrading and continually contributing to the demise of the black African-American community. …Perhaps, and almost apparently, these gangster rappers have a poor self-image. The latest exhibition of a rapper’s low self-esteem is Nas’ soon-to-be released video entitled “Be a Nigger Too.” In this video, Nas extends an invitation to the world to join him in reinforcing dehumanization, subjugation, and oppression in a supreme effort to keep this word alive. Unknowingly, due to Nas’ lack of perception and failure to realize the level of influence he exudes, he is sabotaging the sacred memories of his black ancestry in this preposterous attempt at keeping the n-word alive. There is a scene in Roots where Kunta Kinte is whipped mercilessly until he calls himself by the slave name, Toby—after which time the slave master says, “Alright, that’s a good n**ger.” This is a scene re-enacted in real life more times than can be counted. For centuries, the white world has impressed upon the minds of the black world that there is such a thing as a n**ger, and Blacks have bought it lock, stock and barrel. A healthy self-esteem provides one the courage to try new things and the power to believe in self. Self-esteem promotes self-respect, and when one respects him/herself, the rest of the world will know that individual demands to be respected by them. With a healthy self-esteem, one doesn’t look for excuses to endear themselves to a word that once was used to justify the dehumanizing, butchering and slaughtering of their ancestors. In fact, quite the contrary: They will, instead, find such a fiendish word as n**ger to be totally unacceptable. Granted the common or modern day definition of the n-word is nothing more than a racial slur, however, the historical meaning as it is applied to ascendants of African Americans is etched in stone in the annals of history and can never be rationalized away. As James Baldwin once so succinctly said: “You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a n**ger.” Our ancestors did not fit the description of what was considered a n**ger, nor did they deserve to be categorized in such a manner. Once one truly understands what the description of a n**ger was—and still is, a sane person would come to realize that there is no such thing as a n**ger—at least not pertaining to them! One of the greatest powers in the world is the power to define reality and make others accept it, even when it's to their disadvantage. This is the devious strategy the white world deployed into the minds of the black race with the word n**ger. Blacks can be and are complicit in maintaining white supremacy by giving into nihilism (the n-word) and immorality in the face of the endless struggle to surmount inequality, rather than proceeding through life on their own autonomy. The n-word is a phenomenon crippling the black community and the civic will to fight it. Let go of the past. Stop breathing life into the n-word, which is killing off the black community’s self-esteem and opportunities at ultimate success. Bury that sucka. Finally claim and live in full freedom. Blacks are NOT n**gers—there is no such thing! This anti n-word movement has nothing to do with the white man’s use of the word, this is about the black race’s pathetic acceptance of the word. This acceptance must be derailed. A healthy self-esteem epitomizes personal responsibilities and holds one accountable for their actions. It entails the meeting of life’s challenges through which a healthy state of mind enables one to break free from the restraints of an oppressed mental state. A healthy self-esteem provides the encouragement, refuge, and drive one requires to successfully persevere life’s obstacles. Most people admire and respect strong individuals who have won great success by manifesting will power and self-discipline. People in all walks of life with sheer will power, self-discipline and ambition have learned new skills and improved their lives. Myriads of examples exist where African Americans have achieved ambitious goals without the need of referring to themselves—or audience members—as the n-word.
Community leaders all across America are now stepping up to the plate and challenging the insanity that’s been going on within the black community relative to the self-deprecation use of the n-word, and other profane words. Mogul Executive, Russell Simmons is to be commended with his initiative to confront the issues relative to the music industries complicity, by calling for corporate responsibility, even though he did stop short of holding rappers accountable for anything.
However, the real work now begins because there are multi-millions of blacks who see nothing wrong in embracing the n-word and the denigrating and mindless lyrics of some rap music. There are blacks and whites alike all around the country trying to sell the idea that the n-word is just another word and will try to trivialize and minimize the true meaning and purpose of this Power…for it is indeed that a Power a diabolical Power…unlike any other word in the English language.
The N-word holds all of America hostage. Contemporary black and white alike, are victims of a deep dark, sordid, and immoral past. There is more than just a disparaging meaning to this word. Derogatory terms such as wetbacks, kike, hymie, dago, faggots, etc. are just that…derogatory. Though there are those who try to reduce the full impact and purpose of the n-word as merely being nothing more than a derogatory slur…this can’t be allowed to happen. A gross miscarriage of justice was committed for more than a span of three centuries all in the name of the n-word. There were vicious, terrible and horrible misdeeds inflicted upon the ascendants of African Americans that many people today would like to have swept underneath a rug and forgotten about. And to a degree have been very successful in doing just that.
It wasn’t enough to just bring the ascendants of African Americans over to work the land… for whatever reason…there was another agenda. This agenda was to destroy the minds of a race of people, rob them of their identity and mold their way of thinking as to how America wanted them to think. This was successfully done in a most unconscionable, malicious, methodical and unimaginable way.
The name that a people call themselves provides them with an understanding of their history by connecting them to a land mass, a language, a culture, a religion, a philosophy, etc. And in this vein you know who you are and your potential as a people. Today…we have no idea who we are…nor our potential. Some want to think of ourselves only as Blacks, others, African Americans and there are those who once again wish to be referred to as Negro—confusion reigns. Our distant ancestors of the Moorish Civilization who were conquerors of the free world as it existed at the time, builders of magnificent palaces, universities, thriving civilizations and who helped to free Europe from the Dark Ages, would look down upon us today with complete disdain and utter contempt.
Contemporary Americans know little about the most darkest and ugliest moments of n-word’s history…the torturing…physically, mentally and emotionally of black Americans breaking them down to accept their newly imposed image, the image of a n**ger which is a metaphor for a sub-human (below the human race in development).
Being so-called up-right Christians… America needed something to justify their actions of insensitive, cruel, mutilating, torturous and inhumane treatment towards another man. Thus by destroying minds, and re-creating another image of what was labeled as a n**ger, this was all the justification needed to commit atrocities on a race of people in any way that they so deemed, seeing as how a n**ger wasn’t considered a human being but indeed sub-human. This was supposed to make all committed acts of dehumanization justifiable.
Robbed of heart, mind, body, soul and manhood an image was created of laziness, savages, thievery, drunkardness, irresponsible, moral degenerates, slick, mindless, heartless, senseless, inferior, scum, something to be despised and considered worthless…lack of love and self respect for self, and to show no love or respect towards his woman or child. Even though the black woman was included in this vindictive conspiracy she was allowed to have a little more self-esteem than her counter-part black male, eroding the black man’s image of himself even further. This is the N-word…it is mind-control…an image. An image that has been browbeaten and physically beaten, into the hearts, minds and soul of the African American for more than 300 years.
Present day attitude seems to be so what—who cares?—after-all they were sub-humans not fit to be respected and revered. What happened to them has nothing to do with me. Any Black person who is gullible enough to go for that crock of you know what…needs their you know what’s kicked from here (California) all the way to New York City and back to California again. It’s a darn shame that we have allowed ourselves to be bamboozled into thinking its okay to relate to a word that made it okay to crucify, castrate, torture, murder, maim and rape our ancestors and we are okay with this. There are those actually selling their souls for thirty pieces of silver to further undermine their own people. How preposterous is that? Where is the racial pride? Oh! I almost forgot that’s something we were robbed of as well. Our Moorish ancestors must be fuming at such displays of imbecility.
The n-word is clearly a defined racist term steeped in ignorance, degradation and immorality and yet there are those who see nothing wrong in blacks continuing to identify with such a mind controlling self-deprecation of a word. Of course, the killings, lynching and murders are common knowledge…but far more than that…happened. Happenings…that no one cares to discuss or talk about.
e.g. In l904 black sharecroppers Luther Holbert and his wife were chained to a tree and a audience
of 600 white spectators enjoyed treats like deviled eggs, lemonade and whiskey in a festive atmosphere while Mr. and Mrs. Holbert had first their fingers chopped off one by one, followed by their ears, followed by a severe beating that left Mr. Holbert with one eye dangling from it's factured socket, followed by "spirals...of raw, quivering flesh" being extracted from both Holberts via corkscrew before the couple were finally burned alive. And as they were drawing their last breath the last words they would hear were the jeers of n**ger, n**ger, n**ger…a word that is
today condoned and embraced by descendants of people such as the likes of a Mr. & Mrs.
Holbert.
It’s not just enough to no longer want to embrace this word, but we need to, and must understand—WHY?—we shouldn’t be embracing it, for its meaning and PURPOSE far exceeds that of a racial slur.
“Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on ‘til victory is won”
The above quote is a line from the Negro National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing.
First in l863 the signing of the Proclamation of Emancipation then the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill…freedom triumphantly prevails? Yet, the end of one journey signifies the beginning of another…the responsibilities and obligations of assimilating this freedom…the rising sun of new challenges.
Presently, there are some pressing issues enveloping the Black community, i.e. economic deprivation, black on black crime, homelessness, drugs, gangs and the list goes on. What happened? And how do we resolve these issues? Has the Black community, since l965, been retrogressing?
Facts indicate that tremendous strides have indeed been made. The doors of opportunity have opened up in many directions. Corporate , television, the political world, and statesmanship, etc.; consequently, most of white America looks at black America and say…My goodness! Equal opportunity is working you should have nothing to complain about. Of course, when you look at one side of this coin the picture is very encouraging, but there is another side that commands attention.
Figures from Human Rights Watch show that while Blacks comprise 13% of the nation’s population they constitute 30% of those arrested, 49% of those imprisoned and that Black men were incarcerated 9.6 times the rate of White men. Simultaneously there are now more young Black males in prison than college. The typical white family has 14 times as much wealth as the typical black family who generally earns approximately 56 cents for every dollar earned by white families.
This disparity, is it solely the result of a racist institutionalized system? Suppose we go back to the 60s and take another look at all that has transpired from then up to present day. During the 60s civil rights struggle, religious leaders, civil rights leaders, our black newspapers were all there to help fight the fight against oppression and segregation. Now we are faced with an enigma, a new found freedom, and what to do with it. What was once group survival now is evolving into individual survival and to an even greater extent class survival with the middle class being the sole beneficiary of social and economical gain. Abruptly void of leadership a community was left to flounder and fin for itself. Many of the goals of the Civil Rights Movement were essentially goals for easier assimilation for middle class people, and the working class and impoverished people didn’t get too much out of it. In the past, black communities had integrated middle class and lower class working people all in the same area. Now, the middle class was no longer residing in the same area where disadvantaged people lived. So the models and the leadership that was available on a community local level were no longer available. And therefore, the leadership that developed out of the civil rights struggle, which essentially reflected middle class values and middle class concerns, didn’t deal with the problems of the impoverished. The stigma of a leadership vacuum opened up the door for the hip hop movement replenished with lyrics of rap music. Rappers take center stage and become pied pipers for a leaderless generation promoting misogyny, violence, gangsta way of life anything and everything that construed a debased way of living. As a result the hearts and minds of a generation of children were affected in a negative way many of whom who learned to see no value in work ethics, learning and morality. In the mid 80s a rap group called N.W.A. synonym for N***az With Attitude popularized gangsta rap espousing hardcore lyrics. Lyrics that glorified and promoted gunfights, crack trade, denigration of women and blatant usage of the N-word. What actions did the Black community take with this display of irreverence towards their community? Absolutely NONE! Our religious leaders were as quiet as a church mouse and our Black newspapers were as mute as their typewriters were silent. Instead of our civil rights leaders leading us on the path of enlightenment, moral and mental development it was the rappers taking control of the minds of our youth leading them down the pathway of self-debasement. During the mid 90s Michael Jackson attempted to use the words kike and hymie in a song which the Jewish community found to be very offensive. Consequently, Michael removed the words and issued an apology. As wicked as the music industry may be it wasn’t about to degrade their loved ones, anything considered to be detrimental to Jews, regardless of its context was and is unacceptable. As much as the music industry loves money it would not allow disrespect of the power base for any reason. Black America what was your position? Where were the boycotts and the outcries while the rappers were poisoning the minds of your youth and for the most part still are? There is an unwritten law or sentiment within the black community thou shall not speak ill of another Black. Do not air out your dirty laundry in public which makes sense and understandable only IF you are taking care of business otherwise. However, if issues detrimental to the over-all well being of the community are not being addressed then the only other alternative is to make it a public issue not allowing things to perpetually go unabated. Forty-three years removed from 1964 and the state of affairs throughout the Black community is on a life support. Black on black crime, gangs, drugs, high volume of incarcerations, probations, parole, problems in schools such as suspensions, expulsions and poor performances are not just externally caused conditions but internal as well. Internal conditions as related to the Black community. African Americans have very good individual survival instincts but are totally lacking in group survival instincts. Generally, those of you who do make it have no inclination to reach back and help others. You have not been indoctrinated to help one another but have been propagandize to demean and degrade one another with the n-word. A racist definition that’s drenched in ignorance and degradation. You will not fight to help each other but will fight to defend your rights to call one another n**ger. It doesn’t matter if one has a PhD or never made it through elementary school the inducement to use this word reigns supreme. In year 2006 it is estimated that as a community Blacks spent more than $600 billion dollars making other groups of people rich and yet can’t resolve the problems of their own community. Since l965 and onward, you seem to have lost sight of an inalienable fact, there is a price to pay for freedom. You must be willing and prepared to hold yourself accountable for your own actions. You know how to manipulate oppressors and how to survive draconian conditions but freedom, so far, has proven to be somewhat of the Black community’s Waterloo. Complete FREEDOM still eludes you. There is one final Bastille to overcome and then you can at last claim total and complete victory; freedom from a sinister word that psychologically links you to a very deep, dark, ugly and diabolical past, which has an unsuspecting affect on your present day live. It can’t be sanitized, cleansed, inverted or redeemed as a culturally liberating word. It is more than a word, it is a Power—a Power—which virtually has a community of people mesmerized and mentally enslaved…it is the N-word…the Trojan horse of the African American community courtesy of a subjugated past. To despise and be ashamed of your ancestors is self assimilated. To bring honor and recognition to your forefathers of their sacrifices and struggles brings a synergy of freedom that is yet to be manifested. It is an abomination to take a word that was used to dehumanize and justify all acts of atrocities upon ascendants of African Americans and embrace it affectionately and endearingly with tender loving care. The ancestors of African Americans have never been laid to rest in peace. It is time to let go of the very word that kept them gripped in terror and fear. It is time to show them some self-respect, dignity, honor and pride and by doing so we extend the same to ourselves. It is time to break that last link to an ominous, dark and dastardly past…the N-word. Yes, let’s make our forefathers proud of us…as we too should be proud of their bravery, fortitude, stalwartness and courage; then and only then will the synergy of freedom finally manifest itself…and then our ancestors can finally rest in peace. H. Lewis Smith is the author of Bury that Sucka and Founder/CEO of the United Voices for a Common Cause, Inc. http://www.theunitedvoices.org
