Angry Black Man: The Flaws of Black Conservatism

Yeah. I'm starting to do this a lot so I'm just going to make a series. Here are some links the proto-Angry Black Man stuff.

Primer on the N_Word
Should I Post I'm Tired of Trying to Prove My Blackness
I'm tired of Trying to Prove My Blackness
Black Rock Playlist
On the Black History Month Thing
Getting Meta: Minorities
Terry Goodkind and Affirmative Action
Argument for Affirmative Action
I Fucking Hate the Noble Savage


Beyond that, before I get started let me say that like Hooper X in Chasing Amy my anger over racial issues comes in three varieties.

1. Expected faux anger: Look most black people are expected to have some indignation towards the white power structure that permeated and still permeates this country, but some of it honestly is me being mad because I'm supposed to be as a black guy. It's not genuine anger for me.
2. Comedic parody of the first: Yeah. It's fun to mess with people sometimes.
3. The real deal: Genuine anger at racism, interracial class stratification, stereotyping, racial inequality, and America's inability to have a serious national discussion about all the previous.

And here is the deal good readers. I expect you to be able to tell when I'm expressing each one in my writing. Good luck.

Now then, the television in my kitchen doesn't have cable and it, being Thanksgiving Eve my mom was in there, she was watching CoolTV trying to remember the name of a Bob Marley Music video she had seen earlier.

My guess is that it was probably "Redemption Song".



You're welcome Mom.

After that they start showing rappers. This along with the fact that afterwards she changed the channel to Bill Cosby's Mark Twain award led to a discussion about how rap has changed African-American culture for the worst.
.


Now I'll admit that yeah rap has glorified the image of the gangster a bit.



But other than that, I think that it's wrong to blame hip-hop culture on the Black Community's ills. Hoodies are not what's keeping Deshawn out of College. And honestly I think a lot of talk like that masks some of the real reasons behind black inequality. Furthermore it makes gross over-generalizations about the culture that are akin to the same type of stereotyping that caused the aforementioned inequality.

Much of this is due to ever increasing socioeconomic, cultural and political divides between classes amongst the black community.



Poverty in the Black community existed long before Grandmaster Flash and Whodini came on the scene.



In his Pound Cake speech Cosby said it wasn't about money. Yeah. Yeah. It is. A lot of the schools in the innercity are broke. A lot of the families are broke. The cities themselves are broke. Deshawn can't read if Deshawn can't get his hands on a book.

Detroit Library Officials again Consider Closings: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Don't get me wrong. I understand that if Black youth are going to succeed in this world personal responsibility is a must. That said we can't ignore that there is still a lot in this world that lies outside their control. And hip-hop culture in and of itself has very little to do with that.