The Black Male Psyche Riddled With Self-Hatred (Part 2)

The Black Male in America has been labeled...branded...marked.

Adjectives such as "Endangered Species", "Undereducated", "Unemployable", "Ignorant", and "Unambitious" are lobbed at men who look like me every day from the halls of academia, to the bright lights of Hollywood, to the simple "man on the street"....

I often ask why are we labeled as such until I think about the various self-destructive that we do within our own community. We have been trained to hate ourselves and as a result others are allowed to degrade and disrespect us.

In recent weeks and months, Hip-Hop has come under fire as the main source of this self-hatred. While I agree that hip-hop plays a role, I refuse to ignore other factors within this (not to sound like a conspiracy theorist) "grand scheme" of self-hatred. There are other factors in play here. I'll address Hip-Hop but I'll also address poverty, education, the media, societal attitudes, and the justice system.

I'll start with Hip-Hop because it's the easiest to address.

Hip-Hop

"These are more than words/This is more than rap/This is the Streets/and I am the trap..."
-Young Jeezy

I will bet a million dollars (that I don't have) that Jeezy didn't know exactly how true his statement was. Jeezy is a part of the canon of rappers that have enjoyed critical acclaim, wealth, and unimaginable success by telling their street tales in poetic form for audiences of millions. In the same vein as Etheridge Knight, Jeezy paints pictures of the late nights/early mornings that street hustlers see on a daily basis. Violence, Poverty, and Fast Money are his subjects. His Canvas is the street. His fans are afficianado's of this art.

Jeezy is, however, part of the problem. For all of his heartfelt tales, vivid imagery, and the simple beauty with which he tells his life story, Jeezy does not balance his tales of sex, money, and drugs with positive images. He's not the only one.

I don't get mad about it because it's his prerogative as an artist and entrepreneur to put out his body of work as he sees fit. I will defend his right to make his music without censorship.

I said all of that to make this point. Jeezy is not the problem with the black male mind. The problem, in effect, are the "gatekeepers" of hip-hop. MTV and BET (both owned by Viacom) are responsible for Hip-Hop being beamed into millions of homes everyday. Clear Channel, RadioOne, and Cox Communications shoot hip-hop right to the cars and ears of millions listeners every day at various times of day. I think it is an amazing thing. What disgusts me is the prevalence of only one side of hip-hop.

Tatiana Richards told me a quote that she heard someone say. "There are 35 Million different black people. That means there are 35 Million different ways to be black." Hip-Hop is JUST AS DIVERSE. You would never know it though. Hip-Hop is a culture. Rap is her music. Whenever you turn on the radio, all you hear is one type of rap music. You hear poignant street tales, guns busting, blunt blazing, crackhead serving, chickenhead chasing, booty shaking music. Very rarely do we hear "Conscious Hip-Hop" or "Trip-Hop" or "Skate Rap" or even "Rock Rap". We are force fed catchy tunes that do not feed the mind.

I am a firm believer that hip-hop was born out of the poverty of black and latino youth in New York in the late 70's. They rapped about their everyday lives. They rapped, danced, drew graffitti, scratched records, dressed, and lived for the rebellion against society that hip-hop was born from. Hip-Hop was the child of revolution. We are listening to hip-hop's fourth generation of rappers. What all the generation of rappers had in common was that they rapped about their experiences. Incarcerated Rapper Shyne once spit, "They Don't Do It Cause I Rap About It/I RAP ABOUT IT CAUSE THEY DO IT..." It is simply art imitating life.

As Hip-Hop grew up (Most recently turning 30) she became BIG business. She was taken over and distributed by the larger companies in the music making business. Now, if Hip-Hop was created by impoverished black and Latin youth and grew to be taken over by big business, who do you think is REALLY pulling the strings. Rich old men, often white, who package the most taboo and salacious elements of hip-hop culture and peddle it back to us as authentic. It's become so deeply ingrained into the mainstream of our society that you aren't "keeping it real" unless you are talking about serve the soft white or a few bricks of that tan. (Slang for certain types of drugs)

While the poverty, violence, and drug use have always been a large part of hip-hop tales, throughout history they were always told as simply stories. Now they are glorified. I'm not even calling for it to stop. I'm simply calling for a balance in the art. Period.

Hip-Hop is more than words. It's a reflection of impoverished society and many different aspects of black life.

Hip-Hop is more than rap, it's a culture. Essentially it began as a movement.

This is the streets. Hip-Hop came from the Streets. So did the blues, jazz, rock and roll, Etheridge Knight, Amiri Baraka, Ralph Ellison's Creativity, and Romare Bearden's eye for art.

I am the trap. No you're not Jeezy, not intentionally anyway.

Poverty (Specifically geared towards the large number of blacks living in poverty)

Blacks and Hispanics live in poverty in greater percentages than any other ethnic group in the country.

It has been proven that poverty breeds crime. Thus, more black males are expected to either commit or witness crimes in their living in poverty.

Also, since it's been proven that poverty is often cyclical and our living conditions determine our future and mindset often times, I'm naturally inclined to believe that the sins of the father are truly visited upon the son in these impoverished areas where crime becomes a somewhat accepted part of our existence. The more you witness or commit a crime, you less outraged you are by it. This desensitization more often leads otherwise intelligent, good black men who could get out of their situations to take chances within the illegal sector of American life. This coupled with various other factors more often than not becomes a recipe for disaster.

Education

In 2003, the average education level for black males was said to be 10th grade level. That's not even a high school diploma. Without a high school diploma it is almost impossible to get a job above minimum wage. Minimum wage is too low to feed a family or pay the living expenses for one human being. Thus, many black males turn towards crime. So, why are black males undereducated? For a number of reasons.

Black males tend to lose interest in education around 4th grade according to Jawanza Kunjufu's book Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys (which I read for the first time actually around 7th grade). Kunjufu cites many different reasons for this breakdown. I'll try to go through it as simply as possible.

If they are impoverished, they have more to worry about than conjugating verbs, long division, and the Civil War. It's tough to concentrate on Social Studies when you don't know if you're going to eat that night.

Often times the student feels as though the subject matter doesn't relate to him. The figures in history don't look like him. The things that happen seem so far away. The math seems pointless and uninteresting. English is so very different from the AAVE he speaks at home. (African American Vernacular English) After all of that he is tested to DEATH. Standardized tests hear, Academic competency test there. Eventually he sees no point in trying. Lack of adequate attention to his problems and reconciliation with the world around him forces him to act out.

After he acts out he gets labeled. Learning Disabled. Attention Deficit Disorder. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Dyslexic. Problem Child. Just Plain Dumb. Believe it or not, students at a very young age are highly aware of adult's perception of them. They are very aware of their surroundings as well. They know why they have to go to the special class even though they don't feel anything is wrong with them. They know that the medicine that they are forced to take makes them jittery and jumpy and feel bad and they know that nothing is wrong with their mind. They know when adults think they are hopeless. They know when adults think they are stupid. At some point they give up caring. Special Education is used too broadly by lazy teacher, systems, and administrators to focus on problems that are not educational or mental. That's another soapbox thought.

I would continue but my brain drew a blank on Education just now....

I'll continue with this one as well as The Media, Societal Attitudes, and The Justice System in the next blog post.