ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

Damn I'm tired of hearing about Miley Cyrus! All week I've seen memes, tweets, and Facebook posts on her performance on the MTV VMA's. My first thoughts when I saw her twerking on R&B singer Robin Thicke was "who cares?". Apparently America care a great deal as Cyrus' performance has turned into a referendum on what is wrong in our country. Whether she is viewed as not being a good role model, a shining example of the over-sexualized images advertised to our youth, or that she is profiting off of the shaming of Black culture, Cyrus has been the talk of the week. Who knew that a skinny white girl could do all of that while simultaneously bastardizing Black culture at the same time. To some, Miley's twerking conjures up images of the infamous blackface performances of yesteryear. I for one will not fall into that trap. If it is true that Miley wanted to distance herself from her Disney clean-cut image by adopting a persona that espouses the worst virtues of the Black community, than let her have it. If we as Black's feel like she is buttressing the Jezebel stereotype of Black women, what does that say about us?

I doubt Miley Cyrus' mind was thinking that provocatively. She's twenty years old. All I cared about at twenty was parties, girls, college life, and asserting my independence from my mother. Few twenty year olds have the foresight to think about the repercussions of their actions, hence the phrase "youth is wasted on the young". Her performance has sparked much outrage, but will it spark action. How can we complain of the Jezebel stereotype persisting when we support the numerous show that glamorize that lifestyle? How can we blabber on about how she is a bad example for kids when we dress them in clothes that are growing more scantily clad by the year? Instead of being pissed about Miley, we should be outraged at the possibility of engaging in a war with Syria in light of their attacking civilians with chemicals. Be outraged that stop-and-frisk could be coming to a city near you. Be outraged that the possible outcome of raising the minimum wage to $15/hr won't mean raises for everyone! To hell with some white girl stealing "our dance"! It's not like she made a mockery of a traditional African, Indian, or Asian dance. She was selling an oversexualized image of herself to promote her album, nothing more!

So what will happen in the end? With the 24 hour news cycle, this story will simply go down in history until next week's shocking even hits our timeline. That in a nutshell is the saddest part about this topic. Remember the outrage after the Trayvon Martin verdict? I have not heard a peep about it for a couple of weeks now. Remember the outrage over the Aussie baseball player that got murdered out of "boredom" in Oklahoma? I have not heard a peep about that either. Cyrus' album will either sellout or flop. Either way she makes money and goes on with her life. Meanwhile, the economy is still stagnant, war is imminent, corruption and violence persist, and racial and socioeconomic prejudice reigns supreme. Yet all we care about is some girl making a fool of herself on TV? When will enough be enough?

Field N---- vs. House N---

I know! The title is rather profane; but for the purpose of this blog, it is extremely necessary. Earlier this week, former NFL player and ESPN personality Hugh Douglas was fired after news surfaced that he threatened former colleague and Number Never Lie co-host Michael Smith while also using a "racial slurs" towards Smith in a drunken tirade. You may wonder why I put racial slurs in quotation marks. If it's a racial slur if white people say the n-word (just ask NFL wide receiver Riley Cooper) then it is a racial slur if anyone says it right? I'll spare you the analytical history lesson on the complexity of the word nigger and its many connotations. Instead, I will focus on the fact that Douglas allegedly called Smith a House Nigga and an Uncle Tom. I was more insulted by the fact that Douglas called Smith a Tom & a House Nigga than I was by Cooper threatening to fight "every nigger here" while at a Kenny Chesney concert. Why do we still refer to each other in this manner? Why have we allowed the original meaning of these phrases to be come misconstrued to buttress the crabs in the barrel mentality that we as black people possess? I cannot answer all of those questions free of personal bias, but this story hit home for me in many ways.

The Douglas-Smith spat puts all of  the black communities dirty laundry out in the open. It's no coincidence that the Field Nigga (Douglas) was reported as calling the House Nigga (Smith) an Uncle Tom. While I'm too young to truly understand the significance of the brutal history of slavery and the Jim Crow era, its remnants remain to this day. Why is it that dark-skinned black men are often portrayed as brutish thugs that serve as a threat to anyone that opposes them? Why is the light-skinned black men seen as more clean cut, educated, and refined? How have we allowed this stereotype to remain in the black community almost 150 years after slavery was abolished in 1865? These are the discussion we need to be having as society at large and in the black community specifically. For too long we have allowed articulation and education to be synonymous with whiteness. Then again, in our quest to be on a level playing field, have we lost our cultural identity? Have we become House Niggas? Are we too afraid of losing the positions we manage to attain to take a stand on inequality?

I won't criticize Douglas or Smith because I was not there, nor do I know the extent of their relationship. Perhaps, this was just the media's way of getting revenge for the justified backlash Riley Cooper got for calling the security guards niggers. who knows? The bottom line is simply this, whether you are considered a Field Nigga or a House Nigga, a racist bigot considers all of us just Niggas! Who cares that President Obama is mixed? He still gets called a monkey the same way you or I would. Kanye West said it best, "Even if you in a Benz, you still a Nigga in a Coupe". The sooner we realize that, the sooner we can fight the enemy instead of each other. That last sentence crosses racial lines and is true of everybody from all cultures, but especially my people!



"All Falls Down", The College Dropout. West, Kanye. Roc-a-Fella Records 2004

http://deadspin.com/espn-fight-hugh-douglas-called-colleague-michael-smith-1042188473

I'm Too Old For This #$%&!

What's happened to Hip-Hop? nowadays its wannabe thugs dressing like a bunch of Carlton Banks preps, grown men dressing like women, and grown women dressing like men! I know I sound like the 1800 tequila commercial, but sometimes that's how I feel when I listen to rap music today. Gone is the Hip-Hop of my youth. Gone is the innocence and youthful exuberance that rap music brought out of me. Gone are the days of watching BET, Yo' MTV Raps, and Video Music Box to catch the latest videos. About a month ago, I saw that Lethal Weapon was available on DVD. My favorite line from that movie is the Danny Glover "I'm too old for the shit!" lament. I saw that and immediately thought about where I am with Hip-Hop. Just as with many things, the cultural epicenter of cool in society has taken on a new face. It has reared its ugly head in fashion, television, and the way we communicate with each other. I use to think that "thuggin' it out" would remain in style until it became ridiculous to be a 50 year old thug. My 17 year old self could never have foreseen a day when wearing skinny jeans and tight plaid button ups with eclectic colored Chuck Taylor's would be the standard for swag. When I was in high school, or even in college in the early 2000's, this look would have been met with not only derision, but also ethnic and homophobic slurs questioning your sexuality. The minute I uttered that last statement aloud, I had an epiphany; I'm too old for this shit! I haven't been in high school in a decade. It's been 15 years since the Bulls last won a title. The last time FUBU was popular, LeBron James was a high school senior!

Maybe this is simply a sign of my maturity as I reach my 30's. It seems only right that I transition to a more refined, professional Bryan as I continue to aspire to reach the goals that I have set for myself. I remember at a party 8 years ago, I had a 30 year old white woman tell me that she no longer listened to rap music. When I asked her why she said she had outgrown the genre. Am I simply outgrowing hip-hop as the songs become more childish? Is it a forgone conclusion that I will distance myself from the music and culture that I grew up with? Will I become the guy yelling at the young bucks that they don't know real music compared to the good ole' days? In some ways, I already have become that guy. At the same time, I can't let go of hip-hop! The culture is ingrained in me since the late '80s. Talent and innovation is the hallmark of good music. I can respect Drake, Machine Gun Kelly, and Kendrick Lamar the same way I do Eminem, Jay-Z, and Nas. While you will never catch me wearing Levi's skinny jeans and Vans, I respect the cultural shift to the younger generation! Much like my generation wanted to be respected and not berated for our culture, I will do the same. While I may be too old for this shit, once something is in your blood, it never goes away.