I really grow weary of calling out lower tier African-Americans and the accompanying culture. Oftentimes, what comes out of the mouths of the heralds of current Black popular culture appears to substantiate the metaphor for the "crabs in the barrel syndrome." And why (as it relates to Black issues) must the proverbial soapbox be consistently given to the latest hip hop artist? A person who will invariably make embarrassing comments akin to the stereotypically crazed "man on the street." Well take a look at what the latest rap vagrant has to say about Senator Obama and conversely analyze director, Spike Lee's rebuttal. Society, White supremacists, the police......all these entities seem to know how to identify who is "Black" enough-but not the lower-tier and their cultural heroes. Here we go again with more pablum being spewed about Black authenticity:
Courtesy of the New York Daily News:
Don't tell Spike Lee that Barack Obama isn't black enough.
The "When the Levees Broke" director says criticisms like those DJ Chuck T made last week on MTV are "crazy."
The rap producer, who calls himself "the Malcolm X of hip hop," said, "[Obama] has proven he's willing to turn on anyone just to be President. He's not black, he's biracial! And he wasn't even raised by black people ... Barack doesn't embody the values and characteristics we as black people are raised with."
Lee begs to differ. "First, I go by the ‘one-drop rule,'" he said in Denver, where he has come to see firsthand his man accept the Democratic nomination for President. "One drop [of black blood], and you're black. The truth is, every African-American is biracial. Go back far enough, and you'll find the massah was in the slave quarters."
What's more, Lee countered, "You can't be black and go to Harvard Law School? You can't be black and be articulate?"
For more of the Lee/Chuck T piece, click on the link below:
Convention Confidential: Spike Lee has sharp words in Denver
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