Wassup people? Real quick. I know you guys have read about the backlash surrounding Aaron McGruder the producer of the show “The Boondocks” and his remarks about Obama not being Black because he doesn’t share the legacy of slavery with African-Americans. Ok, well this post is not about him or what he said; I’ve discussed this in a previous post so no need to revisit this.
Since that press release, he has come out and cleared up what was said. To sum it up, it would appear that the media took a quote and ran with it. I could be wrong, but that’s what I think for now at least. The media is brutal, and in an attempt to run a story, they will sell the masses on what they deem to be profitable. In other words, they don’t give a shit what we the common man thinks. Instead, they’ll stick a mic in the face of a famous person. Conveniently, they’ve sought input from celebrity Black people this week concerning the significance of Obama’s presidency.
Here’s another brother that had a mic in his face that helps to shape the perceptions of the White majority….
“For me, it was something that I’ve always believed. I’ve read the Declaration of Independence. I’ve read the Constitution. I have the preamble memorized. It’s something I’ve always believed in, and when Barack Obama won, it validated a piece of me that I wasn’t allowed to say out loud – that America is not a racist nation.
I love that all of our excuses have been removed. African-American excuses have been removed. There’s no white man trying to keep you down, because if he were really trying to keep you down, he would have done everything he could to keep Obama down. Yes, there are racist people who live here, absolutely. But they’re not the majority anymore. I’m an African American, and I was able to climb to a certain point in Hollywood. On that journey, I realized people weren’t trying to stop me. Most people were trying to help me. Before Obama won the presidency, it was like, I’m the exception. Tiger is the exception. Michael Jordan is the exception. Bill Cosby is the exception. But there’s something about being the leader of the free world, with every other position on earth below that. You can’t argue with that. If Barack Obama can win the presidency of the United States, you can absolutely be the manager at Saks. Come on. It was such a fantastic experience for me to be able to say out loud that I love America and not be called an Uncle Tom. That I can stand out, and I can say out loud that I love this country and not get funny looks. I don’t think we are African Americans, Irish Americans or Japanese Americans anymore. I think Americans are a new race of people. We are Americans of African descent. We are Americans of Irish descent. It’s a whole new world.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/personal-reflections.htmOk, so if you clicked the link provided, you would know that the quote above came from Will Smith. Yup, Will Smith, you know, the first Black superhero who happened to be dysfunctional? Yeah, that Will Smith. Now I like Will Smith as an actor especially since his roots were in hip hop. Me being a hip hop fan, I love the fact that he came up from an art form which has been the source of blame for all our social ills within the Black community. He went from that, to being a man who is now a major Hollywood blockbuster guy. But does that make him an authority on “Blackness”? But because he is who he is, what he said is and has been looked at as the truth by many of our non-Black brothers and sisters here in America you can expect it to be accepted as truth. I mean, it’s Will Smith and not that bastard Al “Ambulance Chaser” Sharpton, right?
I wrote this in an attempt to show just how
the media has a big influence in shaping our lives. I mean, if Will Smith said it, then it must be true. After all, he’s a Black guy, right? And just the fact that he’s wealthy probably means that if he can do it so can everybody who happens to be a minority. No excuses, remember? I don’t know about you, but I’m Black and I’m a parent, and this is not what I will teach my daughters. At this point in my life, I seriously doubt whether I’ll tell my kids, that from this day forth, they no longer have to work maybe twice as hard because of their minority status. But then again, Will said that parents just don’t understand, so maybe I’m wrong.RECOMMENDED READING:
YOU’RE SPECIAL SO JUST DEAL WITH IT By Brotherpeacemaker