BlackNotBlack.com

Don Imus, 50 Cent, & Good Old American Capitalism

I tried to wait until after our last couple of Rio posts were up, but I didn't quite make it. So I'm postponing the conclusion of that series, briefly, to discuss the Don Imus affair. I know—it makes me cringe too, but if it's any consolation, non-existent readers, I'm not writing about Don Imus per-se, but rather about the mass of pundits circling over his body—and one in particular.

Jason Whitlock, a columnist for the Kansas City Star daily newspaper, recently published an editorial discussing Imus. Through the wonders of internet technology, I stumbled upon the piece and read it. I actually agree with Whitlock on several points, particularly those he makes about the relative importance of guys like Imus. But then he goes on to bash hip-hop culture. He says: "While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos."

He goes on: "I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas. It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

"Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves. It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

"In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

"I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do? When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim."

There's more to the editorial, but you get the gist, I'm sure. I sent Whitlock a response at the Star, which read as follows: "Good article, however like most protestations of this sort, it leaves out an important point. You discuss violent hip hop like it's a cancer. Hip hop is no cancer—it's a capitalist explosion. It's show business. Millions of dollars are funnelling into America's black community that wouldn't otherwise. That is America, and the game is: Get the money any way you can. I don't like this game, nor do I really understand its rules, but these rappers do. What does it matter to 50 Cent what happens in the black community? It's every man for himself, and that is the alpha and omega of American capitalism. How is destroying the capacity for free thought in the black community any different than chopping down a forest, or dumping mercury into a lake?

"The answer is it isn't. 50 Cent, in that way, is quintessentially American. He's about profit first. So all this raises the question of who is mired in primitive thought. You say it's 50 Cent, but he'd say it's you. Actually, he probably isn't smart enough to say much of anything, but you get my point. 50 Cent and other rappers behave like pure capitalists. Your editorial suggests that they shouldn't. If Fiddy took your advice and aimed for loftier pursuits, all he would be is a black man who has read many books but who can't get a table at Lutéce. I think he prefers the table at Lutéce."

I don't think the Star will publish my response, or that Whitlock will ever see it. But I enjoyed banging it out, and since it only took me five minutes, it wasn't any great interruption of my daily routine. I think I raised a point you rarely hear in these types of discussions—that guys like 50 Cent actually are playing by the rules. And guys like Whitlock (and Bill Cosby and others) are in denial. I don't particularly dig violent rap, but all it does is damage a resource, the same way other capitalist pursuits damage resources. It's supremely fucked-up, but under the American corporate system—which famed author and shareholder activist Robert Monks once described as "a doom machine"—it's also squarely within the realm of what is normal.

Labels: 50 cent, don imus, jason whitlock, rutgers

posted by Egan Ehlers @ 10:37 AM