"When I see you bending over something rare
Like music, or a painting, or a book,
And see within your eyes that vacant stare
And halfway understand that pleading look;
I cannot help but bitterly detest
The age and men who made you what you are,
Who robbed you of your all -- your ample best --
And left you seeking life across a hateful bar,
And left you vainly searching for a star
Your soul appreciates but cannot understand." ~Margaret Walker Alexander, "Ex-Slave"
"Deerfield presented a picture of slavery that went against so much of what we think we know about American slavery, for we tend to think of northerners as abolitionists rather than as slaveholders who were comfortable in that role."
"...In August 1742, Peter, like so many other slaves who managed to scrape together a bit of money, bought gloves, a snuff box and snuff, and strings of beads. He paid for some of these things by his hunting and trapping, using mink and other furs to get credit at the shops. Prince got store credit in exchange for fox skins and by pawning his violin. Others bought shoe buckles, vest buttons, tobacco and pipes. But they all, slave and free, bought gunpowder and flint and shot both for their own hunting and to defend the town. This would have been unthinkable away from the frontier, and five hundred miles farther south, this kind of slave-armed but not free-was almost unimaginable, but it was still slavery nonetheless, with people condemned to a lifetime of servitude and subject to sale." ~Mr. and Mrs. Prince, Gretchen Holbrook
The designer is frowning on Lil Wayne. It is also a condemnation of new music. It’s sarcasm translates in both the photograph and the musical notation.
But more.
The designer is accusing Lil Wayne and the musical era he is to represent of deviating from a historical path. But that is as problematic as older black folk asking why younger black folk put their jeans off of their asses. But older black folk: you put it there. Way off their asses. You ‘put’ Lil Wayne in Babylon music machine and produced for him his song ‘A Milli’.
You see, ina Babylon, young people of all backgrounds rebel. They wear ‘bad’ hair, until the time comes. They listen to ‘bad’ music, until the time comes. They do all the “bad” things they can to distinguish themselves from other generations. Until the time comes. What is the ‘until the time comes’? That is a phenomenon that occurs in any industrialized nation with a substantially visible middle-class, when youth put away these ‘rebel’ things and join mainstream and leave adolescence and fight their way into an illusory acceptability, (be it a 9 to 5, child rearing, and so on blah blah blah). So too do black boys rebel and put their pants as far from where they should be, but they often do it past when the ‘normal’ ‘until the time comes’, (but still you will only find it restricted to a specific age group of black men). It is important to note that their decision making is seen and imitated by the rest of the world: yes our youth of black America lead from their underwears.
So to be full of profanity, oversexed, and super-baggy, among other things, is just not enough of a ‘rebel’ -generates no substantial post-modern difference from their parents (for now). They have to have it hanging off so far that they might as well just wear underwear in the street. Now, many other generations see that and wonder why they don’t just wear underwear in the street. Wear their pajamas in the street (though some do). But dammit…you put it there. You put the jeans off their ass so far by the degree to which you allowed poverty and racism engineering to delay or completely destroy their ‘until the time comes’ mechanism. Which may be a good thing or may be a bad thing. Lil Wayne's slavish dedication to 'A Milli' shows the destruction of something in our youth, that we let happen, no?
So. Is this (image) fair? Let the designer of this political image and 'other generation' black folk answer the question for themselves. idren pause for an answer.
Living in a system – Pagan
Everytime you get pay – pay gone
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Everything them do now – a greed
All of them objections to right – agreed
Look high Jah King aye
Look high Jah King aye
Either you slave now I a
Or you will not be provider
Look high Jah King aye
Look high Jah King aye
Now thief is a murderer
Guilty put a lie sense pan his trigger finger
Imposter is a murderer
Bald head with dread locks come replace Rasta
Living in a system – Pagan
Everytime you get pay – pay gone
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
What them call them jail guard – sentry
2000 is the end of – century
Look high Jah King aye
Look high Jah King aye
Israel son of Ithipian said – Amos
Chapter 9 and verse 7 is – a must
Look high Jah King aye
Look high Jah King aye
Now thief is a murderer
Guilty put a lie sense pan his trigger finger
Imposter is a murderer
Bald head with dread locks come replace Rasta
Living in a system – Pagan
Everytime you get pay – pay gone
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Everything they do now – stranger
Youth a look for mother – stranger
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Now thief is a murderer
Guilty put a lie sense pan his trigger finger
Imposter is a murderer
Bald head with dread locks come replace Rasta
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Living in a system – Pagan
Everytime you get pay – pay gone
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Every Sunday come them gone – altar
Preacher know the truth is what they – alter
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Now thief is a murderer
Guilty put a lie sense pan his trigger finger
Imposter is a murderer
Bald head with dread locks come replace Rasta
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Every little thing they – dissect
Eat bad food and you must die – die sick
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Now thief is a murderer
Guilty put a lie sense pan his trigger finger
Imposter is a murderer
Bald head with dread locks come replace Rasta
Living in a system – Pagan
Everytime you get pay – pay gone
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Everytime they build a separate – chapter
The body fragment and divide – conquer
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Now thief is a murderer
Guilty put a lie sense pan his trigger finger
Imposter is a murderer
Bald head with dread locks come replace Rasta
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Living in a system – Pagan
Everytime you get pay – pay gone
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Now thief is a murderer
Guilty put a lie sense pan his trigger finger
Imposter is a murderer
Bald head with dread locks come replace Rasta
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Look high Jah King, hey
Oh God I man a say
I man a say thief a murderer
Guilty put a lie sense pan his trigger finger
Imposter is a murderer
Bald head with dread locks come replace Rasta
"Until an African leader publicly acknowledges, honors and prays to an African God, we Africans will continue to be viewed as pathetic imitators of others, never having believed in ourselves. So powerful is the concept of religion when we discuss it in connection with civilization that to deny the validity of one's religion is to deny the validity of one's civilization. Indeed to deny one's religion as valid is to suggest that the person is a pagan, a heathen, uncivilized, and beyond the sphere of humanity. So to talk about religion is to talk about our views of ourselves, our understanding of our ancestors, and our love of culture." ~Molefi K. Asante
"Individualism, competition and materialism provide criteria for self-definition as a natural consequence of a world view in which a finite and limited focus orients us towards such disorder that we fight one another to sustain an illusion." ~Linda James Myer
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