Sweetback’S Baadassss Song Con- Tains Many Very Important Messages for the Entire Black Community

Home , Omaha race riot of 1919, We Alright, Who You Lovin, You Look So Fine

PG II FRWRD

Any critique on the conditions that plague the Black peoples found in the United States of America is difficult.

The first thing we have to consider is oppressive psychology. What I mean is: how much of my love for Black people is going into this critique? How much of my disdain for Black people is going into this critique? What am I using to compare and contrast the message with? How objective should I be knowing that what I write, and for that matter, what anybody writes for a public audience, will be a form of persuasion? How many of the theories used are developed from contexts that could be furthering the oppression of Black people? How academic should I be in expression? What is ‘academic’? And more importantly, WHO is “academic”?

This idea stems from the thinking of Bobby E. Wright when he critiques Black academics by writing,”Blacks studying themselves rather than their oppressors...Black scientists generally rationalize their investigations as proof to White scientists that Blacks can be ‘scientifically objective.’” In a neocolonial situation, that is, a situation where Blacks have for entertainers, influencers of media, those that are paid by white interests. In studying, say, a pattern like hip-hop and violence in the Black community, I would have to critique NWA. Now, although I agree that much of what NWA performed was tongue-in-cheek, I do also realize that as an impressionable youth listening to it, it had an influence. Couple that with a successful album, thousands of imitators afterward, and you go from Ruthless Records to Death Row Records. One influential “funny” album becomes a composite culture that expands the reach of concepts such as “captain-save-a-hoe”, “thug life”, “money over bitches”, and “street credibility”. At some point, I, as an analyst, have to address the symptoms in order to explain how I arrived at the prognosis.

As a wholistic people, that is, as a group of individuals whose culture tends to incorporate all of the aspects of psychology(subjective, objective, analytical, creative, individualistic, societal, organic, systemic), not just the particular aspects presented as superior within the context of a western education(analytical/objective), I offer that Black analysts not only study symptoms, but the conditions that create them. I do you as the student an injustice by labeling a Black artist as a culprit if I am unable to explain the conditions, the environment, and the trajectory of that artist’s works. It is not enough for me to explain that a child listening to a rapper discussing selling drugs can influence that child to sell drugs. I also have to give an explanation of the drug culture and why certain drugs are able to be traf- ficed into an area of close proximity to those children. It would be diligence as a researcher and concerned adult if I am also able to provide an explaination to you that can describe the difference and similarities between a child selling crack in the park and a psychiatrist prescribing Prozac. It would be even more dutiful if I can alert your attention to the fact that I capitalized “Prozac” and not crack, and what that means on a socio-political level in a capitalist economy built by Black labor similar to that of prison labor(actually, prison labor is slave labor as per the 13th Amendment). It is my belief that the job of the accurate Black media analyst is to present the details of a message that are often overlooked to the attention of the Black audience, and then to explain not only the effects that these messages have on Blacks, but also to highlight how the White overstructure creates paradigms in relation to that which the audience may take for granted.

It is in the understanding that we are a people with a decidedly different dynamic of going about that I write these essays and attempt to present a template by which to assist a field that is gravely lacking in Black scholarship for the assistance of Blacks. We are a people in which word of mouth campaigns are more valued than marketing strategems that cultur- PG III ally separate the consumer from the corporate entity selling the product. We are a people in which oral explanations of reality are deemed more credible than tomes based on tomes written by people the reader is supposed to take as an authority simply because so many in the past have done the same. We are a people that have psychological templates and symbols hidden beneath our subconscious that we have been separated from in such a way that complete series of comics, cartoons, and horror movies are written based on our anacient mythos without noticing the patterns collectively. We also are a people that tend to behave blindly when constructing our arts and media messages as if we don’t realize we are building psychological armaments: either for our own protection, or for our own destruction. This means that the analyst of our culture has the delicate assignment of constructing a ruler by which to measure and critique with that is not of the present oppressing cultures crafting. To be able to remove a moralistic elitism from the analysis and to accept that an empathetic understanding may be necessary to fully dissect the message because a comprehensive understanding may not be possible outside of an experience with the message and the message reciever.

Are we alright? Are you still following with me?

Alright, y’all want me to quote a white person to back up my reasoning, don’t you? Eh, you guys...here ya go:

“Writing was one of the original mysteries of civilization, and it reduced the complexities of experience to the written word. Moreover, writing provides the ruling classes with an ideological instrument of incalculable power. The word of God becomes an invincible law, mediated by priests; therefore, respond the Iro- quois, confronting the European:’Scripture was writren by the Devil.’ With the advent of writing, symbols became explicit; they lost a certain richness. Man’s word was no longer an endless exploration of reality, but a sign that could be used against him. Sartre, the marxist existentialist, understands this; it is the hidden theme of his autobiography, Words. For writing splits consciousness in two ways- it becomes more authoritative than talking, thus degrading the meaning of speech and eroding oral tradition; and it makes it possible to use words for the political manipulation and control of others. Written signs supplant memory; an official, fixed and permanent version of events can be made. If it is writtern, in early civilizations, it is bound to be true.” - Stanley Diamond, In search of the Primitive

In the process of learning to do anything, or more importantly, learning while doing, you are subject to the forces of error and lack of prescience. As a writer, a media communicator, a student, web designer, web developer, and just plain human, I have to tackle many various projects without a road map. Those who have been following my thoughts via http:// www.owlasylum.net, and the twitter account (@owlsasylum), know that I can be extremely persistent in these efforts, and yet, they do come with a price. I wrote this book, and placed it in the context of a series of books I’ve dubbed the “Crystal Capsules”, to present the reader with a template that I didn’t have while developing my Self. This book, as all of my writings, are geared toward educating my Self, they are conversations with my Self, as the capsules on the cover indicate, this is my medicine. These conversations are being offered to you as a means to avoid the obstacles that I have made, and that I will make. This is not an autobiography, this is an analysis of Black media, media usage, Black culture and the historical patterns by which we accept white paradigms via monetary rewards. It is not a slap on the hands of Black people, I think we have been slapped on the hands too often, and haven’t attacked the issues of the mental colonial structure pimping us from within, and winning from without. PG IV But for some it might feel like someone asking you wipe the spit off your face...

This book is written in a tone that my readers, my support network that we refer to as Asy- lum, have grown accustomed to. Although I would want children to become privy to this information, this is not a child’s book, and it will contain language used to emphasize many of the points I am making. I don’t believe that a person with a vast vocabulary should ban them Selves from using certain words. As Steven Biko, leader and formulator of the Black Consciousness philosophy and anti-apartied leader who was beaten to death by South Af- rikan officials, once pointed out, some terms simply express emotions better than others. As those who have been loyal to Asylum also understand, many of the passages and discussions here within will be erudite as we critique various media messages and once again, certain symbols(words) simply get the job done better than others.

It should be also mentioned that this work contains concepts and ideas that I am attempting to master via direct relationship with the act. This means, like with most things I’ve learned in life, experience is my teacher. I don’t claim to be a moral guide in any fashion, nor do I promote my Self as anyone other than a persistent person purposefully applying socially resposible practices into in his behaviorial expressions for the sake of him Self and others. I have flaws. Many. I have made grand errors of judgment throughout my life and I am subject to the harshest critic: My Self. In an effort to alleviate the thinking pattern associated with the impetus of lack of judgment I have been forced to concoct my own theo- retical and ideological formulas. I call it “whipping in the kitchen.”

This is one of those such formulas...

I call it the Green DJHTY...

In the wonderously confusing world of academia, I was trained to analyze a problem, consider its origination without forgeting the difficulty endemic to arguments of causality and correlation, and then presenting a conclusion. Somewhere along the line the concept of solutions ripped through the seemingly well patterned practice of developing the argument, and I was forced to take on a job that I often felt was energy wasting. I came from a techni- cal background where most of my problems were solved in praxis. In the effort of articu- lating a solution to an analyzed problem, I realized it was simply more theory, and I was used to actually solving the problem, in fact, up to that point I felt it was just “talk” to do anything else. Not in academia. Some way, some how, in academia, talking about the solution is just as important as working through to a solution. Go figure, and “yay” for western thought inculcation.

I would rather not waste your time by reading my analysis and then offering my solution. As with the instructors of the Eastern Kimitic schools that would present an equation with the answer already given, and then ask the students to figure out the principles of the math, I also will just give you the solution and the equation, then ask you to build an understanding of how we got there.

Media symbols in a society such as the United States are often only capable of transfer if the symbol is accepted through purchase. If Tyler Perry didn’t sell tickets, he would change his formula. Why? Mainly, the purpose of the formula is to sell movie tickets, and dvds to a wide audience. If that audience rejects the symbols and the messages of the symbols, then Perry has failed. If Nicki Minaj doesn’t sell albums, then she has failed. If the symbols don’t sell, they can’t get resonance. But boycotting studios and record companies is only one part of the solution.

The other part is somewhat more complicated. Blacks in the United States really need to get over them Selves. To date, the Black in the United States, the inheritors of the victimology produced by the most atrocious crime committed by one people on another, have not won PG V one single war, have not obtained one dollar for the crime in retribution, have not formed one governing body of a large piece of land to be recognized as a nation among nations, and yet we trumpet this image of power. We trumpet this image of superior fighting ability, this coolness, this all encompassing ability to hustle and manipulate. Who the fuck are we kidding? Our children are left to absorb our insecure attempts at posturing as we reign supreme as the world’s most outspoken “warriors” and we don’t have shit to show for it but one trillion dollars leaving our community into the accounts of every other national group in the world.

The symbols of what it means to be Black have to be remixed and possibly recreated from scratch like a chef that has prepared the wrong dish and must work diligently to avoid em- ployment termination and embarrassment. Our writers - and let’s be honest, two of the most popular “black shows” in the last decade, GirlFriends and The Game, were created by the same Black woman, Mara Brock Akil(Delta Sigma Theta soror), and produced and ex- ecutively produced(read that as financially supported) by the same Republican(so staunch he campaigned for John McCain who was running against the first “Black” president of the United States of America, Barack Obama) white man, Kelsey Grammer- have to become creative enough, and bold enough to step outside of the parameters of Black elite yearnings for a “White” like living existence, and the culture of self-sabotage displayed in the urban community. This means that the Black consumer must, yes, must, begin a media diet that cuts out the calories of visual and audible mediocrity of images depicting Blacks. If we don’t support, and yes, that means spending some of that trillion dollars we collectively give away to play the parts in society we are scripted to through media, then we can’t have the images necessary to pass on to our youth. We will simply cycle about the same images that were created to vilify and objectify us. CHPTR 1 LOGOS BLACK

“Musical notes on paper, as well as written and spoken words, are symbols. There are other kinds of symbols that are not as immediately translated or fully understood because of their highly abstract forms and complexity. The impact of these complex symbols reach subconscious and unconscious levels of brain activity. These complex symbols are, in effect, full sentences, paragraphs, or entire books of data stated in a highly abstracted single image or line configuration. Once the symbol is formed, it is capable of acting upon the brain-computer, which receives it as an energy or data message. This message effects the end-product of behavior as carried forth in any area of human activity. The symbol, in turn, acts upon the external environment.” -Francis-Cress Welsing, The Isis Papers, pg. 55

“Any hot medium allows of less participation than a cool one, as a lecture makes for less participation than a seminar, and a book for less than dialogue...any intense experience must be ‘forgotten,’ ‘censored,’ and reduced to a very cool state before it can be ‘learned’ or assimilated...For the highly developed situation is, by definition, low in opportunities of participation, and rigorous in its demands of specialist fragmentation from those who would control it.”-Marshall Mcluhan, Understanding Media, pg. 23

In McLuhan’s Understanding Media he proposes a conceptual framework to define media, as well as societies and cultures. He uses the term “hot” to refer to media and inter- actions of communication that require little to no interactivity between the message and the message receiver. “Interactivity” should not be regarded as simply physical interaction with the meduim as such. I agree with McLuhan when he writes,”A cool medium like hieroglyph- ic or ideogrammic written characters has very different effects from the hot and explosive medium of the phonetic alphabet. The alphabet, when pushed to a high degree of abstract visual intensity, became typography.” What is being addressed here is not hieroglyphs as the video game or a social network where one is able to comment and debate via a keypad or touchpad and an enter button. I interpret his words as highlighting the degree of internal psychological workings necessary to comprehend and process the information stored in the symbols. Symbols should not be taken lightly in that context. The logo carries with it a power over the mind that can communicate much more broadly and faster than most forms of marketing. This is why the brand has lasted throughout the ages. Even to the point of branding humans like we Blacks were branded during the antebellum period.

In the same manner that the logo, the pictogram, the hieroglyph can be made to contain high levels of information within a small media format, statements can be loaded with an impactful amount of information. Take for instance the phrase,”I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”. Although the hearer or reader of those words will have to have been a certain age, those who are familiar with Mrs. Fletcher’s dilemma during the LifeCall commercial will typically respond with a giggle(I’m actually snickering as I type this). The idea that I want to offer you is that we are all communicators and builders of symbols, hot and cold. As parents, teachers, writers, and most importantly, imbibers of media, it is often important to recognize the subtle influences of media around us. PG 2

“It is hard to say exactly when logos went from being essential but lackluster business tools to the international graphic design superstars they are today. Was it in the early 1990s when teenagers around the world began tattooing Nike swooshes onto their ankles and arms? Or was it earlier in the 1970s, when a generation of women took to heart actress Brooke Shields’ proclamation “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins” and made logo- imprinted jeans, shirts, and handbags a billlion-dollar industry? Or perhaps it was earlier still, with the 1951 debut of the CBS eye, a logo that quickly became so ubiquitous that its own designer, William Golden, dubbed it a ‘Frankenstein’s monster.’” (Lisa Silver, Logo De- sign That Works: Secrets For Successful Logo Design, pg. 11)

The radio song playing in the background while you work can be laced like a blunt with psychological toxins that reassert them Selves later in your behavioral patterns. There is a reason why in our past we would use cadence and rhythm to teach. Mnemonics can be used to incorporate more than just the fifty states;they can be used to teach a child how to sell drugs, or to teach them how to dougie. In the same way a commercial from over twenty years can be encompassed in one line and transmitted through the culture like AIDS in the global Black community, one line, one word, and even one pattern of drums, horns, and strings can elicit an emotional reaction. For some, the funky futuristic sounds emitted from Zapp & Roger’s Computer Love musical composition will remind them of the early house parties and social gatherings during the early 80s. For another group of people, you can take that beat, slow it down slightly, and it will conjure the memory of the gang fights, and possible lost loved ones as it registers with that person the lyrics of Piru Love found on the album, Bangin on Wax.

This all may seem common sensical until one begins to understand the depth and reach of the influence of the symbols. The reality that Black people do not control any forms of symbol broadcast and yet have a rich culture of symbol creation stemming back to the earliest forms of writing, speaks to a lack of understanding of the symbol by Blacks. As a graphic artist, I understand the impact of a well crafted visual communication. I understand why an artist has chosen certain colors. I understand why there is “an arrow” made between the “E” and the “X” in the “Fed Ex” logo. That is not by mistake. Unfortunately, too often in the Black culture we err on the side of lack of purpose for our communications outside of opportunity. Meaning, if it don’t make dollars... well, you know the rest.

“Regardless of the specific task, the graphic designer has two interconnected goals. The goals are to communicate a message to an audience, and to create a compelling or pleas- ing design that will enhance the message. Like other communications, the graphic designer works to make the message clear and, like any other artist, the graphic designer is concerned with aesthetics. Whether these goals are achieved depends on how well the designer understands the design medium and the design problem given.” -Robin Landa, Graphic Design Solutions, pg. 7

When the internet search engine Google uses their logo to commemorate the celebration of Veteran’s Day, they remove the lower case ‘l’ with a flag pole and the lower case ‘e’ is slightly covered at the top with the American Flag with a sunset at the background. Really PG 3 dramatic stuff for us there. What the designer is conveying is not just the American flag, however. It is Veteran’s Day. It is, without using any words, conveying the message of The United States conquering other countries by placing the flag and marking the territory as being conquered. No huge image is necessary. A simple back drop of the sky, a few wrinkles in a two-dimensional flag illustration, and we are off. Subconsciously this affects you. It reminds the world of the military might of the country. With that comes a sense of pride for

those who consider them Selves US patriots, and a whole ideology is reinforced in less than the time it takes for the web page to load. I could almost hear the United States national anthem playing in the background...

I want us to take a few moments and answer a series of questions. What are the symbols that communicate the life’s works of Malcolm X? What are the symbols that communicate Black solidarity and nationhood? What are the symbols that communicate never allowing Blacks to return to a condition of slavery such as was imposed on our great and mighty ancestors in the United States of America? Do we understand the cloth with fifty stars amidst a blue box flanked to the right and bottom by red and white stripes is a logo? Do we realize it is a symbol that communicates an ideology?

One of the many dangers that I see in translating a book into a movie is that movies have a tendency to remove the nuance that book can convey. Furthermore, movies are promoted differently than books. Books are not marketed with fast paced commercials highlighting the most captivating passages of the book. I suppose it could, but it tends to be promoted via word of mouth campaigns and other forms of literary media. It also helps if Oprah Winfrey has read your book and you can pass the scrutiny she has most likely developed from being spurned by memoirs with falsified biographies. I have yet to see a marketing campaign for a book promotion with T-shirts or baseball caps. This is not so much with movies, however.

In the early 1990s, director, writer, and film producer Spike Lee ventured to bring The Autobiography of Malcolm X to the big screen. The screen play was based on the book, and co-written by Arnold Perl (Now In Theaters Everywhere: A Celebration Of A Certain Kind Of Blockbuster, Kenneth Turan pg. 202), and James Baldwin(The Fire Next Time,No Name In The Street, and If Beale Street Could Speak). The need for any marketing for a name such as Spike Lee, the creator of classic movies such as She’s Got To Have It, School Daze, and Do The Right Thing, is interesting in and of it Self, but I suppose by default, any movie production company is going to want to spend a little money on commercials, guest spots on Oprah, and the like. Of course, I’m minimizing and leading for dramatic effect. Warner Bros. distributed the movie to 1,124 theaters(http://boxofficemojo.com/ movies/?id=malcolmx.htm) before creating a stir and a cultural artifact: the Malcolm X hat.

Spike Lee, being a huge sports fan, utilized the baseball cap to promote the movie. The hat varied from colors, yet each one was emblazoned by a strong, bold serif ‘X’. In many PG 4 ways, the ‘X’ seemed to resemble the roman numeral for the number ‘10’ due to the serif font used, and also due to the lack of awareness of a young population regarding the history of Malcolm. The ‘X’ would be placed on the background of an all black background as a poster and communicate the power and the majesty that was Malcolm in so many regards. One letter. One letter was able to convey such much information and symbolize the life of a man that had transformed in so many ways. The power of the symbol.

“The fundamental elements and principles of design are the foundation of a design education - like understanding the basic parts of speech and the principles of composition before writing a novel.” (Robin Landa, Graphic Design Solutions, pg. 7)

During the 1960s, after the assassination of Malcolm X, a young brother named Stoke- ly Carmichael joined a group called the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commitee and helped lead a successful voter registration drive in Lowndes County, Alabama. Lowndes County was also known as “Bloody Lowndes” due to the violent treatment of Blacks in that area(“Eyes on the prize”). According to Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmi- chael, in March of 1965, not one black person was registered to vote. In the next 20 months, close to 3,900 would be registered in Lowndes county, an area composed of 81% blacks. The percentage of blacks that became voters that year would give credence to a group of young organizers, and a new party.

The Blacks of Lowndes County had a considerable difficulty in the realm of public governmental politics. Namely, the officials of the County that represented the Democratic Par- ty were the same ones that presented a physically aggressive threat to the Blacks. Kwame Ture explains it thusly:

“The question of how to utilize the vote became most pertinent in Lowndes County. Since the 1930’s, history books and traditional political science treatises had concluded that the salvation of the black man lay in the Democratic party. The black people of Lowndes County had certain doubts about that, doubts based on more than conjecture. The lessons of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party’s experience wer all too clear. In Lowndes itself, black people saw the local Democratic party as the sheriff who brutalized them; as the judge in kangaroo courts who made them pay high fines. They knew that the chairman of the Lowndes County Democratic Committee, Robert Dickson, was a defendant in a fed- eral court suit charging that he had evicted black tenant farmers from his land because they registered to vote. They saw George Wallace at the head of the state party; they saw Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor and Sheriff Jim Clark. They knew it was absurd to demean themselves by attempting to sit down with the local Democratic politicians. If the Democratic (or any other) party was to recognize and respect the mobilized powere of black people, those people would have to organize independently...In March, 1966, the Lowndes County Freedom Or- ganization was born with the immediate goals of running candidates and becoming a recognized party.” (Black Power, Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton, pg. 105 - 106) PG 5 Due to the symbol, the logo, of the Democratic Party that represented the White Supremacy, a white roster with a wagging ribbon above that roster that read,”White Supremacy”, and underneath another wagging ribbon with the words “For the Right” affixed to it, the organizers of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization decided to use another symbol to differentiate the white terror- istic Democrats from the Black voter’s Democratic Party candi- date. They choose the emblem/logo/ symbol of the Black Panther(“Eyes on the prize”). The organizing of the Black voters of the violent Alabama county were obviously successful. However, during the actual vot- ing process, the Black voters would be forced to stick together. Due to the participation of blind voters, the handicapped, and those that couldn’t read the ballots, the Black voter that proceeded a voter with such an ailment was asked to stand around after they voted in order to help the afflicted voter. This method was utilized in order to prevent the local white voters from robbing the vote from the intended candidates running on the LCFO tick- et.

“ ‘O.K.,’ one person said, ‘The big point for us to make is that no black people should ask

any white man for help. We’ll help each other.’ There were immediate cries of agreement and ‘you said it, brother.’ ‘We are our brother’s helper.’ “(Black Power, Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton, pg. 111)

After awhile, the tactics simply where reduced to the statement,”Just pull the Black Panther lever and go home.” PG 6 “There is a big sign on Highway U.S. 80 betweeen Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, in Lowndes County. One can see it, driving west. It has the picture of a black panther on it and the words:’PULL THE LEVER FOR THE BLACK PANTHER AND GO ON HOME.’ “

The success of the Lowndes County Freeedom Organization’s voter drive, and the symbol of the Black Panther would get national attention. That national attention would reach the hands of a young former comedian turned community organizer and his college colleague seeking to start a new sort of organization in the streets of Oakland, California.

After a struggle finding Black organizations on the campus of Merrit College during the years of 1965 to 1968 that expressed their principles with physical actions and a courageous stance, Bobby Seale decided to unite with the one brother he felt understand the political ramifications smeltering the Black Community with the bravery to back it up. Bobby decided to join forces with a young college student from Oakland with a penchant for defending him Self physically while arguing the finer points of the struggle for freedom. He and Huey P. Newton decided to join a campus organization, Soul Students Advisory Council(Seize The Time, Bobby Seale, pg. 27.). Huey, understanding the power of the symbol, and the media of the gun, decided that after successful grassroots organizing on the campus, that they needed to assist those Blacks that found them Selves jobless, and hopeless outside of criminal endeavors. In Bobby’s words:

“Huey understood the meaning of what Fanon was saying about organizing the lumpen proletariat first, because Fanon explicitly pointed out that if you didn’t organize the lumpen proletariat, if the organization didn’t relate to the lumpen proletariat and five a base for organizing the brother who’s pimping, the brother who’s hustling, the unemployed, the downtrodden, the brother who’s robbing banks, who’s not politically conscious--that’s what lumpen proletariat means--that if you didn’t relate to these cats, the power structure would organize these cats against you.”(Seize The Time, Bobby Seale, pg. 30.)

So, Huey and Bobby prepared to present their understanding of organizing and communicating via the medium of the gun to a group of people that understood the hot medium of such a symbol. Unfortunately, and possibly fortunately from a historical perspective, the other members of the SSAC were not too pleased nor accepting of Huey and Bobby’s stance on the display of weapons, and arming the Black community. During an entaglement with the other members where the other members decided not to face Huey and Bobby’s small cadre of brothers and arms, the two activists decided to resign from the group. They would spend their time forging the platform and program of the new organization they decided would be best suited to serve the needs of the Black community. They compiled the ten- point program, had it typed, but they still had no name for the organization, nor an emblem to represent their aims.

That would soon change:

“Huey and Bobby’s organization now had a manifesto. But it still needed a name to fill the blacnk space Artie Seale had left at the top of the stencil. For Huey and Bobby, the tricky part was finding the most suitable name--one that was dynamic and colorful enough, but one that promoted action instead of political armachair discourse. On October 21, 1966, Bobby receiced an intriguing piece of mail from a black political organization in Mississippi. It was a voter registratino pamphlet from a group who called themselves the Lowndes County Freedom Organization. bobby had written to the group PG 7 earlier, asking from more information after reading about them. The next day, when Huey dropped by, Bobby showed him the pamphlet. The Lowndes County Freedom Organization had even adopted a striking logo for their group, a dark black panther.

‘What do you suppose this black panther means?’ Bobby asked. ‘Must be a political party or something,’ Huey said. ‘Something like how the Repub- licans and Democrats use an elephant and a donkey.’ ‘Well, a black panther kicks a donkey’s and elephant’s ass any day.’ The two laughed. ‘I suggested that we use the Black Panther as our symbol,’ Huey wrote,’and call our political vehicle the Black Panter Party. The Black Panther is a fierce animal, but he will not attack until he backed into a corner; then he will strike out. The image seemed appropriate and Bobby agreed without discussion.’

‘Black Panther Party for Self-Defense,’ Huey declared.

(Huey: Spirit Of The Panther, David Hilliard, Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman, pg. 29)

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. was determined in his belief that Black people living in the Dias- pora as well as in the countries of the continent of Afrika should be unified as one people. His travels from through England and The Americas, he formulated a philosophy that would be spread via his active work establishing an organization. On his return to his homeland of Jamaica, he founded what he called the Universal Negro Im- provement Association(UNIA). The popularity of the movement due to Garvey’s insatiable spirit would grow throughout the region. In 1917, the first branches of the UNIA would be established outside of Jamaica. By 1919, the membership of the UNIA was formed by over 2 million peoples.

In a response to a song which helped to establish the term coon in the US lexicon, the members of the UNIA realized the need to express the opinions and philosophy of Marcus in symbol. The song, entitled, “Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon”, written by Will A. Heelan and J. Fred Helf, two white composers,lyrically stated that:

“ The leader of the Blackville Club arose last Labor night PG 8 And said, “When we were on parade today I really felt so much ashamed, I wished I could turn white ‘Cause all the white folks march’d with banners gay

Just at de stand de German band They waved their flag and played ‘De Wacht am Rhine’ The Scotch Brigade each man arrayed In new plaid dresses marched to ‘Auld Lang Syne’ Even Spaniards and Sweeds, folks of all kinds and creeds Had their banner except de coon alone Ev’ry nation can brag ‘bout some kind of a flag Why can’t we get an emblem of our own?”

Chorus: For Ireland has her Harp and Shamrock England floats her Lion bold Even China waves a Dragon Germany an Eagle gold Bonny Scotland loves a Thistle Turkey has her Crescent Moon And what won’t Yankees do for their Red, White and Blue Every race has a flag but the coon

He says, “Now I’ll suggest a flag that ought to win a prize Just take a flannel shirt and paint it red They draw a chicken on it with two poker dice for eyes An’ have it wavin’ razors ‘round its head

To make it quaint, you’ve got to paint A possum with a pork chop in his teeth To give it tone, a big hambone You sketch upon a banjo underneath And be sure not to skip just a policy slip Have it marked four eleven forty four Then them Irish and Dutch, they can’t guy us so much We should have had this emblem long before”

Repeat Chorus “

Prompted by the lyrics of the song, and the stereo- typic imagery contained within that was a direct product of the minstrel shows of the late 19th century and early 1900s, members of the UNIA during a month- long convention being hosted at the Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, the organization officially recognized a new emblem of Black solidarity. A flag with three evenly di- PG 9 vide rectangular portions each colored a different chroma. The tri-chromatic design would work to incorporate the message using a top of red to communicate the genetic recogition of the blood shared by the people’s throughout the continent of Afrika and the progeny of those scattered by slavery throughout the diaspora; the middle section of black represent- ing those people as a universal nation;and the lower portion communicating not only the land of the people’s but the resources of the land.

“We are living in a civilization that is highly developed. We are living in a world that is scientifically arranged in which everything done by those who control the world is done through system; proper arrangement, proper organization, and among some of the organized methods used to control the world is the thing known and called ‘propaganda’.

Propaganda has done more to defeat the good intentions of races and nations than even open warfare.

Propaganda is a method or medium used by organized peoples to convert others against their will.

We of the Negro race are suffering more than any other race in the world from propaganda--Propa- ganda to destroy our hopes, our ambitions and our confidence in self.”

“The events which transpired five thousand years ago; Five years ago or five minutes ago, have -de termined what will happen five minutes from now; five years From now or five thousand years from now. All history is a current evenSt.”- Dr John Henrik Clarke –

Western civilization has evolved immensely. From the days of audiences cheering on men fighting lions, to football stadiums where death is highly unlikely, the progress of our culture is, without much argument, moving forward. Unfortunately, racism has continued to spurn on activities that take lives based on racial privilege. It has tarnished the US Constitution, one of the world’s most inspira- tion documents of the attempts of people to live in a society of justice and equality The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution states: Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by add- ing to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons.

The phrase “free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years,” clearly meant white American men. The last clause “three fifths of all other Persons” was included for southern slave owners, who in a political ploy to use their slaves to get more congressional power, had to settle for three fifths of each slave.This meant that according to the US Constitution, American Blacks where considered only three fifths of a human being.

This “living breathing document” regardless of interpretation, in a meta- phoric sense still bears the scars that would be further defined at length by Chief Justice Taney in the 1857 Supreme Court Decision, known as the Dred Scott decision. According to Taney, discussing slave,“…The only matter in issue before the court, therefore, is, whether the descendants of such slaves, when they shall be emancipated, or who are born of parents who had become free before their birth, are citizens of a state in the sense in which the word “citizen” is used in the Constitution of the United States.” Here he is presenting his thesis PG 10 question, are blacks, the “descendants of such slaves” to be considered “citizens” as that term is used in the US Constitution?

Chief Justice Taney’s answers,”… We think they are not, and that they are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’in the Constitution and can, therefore, claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.” ( Dred Scott v. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393, 19 Howard 393(1857))

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, a framer of the United States Constitution, and one would might easily say, was the foremost philosophical shaper of the American ideology of that time. Mr. Jefferson said, ”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Sometime later he would feel this way, “I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in endowments both of body and mind.”(Thomas Jefferson, 1785).

Jefferson’s contribution to American academic thought brought on a host of scholarly materials that caused American Blacks to be described as inferior because of the shapes of their heads (phre- nology) and the development section of science termed Niggerology(Asim 21). According to Asim, United States’ justification of slavery and the belief of white supremacy would culminate into the written works of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who would in turn influence generations later. One of the great influences of the many literary works describing the antebellum period -caused by Stowe’s book was a book entitled the Clansman by Thomas Dixon, Jr.

D. W. Griffith would bring the book to the wide screen in an opening viewed by none other than another president, President Woodrow Wilson. President Woodrow Wilson is quoted in the captions of the movie as saying,”The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation…until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country.”

Griffith produced the first film about racial tensions in America. His film released under the title, “Birth of a Nation(1915)” would be followed by the rise of the second Klan. (Jackson, Kenneth T., 1992). The Klan would grow in membership from 1915 and have its peak of 4 million members in 1924. There would also be the Omaha Race Riot of 1919, the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, and the Rosewood Massacre of 1923.

“Throughout our daily lives we are surrounded and peppered by graphic messages. Indeed they have become so much part of the fabric of every-day modern life- from breakfast cereal packaging and advertising billboards to logos on clothes and television company identities- that often we register their codes only on a subconscioius level. Against an ever-present insidious backing track of visual Muzak, graphic designers vie for the viewer’s attention by shaping communication that is not only visually arresting but also frequently intellectualy contesting. to this end they can either grab attention in a bold and direct manner or slowly reel us in with visual ambiguity or double-coded meaning. In an ever-expanding sea of information and images the best attention ‘snaggers’ are those who bait their hooks with meaningful content, quirkily intelligent humour and/or, more realy, genuinely new formal inventiveness.” - (Charlotte Fiell, Peter Fiell, Graphic Design For The 21st Centuty, pg 12 - 14)

These images of the Black person as less than human, as savages, as oversexualized, are em- bodied in the ideology reflected in the United States flag. A symbol used to demark the conquered territories. The media extends this image, this organized concept, beyond the actual historical activities of Marcus Garvey the entrepreneur and statesman. The media uses the icon of the savage and oversexualized Black to define the historical activities of those involved in the Black Power movement in what seems to be an effort to further divide the classes of Blacks, and remove any legitimacy of those that seek to aggressively defend themselves. The caricatures, and their internal psychic energies are used to define what it means to be Black, to remain the logo of the Black race in the face of the logos created by those Blacks determine to help release the energies of self-determination and power. We will discuss how this logo of the savage and oversexualized Black is extended through time through various media encapsulations. What we all have to consider, remember, and proactively envelop in our projects is the realization that the same images, symbols, logos, and designs that helped to craft the powerful movements of our rich past have been utilized to capture our worst dispositions toward our Selves and our people, our external Self. What we will develop throughout this book is the comprehensive understanding that we have built symbols, technologies that have allowed us to spread at phenomenal levels a cultural paradigm that enriched our children with the values and pride of the Ancient scholars of Kimit(Ancient Egypt). Unfortunately, every time we create a technology based on our level of resources, we also allow it to be usurped for purpose antithetical to our development and survivla purposes. Before we explore all of the media by which we have consecrated our unfolding, and also our undoing, we must explore more than just the symbols of visual communication such as our logos. We must keep in mind that we started with logos, and then move beyond using music to dance to, we made music a form of communication. We took the poem and made the first stage plays. It is encum- bent upon us to not allow our Selves to be limited to the few historical accounts that you read thus far. We want to further understand how the symbols of Pan-Africanism, Self-Development, Self-De- fense, and Self-Empowerment were able to be reversed into the forms of images that we now have. Our next chapter will further develop the awareness that at one time our artists designed for the purpose of exposing the multitudes of our people to revolutionary consciousness. And from the next chapter we will begin the course of dismantling the images and trajectory of symbol creation that has lead us to the position we now face.

CHPTR 2 INCEPTION

During my years involved with working with explaining the symbols and media of politics, mainly in the prison centers, I have learned that many people are at a lost for a comprehensive understanding of “politics”. Most people relegate the term to mean,”governmental dictates”. There are even some instances where liberal and conservative leanings are limited to the present party system found in the United States, namely, the Democrats and the Repub- licans. Mention of left wing, right wing, center to right, and so forth, tend to either be mis- understood or not brought up due to lack of awareness. Of course, if one can’t understand the wing metaphor, it would be even more tedious to educate them that both wings belong

to the same bird. As a designer, it has been conveyed to me time and time again that the most convincing works are those that can speak with the most simplistic elements. In explaining politics, in an effort to circumvent the present popular interpretation, I was taught to tell the people I was working with that politics was simply the who, what, when, where, why, and how of power. Ultimately, politics is the literary and verbal symbol used to express the idea of social relations with regard to authority and power. Fortunately, for those I was working with in those days I stuck with my training.

A part of the discussion of politics is the removal of power, or the sanctioning of the abusive power possessors. Some refer to this as revolt, others as revolution. Both symbols possess varied and intricate subjective understandings. For this chapter, and in staying within the scope of the book, I’d simply like to call it “evening power out”. One example of evening power out in symbolic form is the use of the medium of film by Melvin Van Peebles. During his days in France as a director, Van Peebles was noticed by Hollywood film producers. Working with Columbia, he directed the film,”Watermelon Man”, a low budget production that Billboard calls “a moneymaker, if not a smash hit.”(Billboard Magazine, Jan 29, 1972) Due to the complications that arose making “Watermelon Man”, Melvin decided that he would take full control over his next project. Melvin insists that he attempted to adapt the screen work the best he could without infringing on his political beliefs. The writer, Herman Raucher, felt differently and Van Peebles was forced to make two versions of the performance. Melvin used the $50,000 he earned from the movie, a loan from Bill Cosby of $50,000, and funds from nonindustry sources to develop the groundbreaking Sweet Sweet- back’s Baadasssss(Black Film, White Money, Jesse Algeron Rhines, page 43).

As Melvin mentions in his documentary entitled, “Classified X”, Huey P. Newton, co-found- PG 14 er of the Black Panther Party, provided a highly approving critique of the film and made the film required viewing for members of the Black Panther Party.

According to Huey: “The very popular movie produced and directed by Melvin Van Peebles called Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song contains many very important messages for the entire Black community. On many levels Van Peebles is attempting to communicate some crucial ideas, motivating us to a deeper understanding and then action based upon that understanding. He has certainly made effective use of one of the most popular forms of communication, the movie, and he is dealing in revolutionary terms. The only reason this movie is available to us with its many messages is because Black people have given it their highest support. The corporate capitalist would never let such an important message be given to the community if they were not so greedy. They are so anxious to bleed us for more profits that they either ignore or fail to recognize the many ideas in the film. And because we have supported the movie with our attendance we are able to receive its message.

It is the first truly revolutionary Black film made and it is presented to us by a Black man. Many black people who have seen the film have missed many of its significant points. I have seen the film several times and I have also talked to about fifty to sixty others who have seen it and each time I understand more.

When Van Peebles first presented the film he refused to submit it to the Motion Picture Association to be rated becausse he knew they were not competent to judge its content. He knew the film was not something which would upset the Black community because of its ex- plicitness. He wanted youth and children to see it because he knew they would understand it. Yet the movie was given an ‘x’ rating over his protests, thus making it impossible for the youth to see. But it has a real message for them, for just like ‘Moo-Moo,’ one of the youthful characters in the movie, they are our future.

Melvin Van Peebles had great difficulty obtaining the funds to make this movie, therefore it has a low budget. In some parts the sound and the lighting are not as good as they might have been if he could have had more money to make the film. I have found that its messages and significance are clearer when I combine viewing the film with listening to the record of the sound track and reading the book. I would urge all of you who want to understand the deep meanings of the movie to also buy the record and the book.

Sweet Sweetback blows my mind every time I talk about it because it is so simple and yet so profound. It shows the robbery which takes place in the Black community and how we are the real victims. Then it shows how the victims must deal with their situation, using many institiutions and many approaches. It demonstrates that one of the key routes to our survival and the success of our resistance is unity.

Sweet Sweetback does all of this by using many aspects of the community, but in symbolic terms. That is, Van Peebles is showing one thing on the screen but saying somehting more to the audience. In other words he is signifying, and he is signifying some very heavy things.”

As I have stated in another Asylum works, critiquing a prominent mind such as Huey P. Newton can be dangerous. I have Huey, Huey doesn’t. Understand? I know how the Huey P. Newton story ends, and I have his life to thank as an example. He doesn’t have his own PG 15 life as an example of courage and Black Power in personality. He can’t critique his own life. I support the notion that Bobby Wright prescribes in “The Psychopathic Racial Personality” when he writes:

”...Blacks studying themselves rather than their oppressors...Black scientist generally rationalize their investigations as proof to White scientists that Blacks can be ‘scientifically objective.’”

Bobby goes on to quote Dr. Jacob Carruthers(1972) from an essay entitled “Science and Oppression”:

“Science is not objective nor is it neutral.”

I want to further that thinking, no use of symbol, media, or communication in a society that is dictated by social darwinism is without its necessary subjective and progandistic constraints. Woodrow Wilson after a screening of D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation”, a silent movie in which Wilson’s own words from his two-volume book, “History of the Ameri- can People”(“The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self preservation...until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect to the Southern country”) stated,”It is like writing history with lightning, my only regret is that it is all so true.” The rise of the Ku Klux Klan is has been greatly accredited to this film(Loewen, James W. “Lies My Teacher Told Me.”) It is in the hope that those who have been removed from the Black community, or those within in it that lack a certain political understanding, that Huey explains the symbols of this movie and even asks the lis- teners and readers to incorporate the soundtrack with the compositions of Earth, Wind, and Fire and Melvin.

Sweet sweetback Baadasssss Song conveys many ideas in a simple and crude manner. It is the grittiness of the film, and the avante garde style that helps to present the story starring “The Black Community.” Melvin, in an interview, explained that in order to find competent cinematic producers outside of white film unions, all he was left to work with producers of pornographic works. He further explains that in order to compel the script to conform to cinematics, it would need to have a character that was cinematically appealing.

“Well, I could have him as a drug addict, but that’s not very cinematic,” states Melvin,”Everybody is interested in nookie, that’s what I’ll do.”

As Huey states, the film is given an X rating, now, I’m not sure how much Melvin wanted children to see the movie, however, the first scene does contain a sex scene with Mario Van Peebles at an undisclosed age, I’m guessing 12 or 13 with an adult woman. Melvin states that he was once asked why he used his own son. His response,”Every child is somebody’s son...would I ask someone to use their son to do something I wouldn’t ask my son to do? No.”

The film introduces us to the story’s main character via a scene of him surrounded by a group of sisters while he is eating. His face is replete with sores and bruises. While the young boy is eating, there is a cut scene to a man running while words in french(what would seem like Melvin paying homage to his origins as a film maker in France) are shown on the screen. The English subtitle reads:

“...Sire, these lines are not a homage to brutality that the artist has invented, but a hymn from the mouth of reality...”(Traditional prologue of the dark ages).

Another set of text says:

”This film is dedicated to all the Brothers and Sisters who had enough of the Man”. We are then shown the young boy again, clean, and laying towels by the doors of the women. One of the young women that was there watching him stuffing his face full of food like one of those vaccuum cleaners at the car wash scans the hallway and invites him into her room. The symbolism of sex used throughout the film is similar to that of the story of Auset and Ausar in Kimitic allegory. In fact, sex is considered a sacred act throughout the Kim- itic scripts. Ausar is considered the king of the land after his marriage to Auset. Unlike the Western Man’s insecurity and fear of the woman, the Black Man was not pressed to understand the sacredness of the womb, and the NTRs of the Kimitic allegory were described using sexual symbology. In fact, where Eve is seen to be made to be pained by child birth, Au- set uses her womb to resurrect the disembodied Ausar.

Huey asserts:

“When the movie opens we see the faces of women;there are young faces and old faces, but in all of them there is a sign of weariness, sadness, but also joy. You soon recognize that the women are in a house of love, a house of prostitution, a house of ill-repute. Of course it can be any of these things, depending on what position you are viewing it from. This is the essence of the whole film, the victim and the oppressor looking at things in a much different way from a different point of view.

The women are tired yet they are happy. This is because they are feeding a small boy. As you look at the women you see that they are strong and beautiful Black women, definite- ly African in ancestry and symbolic of Mother Africa. The size of some of their breasts signifies how Africa is potentially the breadbasket of the world. The women are feeding stew to a small boy who is apparently very hungry, and as he downs it they keep offering him more. These women with their large breasts potentially could feed and nourish the world, and if this is so, certainly they have the portential to raise their liberator, for that is what the small boy is, the future of the women, of Black people, liberation.

They are in a house of prostitution not of their own will, but because of the conditions the oppressor makes for us. They are there to survive and they sell their love to do so, therefore our love is distorted and corrupted with the sale. When you have nothing else left you give up your body, just as when you are starving you might eat your fingers; but it is the conditions which cause this, not the desire to taste your own blood;you have to survive.

The women standing around the small boy are not saying anything but by continuing to nourish him they are telling him that they can give him more than enough;not only food, but much love. This love is not for sale and is therefore uncorrupted. It is pure love, sacred and holy. Even though the boy is weak and has many sores on his face, with the love and nourishment of the women he can become a very strong man. The sores on his face come from malnutritin and poor health and Van Peebles is signifying the fine line between survival and death. Even though the women can feed him and clear up his malnutrition, they cannot do it freely and totally because they have to sell, also they have to sell in order to provide.

I have seen small children in the Brownsville sectin of Brooklyn, in West Oakland, in Chicago, and in Harlem with sores on their bodies like those on the boy’s face. That is why we have health and food programs, because we are determined to make them healthy again. The women in the film are doing the same thing. They know he is their future and so they give him love and nourishment that he might become a strong man, not just in the physical sense, but so he might become a liberation.

Next we see the boy is healthy and growing, working as a towel boy in the house of prostitution. Then we see the prostitute making love to him. But this was a scene of pure love and therefore it was a sacred and holy act. Even though it was in a house of prostitution, it was not a distorted or corrupt thing. We see this by the very words the woman uses, for she tells the boy that he ain’t at the photographer to get his picture taken; she tells him to move. In the background we hear religious music signifying what is happening and what will happen later. First there is ‘Wade in the Water,’ and we recognize that the boy is being baptized; then there is ‘This Little Light of Mine, I’m Gonna Let It Shine,’ signifying what will happen in the future. The music indicates that this is not a sexual scene, this is a very sacred rite. For the boy, who was nourished to health, is now being baptized into manhood; and the act of love, the giving of manhood, is also bestowing upon the boy the characteris- tics which swill deliver him from very difficutl situations. People who look upon this as a sex scene miss the point completely, and people who look upon the movie as a sex movie miss the entire message of the film.

What happens is not a distorted act of prostitution even though it takes place in a house of prostitution. The place is profane because of the oppressive conditions, but so are our communities also oppressed. The Black community is often profane becasue of the dirtiness there, but this is not caused by the people because they are the victims of a very oppressive system. Yet within the heart of the community, just as in the film, the sacred rite of feeding and nourishing the youth goes on; they are brought to their manhood as liberators.

Van Peebles shows this in the film because when the love scene is completed, the boy is no longer a boy; he has become a man. He doesn’t have a climax until he reaches an adult age. Even though we may have sexual intercourse as children, we don’t have a climax; it is an introduction which makes it a part of something which is not alien to us. But in the film the climax came at the appropriate time, after has become a man. That is, he has learned the deep significance of what she was trying to teach him. It wasn’t an act or any mechanical sort of thing, but it was the building of his spirit.

So he grows a mustache while he is having sexual intercourse with her, from about ten years old he ends up to be about twenty-five. But as soon as reaches a climax, that is, as soon as he becomes a man, then he is ready to go out and fight. This is symbolized by his putting on his hat because when you put on your hat it symbolizes that you are fixing to go somewhere.

The whole film is centered around movement: his putting on the hat to go and his running and running. I think this shows the alienation he feels in this position. He is constantly in movement or “in the process.” When you are in the process you are always going or pre- paring to go. These symbols are used very well.

The oppressor would not view the love scene in the same way because his whole introduction to sex is from a perverted perspective and divorced from his whole being. That is why he rated the film ‘X’ because what he saw was a sex movie. We know that it is much more than that. He is introduced to sex as something outside of himself, while it is hard for us to remember our first sexual experience. It is not something outside of us, but it grows in us as any other part of our personality, and it is integrated into our physical selves just as our arms, our hands or our breathing is. This is why it was very necessary to show this young boy having this relationship in a place that is viewed from the outside as dirty and profane.

But we do love and we do have holy experiences at the same time that we are being stripped of everything else. Then we sell that holiness in order to survive, but it is not holiness any more, it is transformed by the sale. Nevertheless, the holiness is a part of us, so it serves us. But at the same time the holiness serves us it remains as dirtiness to the outsider because he is the cause of the profane conditions of the victims, and because what he is getting is not love, but the sale of the prostitute.

To the boy she was not a prostitute becasue there was no money passed. Instead she PG 18 introduced him to the thing that would give him his fullness as a person and his survival in the end. She introduced it to him as a boy because it is said, ‘Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.’ (Proverbs 22: 6) Of course he wouldn’t depart from it if it becomes an integral part of his personality because he was their hope, and this is why they feel happy about the sacrifice they are making. You can see it on their faces when they are feeding him and at the point of orgasm when the woman tells him that he has a sweet back, which is where he gets his name. Not only is he baptized into his fullness as a man, he gets his name and his identity in this sacred rite.

After that, whenever Sweetback engages in sex with a sister it is always an act of survival and a step towareds his liberation. That is why it is important not to view the movie as a sex film or the sexual scenes as actual sex acts. Van Peebles is righteously signifying to us all. The first scene was far from being sexual, that is why holy music plays during the scene. It is only dealing with sexual symbols. The real meaning is far away from anything sexual, and so deep that you have to call it religious.”

The scene is obvious a symbolic expression of rites of passage. As water is used in the baptism, so is water of a certain sort used in this scene. I don’t want to wrestle au feministic with some here, and I understand the Black Power Movement and its pause at outward symbols of power, however, this scene, this baptism, this rite of passage cleary is not a demeaning of women. The woman is totally in control, not submissive, as she commands the young dude to move, and tells him,”You ain’t at the photographer, you ain’t getting your picture taken. MOVE!!”

Without forcing the feminist discussing completely out of the context of this analysis, it is, however, interesting to note that the sister is seen pouring a(I’m hesistant to type “li- bation”) jug of water into a bowl in order to cleanse her vagina. Huey is certainly spot on when he describes this scene as a symbolic, and spiritually attuned rite of passage for little buddy. It is a ceremonial act that consecrates the character, gives him identity, and sets the tone for later symbol interpretation, a foreshadowing of sorts. Although the sequences, the “blinks”(cuts as characterized by Walter Murch) can be jarring, and quick, the last sequence shows the newly crowned, “Sweet Sweetback” as a man in his mid-twenties laying on top the sister who hasn’t aged. Obviously Melvin is infusing the act of copulation with a message of growth. We will see this throughout the movie.

The movie continues and so does Comrade Huey:

“When Sweetback puts on his hat he does not leave the house, he does not leave the victim’s ghettos, but graduates to perform there in a freak show. He would simulate sexual intercourse before an audience that paid to observee this scene. He starts out playing the part of a dyke, with false breasets and a beard, but then his “fairy godmother” comes along and he gets his wish and becomes a man before the audience, taking off his beard and showing his penis--it looks like a missile and shocks the audience. While this is going on, the cops are harassing Beatle, who is the owner of the cat house, He has been paying them off and doesn’t want to be bothered, but they want one of his men as a scapegoat arrest. The cops break off their harassment from time to time and go over to observe the freak show, even though they have seen it many times. Sweetback is now having sexual intercourse with the sister, but theree is no holy music because it is not love; it is a performance given in order to survive. He is selling himself to the audience and the cops, who are the freaks. Dylian’s “Balld of the Thin man” would ap- ply here, because in the song the freaks go to see the geek who offers them a bone and they don’t know why. But you see the audience or the freaks--including the cops--don’t have to be there. They cause the conditions which make it necessary for people to go to these lengths to survive and then they pay to see the performance the people put n. They are the real freaks and the people go through the act with real hostility and harted for the people who cause them to be there in the first place. PG 19 There are also Blacks in the audience. This is a stroke of genius by Van Peebles because it symbolizes the total blindness of the audience of freaks. They are laughing at a situation when they are in fact getting their heads cut off. That’s like Dylan’s sword swallower, who in the end will thank the audience for the loan because they were really there, only they did not know it. The scene shows how far the oppressor will go, for when it is asked if anyone in the audience wants to challenge Sweetback, this White boy couldn’t hold his girlfriend down. The announcer would not let her go out there because the police were watching.

The police, as I said, are taking payoffs and letting the house exist. This is an indict- ment of them. The freak show is not put on by freaks but by victims. The victim does what he has to do to survive because of his crippled and victmized position. The freak pays him for his laughter and the victim accepts the pay, but with vengeance in mind.

It is ironic and very symbolic that even while I am writing this I can look out my window and see the Oakland Auditorium where the Oakland Police Officers Association is holding its annual circus. I don’t see any Blacks going in. We are realizing more and more that it has always been a circus. They have tried to make a circus of our circumstances and our communities, but our awarness is growing and we are moving toward dealing with the situation in a very decisive manner, just like Sweet Sweetback did.

In the film and in the community the oppressor keeps demanding more and more from the victims--that is why they want one of Beatle’s men. But this is also why the victim with the lowest level of awareness will be brought into consciousness and revolutinized because he is doing what he is doing in order to survive. But eventually his very survival is at stake. The oppressor won’t even let your acts of survival continue; he tries to totally crush you until survival becomes a very revolutionary act. At the point of life and death, all of the hatred for the oppressor is unleashed for survival purposes.”

The scene of Sweet Sweetback and the sister transitions immediately to a stage with a clapping audience circling the stage. A young woman in white with flowers walks onto the stage through the side curtains smiling. She places her finger in her mouth to symbolize coyness, innocence. It should also be noted that the sister in white playing coy, has a white patch dyed into her afro, white in western society is associated with purity, hence “pure as the driven snow”, or the white dress upon a woman’s wedding day(eh...only a symbol...). The sister in white then kneels on the floor of the stage and begins to play with the flowers. At this point another character in the performance within a performance enters through the same curtains. This is a woman with a full beard and a suit on. The woman in the suit approaches the sister in white and they begin a staged act of courting. The sister in the suit attempts to carress the sister in white while they circumambulate the center of the stage for the audience’s approval. The sister in white continues to ward off the other sister’s advanc- es. We cut scene to the other side of the stage and are introduced to three new characters. Two white policemen discuss the need to use a black man to cover up a murder. They begin to pressure the owner and manager of the house of sin, Beatle, a pudgy Black man, that immediately recalled to my mind Donald Goines’ character from Dopefiend, Porky. Although Beatle is aggressive enough in his critical assessment, Melvin makes the white officers reply a line that is repeated by the white police as a sign of betrayal throughout the film:”You are our friend.” It is of interest here to Asylum that Huey doesn’t mention this in his analysis. The use of the term “friend” as a manipulative device will visit cinema later in the lines of Denzel Washington’s character, Alonzo Harris, a crooked officer training rookie Jake Hoyt, played by Ethan Hawke, when white cop Hoyt surprised by Harris’ handling of Roger, a retiring officer, and states,”...that man was your friend and you killed” to which Harris replies, “ My friend, tell me why...because he knows my first name?” The police attempt to symbolize the relationship with the community as that of friends, while Aiyana Jones was struck dead by a slug in her head and through her neck at the age of seven. The police symbolize their relationship with the black community as friends as Oscar Grant is handcuffed and shot in his PG 20 back by Johannes Mehserle with camera phones recording the murder. Melvin poignantly captures this hypocritical and manipulative symbol usage in this scene. During the conversation, Melvin scripts the police character to state another highly insightful bit of symbol manipulation that I’m surprised that Huey does mention. After the “friend” statement, Bea- tle asks,”When did you people start getting so interested in Black folks, dead or alive?” and the white police officer is written to respond,”Progress.” With this statement, Melvin shows his political and social consciousness. It reveals the relationship with whites and Blacks in this country, that integration, “progress”, is not so much about allowing Blacks to be self- determining, but more about enforcing exploitative measures on a community through a power proximity. Whites are made privy to the actions of Blacks which allows them the ability to control the resources and behaviors of Blacks through perceived authority and might over Blacks.

While the coercion between the police officers and Beatle continues, our attention is once again drawn to the stage performance. In ancient Kimit, the Elders would guide the neo- phyte through what are called “passion plays”. They were symbolic acts that demonstrated certain principles of human life and worked to also convey higher principles. One of the critiques I would administer here with regard to Huey’s analysis is that the man in dress with the wand is repeating the words,”I’m the good dyke fairy godmother.” Something Huey doesn’t bring up in his analysis, or rather doesn’t interpret accurately, is that the sister in the suit during this scene has removed the suit, and in such, reveals her bra and lace hiphuggers(thank you Victoria Secret for that bit of knowledge of women’s under gar- ments), and the coy sister in white has lain down naked. Melvin wants the audience to recognize that this is indeed a woman. The former suited sister, now on her knees has pro- cured a strap-on dildo, and we are shown that it is a synthetic penis. The sister then begins to pray. We must read from implication that the sister is praying to become an actual man. It is of interest that in the allegory of Ausar and Auset that Auset is unable to find the penis of Ausar after his brother Set disembodies him into 14 parts and scatters them across the land(Egyptian Mystics:Seekers of the Way, Mousafa Gadalla, pg. 131). Auset is also a symbol of “magic” and in her attempt to bind the body of Ausar back together, she is unable to find his phallus(symbolic of the penis) so she makes one in order to bring Heru to life(Encyclopedia of African Religion, Molefi Kete Asante, Ama Mazama, pg. 81). It be- hooves us to recognize that Melvin is using this scene to demonstrate a certain message, the magic of the Black woman. Due to the training of any patriarchal society to relegate the woman to objective proportions, it might be difficult for some to see beyond the use of sex in cinema beyond a “romantic” or “objectifying” device. However, in the culture of the Orig- inal Humans, sex was used to symbolize the miraculous. We have seen in this film, Mel- vin’s use of sex to bring a boy into manhood, while contemporary and cultural symbols(the gospel music playing in the background) are being utilized. Now, we see the continuance of the theme of transformation, which is very similar to the usage of our ancient sages, being displayed via the conduit of the sexual. I understand the difficulty of seeing an act of sex removed from the “romantic” in a western society as sacred. Yet, this is the nature of the symbol in our ancient thinking. And it would be very difficult to argue that Melvin has also empowered this symbol with the same psychological energy. This is not a disparagement of the Lesbian community. It is addressing the missing man from the Black community, the lack of strength and virility in a male form. We see a flash and a bang, and the praying woman has been transformed into Sweet Sweetback.

Sweetback lifts up and the audience is permit to see that he is indeed a man. A challenge is issued via the “good dyke fairy godmother” and a white woman fighting the grip of her, well what we must assume is, her boyfriend stands up. Beatle shakes his head to prevent the white male power enforcers from being offending by Sweetback having sex with the white woman. The scene concludes with Sweetback, fully clothed, and being commanded to join the police officers.

Melvin’s artistic expression and Huey’s analysis furthers: PG 21

“The police in the film really don’t want Sweetback. All they want to do is use him for a vover because they going after Moo-Moo, the young revolutinary. Sweetback goes along with them because of his low level of consciousness. This is no hard task becasue when an individual victim acts without awareness of the situatin, he just like the orgainsm that wants to survive. THE UNITY COMES OUT OF CONSCIOUSNESS. For a short while Moo-Moo and Sweetback are handcuffed together, but when the police start to beat the life out of Moo-Moo, they separate them and tell Sweetback to stand aside. Sweetback attempt to look away from the beating. This shows the arrogance of the aggressor, his Jehovah complex, thinking that he has all thee control. He thinks that he has his victims so completely in line that this freak show performer, who is paying them so that he can survive, will have no feeling fro another victim. Sweetback attempts to look away while the police are beating Moo-Moo. Just the turn- ing away shows how much of the time the masses attempt to dismiss the atrocities of the oppressor, even when attempts are made to communicate tto them. They will pretend that they are too busy with other things becasue they are trying to survive; but they fail to realize that their real survival depends upon their social consciousness and therefore unity. The oppressor will demand more and more of them until they will perish without that unity. At its lowest level, survival is just the organism getting by as an individual person or as an individual family. What they must realize is that the oppressor will not allow that, he will keep demanding more: high unemployment, poor housing, poor health and poor education, and more taxes, until that organism’s very death. So they attempt to look away , but because of compassion and their identity with the whole situation they cannot completely turn their backs. This is what causes the neurosis of some Blacks. Through Sweetback, Melvin Van Peebles is righteously signifying and teaching the people what must really be done to survive. WHen Sweetbcak realizes that he cannot turn his back, he takes the handcuffs, the chains which have been used to hold him in slavery, and he starts to kick ass. Using his handcuffs as a weapon against the oppressor rather than as the tool of submisssin, he downs both of the policemen, almost cutting off their heads. This is a very bloody scene but it was very important that they showed the blood all the way up his arm. It makes me think of the statement by Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth, where he says that the peasant creeps into the settler’s room at night and cracks the settler’s head open. Then the blood spurts across the peasant’s face, and it is the obly baptism he ever remembered. The Black audiences really respond to this scene because it is another baptism; but instead of wading in the water as Sweetback did earlier, this is a baptism in blood. As each blow went down, you could hear the tension being released in the audience because right at the moment it was a climax for them. One of the few criticisms I have of this film is that there is no religious music behind this scene. This is no more a scene of violence than the earlier baptism was one of sex; it is a growing into manhood. Sweetback grew into a man when he was in bed with that woman and he also grew to be a man when he busted the heads of his oppressors. When he was with the woman it was like a holy union, and when he takes the heads of his oppressors it is like taking the sacrament for the first time. In the first baptism he did not become a whole man because he went into that freak show, but when he is baptized in the blood he righteously moves on to a higher level becasue the next time he is with the police with handcuffs on, he gets away. And the time after that when he is with the police with handcuffs on, in that pool hall, he knows what he must do and he does it.

Like I said before, Van Peebles is righteously signifying because he engages the audience in a climax when Sweetback downs the police. What he does is equate the most ecstat- ic moments in the film with the actions he is encouraging the people to engage in. So he is advocating a bloody overthrow because the victims want to survive.“ After the second transformation of Sweetback we are shown him in the backseat of the police car. The police inform him that they will not be placing any handcuffs on him, and offer PG PB

him a cigarette as they drive enroute to what we are contextual lead to believe will be the police station, when a call from the staion over the police radio causes the officers to pick up another gentleman. This immediately indicates to us that the police have no fear of Sweet- back and he is just a willing minion, a pawn as Melvin states in his interview discussing the movie. This far into the film, Sweetback has been a mute. We don’t know his interests, nor anything of a personal nature about him. Once again, the jarring movements of the film’s avante garde style can cause the casual viewer to lose a very key element of this works. We see the police pull over and park, and we hear the discussion within. This is the only indication we have of who the gentlemen the police are after is. A candenced and melodic chant of “the jive police” can be heard coming from the building as the police officers make their dash into the building. Once again, Melvin conveys to us the officer’s belief of submissiveness on the part of Sweetback as he is handcuffed for “appearance’s sake,” because the police,”don’t want anyone to think you are just sitting here.” This is the first time in the movie we will see the handcuffs placed on Sweetback. With a backdrop of verbal bellows of “let him go,” a young man with a black shirt is escorted outside of the building. We are informed via an exchange with the officers that,”he must be the ringleader.” We gain further information about the young man during the montage of flashing signs indicat- ing travel, and a staement by the white officer directed towards the young man:”you’ve been stir- ring up the natives, kid.”

The police arrive at some sort of industrial sector and begin to beat the young man while he is still handcuffed to Sweetback. In the midst of abusing the young man, they apologize to Sweet- back for having him handcuffed to the brother, and the remove the handcuffed hand from the manacles. While the pigs continue to beat the young man, Sweetback stands to the side, his glance veering away from the attack. Sweetback then looks at his handcuffs, fastens the open cuff around his fist, and begins to strike the officers. After he has successfully laid the officers out, he assists the young brother that Huey indicates is Moo-Moo to an upright position. Moo- Moo thanks him and asks Sweetback where they are going now, and as Huey tells us, Sweetback replies, “Where you get that we shit.” Huey, being a ardent reader of Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth ascribes the scene as a baptism of blood. This reminds me of Fanon’s pronouncement that “Violence is therapuetic.” From this scene we are shown Sweetback running through the industrial area and the urban environment back to Beatle’s house that has just been raided by the police.

Huey describes the following scene:

“The next point that Van Peebles develops int he film is the need of the Black community for greater unity and how the lack of unity will only deliver us into the hands of our oppressors. What happens? Sweetback helps Moo-Moo get up, but then goes his own way and makes it back to the cat house where he encounters Beatle. Beatle starts to give him advice, but everybody recognizes that Beatle is not really responding to Sweetback’s situation. Van Peebles gets this point across beautifully. While he is giving advice Beatle is sitting on the toilet. He wipes himself, gets up, and without washing his hands he takes a towel and wipes his face. This is signifying that what is coming out of Beatle’s mouth is the same thing that is coming out the other end--shit and nothing else. Notice that Sweetback never says a word to Beatle, but he does not have to because Beatle is deaf and cannot hear what isbeing said anyway.”

As stated above, Beatle is seen in the bathroom while Sweetback is standing in the door. Beatle begins his diatribe with “my man” and black power symbolic gestures, and sits on the toilet def- ecating. I am once again alarmed that Huey doesn’t assign this scene any capitalistic notations. Beatle obviously represents exploitative Black capitalist. While taking his shit, from both ends, he reminds Sweetback that his actions could have serious repurcussions on the rest of his “em- ployees” and that they have a good working public relations with the police. Melvin exemplifies the Black business man under pressure from the white establishment with puanache! As Huey has noted, Beatle is simply talking from both ends of the digestive track.

Moving forward:

“When he leaves Beatle, the camera shows Sweetback with a terrified look on his face. He has re- PG 23 alized that those he knows best have such a low level of awareness that he cannot expect aid from them. He realizes that the lack of unity is a very hurting thing, and when he walks out of Beatle’s plave he walks right into the hands of the police, who pretend to be nice until they realize that he is not playing the part of the meek victim. Then they work him over thoroughly. Sweetback is saved by the same unity he failed to finde with Beatle. The people rescue him by pretending to be in need of money, and offer to wash the car of the police. Instead they are engaging in a very revolutionary act and save the brother from the oppressor while at the same time delivering a deadly blow to the police. What Sweetback has done for Moo-Moo is repeated for him by the community. “

Huey is describing the scene where Sweetback has been approached by the patrol men. During this informal interrogation, the patrollers assume that Sweetback was in the car, and the police officers he attacked had been bodied in an ambush. The term “friend” is once again used to gain the support of Sweetback. They soon realize that Sweetback’s lack of involvement is not the case when one of the officers removes the coat that Sweetback is using to hide his handcuffs. While Sweetback is being detained, one of the two officers runs back to his car to be adviced by his commissioner how to handle the situation. The commissioner, surrounded by reporters, suggests to the officer that Sweetback be beaten. During this conversation two Black children are asking the officer to wash the car. The officer returns to where his compatriot is holding Sweetback by gun point and they commence to beating Sweetback. They decide to take Sweetback somewhere that they can “really work him over.” The community has been washing the police car, but not in water. Once inside the car, it ignites in flames, and the young Blacks run and help Sweetback escape. While the frenzy of the crowd ensues, Sweetback hides among the people by staying on his knees below them. After Sweetback is able to walk past unnoticed, we see him in what looks like a sewer, where he sticks his cuffed hands in sewer water. This is the first use of the symbol of murky water used to cleanse in the movie, we will return to it later.

Huey:

“Sweetback is on his own now but he is locked into a pair of handcuffs. How deoes he get them off? Through unity. He goes to a woman, whom he has been with before, ande she tellls him to beg. This is obviously not the first time this has happened, but Sweetback cannot beg any more because he has been transformed by the baptism in blood. He needs her at this moment, but sexuality cannot be based on was any longer but on love and unity. He makes love to her and after that the handcuffs are off. This signifies that it is the unity between the Black man and the Black woman which is able to liberate them both. In his first baptism Sweetback acquired the ability to love, but he could only truly love and unify with the woman when he had done away with the people who made his woman the oppressor’s woman and himself the oppressor’s man. Then they could really have unity which is symbolic of the liberating love of the Black man and woman.”

Sweetback goes to the home of a sister that he has some established past with. He asks her through gestures to remove the cuffs. She tells him to beg. He, in his second actual bit of dialogue, states,”No,” she counter,”what you too proud to beg?” To which he states,”No, but you wouldn’t take them off if I did.”Once again we see Sweetback in a situation of transformation. This time it is to remove the handcuffs from his wrists. Melvin uses the sexual act as a symbol of gaining liberation. It is also of importance to note that this is the second time in the film that we are hearing Sweetback talk. The first was to address the revolutionary Moo-Moo. Both times thus far are being used to illustrate a disconnect. With Moo-Moo it was Sweetback’s disconnect, as Moo-Moo had verbalized a partnership. In this instance, it is Sweetback verbalizing the woman’s disconnect. He is in fact stating that he is willing to comply with the woman, but he realizes that it would do him no good. He understands his people enough to do what is necessary to be utili- tarian. This complies with the survivalist theme that is apparent throughout the movie.

Huey illustrates the progessing scenes:

“Sweetback is on his own again, but this time without the handcuffs. In the meantime the film takes us back to the cat house and his old boss, Beatle. Beatle is bing hassled by the po- PG 24 lice who want to know where to find Sweetback. Beatle doesn’t really know, but if he did he would have told them because beatle had no consciousness--he is deaf. And to prove how true this is, the police finally deafen him. Sweetback moves through the community looking for the assistance he needs to get away. He doesn’t get all that he needs, but he gets all that each can give. At the church he gets a Black Ave Maria and the power sign. The minister recognizes that his religion is a hype, for he tells Sweetback that Moo-Moo is giving the prople the real religion.”

Sweetback runs from the sister’s house to a church. Inside the church he tells the preacher that he wants to hide upstairs, but he is informed he can’t because the man knows everything. Once again, Melvin is hinting at that openness of the Black community to inspection and control by the white enforcers. He further tells Sweetback that Moo-Moo has the real religion, and that his job is to make people believe that it will be better for them on the other side of death. He explains that Moo-Moo has the real religion because it is the religion of “later for waiting”. He then tells Sweetback he is going to say a Black Ave Maria for him will thrust his fist in the air, the symbol of Black solidarity and liberation. What Melvin is symbolizing is the duty conflict within the Black community and how it should be resolved. The preacher understands what the people expect from him,”happiness from the Happy land.” And yet, he is overjoyed by the fact that Sweetback has slapped up the police and saved the young man Moo-Moo, as well as the young communities response by saving Sweetback. He can only offer Sweetback so much. But he wants Sweetback and the young revolutionaries to be successful because he recognizes the organic bond they all share under oppression.

Continuing:

“At the gambling den he gets little apparent sympathy. The manage keeps teling him he is a dead man and he really does not need money. In this scene Van Peebles is again showing the community of the victimized, just liek the performers in the freak show, because the manager explains to Sweetback that he cannot make any money on his operatin. By the time he gets finished paying off everybody who is exploiting him, he pays a dollar and a dime for every dollar he makes. This is another example of the oppressor demanding more and more of the victims. But the gamble does what he can--he gives Sweetback a ride. There is some unity, but not enough; and during the ride Sweetback spots Moo-Moo, the man he left behind, and they are reunited. This is as it should be, because Sweetback is leaving the community with the person who was the beginning of all this, Moo-Moo. They are two unlike characters yet they are linked together. Moo-Moo symbolizes the revolutionary who is trying to free the people. His whole program is pointed toward people like Sweetback, community people who are very unaware yet trying to survive. Sweetback at this point symbolizes the most unconscious persons int the community, people who are sometimes viewed as more worthless than the pimp. Sweetback is not a pimp and could not do as much as a pimp would, he is much less aggressive. A pimp will work at putting girls on the block, watching them, collecting moeny, beating them and controlling threm. He may also steal and deal in dope and so forth. Sweetback won’t do any of this and yet the women love him because he’s got such a sweet, sweet back. He will just stay home and the women will bring him everything he needs He accepts their goods but he doesn’t care what they do. So te sweetback is actually more worthless than the pimp, on one level, because he won’t take the chances that a pimp would to survive. He has submitted more, almost to the point where he is a vegetable and is just taken care of. So the fact that Sweetback would not stand any more victimization, that he identified with Moo-Moo as being one of the victims, and the fact that Moo-Moo’s revolutionary program is pointed to the lowest level of consciousness in the community, means that even though they are unlike characters, even though Moo-Moo is young and Sweetback is older, it is not unlikely that they would be bound together. When the gamblers get Sweetback and Moo-Moo to the edge of twon they tell Sweet- back to buy himself a last supper because he is a dead man. Their level of consciousness is PG 25 so low that they will help him to a point, but they still believe that ultimately the oppressor will triumph and Sweetback will die.”

This scene reiterates the nature of the relationship of the Black community with the white one in a poetic manner. Sweetback enters into a gambling den in order to secure funds for his survival. The owner of the gambling house states this poem with an interjectory from one of the gambling men:

What does a dead man need bread for? Cause he was whipping a brother How many brothers have you whipped? How many sistes have you slipped? Life is tough, baby A real struggle From the womb to the tomb Every dollar we make Guianeas get twenty the police get forty and Goldberg gets fifty anybody tell you that don’t add up to a dollar that add up to a dollar and a dime that’s why the niggas are so far behind “And Africa shall stretch forth her arms...” “Yeah, and bring back a bloody stump.” What does a dead man need bread for...

The gambling house owner, in the same vein as the preacher, offers Sweetback the most that he can: a ride to the end of town. I interpret this scene inconjuction with Beatle. Both are business owners, however, Beatle is more like the bourgeoisie business owner that in- terprets their relationship with the white community as a “good public relations” opportunity. The gambling house owner is more like the struggling Black entrepreneur in the urban community that has the resources, but is being bled by taxes, lack of political power, and a tarnished image. The urban Black entrepreneur is conscious of the actual relationship he shares with the white community is not going to symbolize it in “friendly” terms. As the gambler states him Self, it is a real struggle.

While in transit, Sweetback sees Moo-Moo, and offers him a ride with him. The gambler recognizes Moo-Moo and tells him that he is the reason for Sweetback’s dilema. There is a relationship here that needs to be addressed. The gambler shares an affinity for Sweetback. One that he is willing to risk his life for. He sees Moo-Moo as a threat, and yet, he recognizes that Sweetback is willing to risk his life for Moo-Moo. This further butresses my assessment of the gambler as the urban entrepreneur. The urban entrepreneur has an established relationship with the community. They dance to the same rhythm, they share the same greyish laboratory like skies. We understand that the urban entrepreneur is apart of the pulse of community as we witness the gambler driving with Sweetback and Moo-Moo, and the gambler’s friend is in the back with a gun, symbolizing protection and defense. They are also on the run with Sweetback, ready for the police harrassment that could entail. we also recognize the urban entrepreneurial shortcoming is a lack of faith in the revolution. They have seen the power of the police and the military might of the white establishment, and thus the last words to Sweetback are to get a last supper, while continuing the poem in the word,”you are a dead man.”

Let’s allow Huey to take us deeper into the movie’s passage:

“Sweetback and Moo-Moo are determined to survive, however, and they begin their jour- ney. The encounter with the motorcycle gang shows a number of things. First of all it is PG 26 a triumph of the soul-force(which the women gave Sweetback in the first scene) over all the mechanical developments of the oppressor. When he is challenged to a wrestling duel the gang leader picks up a motorcycle to show brute strength; then with a knife the leader shows how effectively they have mastered this weapon. When the gang leader reveals her- self to be a woman, Sweetback knows she is no match for the weapon he chooses. The gang promises to do him and Moo-Moo in after she does him in, but in the end “the Pres” is laid out on the ground in complete submission. The Black women showed him the way to liberation and he used his knowledge effectively. Van Peebles is also signifying other things in the motorcycle gang scene. First of all there is the symbol of the strength of the White woman over the White man(and they don’t even know it). Then there is the symbol of the Aryan, the superior race. The president of the gang is big and robust, the image of White superiority. The only criticism I have here is that her hair should have been blond rather than reddish, but the idea gets across. The idea also comes across that the people have the ability to triumph over all these symbols of oppression. Unity will save us. I should point out that in his duel with the Aryan someone has stuck a derby hat and a silly little tie on Sweetback. It is like a performance, a minstrel show or a cakewalk thing. But Sweetback takes off the derby hat and in that way he tells the others that this iis no performance, this is dealing for survival. He deals and he survives, muth to their disappoint- ment, and they roar off on their motorcycles, leaving their conquered leader on the ground. Some of the gang betray Moo-Moo and Sweetback, telling them that since Sweetback has won the duel they will take care of him and Moo-Moo by giving them shelter in a moun- tain cabin. Instead they send the police. This cabin contains a pool hall, and when the police arrive Moo-Moo and Sweetback are playing pool. When the police enter, Sweetback offers his hands for the cuffs, but then moves to use them to down one policeman. But he is without a weapon to deal with the other one and Moo-Moo is shot. Sweetback uses familiar survival techniques, however, because he deals with what he has available to him. The pool cue becomes a spear, staving the policeman through the chest and drilling him all the way to the hilt of the cue. It is not technoloty that saves him, it is his ability to use the familiar fea- tures of the Black community. This is another important message. The rest of the scenes show the unity of the community and its creativity in dealing with survival situations. Sweetback sends Moo-Moo on a motorcycle because he is the future. Then he makes it on his feet, by himself. He makes his plea to his feet to do their thing and they never fail him. All he has are his feet and one knife, and he gets by.”

Sweetback fall prey to a white motorcycle gang. They gang robs Sweetback for his watch, but they want to make a sport, a contest of their punishing Sweetback and Moo-Moo for trespassing on their territory. The group speaks of democracy, and represent the class of rebel whites. Nothing in this context speaks of racism. The gang wants their “Prez,” who is a red headed white woman, to duel Sweetback in a challenge of Sweetback’s choice. Sweet- back chooses fucking.

The two strip naked, article of clothings taken off one piece at a time. The “Prez” seems confident and also anticipatory. Once again, Melvin uses the sex act as a form of liberation for Sweetback. In some ways, I believe that Melvin is also symbolizing his own liberation as he uses a sexually explicit movie to escape the clutches of dependence from white producers. The “Prez” attempts to fuck Sweetback aggressively, but Sweetback manages to work her into a frenzy as she spreads her legs and calls his name. Unfortunately, the white gang of bikers refuse to honor their end of the bargain, and lead Sweetback and Moo-Moo into an ambush. The gang members lead Sweetback and Moo-Moo into a billiard room, and outside they discuss calling the police. As Moo-Moo and Sweetback begin to play a game and share a beer, the police ambush them. Sweetback, in what I determine is a means of teaching Moo-Moo, acts submissively and turns around accepting the handcuffs. What he actually does is use the handcuffs, once again, to slash the eyes of the police officer. Then Sweetback uses the cue stick to spear the officer. Moo-Moo, who is untrained, is wounded as the blind- PG 27 ed officer shoots his pistol wildly. The two protagonist are able to kill the officers, and hide their corpses. Soon, a courier for the preacher comes to pick Sweetback up. The courier is only riding a motorcycle and informs Sweetback that he can only carry him Self and one other. sweetback tells the courier to take Moo-Moo, because Moo-Moo “is our future.” A sacrificial Sweetback with an understanding of the emotional decisions he is making emerg- es. The brother Moo-Moo thanks Sweetback with the handshake of solidarity.

Bro. Huey:

“In the meantime the police are in the conference room and the commissioner tells them he wants the cop-killers and niggers. Then he calls the Black policemen aside to apologize. They never say a word during the movie, but in their faces you see that they are dead. They are dead because they are separated from the community of victims of which they are a part. The police vamp on the entire community. They raid a motel and rip out the eyes of one brother. When they realize that he is not Sweetback their reply is ‘So what?’ Melvin Van Peebles is making it plain that we are all Sweetbacks and we are all united in this victimization. At on point they bring Beatle to the morgue to identify a boy as Sweetback’s; They run their games again with some speech about democracy and communism. They use their idea of bourgeois democracy against the community, but Beatle is a deaf man and has been deaf for a long time. In some respects he is also a blind man because even though he operates a cat house and survives, he cannot read. They are teh cause of his problems, for he cannot hear, he cannot see, yet they want him to be a ‘responsible citizen’ and help them. We see that Beatle has been subjected to the Biblical dictum: ‘Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.’(Matthew 18:8-9) Van Peebles is continuing to signify and send out messages to the Black community. When Beatle sees that the corpse in the morgue is not Sweetback, he breaks up with joy. He gains his hearing in a sense, and also his sight. ‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever wil lose his life for my sake shall find it.’(Matthew 16:25) We see the message very clearly because the camera immediately switches to a shoeshine stand where a brother is shining a man’s shoes with his ass and he is really telling the man, for Beatle, what he can do. So the police go through the community searching for Sweetback, and the people stand as one. They don’t know anything. The message here to the community is to “stop snitching,” there is need for unity not for revealing our secrets. When I was in the penitentiary I learned the worst crime on inmate can accuse another of is snitching. Van Peebles shows how the community can avaoid this and save themselves from their oppressors. In the meantime we see Sweetback making it through the edges of the city and heading fro the desert. He has not of the high-powered technology of the oppressor, but he does have his feet. In one scene we see him going by a large factory; it looks like a chemical plant or something like that. Here you see the drama being symbolized to its fullest, Sweetback with his feet making it on by the man’s highest manifestation of technological skill, and you realize that this is the drama developing, the soul-force of the people against the technology of the oppressor. The only question is, which will win? The answer is given by Sweetback in his plea to his feet, he says:

Come on feet cruise for me come legs come on run come on feet do your thing who put the bad mouth on me PG 28 anyway the way I pick em up and put em down even if it got my name on it won’t catch me now.

There is Sweetback’s answer to the oppressor’s technology. even if the bullet has his name on it, it won’t catch him now. Why? Because Sweetback has feet and they will save him. This is also the beginning of the dialogue between the running Sweetback and the colored angels. As soon as he hits the desrt where the situation is really going to be bad, the colored angels come in and try to discourage him. But he has feet, he has heart, and he has courage, and in the dialogue he resists their discouragement as much as he resists the technology of the pollice, who are always searching.”

As Sweetback begins to run, the police begin a terrorist operation in the Black community. They beat a Black man that is not Sweetback, and in response to the realization that it is not Sweetback, they say so what. This is the same lack of professionalism and care and concern that the police used when they killed Aiyana Jones, Oscar Grant, Amadou Diallo, and the hundreds of Blacks left slain due to police “investigations” and “procedures.” I concur one thousand percent with the Brother Huey’s assessment, we are all Sweetbacks.

There are other aspects of the film that we could delve into, but the overall gist of the film is to survive. I would be remiss not to mention the angels that sing to Sweetback as he makes his escape. Without killing the surprise of the movie, I’ll transcribe the song, since it is Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song:

If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em that’s what they say

You talking ‘bout yesterday

You can’t go on like that Sweetback Not Long as your face is Black

Yeah, I’m Black and I’m keepin’ on Keepin’ on the same ole way

They bopped your mama They bopped your papa

Won’t bop me

They bopped your sister They bopped your brother

They won’t bop me

THEY BURNED OUR MAMAS THEY BEAT OUR PAPAS THEY TRICKED OUR SISTERS THEY CHAINED OUR BROTHERS WON’T BLEED ME WON’T BLEED ME WON’T BLEED ME PG 29 They bled your mama They bled your papa But he wn’t bleed me

Use your Black ass from sun to sun Niggers scared and pretend they don’t see deep down dirty dog scared

Just like you Sweetback

Just like I used to be Work your Black behind to the gums And you supposed to thomas tell he done

You got to thomas Sweetback They bled your btother They bled your sister Yeah, but they won’t bleed me

Progress Sweetback

That’s what he want you to believe

No progress Sweetback

He ain’t stopped clubbing us for 400 years And he don’t inted to for a million

He sure treat us bad Sweetback We can make him do us better

Chicken ain’t nothing but a bird Whate man ain’t nothing but a turd Nigger ain’t shit

Get my hands on a trigger

You talkin’ revolution Sweetback

I want a ger off these knees

You talkin’ revolution Sweetback

You can’t make it on wings Wheels or steel Sweerback We got feet You can’t get away no wings wheels or steel Sweetback We got feet You can’t get away on wings wheels or Steel Sweetback Niggers got feet

He bled your brother He bled your sister Your brother and your sister too PG 30 How come it took me so long to see How he get us to use each other Niggers scared

We got to get it together if he kicks a brother It gotta be like he kickin’ your mother

They hype you into sopping the Marrow out your own bones Justice is blind Yeah and white too

Justice is blind The way she acts she gotta be The man is jive Not too juve to have his game Uptight in your kinky bean

Stand tall Sweetback he Ain’t gonna let you I’m standing tall anyway

The man know everything Sweetback The man know everything Then he ought to know I’m Tired of him fuckin’ with me Use your feet baby Run motherfucka Run Sweetback He wont bleed me

The lyrics of what Melvin is describing as angels is very telling of the thinking that is going behind this motion picture, this art work, this film. The very angels of heaven that we have been listening to throughout this picture have doubts about SweetBack’s survival. They are telling SweetBack to give up, not because of him Self, and his own abilities, but because of the strength and might of the oppressive arms. SweetBack answers back that he might not have what his overpowering oppressors have, but he does have something: Him Self. This is SweetBack’s badass song: one that finds our protagonist up against his worst enemy, him Self. The only thing that holds SweetBack from accomplishing anything at this point in the film is SweetBack’s resolve to push further, to survive. In this depiction, Melvin is remind- ing us of our Selves. What Melvin is saying here is that it is not when our enemy is most obvious that we need to be our most strongest and determined. No, it is when we are alone and pushing against our own created pains and material conditions that we need to be thinking the most, that we need to be forcing our Selves to reach boundaries that most give out before reaching. It is through this song that we witness SweetBack without any com- forts. It is through this song that we witness SweetBack urinating in the mud in order to comfort his pain. It is through this song that we witness SweetBack eating like savage eats. It is through our battles with our Selves when we find exactly how much we wish to over come our internal chaos and create order. This is a very revolutionary section of the movie.

Ultimately, it is the incistence of Melvin’s usage of artful music and poem that carries this particular piece above and beyond all of its imitators. The weakness of a character such as SweetBack is seldom mention outside of scathing critique, and yet, it is his silence and his willingness to overcome obstacles in the face of iminent defeat that gives him resonance. He is not the arrogantly violent Tony Montana, nor the adroit Shaft. His cunning is not witty, nor is it sophisticated. His is a simple heroism brought about through material conditions that teach him how to survive and develop a certain political consciousness throughout the film. Even the stoicism of SweetBack is more due to his lack of knowledge than because he is attempting to be the “strong and silent” type of male thrust upon us in this society’s media and lore. However, it is the superficials of an artistic expression that capitalist exploiters of the Western breed seek the most. And Melvin’s classic work is no exception in the litany of works developed by Black artists, and yet used to extend White supremacist ideology and symbols, as we shall soon see in the following chapters. CHPTR 3 “JUNGLE MUSIC”

“For the generation that would produce hip-hop’s ‘Golden Age’-artists like Rakim and Big Daddy Kane, both born in 1968, Year Four of the NGE’s calendar - the Five Percenters were an established orthodoxy, their traditions a vital part of the surrounding cultural scene. The classic 1980s ‘b-boy’ stance is said to have derived from the posture of Gods ‘standing on their square’ at parties. The language of Five Percenters became the language of early rap: expressions like ‘peace’ and ‘dropping science’ come straight from the Gods and Earths. Even the affirmation, ‘word!’ had its start with Five Percenters, as an abbreviation of the phrase ‘word is bond’ from the 120. To praise an emcee’s rhyme as ‘the bomb’ came from the teaching battles in which Five Percenters ‘bombed’ each other with memorized lessons. And to call someone ‘G,’ which is now read as ‘gangsta,’ represented God in the Supreme Alphabets, as Rakim brings to light in ‘No Competition:’ I’m God/G is the seventh letter made” - Michael Muhammad Knight, The Five Percenters, pg 178

According to Dr. Yosef Ben Jochanan the starburst was a symbol of Ra, a recognition of the power of the sun and symbolic of an all powerful energy source throughout existence. The symbol of four right angles connected, a variation of the cross, became more popular in the twentieth century as Adolf Hitler utilized the symbol to represent his ideology(Black World, Feb. 1974). When veiwing the swatstika, as it has now come to be known, one may have feelings of disdain or pride, depending on what side of the white nationalist and Jew- ish Holocaust one stands on. The impact of the actors utilizing the symbol to represent their particular brand of vileness has been imprinted into the minds of the dwellers of the planet a score or so shorter than six scores, a technological reach greater than that of the World Wide Web. A transference of meaning, symbol enegry, erased of its more sacred vibrations, and written with blood a new conferrence of ideas. A discussion of death and White terror- ism with your neural receivers with just one glance.

If you recall from an earlier discussion, it can be quite difficult to present an analysis of Black cultural symbols and media expressions. The precarious nature of forging judgments PG 33 in the minds of a group of people so taunted by the oppressive weight of slavery, Jim Crow, CoINTELPro, economic warfare, psychological warfare, and self-hate can cause reactions and responses that any responsible thinker and writer would want to eschew. Unfortunately, avoidance of the discussion by my Self or any other with a worthy scholarly training would be the height of intellectual cowardice. Further, it would be treasonous to abstain from an analysis of a medium that has had such a deep impact on my own life. To believe the effects of Hip Hop, or more correctly in this instance, rap, are mimi- mal is a jest of objectivity and statistical smoke and mirrors. To know through personal self examination and self-historical honesty is to be responsible for the dissemination of a certain medicine that can cure millions of one’s own family.

As with the swatstika, a very organic, and - through its ability to allow for freedom of expression for the underclass - sacred technology was stolen from the vehicle of Hip Hop via contracts, business suits, mass production, and other corporatist para- phernalia. To be sure, the association of Hip Hop with the urban environment in its most impover- ished economic state will bring forth discussions of criminal activity. Like with most technologies, the existence of the elements in combination to provide actual usage are already around before a popular label was developed. During the 1960s and 70s, artists such as Gil Scott Heron, The Last Poets, and the Watts Prophets were able to use the conduit of drums, strings, horns infused with their verbalizing energy to encourage and inform history before the first discohalls became popular. It would be the discohalls, the centers of social merriment, that would codify the tools for electronic dissemination of music, replacing the live bands through a constant broadcasting of music by the disc jockeys via “mix- ers”.

Although I consider intellectual pursuits in the higher academics a process that should be devoid of political sycophantry, I do agree with Michael Eric Dyson in his book “Know What I Mean?” It is unfor- tunate that he has chosen to pick sides among the various rap artists that have taken the battle rapping of the Hip Hop early era(1980s) and made it a laughable sport akin to Ted Turner promoted wrestling, and allowed Jay-Z and Nas to write portions of his book. This action places his research and analysis at a strong disadvantage, and taints any statements he might make from his authority as a premier academic at risk of opportunism.

However, for our purposes here, he does make a strong point of historical merit when he writes,”For the member of the Black Arts Movement, there was no such thing as a serious artist who was not concerned about the social struggles of self-determination and political libery of their people, struggles which in large part inspired their art. So the participants in the Black Arts Movement were persuaded of the need to fuse politics, art, and commumnity. Several questions guided their agenda: How are the arts serving the broader PG 34 black world? How does art imply and forge political cohesion among the black masses? How does the Black Arts Movement help to revolutionize or fundamentally transform the consciousness of ordinary people and move them from anger to action? Art was never far from life, never artificially divorced from suffering or celebration. It was always found at the intersection of reflection and reaction or of critical consciousness and social intervention. Art was a servant of the masses.”(Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean?, pg. 62)

As a person that dislikes being placed in boxes or labeled, I understand the need for many artists to disconnect from the labels of “conscious” this person or that person as a means to avoid the strigent expectations held on one’s behavior and moral code. However, as our analytical maturity evolves, we realize that in order for a group, society, or community to persist, there has to be sacrifices in the form of social responsibility. Regardless of the moral or religious sanctions and edifice one subscribes to, or doesn’t subscribe to, it be- hooves every member of a social unit to realize their influence, and ability to respond to the elements within that social grouping. As artists, our ability to influence and impregnate the minds of others is historically noted as superior to even that of the demagouges. Our usage of visual symbology, aural symbology, and tactile symbols are affective and leave a resonance with those that consume our arts. To tamper with the technology of the individual without consideration for the social effects is to act with viciousness. There is a responsibility that we all hold, to those that hold more influence, and more ability to alter consciousness, the more respond ableness is required.

The implication of the last paragraph should not be that of impossible morals. We are not here to force anyone to abide by our own petty codes of behavior. However, we are asking that individuals consider the sensitive nature of the times, and act with that regard. The concept of artists and those in the public sphere not being role models is simply ridiculous. There is no logical argument that can resolve or remove responsibility from a person that has influence and attention in the public space. The fact that one is able to garner financial stability from their “arts” is enough of a reminder that people are following you and are supporting your behaviors. Although possible, I have yet to spend money with anyone that I didn’t agree with, or felt an affinity for. we boycott companies for their lack of social responsibility, or to alert them that they have offended us in some manner. The same should occur with any artist that misuses their powers of persuasion over the people.

In response to the vivid and damaging images displayed in the Dennis Hopper directed,”Colors”, and the title song of the soundtrack written and performed by Ice-T, journalist John Leland implies that the lyrics of Spoonie Gee are the archetype for the style of rap now more commonly refered to as “gangsta rap.” (John Leland, New York Times, March 12, 1989). A look at one of the more influential recordings of Spoonie Gee, “Spoo- nin’ Rap”, one immediately understands that the usage of the vernacular and imagery of the prison lifestyle is being evoked as more of cavaet than a promotion. Once again, we are discussing Spoonie Gee because a mainstream article circulated the idea that Spoonie Gee helped to establish the form of rap that would be referred to as “gangsta rap.” PG 35 Spoonie Gee raps:

You say One for the trouble Two for the time Come on, y’all, let’s rock the -

( *whistle* )

Yes, yes, y’all Freak, freak, y’all Funky beats, y’all Then you rock ‘n roll Then you roll ‘n rock And they you rockin to the beat that just don’t want you to stop Cause I’m the S to the p-double o-n-y The one MC who you can’t deny Cause I’m the baby-maker, I’m the woman-taker I’m the cold-crushin lover, the heartbreaker So come on, fly girls, and please don’t stop Cause I’m MC Spoonie Gee, wanna hit the top And young ladies, rock on

Say I was drivin down the street on a stormy night Say up ahead there was this terrible fright There was a big fine lady, she was crossin the street She had a box with the disco beat So I hit my brakes, but they’re not all there I missed the young lady by only a hair And then I took me a look, I said, “La-di-da-di” A big fine girl, she had a hell of a body Then she looked at me and then she started switchin So I took my key out of the ignition Got out the car and kept my mouth shut Cause my 20-20 vision was right on her butt I caught up with her, I said, “You look so fine I swear to God I wish you was mine” She said, “Hey boy, you’re Spoonie Gee” “That’s right, honey, how did you know me?” She said, “Spoonie Gee, you’re all the same And everybody who disco know your name” I said, “Come on baby, it’s not too far We gonna take a little walk to my car” Once we got to the car, then we sat in the seat And then the box was rockin to the funky beat And then I looked at her and pushed the seat back Turned off her box and put on my 8-track And then I started rappin without no pause Cause my mind was just gettin in those draws And then I got in the straw, we started do it to the beat And started doin like this, started doin the freak

Yes, yes, y’all Freak, freak, y’all PG 36 Cause I’m MC Spoonie Gee, I wanna be known As the metropolitician of the microphone Cause I’m a man’s threat And I’m a woman’s pet And I’m known as the mamsel’s joy And I’m a man who fights on the microphone And who all the people enjoy, y’all Yes, yes, y’all Freak, freak, y’all And don’t stop Keep on

Say I was breakin and freakin at a disco place I met a fine girl, she had a pretty face And then she took me home, you say, “The very same night?” The girl was on and she was outta sight And then I got the girl for three hours straight But I had to go to work, so I couldn’t be late I said, “Where’s your man?” she said, “He’s in jail” I said, “Come on baby, cause you’re tellin a tale Cause if he comes at me and then he wants to fight See I’ma get the man good and I’ma get him right See I’ma roll my barrel and keep the bullets still And when I shoot my shot, I’m gonna shoot to kill Cause I’m the Spoonie-Spoon, I don’t mess around I drop a man where he stand right into the ground You say from Africa to France, say to Germany Because you can’t get a man tryin to mess with me Cause I’m a smooth talker, I’m the midnight stalker I’m the image of the man they call the J.D. Walker If you’re gonna be my girl, just come along And just clap your hands to my funky song I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t gamble neither And most people call me a woman pleaser Cause I keep their phone numbers on the shelf I go to make love, and then keep it to myself So no one’s gonna know what I’m doin to you Not your sister, brother, niece, nor your mother, father too”

And take that y’all And don’t stop You keep on and on and on and on Like hot butter on say what, the popcorn Young ladies rock on Fly guys What a big surprise Cause I’m MC Spoonie Gee, don’t take no mess vFrom the north, the south, from east or west Cause everybody knows MC Spoonie Gee’s the best Young ladies rock on, y’all Rock, rock, y’all and don’t stop Keep on to the shill shot And then you rock and roll And then you roll and rock And then you rock to the beat that just don’t wantcha to stop Cause I’m the S to the p-double o-n-y g PG 37 I’m talkin about me, MC Spoonie Gee Rock on, y’all And don’t stop Keep on to the shill shot Rock on and on and on and on Like hot butter on say what, the popcorn Don’t stop the funky beat till the break of dawn Young ladies Young ladies

Cause I’m the cool-crushin lover, goes on to supreme And when it comes to fine girls I’m like a lovin machine It comes to makin love, I do the best I can Cause I’m known from coast to coast as the sixty-minute man It comes to makin face, I got the macho class I have all the fly girls shakin their ass So for all you fly girls who wanna be loved Check me out, cause I’m the highest above I’m gonna call you up and give you an invitation So you can see the way Spoonie Gee rocks the nation One time, for the mind, y’all Freak, freak, y’all Funky freaks, y’all Yo go hip - hop - a hip-hip a hop And then you’re rockin to the hip, and then you’re rockin the hop And then you on and on and on and on The beat don’t stop until the freaks are gone And rock on y’all, and don’t stop Keep on to the shill shot

And for you sucker-sucker dudes who commit a crime You wanna do bad, but don’t do the time I say you wanna be dissed and then you wanna be a crook You find a old lady, take her pocketbook And then you steal your mother’s borrowed money on the sly You can run, but you can’t hide When the cops crashed through, your face turned pale I’ma tell you a little story about the jail Cause see, in jail there’s a game and it’s called survival And they run it down to you on your first arrival They tell you what you can and cannot do But if you go to jail, watch yours for a crew Cause when you go in the shower, he’s pullin his meat And he’s lookin at you and say you look real sweet And at first there was one, now ten walked in Now how in the hell did you expect to win? I said you better look alive, not like you take dope And please my brother, don’t drop the soap And if you get out the bathroom, and you’re alive Just remember only a man can survive In jail of course, cause when you’re doin 15 years You got no freedom, you just have a warden

Yes, yes, y’all Freak, freak, y’all And don’t stop PG 38 Keep on to shill shot Like a lime to a lemon and a lemon to a lime I keep the funky beat, I say I pass the time And like lemon and lime and like a lime to a lemon A MC could attract all the women Cause I’m Spoonie Gee, and I wanna be known As the metropolitician of the microphone Yes, yes, y’all Freak, freak, y’all So just clap your hands and just stomp your feet And just rock to the rhythm of the funky beat To the funky, funky, funky, funky beat The beat that makes you get up and pat your feet Young ladies rock on, y’all Rock on, y’all Till the break of dawn I say you do the Spank or the Patty Duke Either one you want, you gotta get up and do The rock-rock and you don’t stop I say I jumped the turnstyle for summer day And then I seen the guy, and then I fled away And then he pulled his gun, but he did not shoot So come on everybody, let’s Patty Duke Cause I’m livin well, and I’m ready to dance Come on girl, let me show my romance I’ll let you see the way how I rock the mic Cause I know damn well that I could rock all night Yes, yes, y’all Freak, freak, y’all And don’t stop Keep on, y’all You go rock and roll And then you roll and rock..

As we see in the third verse, the imagery of the prison culture is only being expressed to the “sucker-sucker dudes who commit a crime.” The cursory assessment found in the New Times article that Spoonie Gee represents the inception of what Ice-T expresses to history in “Colors” is unfounded outside of introducing a particular meme in the culture of Hip Hop for describing crime and prison. As a comparison, and a means to elicit a further understanding of the trajectory that Ice-T is presenting versus that which Spoonie Gee presented, we have the lyrics of Ice-T’s “Colors” and the track “6 N’ Tha Mornin’” from the album released earlier the same year,”Rhyme Pays”:

Yo Ease let’s do this...

I am a nightmare walking, psychopath talking King of my jungle just a gangster stalking Living life like a firecracker quick is my fuse Then dead as in death, that’s the colors I choose PG 39 Red or Blue, Cuz or Blood, it just don’t matter Sucker die for your life when my shotgun scatters We gangs of L.A. will never die - just multiply

You see they hit us then we hit them Then we hit them and they hit us, man It’s like a war, ya know what I’m sayin’ People dont even understand They don’t even know what they dealing with You wanna get rid of the gangs it’s gonna take a lotta work But people don’t understand the size of this This is no joke man, this is real

You don’t know me, fool You disown me, cool I don’t need your assistance, social persistance Any problem I got I just put my fist in My life is violent but violent is life Peace is a dream, reality is a knife My colors, my honour, my colors, my all With my colors upon me one soldier stands tall Tell me what have you left me, what have I got Last night in cold blood my young brother got shot My home got jacked My mother’s on crack My sister can’t work cause her arms show trax Madness insanity live in profanity Then some punk claimin’ they understandin’ me Give me a break, what world do you live in Death is my sect, guess my religion

Yo my brother was a gang banger and all my homeboys bang I don’t know why I do it man, I just do it I never had much of nuffin man Look at you man, you’ve got everything going for yourself and I ain’t got nuffin man, I’ve got nuffin I’m living in the ghetto man just look at me man, look at me

My pants are saggin braided hair suckers stare but I don’t care my game ain’t knowelgde my game’s fear I’ve no remorse so squares beware

But my true mission is just revenge you ain’t in my sect, you ain’t my friend wear the wrong color your life could end homocides my favorite venge

Listen to me man no matter whatcha do don’t ever join a gang you don’t wanna be in it man, You’re just gonna end up in a mix of dead freinds and time in jail I know, if I had a chance like you, PG 40 I would never be in a gang man but I didn’t have a chance You know I wish i did

I’ll just walk like a giant police defiant you’ll say to stop but I’ll say that I cant my gangs my family its all that I have I’m a star, on the walls is my autograph

You don’t like it, so you know where you can go cause the streets are my stage and terror’s my show phsyco-analize tried diognising me wise It was a joke brother the brutally died

But it was mine, so let me define my territory don’t cross the line Don’t try to act crazy cause the bitch dont thank me you can be read like a punk it wouldn’ta made me cause my colors death thou we all want peace but our war won’t end, they’ll always see See the wars of the street gangs will always get to me man But I don’t wanna be down with this situation man but I’m in here, if I had something betta to do I think I’d do it but right now I’m just down here boye I’m trying to get money cause I’m smart I’m gunna get paid while I’m out here I’m gunna get that paper, ya know what I’m saying If I had a chance like you, maybe I would be in school but I’m not, I’m out here living day to day surviving and I’m willing to die for my colors

Yo’ll please stop, cause I want ya all to live. This is Ice-T, Peace...

6 N’ Tha Mornin’

“6’n The Mornin’”(Ice T, Rhyme Pays, 1987)

6’n the morning’ police at my door Fresh adidas squeak across the bathroom floor Out the back window I make a escape Don’t even get a chance to grab my old school tape

Mad with no music but happy ‘cause free And the streets to a player is the place to be PG 41 Gotta knot in my pocket weighin’ at least a grand Gold on my neck my pistols close at hand

I’m a self-made monster of the city streets Remotely controlled by hard hip hop beats But just livin’ in the city is a serious task Didn’t know what the cops wanted Didn’t have the time to ask

Word

Seen my homeboys coolin’ way way out told ‘em bout my mornin’ Cold bugged’ em out shot allmenn little dice until my knees got sore Kicked around some stories bout the night before Posse to the corner where the fly girls chill

Through action at some freaks until one bitch got ill She started actin’ silly simply would not quit Called us all punk pussies said we all weren’t shit As we walked over to here hoe continued to speak

So we beat the bitch down in the god damn street But just livin’ in the city a serious task Bitch didn’t know what hit her didn’t have time to ask

Word

Continued clockin’ freaks with immense posterior Rollin’ in blazer with a louie interior Solid gold the ride was raw Bust allmenn left turn was on Crenshaw Sean-e-sean was the driver Known to give freaks hell Had a beeper goin’ off like a high school bell

Looked in the mirror what did we see ? Fuckin’ blue lights L.A. P.D. Pigs searched our car, their day was made Found a uzi, 44 and a handgranade

Threw us in the county high power block No freaks to see no beats to rock Didn’t want trouble but the shit must fly Squabbled this sucker shanked’ em in the eye

But just livin’ in the county is a serious task Niga didn’t know we got’em Didn’t have time to ask

Back on the streets after five and a deuce Seven years later but still had the juice My homeboy hen Gee put me up the track Told me E’s rollin’ Villain - BJ’s got the sack

Unknown is a giant - Nat C’s clockin’ Dough Be bop’s a pimp. My old freaks a hoe PG 42 The batter rams rollin’ rocks are the thing Life has no meaning and money is king

Then he looked at me slowly and Hen had to grin He said Man you out early we thought you got ten Opened his safe kicked me down with cold cash Knew I would get busy- He didn’t waste time to ask

Word

I bought a Benz with the money the rest went to clothes Went to the strip strted pimpin’ the hoes My hair had grew long on my seven year stay And when I got it done on my shoulders it lay

Hard from the joint but fly to my heart I didn’t want trouble but the shit had to start Out with my crew some punks got loud Shot gun blasts echoed throug the crowd

Six punks hit two punks died All casualities appiled to their side Human lives has to pass just for talking much trash We didn’t know who they were - No one had the time to ask

Word

In “Colors” we are given what D.W. Griffith, director of Birth of a Nation(credited for ad-

vancing the ranks of the Ku Klux Klan for its symbol of the “Black Savage/Brute” as a threat to White feminity and White power), might deem as the best footnote for his works.

A point of reflection about how symbols are imprinted on the psyche and can be rewired with various degrees of meaning: I was introduced to the film Birth of Nation via Black scholars. This meant that I was given a clear understanding of the racial implications of the film from a perspective of those the film was used as propaganda to vilify. Fast forward a few years to my undergraduate media communications class. Mind you I attended a pre- dominately white university where I was often the only Black male in a classroom. In these discussions, the film was depicted as a Hollywood classic and a production of immense proportions. What does that mean? Beyond the words, it means that the film has an excuse to PG 43 be watched ninety years later, and trust me, in thirty years it will probably still be shown to “up-and-coming” media production and communication students. That means that for the last almost century this film has been the standard by which students of film have been using as a great work. That means while a student that is being forced to analyze the film as a production piece, the underlying message of the piece is given a free audience. White privilege must be a beautiful thing in a psychological war. It is also beneficial to remember that one of the contributing factors to the nationwide urban spread of the street organizations, the Blood and Crips, is the movie “Colors.” I can guarantee the same “objective” desire to just make a high quality impactful production with no concern for the effects of such a piece socially justified Dennis Hopper’s actions.

The introduction of the song presents us with the phrase used to describe Larenz Tate’s character “O-dawg” from Menace II Society, that we will visit in the next chapter: “I am a nightmare walking, psychopath talking.” To compliment the description, Ice-T incites the visual of the animal:”King of my jungle just a gangster stalking.” The urban Black male, via usage of the same technological vehicle and symbols created by the urban Black male, is infusing the symbol of the urban Black male with the same media energy and spirit that earlier White Supremacist used to justify slavery. The Black male as an animal, one that stalks the land, so muses Mr. Ice-T. This conjures up the elements of thought surrounding the stoic nature of the Black male. Not a stoic nature developed through discipline, yet one that is devoid of thought. A beast-like stoic nature like that of the stalking animal that we witness on some National Geographic or Discovery Channel documentary, killing without emotion, and one must assert - through implication -a beast-like stoic nature that doesn’t feel pain. When one watches the lion in hunt, a zebra or gazelle being struck down by the creature lion often does not recieve the charge of our empathy or sympathy. In other words, it is not common for people to feel saddened by the zebra or gazelle being eaten by the lion. Also, one often does not feel any sympathy for the lion in pain, and such ideas, that is a “lion in pain” - are not a part of the set of our symbols attached to such a sentient being. It is in this vein that the murders of Black men and Black women were so often able to be celebrated throughout the history of the United States. This celebration reaching the despi- cable degree of White terrorists mailing postcards with the symbols, the images of scorched Blacks lynched surrounded by smiling white children, white women, and white men. It is this imagery that is being rekindled by Ice-T, channeled through the technology of the bud- ding Hip Hop.

The reach of Hip Hop has always astonished me. From the days in my childhood being sought for by friends that shared the same apartment building as I to come out into the hallway to listen to various Hip Hop artist from New York, as no artist from St. Louis had emerged. Walking from home to school and seeing brothers and sisters breakin’ on the con- crete of the lots around my apartment building, breakin’ as a form of battle on the bus, and breakin’ in the bathroom of the school was a sheer indicator of the power of the movement, the technology of Hip Hop to travel. It is with this understanding that when we discuss the subtle references of street organizations in the movie, Menace II Society, the need for overt communication beyond purple shirts and a B-roll of a street sign reading “Grape St” is un- necessary. In the same way that the fluid movements choreographed in the urban enviro- ment of the Bronx were able to be transmitted to the urban environments of the Midwest to a group of youth, many of which lacked cable television in the home, or VCRs in that day; the movements of twisted fingers used to communicate one’s affiliation with a street organization where transmitted. No need to spell out the reason why the Hughes’ Brothers dressed extras in purple shirts, the national urban community already understood the significance of the territorial and tactile communications within the culture of the Grape Street Cripz. And many had already died for a street, that they had never heard of.

According to Nelson George in his classic analysis of Hip Hop history, “Hip Hop America,” Ice-T would move 300,000 units of “Rhyme Pays.”(pg. 132). The movie “Colors” would PG 44 open to 422 screens, and gross $4,747,118 in its opening weekend(IMDB). Without a pause, the influence of the Los Angelos urban natives, the bastards of the West Coast Branch of the Black Panther Party for Defense, would reach not only the midwestern social ports, but it would extend into even the sophisticated and urbane boroughs of New York City. It is interesting to note that the five percenters - the young, brave proponents of the culture of Islam taught by Clarence 13x, whose teachings still caress the lyrics of notable Hip Hop artists - weren’t able to maintain a greater grasp on the technology once it was in their domain. Even L.L. Cool J utilized the scientific imagery found in the 120(a catechism of 120 questions plus 20 solar facts taught and memorized by the organization, affectionately known as “The Lessons”).

In L.L.’s first single,Rock The Bells, he verbalizes:

Rumor has it that you’re tired of my scratchin’ and drums And of course I wanna expand to the maximum So I inject in one more element to that of L.L. Came up with something’ funky called Rock the Bells During this episode vocally I explode My title is the king of the FM mode See, my volume expands to consume And my structures emote a lyrical heirloom Vocally pulsating, I initiate gyrating Ya must respond to my bells, there’s no waiting For the duration, there’s no articulation Receiving ovation for the bell association The vocalization techniques I employ The voice of my shadow could take a toy boy The injection of bells into this beat The result-enough energy to amputate your feet Greater insulator microphone dominator My name is Cool J, manipulator innovator Connoisseur, I’m sure my percussion will excite These bells are gonna rock all night Rock the bells

The bells make your energy escalate A sort of musical fury L.L. might detonate Subject matter entitled “The Bells” The lyrical appraisement is by L.L. My program strains the tympanic membrane I’ve been ordained the BLZ I’ll flame Paragraphs I concoct, Cut Creator’s like an organist Cool J exists as a journalist I illuminate over any number on the Richter My throat contracts like a boa constrictor You’re totally engulfed by the structured and the format It’s not dormant, it goes to the core, man As you repent, you’ll say I went To torture individuals for exitement Ambassador, the fiend of Cordor Dialect so def, it’ll rip up the floor Ignite and excite with verbal extensions What I’ll mention will put you on pension Makin’ you tremble, nothin’ resemble The bells and if it don’tÂ I disassemble PG 45 hit if you bit I go have a fit The master impresario of lyrical wit A hip-hop creature, concert feature Amateur teacher, my rhymes reach ya When I commence with excellence It eradicates levels of pestilence Upon a plateau No mortal can go Mythological characters stand below Rock the bells

A B-boy symphony complete with bells No classical fanatic is parallel From the design of my lyrics many people call me An immortalized B-boy prodigy Eeee a misdemeanor, cleaner women I subpoena No conjecture in my lecture, name and adversary Gina Promoter, my tune revolves like rotor Whilst I decode-a the cranium of Yoda Rehearsing steadily, growing I sing tweeter, mid-range And woofers need guarding The bells rip your auditory canal Plagiarism is suicide for then I shall Be forced to assault Our position will halt Upset you with words Drink your blood like it’s a malt Opposite of illusions Evidently it’s true The beat metabolism supposed to accelerate you Hallucinating severe convulsion Your equilibrium is took from my propolsion I came here tonight to rock These bells will never stop Rock the Bells

Ya livin’ on my lines side Autographs I sign Inferior fan-recorder of my rhyme Perfect spectator, well I’m the dominator You reline and refine, it and you save it for later Swipe it as you type it You recite it as you bite it Then you claim it as your own to get them excited About it as you shout it You don’t tell them how go it And you repeat it and rock it Multiply it, divide it, ya even sit inside it It’s L.L.’s rhyme, I know ya wanna bite You announce, I pounce, destroy, annihilate If you break, you’ll be straight when I eliminate You sonny lke scholars and you write ‘em on your collars You’ll bomb and you’ll try before a million dollars I get like a leopard, attack, ransack, disturb, cold crush Use a line, I make ‘em hush PG 46 The lovers in the taker, faker, lovers of the Lakers, simulator Rap traitor,l perfect perpetrator To see ya as you bit the words You’d think you never heard The mike sings like a hummin’ bird Rock the Bells

Jack the Ripper King Hercules Professor of Death in the Seven Seas Grim reaper of rhyme Holder of the rock Eradicating suckers all around the clock The supreme machine A microphone dream My revenge isbrutal when you start to scheme I mean, you’re my adversary, I enjoy the few The Peruvian rock, cocaine or quaalude The story, the beginning of your death is heard But your cries are ignored by the kind of word I’m the super insane murderer in the rain Like a vampire goin’ for your jugular vein Exterminating crews with my manuscript And the best thing you wrote was a bunch of bullshit The night of the nights You’re my victim tonight You ain’t nothin’ nobody so get outta any sight Bein’ crushed by the source It’s reinforced (thoughts) Now ya feel remorse ‘cause ya know who’s boss L.L. Cool J is your undertaker Def hit-maker plus a bone-breaker Treble terminator, bass mutilator You can drop your drawers, I’m a rapper castrator On the microphone you will never recoup When I’m finished with you, boy, you’ll be suckin’ on soup Music virtuoso, melodical employer I knew you was a sucker, first time I saw ya Roll the red carpet, royalty’s arrived Don’t try to fight back ‘cause you won’t survive So don’t never ever in any kind of weather Try to mess with the tall young legend in leather L.L. servin’ ‘em well The beat elevates and the scratch excels Rock the Bells

As McLuhan suggests, the more involved the lyricism, the more thought involved in its interpretation, and thus involvement with the listener. Content rich writing such as LL’s “Rock The Bells” is a cool media. The boom boom bap and use of bells allows for movement of the body, and yet it remains clear enough not impose on the listener an eclipsing of thought. And although this is LL in battle rhyme writing, his formula doesn’t stray far from that of those utilizing the technology of Hip Hop as a medium of social change.

“The Father used to say,’wherever you go, if you want to know the mindstate of the people, listen to their music.” - Azreal PG 47 “In a lot of ways, hip-hop is the Five Percent.” - The RZA

Even more interesting is understanding that rap music that we now associate with Lil’ Wayne and Drake actually derived in some makeshift cauldron from the rhymes and rhythms of Rakim announcing his nomination of “Eric B. For President”:

I came in the door, i said it before I never let the mic magnatize me no more But it’s biting me, fighting me, inviting me to rhyme I can’t hold it back, I’m looking for the line, Taking off my coat, clearing my throat My rhyme will be kicking it until I hit my last note My mind’ll range to find all kinds of ideas Self-esteem makes it seem like a thought took years to build But still say a rhyme after the next one Prepared, never scared, I’ll just bless one And you know that I’m the soloist So Eric B, make ‘em clap to this

I don’t bug out or chill or be acting ill No tricks in ‘86, it’s time to build Eric B easy on the cut, no mistakes allowed Cuz to me, MC means move the crowd I made it easy to dance to this But can you detect what’s coming next from the flex of the wrist Saying indeed that I precede cuz my man made a mix If he bleed he won’t need no band-aid to fix If they can get some around until there’s no rhymes left

I hurry up because the cut will make ‘em bleed to death But he’s kicking it because it ain’t no half stepping The party is live, the rhyme can’t be kept in- Side, it needs erupting just like a volcano It ain’t the everyday style of the same old rhyme Because I’m better then the rest of them Eric B is on the cut and my name is Rakim

Go get a girl and get soft and warm, Don’t get excited, you’ve been invited to a quiet storm But now it’s out of hand cuz you told me you hate me And then you ask what have I done lately First you said all you want is love and affection Let me be your angel and I’ll be your protection Take you out, buy you all kinds of things I must of got you too hot and burned off your wings You caught an attitude, you need food to eat up I’m scheming like I’m dreaming on a couch wit my feet up You scream I’m lazy, you must be crazy Thought I was a donut, you tried to glaze me PG 48 Funky...

We don’t want to bury our selves in moralizations, subtle class warfare, or the like. What I do want to present you with is an understanding that everything you do in this society is not only a form of communication, but also that every form of communication is a media, and as a media, a tool. The question is also whether we want to play the game as the white collective has played us. For every song that conjures up the idea of dealing crack in the black community, there should be boycott. Doesn’t have to be loud. Regardless of the old adage of silence in a democracy, if you stop talking to a fool, they’ll listen. You just don’t spend money with the artist, you don’t sell the bootleg, and inform your children in a manner that is pallatable and just as street savvy as the rapper why they shouldn’t listen to it. Care and concern is a learned behavior at the level of collectivity. I actually had to re- learn care and concern. And even in learning how to care and to have concerns about the welfare of others, I don’t always demonstrate that in a manner that the person I am caring and being concerned about feels is sufficient. What does that mean in regard to hip hop? It means that we need to realize that no one is going to care and give us the type of concerned and dilligently active nurturance that we need. We are an organic people. Our technologies don’t stem from the same source as our counterparts in other racial categories.

The use of the technology as a means to codify the hypermasculine super animal is not limited to west coast expressions. In Kool G Rap and Polo’s 1989 release,”Road To The Riches,” he asserts:

“Road To The Riches” (1989)

Verse one:

When I was five years old I realized there was a road At the end I will win lots of pots of gold Never took a break, never made a mistake Took time to create cos there’s money to make To be a billionaire takes hard work for years Some nights I shedded tears while I sent up prayers Been through hard times, even worked part time In a seafood store sweepin floors for dimes I was sort of a porter takin the next man’s order Breakin my back for a shack for headquarters All my manpower for four bucks an hour Took the time, I wrote rhymes in the shower Shoes are scoffed cos the road gets rough But i’ma rock it til my pockets ain’t stuffed enough All the freaks wouldn’t speak cos my checks was weak They would turn the other cheek so I started to seek A way to get a play, and maybe one day I’ll be performin up a storm for a decent pay No matter how it seems I always kept the dream All the girlies scream and suckas get creamed Dreamed about it for five years straight Finally I got a break and cut my first plate The road ain’t yellow and there ain’t no witches My name is kool g rap, I’m on the road to the riches

Verse two: PG 49

I used to stand on the block sellin cooked up rock Money bustin out my sock cos I really would clock They were for kind of fiends bringin jackets and jeans Magazines, anything, just to hustle for beans The cash was comin fast, money grew like grass People hungry for the blast that don’t even last Didn’t want to be involved but the money will getcha Gettin richer and richer, the police took my picture But I still supplied, some people I knew died Murders and homicides for bottles of suicide Money, jewelry, livin like a star And I wasn’t too far from a jaguar car In a small-time casino, the town’s al pacino For all of the girls, the pretty boy valentino I shot up stores and I kicked down doors Collecting scars from little neighborhood wars Many legs I broke, many necks I choked And if provoked I let the pistol smoke Loyal members in a crew now down with the game Sellin nickels and dimes, sunshine or rain What I had was bad from my shoes to my pad In the first time in my life loanin money to dad Now the table’s turned and my lifestyle switches My name is kool g rap, I’m on the road to the riches

Verse three:

a thug a-mugs for drugs, he eventually bugs Lookin for crack on carpets and rugs the squealers tells, but the dealer still sells Little spoiled kids inheritin oil wells I was the type on the opposite side Of smokin the pipe, in a beef I got hype Cos rags to riches switches men to witches Become stitches, body bags in ditches Bloodshed, I painted the town red People fled as I put a dread’s head to bed That mean’s dead, in other words deceased Face got erased, bullets got released Bombs were planted, the kids were kidnapped In fact that was a way to get back At enemies who tried to clock g’s On my block, now they forever knock z’s Plans of rampages went for ages Some got knocked and locked inside cages Some bit the dust for crumbs and crusts In God we trust, now rots to rust Plus caps to cops, policeman drops You blew off his top when the pistol went pop Troopers, soldiers, rollin like boulders Eyes of hate and their hearts get colder Some young male put in jail His lawyer so good his bail is on sale Lookin at the hourglass, how long can this power last? Longer than my song but he already fell PG 50 He likes to eat hardy, party Be like john gotti, and drive a maserati Rough in the ghetto, but in jail he’s jello Mellow, yellow fellow, tell or hell, hello One court date can turn an outlaw to an inmate But just stay, ship him upstate by the great lakes And than a-wait and wait and wait Til he breaks, that’s all it takes So he fakes to be a man, but he can’t stand On his own two feet because now he’s in a new land Rules are different and so is life When you think with a shank, talk with a knife Not my lifestyle so I made a u-turn More money I earn, more money to burn Pushin all buttons, pullin all switches My name is g. rap, I’m on the road to the riches

The commodification of this particular style of black male criminal personification would reach its benchmark in the West, however. As with most United States markets, by the late 80s, Hip Hop had become sucked through a pipeline of dirty corporate handshakes and what was siphoned out was just “rap.” Dance beats, neat hooks, and videos that one might have thought a cursor had run over, right clicked, copied, and pasted all through BET’s new shows dedicated for the display of these less than original montages of mean mugs and folded arms. NWA’s Straight Out Of Compton would launch the careers of superstar producer, Dr. Dre, and lyricist, Ice Cube into the astronomy of history. ”Gangsta Gangsta,” their classic statement of urban male malevolent merriment, would become a mainstay in West Coast lowriders and even get national radio airplay. In a comical display of imagery not unlike Amos N Andy meets Scarface, the super group recites:

[Verse 1: Ice Cube] Here’s a little somethin’ bout a nigga like me never shoulda been let out the penititary Ice Cube would like ta say That I’m a crazy mutha fucka from around the way Since I was a youth, I smoked weed out Now I’m the mutha fucka that ya read about Takin’ a life or two that’s what the hell I do, you don’t like how I’m livin well fuck you! This is a gang, and I’m in it My man Dre’ll fuck you up in a minute With a right left, right left you’re toothless And then you say goddamn they ruthless! Everwhere we go they say [damn!] N W A’s fuckin’ up tha program And then you realize we don’t care We don’t just say no, we to busy sayin’ yeah! To drinkin’ straight out the eight bottle Do I look like a mutha fuckin role model? To a kid lookin’ up ta me Life ain’t nothin but bitches and money. Cause I’m tha type o’ nigga that’s built ta last If ya fuck wit me I’ll put a foot in ya ass See I don’t give a fuck ‘cause I keep bailin Yo, what the fuck are they yellin

[Chorus:]

Gangsta, Gangsta! That’s what they’re yellin [KRS One] “It’s not about a salary, it’s all about reality” Gangsta, Gangsta! That’s what they’re yellin “Hopin you sophisticated motherfuckers hear what I have to say”

[Verse 2: Ice Cube] When me and my posse stepped in the house All the punk-ass niggaz start breakin out Cause you know, they know whassup So we started lookin for the bitches with the big butts Like her, but she keep cryin “I got a boyfriend” Bitch stop lyin Dumb-ass hooker ain’t nuttin but a dyke Suddenly I see, some niggaz that I don’t like Walked over to em, and said, “Whassup?” The first nigga that I saw, hit em in the jaw Ren started stompin em, and so did E By that time got rushed by security Out the door, but we don’t quit Ren said, “Let’s start some shit!” I got a shotgun, and here’s the plot Takin niggaz out with a flurry of buckshots Boom boom boom, yeah I was gunnin And then you look, all you see is niggaz runnin and fallin and yellin and pushin and screamin and cussin, I stepped back, and I kept bustin And then I realized it’s time for me to go So I stopped, jumped in the vehicle It’s like this, because of that who-ride N.W.A. is wanted for a homicide Cause I’m the type of nigga that’s built to last Fuck wit me, I’ll put my foot in your ass See I don’t give a fuck, cause I keep bailin Yo, what the fuck are they yellin?

[Chorus:]

Gangsta, Gangsta! That’s what they’re yellin [KRS One] “It’s not about a salary, it’s all about reality” Gangsta, Gangsta! That’s what they’re yellin “He’ll tell you exactly how he feel, and don’t want a fuckin thing back”

[Verse 3: Ice Cube] Homies all standin around, just hangin Some dope-dealin, some gang-bangin We decide to roll and we deep See a nigga on Dayton’s and we creep Real slow, and before you know I had my shotgun pointed in the window He got scared, and hit the gas Right then, I knew I has to smoke his ass He kept rollin, I jumped in the bucket We couldn’t catch him, so I said fuck it Then we headed right back to the fort Sweatin all the bitches in the biker shorts We didn’t get no play, from the ladies With six niggaz in a car are you crazy? She was scared, and it was showin We all said “Fuck you bitch!” and kept goin To the hood, and we was fin to Find somethin else to get into Like some pussy, or in fact A bum rush, but we call it rat pack On a nigga for nuttin at all Ice Cube’ll go stupid when I’m full of eight ball I might stumble, but I won’t lose Now I’m dressed in the county blues Cause I’m the type of nigga that’s built to last If you Fuck wit me, I’ll put my foot in your ass I don’t give a fuck, cause I keep bailin Yo, what the fuck are they yellin?

[Interlude: Ice Cube, Dr. Dre]

(Wait a minute, wait a minute, cut this shit) {Man whatcha gonna do now?} “What we’re gonna do right here is go way back” (How far you goin back?) “Way back” [Slick Rick] “As we go a lil somethin like this”

Here’s a lil gangsta, short in size A t-shirt and Levi’s is his only disguise Built like a tank yet hard to hit Ice Cube and Eazy E cold runnin shit

[Verse 4: Eazy E, MC Ren] Well I’m Eazy E the one they’re talkin about Nigga tried to roll the dice and just crapped out Police tried to roll, so it’s time to go I creeped away real slow and jumped in the six-fo’ Wit the “Diamond in the back, sun-roof top” Diggin the scene with the gangsta lean Cause I’m the E, I don’t slang or bang I just smoke motherfuckers like it ain’t no thang And all you bitches, you know I’m talkin to you “We want to fuck you Eazy!” I want to fuck you too Cause you see, I don’t really take no shit [So let me tell you motherfuckers who you’re fuckin with] Cause I’m the type of nigga that’s built to last If you Fuck wit me, I’ll put my foot in your ass I don’t give a fuck, cause I keep bailin Yo, what the fuck are they yellin?

[Chorus:]

Gangsta, Gangsta! That’s what they’re yellin [KRS One] “It’s not about a salary, it’s all about reality” Gangsta, Gangsta! That’s what they’re yellin “He’ll fuck up you and yours, and anything that gets in his way”

Gangsta, Gangsta! That’s what they’re yellin [KRS One] “It’s not about a salary, it’s all about reality” Gangsta, Gangsta! That’s what they’re yellin “He’ll just call you a low-life motherfucker, and talk about your funky ways”

The illusion of the tough, street wise, cool and capable rapper doesn’t have an off switch like most performers. Where Woody Allen can be the shy director, writer, and actor that doesn’t even come out to accept awards, the rapper cannot be shy. The soul of Hip Hop is in genu- ineness. The whip of mass production is in imitation. The two tend to make strange bed couples. Like Oprah Winfrey between the legs of Hilary Clinton strange. Much of what we see in rap, a stale mass production extracted from hip-hop, is the conservative culture that was fashioned during slavery, thus we are holding on to patterns of behavior honed during the slave trade and on slave plantations. Conservative is not always the opposite of liberal. Conservative can also imply a style of acting that is disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change. The idea of limiting change comes to mind whenever I visit loved ones, or most Black families around Gangstasgiving, typically the last Thursday of November. “Soul food” as it is called is a holding onto of a tradition that stems from slavery. If patterns of behavior such as the eating of well seasoned weeds, potatoes, and the lower portion of a pig, from the balls to the anal tract, have been carried generation through generation, what other forms of behavior from slavery have also come down to us? CHPTR 4 MEDIOCRE DELUSIONS

“Symbolic convergence theory(SCT), a general communication theory, explains the emergence of a common symbolic consciousness- one that contains shared meanings, -> emotions, values, and motives for human action - among participants in a small group, organization, or other rhetorical community. SCT, as developed by Ernest Bormann, John Cragan, and Donald Shields, among others, is a message-centered theory grounded through the observation of symbolic facts in communication. Observers noted the sharing of dramatized messages, called fantasy themes, within small-group communication, in mediated communication, and among the communicating memberships of organizations and other large publics. Within each context, researchers found that people shared, reiterated, and wove fantasy themes to form a larger, more complex view of reality called a a rhetorical vision. A rhetorical vision contains many fantasy themes that depict heroes and villains in dramatic action within a scene. Within a group such a vision establishes identity, cohesion, and culture.” Donald C. Shields, University of Missouri-St. Louis, cf. “The International Encyclope- dia of Communication,” Vol, XI,pg. 4924)

“Even some Black producers fall into the trap of promoting these negative styles: the system rewards those who play the game the way it has always been played.” - Alvin F. Pous- saint, M.D., African American viewers and the Black situation comedy: situating racial humor, Forward

“There is also a failure of black political imagination among black elites and other activists who might spark social movement.” - Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean?, pg. 63

“I envy the Jack and Jill kids of the 1980s and 1990s because they are more readily accepted as valid representatives of black America by whites and other blacks, thanks to The Cos- by show, Oprah, Bryant Gumbel, and Colin Powell. Because of these TV images, it is now at least believable that black families can be well-educated, intact, and articulate. My Jack and Jill existence took place during a transition period that left me feeling somehow betrayed by a world that saied we couldn’t possibly be real. We were fifteen years ahead of our time: living like the Cosby kids before mainstream America had been formally introduced to the notion.” - Lawrence Otis Graham, Our Kind of People, pg. 40

“Lingua franca in the regious of the motion picture industry and academic film studies alike, ‘exploitation’ has three distince and sometimes overlapping meanings. In its two broadest senses,’exploitation’ refers both to the advertising and promotion that entice an audience into theater and to the way the movie then endears itself to that audience. As the object of the exploitation, the movei is passive, a product to be advertised and marketed; as the subject doing the exploitation, the movie is active, an agent that caters to its target audience by serving up appetizing or exotic subject matter. In its third, categorical sense, ‘exploitation’ signifies a particular kind of movie.” - Thomas Doherty, Teenagers and Teen- pics, p. 35

The success of Melvin’s Sweet Sweetback would spawn a genre of movies now known to us as the blaxploitation film(“blaxploitation” is a portmanteau of the words “black” and “exploitation” - duh, right?). Films produced to exploit, target, black audiences typically urban). Using the jarring imagery, the so-called black anti-hero(why is the Black protagonist fighting an oppressive system known as the antihero?), and the use of urban backdrops, scantily clad women, and often drug usage. Some of the movies that would rank high in viewership during this period not only following the prominence of Sweetback but also at PG 55 a time when the Black Panther’s had taken their most ardent and violent losses include: Shaft, Foxy Brown, Three The Hard Way, Superfly, and The Mack. The symbols of Black male hypermasculinity siphoned from the Black Power movement would be injected into

the psyche of the Black population. The subtle nods towards unity, and the artistic use of Black symbols such as gospel spirituals would be lacking in these movies. Soon, the idea of Black nationalism would be reduced to one liners of “honky this” and “muthafucka” followed by a weakly choreographed fighting scene. Spoofs of these movies also helped to re- duce the credibility found in the Black Power jargon. One of the most interesting studies in black media for me has been the use of humor to trivialize the black nationalist movement and historical elements of the black power movement.

In the movie, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, written and directed by comedian Keenen Ivory Wayans, a brother portrayed as a Black Nationalist is seen married to a white woman. This is reflective of one of the many critiques of the Black Power movement proffered by Mi- chelle Wallace in her highly acclaimed analysis of the movement and her experiences within the movement: Black Macho and The Myth of the Superwoman. It is also noteworthy to mention that Wayans is the executive producer of In Living Color, a variety sketch comedy show in which one of his most popular characters is Oswald Bates. Oswald Bates, played by Keenen’s younger brother, Da- mon, is a convict/inmate that uses sesqui- pedalian terms out of context and with no consideration for syntax. This is an indirect attack on the archetype of the autodidact emerging from the confines of the US con- centration camps. Malcolm X would be the prototype of this character set. The symbol of “Oswald Bates” works to discredit the emergence of the lumpen intellectual class, serving as a contradictory emblem for the Black bourgeoisie who reinforce their neocolonial drives to adhere to the training they’ve recieved from white professionals and white academics. In an environment where only the most subservient Blacks, especially Black males can be allowed to excel, this ridiculing of what would be a demonstration of intelligent aggressive expression in a “real” world context, allows the subservient Black to feel protected and superior to another group of Blacks that might pose to be threatening. While with I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, The Black Power movement is now attacked for its lack of consideration of the Black woman, and now has a cultural device via the medium of film discrediting it. PG 56 So, we see historically the changing of the meaning of the symbols of Black Power, and with that, the changing of what it means to be a Black man. The symbol loses its political expression, and becomes an empty symbol of hypermasculinity for the urban Black. The shallow expressions of Black womanhood expressed through the symbols of Blaxploitation leave the Black woman to no other direction beyond an object of sexual prow- ess. Her philosophical and analytical leadership has been removed. Her metaphysical understandings have been made into laughable queries limited to men asking women what their zodiac sign is. We enter into the 80s with a demeaned, ridiculed, imprisoned, doped out, and confined Black Power symbol. Sadly, the Blacks on the other side of the fence will not fair well in their attempt to bring attention to the up and coming assimilist Blacks benefitted by academy and peaceful demonstra- tions.

During the decline of the Blaxploitation film emerged the Black comic. With Eddie Murphy’s performance in 48 hrs, Trading Places, and his own staple,Beverly Hills Cop as the backdrop, the comic, actor, writer, and financial supporter of Melvin Van Peebles, Bill Cosby, decided to try his hand at his own situation comedy for the fourth time. Bill Cosby had failed to win over audiences with his variety series The Bill Cosby Show, his second attempt after his earning an MA from the University of Massachusetts, the previous attempts including The New Bill Cosby Show, and Cos. His new new new Cosby Show would be a genius exemplification of image redirection and white guilt appeasement. If one show could demonstrate the exact nature of the problem facing the advancement of the Black in the United States, Bill Cosby had created it.

The reaction of some Black people to the Cosby Show is slightly revealing of the power of image in an oppressive condition. The Cosby Show depicted the family life of a Black doctor, Cliff Huxtable(Bill Cosby) and his wife, a black attorney,Claire Huxtable (Phylicia Ra- shad). The interplay between them and their four children raised questions regarding the ability of most Black viewers to relate to that sort of status. Instead of Blacks suffering from a case of delusions of grandier, it would seem that we suffer from delusions of mediocrity. The symbol of a Black man being a doctor, in the land where Dr. Charles Drew invented the system for preserving plasma for blood transfusions, being married to a Black Lawyer, in the land where Charlotte Ray passed the bar in the 1800s(Charlotte E. Ray: A Black Woman Lawyer,Tonya Michelle Osborne, 2001, http://www.law.stanford.edu/library/womensleg- alhistory/papers/RayC-Osborne01.pdf) , was deemed “unrealistic” at worst, “assimilation- ist” at best: “...the most popular US TV show, among black and white people alike, is not only about a Black family but a family portrayed without any of the demeaning stereotypical images of black people common in mainstream popular culture.”

“Critics have begun to accuse the show of presenting a misleadingly cozy picture, a sugar candy world unfettered by racism, crime, and economic deprivation.”

“The naming of the Huxtables’ first grandchildren is a typical example of The Cosby Show’s quiet style. Their eldest daughter, Sondra, decides to call her twins Nelson and Winnie. The PG 57 episode that deals with this decision highlights the issue of naming but makes no comment on the chosen names’ overt political connotations. The reference to the Mandelas is made quietly and unobtrusively, relying upon the audience’s ability to catch the political ramifications of the statement. If such subtlety is a virtue, it was one born of necessity. During the show’s second sea- son, NBC tried to have the anti-apartheid sign on Theo’s bedroom door removed. Bill Cos- by, empowered by the newly achieved high ratings, successfully stood his ground to keep the sign.”

“The Huxtables’ achievements ultimately lend credibility to the idea that “anyone can make it,” the comforting assumption of the American dream, which is a myth that sustains a conservative political ideology blind to the inequalities hindering persons born on mean streets and privileging persons born on easy street. As Miller(1986: 210) puts it, ‘Cliff’s blackness serves an affirmative purpose within the ad that is The Cosby Show. At the center of this ample tableau, Cliff is himself an ad, implicity proclaiming the fairness of the American system:’Look!’ he shows us,’Even I can have all this!” This mythology is made all the more powerful, Miller argues, by the close identification between Cliff Huxtable and Bill Cosby. behind the fictional doctor lies a man whose real life is also a success story: fact and fiction here coalesce to confirm the “truth” they represent.”

(Enlightened racism: the Cosby show, audiences, and the myth of the American, By Sut Jhally, Justin Lewis pg. 3,4)

“This characteristic is also at the root of enlightened racism(Jhally & Lewis, 1992), a contemporary form of racism that allows Whites to simultaneously hold the view that they are liberal-minded adn pro-equal rights yet still hold the belief that underclass minorities are themselves solely responsible for not seizing American equal opportunity.”(Cultural diver- sity and the U.S. media edited by Yahya R. Kamalipour, Theresa Carilli, pg. 54)

“Journalists of color covering news about non-White Americans similar to White Ameri- cans indicates the powerful, implicit common sense that dictates the routines and conven- tions of the newsroom. News organizations(especially local television news organizations) are obsessed with the instantaneos coverage of violent crime--crime that happens to be more common in the Afri- can American community. The coverage rarely considers the political, social, historical, educational, or economic roots of such crime, and therefore constructs individual episodes of violence as stories with no history, entirely void of perspective.”

It is an interesting turn of events that the Cosby show is rel- egated to the file of the impossible and not black enough, and yet Ice-T, NWA, Spice-1, and a host of other artist are able to sell the world,(Yes, the world, Craig) an image of the Black urban community and them Selves as super thugs... and this is acceptable. As I have stated earlier, it is my belief that Black people suffer not from delusions of grandeur, but from delusions of mediocrity. Another interesting point of notice is the vacuity filler used for the Cosby Show: Family Matters. Ultimately, the “realism” of the show culminates in the shows last two seasons when Urkel builds a machine that allows him to transform him Self into a less “nerdy”, more “smoother,” socially adroit “Ste- fan Urquelle”. How real is that? PG 58

As stated, what Bill Cosby actually did with the Cosby Show was to raise awareness to a little secret held in the hearts of most Blacks. The class issue. A reality that is centuries old with roots in the freedman(free Blacks during slavery) and the house slaves’ family annals. It is a reality that speaks from the black tops beyond pranced on by barefeet and flip flops heading toward the candy lady for hot pickles and freeze pops. Bill Cosby attempted to represent the Black community from the other spectrum of the Black coin. Of course, even in that attempt, he only represented the upper middle class as he saw it.

It would be quite dismissive of me if I simply ended this discussion like this. Understanding the historic implications of the elite Black classes, their support of the slave caste system, their congressional assistance to the White Southern slave owner. The legitimazation of the very system that crafted a need for it to be made legitimate among the Blacks. However, it is also very difficult to divorce my self from the very images that I realize Cosby was attempting to attack. If given a choice visual broadcast symbols to feed my child, one being the Cob- sy Show, the other being NWA’s Straight Out Of Compton, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose the former. I agree with the assessment that Bill Cosby presents a palatable Black male image to white audiences, no different than the image that Barack Obama presents to white voters, and yet I disagree with the assessment that the show hurts Black viewers. The equation that I have developed reads thusly: white audiences that wish not to deal with the reality of slavery and a cultural class caste system view The Cosby Show and Obama’s election as a testament to the American dream and the notion of equality. White audiences deem violent rap music as an entry point into the world of the Black ghetto and further enforce the empowerment of the symbol of the savage brutish Black that their forebears created. These two points don’t seem to have much to do with how Blacks take these symbols. The Cosby Show is a figment of Bill Cosby’s imagination with a note bearing the possibility of such occurence inasmuch as Ice Cube’s Gangsta Gangsta is a figment of his imagination with a note bearing the possibility of such occuring. Which one do I believe would help Blacks more if occurences met the material reality?

Unfortunately, that is a rhetorical question that I leave to those that have children to answer, and that I pray is deeply thought upon by those that seriously thought it needed a direct answer from said author. Of worth, is that reality that Blacks in the Urban community where much of the ado concerning “keeping it real” is resonating, is the same pattern of dis- paraging people due to socio-economic trinkets. In his book, Our Kind of People, Lawrence Otis Graham describes the sorts of ridicule a child could face if they didn’t have certain economic status symbols:

“The four-bedroom home I grew up in didn’t compare with the large Victorians or stately colonials of some of my fellow Jack and Jill friends. And I can still remember the hurtful remarks that some of them made to me when we were no more than eleven or twelve years old. Even though the rest of the world would have seen our house as roomy and comfortable, I suddenly saw it as embarrassingly small during these Jack and Jill get-togethers. Fortunately, the house sat inside a neighborhood that matched or surpassed most of my other Jack and Jillers’. But in our world, you were supposed to have the whole package in order: a good neighborhood or two fancy cars didn’t get you off the hook. As new kids were inducted into the organization, they too were subjected to house jokes(‘Your house is so small...’)or neighborhood jokes(‘Your street is so tacky...’) until another aspect of their lifestyles or families was found to put them to shame. Virtually everything was up for discussion and comparison: your allowance, your father’s job, your spring vacation, your stereo, your mother’s car, your housekeeper, your complexion, and even the size of your family’s summer home.”(pg. 38-39)

In the urban community many of the same taunts that Graham describes at the age of twelve, children endure at an earlier age. From the type of tennis shoes one wears to the sort of car one’s parents drive. This is reflected in the lyrics of songs that many are refer- PG 59 ring to as “real”. The capitalistic material evalution of people hasn’t been lost on the Black community in any class strata. The same accoutrements that a person might define as an elitist trapping are coveted by those in most sectors of Black society on some level. The style might be slightly different,a large Ralph Lauren logo versus a smaller one, or none at all but still wearing Ralph Lauren apparel. The Mercedes Benz may be customized and sitting in the outer region of a lower income housing development, but it is still a Mercedes Benz.

From this assessment of the contradictions within the argument against the Cosby Show, I’ve considered a couple of understandings. To Blacks who have not achieved the level of success that the fictional Huxtables have achieved, then does that make the show less “real”, or less beneficial? Does it prompt the same sorts of invidious comparisons that cause Black males to kill one another over basketball shoes? Is the demeanor of the fictional Huxtables not aggressive enough for those in the Black community that believe aggressiveness is a necessary characteristic of the Black person? Is it alright to showcase the acquisition of status symbols sold to use by White markets as long as our acquisition of them represents a predatory aggressiveness versus taking a professional avenue? Is it that the symbol of the Huxtables is not real, or is it that the symbol implies for many Blacks an avenue of achieve- ment that they deem inaccessible? It is understandable, and well within a cogent reasoning, to address the Cosby Show as an image and symbol that doesn’t reflect the methods that many Blacks would need to use in order to obtain such possessions. But to say that a fictional show is “unrealistic” and accept another fictional image, such as an Ice Cube gangsta story, is “realistic” is to avoid logic. What is being addressed is not plau- sibility, for both fictional tales are possible and in enough instances both describe the lifestyles of actual people, the actual discussion is class, and the methods that Black people from different classes use to achieve certain symbols of status. During the 60s, Julia replaced the image of the black woman as the domestic servant. The con- troversy that surrounded the image, the show Julia would be reflected in the 80s.

The polarization of images of the Black community help to forge the divide between the classes. Seeing InkWell and Menace II Society, both staring Larenz Tate,(how’s that for range in acting?), creates a sense of pride and disdain. Both of these movies sit inside the set of movies considered to be coming of age, that is movies that represent in some manner a growing from immaturity into maturity, or simply teenagers growing into adulthood via some experience of social im- port. Some other movies with predominantly Black casts that I would also include in this genre are: Brown Sugar, Baby Boy, Fresh, Get Rich or Die Trying, Love and Basketball, Jason’s Lyric,Juice, I’m Bout It, The Wood, and Slam.

Written and directed by Albert and Allen Hughes, and released to nationwide audiences on May 26, 1993, Menace II sociey enters into the Black “gangsta” film culture on the heels of John Singleton’s Boyz N Da Hood, and New Jack City.The movie Menace II Society in so many ways represents the Hughes Brothers’ answer to John Single- ton’s Boyz N The Hood. We are taken back to the urban environment of Los Angelos, this time the setting is the Watts housing projects, Jordan-Downs. The main character, Caine, is beset by the lifestyle of the drug dealer, and robber(“jacker”). Lorenz Tate plays O-Dawg, as described by the character Caine,”O-dawg was the craziest nigga alive, young, black and didn’t give a fuck.” The movie begins with the core drama, O-Dawg and Caine enter into a Korean owned corner store. While heading to the beer cooler, O-Dawg and Caine address the Korean woman following them. They find the beers, and immediately begin to consume the alcohol. They reply to the distraught owners by saying they are going to purchase the PG 60 liquor. Caine pays for the beverages, and O-Dawg notices that Caine didn’t get his change. O-Dawg asks for the change and makes a quip about the Korean. The Korean behind the counter replies that he feels sorry for O-Dawg’s mother. O-Dawg kills him, grabs the Korean woman and forces her into the back to obtain the videotape of the robbery. We hear him tell her to press eject and then more gun shots. Welcome to the world of the urban Black teen a la Hughes.

During the credits, the viewer is shown clips of footage from the 1960s watts riots. The narrative of Caine explains that after the Watts riots, the drugs came. We are introduce to Caine via his childhood as the son of a heroin abuser and dealer. The child Caine witnesses his father killing a man, and we are then brought to his present. I appreciate that we are allowed to see Caine graduating from high school, however, much of the glamor of the drug trade and robberies overshadows this small detail of the storyline. Sure, Caine graduated

from high school, he also is en route to a drug deal during his last class. During a gradua- tion party we are introduced to the young man, a juvenile, that initiates the armed robbery/ murder scene described in the last paragraph. O-dawg, from Caine’s words, is,”...the crazy nigga alive, America’s nightmare. Young, Black, and didn’t give a fuck.”

The party serves as an introduction to the main characters of the movie, including “Har- old”, Caine’s cousin. While driving to get a bite to eat, Harold is killed during a car robbery, and Caine is shot in the shoulder. While taking Caine to the hospital, Sharief, an interesting character and symbol that we will revisit later, stays with a dying Harold, while Caine is carried and driven to the emergency room. Later, O-dawg, will inform Caine that he knows who killed Harold, and in retribution for the murder, Caine, O-dawg, and another character played by MC Eigt,”A-wax,” do to the assailants what they did to “Harold”. This is reminiscent of the scene in John Singleton’s movie where “Doughboy”, played by Ice Cube, seeks vengeance for the murder of his brother. In fact, both scenes depict the assailants at a res- tuarant and then run towards the parking lot as they are being shot. As the symbols of the movie suggest, there is an unstated element in the film. You’ll see the brothers wearing the purple sweatshirts in the background of a few scenes, and the director b-rolls a shot of the street sign that reads, “Grape Street.” As with Singleton’s Boyz in the Hood, the gang references are subtle. As with Singleton’s film, we are taken through South Central LA’s Cren- shaw Blvd. It is also interesting that in both movies, the assailants that are murdered are wearing red. We are given a very tacit storyline regarding street organization, namely Crips and Bloods in both movies.

For a teenager in the United States growing up in most urban centers, the colors speak loudly. They represent an artifactual territorial communication, a hot medium that often registers no more than a query of where an individual resides, for verification purposes, possibly a symbolic gesture of aggression to quiz one’s courage quotient. In the same way PG 61 that the writers of the Cosby Show don’t mention race in any very direct tones, neither Singleton’s Boyz N The Hood or the Hughes’ Brothers’ Menace are written to directly communicate affiliation through verbal or even gestural methods. If one is unfamiliar with the organizations and certain terroritories, the messages may simply blur into the background. I would assume this is done in order to remove the spotlight from the organizations and allow the relationship between the characters be the central focus. The relationship between these young people is very strong, and in a film that is already saturated with glamorized violence, key messages are drowned out without the viewer also being lambasted by the idea that this could just be another “gang movie.”

The hypermasculine tone of the movie is eased through the trajectory of the storyline as we witness the bonding that occurs when Caine is shot, and of course the sacrificial act com- mited by Sherieff when he is left to watch over Harold dying in the middle of Crenshaw Blvd. The scene where we watch O-dawg and Caine express their differing stances regarding the retribution of blood for the Harold is also telling. Although many have made the interjection of A-wax’s “y’all both acting like some bitches,” a popular quotable from this depiction, I believe that the most important element of consideration is O-dawg’s expression of loyalty, and Caines’ expression of social responsibility. The use of hypermasculine aggressive inconsideration written to give O-dawg a more psychotic feel overshadows much of the significance of his speech. I am specifically referring to him being made to state that he doesn’t “give a fuck. I’ll smoke anybody.” Singleton’s Boyz N The Hood was slightly more convincing with the Quincy Jones score playing in the background during the dramatic scene signaling the ride towards blood retribution. The Hughes brothers fail to symbolize the pain and the anger necessary to make this scene more than what it has become in popular culture. What should be a much more thought provoking scene renders it Self as less of a discourse about justice, and more of a comical interplay of violent machismo. If the film were a war drama about a white US soldier seeking revenge from a Muslim that had just killed his cousin, we would be forced to endure a thoughtful climatic interplay of symbols. It’s moments like these in the movie that force you to wonder about the directors’ purpose for producing it. Is it a tale used to convey a message, or just another exploitative film taking advantage of the popularity of urban violence and symbols of the LA urban culture?

I was also left tilting my head in disbelief when O-dawg initially tells Caine about acquir- ing the intelligence regarding the identities of the assailants that had killed Harold. The gravity of this intelligence is mixed in with a hypermasculine justification for men showing emotion when being shot at close range, and showing concern for a comrade that has to be carried and rushed to a hospital emergency room. The symbols of this scene outside of Caine’s grandparents’ housing unit are indicative of the supercool, stoic male, especially Black male that shouldn’t show emotion or pain. O-dawg’s relaying of the intelligence is almost a secondary blurb in the dialogue, O-dawg could have told Caine he just found a really swank pizza parlor and the preceding dialogue wouldn’t have been out of context. The symbols used here don’t communicate the seeking of justice for a loved one murdered. They convey more of a sense of fun. Which is why it is difficult to take the movie seriously as a fictional journalistic type of piece. The “realness” is lost in the need to provide hypermasculine symbols within an urban setting.

The relationship between Caine, Ronnie, and her child showed another layer of the bond shared between the core characters of this film. Ronnie is the mother of Caine’s role model, Purnell, son. I felt that the script developed the romantic entanglement between the two with concision, however, I did feel as though the conflict of Caine being romantically involved with the significant other of the man he credits with raising and guiding him was handled superficially. The reason Caine gives for not “pushing up” on Ronnie is because Purnell would “kick my(Caine’s) ass.” As the movie progresses, we are subtly cued through PG 62 the usual symbols used to express affection in the culture of the United States that Ronnie is interested in pursuing more than the friendship bond that we initiallly witness in our introduction to their relationship. Pivotal to the development of this romance is Ronnie and Purnell’s son, Anthony. We are asked to compare the life of Caine with the life of Anthony in via a scene reminiscent of the scene from the begining of the movie. Caine is shown as around four years old, escaping his room during a party to socialize with those on the porch. In this scene we are introduced to Purnell who tells Caine to go into the house. Caine refuses to go in and Purnell gives Caine a swallow of liquor which causes the young Caine to spit and notice Purnell’s gun. Caine grabs the gun which is snatched out of his hand before Caine is dragged off the porch by his mother.

In the coinciding scenes with Anthony, we are delivered into his room where he and Caine are playing a boxing video game. Caine is unable to mobilize his body in a comfortable fashion, so he removes a gun from the side of his hip, placing it on a nearby bedstand. An- thony’s eyes perk up and he asks to see the gun. Caine obliges. In another scene, we are at a party(sound familar?) hosted by Ronnie and Anthony not only asks for a sip of beer from her, but he sneaks out his room and heads to...(wait for it)...the front porch. Anthony asks Caine can he have some beer, and Caine refuses him. O-dawg attempts to oblige Anthony but is rescinded by Sherieff. The comparison of the Ronnie’s lifestyle with that of the home with which Caine is brought up in works to analyze the growth, if we can call it that, a certain progression of the circumstances of the young black male in archetype. This is exempli- fied through a well produced montage of scenes where Caine is in the hospital thinking to him Self. In this scene, during the monologue, Caine states that Anthony reminds him of him Self. The spiral of the story has finally reached its higher tier. This is one of the redeeming aspects of the piece.

I stated that I would return to the character of Sherieff, and this is a perfect time for that.

Sherieff is the archetype that I was referring in my discussion earlier regarding humiliating the Black Power struggle. As Caine states in our introduction to the character,”Sherieff was an ex-knucklehead turned muslim, he was so happy to be learning something he liked, he kept coming at us with it. He thought Allah could save black people, yeah right.” This actually is going to work as a form of foreshadowing. Caine and Sherieff are the only two from the core set of characters that are killed in the climatic ending. Sherief is supposed to be on his way to Kansas City, and Caine is helping Ronnie pack her house as he, she, and Anthony depart for Atlanta. I’m bothered by the murdering of Sherief in this fictional work, as he is one of the most redeeming elements. It is Sherief’s father that talks to Caine and urges him to leave Los Angelos. Also disturbing is O-dawg’s invincibility throughout this movie. Not only has he killed and robbed without being ap- prehended by police, he has also been caught for stealing a car without police holding him. Further he avoids death by a lateral step while shooting at the passing car of three passengers all firing automatic weapons.

It could be due to this particular superhero quality that many Black women adore the O- dawg character. Which is very telling, because the storyline depicts O-dawg as either homo- PG 63 sexual or uninterested in women. Not once throughout the film do we see him with a woman, nor is he hinted as being involved with any. During the last party of the summer hosted by Ronnie, one of the female guests asks O-dawg,”Why don’t you talk to a woman?” I suppose I’d be incorrect for suggesting O-dawg being a homosexual due to him murdering a man asking to give him oral sex for crack. Of course, this could have simply been a response of repulsion. I’m not sure. What we do know is that one of the most popular Black male characters in urban Black culture doesn’t show any interest in women. Yet, this is what is being hailed as “realism” in Black media.

From the point of the storyline, we witness Caine and O-dawg kill four people, rob one a person for their rims and jewelry, steal a car, go to jail, voilently stomp a man unconscious, impregnate a woman, and violently pistol whip a whip a man unconscious within the fictional framework of a summer. How real is that?

How real was the White teen male targeted movies of the eighties and nineties such as War Games, Weird Science, Real Genius, Revenge of the Nerds, Hackers, Johnny Mnemon- ic?

“Today, America’s black elite is closely associated with three historic resort areas that became popular as a result of laws that had kept other vacation spots exclusively white. They are Sag Harbor, Long Island; Oak Bluffs, Mar- tha’s Vineyard; and Highland Beach, Maryland. In the past, and to some extent still today, blacks also choose Hillside Inn, a black-owned resort in Pennsylvania’s Po- cono Mountains; and Idlewild, Michigan, a small town two hundred miles north of Detroit that was a popular escape for the midwestern black elite. In recent years, the elite have built ancillary vacations around the annual Black Summit ski vacation event that brings hundreds of black skiers and their families to resorts in Aspen and Vail, Colo- rado. Although it’s the best-known resort among the black elite, the tiny, seven-square-mile village of Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyared, is actually a mostly white community with only a 5 percent black year-round population. Expanding each year as more black professionals from all over the country continue to buy or rent homes there, Oak Bluffs ahs been a popular area for elite black families since the 1930s and 1940s.” - Law- rence Otis Graham, Our Kind Of People(pg. 153) PG 64

In the movie Inkwell, Larenz Tate plays the role of Drew Tate(interesting, no?), a young 16 year old Black male, with crafty mechanical skills and a shy disposition that causes him to talk to a doll as a real person. Set in 1976, the movie begins with Drew riding his bicycle back home after sneaking out of his house. We realize that he as left his home with no per- mission because we are cut to a scene of his father in his room talking to a mannequin with a tape of snoring sounds as a decoy(Ferris Beuller suck one...). Drew crashes into his bedroom window while his father is on his bed talking to what his father believes his him. It is in this scene that we learn of Drews skills as a very crafty engineer. From here we are told via dialogue that the family(Drew, his father, Kenny, and his mother,Brenda) are going to spend two weeks with Drew’s aunt. Drew’s aunt lives with her husband and mother on the Black elite island of Martha’s Vineyard.

An interesting device is used in the movie that I found delightful. The true growth of Drew Tate begins after a visit to a psychiatrist that is a friend of the family that leaves on the island. Drew is left alone to venture off to him Self, and as his parents drive off, he whispers a powerful,”Goodbye”. From this scene we are introduced to Heather and Harold, a well meaning but obliviously submissive wife and her overbearing husband. During the visit on the island, Drew is able to impress Lauren, played by Jada Pinket, by escorting Heather on his bike. The storyline shows Drew impatiently knocking on Lauren’s door, her disdain with it, and her commanding behavior express a certain sort of classism. It is when she asks Drew to jump into a pond in order to steal lobsters that I believe we see just how deeply this class-hole goes. Her lack of control over her social conditions shows it Self when she stands Drew up for her ex-boyfriend. While Drew sits on her porch waiting for her, she is in her room being seduced. And when she finally notices Drew looking at her through her window, she says nothing. Of course, this could happen to a young man on any class strata, so I stand self-corrected. The rites of passage for young Drew is climaxed as young Drew cli- maxes with Heather who has found Harold cheating and realizes that Drew is the one that exposed Harold.

One of the most interesting conflicts in this story is that of Kenny and Spencer. Kenny, we are informed, is a Black Panther. The storyline expresses his passion in two methods of dialogue: firstly, Kenny,Brenda and Spencer and Francis on the beach known as the Inkwell and he states,”Bougie niggas, as far as the eye can see, down right scary if you ask me” and later on in that night, he and Spencer are having a discussion about Malcolm X and Kenny pushes Spencer with both hands. This scenario is repeated after Kenny beats Spencer at tennis and Spencer calls Kenny .

As I’ve stated elsewhere, we have to consider the symbols of status that imbue us to the overall class structure of the society. In the same way we watch Caine in Menace II Society rob a man for his rims, one of the first insults hurled at Drew is in regard to Kenny’s car. The same desire to possess status symbols extends throughout our communication mediums. Whether the discussion is the urban un- derground economy or elite Black social behavior, we are for the most part all subject to the same product consumption patterns. When Harold is being told to leave after being caught cheating, his response to Heather includes,”...I gave you everything you ever wanted: my money, a car, clothes, everything you ever wanted..” as he drives away in his red convertible sports car(product placement be damned, I still haven’t figured out the make of the car). The class discrepancies are also illuminated through Drew’s treatment by various individuals on the island. He has a difficult time at a party meeting the young ladies, due to what we would have to assume is his not being known on the island. We also witness this via the en- suing conflict between the characters Kenny and Spencer which culminates into a physical altercation. The discussion is not just about right wing or left wing politics, it is about the class ideologies historically promoted through each. In the same manner that the Hughes Brothers use images of the Watts riots to convey the political message that a social effect has been brought about. Another note that I must not leave out, and since I’ve returned to Menace II Society here, the Hughes Brothers use the O-Dawg character as a means to advance a sort of vengeance for Latasha Harlins. Latasha Harlins is the 15 year young angel that was killed by a Korean store owner’s wife, who shot her in the back of the back of the head after scuffling with Latasha over a bottle of juice the Korean woman assumed Latasha was stealing. Ice Cube would also address this socio-political dilema in the song, “Black Ko- rea,” and Tupac Shakur would make several references to Latasha’s slaying throughout his short-lived career.

This chapter has not been a work devised to promote one class over the other, it is simply an examination of how Black people have responded to certain images of them Selves. I don’t promote one class distinction over the other. In the same way that many elites such as Bill Cosby allude to the behaviors of the urban Black community as lacking in social responsibility, history attests to the lack of social responsibility as well as collusion of Black elites in the furthering of slavery and practices that work to hold many Blacks in the positions of lower class. As detailed in “Black Masters,” many Black elites, some freed slaves, not only held Blacks as slaves, they bred them(which was illegal for even whites to do), sold them, tormented them, and promoted the Confederacy(I mean, hell, why not? You would lose money if slavery became outlawed). In the reading of such works as Graham’s “Our Kind Of People,” the not just sympathetic, but empathetic and pridefully so, detailing of Black elitism and the social demeaning of those unable to join the ranks of former treasonous members of our peoples can turn one’s mouth into a fountain of vomit.

No, this is not in support of any Black traitors. It is simply an illustration. One that traces the contour lines of our reality into the implied lines of our fantasy making apparatus and allows the reader to stand back and take a truthful glimpse at the asymmetrical manner in which we promote certain images over the others. Is the Black manhood truly a manhood of warriors? Have we become so smitten with the image of the brute and the symbols of intimidation that we are happy to be the thugs? Do we truly strike fear in the hearts of the white collective because of our physicality? Is that why the police in Detroit felt it no major consequence, morally or le- gally, to have a camera crew with them as they stormed a residential abode killing a 7 year young angel named Aiyana Jones? They killed her because they felt so much intimidation from the Black manhood, correct? Sure. I suppose that is also why Sean Bell and his bach- elor party entourage were shot a total of fifty times by police officers. They killed the future husband to a Black queen because they felt so much intimidation from the Black manhood, correct? Yeah, I know. I would further assume that Oscar Grant was handcuffed and lain on his stomach before being murdered execution style in front of a train full of passengers because the police simply fear Black manhood. They killed the young father because they were so intimidated by the Black manhood, correct?

“The question is not whether blaxploitation, and its exploitation contemporary, the kung fu movie, still impacts us--a resounding yes--the real trick is to figure out why. Looking back to my childhood, I’d argue that the answer is aggressive black heroism. Shaft, Hammer, Trouble Man, and slaughter were tough, no-nonsense, and as cool as the other side of a pil- low. Even the antisocial coke dealer Priest in Superfly and the pimp Goldie in The Mack filled their films with a sly cinematic presence that only church ladies and NAACP spokes- people could resist.”(Nelson George, Hip Hop America, pg. 104)

No one is afraid of you Black man. No one has ever been . Those that created the myth of Black intimidation and the brute/savage only did it as moral excuse to kill you. The real intimidating people needed a shield of moral justification in order to continue their on- slaught. No one gives a homeless crack addict’s dirty drawers about your mean mugs and camera stares. No one believes you. So you can stop now. NO ONE GIVES A FUCK ABOUT YOUR GUNS. They all know you will only used them on your Selves. You can stop buying all the albums discussing murder and selling drugs to your own kind because you aren’t convincing anyone that you have any true gumption or economic mobility. On the world scene you look like a damn fool. In your motherland, they have a word for you that they use behind our backs. This word is actually worse than “nigger,” that you elites like to make your Selves believe is such a harsh term, but yet you kowtow just like the house niggers. No, this word is from your own people. “Akata”. A lost cat.

You once gave the world such great images: Malcolm X. Marcus Garvey, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, Geronimo Pratt, Kwame Ture...

Now Barack Obama is blessed to have Jay-Z and Young Jeezy serenade the Washington, D.C. socialites in a mass pit of energy. While Havard’s new protege dons the imagery of the Black elite, the Black scholar Cornel West speaks meekly and without authority in the presence of Mr. Shawn Carter.

“In the inner-city environment respect on the street may be viewed as a form of social capital that is very valuable, especially when various other forms fo capital have been denied or are unavailable. Not only is it protective; it often forms the core of the person’s self esteem, particularly when alternative avenues of self-expression are closed or sensed to be.” - Elijah Anderson, Code of the Streets, pg. 68

Young men that may not be able to drive the Lamborghini Murcielago off the lot, but they can boast of killer instincts and exploitative economic ventures have these images to thank as they are carted off in steel and rendered menaces to society by judges wearing Black robes such as the youth’s ancestors once wore to symbolize wisdom.

Nobody thinks you are economic geniuses, Black man. You can stop holding up your dope dealers. A huge brand on your chest doesn’t make anyone on the global scene think you have economic might in the land. That is why the Chinese have a mainstay of restaurants in your neighborhoods and you don’t have one soul food restaurant near China. The Arabs aren’t even supposed to be selling liquor, and yet you can find a liquor store own by Mid- dle Eastern foreigners in most urban communities. Black man, can you sell Four Loko in Baghdad without getting you hands chopped off? Go mean mug the Shah, let’s see how that works out.

The image of the Black man as the ferocious and stoic murdering machine is a myth. Unfor- CHPTR 5 SAPPHIRE EXTENDED

“The publicity campaign for the modern theatrical movie is a precision media assault based on communications theory, depth psychology, and dead-on demographics. Today, exploitation, hype, or what is still sometimes called ballyhoo is a sophisticated national advertising campaign, the cost of which often surpasses that of the multimillion-dollar feature in the spotlight.” - Thomas Doherty, Teenagers and Teenpics, p. 5

Often the problem with translation of symbols is the degree of abstract necessary to deci- pher them. Take for example a basic algebriac equation: x + 3 = 1

For many of us the solution doesn’t take much thought and we see the x, or rather we read the x as -4 in as much as we ‘x’ as ‘x’ in a sentence. For others, the concept of a negative number might be difficult to grasp simply because they have not applied a practi- cal usage for a negative number, or they simply haven’t been taught the concept of letters as placeholders for values. In that former instance, even a simple equation such as:

____ + 3 = 1 would leave them staring a little harder than the former group. For the later group, the difficulty of reading the equation is lessens. Negative numbers are an abstract representation. variables are an even more abstract representation, that can be used to represent an abstract representation. Of course, we can use of an ‘x’ to represent a number, or an entire equation, or a surname, or a...well, I think you get the idea! Historically, the ‘x’ has come to fill in blank spaces for when a blank space is not acceptable social currency. And yet the ‘x’ can mean more than one thing, it can hold a myriad of abstract values.

Such is the value of woman.

From watching a Black woman and her sister train children to chase hypermasculine focus- es I realized that the black culture needed to be defined. Our standards are easily changed and molded because they have been defined for us through slavery, and then they we rede- fined for emancipated caste confinement, from there we have allowed the white media to bend us and mold us in a manner that they saw fit. I’ve watched Black people go from wearing red, black, and green beaded necklaces with wood shaved and carved to look like Queen Nefertiti of the 18th dynasty, to women wearing jeans with their butt checks hanging out and men wearing their pants pulled underneath the cusp of their buttocks. What occurred? Or what didn’t occur? As I stated, this is not a moralization piece. My integrity can tolerate my hypocrisy for only so long. And yet...what happened to us? How did we allow the content of the medium to be redirected in such a way as to go from “Self-Destruction” to “Bang- ing on Wax”? How did the market value of productive afrocentric socially aware content drop? Jay-Z stands at the most hip hop albums with number one sales, Biggie as the biggest jump to number one sales with Life After Death followed by Master P’s Ghetto D and MP Da Last Don.

In much of our known history, the question raised by patriarchial rule, what can women do, should be altered to, what haven’t women done? As the great scholar Ivan Van Sertima PG 68 wrote,

”In Africa the woman’s ‘place’ was not only with her family;she often ruled nations with unquestionable authority. Many African women were great militarists and on occasion led their armies in battle. Long before they knew of the existence of Europe the Africans had produced a way of life where men were secure enough to let women advance as far as their talent would take them.”(Ivan Van Sertima, Black Women In Antiquity, pg. 123). From the annals of slave traders, the women of the Yoruba were known for their aggressive disdain and many bravely suffered the self-jettison from the side of slave ships instead of accepting the violent fate of slave ship hulls(Walter C. Rucker, The River Flows on:Black Resistance, Culture and Identity Formation in Early America pg. 288).

“Hatshepsut of ancient Egypt was the greatest female ruler of all time...She is also said to have been the first woman in history to challenge the supremacy of the male, though arrayed against her were more than three thousand years of masculine tradition. There was no word for ‘queen’ or empress in the language of her day -- but she fought her way to power and held the throne of the world’s then leading empire for thirty-three years.” - J.A. Rod- gers (cf. ibd. pg 124)

How difficult it must be for the Black woman in the United States to be the inheritor of such diverse ability under an ideological structure that infuses its people with a belief that Black people are subhuman and that woman are only worthy in their acquiescence to white male standards for women. To be lusted after, and yet deemed unattractive by the White male structure. To be touted as the strong, and yet to be villified as the vociferous. What is socially acceptable becomes an open option in any society, and it has always been acceptable for Black women to be raped and considered sexual beasts. How difficult it must be for any woman to express their sexual cravings, but even more so Black women who will automati- cally be cast as sluts and hoes, because of symbology crafted beyond the inception of even the United States of America. Further, the insecurities of male worth and competition in- herent in most practices of a patriarchy allow men to demean women as bitches and terma- gents if they so much as attempt to defend them Selves.

“They judge African communal society by Western standards. African communal society was not European industrial society. In feudal Europe, a woman was bound by tradition and rights to the baronial estates. She was both economic producer and care giver. Her labor was vital to the economic life of the clan or village. The European industrial revolution changed this. The power of the industrial bourgeoisie was based on the iron-clad rule of pri- vate property, commodity production, unfettered profit, and personal possessions. The historic customs, traditions, and duties of women were obliterated. The marriage contract resembled a property contract. A woman became a personal possession. Her labor and service were bound to one man in one home. In the factroy, capitalist dominance became supreme. In the home, male dominance became supreme.” - Earl Ofari Hutchinson, The Assassina- tion of the Black Male Image, pg. 106

According to anthropologist Helen Diner,”In marriage obedience is demanded of the male as was specified in the marriage contracts of ancient Egypt. He also must remain faithful, while the wife remains unencumbered. She also retains the right of divorce and repudiation.”(Helen Diner, Mothers and Amazons)

As a caveat, it is necessary to understand that one’s personal choices are often not of their own choosing, and yet you have to accept that people often believe their decision to origi- nate within them Selves. Factor in the need for money in a capitalist society, and you have an arrangement that will more than likely provide an excuse for any set of behavioral choices. The influence of those seeking to create a career as a public image maker on the big screen, the little screen, or even the periodical can often be damaging to a culture seeking to empower it Self. With movie goers there is the suspension of disbelief, an occurence PG 69 of doubt surrender about the reality of a story and the immersion of the viewer’s being into the story, also referred to as the coccoon effect. This occurence is frequent in horror movies when a woman(or a man, I suppose, don’t want to leave anyone out) is so enraptured in storyline that she(or he), jumps when a frightful scene is shown. Also, when a movie is dramatic enough to make a person cry. Now, this is in theaters, but the long form of movie is also a crucial consideration. When one is so involved in the storyline, certain elements, usually socio-economic, are overlooked. Anybody that has ever watched a movie with me knows that I talk to my Self about the movie as I watch it, and sometimes I talk loudly. This upsets people because if they are trying to escape or experience a vicarious rush from the picture, I will completely blow that shit for them. People tend to not like being removed from their fantasy of reality via scripted motion pictures.

Alright, now that that is out of the way, while one is being lost in the moment of the storyline, what is being injected into their thinking?

According to bell hooks,”The Sapphire image had as its base one of the oldest negative stereotypes of women--the image of the female as inherently evil...And white women could use the image of the evil sinful black woman to emphasize their own innocence and purity.” She supports her statements with a quote from an essay entitled,”The Black Woman”:

“Movies and radio shows of the 1930s aand 1940’s invariably pedaled the Sapphire image of the black woman: she is depicted as iron-willed, effectual, treacherous toward and con- temptible of black men, the latter being portrayed as simpering, ineffectual whipping boys. Certainly most of us have encountered domineering Black females(and white ones too). Many of them have been unlucky in life and love and seek a bitter haven from their disap- pointments in fanatical self-sufficiency.”

The image of black women as loud, aggressive, and ultimately, unsupportive to the Black man reverberates through US media messages in various means. If one is not careful, and veiwing or listening without their analytical seraphim(or cerebrum and cerebellum), the symbols might only be understood superficially, and the behaviors of the symbols might be so compelling, that one imitates them without critical assessment of the trajectory of said behavior. It is of interest that sitcom starring Diahann Carroll in the late 1960s, Julia, was of a Black woman, single parent, working as a nurse, and the organizing of the National Black Nurses Organization in 1971. Correlations can be so difficult to defeat in the face of the term “coincidence,” right? Slightly more interesting is that Black women choosing nurs- ing as a profession went from 70,400 in 1970 to 110,460 in 1980(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC2756047/table/T1/). Another “coincidence,” right? Sure.

Well, how about this coincidence? Melvin Van Peebles produces a successful movie, Sweet Sweetback’s Baaddasssss Song and then comes Shaft in the same year. How about the coincidence that after those two movies of urban black superheroes, comes Superfly in 1972. Oh, hold up!! Don’t forget that in the next year, 1973, Black Caesar, Cleopatra Jones, and Coffy are released. I suppose that it would also be a coincidence that Pam Grier looks much like Angela Davis in Coffy, and that the character Coffy is a nurse. More “coincidences” to come.

I suppose it would also be a good place to now quote Thomas Doherty, Teenagers and Teenpics, once more: “The date of a phenomenon’s occurence is a good index of the reasons for its appearance.”

In 1970, Jonathan Jackson was killed in an attempt to rescue his older brother, George Jackson from a Marin County, California court room. The involvment with his older brother and Dr. Angela Davis(detailed via letters in George’s book,Soledad Brother), caused au- thorities to be suspicious of Dr. Angela Davis’ whereabouts. Her youthful vigor, and dedica- PG 70 tion to the movement for Black self-defense also aided in her national attention. It would be found that the weapons used by Jonathon were purchased by Angela(“Search Broadens for Angela Davis,” Eugene Register-Guard,August 18, 1970). This information and the letters found in the cell of George, who had been convicted of a gas station robbery at 17 and was serving an indefinite sentence in Soledad Prison. The romantic like engagement between George and Angela would be criticized by bell hooks in her above quoted text as overly dramatized in favor of the image of the stoic male and the submissive Black woman. I would boldly venture to argue that Angela’s participation in their relationship was above the call of duty, and beyond just a submissive subservience to a male caller. The FBI doesn’t place you on their Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List just for being a faithful pen pal to a prisoner. Although I do agree that Angela Davis becomes the original ride or die sister, hers wasn’t a title earned for the typical patriarchial positions alloted for women.

In the mid 1960s, another young Black woman that would gain international attention was arrested for her involvement with a highly organized student protest at the Manhattan Community College. The young woman, now known to history as Assata Olugbala Shakur, would become one of the leading members of the Harlem branch of the Black Panther Party. Due to her critique of the lack political awareness and abstract comprehension of many of the male members, she joined the Black Liberation Army, a well-trained paramili- tary organization with a focus on obtaining the former slaves states as a nation for Black peoples of the United States. Her national attention would begin with a discrepancy with a Statler Hilton Hotel patron where she would be shot in the abdomen. From the resulting arrest, her name would be aligned with bank robbery in Queens. Soon her face would don the wanted posters of banks with her holding a gun(William L. Van Deburg, Modern Black Na- tionalism: From Marcus Garvey to Louis Farrakhan, pg. 7). She would also be sought for questioning in a murder of New York City cops in 1972(Robert Jones, “2 Die in Shootout; Militant Seized,” Los Angeles Times, p. 22). The height of her national “fame” would expo- nentially multiply in what might be the moment when the young activist was thrust forever into history. In May of 1973, Assata would be riding in a car along the New Jersey Turnpike by a state trooper James Harper for a broken tail light. The driver, Zayd Shakur, was asked to get out of the vehicle. Soon after, Assata would be wounded by gun shoot, and Zayd and another trooper, Werner Foerster would be slain. Assata would be gaffled and held as a prisoner until 1979 when she was rescued by comrades from the BLA.

These are only two of the very prominent figures that would work to distort the images of Black Women in the media. Along with Afeni Shakur, the mother of slain artist Tupac Shakur, who held a high position in the Harlem branch of the Black Panthers, and was held on charges along with members that made up the Panther 21. The image of the Black woman in the United States would be that of resistance and political consciousness. This image would be countered with that of the Black heroine of blaxploitation movies.

The movie Coffy, written and directed by Jack Hill(Blood Bath, The Fear Chamber, Spider Baby) and produced by American International Pictures-popular at that time for backing low- budget films aimed at exploiting specific markets(Thomas Doherty, Teenagers and Teenpics, p. 35)- starts out with a young Black man entering a club to discuss a proposition with a his supplier. Take note that the young brother is wearing a cap similar to a beret, an article of clothing typically associated with the Black Panther Party. The young man attracts the attention of the supplier, and tells him he has a special woman waiting outside for him. After a few failed attempts of persuasion, the young man tells him that the woman is in his car. This is enough of a reason for the elder to step outside. We then see the supplier lustfully glazing at a woman sprawled out seductively in the backseat. PG 71 Cut Scene, and we are in an dilapidated apartment, cue Pam Grier’s right breast hanging out of her shirt while being groped by the high level supplier on the bed. Soon the plot twists as Coffy(Pam Gri- er) has a sawed-off shotgun and kills the supplier. She then uses a syringe filled with what we can only assume is a pure blend of heroin to kill the liason. Before injecting the young man, we are informed via her dialogue that her sister has been given a bad batch of drugs and that Coffy is seeking revenge. Let’s also note here that Assata Shakur, and other panthers, were wanted for kidnapping heroin dealers, and one of the weapons that Angela Davis was said to have bought was a shotgun that was sawed- off. I know, all coincidences, moving on...

The next scene is of a surgical operation of some sort where a doctor is complaining and calls Coffy. We now see that Coffy’s job is that of a nurse, and that she is only moonlighting as an executioner. We also find out that she works in the same hospital that her young sister is being treated. Coffy is seen later, out of her nurse’s scrubs entertaining a man that we find out is a senator. Cue Pam Grier having sex with the senator, and then her performing fellatio. We are only left to our imagi- nations of how these two know each other until later.

Cut scene, and we are in the parking lot with Coffy in her nurses uniform attempting to ward off a stranger from breaking into a car she is sitting in. Her colleague and working police officer, Carter, uses his authority to rough the man up and send him on his merry way. The two decide to have a drink of coffee(it could get worse) at Carter’s place. During the conversation, Carter receives a phone call notifying him that another police officer buddy is taking bribes. Soon two vandals,(alright, it was pretty predictable that the guys doing this were the same two guys that had just called Carter), punch through the door(it could get worse), and proceed to beat Carter with bats. Coffy attempts to help but she is thrown to the side and one of the assailants begins to take off her blouse. Cue Pam Grier’s breasts again before the assailant is dragged off of her.

We are soon after introduced to King George, a pimp with a slick operation of women in a high class hotel. As an introduction Coffy meets his harem, and, well, sure, you’ve guessed it, cue Pam Grier’s butt naked body. we could rendevous with each scene, and I could easily, as proven, give you a full synopsis, but it is simply more of the same. It would be out of the scope of the book to carry on.

Both movies, starring Pam Grier, and written by Jack Hill, are produced by American In- ternational Pictures, which was owned by a one James Hartford Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. As stated above, the production company was known for making low-budget films aimed at specific target markets, in their earliest days that was the young white male audience. In a LIFE article dated July, 16, 1965, the two B-rate movie producers’ formula for successful movies was dubbed the “Peter Pan Syndrome.” According to the article:

1. A younger child will watch anything that an older one will watch. PG 72 2. An older child will not watch anything a younger child will watch. 3. A girl will watch anything a boy will watch. 4. A boy will not watch anything a girl will watch. 5. In order to catch your greatest audience, you zero in on a 19-year-old male.

With this formula in mind, many of the movies that were produced by AIP consisted of high levels of action, interesting forms of killing(hence Coffy’s close range sawed-off shotgun blast to the head of the high level heroin pusher), and sexual scenes(enough said). The writer of Coffy, Jack Hill states,”It took 18 days to shoot and the budget was $500,000. They had a limit on what they called ‘black films’ because they thought that at that price they could make a profit on any of them.” Later in the same conversation when Hill is discussing Pam Grier’s portrayal of Coffy, he states,”...she really represented the idea of black power and black is beautiful.”(Calum Waddell, Jack Hill: the exploitation and blaxploitation master, film by film, pg. 124). From the mouth of the writer and director him Self, we have the connection that explains my thesis. The symbol of the Black Woman as a revolutionary, the embodiment of dedication to the Black struggle for self-determination wrapped in a 18 day movie about a nurse that fucks her way to her sister’s vegeance. Terrific.

This symbolic embodiment portrayed by Grier would be carried over into the movie Foxy Brown. While Assata is being arrested on the turnpike bleeding from multiple gunshots, the character, Foxy Brown, created and crafted for the big screen by a White man, becomes such a representative icon for Black Female strength that a young woman, Inga Marchand, with a developed rhyme scheme and lyrical presentation, would deciide to rap under the same moniker, Foxy Brown. The sultry melodic vocalizations of Foxy Brown would also be shared by rap artist Lil’ Kim. Lil’ Kim’s image of street savvy and sexually uninhibited aggressiveness would reinforce the ideas of Black women as overly sexually permissive, shrewish, and valued by vaginal victories over men’s wallets. This formula would be echoed by other acts such as rapper and former stripper Trina, Eve, and later by Nicki Minaj. Al- though, Lil’ Kim’s use of the formula is most popularized due to the extreme manner in which she explicitly expressed her licentiousness, and also her association with Bad Boy Records and her involvement with Biggie Smalls. However, Lil’ Kim was not the first Black female MC to sell raunchy raps and promote sexual favors for financial reciprocation.

In July 1990, Rap-A-Lot Records/Priority released a raunchy record with a female vocalist, Kim Davis. During the era of VideoJukebox, a television station which allowed its viewers to order and request the videos that they wanted to see,MC Choice’s, or Choice’s “Payback”-a battle rap attacking misogynistic(I know, I know) rappers such as Nwa, Too Short, and ironically the Geto Boys, who were also label mates- was able to garner attention and heavy rotation. Including on the album where such songs as “Bad Ass Bitch,” “Nothing But Sex,” and “Pipe Dreams.” The album is peaked at 46 on Billboard’s top 100 albums, reaching that noteriety the week of October 20, 1990. Interesting enough, a used copy of the album in cd format runs a poten- tial buyer from $69.98 to $196.71 on the interweb market place, Amazon. Her second album, “Stick N’ Move,” which was released in 1992, has an asking price of starting at twenty dollars and going upwards to two hundred and four dollars on the same site. The formula being used here is such: speak with a certain bravado as a woman, but don’t appear to be a “butchy lesbian,” and in order to stave off that criticism, discuss graphically detailed sexual pursuits. Be one of the boys, but also be willing to take a dick.

Foxy Brown signed to Def Jam Records in 1996 at the ripe age of 17. Her first record release on the Universal Music Group subsidiary June 1, 1998 was entitled, Ill Na Na. The PG 73 title song of the track, recorded with Wu Tang Alum, Meth- od Man, details the pride of her record release, a verbal jab at Lil’ Kim, as well as her desire to avoid heartbreak through emotionless dealings with men, however sexual. The “ill na na” would ultimately represent sexual conquest of men(think of the last two letters of the word,”vagina” and “ill” as meaning “respected for aggression.”)

“Ill Na Na”

[Intro: Method Man]

One time... Huhh, all up in ya like a bone when I... Johnny Blaze, the Iron Lung Foxy Brown, the Ill Na Na (yeah, c’mon, yeah, c’mon) Destination... (c’mon, c’mon) plat’

[Verse One: Foxy Brown]

Yo Na Na so Ill, first week out Shipped a half a mil, niggaz freaked out She’s all about sex, pard-on, check your facts and the track record, I’m all about plaques Shakin my ass half naked, lovin this life Waitin for Kim album to drop, knowin it’s tight Standin center stage, closin the show holdin a gat Since you opened up, I know you’re hopin it’s wack Niggaz, screamin my name on record straight whylin Maybe I’ll answer back when you reach a hundred thousand This is ladies night, and the Mercedes’s tight When I’m coming home? Maybe tonight Leave my food by the microwave, kiss the baby good- night It’s my time to shine it’s playtime tonight I’ma try to stand my ground, know when I fall I left your ass Home Alone, hopin I call

[Chorus: Method Man]

Who’s got the illest pussy on the planet? Sugar walls comin down niggaz can’t stand it, the Ill Na Na True Absolut Vodka, straight shots for the has-beens and have-nots, dolla dolla Real and it don’t stop, we movin up First the mansion then the yacht, sound proper Straight cash get got, bloodhounds tryin to hunt down the Brown Fox, the Ill Na Na

[Verse Two: Foxy Brown]

No more sexin me all night, thinkin it’s alright While I’m lookin over your shoulder, watchin the hall light You hate when it’s a ball right? Ladies this ain’t handball PG 74 Nigga hit these walls right before I call Mike In the morning when it’s all bright, eggs over easy Hope you have my shit tight when I open my eyes While I’m eatin gettin dressed up, this ain’t yo’ pad I left some money on the dresser, find you a cab No more, sharin I pain, sharin I made It’s time to outslick niggaz, ladies sharin our game Put it in high gear, flip the eye wear Nas Ruled the World but now it’s my year And from, here on I solemnly swear To hold my own like Pee Wee in a movie theater (uh-huh) Yeah I don’t need a man’s wealth (yeah) But I can do bad (bad) by my damn self (self) And uhh...

[Chorus]

[Method] Uhh... vodka... Not... not... Dolla dolla... stop stop... C’mon c’mon... yah, it’s the Ill Na Na

[Verse Three: Foxy Brown]

No more Waitin To Exhale, we takin deep breaths Ladies take this over, I be Fox so peep this Love thyself with no one above thee Cause ain’t nobody gon’ love me like me If he, don’t Do The Right Thing like Spike Lee Bye bye wifey make him lose his Nike’s (uh uh, yeah) Hit the road Mami told me in order to, find a Prince you gotta kiss some toads

[Chorus]

Three years prior, on August 29, 1995, Lil’ Kim would grace the cover her collaboration with Biggie Smalls promoted rap group, Junior Mafia. The album, Conspiracy, would feature Lil’ Kim on “Realms of Ju- nior M.A.F.I.A.,” “Player’s Anthem”, “I Need You To- night,” “Get Money”, and “Back Stabbers.” A year later she would score on her own album released on Undeas/Big Beat/Atlantic, Hardcore. An introduction into the Kim that was slightly more muted on the Junior Mafia tracks, the album opens with a gentlemen going to see a pornography movie and we hear what is supposed to be Lil’ Kim having sex. The rest of the album is a contribution to the peter pan syndrome outlined in this chapter earlier for rap. Tales of robbery(action) and sexual conquests hug bass loops, with a line from Biggie:”Kick it Bitch.”

“Queen Bitch” (feat. Notorious B.I.G.) PG 75

If peter piper pecked em, I betcha biggie bust em He probably tried to fuck him, I told him not to trust him Lyrically, I dust em, off like Pledge Hit hard like sledge-hammers, bitch with that platinum grammer I am a diamond cluster hustler Queen bitch, supreme bitch Kill a nigga for my nigga by any means bitch Murder scene bitch Clean bitch, disease free bitch Check it, I write a rhyme, melt in your mouth like M&M’s Roll with the M.A.F.I.A. remember them? Tell em when I used to mess with gentlemen Straight up apostles, now strictly niggaz that jostle Kill a nigga for the figure, how you figure? Your cheddar would be better, Beretta inside of Beretta Nobody do it better Bet I wet cha like hurricanes and typhoons Got buffoons eatin my pussy while I watch cartoons Seat the loon, this rap Pam Grier’s here Baby drinkers beware, mostly Dolce wear Frank kill niggaz lives for one point five While you struggle and strive we pick which Benz to drive The M.A.F.I.A. you wanna be em Most of y’all niggaz can’t eat without per diem I’m rich, I’ma stay that bitch

Uhh, who you lovin who you wanna be huggin Roll with niggaz that be thuggin, buggin In the tunnel in Eso’s Sippin espresso, Cappuchino wit Nino On a mission for the lucci creno I used to wear Moscino, but every bitch got it Now I rock colorful minks because my pockets stay knotted C-note after C-note, Frank Bo hold fifteen plus the caterer You think you greater, uh (You niggaz got some audacity You sold a million now you half of me Get off my dick, kick it bitch) Check my pitch, or send it persona And I’ll still stick your moms for her stocks and bonds I got that bomb ass cock, a good ass shot With hardcore flows to keep a nigga dick rock Sippin Zinfandel, up in Chippendales Shop in Bloomingdales for Prada bags Female Don Dada hats no problems spittin cream with my team Shit’s straight like nine fifteen, y’nahmean? Cruise the diamond district with my biscuit Flossin my rolex rich Shit, I’m rich, I’ma stay that bitch

“...the first woman rapper to garner much media attention was the less hardcore(but still lyrically skilled) Queen Latifah. ‘Ladies First,” which she cut with British rapper Monie Love, is perhaps the best-known feminist-style rap, with a video that showed Latifah plan- ning global strategy while pictures of Winnie Mandela and Sojourner Truth flashed in the background...” - Russell A. Potter, Spectacular Vernaculars:hip-hop and the politics of PG 76 postmodernism, pg 92

Without moralizing and being critiqued as presenting a double standard, the images of Black women depicted in the early days of Hip-hop such as Queen Latifah have meta- morphed in the same manner that the images of Black males retrograde to that of the savage brute. The image of the Black woman has gone from that enriching the youth with statements like:

[Queen Latifah] The ladies will kick it, the rhyme that is wicked Those that don’t know how to be pros get evicted A woman can bear you, break you, take you Now it’s time to rhyme, can you relate to A sister dope enough to make you holler and scream

[Monie Love] Ayo, let me take it from here, Queen... Excuse me but I think I’m about do To get into precisely what I am about to do I’m conversating to the folks that have no whatsoever clue So listen very carefully as I break it down for you Merrily merrily merrily merrily hyper happy overjoyed Pleased with all the beats and rhymes my sisters have employed Slick and smooth throwing down the sound totally a yes Let me state the position: Ladies first, yes? (Yes)

(Yeah, there’s going to be some changes in here)

[Monie Love] Believe me when I say being a woman is great, you see I know all the fellas out there will agree with me Not for being one but for being with one Because when it’s time for loving it’s the woman that gets some Strong, stepping, strutting, moving on Rhyming, cutting, and not forgetting We are the ones that give birth To the new generation of prophets because it’s Ladies First

[Queen Latifah] I break into a lyrical freestyle Grab the mic, look into the crowd and see smiles Cause they see a woman standing up on her own two Sloppy slouching is something I won’t do Some think that we can’t flow (can’t flow) Stereotypes, they got to go (got to go) I’m a mess around and flip the scene into reverse (With what?) With a little touch of “Ladies First”

Who said the ladies couldn’t make it, you must be blind If you don’t believe, well here, listen to this rhyme Ladies first, there’s no time to rehearse I’m divine and my mind expands throughout the universe A female rapper with the message to send the Queen Latifah is a perfect specimen

[Monie Love] PG 77 My sister, can I get some?

[Queen Latifah] Sure, Monie Love, grab the mic and get dumb

[Monie Lovie] Yo, praise me not for simply being what I am Born in L-O-N-D-O-N and sound American You dig exactly where I’m coming from You want righteous rhyming, Imma give you some To enable you to aid yourself and get paid And the material that has no meaning I wish to slay Pay me every bit of your attention Like mother, like daughter, I would also like to mention I wish for you to bring me to, bring me to the rhythm Of which is now systematically given Desperately stressing I’m the daughter of a sister Who’s the mother of a brother who’s the brother of another Plus one more; all four Have a job to do, we doing it Respect due, to the mother who’s the root of it And next up is me, the M-O-N-I-E L-O-V-E And I’m first cause I’m a L-A-D-I-E [Queen Latifah] Contact and in fact, the style, it gets harder Cooling on the scene with my European partner Laying down track after track, waiting for the climax When I get there, that’s when I tax The next man, or the next woman It doesn’t make a difference, keep the competition coming And I’ll recite the chapter in verse The title of this recital is “Ladies First”

As hinted upon earlier, there is a direct correlation with the movies written and produced to exploit Black audiences. We see that Foxy Brown is borrowed directly from this era. It is telling of the power of the media and images when a young women decides to take on evoke an imitation, and a weak one at that of Black Femi- nine strength instead of the many that are actual her- oines at that time. Many of whom sacrificed their freedom for the very woman that would overlook them in PG 78 history. The empty media endorsed symbols of Black Feminine Power were embraced as the Hip-Hop culture pioneered its way into the selpuchers of corporate America. Lost are the words of encouragement and empowerment to Black Women without the scantily clad modelesque figurines prancing around stages and on interviews proclaiming how they are that “bad bitch.” when we see Angela Davis, Afeni Shakur, and Assata Shakur, the actual woman that the symbol was crafted so many years ago, the last thing we think of is “bad bitch.” Removed is the politically, and socio-economically aware discussion;implanted is a series of invidious comparisions of wealth and status obtained in a media oriented version of the “oldest profession known to man.” The capitalistic carnival of what Ntozake Shange might refer to as deliberate coquettes.

As implied in Michelle Wallace’s book, much of the inability to institutionalize the Black Panther Party, and to enculturate certain platforms actualized by organizations like the Black Liberation Army is due to settling of more aggressive elements for symbols of power. It became a worthy notion to be seen as powerful, to hold the tokens of power in a white patriarchial system, than to actually have power. What movies such as these do is expose the populace to neat expressions of power, walk out of theaters, or away from television sets, with a euphoria. Much like th euphoria experienced by many Blacks when Barack Obama became the 41st president of the United States. However, symbols of power are not power. To be able to intimidate is not power when those intimidated can put a metal slug ignited by heat generated from a gun’s hammer into your back while handcuffed in front of an audience and the one killing only being sentenced to a few months. Intimidation becomes a very small measure in that sort of instance. Being a representative of “cool” is attractive, and can win one appluase and fame, yet those who control the vehicles for your “cool” to be exposed to wider audiences could careless about being cool;why would they: they can simply reap the benefits of the machine they have control over that allows your “cool” to be worthy of anything.

The beautiful sisters have been left with emphatic and authoritatively pronounced anec- dotes, and public displays of exploited sexuality as a solution to the echoes of misogny and economic advancement. Where the voices of those women that pushed Black Men to stand up and be counted have evanesced into susurration, the cacophony of plastic or paper for pussy goddesses have resounded with a deafening audibility.

In an effort to understand the effects of such symbols on the mind of adolescent Black females, and also their male counterparts, I quote University of Missouri, St. Louis professor Jody Miller, the Executive Counselor of the American Society of Criminology, from her book entitled,”Gettin’ Played: African American Girls, Urban Inequality, and Gendered Vio- lence,” as she discusses a photography program she held with young Black adolescents:

“I sent youths out into their communities with cameras to document their daily lives. And week after week, I was struck and saddened by the portraits they produced, which barely resembled the kids I was interacting with. Young men struck poses intended to project an image of street bravado. Occassionally throwing up gang signs, they sent hardened stares into the camera lenses, mimicking the depictions of young Black manhood we see all too often in the media in America...But it was the girls’ photos that really stuck with me. Nearly every young woman in my class, solo or in pairs, came away from the course with a portrait of themselves, back turned from the camera, head turned to face it, and bent over, showing their backsides in a sexualized pose. Is this a celebration of female sexuality? Of Black female sexuality specifically? Or do we continue to teach young women that their value lies in their sexual objectification?”

Great questions, indeed.

In the Black community, with messages of inferiority embedded into the very laws that gov- PG 79 ern this land, it is often a very delicate walk to express one’s power. As noted by Randall Robinson in “The Debt,” often Blacks in the urban environment settle for forms of power such as gaudy jewelry, large rims, huge icons such as the Ralph Lauren logo for his line of clothing to express status. The message seems to be that I too am worthy, I too can obtain the trinkets that deem one valued in this society, I can have what you have. In my childhood, I learned to analyzed by the long held ritual of “playin’ the dozens.” Playing the dozens, another behavior passed down through history from slavery, is the act of finding socially unacceptable styles in dress, mode of talk, tastes in sexual attraction, and for the most part, any sorts of pattern of overt expression that could be made humorous among one’s peer group. As stated in the previous chapter, this act of deeming one’s associates and those within one’s surroundings is not class based. Although much of the ridicule is formulated based on class standards.

“In public the person whose very appearance – including his or her clothing, demeanor, and way of moving, as well as “the crowd” he or she runs with, or family reputation – deters transgressions feels that he or she possesses, and may be considered by others to possess, a measure of respect. Much of the code has to do with achieveing and holding respect. And children learn its rules early.” - Elijah Anderson, ,Code of the Streets, pg. 67

In a country where class standards are often composed in the cauldron of marketing witches attempting to garner financial amenities from the rich, an often too tacit development occurs: we subconsciously covet the trinkets of the upper class. We mimic the behaviors of the white power structure in personality, dress, consumption, and spending practices. Those of us unable to meet the demands of such a psychologically damning invidious comparison are often left to lean on our physicality. The message of Pam Grier’s Coffy and Foxy Brown is that a young Black woman has to use her sexual charms to obtain even a violent retribution. The message of Choice, Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown(the second coming...no pun intended), and even today’s version, Nicki Minaj, is that to obtain the status of wealth so coveted by most of us in a capitalistic society, a young Black woman must be sexually aggressive in dress and demeanor.

This conversation between symbol and symbol receiver has had tremendous effects throughout the Black community. The headline reads,“Blood gang members went to Brook- lyn schools to recruit underage girls as hookers: prosecutors,” and following the story of males entering schools to “turn out” young sisters, aged as young as 15, in several, that means more than one, prostitution ring. If you for one second believe that the symbols don’t encourage the behavior remember that this is Brooklyn, New York, is slightly less than 2,500 miles from Athen Parks, Los Angelos, California, where the original Piru Bloods have been determined to have originated. The symbols of women of influence demanding that a man pay for sexual relations, and the social acceptance of this symbol via purchases of the albums, imitation of the styles of dress by adult women, media attention, and cultural embrace, create a worldview for any young impressionable Black Goddess that the bartering of body for bucks is not only acceptable but possibly a faster road to the trinkets of status so envied among her peers. Couple in the variables of male acceptance and “being down,” and the equation that to be “Black” means to be “street savvy,” and you have an algorithm not too different from the one devised in United States slavery that caused Black women to accept being raped by White men such as Thomas Jefferson as a normal way of life.