This Black History Month 2011 is the second I've witnessed with a black man in office as president of the United States. With that alone, my spirit and outlook is positive. I recognize the achievement on a daily basis and use it as motivational fuel.
I also am keen to point out that whippings of mass distractions linger and hover over positive ground, thus robbing the moment from many of what to actually do in this time. Yes, the time is great, yet the time is narrow. The African diaspora screams for its recognition and maintenance. People have the access to connect in better ways than ever. Thus, the time is now.This is my 19th year speaking to universities, town halls, youth organizations and (unfortunately) prisons. I have used my so-called celebrity status to reach masses with a message of positive direction, while illuminating truth, dispelling myth and liberating inner confidence in one's self. I point people toward the teachings that exist already and tell human beings they have choices of belief.
My topics of discussion are in four areas: Rap, Race, Reality and Technology. Whether black, white or purple, these aspects surround the mind-set of people swept in through the portal of hip-hop and rap culture. The understandings are being lost between the high speed of access and the massive blizzard of both true and false data and information.
Rap, race and reality was the subtitle of my first book, 'Fight the Power,' in 1997. These subjects were the underlying themes of the book, a manifesto, not an autobiography as some thought.
Chuck D on Black History Month
In 1984, I was the first so-called rap artist to graduate from college, three years before I became a professional artist.
My major was design, my minor communications, and in between the two were the bridge areas of advertising, marketing, branding, technology and the study of propaganda.
Although a different world back then, there were things in the air that led people to believe in stereotype and myth rather than the accounting of reality. Through the music of Public Enemy, my partners were able to assemble a blast of sound: Sight, imagery and ideology came through a new portal of largely ignored and fought-against rap and hip-hop culture.
I fast-forward this essay into the second decade of this new century and millennium. The blizzard of mass distraction has added two more generations to witness the wagging of the dog. The dropping of the cultural guard has led to a ball confusion, where many believe the hype of definition from the outside in the interest of consumption and business, which eventually leads them in to individualistic behavior that abandons collectivism and community life.
My word here is that real people do real things. Celebrity has become the new drug of America and the illusional dependency of black people in America. My opinion has always put celebritydom in its proper context, not above teachers, parents, community and even politicians. Preachers and church officials should also note their status is only a sliver away from so-called celebrity, because the purpose should be to serve the people while pointing to better self-confidence in themselves, not basking in the false light.
There are a myriad number of reasons that black males in prison have gone from 100,000 in 1970 to 1.7 million today. That acceleration has sped up with the lack of opportunity but is also coupled with a lack of education, limiting their ability to recognize what present opportunities actually exist for each of them.
Black males are sandwiched between the basic community skills of the past and the virtual building of the present and future. At the same time, they are allured by the wants of a fly crib to live in and a great flat-screen TV to watch and play on (the results of a trained consumer). Their increasing drop-out rates are blown by the 50- to- 100-year dreams of being an athlete or an entertainer. This crazy pattern of consumption has put these statistically unrealistic aspirations on steroids. Men and women have been duped in to spending more time chasing the design of their outsides in fashion, looks and hair care while the current pop/celebrity culture has hijacked the need to concentrate on the inside.
With President Barack Obama and the first lady and family being barraged by many who lack knowledge and a grasp of recent history, there are false expectations and even conspiracy theories by our own people. I ask human beings to dig in to their minds hearts and souls at this time to think and feel above the mess.
The speed and efficiency of technology threaded with culture has duped many of us in to believing that reality TV is real. Reality TV has depicted black people in a very untrue stereotype that many believe and rely on for confidence and direction.
Social networks, mobile gadgets, video games and the Internet and cable programming have to be under your head not over it. If you don't master technology, you either have to ignore it completely or it will master you. These social media are often used to replace what people lack in their concrete human life. So, to put it in perspective, it is time to connect to the awaiting Diaspora to spread love, skills and opportunity, before the rest of the diaspora start to really believe the myths we presently believe and have been fed.
I conclude this by saying to the cultural community that portal and platform building and maintenance is a key beyond merely creating and delivering content. At the same time, being able to identify the mysterious individuals that okay these images and rhetoric behind the scenes of remaining major record companies, radio syndicates and disguised community TV like BET, will hopefully limit the one-sidedness in programming.
The Internet can be a teachable example. I have involved myself for over 12 years in the longest-running web artist supersite,
www.publicenemy.com, and an independent digital record company,
www.SLAMjamz.com, with 50 artists since 2001.
And most recently,
www.Hiphopgods.com, a dedicated supersite where CLASSIC Rap Lives On!, and an all-women rap portal called
www.SHEmovement.com, in partnership with MC Lyte, encourages creativity and business autonomy with females in hip-hop.
Websites such as these will hopefully stop our culture from being the virtual abuse rod of business this past 25 years. Hip-hop and rap music are a wonderful cultural connector. We should not allow its true, well-rounded and diverse definition to be hijacked.-- By Chuck D
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Sunday, February 6th 2011 at 1:07PM
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