Seriously, What is a sell out?

I think that everyone has their own definition of what the term means, but I think it means selling a part of yourself and the people around you for gains that might actually hurt others.

Emmanuel I like what you wrote. But can I add something as well. I view a sellout like a "uncle tom" a bloodsucker of our community. A spook who wants to please master, just to get the crumbs off the table. A ignorant person who can't see the big picture but only their self pity gains. A sellout exemplifies the "crab in the barrel" mentality. A sellout is a person who not only left the community but sticks his nose at the people who are "trapped" there.

I was just talking to my grandmother yesterday about sellouts, so this blog is ironic. We were actually talking about rap artist who are sellouts. So in that aspect, when you decide or let society or someone else decide that it is ok to degrade yourself, someone else, or a group of people for money you are a sell out. When you forget or don't take the time to learn your history to empower yourself you are a sellout. When you climb up the latter and don't give back to those that are less fortunate than you and look down on others who aren't doing so well you are a sellout.

I have to agree whole heartedly with Emmanuel.

Kenneth you touch on a couple of things that in my opinion have different definitions. Like the crabs in the basket mental- I don't think fits the sell-out definition- this is people trying to pull someone that has found some form of success down or make them feel bad because of it.
Your last sentence I think is on point.

Che- I agree with you also.

I thank everyone that has commented on this topic. I asked because if those people that choose to vote for Obama and he wins, if they do not get what they were hoping for from him. Would they then call him a sell-out?

A sellout to me is someone who willingly gives up their identity, values, and beliefs to fit into a group, society, or world they normally wouldn't fit into being who they really are. A sellout does not necessarily sellout for money.

http://blackinamerica.com/cgi-bin/blog.cgi... It's was Craig and read his entire paragraph. He meant you 'uninformed, politically uneducated' people. Is he a sellout?

Under the system of Racism (White Supremacy) no non-white person can "sell out" another non-white person for any reason, because the truth is that none of us, even own ourselves enough to do it. I know that it sounds crazy, but you have to really think about what it is that I am saying here. When we think of the words "sell out", we think of the "house negro" or the "uncle tom" characters, right? Ok, lets analyze for a moment, exactly what we are talking about. We are talking about a non-white person who supports the slave master's efforts to keep his plantation in working order. Any time the "house negro" finds something that massa does not like, he labors to make it right for massa. And massa rewards him for it. Right? but, the "house negro" is still a slave to massa and massa never lets him forget it, and at the same time deceives the "house negro" to believe that he is "better" than the other slaves, because he gets rewards from massa that the "field negroes" are not entitled to. Alot of us WANT to be the "field negro" never realizing that we support massa every day here on the plantation. We strive to be "succesful". You know what "succesful" is. Having all of the things that massa says that we must have (a great job or business, a big house, luxary car, lots of money in the bank, excellent credit score, etc), oh oops, my bad, I apologize I thought that this was my blog for a minute. Bottom line is that today we are all selling out in some form or another, but you really have to look deep befroe you can see it.