Real Niggazz are Wannaa-bee Gangstazz

Football is a violent sport. No doubt it plays into the gladiator blood sport mythos of days gone by. It’s also BIG business. I’ve heard that the current labour dispute between the owners and players is at the root, really about how to divvy up $9 billion is yearly revenue… basically the owners want a larger share of that pie!

Anywayzz, I like many others, mainly watch the NFL on Sundays to see the BIG hit… and, I like many others, watch our local sportscast to see the BIG hits in the other games we didn’t/couldn’t watch… and, there’s no BIGGER hitter in my (our) beloved NFL than James Harrison, linebacker with the Pittsburg Steelers.

James has created some controversy with his interview in the upcoming August Men’s Journal magazine (see here). People are “up in arms” (is this a bad pun I wonder?… lol!) about comments he made about racism in the league, comments about the commissioner Roger Goodell, including referring to him as a “faggot”, comments about his teammates, as well as levelling accusations against other players. The truth of the matter is that we live in the “age of instant but fleeting celebrity”… and the more outrageous and controversial you can be, the longer you can stretch out your allotted 15 minutes of fame… maybe to 30 minutes… and if you’re really luckily, a couple of news cycles!

As a football fan, I found the article to be interesting. No better or worse than most that I have read. However, what made me “shake my head” in disgust was the above photo, with the caption, James Harrison: Confessions of an NFL Hitman. What troubles me most, is as a police officer, that image only re-enforces a stereotype that places Black men is danger… and as a conscious and conscientious Black man (also bald with a little muscle) and father of a young Black son, that image only re-enforces a stereotype that places my son and I in danger… primarily from my gun-toting police brethren!

As Black men, we need to move beyond this gangster mentality… and I don’t just mean rappers, reggae dancehall artists and sports figures… and I’m not only talking to the our young Black men. I’m talking about and to all of us! This fascination of being (seen as) the hardest and wickedest, the Al Pacino “baad guy” persona is not only self-destructive, more significantly, it’s childish!

Also if you are so baad as you want people to believe , then why all the whining the next day that you were misquoted, your comments were taken out of context, making clarifications, apologies and statements that your comments and slurs weren’t meant to be derogatory against “whatever” group (see here).

Bad Up and Man Up! Stand By What You Say or Shut The Fuck Up! You can’t be misquoted and taken out of context if you keep your mouth shut! And you certainly can’t be a gangster and a whiner at the same time!

The only “real niggazz” I know are “wannaa-bee gangstazz”.

Enough is Enough demonstration outside of BET executive’s home

Tags

Activism, African-Americans, BET, Black pride, Business, Culture, Enough is Enough, Entertainment, gangsta crap

Update: Noted Activist Dick Gregory joined campaign supporters on September 22. Supporters are determined to rally until changes are made in the way media portrays African Americans and all people of color. We were joined last week by a bus of supporters from Long Island, New York led by Rev. Roger Williams, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Glen Cove.

For more information visit the Enough is Enough website.

Black Bloggers Are Sick of BET and ‘Gangsta Crap’ Music

(New York): Black Bloggers have united to battle mainstream music and entertainment fat-cats who profit off the stereotypical, sexist, and racist exploitation of African American people. Their main targets are Black Entertainment Television (BET), who they call ‘Black Exploitation Television’, and gangsta rappers such as 50cent, Snoop Dog, The Game, and Cam’ron. These artists produce music bloggers have branded ‘gangsta crap’.

Gangsta rap regularly glorifies sexism, the n-word, profanities, violence, drug use and dealing, sexism, and the dehumanization of Black men and women. Gangsta rap videos and stereotype-filled shows are the programming staples
of BET.  “BET and hip hop have gone down hill. They were once inspirations. Now they purvey some of the most harmful anti-Black sentiments you will ever see or hear, and this has become a representation of mainstream Black culture,” says Bronze Trinity of the Afrosphere Bloggers Association (ABA). ABA is coordinating the Afrosphere Accurate Images campaign against BET and gangsta rap.

ABA member, Wayne Hicks criticized, “BET was an inspirational idea when it was first created. Tremendous shows providing news and information for the Black community. Today, BET is an embarrassment for the Black community. It
is something that we hide from our children. Enough is enough”.

ABA bloggers want widespread changes in the television and music entertainment industries. They want BET to stop airing videos where half-naked women are objectified, Black men are shown as ‘thugs’ and ‘pimps’, and street violence, illegal drugs, and gang activity is glorified.

They want the n-word and sexist epithets to be be censored when children under 18 are likely to be watching. ABA also wants radio stations to stop playing racist, violent, and sexist music, for mainstream record labels and artists to stop producing such music, and for positive/conscious hip hop to become the mainstream. “It’s time to rise above the corrupted caricatures painted onto the Black community, and reach within ourselves with self love and respect”, says ABA blogger Daz Wilson.

However the bloggers understand the fine line between artistic expression and free speech. Carole took a pledge against racist and sexist hip hop on her blog but stated, “I believe that artists and performers are free to speak their own minds. I’m not against free speech. But honestly, I wish there are folks who were a bit more responsible in their speech to kids because most kids are pretty undiscerning”.

The non-profit blogger group is battling media executives and multi-millionaire artists using internet activism in the form of blogs, message boards, email, and online petitions. On the ABA website http://solutionsforourpeople.wordpress.com, the group suggests taking a pledge against sexist and racist hip hop, buying conscious hip hop from artists like Common, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli, advertising conscious artists on blogs, and requesting more radio play time for these artists. They also
provide anti-BET stickers, instructions to boycott radio, television, and website sponsors, and numerous petitions so bloggers can show their support.

This is not just an American concern according to ABA member Adrianne, “Living overseas allows one to see how influential American pop culture is. Even in Sweden I see the young kids listening to and emulating the hip hop performers. Black artists do not need to export negative images of Black women around the world”. Other international members have reported stereotypes and negative behaviors caused by gangsta hip hop and television programming that is broadcast around the world.

ABA strongly supports recent activism of other groups such as What About Our Daughters blog, the Enough is Enough Campaign, and the National Action Network’s Day of Outrage Against the Music Industry. “The time has come for
us to take back our image and for Black people to accept responsibility for the role they play in denigrating our own image,” proposed Bronze Trinity.

Contact Information: The Solutions Blog
http://solutionsforourpeople.wordpress.com
Bronze Trinity at bronzetrinity@hotmail.com
Adrianne at http://blackwomenineurope.blogspot.com/
Carole at http://www.darkparables.blogspot.com
Daz Wilson at http://www.ultravioletunderground.com
Wayne Hicks at http://electronicvillage.blogspot.com/

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