Chasing The Cool- Black Men, CNN’s Black in America, and Hip-Hop Culture
For the brother who:
- remembers being a “Black Boy.”
- wanted to be “The Bad Nigga” like Jack Johnson
- feels like he’s America’s “Native Son.”
- is constantly reminded he is an “Invisible Man.”
- lived by B.I.G.’s “Ten Crack Commandments”
- “seen Hoop Dreams deflat like a true fiend’s weight”
- is “Black on Both Sides”
- wanted to be “the coolest nigga”
CNN talked about us, now it’s our turn.
The depiction of Black men in America can be as varied as their life experiences are. While many Black men have formed solidarity, brotherhood, and fraternity as a coping mechanism to fight America’s persistent stereotyping, prejudice, and racism towards them, there are differences in attitude, political thought, and world-view that rigidly and bitterly separate the group just the same (if not more).
CNN’s Black in America documentary did an excellent job of showing the complexity and diversity of the lives and experiences of Blacks in America. Journalist Soledad O’Brien brought out stories of triumphant, failure, joy, and pain. For Blacks in America, the stories of pain and struggle form a thread that we can find in some part of our lives; but for many it makes up the entire of their lives. CNN failed to explain: how we got to this point, why we are at this point, and where do we go from here.
For Black men in America, this is an especially daunting challenge. We as a group have not responded to the challenge of being Black in America as well as Black women have.
Hip-Hop culture and Rap music are not the reason for this. Ludacris, Jim Jones, Young Jeezy, or any other rapper is not the person to blame. However, it is time for us as a community to look at how Black males shape their masculinity.
Popular media has accomplished a quite amazing feat in their chronicles and portrayals of Black men: they have managed to consistently feature him as the most desired, while at the same time as the most feared. He can be the sagging pants, tattooed “thug” the greater public fears; the hyper-athletic, physically imposing “natural” athlete advertisers clamor for; the smooth talking, sharply dressed, handsome “playa;” or eroticized as a “god” because of perfect bone structure, a muscular physique, and a “perfect smile.”
Whether loved or hated, all these qualities translate to one thing: being cool. And in America, a cool Black man is marketable; and mostly importantly, PAID.
Tupac, Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Billy Dee Williams, Will Smith, Tyson Beckford (and the list could go on and on.) All were/are PAID.
However it is Hip-Hop culture, and the life associated with it, that has unquestionably become the most cool. The most important point is that it is seen as cool by young Black men not just because of the lifestyle or the material gains, but because it births economic opportunity. That is the part of the equation so often missed.
And for poor, young Black boys throughout the United States there is no more important objective then making money. So you can move your moms out the hood; so you can take care of your little brother with really bad asthma; so you can get the big house, with the big chain, and the fly car.
Indeed Black men in the 21st century are not just a “Black Boy,” a “Native Son,” an “Invisible Man,” a “brother,” or a “nigga.” These young Black men are trying to become cool. In fact, they are trying to become the coolest.
Thus many Black men in America spend their life chasing The Cool. It is an idea that rapper Lupe Fiasco has brilliantly tackled within his first two albums (through the song, “The Cool” on his 1st album, and by expanding his analyze on his second album entitled Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool). While creating a metaphorical, fictional story, Lupe does speak about a young person striving for a cultural aesthetic that brings fame, acceptance, material wealth, and recognition. In his story, chasing The Cool is apart of contemporary Black urban reality.
And so the question becomes how do we change what The Cool is, and how do we bring new examples of The Cool into the everyday life of Black males?
The beauty of the Black in America documentary is that we saw examples of Black men who are living up to their responsibilities. They are The Cool.
There was Mr. Kennedy (a single father struggling to find employment and housing in Brooklyn, NY), along with several other men from all over the country; ranging from men who were newlyweds, to those who were part of professionally success, middle and upper class Black families.
We need responsible Black men teaching elementary school, as social workers in our community, and as part of the married Black couple that lives in your building and saying “Good Morning” to you on his way to work in the morning.
We need them to be present in Compton and South Central, LA. To be in Brooklyn, NY like Mr. Kennedy. We need these responsible Black role models to be present in inner-city Baltimore, in East St. Louis, in Detroit, in Atlanta; in Liberty City, FL; in Philadelphia, in south-side Chicago, and in New Orleans.
We need Black male role models in our urban Black communities that are filled with high concentrations of Blacks living at or below the poverty live; with schools that are ill-equipped to educate our young people, and filled with administrators that frequently mismanages our school systems; places where jobs that pay a livable wage were hard to come by way before our country’s current economic hardships.
We need those brothers to be on Ebony’s 25 Coolest Black Men of All Time list.
We all as a community need to come together and find ways to make those brothers to become the coolest.
http://michaelpartis.blogspot.com/
michaelpartis@gmail.com
my.rawkus.com/profile/ForeThought
Tags: CNN's Black in America, Ebony's 25 Coolest Black Men of All Time, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool
July 28th, 2008 at 8:54 am
I Agree with you brother but the RAPPERS have a hand in it because they have a platform that people will listen to..It hard to listen to a regular man with a regular job who preaches to do well in school, stay focused..a child will rather listen to rappers who are keeping in REAL….REAL DUMB…but overall we neeed more black people in the trenches working for the good of our people
July 28th, 2008 at 9:03 am
cnn black in america was for everyone but black people…it was all shit that we’ve heard over the years in a nice little package, so we can rehash it…
In my opinion, our biggest problem is conformity. The black community is one of the most conformist, most mainstream groups in society. All the black men in the doc fit neatly into boxes, the black man in the burbs with the “oreo” kids, the ghetto youth with abandoned fathers, everyone going to church…on and on.
What the youth need to see goes beyond “gangbanger bad, lawyer good.” They should’ve talked to the individuals who completely challenged the perception of blackness cause its ultimately the proliferation of the same few images that keeps us from imagining the imaginable…
Show me the artists, the adventurers, the pioneers..Viewers should’ve been able to watch and say “wow i didn’t know black folks were doing that.”
Instead, this doc did nothing but reinforce stereotypes as the mainstream media always has done.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:42 am
CNN’S black in america IMO is just another way to RIDICULE black people. what are we a bunch of circus monkeys that they need to have documentaries on being “black”, like we’re inferior or sumthing. i dont see the point of this documentary, it DOES NOTHING; NOTHING’S GONNA CHANGE!!! all theyre doing is depicting black people in a negative light; shit’s disgusting. I watched it yersterday and they had a piece about some guy that worked in a marketing firm or sum sort, asking him questions like “do you feel like you stand out because you’re black?” WHAT KIND OF BULLSHIT IS THAT??? a man can’t make a living to pay his bills?? do we need to analyze a black man because he has a job in a mostly-white peopole field?? what it seems like CNN is trying to do is make it seem like it’s WEIRD or UNSUAL for a black person to make a proper living in america, thats BS…why the fuck does that need to be talked about like it’s some kind of new phenomenon that a black person has a corportate job.
theyre not in touch with whats really good out there becuz the majority of black people don’t identify with nothing on what’s depicted in that documentary, it’s BS…i want to ask CNN what the real purpose was behind making such documentary…are they trying to make the “black” man’s condition in america better? NO!! they know damn well they can’t; or are they trying to let OTHER WHITE PEOPLE know “hey look at these niggers on TV, theyre nothing but monkeys, let’s laugh at them for a minute…they’re no good broke thugs that make up the majority of the prison system, they don’t take care of their kids, and only 2% of them can get a proper job…that’s what it means to be BLACK IN AMERICA” if you ask me thats EXACTLY what they trying to get across; this shit is nothing more than a modern day minstrel show
July 28th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Cnn did an outstanding job. Didnt feel like sterotypes were reinfored. They were just stating facts. The documentary had to capture an audience of all races, so i didnt expect it to be that much in depth b/c you still wana capture their attention. Dont see many netwoks throwing on a program like this, but somebody gotta always complain. Bottom line the documentary shows that Black people are stuck but a good amount of us are prospering, despite the hand we are delt. This segment touched me and gave me faith to keep pushing harder and im a Black woman. Just really excited to see something other than black bafoonery on tv for about an hour. Thanks Cnn for keeping for putting this out there along with accurate updates on the Obama campaign. Think the program may help him out a little, confirms on alot of points he makes in his campaign.
*but tushae’ on the article above..point taken
July 28th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Agrees w/ #2
July 28th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I’m from Memphis and I stay in a predominantly black neighborhood. I drop out of High School in the 10th Grade cause I was to far behind. So I floated around for the next three years and guess what, I wanted to be a rapper. So I was running saying I was a rapper which as you know isn’t a real job if you aren’t making money from it. So I was talking shit here and talking shit there, and I didn’t give a fuck. I don’t know why but one day I woke up and said fuck all this shit, fuck the hood, fuck rap, and fuck each and every dirty motherfucker here. I went and applied for my GED passed that shit first go round, and since my moms make such low income I qualified for scholarships. Long story short, I’m 20 and going to college in the spring (a University not a community college). And in saying all that you can say I rep my hood and all that bullshit and I’m a rapper, i wanna be superstar but sometimes you just gotta say fuck everybody and do you and better your own self and quit relying on dumb shit.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:39 am
u get it how u live
July 28th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I like wat #2 talking bout
July 28th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
#4.
I commend you on your honesty and hard work. Good luck with college and the future. I am a recent graduate and finding a job in my major, biology, is a bitch.