"since the end of the postwar economic boom, certain strategies have been intensified to stimulate consumption, especially strategies aimed at american youth that project sexual activity as instant fulfillment and violence as the locus of machismo identity. this market activity has contributed greatly to the disorientation and confusion of american youth, and those with less education and fewer opportunities bear the brunt of this cultural chaos. ought we to be surprised that black youths isolated from the labor market, marginalized by decrepit urban schools, devalued by alienating ideals of euro-american beauty, and targeted by an unprecedented drug invasion exhibit high rates of crime and teenage pregnancy?my aim is not to provide excuses for black behavior or to absolve blacks of personal responsibility. but when the new black conservatives accent black behavior and responsibility in such a way that the cultural realities of black people are ignored, they are playing a deceptive and dangerous intellectual game with the lives and fortunes of disadvantaged people. we indeed must criticize and condemn immoral acts of black people, but we must do so cognizant of the circumstances into which people are born and under which they live."
-c. west
This is an excerpt from Cornel West's Race Matters, which I am nearly finished reading and will forever be trying to understand. Cornel first struck my attention when I saw him being interviewed on The Tavis Smiley Show (which, if you haven't watched, you should--check PBS), and has not lost it yet; indeed, not even a bit. His shrewd words give me chills--how much truth he speaks in the most abrasive of issues. He holds every man and woman accountable for the disadvantages and and misdirection of any other fellow man and woman. He transcends the race issue but buries himself in it. For most of us reading this, we were born and raised upper-middle class white suburban, maybe some minor circumstantial hardship along the way, but nothing we couldn't work our way out of. If you want to know how the rest of the world operates, West is a good man to get you started. I love how this literature can be tied in to the work of some of my favorite hip-hop artists: Mos Def, Common, Talib Kweli, Blackalicious, Pigeon John, Lateef the Truth Speaker, Soul Position--these fellas address the same issues West does, just in a different arena. Skeptical? Check for yourself and you will find that the skepticism only comes from a lust for comfortability in opinion rather than a genuine desire for truth. Peace.
-hvc34
