The Commodification of N_gger

As soon as I heard it , I immediately turned it off .

It took me all the way back to the first time I heard it because it's something that you never forget every is a star .

The Jamaican cult classic that was sampled on Kendrick Lamar's Wesley Terry and also opening up moonlight one of the best films of the 21st century .

I ain't even joking with you right now .

But did you know that this song was made in tandem with a classic Caribbean film by the same name ?

Black people tend to romanticize the seventies .

One reason because of that is because it was in the sixties .

And another reason is that blackness , the idea and concept of blackness was finally democratized .

We were finally able to be the author of our own destiny to a certain extent , no longer was Black excellence monopolized by the talented 10th .

We could aspire to be anything that we wanted to be to a certain degree .

And I mention all of these caveats because there's one thing , one word in particular that is held on to its intrinsic value and that is the word must be that censorship that the American , right ?

Keep talking about despite the worth of this word being tied to its context , in particular , it tantalizes the tongue and echoes in the ale the taboo of this word has rendered its scarce .

And with scarcity comes commodification and commodification doesn't only mean physical money .

You know , it could actually relate to privilege .

You may have heard of this industrious young man selling N word passes to his colleagues and I don't even have to be like that .

It could actually relate to social currency in particular circles among the racist , right .

I mean among the racist white Freudian slip , um it could be a way to identify with your fellow ilk by saying the N word and among sweet people who are darker than blue , it could be a way to express a term of endearment nowadays because she just gave me a PTSD flash back to the time that I got gate kept from saying the N word .

Yes , me , you know , apparently I need to go and buy an N word pass from old boy because you know , despite my current situation , I can't say the N word , a uniform face of unfettered terror fill the room , even my own .

Wait , you know , I need this story .

Could put me in this story will create a lot of tension in the foreign household because I put my gal business on front street .

Yet again , it was apparent that I did something wrong but let me tell you why I get there in the first place .

It's freshman year , me and my gal going into this kick box .

Now I is a bohemian and my gal is African American .

So there's some cultural differences between us .

So an effort to quell some of these differences and kill two proverbial birds with one proverbial stone .

My girl thought it would be good to introduce me , you know , her foreign man to her friends at this kickback , which will simultaneously introduce me to the American pastime of , of kicking back and let me let you in on a little secret about foreign , you know , um although I might seem very affable and I am , I am definitely , you know , a people's person , I am also a inveterate misanthrope .

I do not like people .

They are selfish .

Most of their character flaws make themselves very apparent after about a 30 minute conversation and I'm , I'm ready to dip after that , I'd much rather be at home in my drawers with crumbs adorning my chest watching Netflix or or even dying for the 10th time in Tara .

So in my mind , this is the best scenario I stay there for 30 minutes .

She sip her wine , get wine drunk and then I have an excuse to take her home or at worse , her foreign mom embarrasses her and leaves a lasting impression on our friends thus making us dating difficult naturally .

Murphy's law picked the lotto the four reverberated with Asap Fer's work which foreshadowed the complete opposite that absolutely no work was getting done in this household .

I opened the door and I was quickly greeted by an amalgamated aroma of polo , red and red weave .

However , I was somewhat elated because after a whole week of the first of classes , when the only people around me was pink , I was finally around people that looked like me .

Look being the operative word .

I was immediately as soon as I walked in because you have to understand when I'm not in an Adidas tracksuit , I look like Carlton but a fresh , you know , hey , you can't tell me I wasn't fresh big man .

Listen , you cannot style a Caribbean .

One thing Caribbean man could do is dress .

However I stuck out like a dog that lost his favorite tennis ball when he stuck his head out the window .

But once we started talking and you know , they got to know me Tang was getting a little bit better until I made an attempt to be funny .

You know , I , I would think that I'm funny .

I , you agree that I'm funny , right ?

Ok .

But you know , when you try to be funny , you know , that's , that's , that's the problem , you know , that , that , that don't go over so well , I was telling a story just like this one and I said the word , everyone looked like I killed each of their dog respectively , like took him outside , took them in the box and took them out all yellow style .

And at first I thought that they were just shocked by my adept storytelling until a woman stood up and said , uh uh mm mm You can't say that .

Genuinely curious .

I , I asked her , you know , I say , what can't I say ?

And she said , you can't say , and I was like , how , how you mean ?

I cannot say it .

I just said it .

Then she said that I am not allowed .

I say , well mother like how you gonna tell me that I ain't allowed to say it .

I know this is America .

I know this is a free speech .

She said that it don't sound right coming out of my mouth .

And then another fellow backed her up and then said , yeah , it gave me the same feeling as when a white man says it , I look at them , then I look at my home , then I look back at them in disbelief .

So all my life , I must have been white .

I'm just thinking that I was blocked all of these documents that saying that I'm blocked is false .

So when I get pulled over the next time , I could just tell them , I say so you made a mistake .

I am also of the by get persuasion and my girl quickly adorned her cape and came to my rescue saying that they're just not used to hearing it in your accent that I could understand .

But then another girl came and quickly interject talking about .

No , you can't say it because you're not a , I say what ?

I'm a , the girl say African descendant of slavery .

I say , what do you think ?

I descend from a tree ?

This goes back to my conversation on how African Americans have monopolized the right to grieve over racism .

And that's a topic that I am much obliged to discuss at length if you would like .

So just let me know in the comment that you should be submitting way in offering to the Almighty algorithm along with your likes and of course , watching the video all the way from start to finish .

Don't play with me today .

It hot .

It's 90 degrees in here .

It hot .

I but the right to even say the N word is a commodity .

So apart from the obvious concept that our commodity themselves in slavery , of course , let's look at the first instance of commercialized in minstrel seat .

Oh my leg , my leg , Jesus Christ .

He sitting in the office , my leg fall asleep .

Oh Jesus , I leave the bathroom .

5128 .

Oh God .

Ok .

OK .

All right .

I anyway , America , the land of the free and the home of homegrown terrorism , the burgeoning hegemon of the new world with one apparent goal to be everything that their colonial forefathers weren't .

But in pursuit of this goal , they had a few prodigious potholes and one of them was actually is their deep infatuation and commitment to white supremacy , which manifested in many ways .

One of which is minstrel C and Carl book Tombo and Bones from the 19 thirties .

What it made the bold claim that the only purely native form of entertainment and the only distinctive American contribution to theater was the Negro minstrel by them .

To think that America's only true contribution to theater is the racist party of black people .

My God , that's powerful .

The luu the exaggerated features , the humor , the dress white people were .

And for the most part still are titillated by not black people in particular , but the a stereotype .

But it mentions that many of the famous minstrel men were northern born and red or foreign born immigrant , white men who had almost no first time knowledge of Negros manner of life .

This boasts the notion that was a travesty , a black avatar that white people had made in their own heads .

But they didn't stop at theater now .

Oh gosh , no one .

Listen .

The demand for minstrel c was far too big to be circumscribed to the stage .

So what did they do to solve this problem ?

Minstrel radio shows ?

Yes .

Big man and women and non-binary folk in the twenties , you literally had two white men course playing us in this gotta be the cool runnings equivalent to white people bastardizing African American vernacular English .

This almost an and show was so popular that it became the longest running show in broadcast history , even President Coolidge Eisenhower Truman , all of them say that they love the show which brings me to the part that literally tore my mouth open wider than your date leg .

After you take them to the VIP room .

A CBS wanted to cash out on this minstrelsy wave .

So they say they wanna bring Amos and Andy to television in 1950 .

The one and good news , they didn't want an all white cast this time .

So , hey , is looking up black people finally get to commoditize their own culture for once an instance where white people aren't telling black people stories and no black face , you know this , this looks great .

Right .

Right .

You do CBS one of the black actors to stay as close and as faithful to the initial interpretation of the show as possible , so much so that they got the original white artists to come on set to give the black actors direction .

They had white people telling black people how to be like white people acting as black people .

Jesus Christ wears my tea .

Listen , I have never seen in this in my 26 years by far by far , this was the first commodification of no in America's turbulent journey to actually living up to the credo that it's so boastfully clean .

It is clear that in the credo of equality , um America doesn't quite meet the mark , which makes one wonder if the founding fathers ever thought that black people should be considered equal .

You know , at least don't put it in the founding documents .

Like , you know , all the rest of the other countries .

Like if you say that you could do it , then why , you know , you didn't even have to say it .

Imagine being Black in America .

Like like why , why would you ?

So anyway , slavery is abolished and you're experiencing freedom for the first time .

I'm much like people who go off to college and experience freedom for the first time .

You don't really know what to do with your freedom .

So many black people didn't know how to be free .

You know , some of them actually missed the confines of , but the majority of them shut off their shackles and jived on to , I mean , um freedom .

But as time went on , you know , black people began to realize that , hey , you know , it might be me , but I don't feel as free as Fred over there .

I , you know , it might just be me .

I don't know what it is .

Hm .

Might be the whole Jim Crow thing that , you know , going on in the States .

I don't know to them .

Black people said I'm going to show my displeasure in the system by not abiding by the system .

And thus that white America loved in minstrelsy turned into the one that they love to hate in militancy .

The long hot summer of 67 riots in Atlanta Buffalo , Cairo , Cambridge Cincinnati Detroit milk was carrying on badly and the efficacy of rioting is debatable because the very things that we were writing about then we are still writing about now .

Yet , if the white establishment refuses to listen to peaceful protests , then I mean , what other choice of recourse ?

Is there more of the minstrel ?

He was pissing off black people .

It was the denial and refusal of the America that they saw other white Americans living .

So this sudden uprising of black political activism change the perception that white Americans had of black people .

And let's do a little empathy exercise right now just to put yourself in this shoes of the white people at that time around 67 things like that you had race riots going on almost every other day that some , you know Malcolm X , the Nation of Islam , the very fist that the pretty boy used to punch people up with is now a black fist in solidarity of Black power .

You know , that's scary .

You know what if , what if Ali hit me ?

So white people were very wary of , you know , this black power movement and this movement towards civil rights .

And it didn't take long for Hollywood to translate that fear into an entire genre , talking about political Black America .

Then you had the war on Black , I mean the war on drugs coming up in , you know , the early seventies when visibility of the militant black man was at its a the public perception of was transformed from the happy go lucky African American that made you laugh to the violent and aggressive black man that you would see on the news .

But the true pernicious power of this trope is not that it affected how white people perceived black people in America , but how black people began to even internalize these stigmas .

The idea being that well , if America is gonna see me as this militant malefactor , then I might as well do it .

And this wasn't the case for every black American a great deal of inner city youth that grew up in the context of the stigma took it to heart .

Imagine the backdrop of your formative years as a black child being cops .

The likelihood of an impoverished household with an absent father because that is the trope of the black family that a lot of Americans subscribe to even black Americans themselves .

So some black people embraced the villain which brought us to this new edition of the gangster .

Above all else , black people really just want to be heard .

But the white establishment had either turned their ears or translated their cries and screams into violence .

So to overcome this black people turn to something that they've relied upon to cope and to communicate for all of their history stories , most notably music back in the days of slavery .

Negro spirituals was much of a coping mechanism as it was a method of disseminating information wade in the water , encouraged escaping slaves to evade sniffing dogs by jumping in the water .

So this method of storytelling and music translated into gangster rap .

Rap is synonymous with black culture .

And like I said in the video on Lee Scratch Perry rap originated from Sound Sister culture in Jamaica and then found its way to the streets of New York .

But the west coast rapper Ice Cube is the paragon of gangster rap .

He essentially saw what he was doing as an extension of the militancy that the Black Panthers were .

Gangster rap was a method of political activism .

I know it might not always sound like this , but N W A S music was extremely political .

The profane chants against police set the tone for the refrain of a cob or defund the police today .

However , somewhere along the lines , we lost the plot much like how horror films are entertainment that scares you .

Gangster rap became entertainment to scare white people .

The target demographic of gangster rap shifted from inner city youth to white people that were titillated by black culture .

It became an extension of shows like cops where the same black man that adorned the hood of a broke down .

Honda was also the angry black man with sagging pants that rapped about drugs and crime .

White America continues to come modify the concept of Doctor Dre is known as the architect for gangster rap with a lot of his instrumentals being the backing for many of the most prolific and influential and seminal gangster rap rappers , gangster rappers in the west coast at that time and in his defense of gangster rap , he claimed America loves violence .

America is obsessed with murder .

I think murder sells a lot more than sex .

They say sex cells .

I think murder cells .

You don't hardly ever hear anybody hollering about Oliver Stone or Martin Scorsese or Clint Eastwood and all the violence in their work .

To me , the records and the videos that we make are just pure entertainment .

And the fact that N W A S album became the fastest selling record in the country with no radio play is pretty much all the proof that you need America loves but understand the distinction they love so much that making one or two of them rich in the process of piing them is just a casualty of war that doubles as a defense of the all American dream that they always talk about .

All these ball players keep saying they're oppressed yet they're rich .

Must be that old systemic racism in American dream .

I keep hearing about him suing you out white tin sagging their punts and reciting very violent and criminal gangster rap lyrics .

And then you throw snoop dogg's doggy style into the mix .

You now added this womanizing trait into the concept of which also allowed for the dehumanization of black women just like the times of slavery .

I already talked about how colonizers hyper sexualized Jamaican women as a way of justifying their subjugation .

So while gangster rappers thought that they were being also political , they were just a of representations of Amos and Andy .

And honestly , the sad part is that we're still pretty much here at this very point in time .

I mean , we pretty much juggle between different amalgamations of these tropes .

Sure , there's people that wear the cart and attire that give rise to the affluent black but the resurgence of protests and riots , I mean , we're pretty much just juggling between militants and gangster .

But the saddest part about this entire video is that we have a symbiotic relationship with the concept of think of how many shows like blackish exist , think of how much of black culture is to create commodities for White America .

When I drive down into the college town in Iowa , they ain't playing Chris Stapleton or um Stel Simpson .

You know , they play in Travis , Scott and Kanye West and the optimist in me says that this is a great thing .

We can com modify our culture and share it with the world white people included as it should be .

But the pessimist in me shines a spotlight on every laugh that I've given to a white person .

It makes me wonder if I'm their jester , if I'm the , the way that they all huddle around me waiting on my next foreign musing .

Am I just the Caribbean version of , is this really a talent ?

Is this really a power or is it a priority ?

Who knows ?

And for would say who cares ?

But all I know is you need a top dot If you ain't see that yet because that articulates pretty much the bastardization of Caribbean culture , especially by Americans top dot Right now , if you ain't see that yet , I can see it here .