The 1990’s was, for me, the golden age of hip-hop and rap, I have a hardcore case of New York-in-the-bad-old-days nostalgia, and I love me a music documentary — so the new Netflix documentary on Christopher Wallace AKA Notorious B.I.G. was right up my alley.
It left me sad for two days. Not just for Biggie himself, his family, or his fans, or the loss of his talent. For me, the most interesting thing about the documentary was how it clearly it delineated the tragically narrow path available to young, smart, ambitious and entrepreneurial black boys in low-income, high-crime neighbourhoods.
What a waste of human capital is the drug war. It’s a maddening problem — because just legalising crack or meth or heroin would not help anyone. But every part of the system is set up as an obstacle to boys like Christopher Wallace once was. From an education that is neither interesting nor helpful; to the legal economy which makes it difficult to hire young, low-skill kids and give them an honest starting point into the workforce — opportunities to harness their hustle are lost. All those street smarts, all that drive, is kept firmly underground — where it then does enormous harm. To the boys themselves, to their communities, and eventually to the wider society.
Liberal obsession with “systemic racism” being the cause of this dire situation just doesn’t cut it. (And if you find this statement challenging, don’t take my word for it. Check out the plethora of black critics of the term, like Thomas Sowell, Glenn Loury, Coleman Hughes, Candace Owens and more.)
Most of all, because of the overwhelming tendency among the left of the Democratic Party to treat capitalism as though it were a steaming pile of horse manure stinking up the place, as opposed to the engine of creativity and prosperity that it actually is, the (mostly white) liberal left have a message that is totally uninteresting to young people (especially working class young people of colour) who explicitly want to get rich. Also, by pushing a government solution, liberals and the left are ignoring that it’s a problem of capital and the fundamental inability of ambitious working class kids to access it. On the other side, a traditional conservative ,judgemental, lock-em-approach is clearly not fixing the problem either. And the devastation is immense.
Of all the very, very terrible things about our debased political conversation right now the worst is that it is a huge blockade standing in the way of non-ideological, innovative thinking about this problem.
I would love to see an intelligent economic approach to this (as opposed to a social or political one), so we don’t lose more lives, talent and business savvy to the scourge of the narcotics economy. RIP Biggie.
Jenny, You would probably enjoy the recent interview of Sonnie Johnson by Thaddeus Russell on his podcast Unregistered. Her insights on capitalism in black neighborhoods and the role Hip Hop has played are very well aligned with your sentiments above.
For what it’s worth one of those guys is completely into cryptocurrency, seems from his Twitter that’s his main focus and not Truth. Sonny Johnson retweets Bernice King who is part of the Black Greek Society like her father MLK, who was most likely Boule too. These people have an agenda and generally it’s not the truth. It’s all an intellectual trap. Ever look into the Elaine Massacre or how Fred Hampton was killed? That’s a bit more enlightening. There’s a distinct group holding the Black Community down, figure that out and you open some doors.
Searching for "Truth" is like panning for gold. You find it where you find it, but you have to use your own mind to pick it out from amongst the dross - because it never comes pre-formed into nice, convenient bars . . . We all have our blind spots and flaws, and brilliance is always mixed in with foolishness. The point is to listen to as many people who come from places different from oneself and be prepared to spot those little shiney little flecks of insight for what they are: a pinprick of insight. The most anti-intellectual and anti-human aspect of individuals seized by this "woke" mania is this fixation on discrediting the whole person, rather than finding the good in them. It's this fixation on purity that keeps a person ignorant, stagnant, and stuck in a bubble.
I disagree, I think you can easily discredit whole people easily like Biden, Clinton, Gaga. Personally I think you guys are stuck in your minds. I feel a great disgust from the three things mentioned above and I examine why I have that feeling.
I listened to that interview over the weekend -- Sonnie Johnson is a revelation! What a great thinker she is. I will be following her more closely from now on, thank you!
I'm so very glad! It was a revelation to me, because (personally speaking), if I had only known to start with that she is an enthusiastic Trump supporter, I might have once been inclined to write her off . . . but then I would have been deprived of hearing her insights about Hip Hop and the cultural and economic implications of that movement . . . so many patterns she was pointing up line up perfectly with observations I've heard from many a expert on, for example, the podcast EconTalk hosted by economist Russ Roberts.
Sonnie - just like all the rest of us human beings - is a "plural" (meaning, she is much more than first meets the eye, as every single human being is); and we've all got to get better at listening carefully to the people we do not 100% agree with: More on that in this conversation between Irshad Manji and Bret Weinstein, for anyone who's interested: https://youtu.be/8L9uFRAvrGI
Thank you for the recommendation -- I've downloaded it and will listen tomorrow. I've heard about Sonnie Johnson, but I haven't heard her interviewed yet. Sounds exactly what I'm looking for!! 👌
That’s a crazy game, but you can figure it out. Listen to the difference between say Biggie and Tupac and the clown show that is Dre, Snoop and ultimately Eminem. Then figure out who started gangster rap and why. Some people master that game, others are pretty much what could be called bottoms. Going Back to Cali is a hard song, guy left a gift to the world.
Jenny, You would probably enjoy the recent interview of Sonnie Johnson by Thaddeus Russell on his podcast Unregistered. Her insights on capitalism in black neighborhoods and the role Hip Hop has played are very well aligned with your sentiments above.
For what it’s worth one of those guys is completely into cryptocurrency, seems from his Twitter that’s his main focus and not Truth. Sonny Johnson retweets Bernice King who is part of the Black Greek Society like her father MLK, who was most likely Boule too. These people have an agenda and generally it’s not the truth. It’s all an intellectual trap. Ever look into the Elaine Massacre or how Fred Hampton was killed? That’s a bit more enlightening. There’s a distinct group holding the Black Community down, figure that out and you open some doors.
Searching for "Truth" is like panning for gold. You find it where you find it, but you have to use your own mind to pick it out from amongst the dross - because it never comes pre-formed into nice, convenient bars . . . We all have our blind spots and flaws, and brilliance is always mixed in with foolishness. The point is to listen to as many people who come from places different from oneself and be prepared to spot those little shiney little flecks of insight for what they are: a pinprick of insight. The most anti-intellectual and anti-human aspect of individuals seized by this "woke" mania is this fixation on discrediting the whole person, rather than finding the good in them. It's this fixation on purity that keeps a person ignorant, stagnant, and stuck in a bubble.
I disagree, I think you can easily discredit whole people easily like Biden, Clinton, Gaga. Personally I think you guys are stuck in your minds. I feel a great disgust from the three things mentioned above and I examine why I have that feeling.
I listened to that interview over the weekend -- Sonnie Johnson is a revelation! What a great thinker she is. I will be following her more closely from now on, thank you!
I'm so very glad! It was a revelation to me, because (personally speaking), if I had only known to start with that she is an enthusiastic Trump supporter, I might have once been inclined to write her off . . . but then I would have been deprived of hearing her insights about Hip Hop and the cultural and economic implications of that movement . . . so many patterns she was pointing up line up perfectly with observations I've heard from many a expert on, for example, the podcast EconTalk hosted by economist Russ Roberts.
Sonnie - just like all the rest of us human beings - is a "plural" (meaning, she is much more than first meets the eye, as every single human being is); and we've all got to get better at listening carefully to the people we do not 100% agree with: More on that in this conversation between Irshad Manji and Bret Weinstein, for anyone who's interested: https://youtu.be/8L9uFRAvrGI
Thank you for the recommendation -- I've downloaded it and will listen tomorrow. I've heard about Sonnie Johnson, but I haven't heard her interviewed yet. Sounds exactly what I'm looking for!! 👌
That’s a crazy game, but you can figure it out. Listen to the difference between say Biggie and Tupac and the clown show that is Dre, Snoop and ultimately Eminem. Then figure out who started gangster rap and why. Some people master that game, others are pretty much what could be called bottoms. Going Back to Cali is a hard song, guy left a gift to the world.