PG

II

FRWRD

Any critique on the conditions that plague the Black peoples found in the United States of
America is difficult.
The first thing we have to consider is oppressive psychology. What I mean is: how much of
my love for Black people is going into this critique? How much of my disdain for Black people is going into this critique? What am I using to compare and contrast the message with?
How objective should I be knowing that what I write, and for that matter, what anybody
writes for a public audience, will be a form of persuasion? How many of the theories used
are developed from contexts that could be furthering the oppression of Black people? How
academic should I be in expression? What is academic? And more importantly, WHO is
academic?
This idea stems from the thinking of Bobby E. Wright when he critiques Black academics
by writing,Blacks studying themselves rather than their oppressors...Black scientists generally rationalize their investigations as proof to White scientists that Blacks can be scientifically objective. In a neocolonial situation, that is, a situation where Blacks have for
entertainers, influencers of media, those that are paid by white interests. In studying, say,
a pattern like hip-hop and violence in the Black community, I would have to critique NWA.
Now, although I agree that much of what NWA performed was tongue-in-cheek, I do also
realize that as an impressionable youth listening to it, it had an influence. Couple that with
a successful album, thousands of imitators afterward, and you go from Ruthless Records to
Death Row Records. One influential funny album becomes a composite culture that expands the reach of concepts such as captain-save-a-hoe, thug life, money over bitches,
and street credibility. At some point, I, as an analyst, have to address the symptoms in
order to explain how I arrived at the prognosis.
As a wholistic people, that is, as a group of individuals whose culture tends to incorporate
all of the aspects of psychology(subjective, objective, analytical, creative, individualistic,
societal, organic, systemic), not just the particular aspects presented as superior within the
context of a western education(analytical/objective), I offer that Black analysts not only
study symptoms, but the conditions that create them. I do you as the student an injustice
by labeling a Black artist as a culprit if I am unable to explain the conditions, the environment, and the trajectory of that artists works. It is not enough for me to explain that a child
listening to a rapper discussing selling drugs can influence that child to sell drugs. I also
have to give an explanation of the drug culture and why certain drugs are able to be trafficed into an area of close proximity to those children. It would be diligence as a researcher
and concerned adult if I am also able to provide an explaination to you that can describe
the difference and similarities between a child selling crack in the park and a psychiatrist
prescribing Prozac. It would be even more dutiful if I can alert your attention to the fact
that I capitalized Prozac and not crack, and what that means on a socio-political level in a
capitalist economy built by Black labor similar to that of prison labor(actually, prison labor
is slave labor as per the 13th Amendment). It is my belief that the job of the accurate Black
media analyst is to present the details of a message that are often overlooked to the attention of the Black audience, and then to explain not only the effects that these messages have
on Blacks, but also to highlight how the White overstructure creates paradigms in relation
to that which the audience may take for granted.
It is in the understanding that we are a people with a decidedly different dynamic of going
about that I write these essays and attempt to present a template by which to assist a field
that is gravely lacking in Black scholarship for the assistance of Blacks. We are a people in
which word of mouth campaigns are more valued than marketing strategems that cultur-

PG

III

ally separate the consumer from the corporate entity selling the product. We are a people
in which oral explanations of reality are deemed more credible than tomes based on tomes
written by people the reader is supposed to take as an authority simply because so many in
the past have done the same. We are a people that have psychological templates and symbols hidden beneath our subconscious that we have been separated from in such a way that
complete series of comics, cartoons, and horror movies are written based on our anacient
mythos without noticing the patterns collectively. We also are a people that tend to behave
blindly when constructing our arts and media messages as if we dont realize we are building psychological armaments: either for our own protection, or for our own destruction.
This means that the analyst of our culture has the delicate assignment of constructing a
ruler by which to measure and critique with that is not of the present oppressing cultures
crafting. To be able to remove a moralistic elitism from the analysis and to accept that an
empathetic understanding may be necessary to fully dissect the message because a comprehensive understanding may not be possible outside of an experience with the message and
the message reciever.
Are we alright? Are you still following with me?
Alright, yall want me to quote a white person to back up my reasoning, dont you? Eh, you
guys...here ya go:
Writing was one of the original mysteries of civilization, and it reduced the complexities of
experience to the written word. Moreover, writing provides the ruling classes with an ideological instrument of incalculable power. The word of God becomes
an invincible law, mediated by priests; therefore, respond the Iroquois, confronting the European:Scripture was writren by the Devil.
With the advent of writing, symbols became explicit; they lost a certain richness. Mans word was no longer an endless exploration of
reality, but a sign that could be used against him. Sartre, the marxist
existentialist, understands this; it is the hidden theme of his autobiography, Words. For writing splits consciousness in two ways- it becomes more authoritative than talking, thus degrading the meaning
of speech and eroding oral tradition; and it makes it possible to use
words for the political manipulation and control of others. Written
signs supplant memory; an official, fixed and permanent version of
events can be made. If it is writtern, in early civilizations, it is bound to be true. - Stanley
Diamond, In search of the Primitive
In the process of learning to do anything, or more importantly, learning while doing, you
are subject to the forces of error and lack of prescience. As a writer, a media communicator,
a student, web designer, web developer, and just plain human, I have to tackle many various projects without a road map. Those who have been following my thoughts via http://
www.owlasylum.net, and the twitter account (@owlsasylum), know that I can be extremely
persistent in these efforts, and yet, they do come with a price. I wrote this book, and placed
it in the context of a series of books Ive dubbed the Crystal Capsules, to present the
reader with a template that I didnt have while developing my Self. This book, as all of my
writings, are geared toward educating my Self, they are conversations with my Self, as the
capsules on the cover indicate, this is my medicine. These conversations are being offered
to you as a means to avoid the obstacles that I have made, and that I will make. This is not
an autobiography, this is an analysis of Black media, media usage, Black culture and the
historical patterns by which we accept white paradigms via monetary rewards. It is not a
slap on the hands of Black people, I think we have been slapped on the hands too often, and
havent attacked the issues of the mental colonial structure pimping us from within, and
winning from without.

PG

IV

But for some it might feel like someone asking you wipe the spit off your face...
This book is written in a tone that my readers, my support network that we refer to as Asylum, have grown accustomed to. Although I would want children to become privy to this
information, this is not a childs book, and it will contain language used to emphasize many
of the points I am making. I dont believe that a person with a vast vocabulary should ban
them Selves from using certain words. As Steven Biko, leader and formulator of the Black
Consciousness philosophy and anti-apartied leader who was beaten to death by South Afrikan officials, once pointed out, some terms simply express emotions better than others.
As those who have been loyal to Asylum also understand, many of the passages and discussions here within will be erudite as we critique various media messages and once again, certain symbols(words) simply get the job done better than others.
It should be also mentioned that this work contains concepts and ideas that I am attempting to master via direct relationship with the act. This means, like with most things Ive
learned in life, experience is my teacher. I dont claim to be a moral guide in any fashion,
nor do I promote my Self as anyone other than a persistent person purposefully applying
socially resposible practices into in his behaviorial expressions for the sake of him Self and
others. I have flaws. Many. I have made grand errors of judgment throughout my life and I
am subject to the harshest critic: My Self. In an effort to alleviate the thinking pattern associated with the impetus of lack of judgment I have been forced to concoct my own theoretical and ideological formulas. I call it whipping in the kitchen.
This is one of those such formulas...
I call it the Green DJHTY...
In the wonderously confusing world of academia, I was trained to analyze a problem, consider its origination without forgeting the difficulty endemic to arguments of causality and
correlation, and then presenting a conclusion. Somewhere along the line the concept of solutions ripped through the seemingly well patterned practice of developing the argument,
and I was forced to take on a job that I often felt was energy wasting. I came from a technical background where most of my problems were solved in praxis. In the effort of articulating a solution to an analyzed problem, I realized it was simply more theory, and I was
used to actually solving the problem, in fact, up to that point I felt it was just talk to do
anything else. Not in academia. Some way, some how, in academia, talking about the solution is just as important as working through to a solution. Go figure, and yay for western
thought inculcation.
I would rather not waste your time by reading my analysis and then offering my solution.
As with the instructors of the Eastern Kimitic schools that would present an equation with
the answer already given, and then ask the students to figure out the principles of the math,
I also will just give you the solution and the equation, then ask you to build an understanding of how we got there.
Media symbols in a society such as the United States are often only capable of transfer if
the symbol is accepted through purchase. If Tyler Perry didnt sell tickets, he would change
his formula. Why? Mainly, the purpose of the formula is to sell movie tickets, and dvds to a
wide audience. If that audience rejects the symbols and the messages of the symbols, then
Perry has failed. If Nicki Minaj doesnt sell albums, then she has failed. If the symbols dont
sell, they cant get resonance. But boycotting studios and record companies is only one part
of the solution.
The other part is somewhat more complicated. Blacks in the United States really need to get
over them Selves. To date, the Black in the United States, the inheritors of the victimology
produced by the most atrocious crime committed by one people on another, have not won

PG

one single war, have not obtained one dollar for the crime in retribution, have not formed
one governing body of a large piece of land to be recognized as a nation among nations,
and yet we trumpet this image of power. We trumpet this image of superior fighting ability, this coolness, this all encompassing ability to hustle and manipulate. Who the fuck are
we kidding? Our children are left to absorb our insecure attempts at posturing as we reign
supreme as the worlds most outspoken warriors and we dont have shit to show for it but
one trillion dollars leaving our community into the accounts of every other national group
in the world.
The symbols of what it means to be Black have to be remixed and possibly recreated from
scratch like a chef that has prepared the wrong dish and must work diligently to avoid employment termination and embarrassment. Our writers - and lets be honest, two of the
most popular black shows in the last decade, GirlFriends and The Game, were created by
the same Black woman, Mara Brock Akil(Delta Sigma Theta soror), and produced and executively produced(read that as financially supported) by the same Republican(so staunch
he campaigned for John McCain who was running against the first Black president of the
United States of America, Barack Obama) white man, Kelsey Grammer- have to become
creative enough, and bold enough to step outside of the parameters of Black elite yearnings
for a White like living existence, and the culture of self-sabotage displayed in the urban
community. This means that the Black consumer must, yes, must, begin a media diet that
cuts out the calories of visual and audible mediocrity of images depicting Blacks. If we dont
support, and yes, that means spending some of that trillion dollars we collectively give away
to play the parts in society we are scripted to through media, then we cant have the images
necessary to pass on to our youth. We will simply cycle about the same images that were
created to vilify and objectify us.

CHPTR 1
LOGOS BLACK

Musical notes on paper, as well as written and spoken words, are symbols. There are other
kinds of symbols that are not as immediately translated or fully understood because of their
highly abstract forms and complexity. The impact of these complex symbols reach subconscious and unconscious levels of brain activity. These complex symbols are, in effect, full
sentences, paragraphs, or entire books of data stated in a highly abstracted single image or
line configuration.

Once the symbol is formed, it is capable of acting upon the brain-computer, which receives it as an energy or data message. This message effects the end-product of behavior as
carried forth in any area of human activity. The symbol, in turn, acts upon the external environment. -Francis-Cress Welsing, The Isis Papers, pg. 55
Any hot medium allows of less participation than a cool one, as a lecture makes for less
participation than a seminar, and a book for less than dialogue...any intense experience
must be forgotten, censored, and reduced to a very cool state before it can be learned
or assimilated...For the highly developed situation is, by definition, low in opportunities
of participation, and rigorous in its demands of specialist fragmentation from those who
would control it.-Marshall Mcluhan, Understanding Media, pg. 23

In McLuhans Understanding Media he proposes a conceptual framework to define
media, as well as societies and cultures. He uses the term hot to refer to media and interactions of communication that require little to no interactivity between the message and the
message receiver. Interactivity should not be regarded as simply physical interaction with
the meduim as such. I agree with McLuhan when he writes,A cool medium like hieroglyphic or ideogrammic written characters has very different effects from the hot and explosive
medium of the phonetic alphabet. The alphabet, when pushed to a high degree of abstract
visual intensity, became typography. What is being addressed here is not hieroglyphs as
the video game or a social network where one is able to comment and debate via a keypad
or touchpad and an enter button. I interpret his words as highlighting the degree of internal psychological workings necessary to comprehend and process the information stored in
the symbols. Symbols should not be taken lightly in that context. The logo carries with it a
power over the mind that can communicate much more broadly and faster than most forms
of marketing. This is why the brand has lasted throughout the ages. Even to the point of
branding humans like we Blacks were branded during the antebellum period.

In the same manner that the logo, the pictogram, the hieroglyph can be made to contain high levels of information within a small media format, statements can be loaded with
an impactful amount of information. Take for instance the phrase,Ive fallen and I cant
get up. Although the hearer or reader of those words will have to have been a certain age,
those who are familiar with Mrs. Fletchers dilemma during the LifeCall commercial will
typically respond with a giggle(Im actually snickering as I type this). The idea that I want
to offer you is that we are all communicators and builders of symbols, hot and cold. As parents, teachers, writers, and most importantly, imbibers of media, it is often important to
recognize the subtle influences of media around us.

PG 2

It is hard to say exactly when logos went from being essential but lackluster business tools
to the international graphic design superstars they are today. Was it in the early 1990s
when teenagers around the world began tattooing Nike swooshes onto their ankles and
arms? Or was it earlier in the 1970s, when a generation of women took to heart actress
Brooke Shields proclamation Nothing comes between me and my Calvins and made logoimprinted jeans, shirts, and handbags a billlion-dollar industry? Or perhaps it was earlier
still, with the 1951 debut of the CBS eye, a logo that quickly became so ubiquitous that its
own designer, William Golden, dubbed it a Frankensteins monster. (Lisa Silver, Logo Design That Works: Secrets For Successful Logo Design, pg. 11)

The radio song playing in the background while you work can be laced like a blunt
with psychological toxins that reassert them Selves later in your behavioral patterns. There
is a reason why in our past we would use cadence and rhythm to teach. Mnemonics can be
used to incorporate more than just the fifty states;they can be used to teach a child how to
sell drugs, or to teach them how to dougie. In the same way a commercial from over twenty
years can be encompassed in one line and transmitted through the culture like AIDS in the
global Black community, one line, one word, and even one pattern of drums, horns, and
strings can elicit an emotional reaction. For some, the funky futuristic sounds emitted from
Zapp & Rogers Computer Love musical composition will remind them of the early house
parties and social gatherings during the early 80s. For another group of people, you can
take that beat, slow it down slightly, and it will conjure the memory of the gang fights, and
possible lost loved ones as it registers with that person the lyrics of Piru Love found on the
album, Bangin on Wax.

This all may seem common sensical until one begins to understand the depth and
reach of the influence of the symbols. The reality that Black people do not control any forms
of symbol broadcast and yet have a rich culture of symbol creation stemming back to the
earliest forms of writing, speaks to a lack of understanding of the
symbol by Blacks. As a graphic artist, I understand the impact of
a well crafted visual communication. I understand why an artist
has chosen certain colors. I understand why there is an arrow
made between the E and the X in the Fed Ex logo. That is
not by mistake. Unfortunately, too often in the Black culture we err on the side of lack of
purpose for our communications outside of opportunity. Meaning, if it dont make dollars...
well, you know the rest.
Regardless of the specific task, the graphic designer has two interconnected goals. The
goals are to communicate a message to an audience, and to create a compelling or pleasing design that will enhance the message. Like other communications, the graphic designer
works to make the message clear and, like any other artist, the graphic designer is concerned with aesthetics. Whether these goals are achieved depends on how well the designer
understands the design medium and the design problem given. -Robin Landa, Graphic
Design Solutions, pg. 7

When the internet search engine Google uses their logo to commemorate the celebration of Veterans Day, they remove the lower case l with a flag pole and the lower case e is
slightly covered at the top with the American Flag with a sunset at the background. Really

PG 3

dramatic stuff for us there. What the designer is conveying is not just the American flag,
however. It is Veterans Day. It is, without using any words, conveying the message of The
United States conquering other countries by placing the flag and marking the territory as
being conquered. No huge image is necessary. A simple back drop of the sky, a few wrinkles
in a two-dimensional flag illustration, and we are off. Subconsciously this affects you. It reminds the world of the military might of the country. With that comes a sense of pride for

those who consider them Selves US patriots, and a whole ideology is reinforced in less than
the time it takes for the web page to load. I could almost hear the United States national anthem playing in the background...

I want us to take a few moments and answer a series of questions. What are the symbols that communicate the lifes works of Malcolm X? What are the symbols that communicate Black solidarity and nationhood? What are the symbols that communicate never allowing Blacks to return to a condition of slavery such as was imposed on our great and mighty
ancestors in the United States of America? Do we understand the cloth with fifty stars
amidst a blue box flanked to the right and bottom by red and white stripes is a logo? Do we
realize it is a symbol that communicates an ideology?

One of the many dangers that I see in translating a book into a movie is that movies
have a tendency to remove the nuance that book can convey. Furthermore, movies are promoted differently than books. Books are not marketed with fast paced commercials highlighting the most captivating passages of the book. I suppose it could, but it tends to be
promoted via word of mouth campaigns and other forms of literary media. It also helps if
Oprah Winfrey has read your book and you can pass the scrutiny she has most likely developed from being spurned by memoirs with falsified biographies. I have yet to see a marketing campaign for a book promotion with T-shirts or baseball caps. This is not so much with
movies, however.

In the early 1990s, director, writer, and film producer Spike Lee ventured to bring The
Autobiography of Malcolm X to the big screen. The screen play was based on the book,
and co-written by Arnold Perl (Now In Theaters Everywhere: A Celebration Of A Certain
Kind Of Blockbuster, Kenneth Turan pg. 202), and James Baldwin(The Fire Next Time,No
Name In The Street, and If Beale Street Could Speak). The need for any marketing for a
name such as Spike Lee, the creator of classic movies such as Shes Got To Have It, School
Daze, and Do The Right Thing, is interesting in and of it Self, but I suppose by default,
any movie production company is going to want to spend a little money on commercials,
guest spots on Oprah, and the like. Of course, Im minimizing and leading for dramatic
effect. Warner Bros. distributed the movie to 1,124 theaters(http://boxofficemojo.com/
movies/?id=malcolmx.htm) before creating a stir and a cultural artifact: the Malcolm X hat.

Spike Lee, being a huge sports fan, utilized the baseball cap to promote the movie. The
hat varied from colors, yet each one was emblazoned by a strong, bold serif X. In many

PG 4

ways, the X seemed to resemble the roman

numeral for the number 10 due to the serif
font used, and also due to the lack of awareness of a young population regarding the history of Malcolm. The X would be placed on
the background of an all black background as
a poster and communicate the power and the
majesty that was Malcolm in so many regards.
One letter. One letter was able to convey such
much information and symbolize the life of a
man that had transformed in so many ways.
The power of the symbol.
The fundamental elements and principles
of design are the foundation of a design education - like understanding the basic parts of
speech and the principles of composition before writing a novel. (Robin Landa, Graphic
Design Solutions, pg. 7)

During the 1960s, after the assassination of Malcolm X, a young brother named Stokely Carmichael joined a group called the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commitee and
helped lead a successful voter registration drive in Lowndes County, Alabama. Lowndes
County was also known as Bloody Lowndes due to the violent treatment of Blacks in that
area(Eyes on the prize). According to Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, in March of 1965, not one black person was registered to vote. In the next 20 months,
close to 3,900 would be registered in Lowndes county, an area composed of 81% blacks.
The percentage of blacks that became voters that year would give credence to a group of
young organizers, and a new party.

The Blacks of Lowndes County had a considerable difficulty in the realm of public governmental politics. Namely, the officials of the County that represented the Democratic Party were the same ones that presented a physically aggressive threat to the Blacks. Kwame
Ture explains it thusly:
The question of how to utilize the vote became most pertinent in Lowndes County. Since
the 1930s, history books and traditional political science treatises had concluded that
the salvation of the black man lay in the Democratic party. The black people of Lowndes
County had certain doubts about that, doubts based on more than conjecture. The lessons
of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Partys experience wer all too clear. In Lowndes
itself, black people saw the local Democratic party as the sheriff who brutalized them; as
the judge in kangaroo courts who made them pay high fines. They knew that the chairman
of the Lowndes County Democratic Committee, Robert Dickson, was a defendant in a federal court suit charging that he had evicted black tenant farmers from his land because they
registered to vote. They saw George Wallace at the head of the state party; they saw Eugene
Bull Connor and Sheriff Jim Clark. They knew it was absurd to demean themselves by attempting to sit down with the local Democratic politicians. If the Democratic (or any other) party was to recognize and respect the mobilized powere of black people, those people
would have to organize independently...In March, 1966, the Lowndes County Freedom Organization was born with the immediate goals of running candidates and becoming a recognized party. (<i>Black Power</i>, Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton, pg. 105 - 106)

PG 5

Due to the symbol, the logo, of the Democratic Party that represented the White Supremacy, a white roster with a wagging ribbon
above that roster that read,White Supremacy, and underneath
another wagging ribbon with the words For the Right affixed to
it, the organizers of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization
decided to use another symbol to differentiate the white terroristic Democrats from the Black voters Democratic Party candidate. They choose
the emblem/logo/
symbol of the Black
Panther(Eyes on the
prize). The organizing of the Black voters of
the violent Alabama county were obviously
successful. However, during the actual voting process, the Black voters would be forced
to stick together. Due to the participation of
blind voters, the handicapped, and those that
couldnt read the ballots, the Black voter that
proceeded a voter with such an ailment was
asked to stand around after they voted in order to help the afflicted voter. This method
was utilized in order to prevent the local
white voters from robbing the vote from the intended candidates running on the LCFO ticket.
O.K., one person said, The big point for us to make is that no black people should ask

any white man for help. Well help each other. There were immediate cries of agreement
and you said it, brother. We are our brothers helper. (Black Power, Kwame Ture and
Charles V. Hamilton, pg. 111)
After awhile, the tactics simply where reduced to the statement,Just pull the Black Panther
lever and go home.

PG 6

There is a big sign on Highway U.S. 80 betweeen Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, in
Lowndes County. One can see it, driving west. It has the picture of a black panther on it and
the words:PULL THE LEVER FOR THE BLACK PANTHER AND GO ON HOME.

The success of the Lowndes County Freeedom Organizations voter drive, and the symbol of the Black Panther would get national attention. That national attention would reach
the hands of a young former comedian turned community organizer and his college colleague seeking to start a new sort of organization in the streets of Oakland, California.

After a struggle finding Black organizations on the campus of Merrit College during the
years of 1965 to 1968 that expressed their principles with physical actions and a courageous
stance, Bobby Seale decided to unite with the one brother he felt understand the political
ramifications smeltering the Black Community with the bravery to back it up. Bobby decided to join forces with a young college student from Oakland with a penchant for defending
him Self physically while arguing the finer points of the struggle for freedom. He and Huey
P. Newton decided to join a campus organization, Soul Students Advisory Council(Seize
The Time, Bobby Seale, pg. 27.). Huey, understanding the power of the symbol, and the media of the gun, decided that after successful grassroots organizing on the campus, that they
needed to assist those Blacks that found them Selves jobless, and hopeless outside of criminal endeavors. In Bobbys words:
Huey understood the meaning of what Fanon was saying about organizing the lumpen
proletariat first, because Fanon explicitly pointed out that if you didnt organize the lumpen
proletariat, if the organization didnt relate to the lumpen proletariat and five a base for
organizing the brother whos pimping, the brother whos hustling, the unemployed, the
downtrodden, the brother whos robbing banks, whos not politically conscious--thats what
lumpen proletariat means--that if you didnt relate to these cats, the power structure would
organize these cats against you.(Seize The Time, Bobby Seale, pg. 30.)

So, Huey and Bobby prepared to present their understanding of organizing and communicating via the medium of the gun to a group of people that understood the hot medium
of such a symbol. Unfortunately, and possibly fortunately from a historical perspective, the
other members of the SSAC were not too pleased nor accepting of Huey and Bobbys stance
on the display of weapons, and arming the Black community. During an entaglement with
the other members where the other members decided not to face Huey and Bobbys small
cadre of brothers and arms, the two activists decided to resign from the group. They would
spend their time forging the platform and program of the new organization they decided
would be best suited to serve the needs of the Black community. They compiled the tenpoint program, had it typed, but they still had no name for the organization, nor an emblem
to represent their aims.
That would soon change:
Huey and Bobbys organization now had a manifesto. But it still needed a name to fill the
blacnk space Artie Seale had left at the top of the stencil. For Huey and Bobby, the tricky
part was finding the most suitable name--one that was dynamic and colorful enough, but
one that promoted action instead of political armachair discourse.

On October 21, 1966, Bobby receiced an intriguing piece of mail from a black political
organization in Mississippi. It was a voter registratino pamphlet from a group who called
themselves the Lowndes County Freedom Organization. bobby had written to the group

PG 7

earlier, asking from more information after reading about them. The next day, when Huey
dropped by, Bobby showed him the pamphlet. The Lowndes County Freedom Organization
had even adopted a striking logo for
their group, a dark black panther.

What do you suppose this black
panther means? Bobby asked.

Must be a political party or
something, Huey said.

Something like how the Republicans and Democrats use an elephant
and a donkey.

Well, a black panther kicks a
donkeys and elephants ass any day.
The two laughed.

I suggested that we use the Black Panther as our symbol, Huey wrote,and call our political vehicle the Black Panter Party. The Black Panther is a fierce animal, but he will not
attack until he backed into a corner; then he will strike out. The image seemed appropriate
and Bobby agreed without discussion.
Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, Huey declared.

(Huey: Spirit Of The Panther, David Hilliard, Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman, pg.
29)
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. was determined
in his belief that Black people living in the Diaspora as well as in the countries of the continent
of Afrika should be unified as one people. His
travels from through England and The Americas,
he formulated a philosophy that would be spread
via his active work establishing an organization.
On his return to his homeland of Jamaica, he
founded what he called the Universal Negro Improvement Association(UNIA). The popularity
of the movement due to Garveys insatiable spirit
would grow throughout the region. In 1917, the
first branches of the UNIA would be established
outside of Jamaica. By 1919, the membership of
the UNIA was formed by over 2 million peoples.
In a response to a song which helped to establish the term coon in the US lexicon, the members of the UNIA realized the need to express the
opinions and philosophy of Marcus in symbol.
The song, entitled, Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon, written by Will A. Heelan and J.
Fred Helf, two white composers,lyrically stated that:
The leader of the Blackville Club arose last Labor night

PG 8

And said, When we were on parade today

I really felt so much ashamed, I wished I could turn white
Cause all the white folks marchd with banners gay
Just at de stand de German band
They waved their flag and played De Wacht am Rhine
The Scotch Brigade each man arrayed
In new plaid dresses marched to Auld Lang Syne
Even Spaniards and Sweeds, folks of all kinds and creeds
Had their banner except de coon alone
Evry nation can brag bout some kind of a flag
Why cant we get an emblem of our own?
Chorus:
For Ireland has her Harp and Shamrock
England floats her Lion bold
Even China waves a Dragon
Germany an Eagle gold
Bonny Scotland loves a Thistle
Turkey has her Crescent Moon
And what wont Yankees do for their Red, White and Blue
Every race has a flag but the coon
He says, Now Ill suggest a flag that ought to win a prize
Just take a flannel shirt and paint it red
They draw a chicken on it with two poker dice for eyes
An have it wavin razors round its head
To make it quaint, youve got to paint
A possum with a pork chop in his teeth
To give it tone, a big hambone
You sketch upon a banjo underneath
And be sure not to skip just a policy slip
Have it marked four eleven forty four
Then them Irish and Dutch, they cant guy us so much
We should have had this emblem long before
Repeat Chorus

Prompted
and the stereowithin that was
minstrel shows
and early 1900s,
during a monthhosted at the
New York City,
officially recBlack solidarity.

by the lyrics of the song,

typic imagery contained
a direct product of the
of the late 19th century
members of the UNIA
long convention being
Madison Square Garden in
New York, the organization
ognized a new emblem of
A flag with three evenly di-

PG 9

vide rectangular portions each colored a different chroma. The tri-chromatic design would
work to incorporate the message using a top of red to communicate the genetic recogition
of the blood shared by the peoples throughout the continent of Afrika and the progeny of
those scattered by slavery throughout the diaspora; the middle section of black representing those people as a universal nation;and the lower portion communicating not only the
land of the peoples but the resources of the land.

We are living in a civilization that is highly developed. We are living in a world that is
scientifically arranged in which everything done by those who control the world is done
through system; proper arrangement, proper organization, and among some of the organized methods used to control the world is the thing known and called propaganda.
Propaganda has done more to defeat the good intentions of races and nations than even
open warfare.
Propaganda is a method or medium used by organized peoples to convert others against their will.
We of the Negro race are suffering more than any other race in the world from propaganda--Propaganda to destroy our hopes, our ambitions and our confidence in self.
The events which transpired five thousand years ago; Five years ago or five minutes ago, have determined what will happen five minutes from now; five years From now or five thousand years from
now. All history is a current evenSt.- Dr John Henrik Clarke

Western civilization has evolved immensely. From the days of audiences cheering on men fighting lions, to football stadiums where death is highly unlikely, the progress of our culture is, without
much argument, moving forward. Unfortunately, racism has continued to spurn on activities that take
lives based on racial privilege. It has tarnished the US Constitution, one of the worlds most inspiration documents of the attempts of people to live in a society of justice and equality
The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution states:

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be
included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and
excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons.

The phrase free persons, including those bound to service for a term of
years, clearly meant white American men. The last clause three fifths of
all other Persons was included for southern slave owners, who in a political ploy to use their slaves to get more congressional power, had to settle for
three fifths of each slave.This meant that according to the US Constitution,
American Blacks where considered only three fifths of a human being.
This living breathing document regardless of interpretation, in a metaphoric sense still bears the scars that would be further defined at length by
Chief Justice Taney in the 1857 Supreme Court Decision, known as the Dred
Scott decision. According to Taney, discussing slave,The only matter in issue before the court,
therefore, is, whether the descendants of such slaves, when they shall be emancipated, or who are
born of parents who had become free before their birth, are citizens of a state in the sense in which
the word citizen is used in the Constitution of the United States. Here he is presenting his thesis

PG 10

question, are blacks, the descendants of such slaves to be considered citizens as that term is used
in the US Constitution?

Chief Justice Taneys answers,
We think they are not, and that they
are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word
citizensin the Constitution and can,
therefore, claim none of the rights
and privileges which that instrument
provides for and secures to citizens
of the United States. ( Dred Scott
v. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393, 19 Howard
393(1857))

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, a framer of
the United States Constitution, and
one would might easily say, was the
foremost philosophical shaper of the
American ideology of that time. Mr.
Jefferson said, We hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Sometime later he would feel this way, I advance it
therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by
time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in endowments both of body and mind.(Thomas
Jefferson, 1785).

Jeffersons contribution to American academic thought brought on a host of scholarly materials
that caused American Blacks to be described as inferior because of the shapes of their heads (phrenology) and the development section of science termed Niggerology(Asim 21). According to Asim,
United States justification of slavery and the belief of white supremacy would culminate into the
written works of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who would in turn influence generations later. One of the
great influences of the many literary works describing the antebellum period -caused by Stowes
book was a book entitled the Clansman by Thomas Dixon, Jr.

D. W. Griffith would bring the book to the wide screen in an opening viewed by none other than
another president, President Woodrow Wilson. President Woodrow Wilson is quoted in the captions
of the movie as saying,The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservationuntil at
last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect
the Southern country.

Griffith produced the first film about racial tensions in America. His film released under the
title, Birth of a Nation(1915) would be followed by the rise of the second Klan. (Jackson, Kenneth
T., 1992). The Klan would grow in membership from 1915 and have its peak of 4 million members
in 1924. There would also be the Omaha Race Riot of 1919, the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, The
Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, and the Rosewood Massacre of 1923.
Throughout our daily lives we are surrounded and peppered by graphic messages. Indeed they have

become so much part of the fabric of every-day modern life- from breakfast cereal packaging and
advertising billboards to logos on clothes and television company identities- that often we register
their codes only on a subconscioius level. Against an ever-present insidious backing track of visual
Muzak, graphic designers vie for the viewers attention by shaping communication that is not only
visually arresting but also frequently intellectualy contesting. to this end they can either grab attention in a bold and direct manner or slowly reel us in with visual ambiguity or double-coded meaning.
In an ever-expanding sea of information and images the best attention snaggers are those who bait
their hooks with meaningful content, quirkily intelligent humour and/or, more realy, genuinely new
formal inventiveness. - (Charlotte Fiell, Peter Fiell, Graphic Design For The 21st Centuty, pg 12 14)

These images of the Black person as less than human, as savages, as oversexualized, are embodied in the ideology reflected in the United States flag. A symbol used to demark the conquered
territories. The media extends this image, this organized concept, beyond the actual historical activities of Marcus Garvey the entrepreneur and statesman. The media uses the icon of the savage and
oversexualized Black to define the historical activities of those involved in the Black Power movement in what seems to be an effort to further divide the classes of Blacks, and remove any legitimacy
of those that seek to aggressively defend themselves. The caricatures, and their internal psychic energies are used to define what it means to be Black, to remain the logo of the Black race in the face
of the logos created by those Blacks determine to help release the energies of self-determination and
power. We will discuss how this logo of the savage and oversexualized Black is extended through
time through various media encapsulations.

What we all have to consider, remember, and proactively envelop in our projects is the realization that the same images, symbols, logos, and designs that helped to craft the powerful movements
of our rich past have been utilized to capture our worst dispositions toward our Selves and our people, our external Self. What we will develop throughout this book is the comprehensive understanding that we have built symbols, technologies that have allowed us to spread at phenomenal levels
a cultural paradigm that enriched our children with the values and pride of the Ancient scholars of
Kimit(Ancient Egypt). Unfortunately, every time we create a technology based on our level of resources, we also allow it to be usurped for purpose antithetical to our development and survivla purposes. Before we explore all of the media by which we have consecrated our unfolding, and also our
undoing, we must explore more than just the symbols of visual communication such as our logos.
We must keep in mind that we started with logos, and then move beyond using music to dance to, we
made music a form of communication. We took the poem and made the first stage plays. It is encumbent upon us to not allow our Selves to be limited to the few historical accounts that you read thus
far. We want to further understand how the symbols of Pan-Africanism, Self-Development, Self-Defense, and Self-Empowerment were able to be reversed into the forms of images that we now have.
Our next chapter will further develop the awareness that at one time our artists designed for the purpose of exposing the multitudes of our people to revolutionary consciousness. And from the next
chapter we will begin the course of dismantling the images and trajectory of symbol creation that has
lead us to the position we now face.

CHPTR 2
INCEPTION
During my years involved with working with explaining the symbols and media of politics,
mainly in the prison centers, I have learned that many people are at a lost for a comprehensive understanding of politics. Most people relegate the term to mean,governmental dictates. There are even some instances where liberal and conservative leanings are limited to
the present party system found in the United States, namely, the Democrats and the Republicans. Mention of left wing, right wing, center to right, and so forth, tend to either be misunderstood or not brought up due to lack of awareness. Of course, if one cant understand
the wing metaphor, it would be even more tedious to educate them that both wings belong

to the same bird. As a designer, it has been conveyed to me time and time again that the
most convincing works are those that can speak with the most simplistic elements. In explaining politics, in an effort to circumvent the present popular interpretation, I was taught
to tell the people I was working with that politics was simply the who, what, when, where,
why, and how of power. Ultimately, politics is the literary and verbal symbol used to express the idea of social relations with regard to authority and power. Fortunately, for those I
was working with in those days I stuck with my training.

A part of the discussion of politics is the removal of power, or the sanctioning of the
abusive power possessors. Some refer to this as revolt, others as revolution. Both symbols
possess varied and intricate subjective understandings. For this chapter, and in staying
within the scope of the book, Id simply like to call it evening power out. One example of
evening power out in symbolic form is the use of the medium of film by Melvin Van Peebles.
During his days in France as a director, Van Peebles was noticed by Hollywood film producers. Working with Columbia, he directed the film,Watermelon Man, a low budget production that Billboard calls a moneymaker, if not a smash hit.(Billboard Magazine, Jan 29,
1972) Due to the complications that arose making Watermelon Man, Melvin decided that
he would take full control over his next project. Melvin insists that he attempted to adapt
the screen work the best he could without infringing on his political beliefs. The writer,
Herman Raucher, felt differently and Van Peebles was forced to make two versions of the
performance. Melvin used the $50,000 he earned from the movie, a loan from Bill Cosby of
$50,000, and funds from nonindustry sources to develop the groundbreaking Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss(Black Film, White Money, Jesse Algeron Rhines, page 43).
As Melvin mentions in his documentary entitled, Classified X, Huey P. Newton, co-found-

PG 14

er of the Black Panther Party, provided a highly approving critique of the film and made the
film required viewing for members of the Black Panther Party.
According to Huey:
The very popular movie produced and directed by Melvin
Van Peebles called Sweet Sweetbacks Baadassss Song contains many very important messages for the entire Black
community. On many levels Van Peebles is attempting to
communicate some crucial ideas, motivating us to a deeper
understanding and then action based upon that understanding. He has certainly made effective use of one of the most
popular forms of communication, the movie, and he is dealing in revolutionary terms. The only reason this movie is
available to us with its many messages is because Black people have given it their highest support. The corporate capitalist would never let such an important message be given to the
community if they were not so greedy. They are so anxious to
bleed us for more profits that they either ignore or fail to recognize the many ideas in the film. And because we have supported the movie with our attendance we are able to receive
its message.


It is the first truly revolutionary Black film made and it is presented to us by a Black
man. Many black people who have seen the film have missed many of its significant points.
I have seen the film several times and I have also talked to about fifty to sixty others who
have seen it and each time I understand more.


When Van Peebles first presented the film he refused to submit it to the Motion Picture
Association to be rated becausse he knew they were not competent to judge its content. He
knew the film was not something which would upset the Black community because of its explicitness. He wanted youth and children to see it because he knew they would understand
it. Yet the movie was given an x rating over his protests, thus making it impossible for the
youth to see. But it has a real message for them, for just like Moo-Moo, one of the youthful
characters in the movie, they are our future.

Melvin Van Peebles had great difficulty obtaining the funds to make this movie, therefore it has a low budget. In some parts the sound and the lighting are not as good as they
might have been if he could have had more money to make the film. I have found that its
messages and significance are clearer when I combine viewing the film with listening to the
record of the sound track and reading the book. I would urge all of you who want to understand the deep meanings of the movie to also buy the record and the book.


Sweet Sweetback blows my mind every time I talk about it because it is so simple and
yet so profound. It shows the robbery which takes place in the Black community and how
we are the real victims. Then it shows how the victims must deal with their situation, using
many institiutions and many approaches. It demonstrates that one of the key routes to our
survival and the success of our resistance is unity.
Sweet Sweetback does all of this by using many aspects of the community, but in symbolic terms. That is, Van Peebles is showing one thing on the screen but saying somehting
more to the audience. In other words he is signifying, and he is signifying some very heavy
things.
As I have stated in another Asylum works, critiquing a prominent mind such as Huey P.
Newton can be dangerous. I have Huey, Huey doesnt. Understand? I know how the Huey
P. Newton story ends, and I have his life to thank as an example. He doesnt have his own

PG 15

life as an example of courage and Black Power in personality. He cant critique his own life.
I support the notion that Bobby Wright prescribes in The Psychopathic Racial Personality
when he writes:
...Blacks studying themselves rather than their oppressors...Black scientist generally rationalize their investigations as proof to White scientists that Blacks can be scientifically objective.

Bobby goes on to quote Dr. Jacob Carruthers(1972) from an essay entitled Science and
Oppression:
Science is not objective nor is it neutral.

I want to further that thinking, no use of symbol, media, or communication in a society that is dictated by social darwinism is without its necessary subjective and progandistic
constraints. Woodrow Wilson after a screening of D.W. Griffiths Birth of a Nation, a silent movie in which Wilsons own words from his two-volume book, History of the American People(The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self preservation...until at
last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South,
to protect to the Southern country) stated,It is like writing history with lightning, my only
regret is that it is all so true. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan is has been greatly accredited to
this film(Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me.) It is in the hope that those who
have been removed from the Black community, or those within in it that lack a certain political understanding, that Huey explains the symbols of this movie and even asks the listeners and readers to incorporate the soundtrack with the compositions of Earth, Wind,
and Fire and Melvin.

Sweet sweetback Baadasssss Song conveys many ideas in a simple and crude manner. It is the grittiness of the film, and the avante garde style that helps to present the story
starring The Black Community. Melvin, in an interview, explained that in order to find
competent cinematic producers outside of white film unions, all he was left to work with
producers of pornographic works. He further explains that in order to compel the script to
conform to cinematics, it would need to have a character that was cinematically appealing.

Well, I could have him as a drug addict, but thats not very cinematic, states
Melvin,Everybody is interested in nookie, thats what Ill do.
As Huey states, the film is given an X rating, now, Im not sure how much Melvin wanted
children to see the movie, however, the first scene does contain a sex scene with Mario Van
Peebles at an undisclosed age, Im guessing 12 or 13 with an adult woman. Melvin states
that he was once asked why he used his own son. His response,Every child is somebodys
son...would I ask someone to use their son to do something I wouldnt ask my son to do?
No.
The film introduces us to the storys main character via a scene of him surrounded by a
group of sisters while he is eating. His face is replete with sores and bruises. While the
young boy is eating, there is a cut scene to a man running while words in french(what would
seem like Melvin paying homage to his origins as a film maker in France) are shown on the
screen. The English subtitle reads:
...Sire, these lines are not a homage to brutality that the artist has invented, but a hymn
from the mouth of reality...(Traditional prologue of the dark ages).
Another set of text says:
This film is dedicated to all the Brothers and Sisters who had enough of the Man.

We are then shown the young boy again, clean, and laying towels by the doors of the women. One of the young women that was there watching him stuffing his face full of food like
one of those vaccuum cleaners at the car wash scans the hallway and invites him into her
room.

The symbolism of sex used throughout the film is similar to that of the story of Auset
and Ausar in Kimitic allegory. In fact, sex is considered a sacred act throughout the Kimitic scripts. Ausar is considered the king of the land after his marriage to Auset. Unlike the
Western Mans insecurity and fear of the woman, the Black Man was not pressed to understand the sacredness of the womb, and the NTRs of the Kimitic allegory were described using sexual symbology. In fact, where Eve is seen to be made to be pained by child birth, Auset uses her womb to resurrect the disembodied Ausar.
Huey asserts:

When the movie opens we see the faces of women;there are young faces and old faces,
but in all of them there is a sign of weariness, sadness, but also joy. You soon recognize that
the women are in a house of love, a house of prostitution, a house of ill-repute. Of course it
can be any of these things, depending on what position you are viewing it from. This is the
essence of the whole film, the victim and the oppressor looking at things in a much different
way from a different point of view.


The women are tired yet they are happy. This is because they are feeding a small boy.
As you look at the women you see that they are strong and beautiful Black women, definitely African in ancestry and symbolic of Mother Africa. The size of some of their breasts signifies how Africa is potentially the breadbasket of the world. The women are feeding stew to a
small boy who is apparently very hungry, and as he downs it they keep offering him more.
These women with their large breasts potentially could feed and nourish the world, and if
this is so, certainly they have the portential to raise their liberator, for that is what the small
boy is, the future of the women, of Black people, liberation.


They are in a house of prostitution not of their own will, but because of the conditions
the oppressor makes for us. They are there to survive and they sell their love to do so, therefore our love is distorted and corrupted with the sale. When you have nothing else left you
give up your body, just as when you are starving you might eat your fingers; but it is the
conditions which cause this, not the desire to taste your own blood;you have to survive.


The women standing around the small boy are not saying anything but by continuing
to nourish him they are telling him that they can give him more than enough;not only food,
but much love. This love is not for sale and is therefore uncorrupted. It is pure love, sacred
and holy. Even though the boy is weak and has many sores on his face, with the love and
nourishment of the women he can become a very strong man. The sores on his face come
from malnutritin and poor health and Van Peebles is signifying the fine line between survival and death. Even though the women can feed him and clear up his malnutrition, they
cannot do it freely and totally because they have to sell, also they have to sell in order to
provide.


I have seen small children in the Brownsville sectin of Brooklyn, in West Oakland, in
Chicago, and in Harlem with sores on their bodies like those on the boys face. That is why
we have health and food programs, because we are determined to make them healthy again.
The women in the film are doing the same thing. They know he is their future and so they
give him love and nourishment that he might become a strong man, not just in the physical
sense, but so he might become a liberation.


Next we see the boy is healthy and growing, working as a towel boy in the house of
prostitution. Then we see the prostitute making love to him. But this was a scene of pure
love and therefore it was a sacred and holy act. Even though it was in a house of prostitu-

tion, it was not a distorted or corrupt thing. We see this by the very words the woman uses,
for she tells the boy that he aint at the photographer to get his picture taken; she tells him
to move. In the background we hear religious music signifying what is happening and what
will happen later. First there is Wade in the Water, and we recognize that the boy is being
baptized; then there is This Little Light of Mine, Im Gonna Let It Shine, signifying what
will happen in the future. The music indicates that this is not a sexual scene, this is a very
sacred rite. For the boy, who was nourished to health, is now being baptized into manhood;
and the act of love, the giving of manhood, is also bestowing upon the boy the characteristics which swill deliver him from very difficutl situations. People who look upon this as a sex
scene miss the point completely, and people who look upon the movie as a sex movie miss
the entire message of the film.


What happens is not a distorted act of prostitution even though it takes place in a
house of prostitution. The place is profane because of the oppressive conditions, but so are
our communities also oppressed. The Black community is often profane becasue of the dirtiness there, but this is not caused by the people because they are the victims of a very oppressive system. Yet within the heart of the community, just as in the film, the sacred rite of
feeding and nourishing the youth goes on; they are brought to their manhood as liberators.


Van Peebles shows this in the film because when the love scene is completed, the boy is
no longer a boy; he has become a man. He doesnt have a climax until he reaches an adult
age. Even though we may have sexual intercourse as children, we dont have a climax; it is
an introduction which makes it a part of something which is not alien to us. But in the film
the climax came at the appropriate time, after has become a man. That is, he has learned
the deep significance of what she was trying to teach him. It wasnt an act or any mechanical sort of thing, but it was the building of his spirit.


So he grows a mustache while he is having sexual intercourse with her, from about ten
years old he ends up to be about twenty-five. But as soon as reaches a climax, that is, as
soon as he becomes a man, then he is ready to go out and fight. This is symbolized by his
putting on his hat because when you put on your hat it symbolizes that you are fixing to go
somewhere.


The whole film is centered around movement: his putting on the hat to go and his running and running. I think this shows the alienation he feels in this position. He is constantly
in movement or in the process. When you are in the process you are always going or preparing to go. These symbols are used very well.


The oppressor would not view the love scene in the same way because his whole introduction to sex is from a perverted perspective and divorced from his whole being. That
is why he rated the film X because what he saw was a sex movie. We know that it is much
more than that. He is introduced to sex as something outside of himself, while it is hard for
us to remember our first sexual experience. It is not something outside of us, but it grows
in us as any other part of our personality, and it is integrated into our physical selves just
as our arms, our hands or our breathing is. This is why it was very necessary to show this
young boy having this relationship in a place that is viewed from the outside as dirty and
profane.


But we do love and we do have holy experiences at the same time that we are being
stripped of everything else. Then we sell that holiness in order to survive, but it is not holiness any more, it is transformed by the sale. Nevertheless, the holiness is a part of us, so it
serves us. But at the same time the holiness serves us it remains as dirtiness to the outsider
because he is the cause of the profane conditions of the victims, and because what he is getting is not love, but the sale of the prostitute.

To the boy she was not a prostitute becasue there was no money passed. Instead she

PG 18

introduced him to the thing that would give him his fullness as a person and his survival
in the end. She introduced it to him as a boy because it is said, Train up a child in the way
he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22: 6) Of course he
wouldnt depart from it if it becomes an integral part of his personality because he was their
hope, and this is why they feel happy about the sacrifice they are making. You can see it on
their faces when they are feeding him and at the point of orgasm when the woman tells him
that he has a sweet back, which is where he gets his name. Not only is he baptized into his
fullness as a man, he gets his name and his identity in this sacred rite.


After that, whenever Sweetback engages in sex with a sister it is always an act of survival and a step towareds his liberation. That is why it is important not to view the movie as
a sex film or the sexual scenes as actual sex acts. Van Peebles is righteously signifying to us
all. The first scene was far from being sexual, that is why holy music plays during the scene.
It is only dealing with sexual symbols. The real meaning is far away from anything sexual,
and so deep that you have to call it religious.
The scene is obvious a symbolic expression of rites of passage. As water is used in the baptism, so is water of a certain sort used in this scene. I dont want to wrestle au feministic
with some here, and I understand the Black Power Movement and its pause at outward
symbols of power, however, this scene, this baptism, this rite of passage cleary is not a demeaning of women. The woman is totally in control, not submissive, as she commands the
young dude to move, and tells him,You aint at the photographer, you aint getting your
picture taken. MOVE!!

Without forcing the feminist discussing completely out of the context of this analysis,
it is, however, interesting to note that the sister is seen pouring a(Im hesistant to type libation) jug of water into a bowl in order to cleanse her vagina. Huey is certainly spot on
when he describes this scene as a symbolic, and spiritually attuned rite of passage for little
buddy. It is a ceremonial act that consecrates the character, gives him identity, and sets the
tone for later symbol interpretation, a foreshadowing of sorts. Although the sequences, the
blinks(cuts as characterized by Walter Murch) can be jarring, and quick, the last sequence
shows the newly crowned, Sweet Sweetback as a man in his mid-twenties laying on top
the sister who hasnt aged. Obviously Melvin is infusing the act of copulation with a message of growth. We will see this throughout the movie.
The movie continues and so does Comrade Huey:
When Sweetback puts on his hat he does not leave the house, he does not leave the victims
ghettos, but graduates to perform there in a freak show. He would simulate sexual intercourse before an audience that paid to observee this scene. He starts out playing the part of
a dyke, with false breasets and a beard, but then his fairy godmother comes along and he
gets his wish and becomes a man before the audience, taking off his beard and showing his
penis--it looks like a missile and shocks the audience.

While this is going on, the cops are harassing Beatle, who is the owner of the cat house,
He has been paying them off and doesnt want to be bothered, but they want one of his men
as a scapegoat arrest. The cops break off their harassment from time to time and go over to
observe the freak show, even though they have seen it many times.

Sweetback is now having sexual intercourse with the sister, but theree is no holy music
because it is not love; it is a performance given in order to survive. He is selling himself to
the audience and the cops, who are the freaks. Dylians Balld of the Thin man would apply here, because in the song the freaks go to see the geek who offers them a bone and they
dont know why. But you see the audience or the freaks--including the cops--dont have
to be there. They cause the conditions which make it necessary for people to go to these
lengths to survive and then they pay to see the performance the people put n. They are the
real freaks and the people go through the act with real hostility and harted for the people
who cause them to be there in the first place.

PG 19

There are also Blacks in the audience. This is a stroke of genius by Van Peebles because
it symbolizes the total blindness of the audience of freaks. They are laughing at a situation
when they are in fact getting their heads cut off. Thats like Dylans sword swallower, who
in the end will thank the audience for the loan because they were really there, only they did
not know it. The scene shows how far the oppressor will go, for when it is asked if anyone
in the audience wants to challenge Sweetback, this White boy couldnt hold his girlfriend
down. The announcer would not let her go out there because the police were watching.


The police, as I said, are taking payoffs and letting the house exist. This is an indictment of them. The freak show is not put on by freaks but by victims. The victim does what
he has to do to survive because of his crippled and victmized position. The freak pays him
for his laughter and the victim accepts the pay, but with vengeance in mind.


It is ironic and very symbolic that even while I am writing this I can look out my window and see the Oakland Auditorium where the Oakland Police Officers Association is
holding its annual circus. I dont see any Blacks going in. We are realizing more and more
that it has always been a circus. They have tried to make a circus of our circumstances and
our communities, but our awarness is growing and we are moving toward dealing with the
situation in a very decisive manner, just like Sweet Sweetback did.


In the film and in the community the oppressor keeps demanding more and more from
the victims--that is why they want one of Beatles men. But this is also why the victim with
the lowest level of awareness will be brought into consciousness and revolutinized because
he is doing what he is doing in order to survive. But eventually his very survival is at stake.
The oppressor wont even let your acts of survival continue; he tries to totally crush you until survival becomes a very revolutionary act. At the point of life and death, all of the hatred
for the oppressor is unleashed for survival purposes.

The scene of Sweet Sweetback and the sister transitions immediately to a stage with a
clapping audience circling the stage. A young woman in white with flowers walks onto the
stage through the side curtains smiling. She places her finger in her mouth to symbolize
coyness, innocence. It should also be noted that the sister in white playing coy, has a white
patch dyed into her afro, white in western society is associated with purity, hence pure as
the driven snow, or the white dress upon a womans wedding day(eh...only a symbol...).
The sister in white then kneels on the floor of the stage and begins to play with the flowers.
At this point another character in the performance within a performance enters through
the same curtains. This is a woman with a full beard and a suit on. The woman in the suit
approaches the sister in white and they begin a staged act of courting. The sister in the suit
attempts to carress the sister in white while they circumambulate the center of the stage for
the audiences approval. The sister in white continues to ward off the other sisters advances. We cut scene to the other side of the stage and are introduced to three new characters.

Two white policemen discuss the need to use a black man to cover up a murder. They
begin to pressure the owner and manager of the house of sin, Beatle, a pudgy Black man,
that immediately recalled to my mind Donald Goines character from Dopefiend, Porky.
Although Beatle is aggressive enough in his critical assessment, Melvin makes the white
officers reply a line that is repeated by the white police as a sign of betrayal throughout the
film:You are our friend.

It is of interest here to Asylum that Huey doesnt mention this in his analysis. The use
of the term friend as a manipulative device will visit cinema later in the lines of Denzel
Washingtons character, Alonzo Harris, a crooked officer training rookie Jake Hoyt, played
by Ethan Hawke, when white cop Hoyt surprised by Harris handling of Roger, a retiring
officer, and states,...that man was your friend and you killed to which Harris replies, My
friend, tell me why...because he knows my first name? The police attempt to symbolize the
relationship with the community as that of friends, while Aiyana Jones was struck dead by
a slug in her head and through her neck at the age of seven. The police symbolize their relationship with the black community as friends as Oscar Grant is handcuffed and shot in his

PG 20

back by Johannes Mehserle with camera phones recording the murder. Melvin poignantly
captures this hypocritical and manipulative symbol usage in this scene. During the conversation, Melvin scripts the police character to state another highly insightful bit of symbol
manipulation that Im surprised that Huey does mention. After the friend statement, Beatle asks,When did you people start getting so interested in Black folks, dead or alive? and
the white police officer is written to respond,Progress. With this statement, Melvin shows
his political and social consciousness. It reveals the relationship with whites and Blacks in
this country, that integration, progress, is not so much about allowing Blacks to be selfdetermining, but more about enforcing exploitative measures on a community through a
power proximity. Whites are made privy to the actions of Blacks which allows them the
ability to control the resources and behaviors of Blacks through perceived authority and
might over Blacks.
While the coercion between the police officers and Beatle continues, our attention is once
again drawn to the stage performance. In ancient Kimit, the Elders would guide the neophyte through what are called passion plays. They were symbolic acts that demonstrated
certain principles of human life and worked to also convey higher principles. One of the
critiques I would administer here with regard to Hueys analysis is that the man in dress
with the wand is repeating the words,Im the good dyke fairy godmother. Something
Huey doesnt bring up in his analysis, or rather doesnt interpret accurately, is that the
sister in the suit during this scene has removed the suit, and in such, reveals her bra and
lace hiphuggers(thank you Victoria Secret for that bit of knowledge of womens under garments), and the coy sister in white has lain down naked. Melvin wants the audience to
recognize that this is indeed a woman. The former suited sister, now on her knees has procured a strap-on dildo, and we are shown that it is a synthetic penis. The sister then begins
to pray. We must read from implication that the sister is praying to become an actual man.
It is of interest that in the allegory of Ausar and Auset that Auset is unable to find the penis of Ausar after his brother Set disembodies him into 14 parts and scatters them across
the land(Egyptian Mystics:Seekers of the Way, Mousafa Gadalla, pg. 131). Auset is also a
symbol of magic and in her attempt to bind the body of Ausar back together, she is unable to find his phallus(symbolic of the penis) so she makes one in order to bring Heru to
life(Encyclopedia of African Religion, Molefi Kete Asante, Ama Mazama, pg. 81). It behooves us to recognize that Melvin is using this scene to demonstrate a certain message,
the magic of the Black woman. Due to the training of any patriarchal society to relegate the
woman to objective proportions, it might be difficult for some to see beyond the use of sex
in cinema beyond a romantic or objectifying device. However, in the culture of the Original Humans, sex was used to symbolize the miraculous. We have seen in this film, Melvins use of sex to bring a boy into manhood, while contemporary and cultural symbols(the
gospel music playing in the background) are being utilized. Now, we see the continuance
of the theme of transformation, which is very similar to the usage of our ancient sages, being displayed via the conduit of the sexual. I understand the difficulty of seeing an act of sex
removed from the romantic in a western society as sacred. Yet, this is the nature of the
symbol in our ancient thinking. And it would be very difficult to argue that Melvin has also
empowered this symbol with the same psychological energy. This is not a disparagement
of the Lesbian community. It is addressing the missing man from the Black community,
the lack of strength and virility in a male form. We see a flash and a bang, and the praying
woman has been transformed into Sweet Sweetback.
Sweetback lifts up and the audience is permit to see that he is indeed a man. A challenge is
issued via the good dyke fairy godmother and a white woman fighting the grip of her, well
what we must assume is, her boyfriend stands up. Beatle shakes his head to prevent the
white male power enforcers from being offending by Sweetback having sex with the white
woman. The scene concludes with Sweetback, fully clothed, and being commanded to join
the police officers.
Melvins artistic expression and Hueys analysis furthers:

PG 21

The police in the film really dont want Sweetback. All they want to do is use him for a
vover because they going after Moo-Moo, the young revolutinary. Sweetback goes along
with them because of his low level of consciousness. This is no hard task becasue when
an individual victim acts without awareness of the situatin, he just like the orgainsm that
wants to survive. THE UNITY COMES OUT OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

For a short while Moo-Moo and Sweetback are handcuffed together, but when the police start to beat the life out of Moo-Moo, they separate them and tell Sweetback to stand
aside. Sweetback attempt to look away from the beating.

This shows the arrogance of the aggressor, his Jehovah complex, thinking that he has
all thee control. He thinks that he has his victims so completely in line that this freak show
performer, who is paying them so that he can survive, will have no feeling fro another victim.

Sweetback attempts to look away while the police are beating Moo-Moo. Just the turning away shows how much of the time the masses attempt to dismiss the atrocities of the
oppressor, even when attempts are made to communicate tto them. They will pretend that
they are too busy with other things becasue they are trying to survive; but they fail to realize that their real survival depends upon their social consciousness and therefore unity. The
oppressor will demand more and more of them until they will perish without that unity.

At its lowest level, survival is just the organism getting by as an individual person or as
an individual family. What they must realize is that the oppressor will not allow that, he will
keep demanding more: high unemployment, poor housing, poor health and poor education,
and more taxes, until that organisms very death. So they attempt to look away , but because
of compassion and their identity with the whole situation they cannot completely turn their
backs. This is what causes the neurosis of some Blacks.

Through Sweetback, Melvin Van Peebles is righteously signifying and teaching the people what must really be done to survive. WHen Sweetbcak realizes that he cannot turn his
back, he takes the handcuffs, the chains which have been used to hold him in slavery, and
he starts to kick ass. Using his handcuffs as a weapon against the oppressor rather than as
the tool of submisssin, he downs both of the policemen, almost cutting off their heads.

This is a very bloody scene but it was very important that they showed the blood all the
way up his arm. It makes me think of the statement by Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the
Earth, where he says that the peasant creeps into the settlers room at night and cracks the
settlers head open. Then the blood spurts across the peasants face, and it is the obly baptism he ever remembered.

The Black audiences really respond to this scene because it is another baptism; but instead of wading in the water as Sweetback did earlier, this is a baptism in blood. As each
blow went down, you could hear the tension being released in the audience because right at
the moment it was a climax for them.

One of the few criticisms I have of this film is that there is no religious music behind
this scene. This is no more a scene of violence than the earlier baptism was one of sex; it is
a growing into manhood. Sweetback grew into a man when he was in bed with that woman
and he also grew to be a man when he busted the heads of his oppressors. When he was
with the woman it was like a holy union, and when he takes the heads of his oppressors it is
like taking the sacrament for the first time. In the first baptism he did not become a whole
man because he went into that freak show, but when he is baptized in the blood he righteously moves on to a higher level becasue the next time he is with the police with handcuffs
on, he gets away. And the time after that when he is with the police with handcuffs on, in
that pool hall, he knows what he must do and he does it.

Like I said before, Van Peebles is righteously signifying because he engages the audience in a climax when Sweetback downs the police. What he does is equate the most ecstatic moments in the film with the actions he is encouraging the people to engage in. So he is
advocating a bloody overthrow because the victims want to survive.
After the second transformation of Sweetback we are shown him in the backseat of the police car. The police inform him that they will not be placing any handcuffs on him, and offer

him a cigarette as they drive enroute to what we are contextual lead to believe will be the
police station, when a call from the staion over the police radio causes the officers to pick up
another gentleman. This immediately indicates to us that the police have no fear of Sweetback and he is just a willing minion, a pawn as Melvin states in his interview discussing the movie. This far into the film, Sweetback has been a mute. We dont know his interests, nor anything
of a personal nature about him. Once again, the jarring movements of the films avante garde
style can cause the casual viewer to lose a very key element of this works. We see the police pull
over and park, and we hear the discussion within. This is the only indication we have of who the
gentlemen the police are after is. A candenced and melodic chant of the jive police can be heard
coming from the building as the police officers make their dash into the building. Once again,
Melvin conveys to us the officers belief of submissiveness on the part of Sweetback as he is handcuffed for appearances sake, because the police,dont want anyone to think you are just sitting
here. This is the first time in the movie we will see the handcuffs placed on Sweetback. With a
backdrop of verbal bellows of let him go, a young man with a black shirt is escorted outside of
the building. We are informed via an exchange with the officers that,he must be the ringleader.
We gain further information about the young man during the montage of flashing signs indicating travel, and a staement by the white officer directed towards the young man:youve been stirring up the natives, kid.
The police arrive at some sort of industrial sector and begin to beat the young man while he is
still handcuffed to Sweetback. In the midst of abusing the young man, they apologize to Sweetback for having him handcuffed to the brother, and the remove the handcuffed hand from the
manacles. While the pigs continue to beat the young man, Sweetback stands to the side, his
glance veering away from the attack. Sweetback then looks at his handcuffs, fastens the open
cuff around his fist, and begins to strike the officers. After he has successfully laid the officers
out, he assists the young brother that Huey indicates is Moo-Moo to an upright position. MooMoo thanks him and asks Sweetback where they are going now, and as Huey tells us, Sweetback
replies, Where you get that we shit. Huey, being a ardent reader of Fanons Wretched of the
Earth ascribes the scene as a baptism of blood. This reminds me of Fanons pronouncement that
Violence is therapuetic. From this scene we are shown Sweetback running through the industrial area and the urban environment back to Beatles house that has just been raided by the police.
Huey describes the following scene:
The next point that Van Peebles develops int he film is the need of the Black community for
greater unity and how the lack of unity will only deliver us into the hands of our oppressors.
What happens? Sweetback helps Moo-Moo get up, but then goes his own way and makes it back
to the cat house where he encounters Beatle. Beatle starts to give him advice, but everybody recognizes that Beatle is not really responding to Sweetbacks situation. Van Peebles gets this point
across beautifully. While he is giving advice Beatle is sitting on the toilet. He wipes himself, gets
up, and without washing his hands he takes a towel and wipes his face. This is signifying that
what is coming out of Beatles mouth is the same thing that is coming out the other end--shit and
nothing else. Notice that Sweetback never says a word to Beatle, but he does not have to because
Beatle is deaf and cannot hear what isbeing said anyway.
As stated above, Beatle is seen in the bathroom while Sweetback is standing in the door. Beatle
begins his diatribe with my man and black power symbolic gestures, and sits on the toilet defecating. I am once again alarmed that Huey doesnt assign this scene any capitalistic notations.
Beatle obviously represents exploitative Black capitalist. While taking his shit, from both ends,
he reminds Sweetback that his actions could have serious repurcussions on the rest of his employees and that they have a good working public relations with the police. Melvin exemplifies
the Black business man under pressure from the white establishment with puanache! As Huey
has noted, Beatle is simply talking from both ends of the digestive track.
Moving forward:
When he leaves Beatle, the camera shows Sweetback with a terrified look on his face. He has re-

PG 23

alized that those he knows best have such a low level of awareness that he cannot expect aid from
them. He realizes that the lack of unity is a very hurting thing, and when he walks out of Beatles
plave he walks right into the hands of the police, who pretend to be nice until they realize that he
is not playing the part of the meek victim. Then they work him over thoroughly.

Sweetback is saved by the same unity he failed to finde with Beatle. The people rescue him
by pretending to be in need of money, and offer to wash the car of the police. Instead they are
engaging in a very revolutionary act and save the brother from the oppressor while at the same
time delivering a deadly blow to the police. What Sweetback has done for Moo-Moo is repeated
for him by the community.

Huey is describing the scene where Sweetback has been approached by the patrol men. During
this informal interrogation, the patrollers assume that Sweetback was in the car, and the police
officers he attacked had been bodied in an ambush. The term friend is once again used to gain
the support of Sweetback. They soon realize that Sweetbacks lack of involvement is not the case
when one of the officers removes the coat that Sweetback is using to hide his handcuffs. While
Sweetback is being detained, one of the two officers runs back to his car to be adviced by his commissioner how to handle the situation. The commissioner, surrounded by reporters, suggests
to the officer that Sweetback be beaten. During this conversation two Black children are asking
the officer to wash the car. The officer returns to where his compatriot is holding Sweetback by
gun point and they commence to beating Sweetback. They decide to take Sweetback somewhere
that they can really work him over. The community has been washing the police car, but not
in water. Once inside the car, it ignites in flames, and the young Blacks run and help Sweetback
escape. While the frenzy of the crowd ensues, Sweetback hides among the people by staying on
his knees below them. After Sweetback is able to walk past unnoticed, we see him in what looks
like a sewer, where he sticks his cuffed hands in sewer water. This is the first use of the symbol of
murky water used to cleanse in the movie, we will return to it later.
Huey:
Sweetback is on his own now but he is locked into a pair of handcuffs. How deoes he get them
off? Through unity. He goes to a woman, whom he has been with before, ande she tellls him to
beg. This is obviously not the first time this has happened, but Sweetback cannot beg any more
because he has been transformed by the baptism in blood. He needs her at this moment, but sexuality cannot be based on was any longer but on love and unity. He makes love to her and after
that the handcuffs are off. This signifies that it is the unity between the Black man and the Black
woman which is able to liberate them both.

In his first baptism Sweetback acquired the ability to love, but he could only truly love and
unify with the woman when he had done away with the people who made his woman the oppressors woman and himself the oppressors man. Then they could really have unity which is symbolic of the liberating love of the Black man and woman.
Sweetback goes to the home of a sister that he has some established past with. He asks her
through gestures to remove the cuffs. She tells him to beg. He, in his second actual bit of dialogue, states,No, she counter,what you too proud to beg? To which he states,No, but you
wouldnt take them off if I did.Once again we see Sweetback in a situation of transformation.
This time it is to remove the handcuffs from his wrists. Melvin uses the sexual act as a symbol of
gaining liberation. It is also of importance to note that this is the second time in the film that we
are hearing Sweetback talk. The first was to address the revolutionary Moo-Moo. Both times thus
far are being used to illustrate a disconnect. With Moo-Moo it was Sweetbacks disconnect, as
Moo-Moo had verbalized a partnership. In this instance, it is Sweetback verbalizing the womans
disconnect. He is in fact stating that he is willing to comply with the woman, but he realizes that
it would do him no good. He understands his people enough to do what is necessary to be utilitarian. This complies with the survivalist theme that is apparent throughout the movie.
Huey illustrates the progessing scenes:

Sweetback is on his own again, but this time without the handcuffs. In the meantime the
film takes us back to the cat house and his old boss, Beatle. Beatle is bing hassled by the po-

PG 24

lice who want to know where to find Sweetback. Beatle doesnt really know, but if he did he
would have told them because beatle had no consciousness--he is deaf. And to prove how
true this is, the police finally deafen him.

Sweetback moves through the community looking for the assistance he needs to get
away. He doesnt get all that he needs, but he gets all that each can give. At the church he
gets a Black Ave Maria and the power sign. The minister recognizes that his religion is a
hype, for he tells Sweetback that Moo-Moo is giving the prople the real religion.
Sweetback runs from the sisters house to a church. Inside the church he tells the preacher
that he wants to hide upstairs, but he is informed he cant because the man knows everything. Once again, Melvin is hinting at that openness of the Black community to inspection
and control by the white enforcers. He further tells Sweetback that Moo-Moo has the real
religion, and that his job is to make people believe that it will be better for them on the other side of death. He explains that Moo-Moo has the real religion because it is the religion of
later for waiting. He then tells Sweetback he is going to say a Black Ave Maria for him will
thrust his fist in the air, the symbol of Black solidarity and liberation. What Melvin is symbolizing is the duty conflict within the Black community and how it should be resolved. The
preacher understands what the people expect from him,happiness from the Happy land.
And yet, he is overjoyed by the fact that Sweetback has slapped up the police and saved the
young man Moo-Moo, as well as the young communities response by saving Sweetback. He
can only offer Sweetback so much. But he wants Sweetback and the young revolutionaries
to be successful because he recognizes the organic bond they all share under oppression.
Continuing:
At the gambling den he gets little apparent sympathy. The manage keeps teling him he is
a dead man and he really does not need money. In this scene Van Peebles is again showing the community of the victimized, just liek the performers in the freak show, because
the manager explains to Sweetback that he cannot make any money on his operatin. By
the time he gets finished paying off everybody who is exploiting him, he pays a dollar and a
dime for every dollar he makes. This is another example of the oppressor demanding more
and more of the victims.

But the gamble does what he can--he gives Sweetback a ride. There is some unity, but
not enough; and during the ride Sweetback spots Moo-Moo, the man he left behind, and
they are reunited. This is as it should be, because Sweetback is leaving the community with
the person who was the beginning of all this, Moo-Moo. They are two unlike characters yet
they are linked together.

Moo-Moo symbolizes the revolutionary who is trying to free the people. His whole program is pointed toward people like Sweetback, community people who are very unaware yet
trying to survive. Sweetback at this point symbolizes the most unconscious persons int the
community, people who are sometimes viewed as more worthless than the pimp. Sweetback
is not a pimp and could not do as much as a pimp would, he is much less aggressive. A pimp
will work at putting girls on the block, watching them, collecting moeny, beating them and
controlling threm. He may also steal and deal in dope and so forth. Sweetback wont do any
of this and yet the women love him because hes got such a sweet, sweet back. He will just
stay home and the women will bring him everything he needs He accepts their goods but he
doesnt care what they do. So te sweetback is actually more worthless than the pimp, on one
level, because he wont take the chances that a pimp would to survive. He has submitted
more, almost to the point where he is a vegetable and is just taken care of. So the fact that
Sweetback would not stand any more victimization, that he identified with Moo-Moo as
being one of the victims, and the fact that Moo-Moos revolutionary program is pointed to
the lowest level of consciousness in the community, means that even though they are unlike
characters, even though Moo-Moo is young and Sweetback is older, it is not unlikely that
they would be bound together.

When the gamblers get Sweetback and Moo-Moo to the edge of twon they tell Sweetback to buy himself a last supper because he is a dead man. Their level of consciousness is

PG 25

so low that they will help him to a point, but they still believe that ultimately the oppressor
will triumph and Sweetback will die.
This scene reiterates the nature of the relationship of the Black community with the white
one in a poetic manner. Sweetback enters into a gambling den in order to secure funds for
his survival. The owner of the gambling house states this poem with an interjectory from
one of the gambling men:
What does a dead man need bread for?
Cause he was whipping a brother
How many brothers have you whipped?
How many sistes have you slipped?
Life is tough, baby
A real struggle
From the womb to the tomb
Every dollar we make
Guianeas get twenty
the police get forty
and Goldberg gets fifty
anybody tell you that dont add up to a dollar
that add up to a dollar and a dime
thats why the niggas are so far behind
And Africa shall stretch forth her arms...
Yeah, and bring back a bloody stump.
What does a dead man need bread for...
The gambling house owner, in the same vein as the preacher, offers Sweetback the most
that he can: a ride to the end of town. I interpret this scene inconjuction with Beatle. Both
are business owners, however, Beatle is more like the bourgeoisie business owner that interprets their relationship with the white community as a good public relations opportunity. The gambling house owner is more like the struggling Black entrepreneur in the urban
community that has the resources, but is being bled by taxes, lack of political power, and a
tarnished image. The urban Black entrepreneur is conscious of the actual relationship he
shares with the white community is not going to symbolize it in friendly terms. As the
gambler states him Self, it is a real struggle.
While in transit, Sweetback sees Moo-Moo, and offers him a ride with him. The gambler
recognizes Moo-Moo and tells him that he is the reason for Sweetbacks dilema. There is a
relationship here that needs to be addressed. The gambler shares an affinity for Sweetback.
One that he is willing to risk his life for. He sees Moo-Moo as a threat, and yet, he recognizes that Sweetback is willing to risk his life for Moo-Moo. This further butresses my assessment of the gambler as the urban entrepreneur. The urban entrepreneur has an established
relationship with the community. They dance to the same rhythm, they share the same
greyish laboratory like skies. We understand that the urban entrepreneur is apart of the
pulse of community as we witness the gambler driving with Sweetback and Moo-Moo, and
the gamblers friend is in the back with a gun, symbolizing protection and defense. They are
also on the run with Sweetback, ready for the police harrassment that could entail. we also
recognize the urban entrepreneurial shortcoming is a lack of faith in the revolution. They
have seen the power of the police and the military might of the white establishment, and
thus the last words to Sweetback are to get a last supper, while continuing the poem in the
word,you are a dead man.
Lets allow Huey to take us deeper into the movies passage:
Sweetback and Moo-Moo are determined to survive, however, and they begin their journey. The encounter with the motorcycle gang shows a number of things. First of all it is

PG 26

a triumph of the soul-force(which the women gave Sweetback in the first scene) over all
the mechanical developments of the oppressor. When he is challenged to a wrestling duel
the gang leader picks up a motorcycle to show brute strength; then with a knife the leader
shows how effectively they have mastered this weapon. When the gang leader reveals herself to be a woman, Sweetback knows she is no match for the weapon he chooses. The gang
promises to do him and Moo-Moo in after she does him in, but in the end the Pres is laid
out on the ground in complete submission. The Black women showed him the way to liberation and he used his knowledge effectively.

Van Peebles is also signifying other things in the motorcycle gang scene. First of all
there is the symbol of the strength of the White woman over the White man(and they dont
even know it). Then there is the symbol of the Aryan, the superior race. The president of the
gang is big and robust, the image of White superiority. The only criticism I have here is that
her hair should have been blond rather than reddish, but the idea gets across. The idea also
comes across that the people have the ability to triumph over all these symbols of oppression. Unity will save us.

I should point out that in his duel with the Aryan someone has stuck a derby hat and
a silly little tie on Sweetback. It is like a performance, a minstrel show or a cakewalk thing.
But Sweetback takes off the derby hat and in that way he tells the others that this iis no performance, this is dealing for survival. He deals and he survives, muth to their disappointment, and they roar off on their motorcycles, leaving their conquered leader on the ground.

Some of the gang betray Moo-Moo and Sweetback, telling them that since Sweetback
has won the duel they will take care of him and Moo-Moo by giving them shelter in a mountain cabin. Instead they send the police. This cabin contains a pool hall, and when the police
arrive Moo-Moo and Sweetback are playing pool. When the police enter, Sweetback offers
his hands for the cuffs, but then moves to use them to down one policeman. But he is without a weapon to deal with the other one and Moo-Moo is shot. Sweetback uses familiar survival techniques, however, because he deals with what he has available to him. The pool cue
becomes a spear, staving the policeman through the chest and drilling him all the way to
the hilt of the cue. It is not technoloty that saves him, it is his ability to use the familiar features of the Black community. This is another important message.

The rest of the scenes show the unity of the community and its creativity in dealing
with survival situations. Sweetback sends Moo-Moo on a motorcycle because he is the future. Then he makes it on his feet, by himself. He makes his plea to his feet to do their thing
and they never fail him. All he has are his feet and one knife, and he gets by.
Sweetback fall prey to a white motorcycle gang. They gang robs Sweetback for his watch,
but they want to make a sport, a contest of their punishing Sweetback and Moo-Moo for
trespassing on their territory. The group speaks of democracy, and represent the class of
rebel whites. Nothing in this context speaks of racism. The gang wants their Prez, who is
a red headed white woman, to duel Sweetback in a challenge of Sweetbacks choice. Sweetback chooses fucking.

The two strip naked, article of clothings taken off one piece at a time. The Prez seems
confident and also anticipatory. Once again, Melvin uses the sex act as a form of liberation
for Sweetback. In some ways, I believe that Melvin is also symbolizing his own liberation as
he uses a sexually explicit movie to escape the clutches of dependence from white producers. The Prez attempts to fuck Sweetback aggressively, but Sweetback manages to work
her into a frenzy as she spreads her legs and calls his name. Unfortunately, the white gang
of bikers refuse to honor their end of the bargain, and lead Sweetback and Moo-Moo into
an ambush.

The gang members lead Sweetback and Moo-Moo into a billiard room, and outside
they discuss calling the police. As Moo-Moo and Sweetback begin to play a game and share
a beer, the police ambush them. Sweetback, in what I determine is a means of teaching
Moo-Moo, acts submissively and turns around accepting the handcuffs. What he actually
does is use the handcuffs, once again, to slash the eyes of the police officer. Then Sweetback
uses the cue stick to spear the officer. Moo-Moo, who is untrained, is wounded as the blind-

PG 27

ed officer shoots his pistol wildly. The two protagonist are able to kill the officers, and hide
their corpses. Soon, a courier for the preacher comes to pick Sweetback up. The courier is
only riding a motorcycle and informs Sweetback that he can only carry him Self and one
other. sweetback tells the courier to take Moo-Moo, because Moo-Moo is our future. A
sacrificial Sweetback with an understanding of the emotional decisions he is making emerges. The brother Moo-Moo thanks Sweetback with the handshake of solidarity.
Bro. Huey:
In the meantime the police are in the conference room and the commissioner tells them
he wants the cop-killers and niggers. Then he calls the Black policemen aside to apologize.
They never say a word during the movie, but in their faces you see that they are dead. They
are dead because they are separated from the community of victims of which they are a
part.

The police vamp on the entire community. They raid a motel and rip out the eyes of
one brother. When they realize that he is not Sweetback their reply is So what? Melvin Van
Peebles is making it plain that we are all Sweetbacks and we are all united in this victimization. At on point they bring Beatle to the morgue to identify a boy as Sweetbacks; They run
their games again with some speech about democracy and communism. They use their idea
of bourgeois democracy against the community, but Beatle is a deaf man and has been deaf
for a long time. In some respects he is also a blind man because even though he operates a
cat house and survives, he cannot read. They are teh cause of his problems, for he cannot
hear, he cannot see, yet they want him to be a responsible citizen and help them. We see
that Beatle has been subjected to the Biblical dictum: Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt
or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if
thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life
with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.(Matthew 18:8-9)

Van Peebles is continuing to signify and send out messages to the Black community.
When Beatle sees that the corpse in the morgue is not Sweetback, he breaks up with joy.
He gains his hearing in a sense, and also his sight. For whosoever will save his life shall
lose it: and whosoever wil lose his life for my sake shall find it.(Matthew 16:25) We see the
message very clearly because the camera immediately switches to a shoeshine stand where
a brother is shining a mans shoes with his ass and he is really telling the man, for Beatle,
what he can do.

So the police go through the community searching for Sweetback, and the people stand
as one. They dont know anything. The message here to the community is to stop snitching, there is need for unity not for revealing our secrets. When I was in the penitentiary I
learned the worst crime on inmate can accuse another of is snitching. Van Peebles shows
how the community can avaoid this and save themselves from their oppressors.

In the meantime we see Sweetback making it through the edges of the city and heading fro the desert. He has not of the high-powered technology of the oppressor, but he does
have his feet. In one scene we see him going by a large factory; it looks like a chemical plant
or something like that. Here you see the drama being symbolized to its fullest, Sweetback
with his feet making it on by the mans highest manifestation of technological skill, and you
realize that this is the drama developing, the soul-force of the people against the technology
of the oppressor. The only question is, which will win? The answer is given by Sweetback in
his plea to his feet, he says:

Come on feet
cruise for me
come legs
come on run
come on feet
do your thing
who put the bad mouth on me

PG 28

anyway the way I pick em up

and put em down
even if it got
my name on it
wont catch me now.

There is Sweetbacks answer to the oppressors technology. even if the bullet has his
name on it, it wont catch him now. Why? Because Sweetback has feet and they will save
him.

This is also the beginning of the dialogue between the running Sweetback and the colored angels. As soon as he hits the desrt where the situation is really going to be bad, the
colored angels come in and try to discourage him. But he has feet, he has heart, and he has
courage, and in the dialogue he resists their discouragement as much as he resists the technology of the pollice, who are always searching.

As Sweetback begins to run, the police begin a terrorist operation in the Black community.
They beat a Black man that is not Sweetback, and in response to the realization that it is not
Sweetback, they say so what. This is the same lack of professionalism and care and concern
that the police used when they killed Aiyana Jones, Oscar Grant, Amadou Diallo, and the
hundreds of Blacks left slain due to police investigations and procedures. I concur one
thousand percent with the Brother Hueys assessment, we are all Sweetbacks.

There are other aspects of the film that we could delve into, but the overall gist of the
film is to survive. I would be remiss not to mention the angels that sing to Sweetback as he
makes his escape. Without killing the surprise of the movie, Ill transcribe the song, since it
is Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song:
If you cant beat em join em
thats what they say
You talking bout yesterday
You cant go on like that Sweetback
Not Long as your face is Black
Yeah, Im Black and Im keepin on
Keepin on the same ole way
They bopped your mama
They bopped your papa
Wont bop me
They bopped your sister
They bopped your brother
They wont bop me
THEY BURNED OUR MAMAS
THEY BEAT OUR PAPAS
THEY TRICKED OUR SISTERS
THEY CHAINED OUR BROTHERS
WONT BLEED ME
WONT BLEED ME
WONT BLEED ME

PG 29

They bled your mama

They bled your papa
But he wnt bleed me
Use your Black ass from sun to sun
Niggers scared and pretend they dont see
deep down dirty dog scared
Just like you Sweetback
Just like I used to be
Work your Black behind to the gums
And you supposed to thomas tell he done
You got to thomas Sweetback
They bled your btother
They bled your sister
Yeah, but they wont bleed me
Progress Sweetback
Thats what he want you to believe
No progress Sweetback
He aint stopped clubbing us for 400 years
And he dont inted to for a million
He sure treat us bad Sweetback
We can make him do us better
Chicken aint nothing but a bird
Whate man aint nothing but a turd
Nigger aint shit
Get my hands on a trigger
You talkin revolution Sweetback
I want a ger off these knees
You talkin revolution Sweetback
You cant make it on wings
Wheels or steel Sweerback
We got feet
You cant get away no wings
wheels or steel Sweetback
We got feet
You cant get away on wings
wheels or Steel Sweetback
Niggers got feet
He bled your brother
He bled your sister
Your brother and your sister too

PG 30

How come it took me so long to see

How he get us to use each other
Niggers scared
We got to get it together if he kicks a brother
It gotta be like he kickin your mother
They hype you into sopping the
Marrow out your own bones
Justice is blind
Yeah and white too
Justice is blind
The way she acts she gotta be
The man is jive
Not too juve to have his game
Uptight in your kinky bean
Stand tall Sweetback he
Aint gonna let you
Im standing tall anyway
The man know everything Sweetback
The man know everything
Then he ought to know Im
Tired of him fuckin with me
Use your feet baby
Run motherfucka
Run Sweetback
He wont bleed me
The lyrics of what Melvin is describing as angels is very telling of the thinking that is going
behind this motion picture, this art work, this film. The very angels of heaven that we have
been listening to throughout this picture have doubts about SweetBacks survival. They are
telling SweetBack to give up, not because of him Self, and his own abilities, but because of
the strength and might of the oppressive arms. SweetBack answers back that he might not
have what his overpowering oppressors have, but he does have something: Him Self. This
is SweetBacks badass song: one that finds our protagonist up against his worst enemy, him
Self. The only thing that holds SweetBack from accomplishing anything at this point in the
film is SweetBacks resolve to push further, to survive. In this depiction, Melvin is reminding us of our Selves. What Melvin is saying here is that it is not when our enemy is most
obvious that we need to be our most strongest and determined. No, it is when we are alone
and pushing against our own created pains and material conditions that we need to be
thinking the most, that we need to be forcing our Selves to reach boundaries that most give
out before reaching. It is through this song that we witness SweetBack without any comforts. It is through this song that we witness SweetBack urinating in the mud in order to
comfort his pain. It is through this song that we witness SweetBack eating like savage eats.
It is through our battles with our Selves when we find exactly how much we wish to over
come our internal chaos and create order. This is a very revolutionary section of the movie.
Ultimately, it is the incistence of Melvins usage of artful music and poem that carries this
particular piece above and beyond all of its imitators. The weakness of a character such as
SweetBack is seldom mention outside of scathing critique, and yet, it is his silence and his
willingness to overcome obstacles in the face of iminent defeat that gives him resonance. He
is not the arrogantly violent Tony Montana, nor the adroit Shaft. His cunning is not witty,
nor is it sophisticated. His is a simple heroism brought about through material conditions

that teach him how to survive and develop a certain political consciousness throughout the
film. Even the stoicism of SweetBack is more due to his lack of knowledge than because he
is attempting to be the strong and silent type of male thrust upon us in this societys media and lore. However, it is the superficials of an artistic expression that capitalist exploiters
of the Western breed seek the most. And Melvins classic work is no exception in the litany
of works developed by Black artists, and yet used to extend White supremacist ideology and
symbols, as we shall soon see in the following chapters.

CHPTR 3
JUNGLE MUSIC
For the generation that would produce hip-hops Golden Age-artists like Rakim and Big
Daddy Kane, both born in 1968, Year Four of the NGEs calendar - the Five Percenters were
an established orthodoxy, their traditions a vital part of the surrounding cultural scene. The
classic 1980s b-boy stance is said to have derived from the posture of Gods standing on
their square at parties. The language of Five Percenters became the language of early rap:
expressions like peace and dropping science come straight from the Gods and Earths.
Even the affirmation, word! had its start with Five Percenters, as an abbreviation of the
phrase word is bond from the 120. To praise an emcees rhyme as the bomb came from
the teaching battles in which Five Percenters bombed each other with memorized lessons.
And to call someone G, which is now read as gangsta, represented God in the Supreme
Alphabets, as Rakim brings to light in No Competition: Im God/G is the seventh letter
made - Michael Muhammad Knight, The Five Percenters, pg 178

According to Dr. Yosef Ben Jochanan the starburst was a symbol of Ra, a recognition
of the power of the sun and symbolic of an all powerful energy source throughout existence.
The symbol of four right angles connected, a variation of the cross, became more popular
in the twentieth century as Adolf Hitler utilized the symbol to represent his ideology(Black
World, Feb. 1974). When veiwing the swatstika, as it has now come to be known, one may
have feelings of disdain or pride, depending on what side of the white nationalist and Jewish Holocaust one stands on. The impact of the actors utilizing the symbol to represent their
particular brand of vileness has been imprinted into the minds of the dwellers of the planet
a score or so shorter than six scores, a technological reach greater than that of the World
Wide Web. A transference of meaning, symbol enegry, erased of its more sacred vibrations,
and written with blood a new conferrence of ideas. A discussion of death and White terrorism with your neural receivers with just one glance.

If you recall from an earlier discussion, it can be quite difficult to present an analysis of
Black cultural symbols and media expressions. The precarious nature of forging judgments

PG 33

in the minds of a group of people so taunted by the oppressive weight of slavery, Jim Crow,
CoINTELPro, economic warfare, psychological warfare, and self-hate can cause reactions
and responses that any responsible thinker and writer would
want to eschew. Unfortunately, avoidance of the discussion by
my Self or any other with a worthy scholarly training would
be the height of intellectual cowardice. Further, it would be
treasonous to abstain from an analysis of a medium that has
had such a deep impact on my own life. To believe the effects
of Hip Hop, or more correctly in this instance, rap, are mimimal is a jest of objectivity and statistical smoke and mirrors.
To know through personal self examination and self-historical
honesty is to be responsible for the dissemination of a certain
medicine that can cure
millions of ones own
family.
As with the swatstika, a very organic, and through its ability to allow for freedom of expression
for the underclass - sacred technology was stolen
from the vehicle of Hip Hop via contracts, business
suits, mass production, and other corporatist paraphernalia. To be sure, the association of Hip Hop
with the urban environment in its most impoverished economic state will bring forth discussions of
criminal activity. Like with most technologies, the
existence of the elements in combination to provide
actual usage are already around before a popular
label was developed. During the 1960s and 70s, artists such as Gil Scott Heron, The Last Poets, and
the Watts Prophets were able to use the conduit of
drums, strings, horns infused with their verbalizing energy to encourage and inform history before
the first discohalls became popular. It would be the
discohalls, the centers of social merriment, that
would codify the tools for electronic dissemination
of music, replacing the live bands through a constant
broadcasting of music by the disc jockeys via mixers.
Although I consider intellectual pursuits in the
higher academics a process that should be devoid of
political sycophantry, I do agree with Michael Eric
Dyson in his book Know What I Mean? It is unfortunate that he has chosen to pick sides among the
various rap artists that have taken the battle rapping of the Hip Hop early era(1980s) and
made it a laughable sport akin to Ted Turner promoted wrestling, and allowed Jay-Z and
Nas to write portions of his book. This action places his research and analysis at a strong
disadvantage, and taints any statements he might make from his authority as a premier academic at risk of opportunism.

However, for our purposes here, he does make a strong point of historical merit when
he writes,For the member of the Black Arts Movement, there was no such thing as a serious artist who was not concerned about the social struggles of self-determination and
political libery of their people, struggles which in large part inspired their art. So the participants in the Black Arts Movement were persuaded of the need to fuse politics, art, and
commumnity. Several questions guided their agenda: How are the arts serving the broader

PG 34

black world? How does art imply and forge political cohesion among the black masses?
How does the Black Arts Movement help to revolutionize or fundamentally transform the
consciousness of ordinary people and move them from anger to action? Art was never far
from life, never artificially divorced from suffering or celebration. It was always found at the
intersection of reflection and reaction or of critical consciousness and social intervention.
Art was a servant of the masses.(Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean?, pg. 62)

As a person that dislikes being placed in boxes or labeled, I understand the need for
many artists to disconnect from the labels of conscious this person or that person as a
means to avoid the strigent expectations held on ones behavior and moral code. However,
as our analytical maturity evolves, we realize that in order for a group, society, or community to persist, there has to be sacrifices in the form of social responsibility. Regardless of
the moral or religious sanctions and edifice one subscribes to, or doesnt subscribe to, it behooves every member of a social unit to realize their influence, and ability to respond to the
elements within that social grouping. As artists, our ability to influence and impregnate the
minds of others is historically noted as superior to even that of the demagouges. Our usage
of visual symbology, aural symbology, and tactile symbols are affective and leave a resonance with those that consume our arts. To tamper with the technology of the individual
without consideration for the social effects is to act with viciousness. There is a responsibility that we all hold, to those that hold more influence, and more ability to alter consciousness, the more respond ableness is required.
The implication of the last paragraph should not be that of impossible morals. We are not here to force anyone to abide by
our own petty codes of behavior. However, we are asking that
individuals consider the sensitive nature of the times, and act
with that regard. The concept of artists and those in the public sphere not being role models is simply ridiculous. There is
no logical argument that can resolve or remove responsibility from a person that has influence and attention in the public space. The fact that one
is able to garner financial
stability from their arts is
enough of a reminder that
people are following you and
are supporting your behaviors. Although possible, I
have yet to spend money with
anyone that I didnt agree
with, or felt an affinity for. we boycott companies for their
lack of social responsibility, or to alert them that they have
offended us in some manner. The same should occur with
any artist that misuses their powers of persuasion over the
people.
In response to the vivid and damaging images displayed in the Dennis Hopper
directed,Colors, and the title song of the soundtrack written and performed by Ice-T,
journalist John Leland implies that the lyrics of Spoonie Gee are the archetype for the style
of rap now more commonly refered to as gangsta rap. (John Leland, New York Times,
March 12, 1989). A look at one of the more influential recordings of Spoonie Gee, Spoonin Rap, one immediately understands that the usage of the vernacular and imagery of
the prison lifestyle is being evoked as more of cavaet than a promotion. Once again, we are
discussing Spoonie Gee because a mainstream article circulated the idea that Spoonie Gee
helped to establish the form of rap that would be referred to as gangsta rap.

PG 35

Spoonie Gee raps:

You say
One for the trouble
Two for the time
Come on, yall, lets rock the ( *whistle* )
Yes, yes, yall
Freak, freak, yall
Funky beats, yall
Then you rock n roll
Then you roll n rock
And they you rockin to the beat that just
dont want you to stop
Cause Im the S to the p-double o-n-y
The one MC who you cant deny
Cause Im the baby-maker, Im the woman-taker
Im the cold-crushin lover, the heartbreaker
So come on, fly girls, and please dont stop
Cause Im MC Spoonie Gee, wanna hit the top
And young ladies, rock on
Say I was drivin down the street on a stormy night
Say up ahead there was this terrible fright
There was a big fine lady, she was crossin the street
She had a box with the disco beat
So I hit my brakes, but theyre not all there
I missed the young lady by only a hair
And then I took me a look, I said, La-di-da-di
A big fine girl, she had a hell of a body
Then she looked at me and then she started switchin
So I took my key out of the ignition
Got out the car and kept my mouth shut
Cause my 20-20 vision was right on her butt
I caught up with her, I said, You look so fine
I swear to God I wish you was mine
She said, Hey boy, youre Spoonie Gee
Thats right, honey, how did you know me?
She said, Spoonie Gee, youre all the same
And everybody who disco know your name
I said, Come on baby, its not too far
We gonna take a little walk to my car
Once we got to the car, then we sat in the seat
And then the box was rockin to the funky beat
And then I looked at her and pushed the seat back
Turned off her box and put on my 8-track
And then I started rappin without no pause
Cause my mind was just gettin in those draws
And then I got in the straw, we started do it to the beat
And started doin like this, started doin the freak
Yes, yes, yall
Freak, freak, yall

PG 36

Cause Im MC Spoonie Gee, I wanna be known

As the metropolitician of the microphone
Cause Im a mans threat
And Im a womans pet
And Im known as the mamsels joy
And Im a man who fights on the microphone
And who all the people enjoy, yall
Yes, yes, yall
Freak, freak, yall
And dont stop
Keep on
Say I was breakin and freakin at a disco place
I met a fine girl, she had a pretty face
And then she took me home, you say, The very same night?
The girl was on and she was outta sight
And then I got the girl for three hours straight
But I had to go to work, so I couldnt be late
I said, Wheres your man? she said, Hes in jail
I said, Come on baby, cause youre tellin a tale
Cause if he comes at me and then he wants to fight
See Ima get the man good and Ima get him right
See Ima roll my barrel and keep the bullets still
And when I shoot my shot, Im gonna shoot to kill
Cause Im the Spoonie-Spoon, I dont mess around
I drop a man where he stand right into the ground
You say from Africa to France, say to Germany
Because you cant get a man tryin to mess with me
Cause Im a smooth talker, Im the midnight stalker
Im the image of the man they call the J.D. Walker
If youre gonna be my girl, just come along
And just clap your hands to my funky song
I dont drink, I dont smoke, I dont gamble neither
And most people call me a woman pleaser
Cause I keep their phone numbers on the shelf
I go to make love, and then keep it to myself
So no ones gonna know what Im doin to you
Not your sister, brother, niece, nor your mother, father too
And take that yall
And dont stop
You keep on and on and on and on
Like hot butter on say what, the popcorn
Young ladies rock on
Fly guys
What a big surprise
Cause Im MC Spoonie Gee, dont take no mess
vFrom the north, the south, from east or west
Cause everybody knows MC Spoonie Gees the best
Young ladies rock on, yall
Rock, rock, yall and dont stop
Keep on to the shill shot
And then you rock and roll
And then you roll and rock
And then you rock to the beat that just dont wantcha to stop
Cause Im the S to the p-double o-n-y g

PG 37

Im talkin about me, MC Spoonie Gee

Rock on, yall
And dont stop
Keep on to the shill shot
Rock on and on and on and on
Like hot butter on say what, the popcorn
Dont stop the funky beat till the break of dawn
Young ladies
Young ladies
Cause Im the cool-crushin lover, goes on to supreme
And when it comes to fine girls Im like a lovin machine
It comes to makin love, I do the best I can
Cause Im known from coast to coast as the sixty-minute man
It comes to makin face, I got the macho class
I have all the fly girls shakin their ass
So for all you fly girls who wanna be loved
Check me out, cause Im the highest above
Im gonna call you up and give you an invitation
So you can see the way Spoonie Gee rocks the nation
One time, for the mind, yall
Freak, freak, yall
Funky freaks, yall
Yo go hip - hop - a hip-hip a hop
And then youre rockin to the hip, and then youre rockin the hop
And then you on and on and on and on
The beat dont stop until the freaks are gone
And rock on yall, and dont stop
Keep on to the shill shot
And for you sucker-sucker dudes who commit a crime
You wanna do bad, but dont do the time
I say you wanna be dissed and then you wanna be a crook
You find a old lady, take her pocketbook
And then you steal your mothers borrowed money on the sly
You can run, but you cant hide
When the cops crashed through, your face turned pale
Ima tell you a little story about the jail
Cause see, in jail theres a game and its called survival
And they run it down to you on your first arrival
They tell you what you can and cannot do
But if you go to jail, watch yours for a crew
Cause when you go in the shower, hes pullin his meat
And hes lookin at you and say you look real sweet
And at first there was one, now ten walked in
Now how in the hell did you expect to win?
I said you better look alive, not like you take dope
And please my brother, dont drop the soap
And if you get out the bathroom, and youre alive
Just remember only a man can survive
In jail of course, cause when youre doin 15 years
You got no freedom, you just have a warden
Yes, yes, yall
Freak, freak, yall
And dont stop

PG 38

Keep on to shill shot

Like a lime to a lemon and a lemon to a lime
I keep the funky beat, I say I pass the time
And like lemon and lime and like a lime to a lemon
A MC could attract all the women
Cause Im Spoonie Gee, and I wanna be known
As the metropolitician of the microphone
Yes, yes, yall
Freak, freak, yall
So just clap your hands and just stomp your feet
And just rock to the rhythm of the funky beat
To the funky, funky, funky, funky beat
The beat that makes you get up and pat your feet
Young ladies rock on, yall
Rock on, yall
Till the break of dawn
I say you do the Spank or the Patty Duke
Either one you want, you gotta get up and do
The rock-rock and you dont stop
I say I jumped the turnstyle for summer day
And then I seen the guy, and then I fled away
And then he pulled his gun, but he did not shoot
So come on everybody, lets Patty Duke
Cause Im livin well, and Im ready to dance
Come on girl, let me show my romance
Ill let you see the way how I rock the mic
Cause I know damn well that I could rock all night
Yes, yes, yall
Freak, freak, yall
And dont stop
Keep on, yall
You go rock and roll
And then you roll and rock..
As we see in the third verse, the imagery of the prison culture is only being expressed to
the sucker-sucker dudes who commit a crime. The cursory assessment found in the New
Times article that Spoonie Gee represents the inception of what Ice-T expresses to history
in Colors is unfounded outside of introducing a particular meme in the culture of Hip
Hop for describing crime and prison. As a
comparison, and a means to elicit a further
understanding of the trajectory that Ice-T
is presenting versus that which Spoonie
Gee presented, we have the lyrics of Ice-Ts
Colors and the track 6 N Tha Mornin
from the album released earlier the same
year,Rhyme Pays:
Yo Ease lets do this...
I am a nightmare walking, psychopath
talking
King of my jungle just a gangster stalking
Living life like a firecracker quick is my
fuse
Then dead as in death, thats the colors I
choose

PG 39

Red or Blue, Cuz or Blood, it just dont matter

Sucker die for your life when my shotgun scatters
We gangs of L.A. will never die - just multiply
You see they hit us then we hit them
Then we hit them and they hit us, man
Its like a war, ya know what Im sayin
People dont even understand
They dont even know what they dealing with
You wanna get rid of the gangs its gonna take a lotta work
But people dont understand the size of this
This is no joke man, this is real
You dont know me, fool
You disown me, cool
I dont need your assistance, social persistance
Any problem I got I just put my fist in
My life is violent but violent is life
Peace is a dream, reality is a knife
My colors, my honour, my colors, my all
With my colors upon me one soldier stands tall
Tell me what have you left me, what have I got
Last night in cold blood my young brother got shot
My home got jacked
My mothers on crack
My sister cant work cause her arms show trax
Madness insanity live in profanity
Then some punk claimin they understandin me
Give me a break, what world do you live in
Death is my sect, guess my religion
Yo my brother was a gang banger
and all my homeboys bang
I dont know why I do it man, I just do it
I never had much of nuffin man
Look at you man, youve got everything going for yourself
and I aint got nuffin man, Ive got nuffin
Im living in the ghetto man
just look at me man, look at me
My pants are saggin braided hair
suckers stare but I dont care
my game aint knowelgde my games fear
Ive no remorse so squares beware
But my true mission is just revenge
you aint in my sect, you aint my friend
wear the wrong color your life could end
homocides my favorite venge
Listen to me man
no matter whatcha do dont ever join a gang
you dont wanna be in it man,
Youre just gonna end up in a mix of dead freinds and time in jail I
know, if
I had a chance like you,

PG 40

I would never be in a gang man

but I didnt have a chance
You know I wish i did
Ill just walk like a giant police defiant
youll say to stop but Ill say that I cant
my gangs my family its all that I have
Im a star, on the walls is my autograph
You dont like it, so you know where you can go
cause the streets are my stage and terrors my show
phsyco-analize tried diognising me wise
It was a joke brother the brutally died
But it was mine, so let me define
my territory dont cross the line
Dont try to act crazy
cause the bitch dont thank me
you can be read like a punk
it wouldnta made me
cause my colors death
thou we all want peace
but our war wont end,
theyll always see
See the wars of the street gangs will always get to me man
But I dont wanna be down with this situation man
but Im in here, if I had something betta to do I think Id do it but
right
now Im just down here boye
Im trying to get money cause Im smart
Im gunna get paid while Im out here
Im gunna get that paper, ya know what Im saying
If I had a chance like you,
maybe I would be in school
but Im not, Im out here living day to day surviving
and Im willing to die for my colors
Yoll please stop, cause I want ya all to live.
This is Ice-T, Peace...
6 N Tha Mornin
6n The Mornin(Ice T, Rhyme Pays,
1987)
6n the morning police at my door
Fresh adidas squeak across the bathroom
floor
Out the back window I make a escape
Dont even get a chance to grab my old
school tape
Mad with no music but happy cause free
And the streets to a player is the place to be

PG 41

Gotta knot in my pocket weighin at least a grand

Gold on my neck my pistols close at hand
Im a self-made monster of the city streets
Remotely controlled by hard hip hop beats
But just livin in the city is a serious task
Didnt know what the cops wanted
Didnt have the time to ask
Word
Seen my homeboys coolin way way out told em bout my mornin
Cold bugged em out shot allmenn little dice until my knees got sore
Kicked around some stories bout the night before
Posse to the corner where the fly girls chill
Through action at some freaks until one bitch got ill
She started actin silly simply would not quit
Called us all punk pussies said we all werent shit
As we walked over to here hoe continued to speak
So we beat the bitch down in the god damn street
But just livin in the city a serious task
Bitch didnt know what hit her didnt have time to ask
Word
Continued clockin freaks with immense posterior
Rollin in blazer with a louie interior
Solid gold the ride was raw
Bust allmenn left turn was on Crenshaw
Sean-e-sean was the driver Known to give freaks hell
Had a beeper goin off like a high school bell
Looked in the mirror what did we see ?
Fuckin blue lights L.A. P.D.
Pigs searched our car, their day was made
Found a uzi, 44 and a handgranade
Threw us in the county high power block
No freaks to see no beats to rock
Didnt want trouble but the shit must fly
Squabbled this sucker shanked em in the eye
But just livin in the county is a serious task
Niga didnt know we gotem
Didnt have time to ask
Back on the streets after five and a deuce
Seven years later but still had the juice
My homeboy hen Gee put me up the track
Told me Es rollin Villain - BJs got the sack
Unknown is a giant - Nat Cs clockin Dough
Be bops a pimp. My old freaks a hoe

PG 42

The batter rams rollin rocks are the thing

Life has no meaning and money is king
Then he looked at me slowly and Hen had to grin
He said Man you out early we thought you got ten
Opened his safe kicked me down with cold cash
Knew I would get busy- He didnt waste time to ask
Word
I bought a Benz with the money the rest went to clothes
Went to the strip strted pimpin the hoes
My hair had grew long on my seven year stay
And when I got it done on my shoulders it lay
Hard from the joint but fly to my heart
I didnt want trouble but the shit had to start
Out with my crew some punks got loud
Shot gun blasts echoed throug the crowd
Six punks hit two punks died
All casualities appiled to their side
Human lives has to pass just for talking much trash
We didnt know who they were - No one had the time to ask
Word
In Colors we are given what D.W. Griffith, director of Birth of a Nation(credited for ad-

vancing the ranks of the Ku Klux Klan for its symbol of the Black Savage/Brute as a threat
to White feminity and White power), might deem as the best footnote for his works.
A point of reflection about how symbols are imprinted on the psyche and can be rewired
with various degrees of meaning: I was introduced to the film Birth of Nation via Black
scholars. This meant that I was given a clear understanding of the racial implications of the
film from a perspective of those the film was used as propaganda to vilify. Fast forward a
few years to my undergraduate media communications class. Mind you I attended a predominately white university where I was often the only Black male in a classroom. In these
discussions, the film was depicted as a Hollywood classic and a production of immense proportions. What does that mean? Beyond the words, it means that the film has an excuse to

PG 43

be watched ninety years later, and trust me, in thirty years it will probably still be shown to
up-and-coming media production and communication students. That means that for the
last almost century this film has been the standard by which students of film have been using as a great work. That means while a student that is being forced to analyze the film as a
production piece, the underlying message of the piece is given a free audience. White privilege must be a beautiful thing in a psychological war. It is also beneficial to remember that
one of the contributing factors to the nationwide urban spread of the street organizations,
the Blood and Crips, is the movie Colors. I can guarantee the same objective desire to
just make a high quality impactful production with no concern for the effects of such a piece
socially justified Dennis Hoppers actions.
The introduction of the song presents us with the phrase used to describe Larenz Tates
character O-dawg from Menace II Society, that we will visit in the next chapter: I am a
nightmare walking, psychopath talking. To compliment the description, Ice-T incites the
visual of the animal:King of my jungle just a gangster stalking. The urban Black male,
via usage of the same technological vehicle and symbols created by the urban Black male,
is infusing the symbol of the urban Black male with the same media energy and spirit that
earlier White Supremacist used to justify slavery. The Black male as an animal, one that
stalks the land, so muses Mr. Ice-T. This conjures up the elements of thought surrounding
the stoic nature of the Black male. Not a stoic nature developed through discipline, yet one
that is devoid of thought. A beast-like stoic nature like that of the stalking animal that we
witness on some National Geographic or Discovery Channel documentary, killing without
emotion, and one must assert - through implication -a beast-like stoic nature that doesnt
feel pain. When one watches the lion in hunt, a zebra or gazelle being struck down by the
creature lion often does not recieve the charge of our empathy or sympathy. In other words,
it is not common for people to feel saddened by the zebra or gazelle being eaten by the
lion. Also, one often does not feel any sympathy for the lion in pain, and such ideas, that is
a lion in pain - are not a part of the set of our symbols attached to such a sentient being.
It is in this vein that the murders of Black men and Black women were so often able to be
celebrated throughout the history of the United States. This celebration reaching the despicable degree of White terrorists mailing postcards with the symbols, the images of scorched
Blacks lynched surrounded by smiling white children, white women, and white men. It is
this imagery that is being rekindled by Ice-T, channeled through the technology of the budding Hip Hop.
The reach of Hip Hop has always astonished me. From the days in my childhood being
sought for by friends that shared the same apartment building as I to come out into the
hallway to listen to various Hip Hop artist from New York, as no artist from St. Louis had
emerged. Walking from home to school and seeing brothers and sisters breakin on the concrete of the lots around my apartment building, breakin as a form of battle on the bus, and
breakin in the bathroom of the school was a sheer indicator of the power of the movement,
the technology of Hip Hop to travel. It is with this understanding that when we discuss the
subtle references of street organizations in the movie, Menace II Society, the need for overt
communication beyond purple shirts and a B-roll of a street sign reading Grape St is unnecessary. In the same way that the fluid movements choreographed in the urban enviroment of the Bronx were able to be transmitted to the urban environments of the Midwest
to a group of youth, many of which lacked cable television in the home, or VCRs in that
day; the movements of twisted fingers used to communicate ones affiliation with a street
organization where transmitted. No need to spell out the reason why the Hughes Brothers
dressed extras in purple shirts, the national urban community already understood the significance of the territorial and tactile communications within the culture of the Grape Street
Cripz. And many had already died for a street, that they had never heard of.
According to Nelson George in his classic analysis of Hip Hop history, Hip Hop America,
Ice-T would move 300,000 units of Rhyme Pays.(pg. 132). The movie Colors would

PG 44

open to 422 screens, and gross $4,747,118 in its opening weekend(IMDB). Without a pause,
the influence of the Los Angelos urban natives, the bastards of the West Coast Branch of
the Black Panther Party for Defense, would reach not only the midwestern social ports, but
it would extend into even the sophisticated and urbane boroughs of New York City. It is
interesting to note that the five percenters - the young, brave proponents of the culture of
Islam taught by Clarence 13x, whose teachings still caress the lyrics of notable Hip Hop artists - werent able to maintain a greater grasp on the technology once it was in their domain.
Even L.L. Cool J utilized the scientific imagery found in the 120(a catechism of 120 questions plus 20 solar facts taught and memorized by the organization, affectionately known as
The Lessons).
In L.L.s first single, Rock The Bells, he verbalizes:
Rumor has it that youre tired of my scratchin and drums
And of course I wanna expand to the maximum
So I inject in one more element to that of L.L.
Came up with something funky called Rock the Bells
During this episode vocally I explode
My title is the king of the FM mode
See, my volume expands to consume
And my structures emote a lyrical heirloom
Vocally pulsating, I initiate gyrating
Ya must respond to my bells, theres no waiting
For the duration, theres no articulation
Receiving ovation for the bell association
The vocalization techniques I employ
The voice of my shadow could take a toy boy
The injection of bells into this beat
The result-enough energy to amputate your feet
Greater insulator microphone dominator
My name is Cool J, manipulator innovator
Connoisseur, Im sure my percussion will excite
These bells are gonna rock all night
Rock the bells
The bells make your energy escalate
A sort of musical fury L.L. might detonate
Subject matter entitled The Bells
The lyrical appraisement is by L.L.
My program strains the tympanic membrane
Ive been ordained the BLZ Ill flame
Paragraphs I concoct, Cut Creators like an organist
Cool J exists as a journalist
I illuminate over any number on the Richter
My throat contracts like a boa constrictor
Youre totally engulfed by the structured and the format
Its not dormant, it goes to the core, man
As you repent, youll say I went
To torture individuals for exitement
Ambassador, the fiend of Cordor
Dialect so def, itll rip up the floor
Ignite and excite with verbal extensions
What Ill mention will put you on pension
Makin you tremble, nothin resemble
The bells and if it dont
I disassemble

PG 45

hit if you bit

I go have a fit
The master impresario of lyrical wit
A hip-hop creature, concert feature
Amateur teacher, my rhymes reach ya
When I commence with excellence
It eradicates levels of pestilence
Upon a plateau
No mortal can go
Mythological characters stand below
Rock the bells
A B-boy symphony complete with bells
No classical fanatic is parallel
From the design of my lyrics many people call me
An immortalized B-boy prodigy
Eeee a misdemeanor, cleaner women I subpoena
No conjecture in my lecture, name and adversary Gina
Promoter, my tune revolves like rotor
Whilst I decode-a the cranium of Yoda
Rehearsing steadily, growing I sing tweeter, mid-range
And woofers need guarding
The bells rip your auditory canal
Plagiarism is suicide for then I shall
Be forced to assault
Our position will halt
Upset you with words
Drink your blood like its a malt
Opposite of illusions
Evidently its true
The beat metabolism supposed to accelerate you
Hallucinating severe convulsion
Your equilibrium is took from my propolsion
I came here tonight to rock
These bells will never stop
Rock the Bells
Ya livin on my lines side
Autographs I sign
Inferior fan-recorder of my rhyme
Perfect spectator, well Im the dominator
You reline and refine, it and you save it for later
Swipe it as you type it
You recite it as you bite it
Then you claim it as your own to get them excited
About it as you shout it
You dont tell them how go it
And you repeat it and rock it
Multiply it, divide it, ya even sit inside it
Its L.L.s rhyme, I know ya wanna bite
You announce, I pounce, destroy, annihilate
If you break, youll be straight when I eliminate
You sonny lke scholars and you write em on your collars
Youll bomb and youll try before a million dollars
I get like a leopard, attack, ransack, disturb, cold crush
Use a line, I make em hush

PG 46

The lovers in the taker, faker, lovers of the Lakers, simulator

Rap traitor,l perfect perpetrator
To see ya as you bit the words
Youd think you never heard
The mike sings like a hummin bird
Rock the Bells
Jack the Ripper
King Hercules
Professor of Death in the Seven Seas
Grim reaper of rhyme
Holder of the rock
Eradicating suckers all around the clock
The supreme machine
A microphone dream
My revenge isbrutal when you start to scheme
I mean, youre my adversary, I enjoy the few
The Peruvian rock, cocaine or quaalude
The story, the beginning of your death is heard
But your cries are ignored by the kind of word
Im the super insane murderer in the rain
Like a vampire goin for your jugular vein
Exterminating crews with my manuscript
And the best thing you wrote was a bunch of bullshit
The night of the nights
Youre my victim tonight
You aint nothin nobody so get outta any sight
Bein crushed by the source
Its reinforced (thoughts)
Now ya feel remorse cause ya know whos boss
L.L. Cool J is your undertaker
Def hit-maker plus a bone-breaker
Treble terminator, bass mutilator
You can drop your drawers, Im a rapper castrator
On the microphone you will never recoup
When Im finished with you, boy, youll be suckin on soup
Music virtuoso, melodical employer
I knew you was a sucker, first time I saw ya
Roll the red carpet, royaltys arrived
Dont try to fight back cause you wont survive
So dont never ever in any kind of weather
Try to mess with the tall young legend in leather
L.L. servin em well
The beat elevates and the scratch excels
Rock the Bells
As McLuhan suggests, the more involved the lyricism, the more thought involved in its
interpretation, and thus involvement with the listener. Content rich writing such as LLs
Rock The Bells is a cool media. The boom boom bap and use of bells allows for movement of the body, and yet it remains clear enough not impose on the listener an eclipsing of
thought. And although this is LL in battle rhyme writing, his formula doesnt stray far from
that of those utilizing the technology of Hip Hop as a medium of social change.
The Father used to say,wherever you go, if you want to know the mindstate of the people,
listen to their music. - Azreal

PG 47

In a lot of ways, hip-hop is the Five Percent. - The RZA

Even more interesting is understanding
that rap music that we now associate with
Lil Wayne and Drake actually derived in
some makeshift cauldron from the rhymes
and rhythms of Rakim announcing his
nomination of Eric B. For President:
I came in the door, i said it before
I never let the mic magnatize me no more
But its biting me, fighting me, inviting me
to rhyme
I cant hold it back, Im looking for the line,
Taking off my coat, clearing my throat
My rhyme will be kicking it until I hit my
last note
My mindll range to find all kinds of ideas
Self-esteem makes it seem like a thought
took years to build
But still say a rhyme after the next one
Prepared, never scared, Ill just bless one
And you know that Im the soloist
So Eric B, make em clap to this
I dont bug out or chill or be acting ill
No tricks in 86, its time to build
Eric B easy on the cut, no mistakes allowed
Cuz to me, MC means move the crowd
I made it easy to dance to this
But can you detect whats coming next from the flex of the wrist
Saying indeed that I precede cuz my man made a mix
If he bleed he wont need no band-aid to fix
If they can get some around until theres no rhymes left
I hurry up because the cut will make em bleed to death
But hes kicking it because it aint no half stepping
The party is live, the rhyme cant be kept inSide, it needs erupting just like a volcano
It aint the everyday style of the same old rhyme
Because Im better then the rest of them
Eric B is on the cut and my name is Rakim
Go get a girl and get soft and warm,
Dont get excited, youve been invited to a quiet storm
But now its out of hand cuz you told me you hate me
And then you ask what have I done lately
First you said all you want is love and affection
Let me be your angel and Ill be your protection
Take you out, buy you all kinds of things
I must of got you too hot and burned off your wings
You caught an attitude, you need food to eat up
Im scheming like Im dreaming on a couch wit my feet up
You scream Im lazy, you must be crazy
Thought I was a donut, you tried to glaze me

PG 48

Funky...

We dont want to bury our selves in moralizations, subtle class warfare, or the like.
What I do want to present you with is an understanding that everything you do in this society is not only a form of communication, but also that every form of communication is
a media, and as a media, a tool. The question is also whether we want to play the game as
the white collective has played us. For every song that conjures up the idea of dealing crack
in the black community, there should be boycott. Doesnt have to be loud. Regardless of
the old adage of silence in a democracy, if you stop talking to a fool, theyll listen. You just
dont spend money with the artist, you dont sell the bootleg, and inform your children in
a manner that is pallatable and just as street savvy as the rapper why they shouldnt listen
to it. Care and concern is a learned behavior at the level of collectivity. I actually had to relearn care and concern. And even in learning how to care and to have concerns about the
welfare of others, I dont always demonstrate that in a manner that the person I am caring
and being concerned about feels is sufficient. What does that mean in regard to hip hop? It
means that we need to realize that no one is going to care and give us the type of concerned
and dilligently active nurturance that we need. We are an organic people. Our technologies
dont stem from the same source as our counterparts in other racial categories.
The use of the technology as a means to codify the
hypermasculine super animal is not limited to west
coast expressions. In Kool G Rap and Polos 1989
release,Road To The Riches, he asserts:
Road To The Riches (1989)
Verse one:
When I was five years old I realized there was a road
At the end I will win lots of pots of gold
Never took a break, never made a mistake
Took time to create cos theres money to make
To be a billionaire takes hard work for years
Some nights I shedded tears while I sent up prayers
Been through hard times, even worked part time
In a seafood store sweepin floors for dimes
I was sort of a porter takin the next mans order
Breakin my back for a shack for headquarters
All my manpower for four bucks an hour
Took the time, I wrote rhymes in the shower
Shoes are scoffed cos the road gets rough
But ima rock it til my pockets aint stuffed enough
All the freaks wouldnt speak cos my checks was weak
They would turn the other cheek so I started to seek
A way to get a play, and maybe one day
Ill be performin up a storm for a decent pay
No matter how it seems I always kept the dream
All the girlies scream and suckas get creamed
Dreamed about it for five years straight
Finally I got a break and cut my first plate
The road aint yellow and there aint no witches
My name is kool g rap, Im on the road to the riches
Verse two:

PG 49

I used to stand on the block sellin cooked up rock

Money bustin out my sock cos I really would clock
They were for kind of fiends bringin jackets and jeans
Magazines, anything, just to hustle for beans
The cash was comin fast, money grew like grass
People hungry for the blast that dont even last
Didnt want to be involved but the money will getcha
Gettin richer and richer, the police took my picture
But I still supplied, some people I knew died
Murders and homicides for bottles of suicide
Money, jewelry, livin like a star
And I wasnt too far from a jaguar car
In a small-time casino, the towns al pacino
For all of the girls, the pretty boy valentino
I shot up stores and I kicked down doors
Collecting scars from little neighborhood wars
Many legs I broke, many necks I choked
And if provoked I let the pistol smoke
Loyal members in a crew now down with the game
Sellin nickels and dimes, sunshine or rain
What I had was bad from my shoes to my pad
In the first time in my life loanin money to dad
Now the tables turned and my lifestyle switches
My name is kool g rap, Im on the road to the riches
Verse three:
a thug a-mugs for drugs, he eventually bugs
Lookin for crack on carpets and rugs
the squealers tells, but the dealer still sells
Little spoiled kids inheritin oil wells
I was the type on the opposite side
Of smokin the pipe, in a beef I got hype
Cos rags to riches switches men to witches
Become stitches, body bags in ditches
Bloodshed, I painted the town red
People fled as I put a dreads head to bed
That means dead, in other words deceased
Face got erased, bullets got released
Bombs were planted, the kids were kidnapped
In fact that was a way to get back
At enemies who tried to clock gs
On my block, now they forever knock zs
Plans of rampages went for ages
Some got knocked and locked inside cages
Some bit the dust for crumbs and crusts
In God we trust, now rots to rust
Plus caps to cops, policeman drops
You blew off his top when the pistol went pop
Troopers, soldiers, rollin like boulders
Eyes of hate and their hearts get colder
Some young male put in jail
His lawyer so good his bail is on sale
Lookin at the hourglass, how long can this power last?
Longer than my song but he already fell

PG 50

He likes to eat hardy, party

Be like john gotti, and drive a maserati
Rough in the ghetto, but in jail hes jello
Mellow, yellow fellow, tell or hell, hello
One court date can turn an outlaw to an inmate
But just stay, ship him upstate by the great lakes
And than a-wait and wait and wait
Til he breaks, thats all it takes
So he fakes to be a man, but he cant stand
On his own two feet because now hes in a new land
Rules are different and so is life
When you think with a shank, talk with a knife
Not my lifestyle so I made a u-turn
More money I earn, more money to burn
Pushin all buttons, pullin all switches
My name is g. rap, Im on the road to the riches

The commodification of this particular style of black male criminal personification would
reach its benchmark in the West, however. As with most United States markets, by the late
80s, Hip Hop had become sucked through a pipeline of dirty corporate handshakes and
what was siphoned out was just rap. Dance
beats, neat hooks, and videos that one might
have thought a cursor had run over, right clicked,
copied, and pasted all through BETs new shows
dedicated for the display of these less than original montages of mean mugs and folded arms.
NWAs Straight Out Of Compton would launch
the careers of superstar producer, Dr. Dre, and
lyricist, Ice Cube into the astronomy of history.
Gangsta Gangsta, their classic statement of urban male malevolent merriment, would become
a mainstay in West Coast lowriders and even get
national radio airplay. In a comical display of imagery not unlike Amos N Andy meets Scarface,
the super group recites:
[Verse 1: Ice Cube]
Heres a little somethin bout a nigga like me
never shoulda been let out the penititary
Ice Cube would like ta say
That Im a crazy mutha fucka from around the way
Since I was a youth, I smoked weed out
Now Im the mutha fucka that ya read about
Takin a life or two
thats what the hell I do, you dont like how Im livin
well fuck you!
This is a gang, and Im in it
My man Drell fuck you up in a minute
With a right left, right left youre toothless
And then you say goddamn they ruthless!
Everwhere we go they say [damn!]
N W As fuckin up tha program
And then you realize we dont care
We dont just say no, we to busy sayin yeah!

To drinkin straight out the eight bottle

Do I look like a mutha fuckin role model?
To a kid lookin up ta me
Life aint nothin but bitches and money.
Cause Im tha type o nigga thats built ta last
If ya fuck wit me Ill put a foot in ya ass
See I dont give a fuck cause I keep bailin
Yo, what the fuck are they yellin
[Chorus:]
Gangsta, Gangsta! Thats what theyre yellin
[KRS One] Its not about a salary, its all about reality
Gangsta, Gangsta! Thats what theyre yellin
Hopin you sophisticated motherfuckers hear what I have to say
[Verse 2: Ice Cube]
When me and my posse stepped in the house
All the punk-ass niggaz start breakin out
Cause you know, they know whassup
So we started lookin for the bitches with the big butts
Like her, but she keep cryin
I got a boyfriend Bitch stop lyin
Dumb-ass hooker aint nuttin but a dyke
Suddenly I see, some niggaz that I dont like
Walked over to em, and said, Whassup?
The first nigga that I saw, hit em in the jaw
Ren started stompin em, and so did E
By that time got rushed by security
Out the door, but we dont quit
Ren said, Lets start some shit!
I got a shotgun, and heres the plot
Takin niggaz out with a flurry of buckshots
Boom boom boom, yeah I was gunnin
And then you look, all you see is niggaz runnin
and fallin and yellin and pushin and screamin
and cussin, I stepped back, and I kept bustin
And then I realized its time for me to go
So I stopped, jumped in the vehicle
Its like this, because of that who-ride
N.W.A. is wanted for a homicide
Cause Im the type of nigga thats built to last
Fuck wit me, Ill put my foot in your ass
See I dont give a fuck, cause I keep bailin
Yo, what the fuck are they yellin?
[Chorus:]
Gangsta, Gangsta! Thats what theyre yellin
[KRS One] Its not about a salary, its all about reality
Gangsta, Gangsta! Thats what theyre yellin
Hell tell you exactly how he feel, and dont want a fuckin thing back
[Verse 3: Ice Cube]
Homies all standin around, just hangin
Some dope-dealin, some gang-bangin

We decide to roll and we deep

See a nigga on Daytons and we creep
Real slow, and before you know
I had my shotgun pointed in the window
He got scared, and hit the gas
Right then, I knew I has to smoke his ass
He kept rollin, I jumped in the bucket
We couldnt catch him, so I said fuck it
Then we headed right back to the fort
Sweatin all the bitches in the biker shorts
We didnt get no play, from the ladies
With six niggaz in a car are you crazy?
She was scared, and it was showin
We all said Fuck you bitch! and kept goin
To the hood, and we was fin to
Find somethin else to get into
Like some pussy, or in fact
A bum rush, but we call it rat pack
On a nigga for nuttin at all
Ice Cubell go stupid when Im full of eight ball
I might stumble, but I wont lose
Now Im dressed in the county blues
Cause Im the type of nigga thats built to last
If you Fuck wit me, Ill put my foot in your ass
I dont give a fuck, cause I keep bailin
Yo, what the fuck are they yellin?
[Interlude: Ice Cube, Dr. Dre]
(Wait a minute, wait a minute, cut this shit)
{Man whatcha gonna do now?}
What were gonna do right here is go way back
(How far you goin back?)
Way back
[Slick Rick] As we go a lil somethin like this
Heres a lil gangsta, short in size
A t-shirt and Levis is his only disguise
Built like a tank yet hard to hit
Ice Cube and Eazy E cold runnin shit
[Verse 4: Eazy E, MC Ren]
Well Im Eazy E the one theyre talkin about
Nigga tried to roll the dice and just crapped out
Police tried to roll, so its time to go
I creeped away real slow and jumped in the six-fo
Wit the Diamond in the back, sun-roof top
Diggin the scene with the gangsta lean
Cause Im the E, I dont slang or bang
I just smoke motherfuckers like it aint no thang
And all you bitches, you know Im talkin to you
We want to fuck you Eazy! I want to fuck you too
Cause you see, I dont really take no shit
[So let me tell you motherfuckers who youre fuckin with]
Cause Im the type of nigga thats built to last
If you Fuck wit me, Ill put my foot in your ass

I dont give a fuck, cause I keep bailin

Yo, what the fuck are they yellin?
[Chorus:]
Gangsta, Gangsta! Thats what theyre yellin
[KRS One] Its not about a salary, its all about reality
Gangsta, Gangsta! Thats what theyre yellin
Hell fuck up you and yours, and anything that gets in his way
Gangsta, Gangsta! Thats what theyre yellin
[KRS One] Its not about a salary, its all about reality
Gangsta, Gangsta! Thats what theyre yellin
Hell just call you a low-life motherfucker, and talk about your
funky ways

The illusion of the tough, street wise, cool and capable rapper doesnt have an off switch like
most performers. Where Woody Allen can be the shy director, writer, and actor that doesnt
even come out to accept awards, the rapper cannot be shy. The soul of Hip Hop is in genuineness. The whip of mass production is in imitation. The two tend to make strange bed
couples. Like Oprah Winfrey between the legs of Hilary Clinton strange. Much of what we
see in rap, a stale mass production extracted from hip-hop, is the conservative culture that
was fashioned during slavery, thus we are holding on to patterns of behavior honed during
the slave trade and on slave plantations. Conservative is not always the opposite of liberal.
Conservative can also imply a style of acting that is disposed to preserve existing conditions,
institutions or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change. The idea of limiting change
comes to mind whenever I visit loved ones, or most Black families around Gangstasgiving,
typically the last Thursday of November. Soul food as it is called is a holding onto of a tradition that stems from slavery. If patterns of behavior such as the eating of well seasoned
weeds, potatoes, and the lower portion of a pig, from the balls to the anal tract, have been
carried generation through generation, what other forms of behavior from slavery have also
come down to us?

CHPTR 4
MEDIOCRE DELUSIONS
Symbolic convergence theory(SCT), a general communication theory, explains the emergence of a common symbolic consciousness- one that contains shared meanings, -> emotions, values, and motives for human action - among participants in a small group, organization, or other rhetorical community. SCT, as developed by Ernest Bormann, John Cragan,
and Donald Shields, among others, is a message-centered theory grounded through the
observation of symbolic facts in communication. Observers noted the sharing of dramatized
messages, called fantasy themes, within small-group communication, in mediated communication, and among the communicating memberships of organizations and other large
publics. Within each context, researchers found that people shared, reiterated, and wove
fantasy themes to form a larger, more complex view of reality called a a rhetorical vision. A
rhetorical vision contains many fantasy themes that depict heroes and villains in dramatic
action within a scene. Within a group such a vision establishes identity, cohesion, and culture. Donald C. Shields, University of Missouri-St. Louis, cf. The International Encyclopedia of Communication, Vol, XI,pg. 4924)
Even some Black producers fall into the trap of promoting these negative styles: the system rewards those who play the game the way it has always been played. - Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., African American viewers and the Black situation comedy: situating racial
humor, Forward
There is also a failure of black political imagination among black elites and other activists
who might spark social movement. - Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean?, pg. 63
I envy the Jack and Jill kids of the 1980s and 1990s because they are more readily accepted as valid representatives of black America by whites and other blacks, thanks to The Cosby show, Oprah, Bryant Gumbel, and Colin Powell. Because of these TV images, it is now at
least believable that black families can be well-educated, intact, and articulate. My Jack and
Jill existence took place during a transition period that left me feeling somehow betrayed
by a world that saied we couldnt possibly be real. We were fifteen years ahead of our time:
living like the Cosby kids before mainstream America had been formally introduced to the
notion. - Lawrence Otis Graham, Our Kind of People, pg. 40
Lingua franca in the regious of the motion picture industry and academic film studies
alike, exploitation has three distince and sometimes overlapping meanings. In its two
broadest senses,exploitation refers both to the advertising and promotion that entice an
audience into theater and to the way the movie then endears itself to that audience. As the
object of the exploitation, the movei is passive, a product to be advertised and marketed;
as the subject doing the exploitation, the movie is active, an agent that caters to its target
audience by serving up appetizing or exotic subject matter. In its third, categorical sense,
exploitation signifies a particular kind of movie. - Thomas Doherty, Teenagers and Teenpics, p. 35
The success of Melvins Sweet Sweetback would spawn a genre of movies now known to us
as the blaxploitation film(blaxploitation is a portmanteau of the words black and exploitation - duh, right?). Films produced to exploit, target, black audiences typically urban). Using the jarring imagery, the so-called black anti-hero(why is the Black protagonist
fighting an oppressive system known as the antihero?), and the use of urban backdrops,
scantily clad women, and often drug usage. Some of the movies that would rank high in
viewership during this period not only following the prominence of Sweetback but also at

PG 55

a time when the Black Panthers had taken their most ardent and violent losses include:
Shaft, Foxy Brown, Three The Hard Way, Superfly, and The Mack. The symbols of Black
male hypermasculinity siphoned from the Black Power movement would be injected into

the psyche of the Black population. The subtle nods towards unity, and the artistic use of
Black symbols such as gospel spirituals would be lacking in these movies. Soon, the idea
of Black nationalism would be reduced to one liners of honky this and muthafucka followed by a weakly choreographed fighting scene. Spoofs of these movies also helped to reduce the credibility found in the Black Power jargon. One of the most interesting studies in
black media for me has been the use of humor to trivialize the black nationalist movement
and historical elements of the black power movement.
In the movie, Im Gonna Git You Sucka, written and directed by comedian Keenen Ivory
Wayans, a brother portrayed as a Black Nationalist is seen married to a white woman. This
is reflective of one of the many critiques of the Black Power movement proffered by Michelle Wallace in her highly acclaimed analysis of the movement and her experiences within
the movement: Black Macho and The Myth of the Superwoman. It is also noteworthy to
mention that Wayans is the executive producer of In Living Color, a variety sketch comedy show in which one of his most popular
characters is Oswald Bates. Oswald Bates,
played by Keenens younger brother, Damon, is a convict/inmate that uses sesquipedalian terms out of context and with no
consideration for syntax. This is an indirect
attack on the archetype of the autodidact
emerging from the confines of the US concentration camps. Malcolm X would be the
prototype of this character set. The symbol of Oswald Bates works to discredit
the emergence of the lumpen intellectual class, serving as a contradictory emblem for the
Black bourgeoisie who reinforce their neocolonial drives to adhere to the training theyve
recieved from white professionals and white academics. In an environment where only the
most subservient Blacks, especially Black males can be allowed to excel, this ridiculing of
what would be a demonstration of intelligent aggressive expression in a real world context, allows the subservient Black to feel protected and superior to another group of Blacks
that might pose to be threatening. While with Im Gonna Git You Sucka, The Black Power
movement is now attacked for its lack of consideration of the Black woman, and now has a
cultural device via the medium of film discrediting it.

PG 56

So, we see historically the changing of the meaning of the symbols of Black Power, and with
that, the changing of what it means to be a Black man. The symbol loses its political expression, and becomes an empty symbol of hypermasculinity for the urban Black. The shallow
expressions of Black womanhood expressed through
the symbols of Blaxploitation leave the Black woman
to no other direction beyond an object of sexual prowess. Her philosophical and analytical leadership has
been removed. Her metaphysical understandings have
been made into laughable queries limited to men asking women what their zodiac sign is. We enter into the
80s with a demeaned, ridiculed, imprisoned, doped out,
and confined Black Power symbol. Sadly, the Blacks on
the other side of the fence will not fair well in their attempt to bring attention to the up and coming assimilist
Blacks benefitted by academy and peaceful demonstrations.
During the decline of the
Blaxploitation film emerged
the Black comic. With Eddie
Murphys performance in
48 hrs, Trading Places, and his own staple,Beverly Hills Cop as
the backdrop, the comic, actor, writer, and financial supporter
of Melvin Van Peebles, Bill Cosby, decided to try his hand at
his own situation comedy for the fourth time. Bill Cosby had
failed to win over audiences with his variety series The Bill
Cosby Show, his second attempt after his earning an MA from
the University of Massachusetts, the previous attempts including The New Bill Cosby Show, and Cos. His new new new Cosby Show would be a genius
exemplification of image redirection and white guilt appeasement. If one show could demonstrate the exact nature of the problem facing the advancement of the Black in the United
States, Bill Cosby had created it.
The reaction of some Black people to the Cosby Show is slightly revealing of the power of
image in an oppressive condition. The Cosby Show depicted the family life of a Black doctor, Cliff Huxtable(Bill Cosby) and his wife, a black attorney,Claire Huxtable (Phylicia Rashad). The interplay between them and their four children raised questions regarding the
ability of most Black viewers to relate to that sort of status. Instead of Blacks suffering from
a case of delusions of grandier, it would seem that we suffer from delusions of mediocrity.
The symbol of a Black man being a doctor, in the land where Dr. Charles Drew invented the
system for preserving plasma for blood transfusions, being married to a Black Lawyer, in
the land where Charlotte Ray passed the bar in the 1800s(Charlotte E. Ray: A Black Woman
Lawyer,Tonya Michelle Osborne, 2001, http://www.law.stanford.edu/library/womenslegalhistory/papers/RayC-Osborne01.pdf) , was deemed unrealistic at worst, assimilationist at best:
...the most popular US TV show, among black and white people alike, is not only about a
Black family but a family portrayed without any of the demeaning stereotypical images of
black people common in mainstream popular culture.
Critics have begun to accuse the show of presenting a misleadingly cozy picture, a sugar
candy world unfettered by racism, crime, and economic deprivation.
The naming of the Huxtables first grandchildren is a typical example of The Cosby Shows
quiet style. Their eldest daughter, Sondra, decides to call her twins Nelson and Winnie. The

PG 57

episode that deals with this decision highlights the issue of naming but makes no comment
on the chosen names overt political connotations. The reference to the Mandelas is made
quietly and unobtrusively, relying upon the audiences ability to catch the political ramifications of the statement.

If such subtlety is a virtue, it was one born of necessity. During the shows second season, NBC tried to have the anti-apartheid sign on Theos bedroom door removed. Bill Cosby, empowered by the newly achieved high ratings, successfully stood his ground to keep
the sign.
The Huxtables achievements ultimately lend credibility to the idea that anyone can make
it, the comforting assumption of the American dream, which is a myth that sustains a conservative political ideology blind to the inequalities hindering persons born on mean streets
and privileging persons born on easy street. As Miller(1986: 210) puts it, Cliffs blackness
serves an affirmative purpose within the ad that is The Cosby Show. At the center of this
ample tableau, Cliff is himself an ad, implicity proclaiming the fairness of the American
system:Look! he shows us,Even I can have all this! This mythology is made all the more
powerful, Miller argues, by the close identification between Cliff Huxtable and Bill Cosby.
behind the fictional doctor lies a man whose real life is also a success story: fact and fiction
here coalesce to confirm the truth they represent.
(Enlightened racism: the Cosby show, audiences, and the myth of the American,
By Sut Jhally, Justin Lewis pg. 3,4)
This characteristic is also at the root of enlightened racism(Jhally & Lewis, 1992), a contemporary form of racism that allows Whites to simultaneously hold the view that they are
liberal-minded adn pro-equal rights yet still hold the belief that underclass minorities are
themselves solely responsible for not seizing American equal opportunity.(Cultural diversity and the U.S. media edited by Yahya R. Kamalipour, Theresa Carilli, pg. 54)

Journalists of color covering news about non-White Americans similar to White Americans indicates the powerful, implicit common sense that dictates the routines and conventions of the newsroom. News organizations(especially local television news organizations)
are obsessed with the instantaneos coverage of violent
crime--crime that happens to be more common in the African American community. The coverage rarely considers the
political, social, historical, educational, or economic roots of
such crime, and therefore constructs individual episodes of
violence as stories with no history, entirely void of perspective.
It is an interesting turn of events that the Cosby show is relegated to the file of the impossible and not black enough,
and yet Ice-T, NWA, Spice-1, and a host of other artist are
able to sell the world,(Yes, the world, Craig) an image of the
Black urban community and them Selves as super thugs...
and this is acceptable. As I have stated earlier, it is my belief
that Black people suffer not from delusions of grandeur, but
from delusions of mediocrity. Another interesting point of
notice is the vacuity filler used for the Cosby Show: Family
Matters. Ultimately, the realism of the show culminates in
the shows last two seasons when Urkel builds a machine that
allows him to transform him Self into a less nerdy, more smoother, socially adroit Stefan Urquelle. How real is that?

PG 58

As stated, what Bill Cosby actually did with the Cosby Show was to raise awareness to a
little secret held in the hearts of most Blacks. The class issue. A reality that is centuries old
with roots in the freedman(free Blacks during slavery) and the house slaves family annals.
It is a reality that speaks from the black tops beyond pranced on by barefeet and flip flops
heading toward the candy lady for hot pickles and freeze pops. Bill Cosby attempted to represent the Black community from the other spectrum of the Black coin. Of course, even in
that attempt, he only represented the upper middle class as he saw it.
It would be quite dismissive of me if I simply ended this discussion like this. Understanding
the historic implications of the elite Black classes, their support of the slave caste system,
their congressional assistance to the White Southern slave owner. The legitimazation of the
very system that crafted a need for it to be made legitimate among the Blacks. However, it is
also very difficult to divorce my self from the very images that I realize Cosby was attempting to attack. If given a choice visual broadcast symbols to feed my child, one being the Cobsy Show, the other being NWAs Straight Out Of Compton, I wouldnt hesitate to choose the
former. I agree with the assessment that Bill Cosby presents a palatable Black male image
to white audiences, no different than the image that Barack Obama presents to white voters, and yet I disagree with the assessment that the show hurts Black viewers. The equation
that I have developed reads thusly: white audiences that wish not to deal with the reality
of slavery and a cultural class caste system view The Cosby Show and Obamas election as
a testament to the American dream and the notion of equality. White audiences deem violent rap music as an entry point into the world of the Black ghetto and further enforce the
empowerment of the symbol of the savage brutish Black that their forebears created. These
two points dont seem to have much to do with how Blacks take these symbols. The Cosby
Show is a figment of Bill Cosbys imagination with a note bearing the possibility of such occurence inasmuch as Ice Cubes Gangsta Gangsta is a figment of his imagination with a note
bearing the possibility of such occuring. Which one do I believe would help Blacks more if
occurences met the material reality?
Unfortunately, that is a rhetorical question that I leave to those that have children to answer, and that I pray is deeply thought upon by those that seriously thought it needed a direct answer from said author. Of worth, is that reality that Blacks in the Urban community
where much of the ado concerning keeping it real is resonating, is the same pattern of disparaging people due to socio-economic trinkets. In his book, Our Kind of People, Lawrence
Otis Graham describes the sorts of ridicule a child could face if they didnt have certain economic status symbols:
The four-bedroom home I grew up in didnt compare with the large Victorians or stately
colonials of some of my fellow Jack and Jill friends. And I can still remember the hurtful
remarks that some of them made to me when we were no more than eleven or twelve years
old. Even though the rest of the world would have seen our house as roomy and comfortable, I suddenly saw it as embarrassingly small during these Jack and Jill get-togethers.
Fortunately, the house sat inside a neighborhood that matched or surpassed most of my
other Jack and Jillers. But in our world, you were supposed to have the whole package in
order: a good neighborhood or two fancy cars didnt get you off the hook. As new kids were
inducted into the organization, they too were subjected to house jokes(Your house is so
small...)or neighborhood jokes(Your street is so tacky...) until another aspect of their lifestyles or families was found to put them to shame. Virtually everything was up for discussion and comparison: your allowance, your fathers job, your spring vacation, your stereo,
your mothers car, your housekeeper, your complexion, and even the size of your familys
summer home.(pg. 38-39)
In the urban community many of the same taunts that Graham describes at the age of
twelve, children endure at an earlier age. From the type of tennis shoes one wears to the
sort of car ones parents drive. This is reflected in the lyrics of songs that many are refer-

PG 59

ring to as real. The capitalistic material evalution of people hasnt been lost on the Black
community in any class strata. The same accoutrements that a person might define as an
elitist trapping are coveted by those in most sectors of Black society on some level. The style
might be slightly different,a large Ralph Lauren logo versus a smaller one, or none at all but
still wearing Ralph Lauren apparel. The Mercedes Benz may be customized and sitting in
the outer region of a lower income housing development, but it is still a Mercedes Benz.
From this assessment of the contradictions within the argument against the Cosby Show,
Ive considered a couple of understandings. To Blacks who have not achieved the level of
success that the fictional Huxtables have achieved, then does that make the show less real,
or less beneficial? Does it prompt the same sorts of invidious comparisons that cause Black
males to kill one another over basketball shoes? Is the demeanor of the fictional Huxtables
not aggressive enough for those in the Black community that believe aggressiveness is a
necessary characteristic of the Black person? Is it alright to showcase the acquisition of status symbols sold to use by White markets as long as our acquisition of them represents a
predatory aggressiveness versus taking a professional avenue? Is it that the symbol of the
Huxtables is not real, or is it that the symbol implies for many Blacks an avenue of achievement that they deem inaccessible? It is understandable, and well within a cogent reasoning,
to address the Cosby Show as an image and symbol that doesnt reflect the methods that
many Blacks would need to use in order to obtain such possessions. But to say that a fictional show is unrealistic and accept another fictional image, such as an Ice Cube gangsta
story, is realistic is to avoid logic. What is being addressed is not plausibility, for both fictional tales are possible and in enough instances both
describe the lifestyles of actual people, the actual discussion is class, and the methods that Black people
from different classes use to achieve certain symbols
of status. During the 60s, Julia replaced the image of
the black woman as the domestic servant. The controversy that surrounded the image, the show Julia
would be reflected in the 80s.
The polarization of images of the Black community help to forge the
divide between the classes. Seeing InkWell and Menace II Society,
both staring Larenz Tate,(hows that for range in acting?), creates a
sense of pride and disdain. Both of these movies sit inside the set of
movies considered to be coming of age, that is movies that represent
in some manner a growing from immaturity into maturity, or simply
teenagers growing into adulthood via some experience of social import. Some other movies with predominantly Black casts that I would
also include in this genre are: Brown Sugar, Baby Boy, Fresh, Get
Rich or Die Trying, Love and Basketball, Jasons Lyric,Juice, Im
Bout It, The Wood, and Slam.
Written and directed by Albert and Allen Hughes, and released to
nationwide audiences on May 26, 1993, Menace II sociey enters into
the Black gangsta film culture on the heels of John Singletons Boyz
N Da Hood, and New Jack City.The movie Menace II Society in so
many ways represents the Hughes Brothers answer to John Singletons Boyz N The Hood. We are taken back to the urban environment of Los Angelos, this
time the setting is the Watts housing projects, Jordan-Downs. The main character, Caine,
is beset by the lifestyle of the drug dealer, and robber(jacker). Lorenz Tate plays O-Dawg,
as described by the character Caine,O-dawg was the craziest nigga alive, young, black and
didnt give a fuck. The movie begins with the core drama, O-Dawg and Caine enter into a
Korean owned corner store. While heading to the beer cooler, O-Dawg and Caine address
the Korean woman following them. They find the beers, and immediately begin to consume
the alcohol. They reply to the distraught owners by saying they are going to purchase the

PG 60

liquor. Caine pays for the beverages, and O-Dawg notices that Caine didnt get his change.
O-Dawg asks for the change and makes a quip about the Korean. The Korean behind the
counter replies that he feels sorry for O-Dawgs mother. O-Dawg kills him, grabs the Korean
woman and forces her into the back to obtain the videotape of the robbery. We hear him tell
her to press eject and then more gun shots. Welcome to the world of the urban Black teen a
la Hughes.
During the credits, the viewer is shown clips of footage from the 1960s watts riots. The
narrative of Caine explains that after the Watts riots, the drugs came. We are introduce to
Caine via his childhood as the son of a heroin abuser and dealer. The child Caine witnesses
his father killing a man, and we are then brought to his present. I appreciate that we are allowed to see Caine graduating from high school, however, much of the glamor of the drug
trade and robberies overshadows this small detail of the storyline. Sure, Caine graduated

from high school, he also is en route to a drug deal during his last class. During a graduation party we are introduced to the young man, a juvenile, that initiates the armed robbery/
murder scene described in the last paragraph. O-dawg, from Caines words, is,...the crazy
nigga alive, Americas nightmare. Young, Black, and didnt give a fuck.

The party serves as an introduction to the main characters of the movie, including Harold, Caines cousin. While driving to get a bite to eat, Harold is killed during a car robbery,
and Caine is shot in the shoulder. While taking Caine to the hospital, Sharief, an interesting character and symbol that we will revisit later, stays with a dying Harold, while Caine is
carried and driven to the emergency room. Later, O-dawg, will inform Caine that he knows
who killed Harold, and in retribution for the murder, Caine, O-dawg, and another character
played by MC Eigt,A-wax, do to the assailants what they did to Harold. This is reminiscent of the scene in John Singletons movie where Doughboy, played by Ice Cube, seeks
vengeance for the murder of his brother. In fact, both scenes depict the assailants at a restuarant and then run towards the parking lot as they are being shot. As the symbols of the
movie suggest, there is an unstated element in the film. Youll see the brothers wearing the
purple sweatshirts in the background of a few scenes, and the director b-rolls a shot of the
street sign that reads, Grape Street. As with Singletons Boyz in the Hood, the gang references are subtle. As with Singletons film, we are taken through South Central LAs Crenshaw Blvd. It is also interesting that in both movies, the assailants that are murdered are
wearing red. We are given a very tacit storyline regarding street organization, namely Crips
and Bloods in both movies.
For a teenager in the United States growing up in most urban centers, the colors speak
loudly. They represent an artifactual territorial communication, a hot medium that often
registers no more than a query of where an individual resides, for verification purposes,
possibly a symbolic gesture of aggression to quiz ones courage quotient. In the same way

PG 61

that the writers of the Cosby Show dont mention race in any very direct tones, neither
Singletons Boyz N The Hood or the Hughes Brothers Menace are written to directly communicate affiliation through verbal or even gestural methods. If one is unfamiliar with the
organizations and certain terroritories, the messages may simply blur into the background.
I would assume this is done in order to remove the spotlight from the organizations and allow the relationship between the characters be the central focus. The relationship between
these young people is very strong, and in a film that is already saturated with glamorized
violence, key messages are drowned out without the viewer also being lambasted by the
idea that this could just be another gang movie.
The hypermasculine tone of the movie is eased through the trajectory of the storyline as we
witness the bonding that occurs when Caine is shot, and of course the sacrificial act commited by Sherieff when he is left to watch over Harold dying in the middle of Crenshaw
Blvd. The scene where we watch O-dawg and Caine express their differing stances regarding the retribution of blood for the Harold is also telling. Although many have made the
interjection of A-waxs yall both acting like some bitches, a popular quotable from this
depiction, I believe that the most important element of consideration is O-dawgs expression of loyalty, and Caines expression of social responsibility. The use of hypermasculine
aggressive inconsideration written to give O-dawg a more psychotic feel overshadows much
of the significance of his speech. I am specifically referring to him being made to state that
he doesnt give a fuck. Ill smoke anybody. Singletons Boyz N The Hood was slightly more
convincing with the Quincy Jones score playing in the background during the dramatic
scene signaling the ride towards blood retribution. The Hughes brothers fail to symbolize
the pain and the anger necessary to make this scene more than what it has become in popular culture. What should be a much more thought provoking scene renders it Self as less of
a discourse about justice, and more of a comical interplay of violent machismo. If the film
were a war drama about a white US soldier seeking revenge from a Muslim that had just
killed his cousin, we would be forced to endure a thoughtful climatic interplay of symbols.
Its moments like these in the movie that force you to wonder about the directors purpose
for producing it. Is it a tale used to convey a message, or just another exploitative film taking advantage of the popularity of urban violence and symbols of the LA urban culture?
I was also left tilting my head in disbelief when O-dawg initially tells Caine about acquiring the intelligence regarding the identities of the assailants that had killed Harold. The
gravity of this intelligence is mixed in with a hypermasculine justification for men showing emotion when being shot at close range, and showing
concern for a comrade that has to be carried and rushed to a
hospital emergency room. The symbols of this scene outside
of Caines grandparents housing unit are indicative of the
supercool, stoic male, especially Black male that shouldnt
show emotion or pain. O-dawgs relaying of the intelligence
is almost a secondary blurb in the dialogue, O-dawg could
have told Caine he just found a really swank pizza parlor and
the preceding dialogue wouldnt have been out of context.
The symbols used here dont communicate the seeking of justice for a loved one murdered.
They convey more of a sense of fun. Which is why it is difficult to take the movie seriously
as a fictional journalistic type of piece. The realness is lost in the need to provide hypermasculine symbols within an urban setting.
The relationship between Caine, Ronnie, and her child showed another layer of the bond
shared between the core characters of this film. Ronnie is the mother of Caines role model,
Purnell, son. I felt that the script developed the romantic entanglement between the two
with concision, however, I did feel as though the conflict of Caine being romantically involved with the significant other of the man he credits with raising and guiding him was
handled superficially. The reason Caine gives for not pushing up on Ronnie is because
Purnell would kick my(Caines) ass. As the movie progresses, we are subtly cued through

PG 62

the usual symbols used to express affection in the culture of the United States that Ronnie
is interested in pursuing more than the friendship bond that we initiallly witness in our introduction to their relationship. Pivotal to the development of this romance is Ronnie and
Purnells son, Anthony. We are asked to compare the life of Caine with the life of Anthony
in via a scene reminiscent of the scene from the begining of the movie. Caine is shown
as around four years old, escaping his room during a party to socialize with those on the
porch. In this scene we are introduced to Purnell who tells Caine to go into the house. Caine
refuses to go in and Purnell gives Caine a swallow of liquor which causes the young Caine to
spit and notice Purnells gun. Caine grabs the gun which is snatched out of his hand before
Caine is dragged off the porch by his mother.
In the coinciding scenes with Anthony, we are delivered into his room where he and Caine
are playing a boxing video game. Caine is unable to mobilize his body in a comfortable
fashion, so he removes a gun from the side of his hip, placing it on a nearby bedstand. Anthonys eyes perk up and he asks to see the gun. Caine obliges. In another scene, we are at
a party(sound familar?) hosted by Ronnie and Anthony not only asks for a sip of beer from
her, but he sneaks out his room and heads to...(wait for it)...the front porch. Anthony asks
Caine can he have some beer, and Caine refuses him. O-dawg attempts to oblige Anthony
but is rescinded by Sherieff. The comparison of the Ronnies lifestyle with that of the home
with which Caine is brought up in works to analyze the growth, if we can call it that, a certain progression of the circumstances of the young black male in archetype. This is exemplified through a well produced montage of scenes where Caine is in the hospital thinking to
him Self. In this scene, during the monologue,
Caine states that Anthony reminds him of him
Self. The spiral of the story has finally reached
its higher tier. This is one of the redeeming aspects of the piece.
I stated that I would return to the character
of Sherieff, and this is a perfect time for that.
Sherieff is the archetype that I
was referring in my discussion
earlier regarding humiliating
the Black Power struggle. As
Caine states in our introduction to the character,Sherieff
was an ex-knucklehead turned
muslim, he was so happy to be
learning something he liked,
he kept coming at us with it.
He thought Allah could save
black people, yeah right. This actually is going to work as a form of foreshadowing. Caine
and Sherieff are the only two from the core set of characters that are killed in the climatic
ending. Sherief is supposed to be on his way to Kansas City, and Caine is helping Ronnie
pack her house as he, she, and Anthony depart for Atlanta. Im bothered by the murdering
of Sherief in this fictional work, as he is one of the most redeeming elements. It is Sheriefs
father that talks to Caine and urges him to leave Los Angelos. Also disturbing is O-dawgs
invincibility throughout this movie. Not only has he killed and robbed without being apprehended by police, he has also been caught for stealing a car without police holding him.
Further he avoids death by a lateral step while shooting at the passing car of three passengers all firing automatic weapons.
It could be due to this particular superhero quality that many Black women adore the Odawg character. Which is very telling, because the storyline depicts O-dawg as either homo-

PG 63

sexual or uninterested in women. Not once throughout the film do we see him with a woman, nor is he hinted as being involved with any. During the last party of the summer hosted
by Ronnie, one of the female guests asks O-dawg,Why dont you talk to a woman? I suppose Id be incorrect for suggesting O-dawg being a homosexual due to him murdering a
man asking to give him oral sex for crack. Of course, this could have simply been a response
of repulsion. Im not sure. What we do know is that one of the most popular Black male
characters in urban Black culture doesnt show any interest in women. Yet, this is what is
being hailed as realism in Black media.
From the point of the storyline, we witness Caine and O-dawg kill four people, rob one a
person for their rims and jewelry, steal a car, go to jail, voilently stomp a man unconscious,
impregnate a woman, and violently pistol whip a whip a man unconscious within the fictional framework of a summer. How real is that?

How real was the White teen male targeted movies of the eighties and nineties such as War
Games, Weird Science, Real Genius, Revenge of the Nerds, Hackers, Johnny Mnemonic?
Today, Americas black elite is closely associated with
three historic resort areas that became popular as a result of laws that had kept other vacation spots exclusively
white. They are Sag Harbor, Long Island; Oak Bluffs, Marthas Vineyard; and Highland Beach, Maryland. In the
past, and to some extent still today, blacks also choose
Hillside Inn, a black-owned resort in Pennsylvanias Pocono Mountains; and Idlewild, Michigan, a small town two
hundred miles north of Detroit that was a popular escape
for the midwestern black elite. In recent years, the elite
have built ancillary vacations around the annual Black
Summit ski vacation event that brings hundreds of black
skiers and their families to resorts in Aspen and Vail, Colorado.

Although its the best-known resort among the black
elite, the tiny, seven-square-mile village of Oak Bluffs,
Marthas Vineyared, is actually a mostly white community with only a 5 percent black year-round population.
Expanding each year as more black professionals from all
over the country continue to buy or rent homes there, Oak
Bluffs ahs been a popular area for elite black families since the 1930s and 1940s. - Lawrence Otis Graham, Our Kind Of People(pg. 153)

PG 64

In the movie Inkwell, Larenz Tate plays the role of Drew Tate(interesting, no?), a young
16 year old Black male, with crafty mechanical skills and a shy disposition that causes him
to talk to a doll as a real person. Set in 1976, the movie begins with Drew riding his bicycle
back home after sneaking out of his house. We realize that he as left his home with no permission because we are cut to a scene of his father in his room talking to a mannequin with
a tape of snoring sounds as a decoy(Ferris Beuller suck one...). Drew crashes into his bedroom window while his father is on his bed talking to what his father believes his him. It is
in this scene that we learn of Drews skills as a very crafty engineer. From here we are told
via dialogue that the family(Drew, his father, Kenny, and his mother,Brenda) are going to
spend two weeks with Drews aunt. Drews aunt lives with her husband and mother on the
Black elite island of Marthas Vineyard.
An interesting device is used in the movie that I found delightful. The true growth of Drew
Tate begins after a visit to a psychiatrist that is a friend of the family that leaves on the island. Drew is left alone to venture off to him Self, and as his parents drive off, he whispers
a powerful,Goodbye. From this scene we are introduced to Heather and Harold, a well
meaning but obliviously submissive wife and her overbearing husband. During the visit on
the island, Drew is able to impress Lauren, played by Jada Pinket, by escorting Heather
on his bike. The storyline shows Drew impatiently knocking on Laurens door, her disdain
with it, and her commanding behavior express a certain sort of classism. It is when she asks
Drew to jump into a pond in order to steal lobsters that I believe we see just how deeply this
class-hole goes. Her lack of control over her social conditions shows it Self when she stands
Drew up for her ex-boyfriend. While Drew sits on her porch waiting for her, she is in her
room being seduced. And when she finally notices Drew looking at her through her window, she says nothing. Of course, this could happen to a young man on any class strata, so
I stand self-corrected. The rites of passage for young Drew is climaxed as young Drew climaxes with Heather who has found Harold cheating and realizes that Drew is the one that
exposed Harold.
One of the most interesting conflicts in this story is that of Kenny and Spencer. Kenny, we
are informed, is a Black Panther. The storyline expresses his passion in two methods of dialogue: firstly, Kenny,Brenda and Spencer and Francis on the beach known as the Inkwell
and he states,Bougie niggas, as far as the eye can see, down right scary if you ask me and
later on in that night, he and Spencer are having a discussion about Malcolm X and Kenny
pushes Spencer with both hands. This scenario is repeated after Kenny beats Spencer at
tennis and Spencer calls Kenny .
As Ive stated elsewhere, we have to consider the
symbols of status that imbue us to the overall class
structure of the society. In the same way we watch
Caine in Menace II Society rob a man for his rims,
one of the first insults hurled at Drew is in regard
to Kennys car. The same desire to possess status
symbols extends throughout our communication
mediums. Whether the discussion is the urban underground economy or elite Black social behavior,
we are for the most part all subject to the same product consumption patterns. When Harold is being told to leave after being caught cheating,
his response to Heather includes,...I gave you everything you ever wanted: my money, a
car, clothes, everything you ever wanted.. as he drives away in his red convertible sports
car(product placement be damned, I still havent figured out the make of the car).

The class discrepancies are also illuminated through Drews treatment by various individuals on the island. He has a difficult time at a party meeting the young ladies, due to what we
would have to assume is his not being known on the island. We also witness this via the ensuing conflict between the characters Kenny and Spencer which culminates into a physical
altercation. The discussion is not just about right wing or left wing politics, it is about the
class ideologies historically promoted through each. In the same manner that the Hughes
Brothers use images of the Watts riots to convey the political message that a social effect
has been brought about. Another note that I must not leave out, and since Ive returned to
Menace II Society here, the Hughes Brothers use the O-Dawg character as a means to advance a sort of vengeance for Latasha Harlins. Latasha Harlins is the 15 year young angel
that was killed by a Korean store owners wife, who shot her in the back of the back of the
head after scuffling with Latasha over a bottle of juice the Korean woman assumed Latasha
was stealing. Ice Cube would also address this socio-political dilema in the song, Black Korea, and Tupac Shakur would make several references to Latashas slaying throughout his
short-lived career.
This chapter has not been a work devised to promote one class over the other, it is simply an examination of how Black people have responded to certain images of them Selves.
I dont promote one class distinction over the other. In
the same way that many elites such as Bill Cosby allude
to the behaviors of the urban Black community as lacking in social responsibility, history attests to the lack of
social responsibility as well as collusion of Black elites in
the furthering of slavery and
practices that work to hold
many Blacks in the positions
of lower class. As detailed in
Black Masters, many Black
elites, some freed slaves, not
only held Blacks as slaves, they
bred them(which was illegal for
even whites to do), sold them,
tormented them, and promoted
the Confederacy(I mean, hell,
why not? You would lose money
if slavery became outlawed). In
the reading of such works as Grahams Our Kind Of
People, the not just sympathetic, but empathetic and
pridefully so, detailing of Black elitism and the social
demeaning of those unable to join the ranks of former
treasonous members of our peoples can turn ones
mouth into a fountain of vomit.
No, this is not in support of any Black traitors. It is
simply an illustration. One that traces the contour
lines of our reality into the implied lines of our fantasy
making apparatus and allows the reader to stand back
and take a truthful glimpse at the asymmetrical manner in which we promote certain images over the others. Is the Black manhood truly a manhood of warriors? Have we become
so smitten with the image of the brute and the symbols of intimidation that we are happy
to be the thugs? Do we truly strike fear in the hearts of the white collective because of our
physicality? Is that why the police in Detroit felt it no major consequence, morally or legally, to have a camera crew with them as they stormed a residential abode killing a 7 year
young angel named Aiyana Jones? They killed her because they felt so much intimidation
from the Black manhood, correct? Sure. I suppose that is also why Sean Bell and his bachelor party entourage were shot a total of fifty times by police officers. They killed the future

husband to a Black queen because they felt so much intimidation from the Black manhood,
correct? Yeah, I know. I would further assume that Oscar Grant was handcuffed and lain on
his stomach before being murdered execution style in front of a train full of passengers because the police simply fear Black manhood. They killed the young father because they were
so intimidated by the Black manhood, correct?
The question is not whether blaxploitation, and its exploitation contemporary, the kung fu
movie, still impacts us--a resounding yes--the real trick is to figure out why. Looking back
to my childhood, Id argue that the answer is aggressive black heroism. Shaft, Hammer,
Trouble Man, and slaughter were tough, no-nonsense, and as cool as the other side of a pillow. Even the antisocial coke dealer Priest in Superfly and the pimp Goldie in The Mack
filled their films with a sly cinematic presence that only church ladies and NAACP spokespeople could resist.(Nelson George, Hip Hop America, pg. 104)
No one is afraid of you Black man. No one has ever been . Those that created the myth of
Black intimidation and the brute/savage only did it as moral excuse to kill you. The real
intimidating people needed a shield of moral justification in order to continue their onslaught. No one gives a homeless crack addicts dirty drawers about your mean mugs and
camera stares. No one believes you. So you can stop now. NO ONE GIVES A FUCK ABOUT
YOUR GUNS. They all know you will only used them on your Selves. You can stop buying
all the albums discussing murder and selling drugs to your own kind because you arent
convincing anyone that you have any true gumption or economic mobility. On the world
scene you look like a damn fool. In your motherland, they have a word for you that they use
behind our backs. This word is actually worse than nigger, that you elites like to make
your Selves believe is such a harsh term, but yet you kowtow just like the house niggers. No,
this word is from your own people. Akata. A lost cat.
You once gave the world such great images: Malcolm X. Marcus Garvey, Huey P. Newton,
Eldridge Cleaver, Geronimo Pratt, Kwame Ture...
Now Barack Obama is blessed to have Jay-Z and Young Jeezy serenade the Washington,
D.C. socialites in a mass pit of energy. While Havards new protege dons the imagery of
the Black elite, the Black scholar Cornel West speaks meekly and without authority in the
presence of Mr. Shawn Carter.
In the inner-city environment respect on the street may be viewed as a form of social capital that is very valuable, especially when various other forms fo capital have been denied or
are unavailable. Not only is it protective; it often forms the core of the persons self esteem,
particularly when alternative avenues of self-expression are closed or sensed to be. - Elijah
Anderson, Code of the Streets, pg. 68
Young men that may not be able to drive the Lamborghini Murcielago off the lot, but they
can boast of killer instincts and exploitative economic ventures have these images to thank
as they are carted off in steel and rendered menaces to society by judges wearing Black
robes such as the youths ancestors once wore to symbolize wisdom.
Nobody thinks you are economic geniuses, Black man. You can stop holding up your dope
dealers. A huge brand on your chest doesnt make anyone on the global scene think you
have economic might in the land. That is why the Chinese have a mainstay of restaurants
in your neighborhoods and you dont have one soul food restaurant near China. The Arabs
arent even supposed to be selling liquor, and yet you can find a liquor store own by Middle Eastern foreigners in most urban communities. Black man, can you sell Four Loko in
Baghdad without getting you hands chopped off? Go mean mug the Shah, lets see how that
works out.
The image of the Black man as the ferocious and stoic murdering machine is a myth. Unfor-

CHPTR 5
SAPPHIRE EXTENDED
The publicity campaign for the modern theatrical movie is a precision media assault based
on communications theory, depth psychology, and dead-on demographics. Today, exploitation, hype, or what is still sometimes called ballyhoo is a sophisticated national advertising
campaign, the cost of which often surpasses that of the multimillion-dollar feature in the
spotlight. - Thomas Doherty, Teenagers and Teenpics, p. 5

Often the problem with translation of symbols is the degree of abstract necessary to decipher them. Take for example a basic algebriac equation:
x+3=1
For many of us the solution doesnt take much thought and we see the x, or rather we read
the <i>x</i> as -4 in as much as we x as x in a sentence. For others, the concept of a
negative number might be difficult to grasp simply because they have not applied a practical usage for a negative number, or they simply havent been taught the concept of letters as
placeholders for values. In that former instance, even a simple equation such as:
____ + 3 = 1
would leave them staring a little harder than the former group. For the later group, the
difficulty of reading the equation is lessens. Negative numbers are an abstract representation. variables are an even more abstract representation, that can be used to represent an
abstract representation. Of course, we can use of an x to represent a number, or an entire
equation, or a surname, or a...well, I think you get the idea! Historically, the x has come to
fill in blank spaces for when a blank space is not acceptable social currency. And yet the x
can mean more than one thing, it can hold a myriad of abstract values.
Such is the value of woman.
From watching a Black woman and her sister train children to chase hypermasculine focuses I realized that the black culture needed to be defined. Our standards are easily changed
and molded because they have been defined for us through slavery, and then they we redefined for emancipated caste confinement, from there we have allowed the white media to
bend us and mold us in a manner that they saw fit. Ive watched Black people go from wearing red, black, and green beaded necklaces with wood shaved and carved to look like Queen
Nefertiti of the 18th dynasty, to women wearing jeans with their butt checks hanging out
and men wearing their pants pulled underneath the cusp of their buttocks. What occurred?
Or what didnt occur? As I stated, this is not a moralization piece. My integrity can tolerate
my hypocrisy for only so long. And yet...what happened to us? How did we allow the content of the medium to be redirected in such a way as to go from Self-Destruction to Banging on Wax? How did the market value of productive afrocentric socially aware content
drop? Jay-Z stands at the most hip hop albums with number one sales, Biggie as the biggest
jump to number one sales with Life After Death followed by Master Ps Ghetto D and MP
Da Last Don.
In much of our known history, the question raised by patriarchial rule, what can women
do, should be altered to, what havent women done? As the great scholar Ivan Van Sertima

PG 68

wrote,
In Africa the womans place was not only with her family;she often ruled nations with
unquestionable authority. Many African women were great militarists and on occasion led
their armies in battle. Long before they knew of the existence of Europe the Africans had
produced a way of life where men were secure enough to let women advance as far as their
talent would take them.(Ivan Van Sertima, Black Women In Antiquity, pg. 123). From the
annals of slave traders, the women of the Yoruba were known for their aggressive disdain
and many bravely suffered the self-jettison from the side of slave ships instead of accepting
the violent fate of slave ship hulls(Walter C. Rucker, The River Flows on:Black Resistance,
Culture and Identity Formation in Early America pg. 288).
Hatshepsut of ancient Egypt was the greatest female ruler of all time...She is also said to
have been the first woman in history to challenge the supremacy of the male, though arrayed against her were more than three thousand years of masculine tradition. There was
no word for queen or empress in the language of her day -- but she fought her way to power and held the throne of the worlds then leading empire for thirty-three years. - J.A. Rodgers (cf. ibd. pg 124)
How difficult it must be for the Black woman in the United States to be the inheritor of such
diverse ability under an ideological structure that infuses its people with a belief that Black
people are subhuman and that woman are only worthy in their acquiescence to white male
standards for women. To be lusted after, and yet deemed unattractive by the White male
structure. To be touted as the strong, and yet to be villified as the vociferous. What is socially acceptable becomes an open option in any society, and it has always been acceptable
for Black women to be raped and considered sexual beasts. How difficult it must be for any
woman to express their sexual cravings, but even more so Black women who will automatically be cast as sluts and hoes, because of symbology crafted beyond the inception of even
the United States of America. Further, the insecurities of male worth and competition inherent in most practices of a patriarchy allow men to demean women as bitches and termagents if they so much as attempt to defend them Selves.
They judge African communal society by Western standards. African communal society
was not European industrial society. In feudal Europe, a woman was bound by tradition
and rights to the baronial estates. She was both economic producer and care giver. Her labor was vital to the economic life of the clan or village. The European industrial revolution
changed this. The power of the industrial bourgeoisie was based on the iron-clad rule of private property, commodity production, unfettered profit, and personal possessions. The historic customs, traditions, and duties of women were obliterated. The marriage contract resembled a property contract. A woman became a personal possession. Her labor and service
were bound to one man in one home. In the factroy, capitalist dominance became supreme.
In the home, male dominance became supreme. - Earl Ofari Hutchinson, The Assassination of the Black Male Image, pg. 106
According to anthropologist Helen Diner,In marriage obedience is demanded of the
male as was specified in the marriage contracts of ancient Egypt. He also must remain
faithful, while the wife remains unencumbered. She also retains the right of divorce and
repudiation.(Helen Diner, Mothers and Amazons)
As a caveat, it is necessary to understand that ones personal choices are often not of their
own choosing, and yet you have to accept that people often believe their decision to originate within them Selves. Factor in the need for money in a capitalist society, and you have
an arrangement that will more than likely provide an excuse for any set of behavioral
choices. The influence of those seeking to create a career as a public image maker on the
big screen, the little screen, or even the periodical can often be damaging to a culture seeking to empower it Self. With movie goers there is the suspension of disbelief, an occurence

PG 69

of doubt surrender about the reality of a story and the immersion of the viewers being into
the story, also referred to as the coccoon effect. This occurence is frequent in horror movies
when a woman(or a man, I suppose, dont want to leave anyone out) is so enraptured in storyline that she(or he), jumps when a frightful scene is shown. Also, when a movie is dramatic enough to make a person cry. Now, this is in theaters, but the long form of movie is also
a crucial consideration. When one is so involved in the storyline, certain elements, usually
socio-economic, are overlooked. Anybody that has ever watched a movie with me knows
that I talk to my Self about the movie as I watch it, and sometimes I talk loudly. This upsets
people because if they are trying to escape or experience a vicarious rush from the picture,
I will completely blow that shit for them. People tend to not like being removed from their
fantasy of reality via scripted motion pictures.
Alright, now that that is out of the way, while one is being lost in the moment of the storyline, what is being injected into their thinking?
According to bell hooks,The Sapphire image had as its base one of the oldest negative stereotypes of women--the image of the female as inherently evil...And white women could use
the image of the evil sinful black woman to emphasize their own innocence and purity. She
supports her statements with a quote from an essay entitled,The Black Woman:
Movies and radio shows of the 1930s aand 1940s invariably pedaled the Sapphire image
of the black woman: she is depicted as iron-willed, effectual, treacherous toward and contemptible of black men, the latter being portrayed as simpering, ineffectual whipping boys.
Certainly most of us have encountered domineering Black females(and white ones too).
Many of them have been unlucky in life and love and seek a bitter haven from their disappointments in fanatical self-sufficiency.
The image of black women as loud, aggressive, and ultimately, unsupportive to the Black
man reverberates through US media messages in various means. If one is not careful, and
veiwing or listening without their analytical seraphim(or cerebrum and cerebellum), the
symbols might only be understood superficially, and the behaviors of the symbols might be
so compelling, that one imitates them without critical assessment of the trajectory of said
behavior. It is of interest that sitcom starring Diahann Carroll in the late 1960s, Julia, was
of a Black woman, single parent, working as a nurse, and the organizing of the National
Black Nurses Organization in 1971. Correlations can be so difficult to defeat in the face of
the term coincidence, right? Slightly more interesting is that Black women choosing nursing as a profession went from 70,400 in 1970 to 110,460 in 1980(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pmc/articles/PMC2756047/table/T1/). Another coincidence, right? Sure.
Well, how about this coincidence? Melvin Van Peebles produces a successful movie, Sweet
Sweetbacks Baaddasssss Song and then comes Shaft in the same year. How about the coincidence that after those two movies of urban black superheroes, comes Superfly in 1972.
Oh, hold up!! Dont forget that in the next year, 1973, Black Caesar, Cleopatra Jones, and
Coffy are released. I suppose that it would also be a coincidence that Pam Grier looks much
like Angela Davis in Coffy, and that the character Coffy is a nurse. More coincidences to
come.
I suppose it would also be a good place to now quote Thomas Doherty, Teenagers and
Teenpics, once more: The date of a phenomenons occurence is a good index of the reasons
for its appearance.
In 1970, Jonathan Jackson was killed in an attempt to rescue his older brother, George
Jackson from a Marin County, California court room. The involvment with his older brother and Dr. Angela Davis(detailed via letters in Georges book,Soledad Brother), caused authorities to be suspicious of Dr. Angela Davis whereabouts. Her youthful vigor, and dedica-

PG 70

tion to the movement for Black self-defense also aided in her national attention. It would be
found that the weapons used by Jonathon were purchased by Angela(Search Broadens for
Angela Davis, Eugene Register-Guard,August 18, 1970). This information and the letters
found in the cell of George, who had been convicted of a gas station robbery at 17 and was
serving an indefinite sentence in Soledad Prison. The romantic like engagement between
George and Angela would be criticized by bell hooks in her above quoted text as overly dramatized in favor of the image of the stoic male and the submissive Black woman. I would
boldly venture to argue that Angelas participation in their relationship was above the call
of duty, and beyond just a submissive subservience to a male caller. The FBI doesnt place
you on their Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List just for being a faithful pen pal to a prisoner.
Although I do agree that Angela Davis becomes the original ride or die sister, hers wasnt a
title earned for the typical patriarchial positions alloted for women.
In the mid 1960s, another young Black woman that would gain international attention
was arrested for her involvement with a highly organized student protest at the Manhattan
Community College. The young woman, now known to history as Assata Olugbala Shakur,
would become one of the leading members of the Harlem branch of the Black Panther
Party. Due to her critique of the lack political awareness and abstract comprehension of
many of the male members, she joined the Black Liberation Army, a well-trained paramilitary organization with a focus on obtaining the former slaves states as a nation for Black
peoples of the United States. Her national attention would begin with a discrepancy with a
Statler Hilton Hotel patron where she would be shot in the abdomen. From the resulting arrest, her name would be aligned with bank robbery in Queens. Soon her face would don the
wanted posters of banks with her holding a gun(William L. Van Deburg, Modern Black Nationalism: From Marcus Garvey to Louis Farrakhan, pg. 7). She would also be sought for
questioning in a murder of New York City cops in 1972(Robert Jones, 2 Die in Shootout;
Militant Seized, Los Angeles Times, p. 22). The height of her national fame would exponentially multiply in what might be the moment when the young activist was thrust forever
into history. In May of 1973, Assata would be riding in a car along the New Jersey Turnpike
by a state trooper James Harper for a broken tail light. The driver, Zayd Shakur, was asked
to get out of the vehicle. Soon after, Assata would be wounded by gun shoot, and Zayd and
another trooper, Werner Foerster would be slain. Assata would be gaffled and held as a
prisoner until 1979 when she was rescued by comrades from the BLA.
These are only two of the very prominent figures that would work to distort the images
of Black Women in the media. Along with Afeni Shakur, the mother of slain artist Tupac
Shakur, who held a high position in the Harlem branch of the
Black Panthers, and was held on charges along with members
that made up the Panther 21. The image of the Black woman
in the United States would be that of resistance and political
consciousness. This image would be countered with that of the
Black heroine of blaxploitation movies.
The movie Coffy, written and directed by Jack Hill(Blood Bath,
The Fear Chamber, Spider Baby) and produced by American
International Pictures-popular at that time for backing lowbudget films aimed at exploiting specific markets(Thomas
Doherty, Teenagers and Teenpics, p. 35)- starts out with a
young Black man entering a club to discuss a proposition with a
his supplier. Take note that the young brother is wearing a cap similar to a beret, an article
of clothing typically associated with the Black Panther Party. The young man attracts the attention of the supplier, and tells him he has a special woman waiting outside for him. After
a few failed attempts of persuasion, the young man tells him that the woman is in his car.
This is enough of a reason for the elder to step outside. We then see the supplier lustfully
glazing at a woman sprawled out seductively in the backseat.

PG 71

Cut Scene, and we are in an dilapidated apartment,

cue Pam Griers right breast hanging out of her
shirt while being groped by the high level supplier
on the bed. Soon the plot twists as Coffy(Pam Grier) has a sawed-off shotgun and kills the supplier.
She then uses a syringe filled with what we can only
assume is a pure blend of heroin to kill the liason.
Before injecting the
young man, we are
informed via her dialogue that her sister has been given a bad
batch of drugs and that Coffy is
seeking revenge. Lets also note
here that Assata Shakur, and
other panthers, were wanted for
kidnapping heroin dealers, and
one of the weapons that Angela
Davis was said to have bought
was a shotgun that was sawedoff. I know, all coincidences,
moving on...
The next scene is of a surgical
operation of some sort where a doctor is complaining and calls
Coffy. We now see that Coffys job is that of a nurse, and that
she is only moonlighting as an executioner. We also find out
that she works in the same hospital that her young sister is being treated. Coffy is seen later,
out of her nurses scrubs entertaining a man that we find out is a senator. Cue Pam Grier
having sex with the senator, and then her performing fellatio. We are only left to our imaginations of how these two know each other until later.
Cut scene, and we are in the parking lot with Coffy in her nurses uniform attempting to
ward off a stranger from breaking into a car she is sitting in. Her colleague and working police officer, Carter, uses his authority to rough the man up and send him on his merry way.
The two decide to have a drink of coffee(it could get worse) at Carters place. During the
conversation, Carter receives a phone call notifying him that another police officer buddy is
taking bribes. Soon two vandals,(alright, it was pretty predictable that the guys doing this
were the same two guys that had just called Carter), punch through the door(it could get
worse), and proceed to beat Carter with bats. Coffy attempts to help but she is thrown to the
side and one of the assailants begins to take off her blouse. Cue Pam Griers breasts again
before the assailant is dragged off of her.
We are soon after introduced to King George, a pimp with a slick operation of women in a
high class hotel. As an introduction Coffy meets his harem, and, well, sure, youve guessed
it, cue Pam Griers butt naked body. we could rendevous with each scene, and I could easily,
as proven, give you a full synopsis, but it is simply more of the same. It would be out of the
scope of the book to carry on.
Both movies, starring Pam Grier, and written by Jack Hill, are produced by American International Pictures, which was owned by a one James Hartford Nicholson and Samuel Z.
Arkoff. As stated above, the production company was known for making low-budget films
aimed at specific target markets, in their earliest days that was the young white male audience. In a LIFE article dated July, 16, 1965, the two B-rate movie producers formula for
successful movies was dubbed the Peter Pan Syndrome. According to the article:
1. A younger child will watch anything that an older one will watch.

PG 72

2. An older child will not watch anything a younger child will watch.
3. A girl will watch anything a boy will watch.
4. A boy will not watch anything a girl will watch.
5. In order to catch your greatest audience, you zero in on a 19-year-old male.
With this formula in mind, many of the movies that were produced by AIP consisted of high
levels of action, interesting forms of killing(hence Coffys close range sawed-off shotgun
blast to the head of the high level heroin pusher), and sexual scenes(enough said). The writer of Coffy, Jack Hill states,It took 18 days to shoot and the budget was $500,000. They
had a limit on what they called black films because they thought that at that price they
could make a profit on any of them. Later in the same conversation when Hill is discussing
Pam Griers portrayal of Coffy, he states,...she really represented the idea of black power
and black is beautiful.(Calum Waddell, Jack Hill: the exploitation and blaxploitation master, film by film, pg. 124). From the mouth of the writer and director him Self, we have the
connection that explains my thesis. The symbol of the Black Woman as a revolutionary, the
embodiment of dedication to the Black struggle for self-determination wrapped in a 18 day
movie about a nurse that fucks her way to her sisters vegeance. Terrific.
This symbolic embodiment portrayed by Grier would be carried over into the movie Foxy
Brown. While Assata is being arrested on the turnpike bleeding from multiple gunshots,
the character, Foxy Brown, created and crafted for the big screen by a White man, becomes
such a representative icon for Black Female strength that a young woman, Inga Marchand,
with a developed rhyme scheme and lyrical presentation, would deciide to rap under the
same moniker, Foxy Brown. The sultry melodic vocalizations of Foxy Brown would also
be shared by rap artist Lil Kim. Lil Kims image of street savvy and sexually uninhibited
aggressiveness would reinforce the ideas of Black women as overly sexually permissive,
shrewish, and valued by vaginal victories over mens wallets. This formula would be echoed
by other acts such as rapper and former stripper Trina, Eve, and later by Nicki Minaj. Although, Lil Kims use of the formula is most popularized due to the extreme manner in
which she explicitly expressed her licentiousness, and also her association with Bad Boy
Records and her involvement with Biggie Smalls. However, Lil
Kim was not the first Black female MC to sell raunchy raps and
promote sexual favors for financial reciprocation.
In July 1990, Rap-A-Lot Records/Priority released a raunchy record with a female vocalist, Kim Davis. During the
era of VideoJukebox, a television station which allowed its
viewers to order and request the videos that they wanted to
see,MC Choices, or Choices Payback-a battle rap attacking
misogynistic(I know, I know) rappers such as Nwa, Too Short,
and ironically the Geto Boys, who were also label mates- was
able to garner attention and heavy rotation. Including on the
album where such songs as Bad Ass Bitch, Nothing But Sex, and Pipe Dreams. The
album is peaked at 46 on Billboards top 100 albums, reaching that noteriety the week of
October 20, 1990. Interesting enough, a used copy of the album in cd format runs a potential buyer from $69.98 to $196.71 on the interweb market place, Amazon. Her second album, Stick N Move, which was released in 1992, has an asking price of starting at twenty
dollars and going upwards to two hundred and four dollars on the same site. The formula
being used here is such: speak with a certain bravado as a woman, but dont appear to be a
butchy lesbian, and in order to stave off that criticism, discuss graphically detailed sexual
pursuits. Be one of the boys, but also be willing to take a dick.
Foxy Brown signed to Def Jam Records in 1996 at the ripe age of 17. Her first record release on the Universal Music Group subsidiary June 1, 1998 was entitled, Ill Na Na. The

PG 73

title song of the track, recorded with Wu Tang Alum, Method Man, details the pride of her record release, a verbal
jab at Lil Kim, as well as her desire to avoid heartbreak
through emotionless dealings with men, however sexual.
The ill na na would ultimately represent sexual conquest
of men(think of the last two letters of the word,vagina and
ill as meaning respected for aggression.)
Ill Na Na
[Intro: Method Man]
One time...
Huhh, all up in ya like a bone when I...
Johnny Blaze, the Iron Lung
Foxy Brown, the Ill Na Na (yeah, cmon, yeah, cmon)
Destination... (cmon, cmon) plat
[Verse One: Foxy Brown]
Yo Na Na so Ill, first week out
Shipped a half a mil, niggaz freaked out
Shes all about sex, pard-on, check your facts
and the track record, Im all about plaques
Shakin my ass half naked, lovin this life
Waitin for Kim album to drop, knowin its tight
Standin center stage, closin the show holdin a gat
Since you opened up, I know youre hopin its wack
Niggaz, screamin my name on record straight whylin
Maybe Ill answer back when you reach a hundred
thousand
This is ladies night, and the Mercedess tight
When Im coming home? Maybe tonight
Leave my food by the microwave, kiss the baby goodnight
Its my time to shine its playtime tonight
Ima try to stand my ground, know when I fall
I left your ass Home Alone, hopin I call

[Chorus: Method Man]

Whos got the illest pussy on the planet?
Sugar walls comin down niggaz cant stand it, the Ill Na Na
True Absolut Vodka, straight shots
for the has-beens and have-nots, dolla dolla
Real and it dont stop, we movin up
First the mansion then the yacht, sound proper
Straight cash get got, bloodhounds
tryin to hunt down the Brown Fox, the Ill Na Na
[Verse Two: Foxy Brown]
No more sexin me all night, thinkin its alright
While Im lookin over your shoulder, watchin the hall light
You hate when its a ball right? Ladies this aint handball

PG 74

Nigga hit these walls right before I call Mike

In the morning when its all bright, eggs over easy
Hope you have my shit tight when I open my eyes
While Im eatin gettin dressed up, this aint yo pad
I left some money on the dresser, find you a cab
No more, sharin I pain, sharin I made
Its time to outslick niggaz, ladies sharin our game
Put it in high gear, flip the eye wear
Nas Ruled the World but now its my year
And from, here on I solemnly swear
To hold my own like Pee Wee in a movie theater (uh-huh)
Yeah I dont need a mans wealth (yeah)
But I can do bad (bad) by my damn self (self)
And uhh...
[Chorus]
[Method]
Uhh... vodka...
Not... not...
Dolla dolla... stop stop...
Cmon cmon... yah, its the Ill Na Na
[Verse Three: Foxy Brown]
No more Waitin To Exhale, we takin deep breaths
Ladies take this over, I be Fox so peep this
Love thyself with no one above thee
Cause aint nobody gon love me like me
If he, dont Do The Right Thing like Spike Lee
Bye bye wifey make him lose his Nikes (uh uh, yeah)
Hit the road
Mami told me in order to, find a Prince
you gotta kiss some toads
[Chorus]

Three years prior, on August 29, 1995, Lil Kim
would grace the cover her collaboration with Biggie
Smalls promoted rap group, Junior Mafia. The album,
Conspiracy, would feature Lil Kim on Realms of Junior M.A.F.I.A., Players Anthem, I Need You Tonight, Get Money, and Back Stabbers.

A year later she would score on her own album released on Undeas/Big Beat/Atlantic, Hardcore. An introduction into the Kim that was slightly more muted
on the Junior Mafia tracks, the album opens with a
gentlemen going to see a pornography movie and we
hear what is supposed to be Lil Kim having sex. The
rest of the album is a contribution to the peter pan syndrome outlined in this chapter earlier for rap. Tales of robbery(action) and sexual conquests hug bass loops, with a line from
Biggie:Kick it Bitch.
Queen Bitch
(feat. Notorious B.I.G.)

PG 75

If peter piper pecked em, I betcha biggie bust em

He probably tried to fuck him, I told him not to trust him
Lyrically, I dust em, off like Pledge
Hit hard like sledge-hammers, bitch with that platinum grammer
I am a diamond cluster hustler
Queen bitch, supreme bitch
Kill a nigga for my nigga by any means bitch
Murder scene bitch
Clean bitch, disease free bitch
Check it, I write a rhyme, melt in your mouth like M&Ms
Roll with the M.A.F.I.A. remember them?
Tell em when I used to mess with gentlemen
Straight up apostles, now strictly niggaz that jostle
Kill a nigga for the figure, how you figure?
Your cheddar would be better, Beretta inside of Beretta
Nobody do it better
Bet I wet cha like hurricanes and typhoons
Got buffoons eatin my pussy while I watch cartoons
Seat the loon, this rap Pam Griers here
Baby drinkers beware, mostly Dolce wear
Frank kill niggaz lives for one point five
While you struggle and strive we pick which Benz to drive
The M.A.F.I.A. you wanna be em
Most of yall niggaz cant eat without per diem
Im rich, Ima stay that bitch
Uhh, who you lovin who you wanna be huggin
Roll with niggaz that be thuggin, buggin
In the tunnel in Esos
Sippin espresso, Cappuchino wit Nino
On a mission for the lucci creno
I used to wear Moscino, but every bitch got it
Now I rock colorful minks because my pockets stay knotted
C-note after C-note, Frank Bo hold fifteen plus the caterer
You think you greater, uh
(You niggaz got some audacity
You sold a million now you half of me
Get off my dick, kick it bitch)
Check my pitch, or send it persona
And Ill still stick your moms for her stocks and bonds
I got that bomb ass cock, a good ass shot
With hardcore flows to keep a nigga dick rock
Sippin Zinfandel, up in Chippendales
Shop in Bloomingdales for Prada bags
Female Don Dada hats no problems spittin cream with my team
Shits straight like nine fifteen, ynahmean?
Cruise the diamond district with my biscuit
Flossin my rolex rich
Shit, Im rich, Ima stay that bitch
...the first woman rapper to garner much media attention was the less hardcore(but still
lyrically skilled) Queen Latifah. Ladies First, which she cut with British rapper Monie
Love, is perhaps the best-known feminist-style rap, with a video that showed Latifah planning global strategy while pictures of Winnie Mandela and Sojourner Truth flashed in the
background... - Russell A. Potter, Spectacular Vernaculars:hip-hop and the politics of

PG 76

postmodernism, pg 92
Without moralizing and being critiqued as presenting a double standard, the images of
Black women depicted in the early days of Hip-hop such as Queen Latifah have metamorphed in the same manner that the images of Black males retrograde to that of the savage brute. The image of the Black woman has gone from that enriching the youth with
statements like:
[Queen Latifah]
The ladies will kick it, the rhyme that is wicked
Those that dont know how to be pros get evicted
A woman can bear you, break you, take you
Now its time to rhyme, can you relate to
A sister dope enough to make you holler and scream
[Monie Love]
Ayo, let me take it from here, Queen...
Excuse me but I think Im about do
To get into precisely what I am about to do
Im conversating to the folks that have no whatsoever clue
So listen very carefully as I break it down for you
Merrily merrily merrily merrily hyper happy overjoyed
Pleased with all the beats and rhymes my sisters have employed
Slick and smooth throwing down the sound totally a yes
Let me state the position: Ladies first, yes? (Yes)
(Yeah, theres going to be some changes in here)
[Monie Love]
Believe me when I say being a woman is great, you see
I know all the fellas out there will agree with me
Not for being one but for being with one
Because when its time for loving its the woman that gets some
Strong, stepping, strutting, moving on
Rhyming, cutting, and not forgetting
We are the ones that give birth
To the new generation of prophets because its Ladies First
[Queen Latifah]
I break into a lyrical freestyle
Grab the mic, look into the crowd and see smiles
Cause they see a woman standing up on her own two
Sloppy slouching is something I wont do
Some think that we cant flow (cant flow)
Stereotypes, they got to go (got to go)
Im a mess around and flip the scene into reverse
(With what?) With a little touch of Ladies First
Who said the ladies couldnt make it, you must be blind
If you dont believe, well here, listen to this rhyme
Ladies first, theres no time to rehearse
Im divine and my mind expands throughout the universe
A female rapper with the message to send the
Queen Latifah is a perfect specimen
[Monie Love]

PG 77

My sister, can I get some?

[Queen Latifah]
Sure, Monie Love, grab the mic and get dumb
[Monie Lovie]
Yo, praise me not for simply being what I am
Born in L-O-N-D-O-N and sound American
You dig exactly where Im coming from
You want righteous rhyming, Imma give you some
To enable you to aid yourself and get paid
And the material that has no meaning I wish to slay
Pay me every bit of your attention
Like mother, like daughter, I would also like to mention
I wish for you to bring me to, bring me to the rhythm
Of which is now systematically given
Desperately stressing Im the daughter of a sister
Whos the mother of a brother whos the brother of another
Plus one more; all four
Have a job to do, we doing it
Respect due, to the mother whos the root of it
And next up is me, the M-O-N-I-E L-O-V-E
And Im first cause Im a L-A-D-I-E
[Queen Latifah]
Contact and in fact, the style, it gets harder
Cooling on the scene with my European partner
Laying down track after track, waiting for the climax
When I get there, thats when I tax
The next man, or the next woman
It doesnt make a difference, keep the competition coming
And Ill recite the chapter in verse
The title of this recital is Ladies First

As hinted upon earlier, there is a

direct correlation with the movies
written and produced to exploit
Black audiences. We see that Foxy
Brown is borrowed directly from
this era. It is telling of the power
of the media and images when a
young women decides to take on
evoke an imitation,
and a weak one at
that of Black Feminine strength instead of the many
that are actual heroines at that time.
Many of whom
sacrificed their freedom for the very
woman that would
overlook them in

PG 78

history. The empty media endorsed symbols of Black Feminine Power were embraced as
the Hip-Hop culture pioneered its way into the selpuchers of corporate America. Lost are
the words of encouragement and empowerment to Black Women without the scantily clad
modelesque figurines prancing around stages and on interviews proclaiming how they are
that bad bitch. when we see Angela Davis, Afeni Shakur, and Assata Shakur, the actual
woman that the symbol was crafted so many years ago, the last thing we think of is bad
bitch. Removed is the politically, and socio-economically aware discussion;implanted is a
series of invidious comparisions of wealth and status obtained in a media oriented version
of the oldest profession known to man. The capitalistic carnival of what Ntozake Shange
might refer to as deliberate coquettes.
As implied in Michelle Wallaces book, much of the inability to institutionalize the Black
Panther Party, and to enculturate certain platforms actualized by organizations like the
Black Liberation Army is due to settling of more aggressive elements for symbols of power.
It became a worthy notion to be seen as powerful, to hold the tokens of power in a white patriarchial system, than to actually have power. What movies such as these do is expose the
populace to neat expressions of power, walk out of theaters, or away from television sets,
with a euphoria. Much like th euphoria experienced by many Blacks when Barack Obama
became the 41st president of the United States. However, symbols of power are not power.
To be able to intimidate is not power when those intimidated can put a metal slug ignited
by heat generated from a guns hammer into your back while handcuffed in front of an audience and the one killing only being sentenced to a few months. Intimidation becomes a
very small measure in that sort of instance. Being a representative of cool is attractive,
and can win one appluase and fame, yet those who control the vehicles for your cool to
be exposed to wider audiences could careless about being cool;why would they: they can
simply reap the benefits of the machine they have control over that allows your cool to be
worthy of anything.
The beautiful sisters have been left with emphatic and authoritatively pronounced anecdotes, and public displays of exploited sexuality as a solution to the echoes of misogny and
economic advancement. Where the voices of those women that pushed Black Men to stand
up and be counted have evanesced into susurration, the cacophony of plastic or paper for
pussy goddesses have resounded with a deafening audibility.
In an effort to understand the effects of such symbols on the mind of adolescent Black females, and also their male counterparts, I quote University of Missouri, St. Louis professor Jody Miller, the Executive Counselor of the American Society of Criminology, from her
book entitled,Gettin Played: African American Girls, Urban Inequality, and Gendered Violence, as she discusses a photography program she held with young Black adolescents:
I sent youths out into their communities with cameras to document their daily lives. And
week after week, I was struck and saddened by the portraits they produced, which barely
resembled the kids I was interacting with. Young men struck poses intended to project an
image of street bravado. Occassionally throwing up gang signs, they sent hardened stares
into the camera lenses, mimicking the depictions of young Black manhood we see all too
often in the media in America...But it was the girls photos that really stuck with me. Nearly
every young woman in my class, solo or in pairs, came away from the course with a portrait
of themselves, back turned from the camera, head turned to face it, and bent over, showing
their backsides in a sexualized pose. Is this a celebration of female sexuality? Of Black female sexuality specifically? Or do we continue to teach young women that their value lies in
their sexual objectification?
Great questions, indeed.
In the Black community, with messages of inferiority embedded into the very laws that gov-

PG 79

ern this land, it is often a very delicate walk to express ones power. As noted by Randall
Robinson in The Debt, often Blacks in the urban environment settle for forms of power
such as gaudy jewelry, large rims, huge icons such as the Ralph Lauren logo for his line of
clothing to express status. The message seems to be that I too am worthy, I too can obtain
the trinkets that deem one valued in this society, I can have what you have. In my childhood, I learned to analyzed by the long held ritual of playin the dozens. Playing the dozens, another behavior passed down through history from slavery, is the act of finding socially unacceptable styles in dress, mode of talk, tastes in sexual attraction, and for the most
part, any sorts of pattern of overt expression that could be made humorous among ones
peer group. As stated in the previous chapter, this act of deeming ones associates and those
within ones surroundings is not class based. Although much of the ridicule is formulated
based on class standards.
In public the person whose very appearance including his or her clothing, demeanor,
and way of moving, as well as the crowd he or she runs with, or family reputation deters
transgressions feels that he or she possesses, and may be considered by others to possess,
a measure of respect. Much of the code has to do with achieveing and holding respect. And
children learn its rules early. - Elijah Anderson, ,Code of the Streets, pg. 67
In a country where class standards are often composed in the cauldron of marketing witches attempting to garner financial amenities from the rich, an often too tacit development occurs: we subconsciously covet the trinkets of the upper class. We mimic the behaviors of the
white power structure in personality, dress, consumption, and spending practices. Those of
us unable to meet the demands of such a psychologically damning invidious comparison are
often left to lean on our physicality. The message of Pam Griers Coffy and Foxy Brown is
that a young Black woman has to use her sexual charms to obtain even a violent retribution.
The message of Choice, Lil Kim, Foxy Brown(the second coming...no pun intended), and
even todays version, Nicki Minaj, is that to obtain the status of wealth so coveted by most
of us in a capitalistic society, a young Black woman must be sexually aggressive in dress and
demeanor.
This conversation between symbol and symbol receiver has had tremendous effects
throughout the Black community. The headline reads,Blood gang members went to Brooklyn schools to recruit underage girls as hookers: prosecutors, and following the story of
males entering schools to turn out young sisters, aged as young as 15, in several, that
means more than one, prostitution ring. If you for one second believe that the symbols
dont encourage the behavior remember that this is Brooklyn, New York, is slightly less
than 2,500 miles from Athen Parks, Los Angelos, California, where the original Piru Bloods
have been determined to have originated. The symbols of women of influence demanding
that a man pay for sexual relations, and the social acceptance of this symbol via purchases
of the albums, imitation of the styles of dress by adult women, media attention, and cultural embrace, create a worldview for any young impressionable Black Goddess that the
bartering of body for bucks is not only acceptable but possibly a faster road to the trinkets
of status so envied among her peers. Couple in the variables of male acceptance and being down, and the equation that to be Black means to be street savvy, and you have an
algorithm not too different from the one devised in United States slavery that caused Black
women to accept being raped by White men such as Thomas Jefferson as a normal way of
life.