Who Are We? Are We Pimping Our Black Culture?

It is perplexing that we as black people want to embrace our culture, but at the same time are offended when someone of another race tries to embrace it. Whether it is our music, urban way of dressing, dance moves, etc.

I understand why, perhaps it is because of the not the rich, but poor history of our race. Our ancestors for the most part were brought here against their will and were forced into slavery. Through all of the heartache, they learned how to survive and created a legacy rich in culture with the little that they had. Creating sumptuous meals from the scraps of food they were thrown such as bones left over from animals (neck bones) and pigs’ intestines (chitterlings or chitlens). These and many other dishes such as collard greens, pig’s feet, ham hocks, etc. are what we call Soul Food and our part of our beautiful Black heritage.

And the songs that slaves sung helped to form such music genres such as Jazz, Gospel, and the Blues which also led to other genres such as Rhythm and Blues and even Hip-Hop with its funky beats.

Now we are in a new millennium, and have more liberties and are able to embrace who we are, we are in essence a mixture of what our ancestors were before slavery and what we are now that slavery has been legally abolished. But many are still slaves in their minds, torn between the two, most Black Americans would not want to go to Africa, nor would they be accepted in Africa. But as we continue to learn more about our past, sometimes we find it difficult to swallow all of the injustices our ancestors endured and the racial profiling that still continues today, not only for not only us, but Latinos as well, need I mention Sonia Sotomayer?
Have we become so complacent that we do nothing at the risk of leaving our comfort zone?

We want to be accepted by white people as long as they don’t cross the line and start to carry on in ways that are considered only acceptable by Black people. We have a few token White people that we embrace in the music world, such as Justin Timberlake and Eminem. Just as White people have a few token minorities that they embrace in film, for example, Will Smith and Eva Mendes. But everyone is cautious to keep the lines clear so that the melting pot is still divided into shades of black, brown, and white, never allowing for it to become grey in any culture.

So then what do we want? We simply want respect and our culture to be respected. But in order for Blacks to be respected as a whole, we have to be respectful. We cannot act like a fool and then demand respect, because when an individual of black color acts inappropriately, it affects the entire black culture. But when a White person does, the person is focused on, not the person’s ethnicity.

Most people that are currently famous have wealth attached to their name. But do those who manage, publish, and distribute what those people sell such as music really respect the individual artist? Or do they respect what they get from that artist in terms of residuals. Think of some of the most influential musical artists currently, who respects Lil Wayne; many respect his dollars, but not him. But a person’s soul is not defined by their wealth but their character.

So if these artists do not believe in what they are saying, and are doing whatever sells, then they are pimping themselves, much like the prosttutes that I see when I drive down Long Beach Blvd in Compton, CA.

Are you pimping yourself, or are you as real in front of people as you are behind closed doors?

The Obama’s cannot do it on their own; neither can Dr. William Cosby, or Oprah. We are all responsible for our actions and like it or not, our actions collectively represent what is perceived by the media. The media does not look at the 20% of the black populous that is pushing forward; they concentrate on the 80% that makes our culture look bad. What percentage are you?

By Veniece Wesson - No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.