Acting White: America's BIGgie Problem

Most of you know my pre-occupation with the plight of Black people, and you have undoubtedly heard my rant about how Obama is no savior, rather Blacks must save themselves (mostly from themselves). This post is about how ingrained that hurdle has become.

A few weeks ago I saw the movie trailer (embedded below) for NOTORIOUS, the movie about the life and times of the hugely popular gansta’ rapper Biggie Smalls. Biggie was killed in the fashion of gun violence personified in Gangsta'’ Rap. This is the only part of the music industry where success leads to probable death.

I asked a young co-worker, who generally keeps me current on popular culture, if she had seen the movie and she said she had. Her review was that it glorified his short career, and there was some controversy over whether Lil’ Kim, a popular female gangsta'’ rapper, got her full due as Biggie’s love interest, among the many.

Nowhere in her Siskel & Ebert, did my co-worker say that the message of the movie was to stay in school, work hard, and make something of yourself. Instead it was a tribute to a man who extolled violence and who died violently. The fact that he, as with many of these rappers, had cloaked talent only enhances the tragedy.

But what really gets me is the total lack of push back within the black community that a movie about Biggie should be about glorifying the way he lived and died, rather than stating it as its true tragedy, where a black boy/man of abilities chooses a path that extols the worse of black living and sacrifices his life in its twisted glory.

It is this complacency with misdirection that is ingrained in too many blacks. For every teacher, coach, or counselor, attempting to direct a kid to a bright future, two other kids are standing in a long theater line, nine dollars in-hand, to celebrate a light that went out in a hail of gunfire. Biggie is dead, but his big problem is alive and well.



James C. Collier

READ MOST RECENT POSTS AT ACTING WHITE...

Technorati Tags: Acting White: America's BIGgie Problem, Obama, Biggie Smalls, Notorius B.I.G., Culture, Acting White