Your Black Brothers: Brother, Can You Spare Some Class: Black Men In The Media

Brother, Can You Spare Some Class: Black Men in the Media
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer - YourBlackWorld.com

On October 15th, Comedy Central is slated to premier a “satirical fake news show” called, Chocolate News. David Alan Grier, most famous for his many characters in the ‘90s hit sketch comedy series In Living Color, will be the host. The show is reported to be a cultural spin-off of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, but judging from the released trailers, Comedy Central is aiming for a much different objective. The scene is an all too familiar one. The trailers feature Grier, like past Black comics before him, dressed up in feminine outfits, yelling at the top of his voice, acting erratically, and operating in an incoherent shuffle. It is as though this long national nightmare, of which President Ford spoke, is far from over.

In early 2005, Chappelle’s Show, Comedy Central’s most popular series at the time, received a set-back from production because Dave Chappelle, star of the show, had come to a sobering conclusion that he did not wish for his soul to be purchased at the price of corporate America’s offer. As the legend tells itself, Dave Chappelle turned down $50 million – the allotted price for the third season – and escaped to South Africa for a “spiritual retreat.” Comedy Central, uneasy about the kind of message being sent to Black boys and girls across the globe, initially spun Chappelle’s departure into a battle with the flu, but subsequently reoriented it to suggest a meltdown of insanity and eccentricity.

Dave Chappelle, upon a return to The States, informed TV icon Oprah Winfrey, that he was motivated to halt production of his ultra successful show because it had grown increasingly “socially irresponsible.” In response to the growing concern from within the Black Community, vis-à-vis his many overtly stereotypical sketches, Chappelle remarked that he didn’t want “black people to be disappointed in me for putting that [message] out there. … It's a complete moral dilemma.” What an unusual and unprecedented act of solidarity and candor.

What Dave Chappelle understood, quite explicitly, is the depth to which images matter. Dave Chappelle, unlike his counterparts, has a concerted knowledge of history and is aware of the degree to which Minstrel shows, in the past, have damaged the quality of life for Black folks worldwide. For Chappelle, stoking the flame of suffering would be unforgivable and unacceptable. If contemporary Black comedians, artists and entertainers in general, possess a similar amount of self-worth, the world would undoubtedly be a much better place for Black people. Veteran Black Panther activist and presently incarcerated political prisoner, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin a/k/a “H. Rap Brown,” once noted that in the stadium on entertainment, Blacks “dominate the field,” but stop short of actually “controlling” it. In essence, commercial Hip-Hop artists foolishly parade around with diamond-encrusted slave chains on their necks, but ultimately realize who the “master” is.

Hip-Hop, a musical genre constructed from the agonizing and cruel conditions of inner-city life, has now morphed into a safe-haven for over-sexed men, over-sexed women, cutthroats, pimps, promiscuous females, testosterone-filled adolescents, capitalists, criminal international bankers, government agents, drug-dealers etc. What once represented, as Public Enemy founder Chuck D put it, the “CNN for black people,” is now a disseminator of filth, uncleanliness and impurity. Corporate Black male rappers – powered by big name industries – operate like cranked-up robots whose sole purpose is the further degradation of Black women. With the much publicized studies claiming 72% of Hip-Hop’s consumers to be White kids, with 80% of that being suburban White females, one wonders for whom the proverbial “studio gangsters” flex their steroid-laden muscles.

The triple evils of BET, VH1 and MTV have wreaked more havoc – in the 21st century – upon the Black psyche than at any other period in entertainment history. Under the umbrella of Viacom, owned by the 85-year-old White Sumner Redstone, BET, VH1 and MTV have risen to great heights as the primary source of amusement for the 18-35 demographic. Even more foul is the reality that BET – also know also known as “Black Evil Television” or “Black Embarrassment Television” – has extended that margin to accommodate, through marketing schemes, kids as young as 9 years. old.

Like every rotten apple, BET was once a ripe beacon of illumination and intellectual stimulation. At a certain period in its formation, the now withering BET entertained a diversity of programs and a line-up embroiled in novelty. As the late Notorious B.I.G. once quipped, “Damn, sh-- done changed.” With long-axed variety shows including, “Our Voices with Bev Smith,” “BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley,” “BET Tonight with Ed Gordon,” “BET Nightly News,” “Teen Summit” and “Lead Story,” it seemed odd that Black Entertainment Television would, in a pathetic move, attempt to substantiate the magnitude of such loss with the addition of a weekly half-hour political talk show, hosted by noted activist, Jeff Johnson. In 2007, many activists in the Black Community grew weary of BET’s stubborn reluctance to feed its viewers healthy material, and therefore employed numerous avenues to send a strong message of resistance to the corporate monsters – mostly white – whose programming decisions are wiping out the consciousness of an entire generation.

One of such activists, Opio Osokoni, created an international “Turn off Channel Zero” (TOCZ) movement in mid 2007. Through a self-produced documentary, Osokoni searched for answers to the over-saturation of Black male buffoonery on Viacom and the mainstream media at large. The documentary featured a panel of acclaimed activists such as Public Enemy member Professor Griff, Hip Hop journalist Davey D, Last Poet's Abiodun Oyewole and Morgan State University Professor Ray Winbush. In less than 80 minutes, Turn off Channel Zero was able to accomplish what most mega-budget Hollywood scripts constantly fail in fulfilling. It exposed the corporate characters that pull the strings behind big media companies.

One intriguing development was the fact that most of those forces, who now sit atop the Hip-Hop and “urban” industry, are Caucasian or non-black. These corporate criminals are, without a doubt, the chief culprits in the continual cheapening of the Black Community’s integrity. With the stroke of a pen, they have outlawed positive/uplifting imagery, and promoted – with full force – the incessant caricature of Black life that has grown into a normative state on most entertainment and News channels. Rosa Clemente, V.P. nominee of the Green Party, spoke out eloquently against this reality in a 2005 protest of the Hip-Hop station, Hot 97. “Believe me, when you look at Emmis.com, and you see the 7 top executives of Emmis Communication, they are all white men over the age of 50, programming poison to our children,” Clemente said. “As a new mother, with a two-month old, I refuse to let these companies, these corporations, call my daughter a bitch, a hoe, a nigger. It’s over. It’s not about ‘free speech.’ It’s about your peddling drugs into the mind of our community. What you do is addicting our children to violence.” Another sobering finding, that TOCZ uncovered, is the reality that White corporate executives have always found – and would always find – Black males who would readily submit themselves for the usage of the devil.

Many older Blacks are familiar with Stepin' Fetchit and the horror of minstrel shows. White directors, in the 1800s, formulated a plan to keep their pale-faced audiences everlastingly entertained. The way they figured it, if Black men soon resolved their internal battle with self-hatred/self esteem and decided to abruptly refuse the role of “lawn jockey” for White-owned media production companies, white actors could simply darken their faces with cosmetic products and perform in a way they believed was natural to Black people – that of drunkenness, laziness, ignorance and incompetence. Luckily for the swine, locating Black men who perceived their prime objective in life to be that of lackeys and coons for White satisfaction has proved to be no daunting task.

In the ‘70s, CBS found it amusing to promote a sitcom called “Good Times.” The premise of the show was apparently to propagate the concept that a family with unpaid bills, horrible living conditions, insufficient food, and domestic commotion was somehow dwelling in “Good Times.” As expected, the cast of gifted characters was incomplete without a silly-acting son whose self-obsession, poor taste and preoccupation with promiscuity was accommodated, and sometimes encouraged, by the loving, yet misaligned set of parents. It was also in the ‘70s that NBC ‘made a killing’ with the variety show, The Flip Wilson Show. A show which, amongst other factors, was most popular for the Geraldine Jones skit, featuring the host, Clerow Wilson Jr. reduced to the role of a sharp-tongued black woman who was devoid of any sense of personal responsibility and always retorted – when caught – “The devil made me do it!”

This phenomenon of Black men unashamedly embracing offers that require appearances in dresses and drags have blossomed into a cash-magnet enterprise. Tyler Perry (Madea) and Martin Lawrence (Big Momma’s House), two very famous comedians, are perhaps the most treasonous in reprising self-imposed roles, where the mocking and open denigration of Black women (whether consciously or subconsciously) is entertained as “humor.” It is somewhat ironic that these two acts are most beloved by Black women, whose mass consumption of “mammy-like” stereotypes helped make Perry and Lawrence instant multi-millionaires.

It is no surprise that the same media which revels in the destruction of Black male identity seeks to fulfill the same with today’s most important Black male: Sen. Barack Obama. More disturbing is the reality that Sen. Obama, like prominent Black public figures before him, is too uninformed to acknowledge the degree to which such acquiescence would redound toward the disadvantage of generations to come after him. One thing is for certain however: Black folks of consciousness have work cut out for them. For Change is not a cheap political exercise, but rather a unified hegemonic force against a system of convention.

Reposted From Black Commentator

Public Enemy Member Prof. Griff Speaks To YBW

Interview with Public Enemy Artist and Lecturer, Prof. Griff, by Tolu Olorunda.

“Prof. Griff” is a Hip-Hop artist, community activist, lecturer and so much more. He has accumulated enormous knowledge, over the years, in his struggle for the liberation of young black and brown minds. Prof. Griff is a member of the legendary group, Public Enemy, but he has also branched-out and pursued solo projects, in his musical career. He is a vociferous lecturer, who has taught at Colleges and High Schools for some time, while trying to stress the importance of understanding the texture of the new wave of Hip-Hop in the 21^st century. Along with fellow lecturer, known as “The Black Dot,” he has spoken extensively on the “vibratory frequencies” and “chakras” that influence the majority of music, news and entertainment packages -- which dominate the mainstream-channels today. In 2007, he was featured in an underground documentary, entitled, “Turn off Channel Zero.” The documentary was constructed for some candid-analysis of the dynamic effects of Media Empires – such as Viacom – on the minds, hearts and souls of young black and brown youth. Professor Griff is a dedicated and relentless fighter for Truth and Justice, who has steadfastly criticized the Hip-Hop Industry for its opulence, materialistic-obsession, misogyny and destructive-content. I had the opportunity to speak with him on issues pertinent to Black America – focusing on three pivotal pillars – with regards to the incivility of today’s young folks, the responsibility of the adults, and the complicity of commercial Hip-Hop in the destruction of black heritage:

YOUNG FOLKS

Thanks for joining us, Professor Griff. I want to go right-off-the-bat to an issue that is deeply pressing: Teenage Pregnancy. Psychologist, Frances Cress Welsing, speaks of teenage-pregnancy -- being as a result of an emotional-overdose in young black girls? Do you agree with that inference, and what are effectual means of combating it?

I agree with it wholeheartedly, and in order to combat it – just as the great philosophers and teachers who came before us advocated – we need to “know thyself.” And in order to know thyself, we need to know our open enemy also. There’s a DVD out now titled, “Medical Apartheid;” it explains in detail the experimentation on young black girls during slavery. When you look at how the black woman was used in slavery – to produce multiple slave children – and you put it under a microscope, you then incorporate it into the education of young children in the home. We can also ‘offset’ teenage pregnancy (in our community) by changing certain behaviors.

TV and Radio seem to be the primary sources of entertainment and stimulation for young black/brown kids. How does one utilize those channels in order to reach them?

You don’t; you turn them off. There’s nothing that our open enemy would put on his major networks – as far as entertainment – that would educate our children. We need to stop thinking that way; that’s absolutely ridiculous. Several years ago, investigative researcher, Cory Johnson, put certain cartoons under the microscope. He talked about the perversion of subliminal suggestions and advertising that goes on in the context of three-minute cartoons. Furthermore, most of our actresses and actors are not concerned with what goes on in the lives of the younger ones.

It’s no secret that the majority of Black and Brown kids are dying mentally, morally and spiritually. What is your diagnosis of the state of the young community, and what are the prescriptions that you offer?

You have to primarily put those dynamics under the microscope. If we’re dying spiritually, we’re dying simply because there are no diets -- as far as the educational element is concerned. If what Dr. Cress Welsing said in “The Isis Papers” is correct – with regards to Racism and White Supremacy being both local and global -- we need to take this issue more seriously. We are letting our open enemy destroy the minds of our young people in the third and fourth grade. If our kids are spiritually-educated in religious institutions on Sunday Mornings, what do we expect at the end of the day? And to write a prescription for that, the hearts, minds and souls of our young people’s destiny must be put back into our own hands; and until we take the daunting task of educating our young people, we’re going to remain in this position.

ADULTS

What’s your overall-assessment of African Americans in the mainstream of the media beltway?

Well, that’s a very political-oriented question, and in most cases, the average-person answering it would tend to be more politically-correct. But, if the belt tightens within the beltway; what do you think would happen to Black people attempting to be more politically-correct in the arena of politics. First of all, let’s define politics: Politics is the science of governing people. If black people can’t govern themselves, then who are we governing? We presently have a fundamental disconnect with our young people. I sat on a panel at Martin Luther King Library, in Washington D.C - where the focus was “Bridging the Gap: The Civil Rights movement vs. Hip-Hop community” - and we couldn’t even come to amicable terms. So, we need to bridge the gap, and work on those agendas that never reach the news stations and TV networks.

In the documentary “Turn Off Channel Zero,” you spoke of “raising the dead;” can you elaborate on that?

What I mean by raising the dead is, raising the mentally and spiritually dead, from the grave of ignorance. And, ignorance is bliss; a lot of people just want to remain deaf, blind and dumb. We also have to understand that it is not going to be an easy task; to tell someone that ‘Lil Wayne’ is not “the best rapper” of all time, provokes a fight. And, we need to understand that dynamic.

As an historian, what role did slavery play vis-à-vis the present crisis of Black and Brown disunity?

Well, slavery was three-fold, and it depends on how you view it. The way I view it, nothing good came out of it; and those in the struggle for liberation and mind-revolution feel the same way too. So, as far as I’m concerned, slavery did nothing good for black people, and that’s the bottom-line.

HIP-HOP

Moving on to Hip-Hop; how destructive is - that element of what you coined “disposable music” in - Hip-Hop today?

Well, we’re talking of Hip-Hop being co-opted; i.e. the upper/middle-echelons of the music industry having the ability to market and develop the new Hip-hop sound. Also, N.W.A (Niggaz with Attitude) was used sort of as a template for every other Hip-Hop act that came after it. And then the movies that came out such as, Boyz n the Hood, and Menace II Society, set the template and frequency for what the future Hip-Hop sound would be. Prior to Hip-Hop being “niggerized,” we put out images that uplifted the people, but now Hip-Hop has grown to be very destructive. I’m doing a lecture-series now, called “Destroying Hip-Hop’s Appetite of Self-Destruction,” because unfortunately, all we’re deriving right now from Hip-Hop is low-vibratory frequency. Hip-Hop was once the voice of the voiceless, and a sub-culture of our ultimate/grand culture, and those are some of the things we need to understand.

In the late 1980’s Public Enemy emerged and changed the industry and culture of Hip-Hop forever. But, can you rewind and take us back to the beginning -- and how oblivious you might have been to the significance of what you we’re doing at the time?

It was definitely one of those things that we didn’t initially recognize, but was guided by the spirit. We didn’t know that what we we’re doing – in the context of those 4 or 5 albums - was going to change the course. But, most important was what we we’re doing outside of the music – such as, the prisons we visited, the hospitals we visited, and the projects we visited – that made the larger difference. Of course, we we’re blinded in hindsight, because we didn’t know that we we’re going to raise a nation of millions or 5,000 leaders. Stevie Wonder said that, “when you believe in things that you don't understand you will suffer.” We we’re trying to resurrect and reflect back on the “Black Panther Party.” We didn’t know that we we’re going to start a mind-revolution, but we knew that we we’re going to start something, so we had a goal.

Public Enemy gaining access to Def Jam is still looked upon as a phenomenon today – as many ‘conscious-artists’ lament their inability to get ‘looked upon’ by a mainstream/major record-label. How did the Def Jam thing happen; and being that your message was black-nationalistic in nature, how come no one saw the threat you we’re posing?

They trivialized what we we’re doing. They thought it was cute; and just innocent kids with Malcolm X key chains. No one saw it coming, and they didn’t think that Public Enemy would hit that hard. They heard our music on a College radio station, and automatically assumed that we we’re clawless. Also, initially, they just wanted to sign Chuck D – not the other 6 guys. And then, Chuck D incorporated “The Bomb Squad,” my community activism and Flavor Flav. More so, with Flavor Flav, because they assumed that we couldn’t be dangerous with a ‘clown’ on the stage with us. So, when we stepped up to the plate, and they found out that we we’re raising the conscience-level of black people, we caught them by surprise. By the time they found out our true objective, it was too late. It was too late, because by that time, we had thousands of white kids devoted to our music. And, we incorporated those white kids into our thrust of revolution. Those white kids came to our concerts and carried the messages back to the suburbs. Finally, Def Jam tried to regurgitate our music, and slowly tried to chip away Public Enemy by eliminating its members, one by one – such as giving Flavor-Flav a reality show. From the looks of it today, they might have successfully neutralized Public enemy – and it was by design.

Lastly, what are your upcoming projects – both musical and social?

I can’t give my personal plans up - on an open-interview - but we plan on uniting the political-action networks. What’s wrong with Talib Kweli, Mos-Def, Common, Public Enemy and KRS-One sitting down together to put forth a 4-point agenda to be adhered to? Such as: NO more disrespect of our women in Hip-Hop videos; and NO more ‘bling-blinging’ of Diamonds out of South Africa, Sierra Leone and The Congo; and NO more ‘big I’ and ‘little u’; and NO more signing of contracts with Beer and Liquor companies – which inversely further the destruction of our communities. If we can put forth this platform out, and the artists give their words, things will certainly change.

Thank you so much for your input sir, we sincerely appreciate it. Prof. Griff can be contacted at: http://www.myspace.com/professorgriffofpublicenemy

This interview was conducted by Tolu Olorunda, Staff Writer for YourBlackWorld.com