Brilliant Dumb: Notes on a Lost Generation

The temporal distinction between the generations in terms of temperament and belief orientations is vastly opposite today. So much so that the purview of a man approaching 50 in the African American community is a diametric contrast to a man in the same community approaching the age of 30. In years past this was not the case either in the 1960s or the immediate decades to follow.

Just yesterday I had a discussion with a man on a social media platform which started when I noted that young African Americans appeared to be more excited and interested in the release of a rapper from prison than Mumia Abu Jamal remaining in prison. Our back in forth in which he defended and justified this interest , ended with him suggesting that I did not include white supremacy in my asserting that such an interest is why young black men can’t read or do math yet adore a man who’s music basically encourages sociopathic behavior among them as being appropriate and acceptable.

Truth is that white supremacy was the context and barometer of the time in which I was raised more so than his and always will exist as such. More importantly it was not an excuse for inaction as it seems to be for this current generation.

The differences are several. First reasoning and critical thinking has been lost and the current generation is much less serious about attending to the problems confronting our community. Historically reading in itself was a revolutionary act making education our best weapon in the fight against inequality. I was raised in a family that read voraciously. Even to this day I read the “weekly standard” and “National Review” – republican slanted publications that many around the age of 30 who are black will never pick up simply because they disagree with republicans. Information has no political affiliation and if one ignores the views of others because you disagree with them, we limit our intellectually capacity to recognize and solve our problems strategically. But if such is stated, this generation will likely get defensive as opposed to respect and address this concern openly in an objective fashion.

This generation has tools that past generations did not have. Martin King or Rosa Parks or the Black Panthers did not have fax machines, email or face book was were way more effective organizers and getting issues of civil rights dealt with on behalf of our community. Yet with these tools, they do not or are unwilling to mobilize the masses for social change because they are not serious and ignore the fact they place celebrity, entertainment and other mundane abstractions as paramount over collective community well-being. Maybe even because selfish dispositions care more about appearance and swagger than substance and the issues that matter.

Unlike the youth in Egypt and Syria for example, who use social media for revolutionary change, we use it for flash mobs to rob and attack people in the name of fun. We can go to a movie and learn that we can drive a truck through a window and steal but ignore such behavior as being a form of psychopathy. Yes the new generation is smart but in a morose stupid and brilliant dumb way.

I say this because it is dumb to attend to applauding a man like T.I., who initially went to prison for weapon distribution, weapons [ his guns in picture from arrest] that would likely be used against other black men as opposed to members of the Aryan nation, while at the same time giving him a pass and complaining that there are too many guns in the hands of young black males and all we do is aim them at each other.

microphone, excuse me studio gangstas

Cooked Jambalaya last night with ground Italian sausage. Can you say yum yum eattum up? My son can ,three bowls worth, and me likewise, same number too. But lil momma, she didn’t want any and instead wanted Pistachio’s and Cereal. So I gave it to her.

But before we got home, had to pick little daddy up from baseball practice. He gets in the car and changes the radio station. I had it on NPR. The first song that cam up was Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop.” And two seconds had not passed before little momma started to sing the hook. Before I could tell him, he changed the station to Radio Disney, and she got plain right upset.

I always listen to NPR or RADIO Disney When she was in the car. I mean if I get in and NPR is on she straight, but if Visa Versa, I am at a loss until the next time we get in vehicle. What cut was she knew lollipop (even though she knew hat word well already) and juicy.

Now I know everybody got DIRT BEHIND THEIR EARS, thus the name of my latest book. I also believe in artistic freedom and expression. But I also acknowledge must be acted upon in an accordance with reason and personal responsibility. I got no problem with little Wayne making what he creates, but I do think I have the right to call folk a dumb ass fuck boy if he does not consider the state of urban radio, our schools and violence in the general community or that criminal behavior is not a positive identity to promote. Yea, it is fiction, but considering the aforementioned, a man that doesn’t even attempt to control what he submits or releases to a radio station that kids mainly listen to, and who places money over all else as a rationale for doing such, one has to call it like they see it.

Personally, I have never been, claimed or known thugs or gangsters. A few felons maybe, but none of the previous. See we valued education and such a self-proclamation tells folk that you foul, selfish, and really aint about making money as you say. Personally I have never been to prison and am proud of such. I give the credit, maybe to my brain cells and thought. Nobody I knew wore a lot of jewelry, drove a fancy car, or tossed around and flashes loot (in particular in an attempt to impress some broad or dame, since only broads or dames are impressed with such – women have their own). Folks just realized you can’t make money in jail or prison and that telling you a thug or gangster will get you there. But I guess talent alone aint enough, and that bravado is required. Just ask Akon, who felt that his talent wasn’t enough and needed to say that he was convicted, sent to prison from term 1999 and 2002 and facing 75 years. Truth was he stole a Bimer, got hemmed up, and the prosecutor dropped all charges without serving a day of time.

What makes it so bad is I heard a taped interview with T.I. (should be TOO Ignorant) and he never accepted responsibility for the image he depicts. Instead he blamed TV’s without indicating that he made media for TV’s, which content he can control’s if he KNOWS such. He blamed high school in the ATL for not letting him speak to students (I don’t know why, unless they do not think he is sincere). He didn’t even admit that he may have been part of the problem, I mean aint we all. I like the music of all TI, Wayne and Akon. See I consider my self a scholar and a father first not an idiot, rapper, banker or none of that. I am what I am and proud. However, I cannot tolerate folks not accepting their responsibility to the community as a man. And I shole don’t tolerate microphone, excuse me, studio gangsters to avoid their responsibility. I say leave the gangster to Al Capone and Meyer Lansky, its unbecoming, but at least thee latter dressed well and wore belts. And no, im not hatting even though they kust as bad as the KKK.



My book release party will be held at the M-Bar - April 24, 2008 from 7 to 10pm
257 Peters Street, Atlanta, Ga 30311- phone: 404 523 1555

Keeping It Real Stupid

I think it is about time we started to seriously evaluate our behavior, maybe even, what we say. The latter will be hard for me since I consider myself a writer, but I do try to control the unnecessary use of suggestion that may serve no beneficial purpose to anyone.

It seems as if our culture, that which we claim to be ours is lost in space. I will provide two examples of this. In a concert recently up South - in Massachusetts, one Clifford Harris was briefly upset. His performance was at Bentley College's for their Spring Day 2007. The college is a business school that offers graduate and undergraduate degrees. From what ahs been reported, some one tossed a water balloon at the Atlanta hip-hop mogul and he went ballistic, even to the point of offering 50,000 for the head of the perpetrator.

Although some would say that folk is only keeping it real, I would like to arguer that he is not and that on real he is keeping is “Real Stupid”. First, a water balloon, I bet if he came on stage throwing them at the audience, he would not think anything about it. More importantly, you offer that much money as if you are ordering a hit, for a person to be killed over a water balloon may suggest that you got other issues at hand. Not to mention, it is suggested that snitching is bad, yet you are offering to buy information to do harm to someone.

Please someone should tell Mr. Clifford Harris that it is suggestions such as his that make people think it is ok to offer money to hurt people over minor acts, or even to commit violence over something petty such as throwing a water balloon. It is not. A real man would have laughed it off. That is what is wrong with our folks today, besides it is not like one was protecting his family.

why u wanna go and do that

I was talking to a friend yesterday while the basketball game was on. She indicated that she was having problems with a certain man she was dating. I was trying to pay attention to her but Detroit was loosing and I wanted them to win. She finally admitted that he was not the problem but that she was. The problem, which I didn’t consider a problem was that she was attracted to folks she saw on TV and in videos and craved them to the extent of actually trying to meet them. She told me that she had met one such person and that he propositioned her knowing that she had a man. I got of the phone and continued to think about this even after the Detroit loss. So I started to write.

At first I was gonna write today about Rush Limbaugh and some other rich folks (inclusive of the Kennedy’s) who do drugs, get caught and are slapped on the had – if that. But I decided to table that piece until another day.

It made me think of how many folks actually desired folks they saw just because they were famous or on television , video’s or movies? The strangest part was that she really loved her man but still felt that she was missing out on life since she could not be with someone famous.

Bun B said it right when he stated “movies got these folks fucked up in the mind.” Is it so bad that folks don’t respect anything about a relationship that they will proposition you knowing that you have a significant other, or are engaged or even married? And if a person decides to accept the proposition, how do they look at that person and do they think they are different such that they won’t turn around and do it again, when they are together? I just want to know what these folks be thinking. Personally, if a woman propositioned me, I would first think that if she did it once she would do it again and therefore wouldn’t be the kind of woman I would desire to date or be with. Next, I’d think that if I sacrificed my relationship that I had worked hard to maintain, I did not believe in it in the first place or that this person could never honor a relationship at all. So fellas and ladies what do u think is this fucked up or am I just an old school country boy who needs to move beyond wearing flip flops and socks and wife beaters? Or is the question of the day as T.I put it

“go and tell a nigga no wit an ass so fat
hey why u wanna go and do that love huh?....

and the relationship been faithful to a nigga so wack,

hey why u wanna go and do that love huh….?

Is this really how yall men feel? And would you women say yes?