“I was a poor nigga
Now I’m a rich nigga
Gettin paper know you can’t tell me shit nigga
You can find me in tha 4 dot 6 nigga
In tha back seat fondling yo bitch nigga”

50 Cent
“Poor Lil Rich’

Is this a reliable snapshot of contemporary black culture in America?

There is more than a little bit of truth to this article by Stanley Crouch (linked today by Drudge). For a world wide audience, the image of black culture in the United States has been reduced to that of thugs, drugs, and sex--and the odd part is that so much of the world seems to have accepted that as a good thing.

Of course, that is not the whole story of MTV, which also came to project the most dehumanizing images of black people since the dawn of minstrelsy in the 19th century. Pimps, whores, potheads, dope dealers, gangbangers, the crudest materialism and anarchic gang violence were broadcast around the world as “real” black culture.

At first, far too many black people were taken in by the cult of celebrity and the wealth that came to these gold- toothed knuckleheads and mindless hussies to realize what was happening. The lowest possible common denominator was seen as the norm. The illiteracy and rule-of-thumb stupidity was interpreted as a “cultural” rejection of white middle-class norms.

It was as if these dregs had the same heroic position in our time as the largely uneducated Southern black poor of the civil rights movement. Those Southern black people, like the marvelous Fannie Lou Hamer, proved to this nation and to the world that they not only deserved their constitutional rights, but had something both noble and soulful to add to our American understanding of the richness of the human spirit. We are a much greater nation because of the success of the civil rights movement. As they emerged from beneath the bloody rock of segregation, those Southern black people brought to our national identity a compassion and a bravery of immeasurable value.

Unfortunately, the crabbed thug culture that was popularized through MTV brought nothing big with it other than some paychecks.

Glorifying the violent, nihilistic edge of rappers and then deifying those slain in the most idiotic of gang clashes had the perverse effect of holding up some of the most unworthy voices as speakers for an entire culture. Popularized gang culture isn’t the total of black existence nor is it a guiding light for kids; but the look and attitude spread through movies, sports, and American pop culture far beyond black communities. Instead of celebrating the best of a people, the popular image of black culture as portrayed by MTV gave us some of the most base and disturbing parts of our culture in a larger sense (because drugs, promiscuity, and criminal behavior hardly belong to a skin tone) and presented it as the ultimate, authentic black experience. Then they dared us to want the experience for ourselves.

Worse, it joined in with football and basketball as a sort of underclass lottery. Kids in bad neighborhoods who idolize the thugs--the musicians, sports figures, and actors who “keep it real” by adhering to a dogma of violence, dishonor, and debauchery--want to find their own path to riches and self-worth in the same lamentable actions. That hard work, devotion, and education are more reliable avenues to fulfillment on almost every personal level.

This is hardly new, though. America has always liked outlaws. Rock and roll has always glorified sex and drugs; heavy metal gave us a kind of Dungeons & Dragons version of the occult to go with the usual revelry. Our popular movies have a history of celebrating old West outlaws, prohibition era mafia families. Given that, it’s no wonder that some artists wonder why it seems like such a big deal; why does rap music takes so much criticism for what seems like an extension of fairly normal American culture?

Fair question.

I would argue that the first and biggest sin of rap music is that the image was so big and so persistent that it drowned out any other view of black culture. While we like our outlaws--think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid--we also acknowledged that they were aberrations. Rap music, though, defined the “real” black, American experience as being that which was portrayed in the videos and the lyrics. You might as well say that the totality of white culture in America mirrors the experience of a New York liberal--the reality of the American experience, regardless of color, is a much more complex thing. 

Not that I completely blame the artists: they’re just making a living. But the minstrel accusation seems apt to me. Selling out dignity, decency, and the rest of black culture for the cash in some adolescent, suburban, white wannabe’s pocket does sound dangerously close to doing the old shuffle from my point of view. For my money, I’ll take the powerful social and political statements of Marvin Gaye. It doesn’t hurt that the level of talent is a little higher, too.

I believe that there is much more to black culture and contribution in our shared society than you’ll find in the words of someone like 50 Cent. It’s a shame that the view of black Americans championed by MTV might lead you to believe that I’m wrong.

Update: Kindly linked by my friend, Trench.