#WordsMatter

In 1993 Queen Latifah released an album called Black Reign, this disc birthed the song U.N.I.T.Y, which pregnated society with more contemporary discourse regarding the word B***h. Not only did it win a Grammy in 1995, but it challenged the moral consciousness of urban America by discussing the issues of street harassment, domestic violence, and slurs against women in hip-hop culture.

 

Every generation we seem to notice a fecundity of people that are liberated by the tongue with their use of the word b****h, especially from those that happen to be male. One can argue that even when women attempt at reclaiming the word they are still in a sense reinforcing sexismn and patriarchy in which the word derives from. However, I feel that when we try to reprimand women for their usage we begin to commit erasure against the oppressive nature in which men use the word. 

 

Folklores taught us, ‘stick and stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt me,’ which happens to promote a dangerous narrative. We must begin to teach that words aren't coterminous with physical pain. Words matter! Too often we focus on a litany of arguments that focus on the images that our presented, while ignoring the words that are associated with them. Images are meaningless when we extract the words that become ingrained in our heads when we view them. Images become osmosis in how we encapsulate on the meaning of words and the subjects that they are related to. How we identify words are salient to our generally consensus of identity, the term bitch may seem innocuous on the surface, but it erases the existential permanence of a woman's being. 

 

We live in not only a nation, but a world that is male-dominated and that provides spaces  of authority that are generally reserved for men. One can always argue that women are rapidly creating individual agency and occupying spaces that were prehistorically reserved for males, even though patriarchy isn’t explicit at times and can come off as innocuous, it’s very legerdemain in its functions. When things are centered around the male guise then everything that is masculine is considered normal, good, and the unequivocal standard. Even if you’re not explicitly referring to a woman as bitch, if you subordinate a woman to a man made restriction you may not be calling her that epithet, but you are treating her like one. So, even though all men may not be in higher positions than all women, patriarchy reinforces this notion that they are their superior. So when we look at how the word bitch is articulated from a sociological context on the premise of patriarchy and within the constraints of the inequalities that women face we begin to understand how words operate on a functional equivalence to that of physical harm that women also endure. 

 

Words aren’t just messages that can be jotted down on a piece of paper or heard through a radio, but words can make or break the self-esteem of a person. So when we look at the words queen, women, girls, and female they are seem to describe essentially the same thing. In a sense they do that, but when we look at each word individually and begin to a create a more concrete analysis we begin to notice their subtle difference and the nuances amongst them. Queen can describe a woman of royalty, or of a high social apparatus. A woman is generally used to describe a lady that is of an adult age, while girls is used to identify groups of ladies that are young. When we look at the word female it doesn’t define a human in absolute terms, but instead it can describe any organism that happens to be female. So we look at the word bitch, people always attempt to justify its meaning. Some will argue that all women aren’t bitches, and if a woman knows she isn’t one then she has no reason to be offended. From an etymological perspective the word bitch was used to describe female foxes, otters, and most knowingly, dogs. No matter how we view man’s proverbial best friend, at the end of the day man and the dog knows that they don’t eat at the same table. Once we commit to allowing women to be acknowledge by something other than human then we begin to erase their human nature and deplete their existence. We are using words as a way to systematically erase them. Sociology teaches that the more names we have for things shows how much value they have, but by having several words that are derogatory towards women we also showing how much we feel they are beneath us. 

 

In this system of patriarchy that emcompasses us, bitch can seen as the lowest of lows, even when it’s not directly referred to a woman it is also referred to moments of destitute and sexual slavery. In rap we often hear how bitch is used as a metaphor or a colloquialism for troubles  of life. Whether if it’s Nas articulating about how Life’s A Bitch, or Kanye speaking on how life is a bitch and he wants to make  it cum. Either bitches make our life difficult, or they are used for some sort of sexual gratification. Even when Pac metaphorically spoke on song, “Me & My Bitch,” a song in which bitch was used as colloquialism for a gun, a gun in which he had property ownership of. 

 

In the previous examples that are talked about those uses of the word bitch were for ownership, struggle, and dominance. 

 

When we look at this term we must be perspicacious in how it works as a machination in how women are viewed and valued. Previously I talked about how people, men especially attempt to argue that women shouldn’t get offended if they know they are not bitches, but the language predisposes you to believe a certain type of value is attached to the person in question. For example what makes a woman a bitch or a non-bitch? What factors are at play that allow you to determine how one is defined. In most instances it seems as those these labels are attached to women once they step outside of the boundaries or realms of what men expect of them. Women can be referred as such when they don't cooperate with men, or ones that are seen as manipulative and deviant in why they are attracted to certain men. When bitch is used synonymously with the word women, this makes females looked at as something that must be conquered. 

 

This essay is just an abstract of bigger issues that revolved around a word that was uncomfortable for me write because of the social implications that it places on women in the context of patriarchy and heteronormativity. I took a personal vow that i would never refer to any person, especially any woman by this term because of my hatred for it. Even though in writing I reference it, I however refuse to speak it. I remember in elementary school, I probably was in the third grade when I first referred to a classmate as one in conversation with a male counterpart. I had no issue with her, but as child the proverbial cool thing to do was to treat girls like the grass beneath your shoe, but looking back in retrospect I am still ashamed for that choice of language because it was random and even till this day I have no justification for it. Even though no reasons exist for me to use it period, on that day after school it flowed off of my lips very causally. In a sense at the young of an age I became desensitized to the word. 

 

Even though words change and carry different connotations that word is still deep rooted in hurt, trauma, and desecration. Sexism in the world has become the norm, even though women are making great strides within the male consciousness we as men are still allowing those tears that women have cried to turn into sexist oceans that we swim in freely. How can we fight for freedom for all when we ignore the lack of liberation for some? Words matter, bitch still promotes the notion that women are different from men and will always remain his proverbial best friend. Good enough to love, pet, care for, but never good enough to eat from the same table from him. Bitches are only allowed his scraps.

The Pain in Being A Strong Black Woman

As an adult I still cannot think of time where I witnessed my mother crying, I know we all exert all internal pain in times of sorrow and pain, but it seems as though she would never allow anyone to see in her a vulnerable place. I’ve never seen my mother exhibit frustration unless it was with her disappointment in me. Back then I placed the onus of her anger on me, instead I’m beginning to realize that it may a direct frustration with her, in the belief that she may have failed. Even though my father was avid in my life he wasn’t in the household, my living space was matriarchal. His presence was felt, but she was still the point guard of my residence.  

Since the 60’s leading into the 70’s black households have increasingly been headed by a woman, and even before the 60’s black mothers bore the responsibility of taking care of homes during slavery with little help as well.  Many factors are at play when you look at the increased number of single parent households nationally, not just in the segment of black households, but throughout all races in America.  Historically black women have taken on the roles of superheroes. As heads of these modern households, they are wearing hats that they traditionally they shouldn’t fit; holding down a full-time job(s) (sometimes multiple ones), bearing the sole responsibility of raising boys to men and girls into women. Not only are these single mothers supposed to be nurturers, but they are also ourprotectors.

Just like in previous generations, black women in today’s generation have grown up with the assumption that they have to play a superhero role in a society where they have to show their strength all the time and not show any signs of vulnerabilities. Superheroes should only exist in comic books and in movies, but by taking on this heroic role black women are cheating themselves out of a life normalcy and complete happiness.

By taking on the superhero “I can do it on my own” persona you sacrifice taking care of your own needs. We as a black community have imprisoned many of our sisters into these roles instead of letting them be free to define who they truly can be instead of the infamous single mother of two who has to work 2-3 jobs just to keep the lights on. Before we can even look at ways of fixing these roles that we have trapped a lot of these women into we have to see those factors that have led to the hardened black feminine superhero figure.

It would be dishonest not to acknowledge other determining factors such as mass incarceration, unemployment, and economic disparities as factors that place women into these roles; we must be honest in how we don’t allow safe spaces for black women to be vulnerable in expressing grief. They are expected to not only be the backbone to their families, but they must also the bear the burden of being the heartbeat as well. Black women are required to nurture everyone and provide shoulders for relief, but who are they allowed to turn to in their moment of despair?

I can recall times visiting love ones who happened to be locked up and being astounded by the things that I’ve witnessed in the visiting room. I can always recall seeing men being visited by their significant others every time that I visited an inmate. No matter how long their bid was someone who they loved romantically always made a conscience effort to be there, even if all they could provide was just a loving touch or the glimpse ofhope that someone still cared. The times that I spent visiting female inmates revealed something quite different, these black women rarely, if at all had their male counterparts there. Even though I didn’t do field interviews for these women, it would be hard to believe that these women didn’t feel abandoned. Black women are the fastest rising group when we look at the rate of mass incarceration, but they still aren’t shown the same compassion that black males receive. The shoulders that they provide are reciprocated with cold ones.

We must ask ourselves why she feels the need to be the strong and put on this mask of a strong heroic woman. Under that mask of strength, fearlessness, and confidence could be a woman that grew up fatherless, one that was raped, abused, or had to be the witness of a mother that was abused physically or emotionally by a significant other. A lot of these issues that many women try to hide are usually the determent factors of their character. Many of our sisters are covered in smiles that conceal broken hearts, fear of failure, and despair.

Too often the usage of the word strong is used to treat black women as super human because we have this false epistemological belief that they can endure more pain than the average human being. While it can be argued that black women endure the most abuse than any other group on earth, which however makes it easier for physical, emotional, and physiological abuse to be inflicted upon them. This notion to be strong for the sake of their blackness, families, and communities turns them into warriors who at the end of the day cannot even be honest with themselves of the trauma that they are experiencing. This type of pain begins to become normalized which in turns takes away from the opportunity for it to be medicalized. While as a community these feats of heroism are celebrated amongst black women, we however turn a blind eye to the issues that ultimately put them in these compromising binds. Instead of creating spaces were black women are allowed to roam freely, we instead put them into these unrealistic expectations of struggle that we assert onto our women as a rite of passage.

Black women are required to make a dollar out of 15 cents, and even when income inequality is discussed amongst men and women the disparities that black women face are generally always erased from the conversation. While we consistently talk about how white women make 77 cents for every dollar that a white man makes, we however forget to acknowledge that black women only make 64 cents.  A black woman’s voice should be heard, instead of it being silenced. They are deemed strong enough to make a way and tough enough to constantly shrug off the discrimination that they face. The strength of a black woman should be used a mechanism for progression, not used as crutch to excuse discrimination.

While we understand that being black and being female in a world that functions under the system of white male patriarchy is challenging because they are trapped within the margins ofmultiple oppressions simultaneously. We expect black women to encamp themselves to a singular group, which perpetuates this notion of black women taking care of everyone, but themselves. When we ask black women to tackle gender issues, their race is generally marginalized, however when they are asked to fight for a race issue then they are asked to dismiss their femininity because it compromises the current grapple that is ensuing. The issue is that we can’t expect someone to give their self to others with any reciprocity to themselves. For these women who are forced to be the backbone and heartbeat to communities we pass on these beliefs to younger generations that the strength of black women is not intended to be beneficial to them, but only as value to others around them.  

We must ask ourselves why we view the black women in ourlives as strong; whether they are our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, teachers, wives, girlfriends and even our fictive kin. Where does this admiration come from? Too often we focus on their triumphs and we don’t exhibit any compassion concerning their struggle. Black women are looked at as individuals who wear bullet proof vests, while others run at the sight of gunfire, black women are expected to face these bullets that life shoots atthem with full force.  So instead of focusing on their personal wounds they must put a Band-Aid on and focus on being teachers, nurses, counselors, psychologists, mothers and cooks to the community.  

In addition to everything else that comes with the territory weallocate less time for black women to grieve and suffer because their agony is deemed less important because of the erroneous expectations that we place upon them. We only care about sprinters crossing the finish line, but we never speak about the painful training and work regiments that are perquisites for these accomplishments.

Why we applaud black women for all that they have to endure and their ability, I feel it’s disingenuous not ask what we can do about the scars they receive. When do we allow these women a shoulder to cry on, an ear that will listen, and a heart that will beat for them? When will we remove the load off of their back instead of requesting that they build stronger backs? By allowing these mythological notions of black women believing that must be strong this allows them to underappreciated, overworked, and exploited just because these burdens have been placed on them historically.

Black women need to be afforded the opportunity to cry and grieve openly without being shamed to the degree that feel that they’ve not only let their community, gender, race, and families down, but ultimately themselves down.

Even though “strong” black women have produced college graduates, upstanding citizens, and progressed our communities while many of our black men were strung out on drugs, walked away, or populated the prison systems it seems that the “the strong black woman” has done more hurt to herself and left her own personal happiness unfilled. Even when the world seems to be against her she still manages to find compassion to propel not only her house, community, but the world.

Loving Black Women in Public

“Tell them about the dream Martin,” words yelled by Mahalia Jackson from her seat in 1963 at the March on Washington. “Black Lives Matter,” a popular slogan created by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. Two of those ladies who happen to be queer.

 

I love to see women take individual or collective agency for themselves, but it becomes a revolutionary love once you see black men praise and defend them openly in an unapologetic manner. Cornel West often states that justice is what love looks like in public. I would take it a step further and profess that respect and love are truly expressed when they are unequivocally expressed to those who try to diminish or dwarf it. Too often black women are treated as singular human beings, instead of within a multifaceted context. They are expected to focus solely on their blackness, while sacrificing their womanhood to devote their attention to racial issues that in most instances exclude them from being acknowledged in the forefront.

 

When we focus on the current movement that people across the nation are fighting for in regards to brutality by the hands of police and vigilantes the names of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Akai Gurley, Dontre Hamilton, John Crawford III, Ezell Ford, Phillip White, Eric Harris et al come to mind.  One of the underlying problematic thing that’s troubling with those victims is not only that they were killed, but we seemed to erase black women from the narrative. As a community when we are fighting oppression, we at times oppress others within our own community, simultaneously. Sometimes as men it’s a hard truth to grasp and grapple with. Black men know the struggles that we have to endure daily at the hands of stereotypes, systemic racism and white supremacy, but we often have a blind eye to the oppression in our own home.

 

While we see countless images of black women showing up on the frontlines bearing witness to our struggles for our men and boys, we don’t demonstrate that same assertiveness when it’s their lives that are on the line and we don’t show up in the same capacity. The names of Rekia Boyd, Aiyanna Jones, Yvette Smith, Pearlie Golden, Tarika Wilson, Shantel Davis, Tyisha Miller, Kathryn Johnston, Alexia Chrstian et al seemed to go unnoticed. We allow these names to get erased from our memory and dismissed from the narrative of Black Lives Matter. As black men we don’t just bear the responsibility of loving black women in private, but we must remonstrate our cognitive wiring to animadvert their oppression so that they know and feel that they are loved in public.  

 

In Malcolm X’s famous speech, Who Taught you to Hate Yourself he extemporaneously stated, “The most disrespected woman in America, is the black woman. The most un-protected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America, is the black woman.” When we create a culture of ignoring the violence against women that occurs simultaneously to the violence that is levied upon us we give others the go-ahead to commit these atrocities because the abusers know they will go unchecked, whether the perpetrator is white or nonwhite. Black men telling black women to sit down in the same manner that Mahalia Jackson was treated during The March of Washington is not only disconcerting, but it creates a convoluted movement that causes black women to experience cognitive dissonance because they are told their blackness matters, but just not in the scope of priority when it comes to the thinking process of black men.

 

Black oppression has no gender, since we live in a patriarchal society we give these movements male attributes to provide a sense of self-identification. When we uphold the masculine constructs and refuse to allow women prominent roles and visibility within the canon we don't allow black women to be viewed in a conterminous way with black men. When we allow this shifting in our paradigms we begin to excavate the very notions that we uphold of what a black woman’s role is. So when we look at our women we must not just limit them to being trophy pieces, instead when must vociferously assert their intelligence, strength , and leadership into the forefront of these movements that we allow to ignore them. This is why loving and respecting black women in public is so important because once we silence our voices to the masses we allow women to become complicit to patriarchy.

 

We must be conscious of the esthetic apartheid that black women and girls have to experience throughout their lives. When you don’t see yourself in a positive light on television, on the radio, within print ads, on runways, and in equal numbers within high places of power you begin to see your self as less moral, intelligent, and beautiful. The dearth of representation in these key areas can have even the strongest woman questioning her own worth. We teach black women to be strong in the face of adversity and oppression, but in most instances we don’t put in that effort to show that they matter for who they are. We can’t critique women who follow a path to find existential acceptance in a form that is appeasing to the standard thinking of man, which in turn may drown out her own values. Who’s really willing to stand up and say, “Black women you matter!” It’s not enough to love black women privately, but it is are moral virtue to stand up in the face of the opposition that shuns them.

 

When we think about the SCLC and SNCC and we don’t talk about the influence and leadership from Ella Baker, we aren’t being honest. We can’t talk about the anti-lynching movement without acknowledging the leadership of Ida B Wells-Barnett. Nannie Helen Burroughs, Mary Church Terrell, Jo Ann Robinson, and many others that gave testimony and put in the work to provide the freedoms that we enjoy, but they somehow go unnoticed when we speak of great Black American figures. It is a mendacious act to ignore the contributions of women that have fought for us while we enjoy the fecundity of fruits that have bestowed for us. While it’s important to shine light on Rosa Parks, it’s very dishonest to coin her as the mother of the freedom movement because it may come off as benevolent, but in reality, it adjudicates and excavates those who fought for our freedom previously, while her contributions are worthy of cogitation and praise, it promotes this notion of black female exceptionalism, instead of showing how ubiquitous black female achievement is. Her act of civil disobedience was exceptional, it does however erase the same act that was done previously by Claudette Colvin, while also shaping the minds as if other women didn’t do extraordinary things for black movements. This however is the result of black men refusing to step down or to the side of their bully pulpits to make room for their female counterparts.

 

The separation of units in the forms of genders reproduces more inequalities, while also gives more power to one group. This is why black female experience is crippled and looked at as absolute in the mainstream construct of how we look at movements and abuse that black people face. These intraracial issues need to demolished and elucidated without us as black men being cantankerous to these changes that need to be made. Men should never assume that we are losing something, by giving power to women. We can’t only acknowledge blackness when a male face is at the forefront of the movement or when it’s a male face being oppressed. By ignoring our sisters, institutions begin to make these practices natural and they become enacted into the fabric of society in subtle ways that are easily hidden, but prominent. We must quantify our appreciation for women in public like we do our men, and we must do it without expecting an award for doing what is morally expected. We can’t look at it as criminal to ask black men to recognize black women in the midst of struggle because it may come off as divisive, by doing that  it is critical to note that we are deeming black women as second class citizens. Black men must not be looked at as being seated first class in the plane of struggle because even when the plane crashes everyone dies. We must allow these fresh ideas of femininity to live inside of their own dreams. We must birth possibilities and impregnate them with new ideas. When black men are fighting for the lead and control we are doing a disservice to the movement, by only caring about the image on the frontpage. Sometimes when we preach change with black men as the focal point we allow black women to stay indebted, whether if it’s for the fight against police brutality, education, the prison industrial complex, poverty, or simply by individual recognition.

 

Once you devalue her life you devalue yourself because she is responsible for your life. Society will not advance until we stop and realize that we need to praise and have a pragma type of love for the women that not only birthed us, but the women who birthed this world.

Why Memory is Critical

Joshua 4

1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua,

2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,

3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe,

5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites,

6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’

7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

The concept of memory is critical because it is a deliberate attempt to focus on ideas and identities to nurture survival in the heart of the struggle. Memory can be considered the bullets that attack the amnesia of the truth. Memory helps foster a sense of history and pride in oneself. Memory is the root of one’s foundation, while the present cultivates the new growth of that memory.

The United States in particular is very critical of the history it chooses to promote and actively stimulate to the masses, while simultaneously deciding what needs to be forgotten, or brushed under the rug. A fecundity of books are released yearly about the founding fathers of this nation, presidents, and war heroes, but when it comes to acts such as Americans original sin that is just looked at as the past. America believes that the ushering of those indigenous people into lands that are impossible to cultivate is a form of adequate restorative justice, but by being cognizant of how America treats history is important to understanding why the upkeep of black history is important to the growth of black memory.

When it comes to telling the painful narrative of the bloodshed, rape, brutality, and commodification of black cultural identity we are told to just simply get over that and are expected to adopt a philosophy of benign neglect. America loves to teach its rich history of triumph, but wants to ignore blacks in America when we stand up and attempt to tell ours.

Black people didn’t just get great because America became a powerful nation. We as a people had to fight, walk upright, protest, confront oppression, and die by surrendering blood and limbs. Instead the country wants to tell half-truths and edify the idea that people marched and Lyndon B Johnson recognized America’s fought by signing a Civil Rights Bill. We are made to believe that affirmative action, the disembodiment of Jim Crow, and the integration of blacks into American tradition propelled us, but due to America’s amnesia they forget that we had preexisting civilizations of greatness before slavery.

This is why memory is critical, not just in the paradigm of an American context, but the global troposphere. We don’t have to romanticize about ancient Kemet (modern day Egypt), but it’s important to talk about its greatness. We shouldn’t be covered under the candid view of slavery, AIDS, poverty, and cultural deprivation, instead we should be conscious of everything. Through anthropological research and findings, we now know that everybody was birthed out of Africa. So when we are depicted as less than equal and unmolested of intellectual virtue the world has to notice that thinking started with us. While other civilizations were running around in caves we were birthing logistics, mathematics, and welding the fabric of the world.

Just as the scripture that predicated this essay stated, we must get those stones (memory) and show them, the children, so that they are familiar with the context of where they came from. We must refuse to accept the notion that we started in docile positions of suffering and failure, we must understand that we come from a long lineage of astronomical achievement.

Whenever we attempt to actively attempt to change the white supremacist narrative that they are great for no other reason other than the color of their skin, it is met with controversy. When we challenge this idea of sub-categorical social Darwinism we are made to look inferior or as reverse racist. We must begin to realize that we come from a great people and that we’ve been doing more things than dominant society is willing to give us credit for.

However, when credit is administrated to us an asterisk is always followed by it. Affirmative action, minority scholarships, and political correctness are always the headlines. Again, this is while memory is critical, these social systematic initiatives don’t give us a leg up against others, it does nothing but provide the opportunity for people like Cornel West, LeBron James, Ben Carson, and many others to have a shot at exhibiting their skills and abilities in a wider global kaleidoscope.

We can’t get caught in these petty racial and patriotism games. Being cognizant of these experiences isn’t anti-white, black, brown, red, or yellow, and it doesn’t make you divisive of America, instead it makes you pro-human. The truth can be discomforting, but it must be told so that when we tell our children about these stones they were understand the significance of their purpose in the collective imagination.

When our children are confronted with a culture that thinks less of them, even before they can speak, they will know to take these stones with them to help them navigate those hindrances of mazes that they will encounter. That memory of preexisting greatness can used as a countervailing weapon to counterattack obstacles on their road towards success.

Also, we can’t romanticize just our greatness, but we must also not forget the struggle as well. We can’t be absent minded of the institutionalized discrimination and racism that still exist. We have many that are still struggling and fighting for equal seats at the dominant society’s table and for the ability to create their own.

We don’t want to create a dichotomy of black elitism and underrepresented blacks, we must all stand as one. We can’t be ashamed to know that our grandmothers slaved away in someone’s kitchen or that our father was some white family’s driver. We must understand the struggle that occurred so that we can enjoy some of the limited privileges that we benefit from today. Those people were looked at as even less than how we are today, once we remember that then we won’t be so stuck up on ourselves.

We must resurrect the memory that has been stolen and bastardized because we have a responsibility to control the narrative of our story. If we lose control of the narrative other people who come along probably won’t tell the story from a factual point of reference that disputes the whitewashed narrative that they try to attribute to us. It is up to us to protect our memory and take those stones to create monuments.

Our job is to provide to those coming behind a biography of where they came from, why they are here, and how they can achieve. We must not challenge the verdict of suffering with re-trials, but we must fight against those cases against us from the historical context of landmark victories and achievements that is in our collective memory.

 

 

The Relative Deprivation of Ferguson

“Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win,” Karl Marx (Marx 1848).

Marx believed that the people at the bottom would rise because of absolute deprivation many would oppose that idea and would be more inclined to deal with relative deprivation, especially in social oppression that don’t solely focus on economical oppression.  Marx believed that once those at the bottom (proletariat) were to the point of receiving the maximum amount of oppression from the bourgeoisie possible only then would they ban together to rise up. We can’t really blame Marx for not taking into account his thoughts on absolute deprivation when his Communist Manifesto dealt with mainly economics instead of social movements.

Many people around the world are watching what is and has unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri regarding the death of a young man by the name of Michael Brown. All life is precious, but he's just like Eric Garner, Ezell Ford, and countless others whose life were ended by law enforcement. Even though these men were unarmed, they were killed, not because individually they may have posed a threat, but because black humanity is not valued in a country that initially brought them here as commodities.

People in Ferguson are not just protesting and rioting over the death of one child, but over decades of frustration with the local police department in St. Louis County. When you have a group that has been eviscerated from traditional American experienceand made to look at themselves as subhuman not worthy of social equality.  

Even though the city is compromised up of mainly African American residents (66%), the mayor and 5/6 of the city council members are white. Even though the population figures give off the notion of a strong black structure within the city, which is simply not true. The city still retains a white power structure, even though it isn’t reflected of the citizens that it governs. When incidents like this occur elected officials are not in tuned with the concerns of their citizens. The police force is also not reflected of the people. The force has 53 individuals on their roster, only three are black.

People in black communities, males especially are already have a disdain for law enforcement, which can be attributed to their legacy of brutality and racial profiling amongst blacks. Even though we can pinpoint “good” officers, the institution of law enforcement is rooted in the oppression of persons of color.

The killing of Michael Brown is the straw that broke the camel’s back, a sentiment that many black residents in the area might allude to. A community that has been deprived from a dream that they bought from the country they reside in finally became fed up and stood together in solidarity with more than hope, they raised up and demanded justice, not just for Mike Brown, but for the racial tension that the county has been plagued with over the years. These leading events brought on the protest and the revolution that we are witnessing now. Which can be explained by the theory of Relative Deprivation

James C Davies thought of social movements when it came to revolutions. He created the J Curve, this deals with rising expectations that explains why Marx’s theory didn’t support the reasons for why the oppressed would get involved in social protest and movements, instead of positioning themselves into roles of social and political activist. Davies argues with his J Curve model that people will rise up to join social causes after periods of gradual improvement in the economy start to slow down. 

Even though economic prosperity is slowing down or decreasing the people’s expectations for where they should be at in life isn’t, those hopes and aspirations continue to escalate (Davies 1962). This curve shows how we get into the theory of relative deprivation.

Relative Deprivation in hindsight is the understanding that you are being deprived of something that you believe wholeheartedly that you should be entitled to. 

People will start to look at those around them who have considerably more than them and will soon become discontent with where their lives are (Walker & Smith 2001). 

Relative Deprivation doesn’t only deal economics, but it also includes political and social deprivation. The perception relative deprivation has dire consequences for behavior and attitudes, including feelings of stress, political attitudes, and participation in collective action. The theory was founded upon by Robert Merton, but one of the first formal and widely used definitions came from Walter Runciman who used four points to argue his interruption of Merton’s theory. 

His four points were

1.​Person A does not have X

2.​Person A knows of other persons that have X

3.​Person A wants to have X

4.​Person A believes obtaining X is realistic (Runciman1966).

Those citizens Ferguson don’t have the law on their side like other residents so they understand the feeling of disenfranchisement in regards to what they believe they deserve.  People will feel outraged and will have the sense of urgency to come together as a collective once they feel they are being denied justice, upward mobility to a higher status, or even a privilege.  That is what happened to those residing in Ferguson and others who can understand the rage of the over policing of a community who feel racially harassed by the police. These people live in a nation where every 28 hours a black is killed by the police or a vigilante. Marx argued about absolute deprivation which states that people react merely off of just negative conditions instead of what they relatively have in place of what they feel they should have.

Political scientist Ted Robert Gurr gave three values in his book “Why Men Rebel,” arguing his point on different values that a man needs to be content and what happens when he is placed at a disadvantage in obtaining and/or maintaining those values. The included welfare values, interpersonal values, and power values. Welfare values included those that make physical contributions to life, interpersonal included those that directly correlated with satisfaction that we received from non-authoritative interactions, and lastly power values spoke of our environment influenced our behavior (Gurr 1970). Gurr wrote on page 58, “"Men are quick to aspire beyond their social means and quick to anger when those means prove inadequate, but slow to accept their limitations.” When a man see that he isn’t achieving the same level of affluence in society Gurr argues that biological he gets to a where he needs justification for this. This justification usually leads to blame of different organizations whether it’s a school system, government institution, or business. In most instances those who are doing this will place blame on prominent individuals within those organizations. Once you place this blame on others you are essentially becoming a victim of decremental deprivation, which basically states that you are placing the fault on other things that are taking away from your own opportunity of equality. 

Gurr’s last value which was interpersonal, which called for status, communality, and ideational coherence. Which is important so that people can have a sense of identity, those in Ferguson and across America are denied that opportunity because black has become synonymous with bad. Gurr also writes in, “Why Men Rebel,” the notions of aspiration, progressive, and detrimental deprivation and how each can result in the gathering of frustrated people to help form a social movement.

When people assert the claim that we shouldn’t make this a racial issue, but a human rights issue we must not take that half-truth for face value. Of course anthropological research shows that there isn’t any biological difference between black or white people, but socially it does exist. Idealistically we should all be considered as equal and this should be a case of the over militarization of the police, but we must be conscious of why it happened here, in a predominantly black, low income suburb of Saint Louis, and not Beverly Hills, California.

We can’t not look past this a race issue, because we live in a country that doesn’t look past minority races. Black and brown cultural identity has been eviscerated to a level of extinctness in the terms of being embraced to the dominant society’s imagination, unless they can use it as a commodity.  

Ferguson isn’t a unique place, many are spread out throughout the nation, we must now decide how do we stop another Ferguson from being sick and tired, of being sick and tired.

Love, Hip-Hop, & Edification

"You see I loved hard once, but the love wasn't returned, I found out the person I'd die for, they wasn't even concerned...but she convinced me I was worth less when my peoples would protest, I told them mind their business, cause my s*** was complex, More than just the sex I was blessed, but couldn't feel it like when I was caressed" Lauryn Hill 

 One of the black boys I work with let it be known from our one-on-one conversations that he was struggling with his English homework, this particular student was taking high school English and they were at the point in the semester where they were learning how to not only write about emotions, plots, characters, settings, and perspectives, but to identify it in literary work. Not to diminish what we are taught in these classes, but when a class population can't identify with the stories that are being taught can we actually say they are being educated, as opposed to being schooled? So I decided to put The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe aside and plug my iPod up, we listen to different songs from the likes of Tupac, Chief Keef (yes Chief Keef), Nas, and Lauryn Hill. In most instances we ask the wrong questions, instead of pondering whether they can do the work we must ask ourselves whether or not they can relate to the work. Can they find themselves or others they may know in their school lessons. 

This was a teenager from Black Omaha, he lived on the north side, he doesn't know about the emotional attachment to ravens, so how can we expect him to find himself in this type of work that was being taught. When we listened to Nas "One Love" he was able to relate to knowing someone that in the petitionary because he later revealed that his father was there, during these moments he was picking up on characters, plots, and settings, but it wasn't until Lauryn Hill was played that roles switched and I was being taught. Lauryn Hill's verse on Manifest took me back, it had me thinking of my own past situations and caricature flaws. 

 At the beginning of her verse when spoke of her hard she loved and how it wasn't returned, that bar was profound in itself. Not to discredit the rest of her verse, but that one line spoke volumes. As men before we even hit puberty we have this underlined expectation to break hearts with the seeds of misogyny, patriarchy, and sexual promiscuous expectations planted in us, we aren't taught how to deal with our hearts when they have been mishandled or the love we are expecting hasn't been returned. We then begin the process of escaping the entrapment of collapse spaces to deal with our agony and despair. 

 We now become autodidacts when it comes to teaching ourselves how to deal with hurt. We are programmed to not take the time to deal with those issues, but to carry that baggage to alternate locations or vaginas. Like Boosie so bashfully spoke, "I got my heart broke at 14, that was way way back. So all the girls after that, it was straight pay back." On the surface we as men seem to not intentionally hurt women that may come after, but our willingness to trust them is compromised. We tend to charge them to this fictitious game of social interactions in the form of relationships or like Fabolous stated, "situationships." We develop this, "pimp or die," mental complex on the surface, but internally we are still trying to mend punctured wombs, and damaged hearts. 

 We begin to go through stages of blaming ourselves and conjuring meanings of why things went astray. Maybe it was someone else, or I didn't make enough money to keep them around. Men in todays world and historically have been defined on their ability to provide security. In contemporary times that security comes in the means of finances. When we begin to internally ask these questions we like L Boogie begin to feel like we are worth less than we really are. We begin to limit our abilities and feats to these expectations and desires of people who at the end of the day may not even be worthy of the potential that we have. Since men are taught that emotions are a sign of weakness we don't know how to respond when our existence starts to be determined by gaining another woman's favor. 

 I believe after men get betrayed once it's difficult for us to trust, or even have a functional relationship where trust can be 100%. Spaces are needed where men can have these conversations without the feeling of judgment or having their manhood questioned. Pain that was planted years ago may never surface due to social norms, but the implications can manifest itself on future crops.

Criminalizing Rap

Since the late 80's and early 90's movements have been in place to ban rap music, not just by white policy makers, but also black leaders. Many argue that rap music is to blame for the black on black crime and sexism that is experienced in not only Black America, but American in general. Dominant society through their bullied pulpit has placed rap in a paradigm of barbaric violent drug selling criminals and iced out coons. Now that  cooperation's  have notice that this genre is a hot commodity not only in America culture, but globally. Even though those generalizations aren't an absolute lie they are however half truths. These half truths create the perception that not only criminalize the hip-hop culture, but also give reason for those on the outside to stereotype and target our children that grow up in this era about their identity. Even though rap music isn't mutually exclusive to blacks or brown people we now ourthe main group of people criminalizing our children for their preference of Hip-Hop. Countless times I hear or read of people being critical of children reciting rap lyrics by having this assumption that they lack the ability to read. We now seem to have an increase of Bill O'Reilly's in black faces.

Whenever blame needs to be deviated, rap music has always been the scape goat ever since it departed strictly from being solely about the party and began to be a direct reflection of the issues affecting those in hoods across America.  Through the commercialization of rap music it hasn't been as embracive, defiant, or challenging as it has been in the past, but still till this day it provide a voice box to those that the local and national news ignores or tries to dehumanize. Chuck D once coined that rap music was the black CNN because they were speaking live and directly on issues affecting us directly from the source instead of through the eyes of speculation catering to cooperate sponsors. From artist such as Tupac all the way to even party rappers such as Nelly, Hip-Hop in it's essence isn't just about violence and sex, but it shows that even though those living in party may not have much, they still find ways to enjoy themselves. When we look at it through the guise of being The Black CNN it forces us to maximize our potential to look at issues through our cerebral acuity. 

Opponents always criticize songs of the genre without putting it in its factual relevance, even though that shouldn't even be an issue, this the only genre where people demand that it be critical of social injustices. We must ask why don't we demand genres such as rock, country, or even bluegrass to live up to those same expectations such as rap? Why don't panels exist telling artist like Garth Brooks to start speaking up against injustices concerning that of the feminist movement, or gay rights issues? We must note that a lot of rap does speak on those issues many demand, but the issue is that since we don't own or have significant pieces in the media those songs are just brushed away, or thrown into a sub-genre of rap called conscious. We are made to think of conscious rap like the vegetable's or the vegans of hip-hop. We know it's good for us, but know one really wants to eat vegetables, especially when we have all these other fattening, deadly, but other delicious choices. In hindsight conscious just means that you're awake and aware. Not to knock rappers such as Common, Nas, Lupe, Mos Def (Yasiin Bey), but are they anymore aware than Ice Cube, Biggie, Jay-Z, or even Lil Wayne? Even though one of your favorite FOX news prudent may highlight the low level of schooling some of these "ignorant rappers" have we must be aware that their level of education is higher especially in regards to their ability to articulate issues affecting urban areas of collapse.

For instances one of the greatest philosophers of rap culture Tupac Shakur is always heralded for his gangsta image and songs like I Get Around, but we ignore lyrics like, "Just the other day I got lynched by some crooked cops and till this day them same cops getting major pay, but when I get my check they taking tax out, so I guess we paying the cops to knock the blacks out."  For someone to be as gangsta as Tupac is very familiar with law makers subsidizing minorities own oppression through their economic base. For someone who doesn't have a degree he gave us a lesson in social stratification in what might take a professor an entire lecture to get across in merely just a few bars. The great thing about rap music is that they put information where everyone can get it, they aren't just speaking to their colleagues in verbiage that you need to keep an old English dictionary on deck just to grasp in regards to the verbal linguistic that they are expressing. Rappers not only speak through their frustration and vulgarity, but their intellect as well. When you look as these artist that the media tries to force us to dislike or have a disdain for they are not as radically different from the conscious community that we choose to ignore. Rap has always been socially critical, even if they aren't speaking on the issues that you feel need to be at the forefront they still are speaking the truths of society. Not only are they mindful of ills that others in society have upon us, the culture is also indicative of itself. 

When rappers are talking about, cashing it out and how many kilos are in their chain we have intellectuals such as Talib Kweli reminding them, "These cats drink champagne and toast death & pain like slaves on a ship bragging about who got the flyest chain." With rap becoming hated and now even more commercialized many of today's new artist profess in their music this sense of, "Nigga We Made It," but we have elders in the genre reminding them that they are still slaves in more contemporary forms like Kanye stated in his last album (Yeezus). Even though at the present time you may be able to buy that chain, big mansion, and foreign car you're still at the mercy of slave owners in suits and ties in 100 story building instead of the big house. Most rappers don't have control of their own music in the aspect of royalties, let alone their own stage name. The man owns that, so in theory he owns you. We can't as a community attempt to ban the bling rap or what some may label the coon rap because these artist are being honest even though this type of music is the only kind at times that seem to be at the forefront. It does however speak to the desires of those in urban socially enriched denied areas fiend for. We feed those in poverty stricken areas that we need to hate everything about us and aspire for wealth, which isn't a bad thing in regards to the latter, but we have this habit of showing blacks that we are different from them and whites that we can have nice things as well. The problem with is that we are subconsciously teaching our children that their worth is lessened if they don't have the latest sneakers, Italian clothing, or car. Even though the genre started being about the party that wasn't its limits, but the commercialization of it is attempting to change the etymology of what rap is. When we do this we negate and desensitize the revolutionary aspect of it.

There was a time in the mainstream where rappers speaking out against injustices regularly, not just doing the aftermath of instances such as Trayvon Martin and Rekia Boyd. Rappers in past times used to frequently articulate counter veiling narratives that allows them to destitute the legitimacy of stereotypical views of people. These rappers got aggressively eloquent. For instance when Ice Cube said, "F%#k the police coming straight from the underground a young nigga got it bad cuz I'm brown, not the other color so police think the authority to kill a minority...messing with me cuz I'm a teenager with a little bit of gold and a pager, searching my car looking for the product thinking every nigga is selling narcotics." Cube was not only speaking to white America, but also talking to other black folks in higher classes who may not know the frustration that is occupied in the hearts and souls of less privileged black and brown people. This type of rap music speaks out against intellectual devaluing of black people, even though it's done with an aggressive tone you want to try to ban it, but why? When a culture that's foundation is based on discrimination and exploitation is challenged we look at this form of defiance as a problem. Ice Cube was promoting violence as means to right wrongs, but he was asking why do you feel that blacks should only exist in lower spheres of existence. We tell America's children that anything is possible and to chase the dream of this country, but when Cube spoke of his gold and pager he was articulating the notion that when blacks have a little more or achieve greater than what are expected of them we must question legitimacy of it because that's not normal, it's almost sacrilegious for blacks not to be poor.

That's why when the great sociologist Christopher Wallace grabbed the baton back in the early 90's and spoke, "We used to fuss when the landlord dissed us, no heat wondering why Christmas missed us, birthday's was the worst days, now sip champagne when we thirsty." Even though many may consider this bling rap like I stated earlier the difference is that B.I.G. gave a backdrop why black and brown people are so obsessed with expressing how they made it. We can't treat this culture as only just a form of entertainment, but we must look at it a teaching model to understand what is going on in these communities that we are trying to build and elevate. We can read all the statistics on poverty, get degrees upon degrees, but if we aren't making that connection with the people we are trying to help we will forever be lost in search of that promise land. By trying to simply disregard this form of expression as merely misogynistic, violent, and oppressive we are ignoring the voices of hope and anger of disenfranchised souls who in most instance go unnoticed. One of the reason why it always under fire is because it attacks the foundation of the American dream that is sold internationally of what a great place this country is and exposes the truth of not only race relations, but class relations of urban chaos that this democracy that we live in chooses to ignore. 

When we allow the commercialization to continue to criminalize in the way the censorship movement did we lose our identity and allow those putting us in the forefront to define us in ways that they see fit. The political activist of the culture begin to become blurred and the thug image is then highlighted creating this perception of us being menstrual rappers for the appeasement of white corporations. Gangsta rap has now become rappers wearing skinny jeans talking about shooting someone who he resembles instead of the music that preached unity defeating a higher power or professing the reason why these issues exist. Now the genre is in limbo between white politicians using it as a means to categorize its listeners into a box, while black leaders are blaming it for the destruction of black people in general. Neither side are looking to dig deeper within the surface to fully hear what is being said, instead they are being warped in the agenda control that doesn't allow them to be one with the struggle that is trying to be heard. 

Rap is more than beats and a rhythmic intricate scheming pattern instead it's a voice that speaks for the people without classifying itself as a right wing republican or a left wing Democratic party that has ties to the republicans. It is truly independent in it's motivates, but awakens the conscious in those who walk with their back slumped down afraid to express the pain that they are feeling day to day by simply ignoring issues as just," the way it is." No one will deny the movements that occurred during civil rights from speeches in churches and on monuments, but we must progress to understand to reach a younger generation of truth tellers that we must explore different avenues to get the message to them. We are beyond the days of hearing great speeches such as the Ballot or the Bullet, instead this newer generation are more inclined to receive that same message of political inclusion and group economics in a 4 minute song by Nas or Rick Ross telling us to put our whole team on.

Don't sweat the technique by continually to be like our mothers and telling us to cut that "s*&t," off instead embrace that even though the revolution may not be televised it will be heard through rhythmic anger.