Smart & Angry

My mother, was always one to educate me early on in age about those who came before me of my race/culture, and how their voices shaped America. I was exposed to many of great men and woman who accomplished great things despite adversity. People like Sojourner Truth, Huey Newton, and Marcus Garvey whose stories were well-known as Abraham Lincoln. These were the very faces that spoke for those unheard voices. But today I am asking to what avail, I might ask. These public faces stood for more than we might ever understand. Yet a lot of those who benefit today as a result, don't even attempt to pick up the torch, and if they do, it's surely not lit. Let's take a look back from the beginning.

The Beginning

In the early days you had public figures Nat Tuner, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth( some of the more public faces at the time)leading the way for the end of slavery. Speaking out in their different ways against those who would think otherwise. Inspiring a nation to change the way it felt about freedom for every man.

Let's fast-forward a bit to what might be the end of the hero era, The /50's/60's/70's. During the Civil Rights era we had tons of people rising up. Bill Russel, Malcom X, Huey Newton, Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Marley, Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix and the list could just go on and on. These were the people who neighborhoods around the country looked at as the voices in for equality, and progress. For a race that once questioned otherwise of itself.

As a result of the hard work of the people beforehand, we then had some successful not too outspoken faces in the 80's. Yet still some great artist pushing the culture forward such as Prince, Micheal(pre-crazy) Jackson, Chuck D, and Rakim. We even saw Jesse Jackson's try a bid at getting nominated for Presidency. And The Cosby Show, and Eddie Murphy were the kings of comedy. Not too bad, still a lot of positive faces speaking for the community in diverse ways.

Then came the 1990's...

The 90's

“I remember Marvin Gay use to sing to me, had me feeling like black was the thing to be”

 -Tupac Shakur

This decade started out alright actually at first. You had The whole Afro-Centric movement in hip-hop, and the popularity of historically black university institutions rising. Which you must give credit to in part the brilliant(at first) Cosby spin-off A Different World. They freed Nelson Mandela, and Colin Powell was running the show for the military wing of the government and... then.... came…the Rodney King/LA riots.

During those riots something became unleashed. The cries of injustice that had produced great leaders in the past, had now had succumb to the voice of a victim of misuse of force/drug addict, who was asking if we could “all just all get along?”. This is where the cracks started to show. We weren't rallying behind our anger with nothing to channel it through but a fiend.

A little before that Earvin “Magic” Johnson had went on national TV and divulged his promiscuous lifestyle(while married) that had resulted in his contraction of the HIV. One of the brightest smiles, for the culture had been unfaithful to his wife and might die as a result. It didn't stop there either, there was The OJ Simpson Case. Where a black man who was so removed from his roots that when accused of murdering of his wife, didn't go hide out till the cost got clear at his partners house. He got in a White Bronco and contemplated suicide down the LA Freeway with a friend. “That ain't gangsta”.

From there it only got worse Micheal Jackson, who sometime during this period became detached from reality as well and was “allegedly” doing very inappropriate things, with children. Then what started out as a Cosby clone,Family Matters, became the Urkle half-hour(some kid called me that in elementry school my first day, and I broke his arm) of non-sense. Homeboys in Outerspace was actually aired on a network, and Ted Danson dawn black face. Puff Daddy, and Master P towards the end of the decade.

Yet even through all this you still had some bright spots. There was 2pac rise, and Wu-Tang pushing rap music even more as well as the Pre-Are we There Yet Ice Cube. Denzel Washington was killing it, Spike Lee was killing it(until Girl 6), and Chris Rock begun meteoric rise. And Mayu Angelo reading one of her poems during a presidential inauguration.

Today

What I am left looking at today now is Barak Obama who is the first -half-black president of the United States. Who despite all his hoopla, his main strength when it comes down to it, is a good public speaker(very important none the less. I did watch the Kings Speech). That seems to be what he get most of his props for, his speeches. Not his policies, or public record. The way he reads a speech...Was the last president that bad? Where the main qualification for the highest held-position in the land comes down to your ability to read a teleprompter? I hope not, I am sure the job a president requires a bit more than that.

Over to the entertainment and sports sector where we have Tyler Perry, and Lebron James. One who is mostly known for his cross-dressing, Tom Foolery tendencies. The later for his ability to run faster and jump higher, than anyone else in the NBA. His nickname is the Manchild. More so to do with his physical make-up, and less to do with his lack of critical thinking skills outside of basketball. To this day I don't know why any thinking man would do a special like The Decision.

My God, If it wasn't for Oprah, or... Will Smith, Cornell West, and Tavis Smiley what would we have really? I am really looking here for someone else I could add in the public eye and is positive. Samu(y)el L Jackson maybe? Yeah it's not looking good.

Some of the main people speaking for this culture and generation are either corporate puppet, a man who is single handily trying to bring back the lowest points of African-American humor, and Bron-Bron who might be the real-life version of Tom Hanks character in BIG. I would say there is a steep decline in the quality public black face.

The recession isn't just going on in the economy I guess. Seems like it's spread over to popular, character, black leaders in the culture as well.

By Justa