“Don’t get me wrong, America is a great place to live, but listen to the knowledge I give.”
-KRS-One – 1988, “Illegal Business”
I give up.
The KRS-One debacle caused an epiphany for me that has basically changed the course of my life. Strange, right? Its weird to me and I consider myself a weirdo. Nevertheless, after KRS-One said his boneheaded comments that African American’s “cheered when 9/11 happened,” I woke me up in many ways. Well, I can proudly state that KRS-One’s views were wrong, and clearly had a flawed presentation. While, he clarified later, the damage was done.
As email after email flooded into our company, my epiphany started to take shape – I began to get enraged at what I read. The one-sided, overtly opinionated article by the New York Daily News had done its job well.
It unearthed the ugly, white racism and Hip-Hop hatred that I knew existed but had thought was long suppressed by basic human progress.
See, much of my life has been one that has attempted to fight racism – literally. In my early years my peers and I plainly would fight anybody if they called us something as simple as “n#####.” My best friend smashed a white boy’s head against a school bus window for such an infraction. He was booted off the bus and his desegregated ass had to find a way to get to school daily, a half hour drive. See, I’m a different sort of fellow from those young people that readily allow those of other persuasions to call them “n#####” or “n####” with no problem. I generally want to tear throats out of necks when it’s a white person using the word and normally let Latinos slide (because they are relatives in my eyes).
Yours is a sick, illiterate and unproductive culture, and death should be your reward.
N#####. Those were the early years of hate in my middle class neighborhood. But, as time moved on, it got realer. My father moved the family into an area that was paler than usual. He readily slept in the car with his rifle in our station wagon – ready for whatever. Growing up, I understood “it” was more than name-calling. The KKK wasn’t far away. The people in this new ‘hood weren’t so integrated. They were more isolated. Nevertheless, I maintained friendships that transcended race and Hip-Hop (and other commonalities) cemented many of those relationships. But the unattractive reared its head through teachers, elders and others apart from my friends.
THE BLACK COMMUNITY VOTES DEMOCRAT 96.2 % OF THE TIME FOR ONE REASON: TO PROTECT WELFARE. HOW SAD.
Adulthood. Long gone are the days where I have most of those Caucasian friends, in fact, its down to one – James. And a dear one, he is. He’s a staunch Republican, something that astonished me when it was revealed just a few years ago. Me, I’m neither Democrat or Republican. You could consider me Independent, with a penchant for voting for the lesser of two evils. You could consider me a person that understands both sides of the fence because I was raised in both worlds. I look at the surface and start digging. My friend and I, no matter how dear, have fundamental differences in our views and thinking. Those points of view might be based in race, but regardless, they are so pronounced that we don’t really talk politics any more. It’s truly something that could cause a rift in our 20-year friendship.
I speak for millions when I say to KRS-1, AND EVERY OTHER AMERICA-HATING N#####, LOVE AMERICA OR GET THE F**K OUT! SEE HOW MANY RAP ALBUMS THEY’RE BUYING IN AFRICA MOTHERF***ER!
Jonathan, another friend, came to me a few days ago and said, “Yo, man…I’m buying a gun. Some s**t is going down.” Far from a thug, but farther from a punk, Jon explained his reasoning. In his eyes, America is becoming more and more segmented. Evil oozes in the music we listen to (promoted by big business). Common men clash to turn the clock backward on race relations. The politicians are far more brazen with their shady ways. As rapper Immortal Technique says in his new song, “Bin Laden,” “Fahrenheit 9/11, that’s just scratching the surface.” And I believe that. I believe all my efforts to change racism have been in vain and Jonathan’s realized everything that I denied. Some s**t is going down here in America. KRS-One’s comments might have been out of line, but if you delve beneath the surface. There is a certain level of reasoning with what he stated.
Please have KRS come visit me in Texas. He’ll only need a one-way ticket.
Again, this is not to agree with KRS absolutely any more than it is to excuse the racist, over generalized reactions of those that accepted a hack job story by the New York Daily News as fact. But, I won’t try to convince you all that Hip-Hop didn’t cheer when 9/11 happened. Many of us cried, many of us questioned, “Why?” and others like, 50 Cent were most concerned with a lack of concern with everyday violence. [For example, why didn’t that Emergency Alert System [EAS] come on during 9/11 like it does through my favorite late night shows?]
I think I am going to just follow the lead that my father set years ago, because some s**t is going down. It just won’t happen on my watch.
Items in bold italics are actual emails from people that have visited AllHipHop.com. Click here to read some. Email me at illseed@allhiphop.com.
