What we are talking about is “selling out.” You will take the money because it is a lot of money even though it goes against your values. This leads to cognitive dissonance. You have two choices: turn down the money, or change your ideas about selling out. What used to be selling out is no longer because you now claim it as a virtue.
What blacks are hiding from themselves is that they are not making a culturally self-respecting living.
Maybe.
L’il Kim and her ilk may get all the press, but what about the rest of black America? There can only be a few famous actors and singers. But they get to set the image for the rest of the people they represent.
Maybe most blacks really aren’t like this. Maybe many of them do aspire to getting an education and getting into the middle class. Sure, there may be more poor blacks than there are poor whites or other races, but what is the general cultural idea about how to succeed in your culture?
There are problems, I know. One analysis I have heard goes like this. Black women make most of the money in black households. Men, of course, are shamed by this. So they take on these attitudes that demean women as compensation for the shame they feel. Certainly, this is not true of all black men, or even a majority of black men. But enough black men act this way that they influence the cultural image of black men: tough, vulgar, jobless—not to mention their reputed sexual attributes.
You didn’t ask me to judge, I don’t think, but I do find this sad and frightening. It makes me wonder what all the civil rights and feminist movements have done over the years? Has it all been given back, only now everyone thinks there is no more racism or sexism? Where is the pride that people used to have in struggling to make things better? It’s as if people don’t even care about injustice any more. All they want is money. Bling. Ho’s. Bitches. Nigga’s.
I’m sorry, but it makes me a bit ill. Or a lot ill. It seems like people are disrespecting their own selves. Like they take pride in being uneducated, because it’s not white man’s thing.
Honestly, I don’t know what to say. I don’t understand it. Selling out. Maybe I should. But it seems to me that blacks have even sold “keepin’ it real” to the highest bidder.