“We’d rather go throw $60,000 in the strip club…than go feed 2,500 people in the hood.” — J.R. Smith
How much have we learned from the protracted trauma that African Americans have experienced long after their enslaved ancestors arrived on the shores of our nation? To see that young, affluent African Americans have reduced that experience to behaviors that are uninstructed and unenlightened is an utter disgrace.
We know what J.R. is talking about. It speaks to decorating our teeth with the most gleaming jewelry we can find. It means buying the most expensive cars. It means buying homes in excess of what’s actually needed to live in or accommodate our way of life. It means buying the most expensive accessories and latest fashions to flaunt our riches. It means staying high on drugs or inebriated under the influence of the most expensive booze that we can find. It means literally killing each other out of envy or selling out to bribery by those who hate us or seek to divide us. It means allowing ourselves to be emasculated by things, individuals, and power structures that don’t serve our best interests. It means voting out of ignorance and/or not voting at all. It means not subscribing to ideas that support our political strengths and cultural wealth. It means getting supplanted in terms of political power and influence by ethnic peer groups who understand our weakness and then capitalize on it. It means being the young and rich ignorant Negro that doesn’t fully understand his or her history. But what it doesn’t mean is taking care of our own. And so, J.R. is categorically right. Often we don’t realize our mortifying and troublesome ignorance until the riches are either decimated or completely gone. Technically, it’s called being gullible. Not realizing the plantation is still there, and with it remains a centuries-old slave mentality. This is where many of our young and affluent thinking heads are today.
This may also interest you: Still relevant today— “Why Black People Are Top Consumers But Lack Wealth” | And this, “How Do Black People Spend Their Money” | And this, “How Desegregation and Integration Hurt the Black Community” | And this, “Stephen A. Smith’s Claim That Trump Is Behind NBA Gambling Crackdown Lacks Evidence” Refer to the header image. Let’s think together and connect the dots. | And lastly, this, “Toyota apologizes to African-Americans over controversial ad.” (Q: Where did Toyota get the gold teeth idea from? / Ans: The Media!)
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