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Black people who are comfortable with this word take up for it. There are many Black people too dignified and horrified to use it ever. But you would not know this by the popular radio format. Therefore, young blacks who travel overseas complain that they are often greeted by the n-word. Tell the world who you are and they will respond in kind to it. It's popular to be a fool and be fooled now-a-days. Many Black people ignore the ways of their forebears, and foolishly let white media raise their children and put ignorant notions into their heads. Many Black people are no longer into protecting nor raising well-balanced children from the ignorance of both white and Black America.

Today in the forum discussion at Black Arts In America, artist Joseph Osbome, who works in a abstract, metaphonic, symbolic style of drawing and painting, asks this question: Does black art have to be a literal statement or is being a black person enough? As a fiction writer who sees himself as an artist, I thought it was a good question. Here is my answer to Osbome’s question: “We have this same challenge in fiction writing, especially novel writing. In my opinion, if we are speaking solely about “art,” even a piece of abstract art, it becomes a quality question. If we succeed in our work and it becomes art, then the question doesn’t matter. Then the reader or viewer will see unique and wonderful things on paper (writing) or on canvas (painting) that even the artist didn’t realize were there. That’s the beauty of art. But if it is marketing you’re talking about, then that’s a totally different matter.” Will Gibson, Novelist http://www.amazon.com/Will-Gibson/e/B008TE5ZR2/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

What Umar Johnson has to say is very provocative which is to say that it is also controversial, mainly because it's all over the place. In effect, he is couching his eloquence in a lot of subtefuge, and using it to paint a picture that he insists can be hung on the wall in a white house. But, in the process, he is condemning the survival tactic of coping with reality. He is also assuming that life is fair. I try not to be the perennial skeptic but over the years, I’ve learned that talk is cheap. What Johnson is preaching, although a fine showcase for his impressive resume, will not wash in America. He should just sum up his argument by saying that Blacks should all go back to Africa where they can be their true selves without being negatively affected by European influences. Slavery was bad enough but the end of slavery was equally dire because Blacks were cut loose and set adrift in a hostile environment. With passage of time, there didn’t have to be a grand structured conspiracy to keep them down. The pieces were already in place for things to just take a natural course. Among Blacks, those who could, did. Those who couldn’t, fell along the wayside. Black culture gradually stratified into the old slavery denominations. The field hands were relegated to the ghetto plantations, and the slovenly aspects of their lifestyle produced a population that played right into the hands of the white power structure. But contrary to Johnson's claims, these latter day serfs are not interested in slave labor. To say that illegal aliens are stealing jobs from Blacks is not exactly true. They are taking the menial, low paying positions that Blacks are not interested in because they’d rather settle for street hustles or for milking the welfare system. His rant further ignores how we became what we are, and he overlooks how it was not to our advantage to preserve what is rejected by the dominant culture. Presenting yourself as an authetic African in America is not going to benefit you economically. Just giving your child a strange name can stigmatize him in the work place. If you don't modify your appearance and conform to the standards that EVERYBODY in this country adheres to, you will be excluded from the mainstream. Arab American women are constantly discriminated against for wearing their burka headdress. In this racist, superficial society you have to learn how to swim parallel to the shore or you will be a victim of the rip tide. Resiliancy is the trait that, dating back to slavery times, has been what got Blacks through. And Blacks with their double-consciousness have not relinquished their soul; their conventional avatars are just a way of getting over on white people. Not to mention that a lot of what we are, is what we have become from our 400 years in America. We are not solely African, we are a new hybrid tribe, and one that originated much of the style and trends that today Whites imitate. Unfortunately, Blacks also originated things like gangsta rap that has been so detrimental to their cause. I agree that mis-education is one of the main things victimizing Blacks. Schools are structured and designed to fail any child who cannot conform to a disciplined class room environment. But aggrandizing Frederick Douglass and Marcus Garvey is not a substitute for teaching a child to read. (And, incidentally, Michael Jordan didn’t marry a white woman; his new wife is Hispanic. And to call a conservative lacky like the Clarence Thomas a constitutional scholar when most of his colleagues agreed that he was not supreme court material, is a joke. ) Yes, the prison industry and how it is maintained is a major problem. Plus, the breakdown of the black family and the conflict between brothas and sistas all contribute to the ongoing black dilemma. These are monumental obstacles, so I can’t exactly condemn a well-meaning spokesman for wanting to surmount them by spouting these re-cycled arguments that have been floating around for years. What he suggests can do no harm but if he believes that giving up hair extensions and wigs and perms is going to work miracles, maybe special education classes can identify a child’s problem and help the cream rise to the top.

This subject is one that is full of contradictions and irony which is why it's so difficult to sort out. I was watching the latest (?) episode of "Unsung" the other night and the subject was The Geto Boys, who were a hard core gangsta rap group during the 90s. They were complaining how white radio executives wouldn't give their records any airtime, and that the white-owned black stations boycotted them because their lyics were too violent. The members of this group seemed clueless as to why this was the case, and said that they were victims of racism since white stations played heavy metal music which was very graphic in its content...