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Amazingly Blunt! Juvenile Delinquent Gang Banger Loved It In The 1950s


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I’m gonna give the white guy who shared this YouTube video the benefit of the doubt given the title of this video. I assume disparaging title was crafted to attract viewers. 
 

It popped up in my YouTube feed and I was amazed to learn it was a young Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land!

 

I have never seen a video of Claude Brown. He grew up in Harlem and I could relate to his story.

 

for a kid his 20’s I think he handled the interviewer well. He was right the about Moynihan report. The interviewer kept pressing about out of wedlock births, while completely ignoring the reasons for those conditions. Interestingly the rate in Harlem back then is the United States rate today.
 

I wonder what Briwn would think of Harlem indeed this country today.
 

 

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@TroyI've forgotten Claude Brown and what an admirer I became of him after reading "Manchild in the Promised Land".  This book was required reading for all of us budding  activists back in the early 1960s and really had an impact. Especially for those of us who knew nothing about the lifestyle he described growing up on the drug-drenched, crime-infested streets of Harlem. 

 

The cigarette-smoking, the reference to black people as "negroes", and  the government as "the power structure", the white interviewer's condescending attitude really dated the video.  But Brown's message remains current and relative. 

 

My book review of  "Man Child"  won first place in a contest sponsored by the Sunday literary section of the Chicago Sun-Times. My prize was another best-seller back then, entitled "Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask".  I don't remember anything about the contents of that book. I do remember feeling sad upon hearing of Claude's death in 2002.    

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I actually don't think the interviewer SHOWED condescendance....whether he actually FELT himself superior or not.
He simply carried himself in a way he thought would be more appreciated by the community.

What I found more concerning was Brown's frank admission that he and his friends WANTED to be bad, break the law, get in trouble, etc....as an act of rebellion against their parents and the older generation.
Also I didn't care too much for how emotional and contrary he was getting when the interviewer tried to get him to see the link between "illegitimacy" and poverty.
Brown kept trying to brush it off as it not mattering.

If I were a middle class White man this would be ammunition to justify why I wouldn't invest waste more money into the ghetto.


....and NO this ain't Greg talking, lol.

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I thought the interviewer patting Claude on the shoulder and helping him finish his sentences was at least paternalistic.  Brown's message is current because it seems to be the mindset of a lot of today's wayward black males.  He  apparently didn't want to let The System off the hook by blaming the victims of circumstances.  In his book, he was more introspective. 

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He looked belligerent and he made it look like "the negroes" didn't want to take responsibility for much of their predicament.

We know the truth is there was (just like there is) a racist system out there that has disadvantaged AfroAmericans for centuries and is largely responsible for the conditions so many find themselves in, but the least a Black person can do is not FEED INTO IT by engaging in and bragging and glorifying their criminality, recklessness, and irresponsibility.

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3 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

contrary he was getting when the interviewer tried to get him to see the link between "illegitimacy" and poverty.

 

Look, the the correlation between illegitimacy and poverty is not causal.  This is what you (and Greg) failed to see. The conditions that cause poverty are the same ones that cause illegitimacy.

 

Also just because a child is born out of wed lock does not mean there is no man --  even the father -- in the home.  The movie Claudine illustrated this quite well.  

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Here we are over 50 years later and the conditions that bred cats like the late Claude Brown remain unchanged.  Voices like his are still necessary.

 

It takes black folks who've lived both sides of the struggle to reach the younger generation and save them from becoming wayward and/or put them on a different path. A social worker on a salary doesn't have it.

 

A message is better received when the listener either feels and/or believes the messenger shares a similar background and experience.  In other words, knuckleheads rarely listen to squares and nerds.

 

That's why Hip-Hop music is so powerful.  Where folks might not be inclined to pick up a book, they will listen to music.  Too bad not enough of those artists use their voices to teach and uplift the younger generation either.😎

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Delano

 

Quote

 

We got high and became  lost in our own selves.

Deep

 


Lol...
Yeah, "deep" to someone who gets high a lot.

 

 

 

 

 


Troy

 

 

Quote

Look, the the correlation between illegitimacy and poverty is not causal.  This is what you (and Greg) failed to see. The conditions that cause poverty are the same ones that cause illegitimacy.


And what YOU and Mr. Brown seem to fail to understand is that in some cases "illegitimacy" is a CAUSE of poverty.

 

Many of our cousins who only had their mothers grew up poor but we didn't and a major reason for that is because our parents stayed married, combined their incomes, and eventually moved us out of the city when we got older.

Many of our cousins whose fathers had left them not only stayed in the city but turned to selling and using dope and going in and out of jail.

Having two parents wasn't the ONLY factor in this but it was a major one because many didn't have fathers to not only contribute that extra income but to discipline them.

There are many causes of poverty from racism to substance abuse to broken families.
We're (me and the White man....lol) are saying that broken families is just ONE factor.
Atleast in SOME cases...remove that factor and you solve the problem of poverty.
 

 

 

 

 

Quote

 

Also just because a child is born out of wed lock does not mean there is no man --  even the father -- in the home.  The movie Claudine illustrated this quite well.  

 

 

True.
But what does it say about a man who just drops by every now and then or doesn't COMMIT to the mother of his child or even the child him/herself???

 

Does mean he's a bad man or poor provider?
No.
But it COULD mean that.

Also, it could mean he's immature, can't be counted on, and is ready to leave and abandon them at the drop of a hat....like so many do.

Although marriage is no guarantee. It's a SIGN of his commitment to his woman and children.

 

 

 

 

 

ProfD

 

 

Quote


A message is better received when the listener either feels and/or believes the messenger shares a similar background and experience.  In other words, knuckleheads rarely listen to squares and nerds.



"The word of a nerd ain't no good because OGs run the pen and BGs run the hood"  Kam (Pull Ya Ho' Card)
 

This is true.....unfortunately.

And I say "unfortunately" because how many generations of Black men have to SCREW UP their lives only to come to their senses and get it together in order to have the "street cred" to reach the next generation of thugs and gansters?

For every Malcolm X or criminal who is reformed and helps clean up others....how many more DIE as criminals and thugs?

 

One of the draws of the Nation of Islam is that it's full of ex-criminals, ex-gangsters, ex-prisoners, ex-drug users who'd been down that road before and knew how to reach those who are still in that lifestyle.
They'll listen to them because they can relate to them.
But unless we want an "over coming society" that revolves around people who fuck themselves up in the hopes of redemption later, then at what point do we set out to END the dysfunction period?

 

 

 

 

 

Quote

 

That's why Hip-Hop music is so powerful.  Where folks might not be inclined to pick up a book, they will listen to music.  Too bad not enough of those artists use their voices to teach and uplift the younger generation either.

 

 

That's certainly how it started off.

However one of the problems that I saw even  back in the 90s....was that many of the same so-called "conscious" and "positive" artists who claimed they were using their lyrics to reach the downtrodden gangsters still in the ghetto, relate to them, and wake them  up also seemed to be PROMOTING the very lifestyle they were criticizing as a problem.


Yet again, I'll use one of my favorite rappers as an example:  Ice Cube

He'd talk about Black unity and stop the violence in one song, then brag about gang banging, selling dope, and robbing people in another!


Groups like Public Enemy and X-clan kept it thorough and preached almost 100% positivity; however many of the others talked positivity and unity but sent mixed messages with their gangster laced rhymes.
 

We don't need that type of CONFUSION going on.

Either being a gangster and criminal is NOT cool and we shouldn't promote it....or it IS and we should embrace it.
But this cognitive dissonance so many of our people have embraced has got to stop if we want to quicker progress.
 

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59 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

"The word of a nerd ain't no good because OGs run the pen and BGs run the hood"  Kam (Pull Ya Ho' Card)

D8mn bro...what you know about that.😁

 

Kam is one of my favorite lyricists.

 

There were plenty cats like him who delivered the message with no confusion.

 

Unfortunately , record companies run by white folks weren't going to promote those messages over the stuff that *sells*.

 

Of course, music od substance like any other form of entertainment has to be sought out like books in a library. 😎

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Kam Responds To Ice Cube's Appearance On Real Time With Bill Maher |  HipHopDX

"....the word of a nerd ain't no good cuz OGs run the pen and BGs run the hood.
Ain't no where to hide.
In the streets or on the yard.
So if you ain't a true somebody DUE to pull ya hoe card"


LOL

Man I STILL bump Kam.
Made In America was the favorite album of his.

I can't say he delivered the message with NO confusion because if you'll remember he had that beef with Ice Cube when the "nigga" came out of him.
And kind of like Cube....but on a milder scale...he also low-key glorified gang banging and dope dealing occasionally in his lyrics.
Check out his song:  "Down Fa Mine"

Man, I remember back in the early 90s I was trying to get his latest album Made In America and I was running in and out of records shops in Detroit asking about him and for a while none of them had his tapes!
I finally found one who carried it.
It was almost 30 years ago but I STILL remember the scene....lol.


There were two bruthaz standing behind the counter staring at me as I came in.  I asked did they carry Kam's latest album Made In America.  One of them said "Who????"
The other said, "Ah nigga you know.....Ice Cube's little boy"
He went in the back and got it.
Then I almost got into an argument with one of them over criticizing how so few Black record stores carried Kam's material as talented as he was.


But the brother is one of the most underrated rappers of the 90s.
Powerful lyrics and beats to go with it.
I'm CONVINCED his positivity and promotion of the Nation of Islam are the main reasons the music executives did their best to keep his work out of circulation.
 

 

 

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@Pioneer1, I can understand how Kam's lyrics on tracks like "Down Fa Mine" could be taken negatively.

 

But, artistic license does allow one to flip the script. It still displays the dopeness of Kam's lyricism.

 

Hollywood does it all the time. My favorite actor Denzel Washington played in "Glory", "Malcolm X", "Training Day", "American Gangster" and many other movies showcasing his range and versatility.

 

The *problem* I have with artists is when their content is like McDonald's food...lacking nutritional value.😎

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ProfD

I give actors like Denzel more of a pass for playing "bad guy" roles because it's CLEARLY understood that he's acting.
In other words, he doesn't come on the screen and says "this is an account of my life and what I saw and did growing up" before the movie starts.

I don't like it when TOO MANY Black people play the "bad guy" roles but I see it as a bit different.

When it comes to Hiphop though......

These dudes are pretty much making it clear that this is what they've either done or seen growing up in thier community and they make it seem much more like real life.
Ofcourse they too use poetic license.  Ice Cube didn't grow up in the hood and was never a gangster.....he was just good at rapping about it.  But many if not most Gangsta and Trap rap artists have and do.

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