The Vocal Minority

Ringing loudly from a few

A little Abstract: Simply put, minority groups – lifestyles, cultural, racial, were disadvantaged because their concerns went unheard in the general public – primarily due to the availability of distributional channels; back in the day, the only way to really rally, garner support were through newspapers, TV (if you could get the airtime), and word of mouth. In times of social unrest throughout the world, the ‘grassroots’ campaign has been the movement of choice for sparking change and voicing dissent – from the pamphlets that used to be passed around in the dens preceding the Spanish revolution to speak of injustices, to the rallies that started in the deep south in the U.S. circa 1960’s that spread across the nation – it has shown us that the minority, though small, can be very vocal in expressing their dissent.

Enter the digital age with communications passing at lightning speeds; grassroots groups can now quickly spread their message around – gaining members, support, and exposure. The most recent and salient example of this would be Obama’s 2008 U.S. presidential campaign as the mastermind of his campaign utilized the power of social network’s to connect with people; the campaign was able to quickly organize rallies and spread campaign messages to thousands of people instantly. It is said that it is because of Obama’s clever use of grassroots movement ‘mentality’ that lead him to victory in the election – in an election that everyone initially thought he had no chance in winning.

Essentially, most grassroots movements focus around inequity; the imbalance of a system – and the movements try to disrupt and/or change the lifestyle of the majority. Some of the movements I support, but for some …. I don’t know. These movements are very vocal, but their cause – I can’t identify with and/or subscribe, or I just don’t get the logic in how they expressed themselves. There are even full sites that give guides and tutorials on how to start Grassroots sites (click here) with plenty of resources.

The Doubters

No need to explain what doubt is; should be a universal concept as we experience everyday in our lives. Whenever you have an event, or a belief, there will always be two points of view – the Advocators and the Doubters. Let’s examine the Doubters; specifically in the light of substantial empirical evidence. Call them ignorant, believers, or motivationally driven, these people pronounce an opposing stance in the face of adversity; such as those that don’t believe in the moon landing by NASA. Maybe call them the ‘conspirators’ actually, as they cast doubt and mystery behind many of life’s popular events; and they gain traction via social networking sites and mobile technology to amplify their belief.

I only dread as the world gets increasingly smaller with communications, that the world on a whole, will be much louder – get your earmuffs out.

From paulbradley.ca

The Loss of Shame

Good or Bad?

As 2009 comes to an end, this has to be one of the most bizarre years for celebrities and sports figures – from Octo Mom, Chris Brown/Rihanna, the Rick Ross/50 Cent fiasco, and the endless ‘leaks’ of personal home videos from celebrities, this year is definitely a defining moment in the ongoing moral decay of society. Combine that with the ever-so popular YouTube videos of youth fights (especially the senseless killing of a Chicago teen), it can be said that we have lost our sense of shame. This point rings louder in the aftermath of the Tiger Woods incident where we have several women ‘proudly’ coming forward in saying that they had sexual relations with the Golf superstar. Let’s analyze the situation so we are all following; up to 16 women are coming forward saying they had relations with a married man … If this was even 50 years ago, these women would have not dared to pronounce such a thing as they would feel ASHAMED and EMBARRASSED. However, some ‘reappropriation’ or ‘reinterpretation’ has happened in the last couple of years because now what used to be ’shameful’ can be almost worn as a ‘badge of honor’ on one’s sleeve.

So how did we lose the sense of shame? Was it lost with the rise of feminism as women became more vocal about their gender & sexuality? Or was it a reaction to the rise in ‘political correctness’ as a sort of a revolt or detest? I am sure there are a multitude of reasons to our moral decay, and all relates to a loss of pride, honor, and respect for ourselves. I mean, that has to be the only reasons for why women would proudly bolster themselves as hussies, modern day jezebels – we are using our greed for money and fame as an appropriate rational to engage in shameful behavior. Its funny, kind of, we are practicing the ENDS justifies the MEANS, where the ‘ENDS’ refers to money/fame/notoriety and the ‘MEANS’ is whoever or whatever we have to screw (literally and figuratively) over to get it.

This ‘loss of shame’ is everywhere through our society, and I guess it is a reflection to changing norms and attitudes. Some more relatable examples that are seen in everyday life are:

men who mooch off their girlfriends

Not saying that men can be the only ones who are the ‘earners’, but there are many guys out there that are proud that they stay home, play video games all day, and just spend their girlfriend’s money … can anyone say ‘role-reversal’? Lol, just kidding to my independent women.

The Whore Movement

Has always been around, but re-ignited with Paris Hilton, this movement pretty much teaches young females that it is okay to be slack, loose, film yourself – if it leads to money & material wealth. With hip-hop, now we have rappers like Nicki Minaj who have an almost cult-like following of young women who follow her on Twitter, dress like her, and talks like her (go to her MySpace to get familiar).

The most blatant example of our ‘Loss of Shame’ can be seen daily, hourly, on Twitter – sometimes I am disgusted of the trending topics and some of the comments/posts that people share. It really is a sea of madness and nonsense – but in the same breath, is this a product of our individualistic society where we are encouraged to say what is on our minds?

The ‘Good’ in the “Loss of Shame”?

From childhood, we are taught that we are ’special’, we are ‘unique’, ‘no one is like you’, and to ’speak our mind’, so is this merely the cost of our individuality – the loss of morals? It is an interesting trade-off that we seem to be battling with at the moment as it is a continuous cycle of conflicting views that go sort of like: If I am vocal of something that is perceived as morally incorrect, if I DON’T talk about it I am repressing my feelings & emotions – which goes against everything that society teaches me …. And if I DO be vocal about something that is morally incorrect, then I am expressing myself, even though I know it is wrong – so why am I expressing it in the first place.

Just thinking about this gives me a headache, as morality, ethics, freedom, and psychology interplay in this sticky quagmire of a situation.

Am I on point or far-off? Share your thoughts …

.::LiBM::.

Buy Yourself a Personality: Gucci

Another installment in the series of ‘Buying Yourself a Personality’, which is a quick way for one to absorb a personality via the purchase of certain items; in this series, we focus on the popular high-end luxury brand Gucci.  Essentially, Gucci is a ridiculously priced luxury fashion line that makes everything from handbags, purses, suits, pants, and other items.  Its distinctive pattern is world renowned and easy to recognize – which has been problematic for Gucci as now it has to deal with bootlegging and the black market of its products.  It is estimated that the bootlegging of Gucci nets close to $500 million dollars annually.  Gucci has a crack team of lawyers to pursue the bootleggers, but they are far outnumbered.

Anyhow, it is important to note that Gucci is only found in high-end retail stores – so if you are buying a Gucci shirt at the local swap meet or flea market, and you are paying close to a $100 for it, you are being ripped off.  Or, you are buying it to fill a need to be seen as ‘wealthy’ and/or one with a high SES.  You are doing it to seem ‘cool’, to fill some void.  But, you got to realize that this is not the answer – spend your money wisely, please.  Especially to my black people who go to some crazy and extraodinary lengths to don Gucci attire.  Some even are so crazy with it that they outfit their whole vehicle with Gucci lining and upholstery.  I guess when you have some money, no financial planner, you can really do some stupid things – primarily the things that do nothing to raise the value in your assets.  With that said, here are some ridiculous Gucci designs.

Some people will pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars for just the Gucci fabric – which people, is just a flipping pattern! But, maybe I shouldn’t get all ‘bent out of shape’, as they are buying more than just a cheap fabric made in China, lol.

Hip-Hop International

Passing the mic from global corner to global corner; this mini documentary series from some cats out in India give a different perspective on the cultural force that is hip-hop.

BlogStar

A guide to making a Hip-Hop Blog

Its been a minute since I have actually ‘written’ anything on the blog; notice the word ‘written’. Due to a busy and demanding schedule I had to resort to what my peers do so often – post Youtube/video clips. Now, there isn’t anything really wrong with that – heck, if a video is worth posting, then one should post it, right? And that is what many of my peers (the hip-hop/black blogs) seem to be doing constantly as they post the newest and latest audio track from Drake, Weezy, or Gucci Mane (which baffles me). To get into it, I have noticed that many of the hip-hop blogs out there have the same content, sometimes the posts are in the same order – meaning that they are importing a feed from somewhere. And I was like ‘wow’, this is really lame. Its good to see that the hip-hop/black blogs are out there, but people are not really giving opinions, no fresh ideas, or insightful wisdom is coming out – just regurgitated content coming from a few sources. So I had to ask myself ‘why is this the case?’, I mean the supply of content is plentiful, so why isn’t there varied content ranging from entertainment to social, psychological, and political issues? Or is the demand only focused on the entertainment?

Steps to Blog Fame

So with that said, I thought it would be prudent for aspiring blog ‘writers’ to have a guide as to how to produce and maintain a blog:

1. Cool Name

- Take a common phrase from hip-hop culture, like ‘Swagsterboys.com’ or ‘onthecorner.com’ or some other madness

2. Jack Off

Not literally, but if you do, do ya thing. But this refers to where you pull your content from, many bloggers like yourself get their content from RapRadar, Allhiphop, hiphopdx, worldstarhiphop, and vladtv. If you are ‘tech with it’, you can even take their feed URL, burn their feed with FeedBurner, and re-publish that feed for your own creative, unique, and suave blog.
- www.google.com/feedburner for more info

3. Collective Commentary

Of course you must distinguish yourself from the others, so what other way to do that than to comment on the content you ripped. The sharp and quick one-liners add flavor to your blog; even though the one-liners may be from the source you got the video from – hey, its ok, its still your own hands that wrote it!

4. That’s a wrap!

I mean, there is nothing else more to do right? Just mention your blog to your friends, your social network, and claim to have the latest and best content!

With the sarcasm aside, maybe I am expecting too much from these blogs, maybe I need to understand that this is only a section of hip-hop/black blogs. I mean, there are many good blogs on AOL’s BlackVoices.com, but outside of that, I don’t think there are much more. Maybe I am confusing the relationship between hip-hop & black blogs – though I am finding that most of the Black Blogs ARE hip-hop blogs. And then, maybe, just maybe, I shouldn’t complain as much as I am in my own lane, and I can actually string together words to make sentences, that makes paragraphs, that makes a ‘thought’ or an ‘idea’ ….

Step your game up peers.

.:: LiBM ::.