Did black public intellectuals jack their success formula from “gangsta” rappers? (op-ed)

The New York Times has a forum called Room for Debate. A while back the debate topic was: Do black academics have a special obligation to address social and racial issues beyond the campus?

The respondents were black professors and the majority of them answered no.

An associate professor at Columbia, wrote, “The strange proposition that black intellectuals -- regardless of their training -- are ‘race experts’ mainly because they are black is naïve and potentially dangerous.”

Another professor from Princeton, stated what stands in for the black intellectual these days are the fast talking “black PH.D. pundit” who strives to be on CNN, Fox, or MSNBC … “This same pundit has found new career opportunities within universities and colleges by thinking about black people in ways that conform to the current liberal consensus about racial matters.”

This same “black PH.D. pundit” was born decades ago after the advent of 24-hour cable news. This same pundit produced offspring in various fields, but this same fast talking “black PH.D. pundit” also has illegitimate children that have inherited the title “black public intellectual” but did not inherit what Harold Cruse called the academic appetite to master various disciplines necessary to advocate for real and effective societal change.

These “black public intellectuals” are with and without advanced degrees. They write books, memoirs, or they write for popular magazines or websites, or post video’s from lecture tours in various black neighborhoods. Their thoughts range from progressive politics to Pan-Africanism.

These “black public intellectuals” came of age as hip hop became the dominate influence in American popular culture. These individuals credit hip hop’s “conscious rappers” for teaching them how to critically think and revealing truths never mentioned in their public or private schools.

But it is my contention that these “black public intellectuals” were also influenced by the success of the “conscious rapper’s” counterpart the “gangsta” rapper.

Now, one of the best critiques of the “gangsta’ rap subgenre was delivered by Jeru the Damaja in a song called Scientifical Madness.

Jeru said: Do you need to ask me who the devil is/some may call it showbiz/ I just call them hypocrites/ cause they don’t teach the children sh!t positive/ like how a man should live/ they only focus on the negative/ so they're stuck in the ghetto/ while you drive a car and got a condo/ it’s all for the dolo/ it’s killing your own people…

Now, “gangsta” rappers overdosed the listener with criminality and nihilism, but they were also known as “studio gangstas” because they didn’t live the lifestyles they over exaggerated on their records. It was all done because it sold, like Martin Scorsese films, and primarily to a white audience. It was a successful formula that the illegitimate children of the fast talking “Black PH.D. pundit” copied.

Unlike the respondents to the New York Times who rejected the notion of being “race experts” these “black public intellectuals” specialize in being victims of racism, oppression, and white supremacy, but like the studio “gangsta” who wasn’t as advertised neither are these individuals because they’re not victims. The oppression they depict in their work is over exaggerated.

They do it because it’s a proven formula for success.

The potential danger here is these “black public intellectuals” are going to indoctrinate the next generation with an oppressive twentieth century version of America that is not a reality in the twenty first century and that indoctrination will cripple the next generation more than under funded schools. America has a legacy of slavery and a legacy of liberty. Both are taught, but the question is which one should be reinforced?

So far the answer from these “black public intellectuals” is the legacy of slavery, and if that’s the case Jeru the Damaja’s verse also applies to them.

Rewind: They don’t teach the children sh!t positive/ like how a man should live/ they only focus on the negative/ so they're stuck in the ghetto/ while you drive a car and got a condo.

First published in New Pittsburgh Courier 3/29/17