Change

Recently, President Obama and Michelle Obama have been getting flack for spreading a message of personal responsibility in minority communities. And while his administration deserves criticism for a number of things that are currently going on, this shouldn't be one of them.
Liberal critics think the Obama's message of "personal responsibility" fails to take into account young people's social environment, poverty, discrimination, race, defective school systems and so on. They think Obama is blaming folks who have been dealt a bad card, and then turning it on them, and telling themselves to get themselves out similar to the way Republicans spread their "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" rhethoric.

Obama is urging people of color to use our creativity and our assets.

While I'm a crazy liberal myself, there is a problem with liberal education. We discuss issues instead of solutions. We give aid without providing sustainable methods of empowerment. We promote empathy without promoting independence and entrepreneurship. And we can discuss issues ALL DAY but when the President encourages young people from poor neighborhoods to focus on their dreams, to be resourceful, to know that they can do anything a rich white student can as long as they stay focused, then there are issues... primarily from white liberals, stemming from white guilt, I guess. But it doesn't help. It's enabling. It gives this vague concept of "society" much too much credit.

I age myself when I say there can't be excuses for why people can't do something, why they can't aspire to do the right things, to be bigger, to be successful. Hard is not a reason to give in.
People believing what society tells them they should believe about themselves and what they can do with themselves is the greatest setback to equality. If you turn on the TV, what are black men supposed to be besides misogynistic, egomaniacs rappers and ballers? It looks glorious to have that much money and power if you're poor. So we blame the media for encouraging that mindset and behavior. Men talking to women as though they were a rapper spitting game, and getting women is that game, it's not ok but we justify it.

There's so much potential and intelligence that is being wasted because people give away their personal power by listening to what a White created "society" says.

Racism is more powerful today, in 2013, then ever because it's more internal. Generations past were more externally discriminated against but they held on to their personal power and personal voices. And they fought. That's what's missing. The outrageous amount of street harassment I deal with from men of color, particularly in the slowly gentrifying areas where I've lived in the District, makes me feel that that's what gives them power. Mainly because it strips away a lot of my own power to wear what I want to wear and walk where I want to walk and still feel safe. I've faced some of that in Maine too with Somali and Cambodian men.

Men with money, a college education, and White privilege have things that they chase that give them a greater power; and I think that's the issue.There has to be a more important hustle, the hustle for opportunity.

When I was my younger liberal self, I valued potential a lot. And I gave a lot of credit to people who don't have a lot because my family and I didn't have a lot. I understood why friends dropped out of high school, why kids act out, how terrible the system can be, I justified it to my family members, who were wiser than me at that point. But I struggle with realizing that empathy can be an enabler. It doesn't give people a kick in the ass to make them fight the odds. It just says, "I'm sorry for your odds. I feel your pain."

And with no fight, there is no change.Sometimes it's a hard line to walk between tough love and feeling a little intolerant, judgmental, distant, and condescending. I feel that all the time, so I can imagine how the President feels.
The President said what he said, not to be an out-of-touch old man who doesn't realize his privilege, but because he sees potential in people who may not see potential in themselves and regardless of neighborhoods, or a lack of money, or sometimes fathers, the brain is more powerful than all of that combined.
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J. Cole: If I were 16 or 18 or 20 or even 22, I think I would be attracted to a real homegrown version of J. Cole, talented, college educated, and sensitive yet still feels the pressure to live up to certain corrupt and juvenile ideas of manhood that includes elements of misogyny. And that swagger, for some reason, can't be independent of misogyny. Again with the intolerance, right?

He can move on from what he was to what he is but he chooses not to, maybe it's just the rap culture to speak directly to the neighborhood you grew up in... maybe it's even greater than rap culture. NaS didn't move on until his mid 30's, it's interesting. And it's probably because people still bang his early 90s stuff like it's the best, and rawest, and most relate-able. They can't move on. Similar to the way many immigrant families can move away from their native country and be at least comfortable in the newness but they think about their old selves and relating to the people they left behind first. And there's a guilt to any privilege that comes, any change that comes, so they hold themselves back without rectifying WHY they had to go. And people are very critical when people don't come back and give back and give back and give back. And people also think a certain way of speaking, a certain lifestyle, a certain mind-set is reserved in this unattainable universe for white people and white-washed folks who don't appreciate their upbringing, and those internalized barriers we put on ourselves, that is our fault.

So no, not attracted to the complicated J. Cole types, although his music does make me think as I walk home getting whistled at by men too old to loiter around whistling at a young woman.

"Up in first class, laugh even though it's not funny
See a white man wonder how the f--k I got money
While he sit at coach, hate to see me walk past him
Young black pants sag, headphones blastin'
Know what he askin', "how did he manage?"
With all the cards against him, he used them to his advantage!"
Slang we be speakin' probably sounding like Spanish
Then I f--k they heads up up when a n---a shows manners"  J. Cole

"Getting brain from a bitch and thinking, "god damn, what's her name?"
Sometimes I just shake my head and tell myself this is a shame
And then my other side kick in like, "bitch, don't be so fuckin' lame."J. Cole

"Heavy heart as I sit in this Range counting thousands out
Am I about dollars or about change?
Am I about knowledge or about brains?" - J. Cole