I had a coworker who was well-versed in every corner of YouTube. He was equally adept at expressing who the Knicks needed to draft and telling us which pop stars he “knew” were Satanists — because YouTube don’t lie.
One day he played us a “hidden knowledge”-type video, which was his favorite genre. I recognized the speaker’s name and took pause, but brushed it off as a funny coincidence; I trusted my co-worker’s judgement.
The speaker was saying valid things about how Black and indigenous people were oppressed in America — and then he started talking about how Zionists were responsible for it all. I then realized that this very Black Harlem native was in fact showing me a video of former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.
I incredulously asked, “wait, this is the David Duke we’re watching?” He said “yeah, but he had some good points, right?”
I was reminded of this moment during this Desean Jackson/Stephen Jackson-Hitler quote firestorm, which came right after Ice Cube’s antisemitic tweets. Desean posted a fake quote from Hitler about Black oppression, then Stephen backed him up after he received backlash. I doubt neither of them are actual Nazis but the optic alone should have deterred them.
Black people are in such despair that some of us will seek their truth anywhere, whether it’s David Duke, fake Hitler quotes, unfounded theory, or pro-Trump Qanon conspiracies crafted by white supremacists. The popular phrase is “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” — but in this case, hate is everyone’s enemy.
Maybe, as cishet men, it’s too easy to sidestep a mountain of contempt to salute a grain of truth. Maybe it’s morbidly empowering to believe that it’s not just whiteness, but a mystical Jewish cohort beyond them that’s responsible for our plunder. Maybe making your enemy ineffable makes it easier to accept their atrocity.
I don’t know what made Desean Jackson feel that posting Hitler was a good idea, but I do know that dignifying a clock that’s only right twice a day is a waste of time.
I can appreciate anyone who seeks knowledge far and wide, but it’s important to do that with an inner constitution that respects allies enough to not amplify their oppressors.
quick takes
Black people can’t “cancel” DJ Akademiks. Black people weren’t even the group who got him lit. There have always been suburban white kids who lived vicariously through “hip-hop. Akademiks was just “smart” enough to corral them and be their Black face — and Complex partnered with him to cash in on that group. Artists like Meek want as much money as possible but don’t wanna think about their consumers’ politics or how they engage Black culture. It doesn’t work like that. I’m gonna write more about this.
Christopher Cooper refuses to help the NYPD investigate Amy Cooper, and some people are upset. I’ve seen people weaponizing the dilemma as a “gotcha” toward anti-police advocates — that’s corny. I do think this is a prime instance for people to reckon with the reality that abolition means non-punitive consequences for people they don’t like. I also think we should accept that there are no right answers in a system that shouldn’t exist. We just navigate it how we can.
Kanye West: From “Blood On The Leaves” to blood on his hands. I’m sure there’ll be some thoughtful coverage of his life come 2035 or so. But for now, it’s just exhausting to live through. Nothing he’s doing is worth the attention he’s garnering.
bars of the moment
“Bey gave us commercialized Blackness and at first we were starving for ethical Black representation so we accepted.
But now there is a revolution on the ground. People no longer hungry for this feel-good, symbolism where Black people are imagined as the powerful/harmful”
“the idea that black men can be “emasculated” is laughable bc it assumes they ever had any ownership or access to hegemonic masculinity/manhood outside of white men’s terms anyway”
“Defensiveness is the antithesis of allyship.”
- Kathleen Newman-Bremang, in her For Black Women In Media, A “Dream Job” Is A Myth piece
“You never knew you were essential until Covid hit...and it’s like, I have to stand up for the community now. I didn’t realize all that we do.”
-Brittany Tabor in the How a Brooklyn Artist Is Making Black Women Her Focus piece
artifact
Here’s Ice Cube in 1991, talking about Death Certificate lyrics being called out as antisemitic. People who popped up surprised about his recent tweets may not know that he’s always felt this way. In ‘91, LA’s Simon Wiesenthal Center encouraged record stores to stop selling his Death Certificate album because it was a "cultural Molotov cocktail." There was outrage over his association with NOI leaders Louis Farrakhan and (the late) Khalid Muhammad. And there was also furor over these lines:
“get rid of that Devil real simple / put a bullet in his temple / 'cause you can't be the Nigga 4 Life crew / with a white Jew telling you what to do”
It’s worth noting that he and Rabbi Abraham Cooper made up in April 2017.
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Venmo: Andre-Gee