I recently wrote a blog stating that we needed more Robin Hoods in the black community. What I mint by that was, Black entertainers who grew up in the black community are NOT giving back philinthropinly to those communities which they came from. I wrote: "I wonder when some of these Black entertainers going to partner and organize and start bringing much-needed jobs, community services, and training to all these young black children who are going without?
Black icons can go all around the globe and donate a helping hand accept in the hoods they came out of. I bicycle around the cities of Detroit, Toledo, and Columbus and I seldom see anything being done for our BLACK children accept finding ways to demonize them and throw them in jail.
We need to find more ways to donate and give back to those who are trapped and in need of social services. So entertainers/athletes before you start claiming your zip code make sure you giving something back to your hood."
In no way was this suppose to be a blanket statement that Black icons aren't giving back, I know there are many celebrities who do give back, we just need a WHOLE lot more financial generosity donated back into our hoods.
Recently Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed in the same hood which he grew up in and was trying to give back to. On March 31, 2019, Hussle was fatally shot outside his store, Marathon Clothing, in South Los Angeles. Nipsey wasn't doing lip service, he actually wanted to give back to those who were less fortunate. Like Tupac Shakur—his death, as with Shakur’s—illustrate how Black on black violence can impact the lives of younger hip-hop fans and the music industry. Here was a man who grew up gang banging, found his way out and decided he wanted to throw economic/moral life raft back out to those who were still trapped in the hood, only be gunned down by the same violence he atones against. There are parallels between Tupac and Nipsey. Both used their fame as platforms to fight against social injustice. Both rose up from the cracks of the asphalt jungle lives to become icons in the entertainment industry. And both would be assassinated by bullets of hate. Even in fame, their Blackness could not shield them from Black on black violence.
Wow! On the surface that's what it appears to be a random act of violence. But I'm a conspiracy theorist, I know how a blackface can be used to accomplish the agenda of oppressing forces. Nipsey last tweet, “Having strong enemies is a blessing” the documentary he was reportedly producing about Dr. Sebi, a controversial Honduran herbalist who claimed to have found cures to terminal diseases; his planned meeting with the Los Angeles Police Department to discuss anti-gang initiatives, scheduled just one day after he was shot to make you wonder. Revolution is freeing Blacks from poverty, ignorance and returning them back to a kindred brotherhood.
Hussle he had, in recent years, come to represent a kind of economic development that empowered his neighbors rather than displacing them. He showed the community through hard work and discipline you can redeem yourself from nothing back to something. Like King, Tupac, Malcolm, Nippsy became a martyr in death. Seem anytime a Black male icon rise above bling, bling stereotypes to become a liberator of his people he meets an untimely violent death or become a political prisoner. Hussle grass-roots leadership and positive role model for children in his community are criminal in the minds of forces who seek to destroy black unity in the community. Yo, too think outside forces may have played a role in his death. I wouldn't be so nieve to say they didn't.
You gotta be spoon feed ignorant and blind to being Black in America and not think the unthinkable fact that we are at war against unseen forces of propaganda that want us to believe we are a race committed to self-destruction.
Let Nipsey legacy serve as an example that being down doesn't mean you out, that being poor doesn't mean you broke, that humans can atone from their sins, but most importantly; when you find your way out of the hood don't forget to come back and rescue those still trapped.
"Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." RIP
Anthony Alden XUMM