Boots Riley on Jay-Z and the illusion of Black Capitalism

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

Among the questions the movie raises is whether black success within capitalism is something to reflexively celebrate or whether the success of individuals who belong to an exploited class serves to ratify and consolidate — rather than thwart or ameliorate — the system doing the exploiting. Discussing this question, Riley used the example of the resolutely capitalist Jay-Z: “When people listen to Jay-Z, they’re working all day or trying to work and pay their bills, and what they hear is someone who’s free. Who doesn’t have to worry about the electricity. But all we’re taught is that those who are rich deserve to be rich because they worked harder than the rest of us or they’re smarter. And this may be true of some of those folks, but there are definitely very poor people who are very smart and work hard. It’s just that this system can only have a few people on the top. So Jay-Z is saying: ‘You can do this, too, I’m trying to give you game,’ and it ends up explaining poverty as a system of bad choices. Yes, maybe you can make better choices and be the crab that gets out of the bucket — but that’ll be at the expense of all the other crabs in the bucket.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/magazine/how-boots-riley-infiltrated-hollywood.html

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[lamont614]

Put this in the booth and this thread will go platinum

 

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

Put this in the booth and this thread will go platinum

which mod should I get to move it?

 

[Mastamimd]

which mod should I get to move it?

Just make it again

 

[TooLazyToMakeUp1]

It's the system we have and it's either play ball or starve waiting on help

Any alternative is just as pie in the sky as bootstrapping your way to wealth, but you have to try something

 

[Neuromancer]

Good read so far.

 

[DrX]

I been saying this on here for years. Their cant be mass black success. Were a permanent underclass. Capitalism need us to fill the prisons and do all the undesired labor. We cant even do that because wetbacks fulfill that lane.

 

[lotteryplaya]

 

[thekingsmen]

Captalism doesn't work if everyone is successful and is eating...

 

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

Captalism doesn't work if everyone is successful and is eating...

Capitalism needs to be dismantled in order for everyone to be successful on their own merits and eat regardless.

 

[thekingsmen]

Capitalism needs to be dismantled in order for everyone to be successful on their own merits and eat regardless.

Agreed

 

[ThisWorldAintRight]

Movie looks good.

 

[Mr.bocario]

I strongly disagree with these concepts and this Yvette Carnell bullshyt that black people really think they can be the next jay z if they work hard

It’s a juvenile idea and generalizes black people like a typical white supremacist

Collectively speaking black people are at an economic disadvantage, but to think all black youth are striving to be the next jay and bey of the medical, law, or corporate world is a foolish idea

 

[EBK String]

this doesn't really intrigue me but I'll still be there told support first week.