There are a lot of levels to this, and it'd take too long to delve into it all. On top of that, this isn't the appropriate forum, because this was never some hub of intellectual discourse to begin with, and it has only become more of a cesspool over the past couple of years.
People overthink all this shyt. There aren't any grand conspiracies at work - this is another step in the process of this country's inevitable evolution. America is - factually - a country founded on murder, plunder, genocide, and enslavement. Wealth and stature were accumulated via the construct of whiteness - a flimsy unifier that keeps the "white" middle and lower classes connected to their exploiters via collective delusion. It also scapegoats all labeled as "others." Beyond that this is a country addicted to nostalgia, but with no regard for history. Nostalgia is just history without moral reckoning. It's what keeps people pining for golden eras that never existed, and anticipating a future that will never materialize as it was sold to them by the usual hustler at the top of capitalism's pyramid.
What you get in a country that ignores its own history, and substitutes fantasy for fact, and is wed to a construct of identity that very few really fit is endless incoherence. You get illusions and symbols in place of societal health and self-actualization. You get spectacle in place of cultural literacy. It has long been this way, but there was always a sense of hope - fueled by the Civil Rights Movement, the Suffragette Movement, the rise and solidification of labor unions - America would reckon with its past, and the citizenry would move in the direction of fulfilling the rhetoric of America as an open society, a democratic republic, a melting pot, and a meritocracy - the land of opportunity and progressive ideas.
But the illusions and the symbolism won out over the hope and the meaningful mass movements. We're addicted to spectacle. We're purposely undereducated and we don't realize it. We argue sides rather than principles. We latch onto people who share and validate our delusions rather than challenge and deconstruct them. There is no difference between Kanye and Trump - they're both megalomaniacs and charlatans. They speak the language of the general public because we, as a society, are narcissistic and delusional. We're terrified of reality and we favor escapism. We traffic in images rather than discourse. We're obsessed with the performance of life rather than the hard work and responsibility of building an actual life. Facebook, instagram, etc - these are all symptoms of a culture that prefers celebrity gossip to real news, reality tv to reality.
This essayist wrote about Trump: he has to be a brand because he's terrified to be a person. You could say the same for Kanye. These are warped, mentally ill people. They're - straight up, no question - imbeciles. They can't string together coherent sentences. They have no ideas founded in critical thinking and a grasp of context, of history, or reality. But they speak the language of emotion and sides. They make bold, empty statements about making something great, winning, haters, pushing the envelope, being free, etc. and the general public clings to whatever part of the message they think speaks to them. It's like the general language of fortune cookies, psychics, and self-help gurus. It says everything by saying nothing. In the end, the meaning is simply the meaning you project onto it.
People sat back in astonishment during the campaign as Trump figuratively did keg stands and high five sessions with the very white people we would immediately further disempower via policy. How can they not see he doesn't give a fukk about them? But I've watched for years and years as those same people - sometimes highly educated... shyt, even professors and award winning writers I've known - expressed shockingly passionate opinions about whether Kanye West is a genius, whether he was a revolutionary, whether he was making nouveau black power music, what his feud with Taylor Swift meant in terms of wider racial politics.
All of which is to say, blacks and white Americans have been led to the same place via very different avenues. And the alt right is starting to make sense to a lot of black men because it hits them in the same sweet spot it hits their target group: disaffected white men. It appeals to those who posture and perform ultra-masculinity, but are ultimately disillusioned with society because they feel emasculated: consigned to cyclical unemployment or underemployment, cut of from attaining the women in the videos and movies they watch, powerless and unable to articulate personal truths, desperate to belong to something that will make them feel like less of a loser. Which is how capitalism thrives - by making you feel like a loser while holding the carrot-on-a-stick of future winning in front of you. The powerlessness, delusions of grandeur, and need to find a scapegoat for their sad station in life is similar in white and black men. Look at this fukking website. Nothing but escapism through gossip and speculation about rappers' lives and beefs; obsessions with sales and image rather than any quality or history of the art; widespread contempt for women. I joke with a couple people I know here - as in actually know - about how, as a 6'6, 250 pound nikka from a housing project in New York's most violent era, I'm astounded by how many people on this site are excited to tell me they can whoop my ass, and that I'm a c00n. The delusion and depression and performance on this site makes clear the unifying force of the human condition, black, white, yellow or whatever. We've devolved into a society of disconnected, undereducated, emotional powder kegs who were sold a false bill of goods and are simmering inside.
Trump speaks to that, just like Kanye does. They are brands and we are invested in them. Their ideas become irrelevant. You're either for or against, no grey area. And this is how hip hop, the black intellectual scene, and our leadership eroded to the point of empty lunacy. A slogan like Black Excellence aren't really that different from Make America Great Again. It's all groupthink that keeps the audience fighting imaginary battles on twitter and facebook, while shielding the con men who wield the slogans from scrutiny. There has never been a better age for the narcissists, charlatans, and megalomaniacs. The popularity contests aren't relegated to high school any longer - social media has helped reduce everything - literature, politics, hip hop - to idol worship and propaganda. The more obnoxious and loud the person, the longer we look, the more we feel inclined to invest. This goes for liberals, conservative, and all other groups.
History swings like a pendulum. Obama liked saying the pendulum of human history inevitably swings toward justice. But this isn't based on a read of history. And Obama himself was a symbol, a brand. History has periods of relative enlightenment, and then swings back into long, bleak eras of regressive thinking and behavior. The optimist in me - the part of me that keeps me getting up in the morning and investing in my own personally constructed world, with my lady and job and hobbies - wants to believe we are swinging to a regressive period but there might be a way to reverse it, or at least stall it. But I sat in a class today and listened to a young black woman explain how Kanye's inability to articulate coherent thoughts are a strength not a weakness, and that he has a meaningful truth under all the stupidity if you know how to look for it. And it made me think of the conceit of magic, and how the magician can only be a successful as the audience is willing to let him be. If they want to be fooled, they will say "he did magic." When another member of the class informed her of his support of Candace Owens and his affinity for Trump, she was initially shocked - she hadn't known about it. Then she looked sad and regretful. but within 5 minutes, she was arguing in Kanye's favor again. By the end of the discussion, her argument was aligning yourself with racists and propagandists and predators is fine so long as you are furthering your own brand, which might eventually empower more black people in the fashion world. This is a student at one of the top universities in the fukking world. And it struck me that the pendulum of history had swung further in a dangerous direction than ever in my lifetime. Another black student stayed behind after class and said "I really don't know what the fukk is going on anymore." I couldn't do much beyond nod and walk slowly back to my office.
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