Who's Hating?

via The Beautiful Struggler - Me, Myself and Eye

I need your help folks! I am no good when it comes to site design, but I am testing out two new layouts: one at Wordpress and one at Square Space. Which do you prefer? Both are in progress and I am hoping to employ a real site designer soon (if you know a cheap one, get at me!)But I can't rock with this current layout any longer.

Once upon a time, Black people had pride and values. Surely, there was always someone who was willing to sell those things out for a little cash...

But we took ourselves a bit more seriously than we do now. Even those of us who didn't have the benefit of some fancy college education. We had love and pride in the face of hate. Nowadays, we have a whole lot more folks who are willing to sell their souls and our image for a little change:

Some who might not know better...

And some who really should and just don't care...

Unfortunately, we have also arrived at a place where ANY criticism of a Black artist/writer/performer/athlete is considered hating if said person is making good money. How did we get to this? How did we allow capitalism to destroy our values or at the very least our willingness to respectfully agree? Why is it that so many folks are willing to cast off any criticism of a Black person as "hating"?

And so people step back and refuse to criticize, so as not to be called a hater. What an awful circle! If I felt obligated to champion anything and everything Black, I'd wouldn't consider Clarence Thomas' refusal to stop breathing an affront to my visions of world progress. Um....that didn't really make sense, I just think he was overdue for some "hating".

WHY DO YOU STILL EXIST?

There are two destructive schools of thought amongst us: one feels that any Black effort should be lauded. This is reactionary and built from the notion that we should be a united front in the face of oppression and marginalization. Very noble idea and I am certainly all about solidarity. HOWEVER, we do our people a disservice when we don't hold them to any standards of behavior or performance. That can go from refusing to criticize President Obama when we disagree with a decision to making excuses for Lil' Wayne's gun fiasco to ignoring flaws in the work of Tyler Perry...or even my beloved Spike Lee.

The other is the school of "If you don't like it, you a hater". It could be ANYTHING from coke rap to House of Derion Jeans. If it makes money, someone will defend it until they are blue in the face. Speaking of Ms. Knowles, I've criticized Beyonce's music heavily on this site. You have folks who agree, folks who don't and then those loud folks screaming "HATER!". I wish I looked like her, I wish I had her money, I'm just jealous. All that good stuff. You see, a hater would say that Beyonce is ugly or lacks any talent whatsoever. They'd be so blind in their hatred that they couldn't give credit where it's due. Criticism is not hating.

I have a lot of supporters, but I also have some very vocal critics. Is that always an easy pill to swallow? No. If I'm writing or saying something, it's because I believe it to be true at that moment. Does that mean that folks who dissent are "hating"? No. They have their own opinions and are no less obligated to agree with me as I, them.

Common wrote a very good line about this: "If I don't like it, I don't like it/that don't mean that I'm hating". Now, since he is a rapper and he worked hard on this line, you MUST accept it as valid. Furthermore, he has more money than most of you. Thus, if you criticize him, YOU are a hater!

IN all seriousness, YES, there are haters in the world. You will know them by the lack of thoughtful and relevant criticism for the things they oppose. But there are also folks who just want to see their people doing the best that they can. Or people who don't like the same things you like. If you can't come up with anything better than "you hating", then you may need to look at your own argument. You may find that you just don't have one.

As far as the blind support of Black people for doing anything that makes money...you can't complain about the state of our people if you don't require people to do better. Accept trash and you will get nothing more. And if money...money that won't see YOUR pocket or do much "good in the hood"...is what you champion, you need to check yourself before you continue wrecking OURselves.

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