By Damion Boycott
Jay Z is the subject of conversation for fans of Rap music and right wing rags like the New York Post this week. Apparently Jay Z was spotted at a Nets game with the symbol of The Nation Of Gods And Earths on a medallion last week. The corporate media and the white owned press are taking advantage of an opportunity to portray Jay Z as a militant hater of white people. It's obviously an attempt to try to throw some dirt on his name by honing in on what they perceive as negatives. The right wing never takes a pass on trying to defame or vilify a black man, and they do it without shame. Even the so-called liberal New York Daily News has gotten in on the act.
The New York Post wrote this about the teachings of the organization "Black people are the fathers and mothers of civilization, white men are the devil, the Christian god is nothing more than a ghost and only a small percentage of people understand the world". This is an obvious attempt to rub people the wrong way, and turn public opinion against Jay Z.
They go on to quote Michael Muhammad Knight who said the Nation Of Gods And Earths see "whiteness as weak, wicked and inferior". They are subconsciously saying that Jay Z is a racist that views white people as weak. Knight who wrote two books on the organization went on to say the organization views whites as "basically just an errant child who needs to be corrected.”
"Anytime someone is saying you have to accept your conditions of oppression and slavery and pray to an unseen god — that kind of god is just being used to keep people down and to keep people from looking to themselves as a solution to their problems,” he notes. “If there is a problem, no one will fix it for you, except yourself.”
The idea that the organization teaches that says Europeans are "weak" is true. White people are genetic recessive, that is a genetic and scientific fact. Therefore Europeans are genetically weak. This is not necessarily taught to denigrate white people- it is a fact. The idea that white people are wicked comes from some of the adversity Africans have faced at the hands of Europeans. Some of those challenges include slavery, Jim crow segregation, police brutality and mass incarceration to name a few. Europeans don't seem to understand anything that does not promote the European sociocultural perspective. So the press is trying to use some of these teachings against Jay Z.
What critics of Jay Z don't know is that Jay Z started out as semi-conscious artist in the late 80s. When he began his career he was a side man for Jaz who had knowledge of self, and was involved with Dr Malachi Yorks movement. So to see Jay Z with a Nation Of Gods And Earths medallion on should be no big surprise. The surprise is that the media is acting as if it's something new.
The real problem is Jay Zs' lyrical subject matter. If Jay Z has knowledge of self he needs to convey that in his lyrics. From the time he began as a solo artist he managed to mention that he used to sell drugs on every album. When you glorify a lifestyle on record that helps to facilitate that lifestyle. Jay Z has been very irresponsible on record and promotes a disagreeable way of life. There are plenty of issues in black communities and ignorant negative rap does not help to remedy any of them.
Jay Z is a lot more than young people think he is. Most of Jay Z fans that are in their teens or early twenties really don't know anything about his connection to black consciousness. He should be leading the way in conscious rap. Instead he plays to his audience with ignorant dumb-down lyrics. He could change the paradigm with one conscious album, but he refuses to do it. He can do conscious boom-bap albums for the rest of his career and still enjoy his millions even if they don't sell. He would be doing his fans a favor. He has the minds of a lot of young people in his hands. If he did conscious albums they would probably sell just because he is Jay Z. It's time for him to give back by making intelligence cool again.
Big up to Jay Z for showing forth some consciousness. It's about time. Now he needs to begin to put some consciousness in his music. He has made enough money promoting the sale of illicit drugs. It's time he gives back by promoting knowledge of self. The level of ignorance and black on black crime in black communities can be in part blamed on the disagreeable messages in rap music. No other genre of music promotes that kind of violence. It's mass insanity.
It's o.k. if Jay Z rocks the medallion, now he needs to promote critical thinking and self pride and all of the other concepts and ideas behind the symbol.