Jasmine Mans is undoubtedly, an extremely talented poet and I'm often moved by the passion, intensity and honesty in her writing and performance. I wasn't surprised that Ms. Mans penned a poem about Nicki Minaj; I mean, who isn't talking about Nicki Minaj these days. The First Lady of Young Money is often the topic of conversation and debate. "Is Nicki Minaj the dopest female MC today? (uh, yea!) Is Nicki Minaj 's image inappropriate for young black girls. And of course, the most discussed topic of them all...whether or not homegirl's you know what is real. You get the point. Most folks are discussing Ms. Minaj these days, if even for a minute, a poem or for a topic of a blog, even if they don't want to. Ms. Mans took the internet by storm with her poem titled , "The Miseducation of a Barbie Doll" which is nothing short of a firestorm of truth and a challege of responsibility hurled at Ms. Minaj. To put it plainly, Jasmine CHECKED Nicki and black folks applauded the way many did when Bill Cobsy checked Black America. (More on that madness later).
The truth is, black people are always being checked these days; usually by one another. We're bombarded with the questions: "why don't black men just "make a better choice"..."Why do black men "choose" to sell dope and join gangs"..."Why won't hip hop artists just choose to make uplifting and positive music" (I know many who do by the way!)..."Why won't we choose (there's that word again), to do better as a people and be responsible." Yes, we're the most "checked" people on the planet. Following this logic, coupled with the words from Ms. Man's poem, one would conclude that Nicki Minaj, needs to, JUST, make a better choice, put on some clothes, make music about pyramids and the Black Man being God and call it a day. If she had done those things, I can assure you that a more appropriate title for this blog would have been, "Nicki Minaj who?!"
My issue with this has always been, and continues to be that we often spend much more time scrutinizing, probing, criticizing and "checking" ourselves and other VICTIMS of the "entertainment" industry and not enough time scrutinizing and exposing all of the systems that make up what we know and understand to be the Racist / Discriminatory / White Supremacist system we call Americam; a system that is OBSESSED with the criminalizing and demonizing of black artist, celebrities and black people wherever we are found on the planet. The double standards are evident!
Michael Vick faced one to five years in PRISON for "Dog Fighting" and ended up spending 19 months for the offense and is probably the most criminalized black man in media second only to O.J. Simpson (He'll never live that down). However, Steelers Quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger has been repeatedly accused of rape by young women who encournter this sexual predator. Although he has not been charged with any "criminal" activity, for (lack of physical evidence, of course), he has also not been "criminalized" in the media. CNN is running an article today entitled "Roethlisberger's Road to Redemption". Although many Americans may "dislike" him and the accusations against him, they seem to be MUCH more disgruntled and disturbed by an athlete accused of dog fighting than one accused of raping and abusing young women. Maybe this explains their logic of evacuating a "busload of dogs" from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina while many black folk were left to die. My point is that when criminals determine criminal terms and standards, you can bet your life they'll get away with all of their criminal activity while asking you to "take responsibility" for what "they" have declared as your "wrong doing". How is it that America, a country that "legally" abuses animals for sport and play, can accuse, convict and imprison Michael Vick for "dog" fighting, and we, join on and chime in about his "offense" without taking a critical look at the criminal intent of those accusing him and deluding us. (Click here to view clip on B.F. Skinner, Experimental and Behavorial Psychologist, once regarded as the most influential psychologist in the world and founder of behavorism.)
What does all of this have to do with Nicki Minaj? Alot! The idea that Nicki will just take "responsibility" is absurd. That's NOT going to happen. These artist's are not gonna get up one day and say "oh snap, is my image destroying little black girls?!" No, they are trying to eat, be prosperous and manifest what they believe is a god given talent. The fact that we are embedded in an environment, (and industry) that REWARDS the degradation and exploitation of BLACK people is the problem! It is the ROOT of this issue and if we'd spend half as much time addressing and blogging about that, as we do asking one another to be better (without understanding what's causing the behavior), then maybe we'd begin to embark upon the answers.
It's gonna take "conscious sisters", looking at a Nicki Minaj and seeing themselves in her in order for us to begin to build bridges and close gaps and expose the exploitation of black and brown people by a system of racism and white supremacy that was founded upon the idea of disconnecting us from ourselves on EVERY level. It has happened to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US. Thank God all of us aren't offered hundreds of millions of dollars to display our ignorance for the entire world to see.
As Wise Intelligent recently stated, "They INTENTIONALLY shifted the paradigm to get us EXACTLY where we are right now.... we're not turning down $500,000 to say niggaa, we're not gonna do it because we won't turn down $200 to take a packet of crack from one corner to the next....we are living in an environment of depravation and want of all things...our judgment is clouded".
African scholar Neely Fuller stated, "If you don't understand white supremacy, what it is and how it operates, everything else you THINK you understand will ONLY CONFUSE YOU". If we truly understood his words, we would look at (study and investigate) the VARIOUS ways white supremacy as a system is ensuring the survival of their people across the globe. Then we would start identifying WHERE our people are trapped into the support of this system and the sustaining of this system and I'm telling you..NOT ONE OF US...NOT ONE OF US..Conscious MC, Sista sporting the head wrap or whatever...NOT ONE OF US is COMPLETELY exempt from the participation in and support of this sickness on one level or another. (Click here to witness the way in which the system "raped the Assata" out of our beautiful sister / mother Nina Simone).
Nicki Minaj isn't the issue or the problem. I feel sorry for the sister, just as I feel sorry for all of the VICTIMS of racism / white supremacy. I feel sorry for every black and brown person who doesn't know the beauty of their eyes, their hair, their lips, their skin. I feel sorry for every black and brown person who doesn't look in the mirror and see the God and Goddess looking back at them. I feel sorry for all of those who are paid millions to show the world exactly what black self hatred looks and sounds like. However, they are not the problem! Nicki Minaj can go away, and she'll be replaced with another big butt and a smile, today!
Telling the truth may mean sometimes having to check one another, but I HOPE we are as willing, as daring and as committed to checking the SICKNESS of America. We need to stop talking about Racism / White Supremacy as if it's something we can just wake up one morning and decide not to participate in.
The truth is, black people are always being checked these days; usually by one another. We're bombarded with the questions: "why don't black men just "make a better choice"..."Why do black men "choose" to sell dope and join gangs"..."Why won't hip hop artists just choose to make uplifting and positive music" (I know many who do by the way!)..."Why won't we choose (there's that word again), to do better as a people and be responsible." Yes, we're the most "checked" people on the planet. Following this logic, coupled with the words from Ms. Man's poem, one would conclude that Nicki Minaj, needs to, JUST, make a better choice, put on some clothes, make music about pyramids and the Black Man being God and call it a day. If she had done those things, I can assure you that a more appropriate title for this blog would have been, "Nicki Minaj who?!"
My issue with this has always been, and continues to be that we often spend much more time scrutinizing, probing, criticizing and "checking" ourselves and other VICTIMS of the "entertainment" industry and not enough time scrutinizing and exposing all of the systems that make up what we know and understand to be the Racist / Discriminatory / White Supremacist system we call Americam; a system that is OBSESSED with the criminalizing and demonizing of black artist, celebrities and black people wherever we are found on the planet. The double standards are evident!
Michael Vick faced one to five years in PRISON for "Dog Fighting" and ended up spending 19 months for the offense and is probably the most criminalized black man in media second only to O.J. Simpson (He'll never live that down). However, Steelers Quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger has been repeatedly accused of rape by young women who encournter this sexual predator. Although he has not been charged with any "criminal" activity, for (lack of physical evidence, of course), he has also not been "criminalized" in the media. CNN is running an article today entitled "Roethlisberger's Road to Redemption". Although many Americans may "dislike" him and the accusations against him, they seem to be MUCH more disgruntled and disturbed by an athlete accused of dog fighting than one accused of raping and abusing young women. Maybe this explains their logic of evacuating a "busload of dogs" from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina while many black folk were left to die. My point is that when criminals determine criminal terms and standards, you can bet your life they'll get away with all of their criminal activity while asking you to "take responsibility" for what "they" have declared as your "wrong doing". How is it that America, a country that "legally" abuses animals for sport and play, can accuse, convict and imprison Michael Vick for "dog" fighting, and we, join on and chime in about his "offense" without taking a critical look at the criminal intent of those accusing him and deluding us. (Click here to view clip on B.F. Skinner, Experimental and Behavorial Psychologist, once regarded as the most influential psychologist in the world and founder of behavorism.)
What does all of this have to do with Nicki Minaj? Alot! The idea that Nicki will just take "responsibility" is absurd. That's NOT going to happen. These artist's are not gonna get up one day and say "oh snap, is my image destroying little black girls?!" No, they are trying to eat, be prosperous and manifest what they believe is a god given talent. The fact that we are embedded in an environment, (and industry) that REWARDS the degradation and exploitation of BLACK people is the problem! It is the ROOT of this issue and if we'd spend half as much time addressing and blogging about that, as we do asking one another to be better (without understanding what's causing the behavior), then maybe we'd begin to embark upon the answers.
It's gonna take "conscious sisters", looking at a Nicki Minaj and seeing themselves in her in order for us to begin to build bridges and close gaps and expose the exploitation of black and brown people by a system of racism and white supremacy that was founded upon the idea of disconnecting us from ourselves on EVERY level. It has happened to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US. Thank God all of us aren't offered hundreds of millions of dollars to display our ignorance for the entire world to see.
As Wise Intelligent recently stated, "They INTENTIONALLY shifted the paradigm to get us EXACTLY where we are right now.... we're not turning down $500,000 to say niggaa, we're not gonna do it because we won't turn down $200 to take a packet of crack from one corner to the next....we are living in an environment of depravation and want of all things...our judgment is clouded".
African scholar Neely Fuller stated, "If you don't understand white supremacy, what it is and how it operates, everything else you THINK you understand will ONLY CONFUSE YOU". If we truly understood his words, we would look at (study and investigate) the VARIOUS ways white supremacy as a system is ensuring the survival of their people across the globe. Then we would start identifying WHERE our people are trapped into the support of this system and the sustaining of this system and I'm telling you..NOT ONE OF US...NOT ONE OF US..Conscious MC, Sista sporting the head wrap or whatever...NOT ONE OF US is COMPLETELY exempt from the participation in and support of this sickness on one level or another. (Click here to witness the way in which the system "raped the Assata" out of our beautiful sister / mother Nina Simone).
Nicki Minaj isn't the issue or the problem. I feel sorry for the sister, just as I feel sorry for all of the VICTIMS of racism / white supremacy. I feel sorry for every black and brown person who doesn't know the beauty of their eyes, their hair, their lips, their skin. I feel sorry for every black and brown person who doesn't look in the mirror and see the God and Goddess looking back at them. I feel sorry for all of those who are paid millions to show the world exactly what black self hatred looks and sounds like. However, they are not the problem! Nicki Minaj can go away, and she'll be replaced with another big butt and a smile, today!
Telling the truth may mean sometimes having to check one another, but I HOPE we are as willing, as daring and as committed to checking the SICKNESS of America. We need to stop talking about Racism / White Supremacy as if it's something we can just wake up one morning and decide not to participate in.
As Dr. John Henrick Clarke said "ALL OF OUR LIFE SUSTAINING INSTITUTIONS ARE CONTROLLED BY OUR ENEMY" I'll say it again..because the psychology behind it is disturbing. All of our LIFE SUSTAINING INSTITUTIONS are controlled by our ENEMY".
I'd be EAGER to hear ANY poem Ms. Mans wrote about that.
I'd be EAGER to hear ANY poem Ms. Mans wrote about that.
See videos below of Jasmine Mans poem "Nicki Minaj", as well as a clip from Wise Intelligent, speaking on the intentional dumbing down of hip hop artist and black youth.
Suggested Reading / Research:
Stacey Muhammad is an award winning Independent Filmmaker, Documentarian and Activist, originally from New Orleans, La, who currently hails from Brooklyn, New York. She is a pioneer in the work of documenting and preserving the culture of Hip Hop and African people through film and digital media. She can be reached at sm@wildseedstudios.com
