Visit Our Store!
Curtis Obama
“There is a 50 and a Barack in every black man.” - Esther Armah
RCLS: I got this video from good buddy and today’s guest co-poster “Bk’s Finest”. It’s a documentary by Byron Hurt (don’t sue us, homie) examining the similarities between “Fiddy” and the POTUS. When I pulled it up on my browser and saw the video description “What does Barack Obama have in common w/ 50 cent”, I immediately dismissed it as a #swindle from someone with way too much time on their hands. Thankfully I was encouraged not to judge a book by it’s cover, and was pleasantly surprised to see that the video examined how the manhood of G-Unit’s CEO and our Commander in Chief are juxtaposed.
BK’s Finest: Well RCLS, clearly our Potus is just as Gangsta as the G-Unit Soldier; from the sneak attack he pulled on Hilary in the democratic primaries to the smack down he put on McCain during the election bid to the way he went up in BP’s pockets and made them put aside 20 Billion and threatened to kick some a$$ if he needed to get it done, the similarities are unbelievable. Don’t sleep though, 50 got a lil Potus swag though; You’ve heard or seen Vitamin Water Ads over the past few years as much as you’ve seen CHANGE signs not to mention they both have beautiful black woman on their arms in Michele and Ciara (speaking of that Ciara should put Michele on the “Ride” remix) and they both believe in reaching across the aisle to their competitors; Barack w/the Republicans and 50 trying to sign Beans away from Jigga.
RCLS: This video deals with so many different themes that we’ve discussed almost to the point of exhaustion and deal with in everyday lives: Defining and understanding manhood and Black masculinity, the duality of the Black man, the absent father figure, Michelle Obama and the “revival of the Black nuclear family”, the de-valuation of education and intelligence within our communities and the list goes on. All these topics are posts within themselves. “We are all playing a game not designed for us”, and even in this new “post racial era”, we’re all still viewed through the prism of our blackness.
BK’s Finest: Interesting you say we’re still viewed through the prism of our blackness b/c I actually see it as us being viewed through the prism of our “non-whiteness”. I’ll put it like this, lets say Podus and Fiddy changed places growing up. Now if Barack was a crack slangin, Benz driving, chain wearing homeboy from Queensbridge (shout out to my Psychiatrist by the way…) who spits hot fiyah on Dr. Dre tracks and 50 was the half white/half black boy from Hawaii with the Harvard education and Community Organizer credentials, you think the KKK would treat them any different? I highly doubt it, even if 50′s granny was a mistress of the top honcho.
Masculinity, Femininity, and all other INITY’s have been consistently created and defined by rich white males (99% of the time; 1% God?) even to this day. Think about it; even now as we have a Black President to be a prime example of what a Black Man can accomplish if he put his mind to it, we’d still rather use Lebron James or Jay-Z/Diddy as the role models to what we can accomplish and who we’d like to be. Hell, it makes sense though because it ain’t like too many of us can afford to pay tuition or receive scholarships to the Harvard’s and Cornell’s (shots fired) of the world. But it all goes back to a lack of control over our images, neighborhoods, education and finances. Hell, I’m not even sure the Podus runs the country let alone his household but without control of these images we will continue to be whatever Uncle Sam says we are, at least in the eyes of the youth who are being raised by TV, Internet and Video Games.
RCLS: And Seattle said you were shallow…you showed him, huh? What do you guys think about the video? Are Curtis and the President really that similar or are we reading too much in to this? Is that even a fair comparison? How do you deal with the Curtis Obama syndrome?
Get elected or die trying,
RSS & Twitter
-
Effin awesome post!
Reply
Really good post, I’ll have to come through and comment later b/c I can’t see the video at work. Whomps.
Reply
It was great seeing Ras Baraka representing the city of Newark, NJ in that video.
Anywho, I think some excellent points were made.
-”The black gangsta masculine figure implores same logic as people who started the slave trade.” I agree with this point. Black masculinity still paints the picture of the over sexualized, violent, and not quite intelligent man. The only difference is instead of the image being a muscular, dark male…it’s a image now laced in over sized chains and expesinive clothes.
- “Underdog vitality’ As it was said in the video…Barack and 50 are “playing” in arenas where it wasn’t meant for them to win. But I think it’s safe to say…any black man living in America is playing in a similar arena. The sole challenge being to defy the stereotypes placed on him at birth.
- “Power in America has always been about agressivness” That’s what this country is built on….agressiveness and domination.
- “strong parallels between black thug masculinity and successful white masculinity” This was the last comment on the vid and stood out to me the most because I think it holds some serious weight. The same exact attitude and motives that accompany the image of black masculinity is what makes up successful white masculinity. With the two there is the attitude of “by any means necessary” the goal being power and money.
Reply
I have a general idea of what this video was trying to convey, but their point was not clearly conveyed.
I definitely think they’re reading too much into it. By using the Barack-fiddy comparison it makes it seem as though there have never been any mediums portrayed in the media. It is true that the most prevalent portrayal of a black man is of a hyper sexualized, gang banging, ignorant, financially irresponsible, misogynistic person. However, there have been many mediums.
Mediums such as: Heithciff Huxtable, James Evans, George Jefferson, Philip Banks, Carl Winslow, Dewayne Wayne,Martin Payne, Michael Kyle, Tavis Smiley, Cornell West, Ras Baraka, Alex Hayley, to name a few. To me these characters and men represent the black men I grew up around. Some were college educated and intellectuals others were blue collaw workers some were in business for themselves. They all love their family and did whatever they had to (legally) in order to survive.
I don’t think it is reasonable at all to make this comparison simply b/c they’re both succeeding at a game that wasn’t designed for them. I think this minimizes the accomplishments of brother like Barack who got an education, studied, networked, and used his mind to succeed rather than pitting that bang bang shoot em up die ninja slow foolishness.
Dam this was hard to type on my Phone. Y’all lucky I like you lol
Reply
Slim Jackson Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:17 pm
I’m glad you like us.
)
Reply
Nope, still think he’s shallow.
Reply
I can’t watch the video at the moment, I just wanted to let you know I enjoyed the post.
Reply
@ BK:
Trust and believe, President Obama runs his house. Not in the day to day sense, but definitely as far as vision. He wooed and married an older, more established woman ( a tough cookie who made it in the ivy leagues and in the corporate world) and got her to buy into his vision whe he had nothing but a dollar and a dream. And he did/does it while allowing her room to be her, trusts her with the logistical things that he can’t do because of time/ability, and loves her to pieces. Don’t let her persona, words, and perceived attitude fool you. President Obama is one of those dudes that doesn’t sweat the small things, but is lethal when he puts his foot down.
Reply
That was a very good trailer!!! See that is the reason I want to get into documentaries, to show stuff about the black culture that “mainstream society” have no idea about. They believe in the stereotypes of african american culture
Reply