There are no independent decisions made by anyone in this society, male or female; especially for a pop-star, or anyone else who as access to the global stage of corporate media.
There is a whole team of trained and professional individuals constructing and guiding Nicki Minaj’s public persona and her career in general.
I recognize and respect a Black woman’s decision to express herself however she sees fit, but I don’t respect any Black person’s decision to take the loot, promote values and behaviors to my community on behalf of corporations and others who seek to exploit my community for short term profit. We used to call that Selling Out, not empowerment, or independence.
I am not naive enough to image that all music and artistry will be, or should be wholesome. Back in my Great-Grandmother’s, Grandmother’s, and Mother’s day; they used to have this thing called Blue Material. There was Blue Music, Blue Comedy, and Blue Shows that featured scantly clad women and men doing suggestive dances…i.e. stripping and sex shows. Blue was a polite term for pornographic, dirty, or otherwise “adult” material.
At the same time we had Gil-Scott Heron banging out Revolutionary Blues, we had MC Blowfly doing his shit, we had NWA and the Ghetto Boyz along side Public Enemy and the X-Clan. Hell folks would go from a Malcolm X lecture in the famous Masque #7 in Harlem, then to see Redd Foxx perform at the Apollo Theater on the same night. Most of our Gands would throw on some Blue records after they put our parents to sleep, and our parents did the same for us. I remember my mother throwing on her Eddie Murphy Raw records after she though I was sleep and I’d sneak into the hallway and listen, laughing into my hand. The Blue Material has always been with us, and had a place in our culture.
So I know how we get, and how we got down.
But what’s different today than in the eras of Reconstruction up to the late 70’s is that Black culture became corporatized, and integrated with the dominate economy and culture; when segregation ended, so did that wall that allowed us some space to truly independently develop our culture and communities.
Today the Blue, Adult, Underground music, comedy, and culture is the mainstream and the political, pro-Black, Pan-African material has been relegated to the dark recesses of the culture and the community. We’ve not only allowed our culture to be flipped, but co-opted as well.
It used to be White kids sneaking into the Black community to hear jazz and see Black dancers gyrate in Black owned clubs (bringing resource into our community from theirs…what a novel ideal), it used to be them taking our music and having White artist do covers of Black music for the White mainstream. Today it’s us directly engaging the White media apparatus and performing directly for White audiences. That profoundly affected Black music and culture in many negative and unforeseen ways.
I can’t get into the full history here, but I recommend Del Jones’ series “Culture Bandits; volumes 1-4.” There are also many other Black Cultural historians, cultural anthropologist, and musicologist that break all this down if you are interested in looking beyond the surface.
It’s deeper than Black Barbie, so much deeper. I don’t think I need to even speak your point about a “white male” mocking Nicki, just review my blog if you are unclear on my stance on White oppression in any form, even in mocking.
I have not seen any evidence that Nicki is any different than any of the other pop-stars selling hyper-sex, hyper-consumerism, anti-intellectualism, and all the other shit the Global Elite want us focused on.
Finally, I’m not really sure what kinda Black man you think I am, but I’m not interested in you doing as I say, I am interested in you simply looking deeper into the issue we are discussing and drawing you own conclusions, just has I have drawn mine.
I asked you some questions, and instead of giving me direct answers, you shot back this response and unfounded accusations. SMH. But I’m still sharing with you Sis. If you’ve made it this far in my response, I’ll post a link to my original questions, and maybe you can answer them for me. Forward.
http://diallokenyatta.tumblr.com/post/97691783966/youngblackandvegan-the-goddamazon
