NOTE: The following piece is from my book of essays, titled: A Freed Man: An Emancipation Proclamation (ISBN 0-9700209-0-2). I wrote the original manuscript 10 years ago, but the subject matter remains timely today.
We live in what is called a “free society.” But do we give much thought to what that means? It certainly doesn’t mean “without costs.” Every product or service that is created, produced, and distributed even the “product” of knowledge has its associated costs.
The cost of knowledge is time and experience. The cost of understanding is openness and willingness. Understanding is the intelligent use of knowledge. There is power in knowledge, which can be used with or without understanding.
Knowledge that is used without understanding (i.e., intelligence) is often divisive in nature; while knowledge used with understanding is unifying.
Exactly what is understanding? It is knowledge that takes into account “the whole” of an issue, all knowable factors, aspects, and elements. Understanding is a perception that reveals win-win results, rather than “win-lose.” In order to demonstrate understanding, we must demonstrate respect for ourselves and for others. We must be one in purpose, agreed in intent, and beyond the “us versus them” mentality. Racial and ethnic politics are powerful forces within our society. In my view, they are without active understanding. But they are powerful influences of the overall consciousness of our world, often doing us all a great disservice.
As an example, certain forms of music have done society a disservice. Particularly distressing and disheartening to me is rap and hip hop music that disrespects and even shows a disdain for the sanctity of life, the relationship between men and women, the eardrum, and the English language. I sometimes wonder whether the people who propagate the messages and images of this music form have lost their souls. I’m not talking only about the “artists.”
If they are presenting a view of their world, it is not being presented as a call for help. Instead they seem to be celebrating what they have made of themselves. What constructive contribution have they made to society’s understanding? Is the net effect divisive or unifying? Is it destructive or empowering?
In the early 1990’s, members of a rap group, Two Live Crew, were indicted on obscenity charges in Florida and banned from making appearances in that state. While some will stand on their First Amendment pulpit and see this as an abridgment of free speech, I’d like to ask where is our freedom to not support them, to not listen, or to refuse to give our children money to attend their concerts? Where is the record company and television executives’ responsibility to social order and the laws of our land? Why weren’t they indicted as well as the members of that group?
Why didn’t someone tell Two Live Crew that a song and music video that depicts a man killing policemen was (1) inflammatory, (2) could result in a backlash against blacks who looked and acted like these people, and (3) depicts activities that we do not wish anyone to even suspect is condoned?
Why didn’t the radio program managers say “Hell no, we won’t play this (expletive)! This is wrong!” Why didn’t the music video distribution companies say “We don’t need product that bad—we’ll pass on this one!” Why did so many people buy this stuff? While money has clearly overridden conscience in the former cases, I don’t know what the excuse is for the latter. It must be attitude.
When our speech becomes an affront to the soul of the society, then we have abused our freedom. It is the right of all who are exposed to our message to turn it off or turn away. If I am a young black person who takes on the persona of these erstwhile “heroes,” then it is not to be unexpected that my own opportunities in certain areas will be diminished even while I make my “heroes,” and the chain of people that support them, richer. They would be exploiting me while I emulate and support them.
Exploitation is advantage that is gained without an agreed form of reciprocal value. Rap groups are being exploited because they are making unseen men and women rich, with respectability, while losing their own. While society respects one’s ability to make large sums of money, it does not respect those who make a living by advocating killing. We cannot even appear to condone such behavior from anyone. There will always be an element that idolizes the outlaws and bad boys amongst us, but they are a distinct minority.
Yet, the people who produce, promote, broadcast, and distribute the violent messages, the accountants who pay the royalties and the attorneys and agents who negotiate the deals, are just as responsible because they are part of the chain that brings such material into stores and into kids’ minds. They remain respected citizens, while their clients are disdained, except by impressionable fans who have swallowed the victim rhetoric hook, line, and sinker.
The behind-the-scenes people who profit from rage, are part of a mountain of exploitation whose peak is unseen, obscured by the clouds. The performers only make up the middle elevations; the fans make up the base. However, even if the idea does not originate at the peak, the money goes from the base right to the top.
Whether it is fair or unfair to generalize, all who emulate the look and demeanor of rap performers are assumed to be supporting their message. When the message is destructive or divisive, then it is dead wrong.
We are free men and women right now. Whether we are happy, sad, rich or poor, in sickness, or in health, we are free. Slaves of four hundred years ago were not free in the same way that we are today. That was another place, another time. For all we know, it could have been another planet. It was clearly, another drama. So when will we acknowledge that things have changed?
History doesn’t change the fact that we are free. It also doesn’t change the fact that we have to enrich ourselves, not in monetary terms, but in terms of knowledge, skills, and understandings that are meaningful and valuable to society today. When you possess something that enhances the collective experience of the greatest number, then you become important. So why limit the scope of our beneficial thinking to one particular race? If we want to help our race, then we need to be willing to help anyone. Will society have made us important? No. We will have made ourselves so.
The efforts of scientists such as Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein continue to have an impact on our lives today, long after they departed this world. Louis Pasteur, Madame Curie, and Booker T. Washington have likewise had impact that transcended not only time and dimension, but nationality. Why do we not cherish such thinking and pursuits? It seems we are quite distracted by meaninglessness and fear.
Meaningful understandings will not come and present themselves to us. We will have to open our minds, use our own hands, legs, eyes, ears, and heart to go get them. Can we compete with others to gain the golden ring of knowledge and the Holy Grail of understanding? Of course! If we commit ourselves to becoming affirmative action, rather than getting more entrenched in our present habits and demanding affirmative action from someone else.
The first way that we can help ourselves is by being ready and willing to help others. Notice I didn’t say “being willing to help our own.” All “others” are our own. This means setting fears, habits, and old prejudices about “others” aside. The next issue is how to help them. That begins by enriching ourselves with knowledge and understanding. It means having the courage to say “no” to certain forms of giving, substituting the truth in its place.
To assuage our conscience, we are sometimes inclined to send money in the place of truth. That must stop. “Love offerings” alone will not do. Our ability to perceive and embrace ever-expanding truths is the power that enables us to transcend a past of limited means and opportunity, and bring us closer to a more expanded, joyful, and abundant future. Whether we are of limited, or expanded means, we are nonetheless free. Our lives are our own creations. From our fears, may we be freed. Let it begin by understanding the power that lives within us; power that is born into this world in each action that we take, and word that we speak.
