Leadership

Yo, wazzup, ma hizzomies and hizzos? OG Mitch B kicking da noyeeeze...

...er, sorry. I, like many of the kids today, have been sucked up by the commercialization of gangsta culture. It's pretty irresistable - watching MTV and BET, seeing the rappers with the cars and the women and the goodies - as ridiculous as some of it looks, it's hard to rizzist the sizzeductive call of babes, money, guns and cars, nowumsayin?

People - especially black kids - are being sold a glorified bill of goods. What's the natural response?

Go after a stupid game.

Black leaders - or perhaps the term is "black leaders" - are up in arms over Ghettopoly, a ghetto take-off on "Monopoly" (duh):

Black leaders are outraged over a new board game called "Ghettopoly" that has "playas" acting like pimps and game cards reading, "You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50."

Black clergymen say the game, the brainchild of a Pennsylvania man, should be banned, and have called for a boycott of Urban Outfitters unless the company stops selling Ghettopoly in its chain of clothing stores.

Urban Outfitters has not publicly commented on the issue, and did not return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.

James, from the Infinite Monkeys - who, sources tell us, is black - has the solution to the problem:

"In my neighborhood in Brooklyn, everybody acts as if they're in a rap video. It's beyond caricature, man. It's satire. It's so satire, it's beyond satire, and into something deep and meaningful: and that is, the truth.

And the truth is Black Leaders , you're barking up the wrong tree. Like you always do, Black Leaders. Reflexively lashing out at Urban Outfitters, when they're not even the purveyors of the 'ghetto thing'...Black people have turned making stereotypical images of themselves into a multi-million dollar industry.

And you're complaining about a board game. See, that just shows how out of touch you are, Black Leaders. I didn't vote for you guys and you guys don't speak for me, and to be frank, I don't particularly like you either.

Anyhow, the whole point of this post, I've decided to take inspiration from my home state of California, and I'm starting a recall of Black Leaders. All of them.

The way we'll do it is, we'll start with Jesse Jackson and move our way down. There'll be some I'll keep around. Like the Rev. Al Sharpton. Because, y'know, he serves my purposes. But believe me, after the Democratic Primaries are over, he's a goner too."

I doubt I can vote, but I'm here to lend moral support.

I've always wondered - how do black Americans feel about their self-appointed leadership? I know that locally, not every Afro-American is thrilled about being "represented" on the state level by the likes of Randy Staten and Spike Moss.

Anyone?

Posted by Mitch at October 10, 2003 06:34 AM