God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land. - Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing
    
So says the last stanza of the Negro National Anthem. It assumes that there is a sympathetic heavenly being actively watching out over black folk since our ancestors were first thrown into the tragic circumstances of enslavement and racial oppression.  It is at the root of theistic forms of Black religion.  Anthony Pinn in Why Lord? Suffering and Evil in Black Theology discusses black folk's attempts to rationalize their circumstances in the language of redemptive suffering.  It posits a benevolent, loving, all-powerful deity who is offended at the mistreatment of black folks and will eventually end that suffering in an act(s) of divine justice.  The reasons for this ethnic suffering range from being the instrument of instruction to teach America to be more just society to the erroneous belief that black folk have merited this suffering by some act of divine disobedience.  But what all of this "God-talk" (as Pinn calls it) does is beg a critical question that was posed by William R. Jones at the height of the black liberation theology movement, "Is God a White Racist?"  Essentially, Jones ask Black Christians in particular and black theists more broadly to provide evidence that God is on the side of the oppressed.

Today all across America various versions of the redemptive suffering trope are being sermonized in Black churches especially the one that the parents of Trayvon Martin decided to attend this morning.  Black folks will be told that the justice of God in light the Zimmerman acquittal should not be questioned. That this tragedy is a part of God's greater plan.  Some might argue that it was necessary for Trayvon's death and Zimmerman's acquittal to solidify the push for a new authorization of the recently gutted Voting Rights Act or perhaps as President Obama has opined the need to pass new gun control legislation , or to move black people on a host of other social and political issues.  That seems like an unreasonable burden for a 17 year old child.  It almost reeks of human child sacrifice. In order to move God of our weary years and silent tears to act we must continue to offer our children up as unblemished offerings to gain (and keep) the basic civil rights of an American citizen and human rights in general.  Did somehow the lives of Emmett Till, Cythnia Wesley, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, and Denise McNair (and countless others) brutal deaths no longer satiate this deity and now required the lives of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Rekia Boyd, Marissa Alexander, and Aiyanna Stanley?  Crazy and insane logic you say? That's exactly what is being argued each time black people invoke that these deaths are a part of some divine plan of redemptive suffering for black freedom.

More importantly, what type of God is this that requires black folks to offer up their children to the cult of white supremacy to access a public bathroom or a voting booth?  I argue only a God that is a cruel unashamed, unsympathetic white racist; or more accurately African Americans have unconsciously constructed a deity that is a white racist and looks to it for their liberation from oppression.  Either way, this deity can never be the source of black folks struggle to lead more meaning lives as human beings. 

When it was the time to go buy a hoodie and some Skittles I kept my money in my pocket.  I have not changed my profile picture to the various Trayvon Martin inspired pictures over the past year.  And today I will not "black out" my profile.  Do I do this because I am not in solidarity with the millions of people who are sickened by the tragedy that ended the life of Trayvon Martin.  Not at all. I have resisted what I consider symbolic Trayvonism that has swept over the social media world which substitutes real actions with endorphin producing symbolic gestures of support.  In other words I don't want to be more comfortable with the death of 17 year old black boy for simply being black.

Some have compared symbolic Trayvonism to wearing different colored ribbons that signify the different forms of cancer. I beg to differ. Cancer is an impersonal disease that chooses its victims without regard to class, race, sexuality or gender.  We act in solidarity because we have come to know it can and will strike anyone's family.  Secondly, people usually participate in activities or donate money, time, and resources to the curing of cancer.  While some only wear a ribbon many don't stop with the ribbon.  The end goal is 'The Cure'.  Are the hoodies a symbol of ending anti-black racial violence or a commodification of it? 

Which brings me back to hoodies and profile pictures.  Neither of these gestures has lead to the reduction of the chance that another young black male will not be the victim of white vigilantism (whether in the form of police brutality or Stand Your Ground laws).  Rather it has commodified Trayvon's image as a symbol of black suffering in the same way Christians wear crosses around their necks.  Black folk have internalized a cult of black martyrdom that kicks in whenever these tragedies occur.  We have become somewhat adjusted to the reality that black life is not guaranteed in the same way as white life.  We recall all the past African Americans who have met violent ends at the hands of white racial violence and create a longer list of names. Now along with the names Emmett, Medgar, Martin, and Malcolm we have added Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin and countless others.  The sad reality is we are in denial about what confronts us. 

Just take the mission of the Trayvon Martin Foundation:
The Trayvon Martin Foundation was established to create awareness of how violent crime impacts the families of the victims, and to provide support and advocacy for those families, in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin. The scope of the Foundation’s mission is to advocate that crime victims and their families not be ignored in the discussions about violent crime, to increase public awareness of all forms of racial, ethnic and gender profiling, educate youth on conflict resolution techniques, and to reduce the incidences where confrontations between strangers turn deadly.

This was not simply a violent crime. Trayvon was not the victim of a mugging or gang violence. He was the victim of racial violence.  George Zimmerman could not know if he smoked weed, posted inappropriate things on his social media accounts, known his g.p.a. in high school. All he needed to know was he was a black male and therefore suspect.  What technique does one use to stop a white vigilante?  How do you reduce incidences of confrontation when your skin color is the source of confrontation on the part of white racists?  While the mission of the foundation is admirable it misses the deeper issue which has existed persistently in the minds of racist whites: the presence of black folk and their right to exist as total human beings.

I must admit I was one of those who downloaded the Magna Carta... Holy Grail app for my Samsung Galaxy S III.  But I was relatively late to getting around to listening to the most recent offering by Hova.  I have long been by intrigued by the career of Sean "Jay-Z" Carter as much as his music.  As expected what I heard was a forty-three year old rapper trying to come to terms with being an adult rapper in a world that regards his genre as permanently immature.  Track after track boasts, laments, reflects on being a successful black male who is married and a father but still demands respects as a MC. As hip hop has aged obviously many of its artist have gone on and had families, but that usually signifies the end of ones career in a way that is uncommon in any other music genre.  As Lewis R. Gordon, has noted in "The Problem of Maturity in Hip Hop" the general audience of hip hop expects a perpetual child-like state for its artists. Consider former label mate and later employee LL Cool J decision to leave Def Jam largely because of the relative fast rise of Sean Carter to the position of president of Def Jam Records.  However, when one thinks of James Todd Smith as LL Cool J it is still as a twenty-something not quite mature rapper, a persona that he wears quite proudly.  As the photo in this post suggest Jay-Z desire to become a owner of the means of production is quite a departure from the current drone of songs about poppin mollys, guns, cars, and women.  It is the fact that Sean Carter maintains his Jay-Z persona and continues to rap that makes him different than other rappers and requires an interrogation of him as artist and business man.  

I feel comfortable making this declaration. Jay-Z is the first successful rapper. Granted there have been plenty of rappers to make substantial earnings and parlay that into another career choice. Will Smith, Percy "Master P" Miller, Sean "Diddy" Combs are all relatively wealthy and are staples in the global consumerism of all things hip hop related. But there is a qualitative difference between how Carter and other rappers have treated fame and wealth. Perhaps the poster child for squandered wealth is MC Hammer who in the early 90s became a brand name but was not successful at translating that into ownership potential. And rappers have long been product endorsers ever since Run-DMC requested a packed Madison Square Garden crowd to hold their Adidas in the air. Rappers have endorsed everything imaginable from cereal to vitamin water. However, Jay-Z has held to true to his word in not simply being "a business man, I'm a business man."  He has turned his name and persona into a brand which he has cultivated into many successful business ventures.  But as his lyrics suggest ( Label owners hate me I'm raisin' the status quo up, I'm overchargin' niggas for what they did to the Cold Crush. Pay us like you owe us for all the years that you hold us.  We can talk, but money talks so talk mo' bucks) he has always been cognizant of fate of hip hop artists as income earners with a limited shelf life.  In essence, Jay Z desire to a successful black capitalist in manner is informed by the synthesis of black nationalism and black capitalism of the late 1970s.  It is the same ethos that animated Earl Graves and his Black Enterprise magazine and what one finds in the current crop of African American CEOs in Fortune 500 companies. 

Magna Carta... Holy Grail has been criticized by many such as the Washington Post for being an exercise in base consumersim. Imagine this accusation being leveled at Phil Knight, ceo of Nike for treating consumers as consumers.  Perhaps it is society's desire to see rappers as underprivileged urban blacks with insatiable consumer desires and never as a producers and entrepreneurs hence the criticism of Jay-Z's deal with Samsung to bulk order one million download units of Magna Carta for its customers.

With that said, Jay-Z's success should not escape our critique as there are many areas that require engagement.  His unabashed capitalist ethos is problematic to say the least considering Jay-Z considers his path the "blueprint" to success for any aspiring rapper.  Also, his ambivalent relationship with President Obama as co-symbol of post-raciality in the minds of many younger Americans of all racial and ethnic backgrounds require holding Jay-Z accountable for the narrative that his music and business persona has carefully crafted to present a image of African American success.  But before we engage Jay-Z, let's admit he is a different kind of rapper.