Soulja Boi - Holdin Black People Down XD

[Dogysamich]

Lol Bounce

The living definition of ignorance right there.

Discuss.

 

[ZeroFox]

I feel like every race or nationality should have certain people that don't count and aren't able to represent their people as a whole.

I feel like a lot of African-American stereotypes aren't going away because of rappers and mainstream media which basically just reinforce them rather than try to eliminate them.

 

[slave1]

I feel like a lot of African-American stereotypes aren't going away because of rappers and mainstream media which basically just reinforce them rather than try to eliminate them.

true that. i wonder why the black community gets angry at whites when they should be getting angry at these rappers, and these tv shows like chocolate news that keep reaserting these ideas.

but really i hate that song with a burning passion. he is a terrible rapper, probably the worst. he is also an idiot. man i hate that song. and to find out he is as old as me or slightly younger is not encouraging. what is this world coming to.

 

[Da Shuffla]

Wow. Simply wow. Pretty sure the Africans would have come here eventually if the slave trade had never happened. This is simply a sad display of ignorance. These stereotypes exist for the exact reason Zero Fox said. We don't see black men in suits holding briefcases all the time in the media. We see the man with a "grill," expensive sneakers, and a car that could probably pay my way through college. I'm trying to break away from that stereotype. Which may, in fact, have me being labeled as "white." Sad, but true.

 

[Jam Stunna]

Instead of stating the obvious ad naseum, let's try to elevate the discussion that Soulja Boi has started. As terrible as slavery was, are we black people who are alive today in America lucky in a way that this historical tragedy occured?

 

[Red Exodus]

I'm black and I live in the Caribbean and some times I wonder where I'd be and how my life would be if slavery never happened. Africa probably wouldn't be a totally ****ty place to live since slavery basically destroyed Africa's economy and any chance of proper development that the rest of the world experienced.

The way Africa is now, I can easily say I'm glad to not be in Africa but I can't say I'm glad slavery occurred.

 

[Tom]

Instead of stating the obvious ad naseum, let's try to elevate the discussion that Soulja Boi has started. As terrible as slavery was, are we black people who are alive today in America lucky in a way that this historical tragedy occured?

like the article mentioned, its circular. You are lucky to be in America, with our freedoms, as opposed to Africa, with is poor state of affairs, but if millions of Africans hadn't been forcefully removed from their land and shipped overseas, Africa probably wouldn't be in the state that it is in now.

Never mind that the long-term cataclysmic effects of subtracting about tens of millions of young, strong people from Africa over the course of a couple of centuries is a large part of the reason why Africa now appears so distasteful to you.

 

[Jam Stunna]

I don't know, most slaves came from West Africa, and ironically that seems to be one of the most stable parts of the continent, relatively speaking of course. The problems that you hear about today usually come from central and northern Africa, which to my knowledge wasn't as hard hit by the slave trade.

Slavery certainly didn't help the Africa, but I think most of the problems are post-colonial and geographic, which while related to slavery, weren't caused by it.

 

[ZeroFox]

Wow. Simply wow. Pretty sure the Africans would have come here eventually if the slave trade had never happened. This is simply a sad display of ignorance. These stereotypes exist for the exact reason Zero Fox said. We don't see black men in suits holding briefcases all the time in the media. We see the man with a "grill," expensive sneakers, and a car that could probably pay my way through college. I'm trying to break away from that stereotype. Which may, in fact, have me being labeled as "white." Sad, but true.

Exactly. I remember going to vacation in Baltimore (large African population) and seeing just 1 African man in a business suit with a suitcase. I respected him so much, and wished that that image would be shown to modern America, rather than the image of the rapper or the down and out family from the ghettos.

I mean, I'm not black, so none of those stereotypes apply to me of course, but honestly the best way to get rid of stereotypes in general is to avoid reinforcing them.

 

[Jam Stunna]

Exactly. I remember going to vacation in Baltimore (large African population) and seeing just 1 African man in a business suit with a suitcase. I respected him so much, and wished that that image would be shown to modern America, rather than the image of the rapper or the down and out family from the ghettos.

I mean, I'm not black, so none of those stereotypes apply to me of course, but honestly the best way to get rid of stereotypes in general is to avoid reinforcing them.

But if only one black man was wearing a suit, is it really accurate to present that picture as reflective of the black community?

What I'm getting at is that if we want to be taken seriously, we have to take ourselves seriously. Like it or not, the image of black men in American society is a negative one, but on the whole we haven't exactly given America a reason to believe otherwise.

 

[deepseadiva]

ZeroFox, while this is completly unrelated except for the fact it happened in this thread, I SWEAR your avatar just winked at me.

 

[Chis]

like the article mentioned, its circular. You are lucky to be in America, with our freedoms, as opposed to Africa, with is poor state of affairs, but if millions of Africans hadn't been forcefully removed from their land and shipped overseas, Africa probably wouldn't be in the state that it is in now.

Wasn't it European control that lead to this?

 

[ZeroFox]

ZeroFox, while this is completly unrelated except for the fact it happened in this thread, I SWEAR your avatar just winked at me.

Haha, that's really freaky...

 

[Proud_Smash_N00b]

Whoever kills Soulja Boy will be a national hero

first for defending rap
then for defending Africans

Then we can focus on saving hip-hop by taking out those other fake rappers

It's just an expression of my hate for new rap

 

[Xsyven]

Look at Jam, gettin' his black on!

 

[Jam Stunna]

I love Xsyven in the gayest way possible.

EDIT- Interested in writing, but have no idea how to start? Need a little advice and guidance? Just want a peak at how the writing process works? Then the Writing Workshop is for you!

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=203154

 

[Mic_128]

Advertise in your sig, not your posts Jam.

And I must say I'm impressed. When I saw this thread get posted I had a baaaad feeling, which has been pleasantly proved wrong.

 

[Jam Stunna]

Advertise in your sig, not your posts Jam.

And I must say I'm impressed. When I saw this thread get posted I had a baaaad feeling, which has been pleasantly proved wrong.

It's because I'm black, right?

 

[OmegaXXII]

I never knew you were black up until now, but I guess I should have expected this since this is the internetz.

Wow, way to represent black people though.

 

[Da Shuffla]

Jam, you were right. The man in the suit would not be an accurate representative. However, I think it would be nice to have it as something to aspire to be. A new idea of the black man. Rather than the sad, depressing stereotype.

 

[GreenKirby]

*looks at topic title*

You just figured that out?! lol

Anyway, I read the article before and it was sad. And then I realized it was Stupid Boy.

 

[Azua]

Blacks have Soulja Boy, whites have Amy Winehouse.

 

[ZeroFox]

Blacks have Soulja Boy, whites have Amy Winehouse.

Lol, that's so true.

Celebs who screw up their lives FTL.

 

[Peeze]

I'm black and I live in the Caribbean and some times I wonder where I'd be and how my life would be if slavery never happened. Africa probably wouldn't be a totally ****ty place to live since slavery basically destroyed Africa's economy and any chance of proper development that the rest of the world experienced.

The way Africa is now, I can easily say I'm glad to not be in Africa but I can't say I'm glad slavery occurred.

I'm pretty sure this was caused by European Emperialism. You have to remember too that the young America only survived because of the strength of slavery, boosting their economy. Meaning if the slaves stayed in Africa, its possible the America we know now wouldn't exist, or at least not as a world power. America could easily be modern Africa and Africa could easily be modern America.

 

[Eor]

That's pretty ridiculous, just because one part of our economy at the time would of been different doesn't mean the entire thing would of collapsed. When the slaves were freed, the economy didn't collapse. Besides, we didn't come to be a world power until decades after slavery, and didn't become a dominant world superpower until after world war 2, none of which had anything to do with slavery.

European colonization was a main reason for slavery, so doing a scenario where they did that but not use slaves is pretty much impossible to forecast unless you're an expert on that subject, since every change the colonization did would have to be specifically analyzed to see if slavery had any effect on it.

 

[Peeze]

I said its possible, not fact. The whole reason America was ale to sustain itself after it left Britains control(and funding) was by means of massive exports like tobbaco, cotton, and indigo. The fact is America would be different if slavery here didnt exist. Collapsed? Probably not, but then again YOU said collapsed, not me.

 

[Tom]

The fact is America would be different if slavery here didnt exist.

its simple to argue that if something had happened differently, things would be different now

 

[Peeze]

I dont see where you where going with that.

 

[Jam Stunna]

I dont see where you where going with that.

He's saying that of course things would be different, but you haven't proved that America would actually be worse off if slavery had never occurred.

I'm no expert, but colonialism far outlasted the slave trade, so I think that the after effects of that go much further in explaining the current state of affairs in Africa than the slave trade does. Comparing African nations to other colonized nations that didn't have the slave trade (Iraq, Afghanistan, India), there are alot of similarities.

 

[Pluvia's other account]

That's a depressing read. I never knew that song meant that either.

I'm glad I've never liked Soulja Boy.

 

[Peeze]

He's saying that of course things would be different, but you haven't proved that America would actually be worse off if slavery had never occurred.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0131_030203_jubilee2_2.html
Good read. National geographic article showing how every aspect of the American economy at the time was directly or indirectly influenced by slavery. Most railroads which aided greatly in transportation of goods-slaves. Biggest exports cotton and tobacco-slaves.
When slavery was forcibly abloished in the South, the southern economy basically collapsed, the reason the whole country didn't go down is because the North had already picked up on the Industrial Revolution and was flourishing.

This isn't debate hall, stop debating.

 

[Jam Stunna]

I pretty sure that having its infrastructure destroyed by a war also contributed to the collapse of the South's economy. Besides, we're not discussing the effect that slavery had on America, but rather it's effects on Africa. We're trying to determine whether or not Africa would be in the condition it's in now if the slave trade had never occurred.

And have you been in the DH lately? This thread is far more interesting that anything that's been posted in there for months.

 

[Darkslash]

Another ear bleeding song from suchaloser boi.

But seriously he was happy for the slave trade? Thanks to the slave trade we have all this racism out and about, to my knowledge that is.

 

[Ethan.]

Thanks to the slave trade we have all this racism out and about, to my knowledge that is.

Yes it makes sense. Think of the other races that America has come in "close contact" with. To my knowledge (correct me if I'm being ignorant, I don't want that) racism is almost non-existent against many of them; mainly Native Americans. Because Africans were introduced to America as slaves, they remain as such in the eyes of some - for lack of a better term - radicals.

 

[ranmaru]

I despise Soulja boi, and the fact that my friends (younger friends that is) that idolize him. He sucks, period.

Nas was right when he stated that "Hip Hop is dead".

 

[Jam Stunna]

Yes it makes sense. Think of the other races that America has come in "close contact" with. To my knowledge (correct me if I'm being ignorant, I don't want that) racism is almost non-existent against many of them; mainly Native Americans. Because Africans were introduced to America as slaves, they remain as such in the eyes of some - for lack of a better term - radicals.

"Irish need not apply" immediately comes to mind. Every minority group has been discriminated against in America. Some have just gotten over it faster that others.

 

[Proud_Smash_N00b]

I despise Soulja boi, and the fact that my friends (younger friends that is) that idolize him. He sucks, period.

Nas was right when he stated that "Hip Hop is dead".

QFT
Old school for life

Hip hop is dead because the people killing it arent

 

[Thrillhouse-vh.]

I'd like to quote the counter-culture teacher at my school, a big supporter of minority rights (African-American included, as well as Latino-American, LGBT, what have you) and an avid jazz fan for a second

I'm black and I live in the Caribbean and some times I wonder where I'd be and how my life would be if slavery colonialism never happened. Africa probably wouldn't be a totally ****ty place to live since slavery colonialism basically destroyed Africa's economy many different cultures, massive language barriers brought up by years of isolation between tribes in different areas, and overall itself as a whole and any chance of proper development that the rest of the world experienced.

The way Africa is now, I can easily say I'm glad to not be in Africa but I can't say I'm glad slavery colonialism occurred.

Fix'd for truth.

 

[Hiemie]

I despise Soulja boi, and the fact that my friends (younger friends that is) that idolize him. He sucks, period.

Nas was right when he stated that "Hip Hop is dead".

No it isn't. You're just not looking in the right place. And Nas isn't entirely the most qualified guy to say that.

 

[Jam Stunna]

No it isn't. You're just not looking in the right place. And Nas isn't entirely the most qualified guy to say that.

De la Soul, BlackStar & The Roots ftw.

Also, how has Dave Chapelle set black people back?