Letters from a Recovering Hip Hop Addict

"Jumbled thoughts on affirmative action, black authenticity, and hip hop culture "

I am a former liberal, a recovering hip hop addict that still
appreciates good hip hop music, and current swing-voter.
In the past year I've undergone a political shift based on self-directed learning that I
pursued after 4 years of liberal heavy education at my alma mater. Among
the concepts that I've constantly explored are affirmative action.

The Supreme Court is getting closer to re-evaluating affirmative action
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13147234/). With the appointment of John
Roberts and Sam Alito many think affirmative action may be overturned.
They've already agreed to review 2 cases involving school districts
that use race as a factor in determining admission to city schools in
Seattle and Washington. Regardless of the outcome, this is bound to spark
ongoing debate about the merits of race-based policy in one of the most
divisive issues of our time. Here are my thoughts.

I'm highly bothered when other people think that the state of black
advancement hinges on affirmative action, and race-based policy. I do
think however, that with conservatives rushing to push color-blind policy,
that we need to distinguish between color-blind and color-indifferent
policy. It's one thing to outlaw the use of as a method of increasing
racial diversity. It's another thing to ignore race when thinking about
policy and law.

Call me bold, but I think that colleges are over-run with leftist
"critical race theorists" and not enough critical class theorists. Yes, the
2 concepts are intertwined but here's how I see the difference:
theorists who examine policy & law through the lens of race implicitly
strip black people an element of agency by insisting that all
conditions of racial inequality must be remedied by solutions where race
MUST be central. In theory this sounds nice. However, in practice, it
perpertuates racism by stripping blacks of the individuality unfairly
enjoyed by whites. The thing most people know by now (including keen
liberals), but few admit out loud, is that "diversity" in practice has become
a farce and a nuisance in many places. "Diversity training" is
basically kindergarten hand-holding, we are the world singing, all over again.
In fact, people of color might as well start wearing t-shirts with a
big "I am diversity" across the front if the utopian liberal obsession
with diversity continues.

CLASS BEFORE RACE...POVERTY, POVERTY, POVERTY, POVERTY. That's how
discourse needs to be framed from here on out.

Yet black people overwhelmingly support policy in the name of
"diversity". A host of middle class black people that I've met still tend to
see themselves of victims "of the system", and as a result feel
affirmative action is justified. Part of this may stem from the fact that many
middle class blacks live in or near the 'hood, grew up in or near the
'hood, or attended schools, in or near the hood. I should know. I was
one of them. Members of my own family still believe we grew up in the
'hood despite the fact that I had a lawn, a backyard with a pool in it,
and a piano in my house. Sure, the park 3 blocks from my house had
people selling crack. I saw a few crack viles on occasion. But gunshots
were not ringing out every other day on my block.

Whites' invention of race, is mental enslaving too many people (not
just blacks) into this concept of "blackness"...a concept which
commercial hip hop culture is running with. This along with the the
marginalization of the black urban poor is taking its toll on black people,
particularly young men. A friend of mine recently visited an inner city
elementary school to talk about her work as a public relations
professional. When asked about what they wanted to do when they grew up, more
than half the young boys said rappers or basketball players.

This seems to be a bigger issue here, and I don't know what kind of
policy will fix it. Certainly not, old liberal ideas. Churches, black
colleges, and gentrification (yes, i said gentrification) can. Complain
all we want about the purchasing of Harlem that Bubba Clinton started a
few years back but it's looking a lot better than it did during the
crack era of the 80's. Young professionals (black and white) weren't
moving into Harlem a couple of decades ago, but they are on their way back.

Political polarization has served as an impediment to constructive
discourse on the issues of race and poverty. Far right and far left
perspectives have become redundant, and mundane, to the point where It
should come as no surprise that the topic was not on the agenda in our last
presidential election, yet diversity is the buzzword on college
campuses and corporate boardrooms.

POVERTY POVERTY POVERTY POVERTY POVERTY...I say it over and over again
because I don't think race-obsessed people have grasped this yet. But
then again what do I know, I'm only 23 and the opinions of young blacks
like me without ivy league degrees don't matter unless im raising hell
as part of the "george bush doesn't like black people" crew.

Frank Esson is a 23 year old graduate of Syracuse University from
Queens, NY. He will be pursuing a masters in public policy at the
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor this fall. He blogs about current events and
issues pertaining to race, culture, hip hop and politics at

http://cantbeboxedin.blogspot.com/