rick ross + racism + brute force

i love Black music, especially rap and hip-hop. as i do most weekday mornings, yesterday i spent the first couple hours of my day meditating and playing vigorous 1on1 basketball (in which I'm the 1 and the 1). i'll generally have a Tidal playlist playing on my headphones as I play, and will do my best to dissect and find inspiration in various song lyrics while trying to maintain a state of flow as i shoot my shot.

yesterday morning I had Rick Ross's song, Game Ain't Based on Sympathy, on repeat. in his effortless way, reverend Ross was sharing an essential and fundamental truth of the game: "wins" in this life are taken, not given. bullies don't show mercy. conquerors don't give up their spoils. prison guards don't open up the gates out of the goodness of their hearts. it just doesn't happen.

a lesson in realpolitik dynamics: bullies pick on you until you scare them shitless (and keep them scared in fear of losing the things that matter to them). conquerors subjugate you until you conquer them. and, you've got to pay prison guards better than the warden can in order to have the gates opened. in essence, cold rationality (and not hope) bring about change for the downtrodden.

bullies, conquerors and prison guards love the way hope looks on us. it buys them more time to assert their dominance over the hopeful, as they serve brute force in return. to be clear, i'm not advocating violence of any form. violence is a crude and short-sighted means to achieve any end, and a sure way to make one's preferred outcome a temporary state, and/or an extremely expensive status quo to maintain. sounds like a dud to me.

racism is a tool, not an end. it can be best understood within the context of the systems and power structures it is deployed to protect and entrench. it is a strong weapon because it's often wielded invisibly. but, it's a weak weapon because it cowers in the face of brute force (massive resources and well-organized masses, for instance). i'm advocating cold, hard, evidence-based rationality. i'm advocating the humble study of the systems under which we live, careful observation of those who control the levers of power in those systems, and clear-eyed, savvy and unsentimental opposition to those forces that seek to eliminate or weaken you.

blame Rick Ross for reminding me not to let hope blind one to game.

term of the day: African Diaspora.

song of the day: Summer by The Carters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOFg7Eb01AA