Lil’ Wayne has been making moves and money off ghetto visions and purple drank dreams for nearly 15 years now. Go and check for him now and you might find yourself asking, “Brrrr, what happened to that boy?”
In a recent statement while appearing on the FS1 sports talk show Undisputed yesterday, he’s claimed to never have encountered racism.
How can a man who grew up in New Orleans, one of the blackest cities in America from a historical, cultural and populous perspective, say that he has never experienced racism?
Wayne, born Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr, has been something of a sports talk show go-to guy over the past five years or so because of his extensive knowledge of sports and urban culture.
Check out what he had to say when the moderator Joy Taylor asked what he thought of Colin Kaepernick’s protest.
It’s funny how soon people forget. It was just four years ago that Wayne accused the Oklahoma City Thunder of racism after he was denied courtside seats during a contest between the Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs. He went on to state that his many white fans and admirers are proof positive that racism does not exist.
This is just the latest in what appears to be an unfortunate tradition of famous Black individuals rising from dire poverty into stardom, then questioning the validity of racism in America.
Newsflash, the extreme poverty that haunts Black neighborhoods throughout America is a direct result of decades of purposeful divestment by business, local government and federal government, as well as the voting practices of the once white minority in dense urban areas like New Orleans.
The lack of jobs, lack of business, dilapidated homes and lack of male leadership in many Black communities, all of which are indirect sociological causes of high crime and violence, is a direct result of these practices and policies.
I would have hoped that a 32-year-old Black man from one of America’s poorest and Blackest cities would have been aware of that.
Dear Lil’ Wayne, racism isn’t only about direct violence and being treated by others in a civil manner. It’s about the power to dictate, subjugate and otherwise disenfranchise a population because of the color of one’s skin based upon preconceived and historic racial prejudices.
Please make a note of it.
