People gather in front of a Kobe Bryant mural in downtown Los Angeles on January 27, 2020. - Nine people were killed in the helicopter crash which claimed the life of NBA star Kobe Bryant and his 13 year old daughter, Los Angeles officials confirmed on Sunday. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said eight passengers and the pilot of the aircraft died in the accident. The helicopter crashed in foggy weather in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas. Authorities said firefighters received a call shortly at 9:47 am about the crash, which caused a brush fire on a hillside. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

Black Celebs, Racism & Economics.

BROOKLYN, USA — The reason you read and hear so much negativity about Black celebrities in the drive-by Caucasian media is not only the result of the animalistic, primitive hatred that Caucasians feel for Black people. Certainly this is merely the cause for the pervasive negative stereotyping of Black celebrities in the white media.

But, if primitive sentiments about Black people in the white media didn’t pay, if they didn’t result in the economic deprivation of Black people for the benefit of whites, i.e. if these animalistic sentiments that white people hold about Black people didn’t result in the ‘wages of whiteness,’ the pervasiveness of negative stereotypes in the major white media networks would perhaps wane with increased awareness. But they don’t.

And the glaring reason is that by painting Kobe Bryant as a rapist (which is a white lie), white people intend not only to display their primitivism (or whiteness) towards Kobe and Kobe’s legacy, they also intend to deprive the man and his family of any financial benefits that his name can accrue. By tainting Kobe’s name, the rest of his family can no longer leverage his legacy (image) for their economic enrichment in the same way that elevating his name could. More, Black people, and Black communities, cannot benefit from the legacies of their celebrities so long as white people can demonize Black celebrities.

This is, in fact, the reason why Elvis Presley, a Caucasian man who became famous in white America for stealing and recording Black people’s folk songs, is lionized in Memphis, Tennessee (the Birth Place of The African Music Civilization of the Americas), while the likes of Sam Cooke (the King of Soul), the famous African American man who dominated the Soul music industry for a generation, are not anywhere within geographic America lionized, and worshiped.

Even in sports, Black athletes are continually demonized in the media, while their Caucasian counterparts are lionized. In British Soccer for instance, the Premiership coverage does not miss a beat to paint mediocre white players like De Bryune in the most positive of lights, while the same media engages in incessant publications of negative narratives about the superstar, Paul Pogba of Manchester United.

The white media (NBC, ABC, CNN, FOX, NYT, etc.) coverage of Kobe Bryant (The Black Mamba) after his death, just for instance, including their coverage of Bill Cosby’s trial and imprisonment, and their total lack of reporting, at the same time, on white celebrities with similar and worse allegations, the likes of Epstein, Weinstein, Weiner, etc., goes to underscore the systematic method by which white Americans engage in the economic deprivation of Blacks (Black communities).

Thus, racism, is not only a primitive, animilistic, feeling, it is an intrinsically economic stagecraft, witchcraft even, used to siphon resources from Black communities (worldwide) into Caucasian hands. By lionizing Elvis Presley, and demonizing Sam Cooke, wealth is transmitted specifically from the memory and legacy of Sam Cooke into the legacy of Elvis. By white-washing every De Bryune assist (not goals), and demonizing every Anthony Martial goal, wealth is invariably transmitted from the image of Martial to De Bryune in terms of the sale of actual soccer merchandise. By demonizing Kobe Bryant, even after his death, the same primitivism, the same witchcraft, works to transfer wealth from Kobe’s family (from his surviving daughters) into the hands of Larry Bird through the sale of basketball merchandise.

This is why no matter all our phrasing—race relations, racial chasm, racial justice, racial profiling, white privilege, even white supremacy—only serves to obscure the reality that racism is a economic tool and objective, that it does not only dislodge brains, block airways, rip muscle, extract organs, crack bones, break teeth, but it also, with great violence, results in the economic deprivation of Black people (worldwide).

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~ Success is a horrible teacher. It seduces the ignorant into thinking that he can’t lose. It seduces the intellectual into thinking that he must win. Success corrupts; Only usefulness exalts. ~ WP. Narmer Amenuti (which names translate: Dances With Lions), was born by The River, deep within the heartlands of Ghana, in Ntoaboma. He is a public intellectual from the Sankoré School of Critical Theory, where he trained and was awarded the highest degree of Warrior Philosopher at the Temple of Narmer. As a Culture Critic and a Guan Rhythmmaker, he is a dilettante, a dissident and a gadfly, and he eschews promotional intellectualism. He maintains strict anonymity and invites intellectuals and lay people alike to honest debate. He reads every comment. If you enjoyed this essay and would like to support more content like this one, please pour the Ancestors some Libation in support of my next essay, or you can go bold, very bold and invoke them. Here's my CashApp: $TheRealNarmer

1 COMMENT

  1. It is in Their SATANIC NATURE to Desecrate the SPIRITUAL MEMORY of AFRICAN PEOPLE, to Make Themselves appear more worthy of the Accolades!

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