Niggertude (excerpt)

....The entire industry of “Soul Food”, Black "Hair Care" products and the majority of the consumption of jewelry, car accessories and pork products by Black people is a direct inheritance of the culture of slavery. What are we really, or as my homies in the hood would say “What’s really happenin’”?

Are we truly products of our own design or the product of second class citizenship and an inferior self concept forged through adaptation to adverse conditions? Are we simply a people who’ve had to make cultural sacrifices and bargains to survive, or are we just Jigaboos whose real legacy is now and always has been tellin’ jokes, sangin and gettin’ crunk?

The truest advice given by every guidance counselor and self help author to their audience is to do what you love to do or what you’re good at. It is often asserted that the Black man can do anything that all of the other races excel at. For that matter, it is a known fact that we invented the majority of the arts and the sciences. Why is it then that now even the most successful among us from Oprah Winfrey to Robert Johnson have made their marks as entertainers and entertainment promoters, not physicists and mathematicians?

The real question though is rather than try to prove we can be just as good at geophysics and aeronautics, would we be better off by taking total control of areas like sports, entertainment and the arts? We have spent centuries apologizing for our affinities for athletics and entertaining. However, the reality is that if we controlled those industries, it would provide enough resources to employ, house and feed us all....