Making it cool to be smart

[MsLioness]

Originally Posted by Im The Truth

In yt communities it's smart to be cool so how does capitalism play into that? Is it only capitalism for one group? Or something different?

In white communities, there is a such thing as being cool. It is not-cool to be a "nerd" or "computer geek." However, they embrace exploitation...professionally.
Its still really cool to get by. If you can use someone else to put yourself on top, you are the ultimate hustler.....that is how capitalism is set up.

We go about it in different ways. Black People do not have the same opportunities as white People. White People can use Black People easily because of the centuries of exploitation by the color of the skin. White People are endowed, by society, with privileges....while Black People are underprivileged.

Capitalism needs inequality to maximize profits.

There are many ingredients, but we all know that racism, sexism, religious discrimmination coupled with the hope of democracy are important for a healthy capitalist-state.

[La Bella Afrique]

Originally Posted by CosmicAscension

That's what I don't get about feminism: the feminist movements are supposed to be about liberating women from 'oppressive' men and being independent, but like most 'liberal' movements it seems that it has done the exact opposite; made women even more unproductive and dependent on a man's success. When I compare my grandmothers (whom I love and view as standards for today's women to aim for) to today's women I look at what makes them special and why my grandfather's chose them, and I rarely see that specialness in women of my generation. They can both cook really well, not just make stuff out of the box (something that all men like), they both carry themselves with dignity unlike ghetto hoochies, and each of them possesses a genuine fortitude indicative of pre-civil-rights blacks.

hmmmmmmmmmmmm@ghetto hoochies...

I can see how these derogatory phrases will help heal the minds of our people especially when it comes from our own people...

NOT!

[Im The Truth]

Originally Posted by MsLioness

In white communities, there is a such thing as being cool. It is not-cool to be a "nerd" or "computer geek." However, they embrace exploitation...professionally.
Its still really cool to get by. If you can use someone else to put yourself on top, you are the ultimate hustler.....that is how capitalism is set up.

We go about it in different ways. Black People do not have the same opportunities as white People. White People can use Black People easily because of the centuries of exploitation by the color of the skin. White People are endowed, by society, with privileges....while Black People are underprivileged.

Capitalism needs inequality to maximize profits.

There are many ingredients, but we all know that racism, sexism, religious discrimmination coupled with the hope of democracy are important for a healthy capitalist-state.

No doubt capitalism needs inequality to maximize profits. But I have to disagree with your points because Black people do have the same opportunities as yts. There are more poor yts in ameriKKKa than poor blacks, yts are exploited similar to blacks in ameriKKKa - this is no secret. The differences in exploitation become obvious when you look at members of the same class but different race. That’s the bases of racism. But thread is talking about “making it cool to be smart”. It seems like you are saying "coolness" is based on the ability to exploit? I disagree. 95+% of all people in ameriKKKa do not have the ability to exploit.

Success or the look of success is what makes a person cool. We, especially at a young age, do not include education and scholastic as success. That’s why it’s not cool to be smart. In white communities the term geek or nerd is not only tie to smarts but to looks and persona as well so that’s why nerds and geeks aren’t "cool". Black folks, especially at a young age, do not include education and scholastic as cool so looks and persona are almost irrelevant if you are smart. In the time when black folks had their best cultural time in ameriKKKa – pre civil-rights - education and family were at the top of the list. Now it’s at the bottom and temporary things like money, sex, drugs, and all other fun things are at the top of the list.

That one thing good about Obama is the fact that Black folks in ameriKKKa will finally feel like they are equal (like Malcolm I say better) to yts in ameriKKKa so maybe this cool to be dumb stuff will disappear.

[Majadi]

Originally Posted by CosmicAscension

That's what I don't get about feminism: the feminist movements are supposed to be about liberating women from 'oppressive' men and being independent, but like most 'liberal' movements it seems that it has done the exact opposite; made women even more unproductive and dependent on a man's success. When I compare my grandmothers (whom I love and view as standards for today's women to aim for) to today's women I look at what makes them special and why my grandfather's chose them, and I rarely see that specialness in women of my generation. They can both cook really well, not just make stuff out of the box (something that all men like), they both carry themselves with dignity unlike ghetto hoochies, and each of them possesses a genuine fortitude indicative of pre-civil-rights blacks.

Wow, did you actually say, "...cook really well, not just make stuff out of the box (something that all men like)" ? Did you actually make a comparison between cooking, and pre-civil-rights blacks in reference to dignity and fortitude? As a proud Afrikan man I must state that this sounds a bit offensive towards the Queens. I would like to ask you for clarification? I hope you are not implying that women are "better" for being able to cook and clean and things of that nature. I am one Afrikan man who wants a woman to do a hell of a lot more than cook! Hell I can cook better than a majority of the women I have ever dated! Please clarify your statements! Then we need to get back on topic! lol!

[Fenix]

I really don't understand it when people make sweeping generalizations about women of a generation. It doesn't make sense to me. Just like every woman of my grandmother's generation did not turn out to be able "to cook really well", every woman of my generation does not lack "specialness".

Just the way you find women with cooking skills special, maybe some women appreciate a man with swag.

I don't condone either but there are people who will make each case. Keeping women in the kitchen won't get us anywhere, just the same way you believe that encouraging Black men to 'have swag' won't get us anywhere.

It's really strange to say that you want women to judge you on what you have as opposed to what you don't have and then imply that because women can't cook they are somehow less special. I hope that this wasn't your intention because your initial point was extremely valid.

Please clear this up if this isn't what you meant.

[MsLioness]

Originally Posted by Im The Truth

No doubt capitalism needs inequality to maximize profits. But I have to disagree with your points because Black people do have the same opportunities as yts. There are more poor yts in ameriKKKa than poor blacks, yts are exploited similar to blacks in ameriKKKa - this is no secret. The differences in exploitation become obvious when you look at members of the same class but different race. That’s the bases of racism. But thread is talking about “making it cool to be smart”. It seems like you are saying "coolness" is based on the ability to exploit? I disagree. 95+% of all people in ameriKKKa do not have the ability to exploit.

Success or the look of success is what makes a person cool. We, especially at a young age, do not include education and scholastic as success. That’s why it’s not cool to be smart. In white communities the term geek or nerd is not only tie to smarts but to looks and persona as well so that’s why nerds and geeks aren’t "cool". Black folks, especially at a young age, do not include education and scholastic as cool so looks and persona are almost irrelevant if you are smart. In the time when black folks had their best cultural time in ameriKKKa – pre civil-rights - education and family were at the top of the list. Now it’s at the bottom and temporary things like money, sex, drugs, and all other fun things are at the top of the list.

That one thing good about Obama is the fact that Black folks in ameriKKKa will finally feel like they are equal (like Malcolm I say better) to yts in ameriKKKa so maybe this cool to be dumb stuff will disappear.

We can agree to disagree, sometimes.

There might be more poor white People than black People, but I believe that that is only because there are more white People than black People (here).

Though white People are exploited, they are not twice/three times oppressed.

Opportunities vary once race and gender are applied to the exploitation.

Success is different than being "cool."

However, the amount of money you have, and your connections to the People with large amounts of money or a good means to getting it, determine how cool you are....in the context we might use the word today.

Capitalism plays the main role in determining how People achieve money in a capitalist society. The right to fire and hire are very important.

We can barely make a national image of ourselves, in a respectful light, due to what the enemy has portrayed us as. So, I believe the definition of cool has much to do with him.

The thread, to me, was saying that women should try brothers who are smart and understand that it is actually cool to be smart, as opposed to finding a brother who got many monetary ends but nothing in the head.

I was attempting to defend the women by saying that we tend to find ourselves interested in so-called ballin' brothers because in these days and times money is a major issue...even so more than family ties.

The situation capitalism has put us in...to have shelter, food, clothes, education, and health-care----is a luxury.

Not that I don't understand where you are coming from, but I just think you started in the middle of a time-line instead of hitting it right where this madness of divide and conquer began and relating it to our current situations and positions at home and abroad.

You know I love you.

Forward!

[DarkManJah]

i've witnessed Black motivational speakers speak to Afrikan youth in the attempt to convince them that it is kool to be smart (which is always the smart that encourages assimilation). They are eith sleeping or playing pencil breaking less than halfway through the lecture, lol! As often as i can get away with it, i try to link being critically enlightened along Pan-Afrikan lines (a profoundly different kind of smart) with koolness. Many (the ones who anxiously gather around my desk when the period-ending bell rings) have embraced the idea by requesting a reading/website list. Smart has to be redefined, i think, in terms that promote racial solidarity through collectively learning insurgent Knowledge. If the Knowedge is subversive, they may ask: well, i gotta make a living so how will i profit tangibly/moneytarily? i would anser they could become Pan-Afrikan scholars, for example, and write books and essays like Van Sertima, Ani, or Clarke. i don't know. What i do know is that the smart is kool strategy does not work for Our youth because smart is deceptively equated with the capacity to make money within the capitalist order by using your brains, and for people who are daily exploited by capitalism... Anyway, when the strategy is successful (thiink of all those young Black entraprenuers you see on Oprah or in Ebony magazine), i think there goes another sister or brother who has been mis-educated out of the possibility of ever liberating their mind. Oh, they smart. But it is a politically useless smarts...