I used to read comic books, and a lot of them. Somewhere there's shoeboxes of comics, some in sleeves, some not, but all of them read and read a few times. Every good comic had a protagonist and antagonist. You can't have the Fantastic Four if there's no Dr. Doom. Now I'm not taking this analogy as far as Samuel L. Jackson's character in "Unbreakable" (which I think is a pretty good M. Night movie, but whatever) but needless to say, we all need a mortal enemy. We need that person who is such the antithesis of yourself that it keeps you grounded in reality. I have mine.
Coincidentally, like in comic books, we started off on decent footing. Not to say we were best friends but let's just say we go quite a few years back and know each other fairly well. We had our issues, our disagreements, but no major rifts. Said person has his ideals and ideas, I had mine. They rarely matched or even overlapped. Then suddenly, nothing. One day, all communication broke down for good. Nothing I'm saddened by, said person is a complete moron, but I keep my tabs on said person because again, keeps me grounded in what I believe.
For the purpose of this blog, let's call said person Zed. Zed suffers from delusions of grandeur, Joneses' syndrome, and high insecurity. This isn't just my biased opinion, this feeling has taken roots in others as well.
Let's start with this. I'm no Christian. I'm Catholic, yes, but I don't subscribe to the God and Christ shit, and haven't in a while. So I don't believe in predestination and "His plan" and this isn't to slate anyone who does, but Zed goes beyond this. Zed believes that their god has decried Zed great and will do mammoth things in the course of their life. (I use their to remove the gender-specific pronouns.) Now, I know Zed. I know Zed's idea of great and Zed has done nothing close to great. So either their god isn't listening, never ordained this shit, or doesn't think much of Zed.
My biggest complaint with Zed is that for someone from humble beginnings and humble present times too, Zed has grown to be such a faux black elitist that it's quite sickening and shines light on the other bad side of our community the world over. Sure, we all know that Africans everywhere are labeled as goons, thugs, murderers, violent criminals, ignorant and unable to utilise their brain power for anything analytical or worthwhile, but then there's the other side. There's the black elite, who went to the right schools, the right churches, the right summer spots, whatever. So on one side we have "niggas" and on the other "coloureds". And then we have a smattering of niggas who believe they're coloured, the faux elite. These no-good motherfuckers come from lower middle-class to middle middle-class backgrounds, often not from the right areas of the right cities, didn't go to the right schools, but at least went to school, didn't go to the right churches but waved their pompous piety in your face, and wouldn't know whether Links referred to a golf course or a woman's organisation. Zed is one of the latter. To me, these people are the absolute worst of African communities. I mean niggas, sure they're fucked up, but they also are victims of a society that has done everything to immobilise them. Coloureds, although deplorable, you can still sense they sometimes care about all of the community. But these folks in the middle, who come from close to nigga beginnings but aspire to coloured endings, they all but forget their roots and trade everything in for a fantasy.
I know, I know. I'm a bit revolutionary in thinking. I believe that the world can be fixed through armed struggle of the third world and the proletariat against those who control capital. I believe firmly in the economic principles of Marxist theory to establish equaliy and justice. So any red bastard like myself, who bleeds for the poor, the misers, the forgotten, would think anyone who aspires to big mansions and Benzes in the driveway is a douche bag and should be terminated on sight. But this isn't the case. I know I live in a capitalistic economy and commercialism and consumerism rules our culture. Do you. If you like that shit, go for it. But this Zed, I can remember a time where the person wasn't creating such a false foundation
Zed used to care about the common man, used to care about the course of the African-American community if not the African community worldwide. Used to care about doing something special, about affecting the lives of many. Something switched in Zed. Now, some friends and myself speculate he read quite the unintentionally divisive book, "Our Kind of People" which details the inner workings of the black elite from someone who hovered between fringe and accepted member. There are people like myself who read this book and just couldn't believe what they were reading. Then there are the people who read it and prop it up like a motivational guide, a "Who Moved My Cheese?" if you will. I believe Zed is one of those idiots who read it and took it to be an aspirational guide.
Problem here though, the book highly details who can be that kind of people and who cannot, and Zed ticks every box on the cannot list. So what does a person like Zed do? What else? You legally tie yourself to another who could be on the fringe of the fringe of this world. Sure, they don't tick every box on the can list, but there's a few ticked a least. But then this leads to a bigger problem. The person Zed ties to has way more going on for themselves than does Zed. And Zed, remember, is destined for greatness and glory. I highly doubt that Zed ever figured destiny would mean having to attach yourself to another. Greatness and glory through symbiosis can hardly be called great or glorious, right? Poor bastard. Ah well, what can ya do?
Another problem with Zed is they come from the school of "Talk Loud and Draw a Crowd". If you know Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson of today, or your average black pastor, you know this. Hell if you know Ray Lewis, you know this theory. You whisper or announce certain words with thunder so they catch the desired ears, you say nothing of substance but because of how you said it and the people you're trying to draw in, it seems as if you just delivered the meaning of life. When I see Zed on twitter and Zed's lame followers, you would think this person had all the mysteries figured out by the amounts of retweets and cosigns sent in reply. None of these people are people I respect nor like and it's no coincidence that they all aspire to the faux elitist lifestyle or some semblance of it. You're saying nothing Zed. Your opinions are often bullshit, your life is drowning in consumerism, and face it, you're a nobody like the rest of us nobodies.
If you want proof of how not-elitist and never will be this douche is, here is in a nutshell. Zed is the kind of person who goes to another person's house for a spirited game of SPADES and brings their own wine coolers. Wine coolers. Spades. Wine coolers and Spades. That's the dichotomy of this fucker in a nice package. Zed will rub in your face their "refined palette" while trumping you with his little Joker and collecting a book. Zed is a ham hock nigga trying to be a filet mignon coloured. Shit just doesn't mesh. But it's so much fun to watch.
Bitch.
No comments:
Post a Comment