Black America: “I love the 90’s sociopath.”

Each decade tends to have its own idiosyncrasies that make it distinct from others, but the 90’s has proven to be perennial in regards to some elements of Black America and hip-hop culture. 

The 90’s felt new.  I assume that every generation of kids feels like the new kids on the block but the 90’s was a fast moving technological period.  We talked different, we walked different, and sure we as hell thought differently too.  I remember being an adolescent in the 90’s when gun violence had its birth of being the new epidemic.  It wasn’t crack from the 80’s or the uprising of young political blacks from the 70’s.  The 90’s brought a new, deadly style of thinking.  People have been killing each other since the beginning of time but the 90’s appears to have been the birth place for increasingly deadly mentalities and belief systems.  Around this time in Pittsburgh gangs were very active and for what may have arguably been the first time in the history of parenting, many parents across the nation had no idea of how to respond to this violent new generation.  All across America kids were getting shot, stabbed, and killed.  I think it was in the mid-to-late 90’s that a big drug bust happened in Pittsburgh that sent a lot of gang members to jail.  Before that, many of them were dying off or had already been going to jail, but since that drug bust Pittsburgh has not seen the emergence of that level of intensity of gang violence.  Gangs went away for the most part (in Pittsburgh) but violence made a home in the black inner-cities across America. 

Today it is 2016 but the 90’s are back.  Look at the fashion today.  Listen to the music; the new sound of hip-hop is sampling R&B tracks from the 90’s.  Back in 2014 I use to comment and say that all of the gang members who died in the 90’s are back and picking up where they left off.  Looking at the rap scene today, this idea may have some validity to it (lol).  Look at a picture of Tupac from the 90’s, from his fashion to his haircut and jewelry.  Look at pictures of Jay-Z in the 90’s.  Look at pictures of both genders from that time period – plaid shirts, bleached denim, and box haircuts with stylish parts.  All that was the 90’s…and it’s back.  I don’t know if those kids that passed away in the 90’s were reincarnated but I’m just sayin’ (*I’ve got a point face*).

An unfortunate thing about the 90’s is that sectors of black America have developed an infatuation for sociopathic characters in some of the biggest urban movies that have ever been made.  Characters like O-dog from Menace II Society, Nino Brown from New Jack City, and of course Bishop from Juice.  There have been few, if any, black gangster/noir movies post 90’s that have been considered to be classics like the ones from this era.  What has happened is that this gangster image and persona has never went away.  Sociopaths like Bishop, O-dog, and Nino Brown are still praised, commemorated, and deified today – 20-25 years later.  There is a large portion of black America that has fallen in love with the sociopath’s mentality.  This is not new idea.  Some of the world’s most influential leaders, generation after generation, have been sociopaths, and many sociopaths tend to be put into leadership positions.  However, there is a contradiction in black America’s plead to tell the world that black lives matter while at the same time idolizing sociopaths and sociopathic behaviors that are responsible for taking those black lives.  It is as if some of the members of the black community have been kidnapped by the sociopath and have developed Stockholm’s syndrome where they begin identifying and falling in-love with their abductor.

I am not insinuating that we need to stop watching these movies.  I like these movies.  They are great in their own way.  Most of them do try to project a positive message by reporting the negativity but it seems that too many viewers have either ignored the message or have been misled. 

I spoke to the star of a hood film that was recently shot in Pittsburgh.  I praised him and the cast for making an entertaining film.  Guess who his character was??...THE SOCIOPATH (lol).   After I expressed my appreciation for the talent and writing within the movie I told him that I thought the content of the movie was counterproductive for the black community…he agreed!  He said that he too would have liked certain scenes not to have been cut and for more of ‘the solution’ to have been in the film instead of staying on so much of the ‘hood stuff’.  He said that he had no control over the final product and I believe him – but I’m no fool either.  I believe that the movie is exactly what the director wanted – something comparable to Juice, Menace II Society, and New Jack City.  Why??...because a large part of black America loves a great sociopath.  A large part of AMERICA loves a great sociopath.  Other cultures engage in this same passionate relationship with the sociopath but it is regulated.  They do not allow their culture to be saturated and defined by sociopathic attitudes.  They may have used sociopathic attitudes and behaviors to attain more power for the benefit of their culture (which is a great element of strategy for success) but they do not appear to idolize those qualities.  Black America abdicates the power and strategy, leaving the sociopathic qualities for other uses.  When sociopathic behaviors are not being used for a greater good, what other good is there to be done?  For black America to improve its position in the world as a healthier culture, we will have to get out of this loving relationship we have for the 90’s sociopath.

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© March 4, 2016 PerspectVe LLC