On Nov. 9, 2005, another fraud passing itself off as “biographical” and “realistic” premiered on many screens, mostly situated in urban landscapes of America. There was gunplay, bravado, arrogant machismo, and oh yes, some really bad acting to boot. And above it all, all the wrong messages were conveyed and added to the plight of an already embattled and struggling black community. What is this celluloid masterpiece, pray tell? It was the so-called “biopic” of Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cent, entitled Get Rich Or Die Tryin.
I’m sure that most folks were dull enough to plunk down money for this shill and was treated to a ton of thuggish swagger on-screen only to be followed by a half-assed message of “try and try again until you succeed … at all cost”. I’m most willing to bet the farm on this. The sad thing is that whatever positive (!!!??) messages this movie will try to convey, it was completely lost. I know, I’ve seen it done with Belly, New Jack City and even Shaft. The problem about social conscious “urban” movies is that as soon as the gunplay and gangsta swagger dies down, folks either dose off or skip out of the theater. The message gets lost, and folks come away with really bad advice in life. The problem with this “bad advice” is that in the black community it equates to the loss of life and innocence. Yeah, some “advice”.
I constantly hear folks refer to Hollywood as “liberal” Hollywood. Most liberals pride themselves as being “progressive” thinkers. I’m a bit confused on this. Since Hollywood is “liberal” (translation: progressive) why is it that this filth that is the scourge of the black community gets to the point where it is promoted and glorified. Some may say supply and demand. Ok, fair enough. How many of us would give a struggling heroin addict shots of heroin, simply because they’re feeling the withdrawal symptoms and they need a hit? If you really cared about helping that person, you’d withhold the fix. If you didn’t and seek to hasten the addict’s downward spiral, you’d give them carte blanche. Are you getting where I’m going with this? I’ll spell it out, in the harshest and bluntest possible manner: Hollywood and MTV/BET has accomplished in a few decades what the Ku Klux Klan has failed to do in centuries. I know this much about my fellow black Americans, we are very strong willed. I see this in my mother and many of my other relatives. We’ve withstood lynchings, torture, enslavement and discrimination. The true enemy lies within us.
It is a pyschological operation in full swing. If you can goad people, especially in the early stages of life, into believing that the shortcut to riches and fame is through arrogant deviant behavior, then you’ve turned off people from things like virtues and a decent work ethic. It is a caveman mentality and devolution of the human psyche. And that’s how people revert to a feral nature to obtain those things in life that they THINK they need.
Be not fooled. 50 Cent is not a stellar success. He is a well painted shell and a glammed out display ornament meant to serve only one purpose, and needless to say, it is a purpose that does not benefit the black community. It is a purposes that bluntly says: “you are animals, and the only way you can out of your situation is to revert to your animal instincts, being virtuous is laughable.” Sure he’s got a great mansion in Connecticut, drives around in exotic cars and probably have a bevy of beauties at his whims of fancy. But there is saying my mother used to say: “you can dress up crap, but people will still see beneath the layers that is still CRAP.”
On that day in November, many unsuspecting souls wandered into a cineplex and for about two hours and had their value system twisted into something vile and unrecognizable. Some that were weak, emerged with a tainted view of achieving fame and success. And the self-induced genocide begunsanew, as “liberal” Hollywood hides behind that “supply and demand” excuse. And Mr. Jackson will get a shiny new set of silver pieces (about thirty to be exact) as good percent of his audience just might die by the very virtues extolled by his “biopic”. Some supply. Some demand. And Paramount laughed all the way to the bank.
We never learn.
