Let’s talk about the Joyner Lucas music video. The video starts off with a white man wearing a MAGA hat and he’s mouthing the song and says the N word. And that’s what set me the fuck off. Many people have called this video “a conversation we need to be having about race”. But what you don’t realize is that this video is trash.
Now I don’t want to disrespect Joyner. I’m sure he’s a talented rapper and lyricist. It’s just that I’ve never heard of him before that music video showed up on my timeline. He dropped the music video some time this week and it has now garnered about 11 million views on YouTube, I believe.
The video shows a white man and a black man sitting across from each other discussing their racial grievances. The white man talks about how black people are lazy and they use slavery as an excuse. The white man also said that black people are too dependent on government assistance and that they are too focused on looking cool rather than taking care of their own kids. The black man talks about the systematic oppression that black people face, but somehow he describes it like that’s black people’s excuse for acting the way we do.
As if to say that racism is why black people act the way that the racist white guy thinks we do, which isn’t a sound argument if you ask me. The white guy is giving all of these affluent talking points like he’s Milo or Bannon. But the black guy just responds by basically saying that not all black people do the bad things you think they do. Honestly, the production of the video isn’t that bad, but the rap is more like a spoken word performance. Some of the lines are corny, but I don’t know why this video even exists.
I have to say that this video was a terrible idea. It doesn’t add anything to the discussion about race. It does not even display any intellectual conversation of any kind. It’s just two guys having an empty argument with no sound resolution. The end of the video shows the two of them hugging it out as if it is all okay. But it’s not okay. The white guy sits there talking about how black people are lazy and depend too much on food stamps;. He spits out racist ideology after another and the black guy can’t even clap back with any facts that disprove his racist claims. I think that everyone loves the end of the video because it shows how two different people can come to a truce. Well, a goddamn truce isn’t going to help us now.
Black people have wanted to be treated fairly and seen as human beings deserving of respect for a long ass time. And throughout history, white people have shown time and time again that they are completely incapable of treating people of color with respect. Black men are gunned down in the streets and statistically more likely to be pulled over by police. Black people convicted of nonviolent crimes are most likely to be charged with a longer sentence than white people who were convicted of the same crime. Black and latino families face housing discrimination and live in neighborhoods with underfunded schools. Black men are less likely to be hired for a job than a white man and could be more qualified than the white man.
African Americans are more likely to be stopped by police than white people. Black kids are more likely to be sentenced for life than white kids for the same crimes. Schools with more Latino and Black kids are more likely to be underfunded and probably don’t have AP classes or a Performing Arts program. White people are more likely to inherit land and money from their ancestors than black people and that’s because for a long time in American history black people couldn’t own anything! I know that white people STILL don’t think that race is not a big deal, but that doesn’t mean that this video is going to put a bandaid on racism. There are real discriminatory practices and ideologies that affect people of color every day. It’s not just people complaining. There is more to this discussion than just forgiving racist white people and being their friend.
The fact that people are applauding this video just shows what a huge mistake it was. We need to be having thoughtful conversations about race in our country and how it was built on the foundation of white supremacy. It’s not the time to hug it out. It’s time to hash it out
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