The C word

Rapsody highlights how she feels her image and how she presents herself and its hindrance to her success. If she was male or expressed her sexuality through her music, her audience would grow and society would deem her “acceptable” or “entertaining”. Her promise to stay 100% true to herself has allowed herself to build her brand without the salacious content. She decided that she was going to “take the stairs”.

This sentiment reflects into the lives of women everywhere who are faced with difficult decision regarding building a career. At times it is necessary to “take the stairs”, meaning out working and out performing everyone in your arena. In certain situations this method is not only more difficult but it is more time consuming.

It proves necessary that the easy way is not always the best option, because as quick as you come up… you will come down.

Don’t run from where you came from.

Tyler Perry spoke about the importance representation is in our community. In the last decade we saw the first African American president, we saw black men and women build empires, we started to see people who looked like us winning at life. This has proven to be exponentially important for the black community. When you see moguls who look like you, sound like you, come from where you come from you begin to believe that you can do the same. Representation projects a powerful message that everybody, regardless of race, gender, sexual preference, or religion has a place in this world,

To a lot of us success is measured by the image we project. Success can be status, material items, financial security or success can simply be inspiration.

It is important that we not only flaunt our success on social media. It is prevalent we move success into the communities that need it the most. Tyler Perry studios is located in one of the most heavily populated African American communities in the country. The location allows young men and women accessibility to their dreams. Success is no longer found in LA, or New York. Success is our backyard.

The first episode of Trigger Warning with Killer Mike touched on the importance of a strong central economy within the African American race.

My first comment on the episode has to be on the satirical nature of the show, he makes several jokes including referencing the point of desegregation was to “sit at the counter with white people”. I personally feel as though he passed over many teachable moments with jokes and comedy instead of taking a moment to delve into the true reasoning behind both the civil rights movement and the current movement promoting black owned businesses.

Secondly he briefly speaks on the rate of which a dollar stays in the black community. This is important to talk about because of the extreme lack of economic growth there has been in our community. Culturally we have become increasingly dependent on someone else to create and then we consume. There are no black owned national grocery stores, few black owned beauty supply stores, and no black owned car companies. The society we are living in promotes “integrated consumerism”, this scratches the surface to a greater issue in which we shop as individuals, not as a community. As a whole we have fed into the cycle of blindly consuming; spending our money in places that have the capabilities and agency to maintain the wealth gap we are combating, do not ethically source materials, and only care about personal gain.

The last topic I want to cover is the initial reaction my peers have to Black owned products. In many of our minds there could never be a “black equivalent” to an Iphone. As if the idea of someone doing so inherently labels the product ghetto, undesirable, and incapable of fulfilling their needs. I’ve seen the same rhetoric with black films; hyper critical and judgmental sentiments before allowing themselves to experience it as its own entity; everything has to have a white equivalent. This type of speech is detrimental to our society simply because if we don’t believe, if we don’t support, why do we expect the rest world to? In closing I believe there is a subconscious belief that what is already out there is better than anything we can create, this lack of pride within our community is detrimental to our growth and prevents the masses from obtaining financial security.

Anger is a manifestation of a deeper issue… and that, for me, is based on insecurity, self-esteem and loneliness.

— Naomi Campbell

Hello, my name is Chayil Townsend. I am a sophomore from Fayetteville, Nc. I am a political science and psychology major with a minor in mass communications and military history. My aspirations include Foreign Aid Officer in the US Army Corps, as well as running for political office later down the line.

I expect mass communications to teach me how to be an active consumer. I feel as though it will allow me to delve deep into the capabilities of communication and allow me to become increasingly comfortable producing content that is not only personal but purposeful as well

I am open to the various aspects of mass media and learning how I as an individual consume and participate in the growth that has been apparent over the course of the last decade. As someone who grew with the age of technology I have not thought much about what this growth means… I simply blindly participated.