What Nipsey Hussle’s Death Says about Black Hypocrisy and Fake Hashtag Activism

It is indeed a very sad day when any black person is taken from this world before the age of 35 for any reason. It is even worse for those under 25 and 15 years of age. To acknowledge this in our community means sending prayers to the victim’s family and love ones.  It means extending a support that they may need honestly and sincerely. If one is a celebrity, then it means blessings in the age of twitter in the form of tweets lauding them as if they were the greatest and kindest person ever. Simple it means virtue signaling to the herd mentality.

This morning, as I sat on the toilet reading the multiple news feeds on my phone, I read that LA rapper Nipsey Hussle was murdered in a hail of gun fire in front of one of his businesses. As the word spread, virtue signaling in the form of 280 characters or less began pouring in. John Legend said “RIP Nipsey.  I just spent Thursday with him filming a video for a beautiful new song we created with Khaled.  We filmed in Inglewood, close to where he grew up. He was so gifted, so proud of his home, so invested in his community.  Utterly stunned that he's gone so soon.” “My spirit is shaken by this! Dear God, may His spirit Rest in Peace and May You grant divine comfort to all his loved ones” Rihanna tweeted. Meek Mill added: “we really fighting for our lives against our own kind and really have to take risk and match the level of hatred that we are born in I’m tired prayers for my brother and his family.” I could continue but you get the message. Any additional listing would only be nauseating but take it from me, everyone from LeBron James to Jada Pinkett Smith had something to say. My good friend and former colleague Rodney Carmichael at NPR described him as a “Grammy-Nominated Rapper and Philanthropist.”

It is true that Nipsey had turned his life around and had become a change for good. But I asked myself as I read the inundation of tweets, let us suppose he had been killed by a white policeman, what would the tweets may have said then, instead of an alleged African-American fellow gang banger? What virtue should be signaled then? I’m certain anyone wish prayers in the first scenario would be vilified.  Wishes of prayers for cops killing black men are useless and pathetic, but when we kill each other they are the right thing to do. Not to mention since he has changed his life for the better what he did before doesn’t matter and isn’t important in explaining who he is as a person, but if it was some other person, who may have dressed like Bruce Lee twenty years ago, or touched a woman on their booty, especially being non-black, it would synthetic hashtag outrage.

Now I am not bashing Nipsey and as a man feel for his family, but the thinker in me is attracted to hypocrisy. Think about it, no mass protest will be arranged for this man, but if he had been killed by a cop I am sure it would. Moreover, let us not forget that he was a member of the Rollin' 60s Crips (a life time membership) and openly demonstrated this on the cover of his Bullets Ain't Got No Name series in 2008. His new album continued his preoccupation with calling folk N*****, the drug game, materialism, street life and yes – set tripping. Take the lyrics from the song Succa Proof from his latest album Victory Lap: Look, I don't fuck what you niggas done, I don't give a fuck where you niggas from, For you and your mouth go and get a gun, Leave you slumped on the scene, that's a hit and run, Oh y'all Bloods, oh y'all Crips now, Fuck it, I'm big draws, I'm J. Prince now.”

Again, I repeat this is a sad lose. He was doing big things in the community and holding down his family like men should do, both being the images we as men should incessantly present to our communities. However, we have problems that only we can address. However, this requires us be honest with ourselves, leaving hypocrisy behind and acknowledging that they exist. Yes, racism exist, but it isn’t our biggest obstacle or problem, that would be us. We know that homes with two parents and fathers in them are likely not to be in poverty, have kids drop out of high school, less likely to have a daughter pregnant before graduation, are more likely to go to college and male children are less likely to get caught up in the criminal justice system. WE KNOW THIS, yet we act as if this is because of systemic racism.  Last I looked systemic racism had nothing to do with using a condom, keeping your legs closed, saying no to having unprotected sex, doing homework with your children and not using the television set as a baby sitter. We know that African American males represent about 6 percent of the U.S. population but commit almost 40% of murders and comprise nearly 60% of all murder victims (Another reason why our homicide rate is four times the U.S. average).

There was NO reason we as a community and nation should have lost such a prosperous soul as Nipsey Hussle. But if we do not address why this type of senseless outcome keeps occurring, whether rich or poor or famous or joe citizen, we will never make any progress.  We should be equally upset for Nipsey as we do Darion Strong. We should be equally upset for HeavenSutton as we are Oscar Grant. But none of this will ever change if we put out in the universe that the death of a black by a white person is more valuable, interesting and important than a death of a black person by another black person. The more these liberals hypnotize blacks to keep on virtue signaling (the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue), the less likely we will have the desire and power to acknowledge and solve our own problems, and the more we live in areas like Baltimore where only 13 percent of city students are considered proficient in In fourth and eighth grade reading and one-third of High Schools in Baltimore, last year, had zero students proficient in math. RIP NIP, we will make something good out of this.