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On ‘Saint’ Nipsey Hussle, an Alternative View
My most recent contribution over at PJ Media concerns what I believe to be the inordinate adulation shown to slain rapper Nipsey Hussle. Hussle, whose true name was Ermias Asghedom, was shot to death on March 31 outside the clothing store he owned in Los Angeles. Eric Holder (no, not that one) has been arrested and charged with murder in the case.
On April 11, Hussle’s funeral was held before an audience of 21,000 in LA’s Staples Center, making him the second person so honored. (The first was Michael Jackson; make of that what you will.) After the funeral, Hussle’s hearse led a chaotic procession on a 25-mile tour of South Los Angeles, a tour which, as I noted in the piece, scarcely passed a single block that hadn’t been the scene of at least one murder in the last 20 years. LAPD brass called the event a success when only four people were shot (one fatally) and only four police cars were vandalized.
South Los Angeles is policed by four patrol divisions within the LAPD, Southwest, 77th Street, Southeast, and Newton, and at various times in my career with the department I worked at all of these stations. It was in these assignments that I became familiar with the gang culture that prevails in the area, a culture that has sown more death and misery than I can come close to describing. I can’t possibly count all the murder scenes I went to, to say nothing of the more frequent non-fatal shootings. During my time working in South LA, I responded to at least one shooting every night and at least one murder every week. The utter waste of young life I witnessed continues to haunt me.
And yet Nipsey Hussle, who emerged from this gang culture, embraced it, profited handsomely from it, and ultimately died because of it, is hailed as a hero, even a “ghetto saint” in the words of Michael Eric Dyson, who, one presumes, should be smart enough to know better. Barack Obama sent an admiring letter to Hussle’s family. “I’d never met Nipsey Hussle,” he wrote, “but I’d heard some of his music through my daughters, and after his passing, I had the chance to learn more about his transformation and his community work.”
One wonders if this song was among those Sasha and Malia Obama favored, and what Mr. Obama’s opinion might be of the message it conveys. (Warning: abundant coarse language.)
Let there be no confusion here. Mr. Obama’s sentiments notwithstanding, the only transformation Nipsey Hussle experienced was that of changing from a poor gang member to a rich one, albeit one who invested some small portion of his acquired wealth in a handful of local businesses. He never disavowed his membership in the Rollin’ 60s Neighborhood Crips, on whose hands can be found the blood of hundreds of murder victims. Indeed, in interviews and the lyrics to his music, he continued to boast of his membership in the gang right up until his death.
Local politicians displayed the same lack of moral courage. LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, as spineless a man as ever drew breath, joined in the fawning praise, posting a tribute to Hussle on his Facebook page. But even worse than that, and even more insulting to the law-abiding residents of the city, especially those who live in daily fear of the Rollin’ 60 Crips, is the news that the intersection of Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard, near the scene of Hussle’s death, will soon be christened as Ermias “Nipsey Hussle” Asghedom Square.
And after being so named, we’ll wait to see who has the distinction of being the first person to be murdered there.
Published in Law, Policing
Just ordered the book. Thank you.
I think the only solution is so unpalatable it won’t be implemented for another generation at least – any mother or family so disorganized they need public assistance must submit to long acting birth control measures.
There’s a better solution. A non-eugenic solution: stop offering welfare to single parents. That is the unambiguous root cause of the explosion in births to unwed mothers. Also helpful: don’t raise welfare benefits if additional children are conceived after getting on welfare.
In my first post I called him a Wannabe for that very reason.
Eugene, great comments. I have a question about the highlighted portion: What is valuable in “black culture”?
I am not trying to be insulting. I genuinely want to know if there is anything of value in “black culture,” and the phrasing would suggest that it has to be something different from what is of value in “white culture” or our common culture. I think that a great many black people have excellent values, but they are values that I share, so I don’t see them as uniquely “black.”
I think that there was once some things of special value in “black culture” — the quiet dignity of hard-working, married black parents and grandparents making a difficult way in the world in the face of the genuine oppression of the Jim Crow system, and the powerful message of Pastor King as the peaceful lion calling us to do better. I see almost none of this any more.
Musically, Zendaya was fantastic in Greatest Showman, but this doesn’t seem like “black” music. It’s just great music performed by a beautiful and talented singer (and dancer) who happens to be (half) black. Dreamgirls was great. Before that, Motown before Michael left the Jackson Five. Since then?
What would you have him do? Call them out for moral depravity and irresponsibility?
We’re not even allowed to mention it. Notice it, and you’re a racist. For crying out loud, sing along with that horrid Nipsey song linked in the OP and you could lose your job. If you can call that singing.
What a depressing post.
I agree it’s a better solution in theory but even more unlikely to be imported to the real world than mine. Massachusetts threw in the towel just last month on not increasing welfare payments to those that treat illegitimate kids as a cash crop.
A more politically feasible solution would be to at least restructure the eligibility rules to remove the marriage penalty. Currently as I understand it, if an unwed mother marries her “baby daddy,” officially adding his income to the family might reduce or eliminate her welfare check.
These are very much the things I was thinking about. I have several friends from my days in education who were raised in the south. They have strong family values. They are hard workers. They are deeply religious people whose worship services are very different from those I grew up with, but which are a marvel to experience. There is, certainly, a great portfolio of wonderful music, blues and jazz which is still very much a part of black culture, but which we hear little about. The entire emphasis has been on the negative garbage which the media and the left seem intent on reinforcing.
I think in terms of President Trump, there is little more that he can do or for that matter what anyone outside of the black community can do. It isn’t our job. It is their job to police and change the trends in their own communities. A big help would be to get the leftist and SJWs out of their lives. The black communities have become the new plantations, the overseers the manipulators of the left like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, those who have grown wealthy while they keep their people in chains.