Jay-Z

 

The conversation around celebrities and activism/social justice is complicated. It truly comes down to the exact issues at hand, timing, influence, and genuine interest in making a change. The reason why it’s so layered is capitalism, which, by and large, creates celebrities. Although Jay-Z and Beyonce provide us joy and healing with their music is also fair to critique and question celebrities, when fans are making them wealthy. The article, For Jay-Z’s 50th Birthday, A New Biography Centers His Lyrical Legacy, discusses how Jay-Z went from being a drug dealer in the hood to a successful businessman. Jay-Z’s lyrics reflect something larger about America and how hustling, having multiple jobs to make ends meet, and trying to constantly be better are embedded in the American character. The hustling mentality has become a dominant character trait in America.  

Jay-z, came from a single mother, selling drugs, and trying to survive in the hood as a Black boy where authorities had no faith in him. Michael Eric Dyson, the author of “Jay-Z: Made in America,” explains how “Black hustling,” which is defined as selling drugs is seen negatively, and an inferior model of work ethic. However, wealthy people are rich because of the exploitation of other people. Dyson says, “Thomas Jefferson and George Washington sold human beings and people see their greatness.” Jay-Z raps on “Moment of Clarity'', “We as rappers must decide what’s important / And I can’t help the poor if I’m one of them / So I got rich and gave back, to me that’s the win/win.” Jay-z promotes and inspires others to aim for the better by using their hustle legitimately. 

Although Jay-z inspires people especially young Black and Brown youth, it’s fair to question celebrities with much power and wealth. Celebrity culture is meant to keep capitalism in place because we hope to have a seat at the table one day. Celebrities are a product of capitalism, a feature of multiple industries funded by structures such as Billboard and other hierarchies structured to quantify success and propaganda dissemination. Capitalism, especially of the elite kind that Jay-Z adulate, will never work for people. It’s not designed to work for people. Even at our best, what we call “success” in that system is nothing in comparison to those who truly benefit. Celebrities like Jay-Z and Beyonce may have good intentions when they support charities, however, to be rich/wealthy celebrities have to exploit people that allow them to generate that much wealth. There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism.

This capitalist society we live in creates an environment where people must constantly grind to succeed, to survive. “Grinding,” in this context, was first introduced by Black people and hip hop culture.  However, it’s become a term that over the past years, people of color use to unintentionally uphold capitalism. This mentality is especially common among young people because so many of us have needed to work hard to survive. Our experiences, our childhood, have required so many of us to grind because our families are poor, our neighborhoods are poor, our communities are poor. We have no other choice, but to work multiple jobs. Unfortunately, this has come to be seen as a positive thing by some people, especially on social media. It’s become a mentality that people promote to shame others for somehow “not working hard enough.” We shouldn’t have to “grind” to make ends meet or to attain a semblance of wealth that billionaires have. Because the reality is that, no matter how much we work, most of us will likely never be as rich as people like Jeff Bezos or other billionaires. Thinking about how many families work all day, all week, but still seem to be struggling with income. They’re working hard, barely giving themselves time to rest or to have fun. And yet they are barely getting by. This made me think about how many people including myself have internalized capitalism, where most of us feel guilty for not resting. Capitalism has us feeling like everything we do in our free time is inherently worthless because it’s not tied to productivity.  Hustling and trying to gain some sort of capital can help temporarily, but that is an example of survival. It’s important to analyze and start to question and challenge the society we live in that creates an environment where we must grind to succeed. We will never get to liberation that is inclusive of everybody if we don’t look outside of capitalism. 

As mentioned above, Jay-Z has made great efforts on helping poor communities. However,  Jay-Z approaching “criminal justice reform” and NFL partnerships as “social justice” is unfortunate when this upgraded system will promise superficial reforms while ensuring the fundamentals of the system remain intact and the white ownership class, will continue to profit from the exploitation and brutal oppression of poor Black communities. But again, who am I to say what to do with someone’s money especially someone who came from poverty. Nevertheless, celebrities, in general, aren’t exempt from critique especially during a global pandemic, in which many Black and Brown populations are dying. 

-Crystal C.