51. Idol Hands

Yesterday after touring the homie's new gig (post forthcoming), me and a friend got to arguing about whether we can go too far in celebrating living people. She was all for naming things after living folks because she believes in having living heroes and honoring people while they're alive. I was anti because I don't believe in hero worship. (She'd prolly say "worship" is the wrong word.) I also think "living legends" or heroes border on idolatry.

So we go back and forth and eventually find some common ground. We agree that young people ought to have living, breathing examples of excellence. And young Black people ought to be able to follow the example of someone who hasn't been dead 40 years. So for the most part, she wins (... for the most part).

But just 24 short hours later I walk in the house and my mom informs me of this. My hometown has decided to rename the main street after the 44th President of the United States. WTF?

Recognition is one thing. Support is cool, too. But renaming a frikkin street?! The MAIN street?! I'm snappin. In real life.

To revisit the homie's argument, yeah MLK was great, but he's been dead 40 years, he's over-studied, etc. and so forth. Why do we only f*ck with dead people? Okay cool, let's raise up some living folks. But this? If we honestly think that Barack Obama is deserving of the same kinds of salutations and recognition we bestow on MLK (i.e the Nobel Prize, dedication of streets, etc.), maybe we need to spend more time studying the late Reverend.

This is my beef with black politics. We got integrated and now it's all feel-good, middle-class, psychological power struggles. Forty years ago you had to free somebody (or die trying) to be That One. Now... I'll admit I get a little happy inside every time I see Michelle Obama doing the damn thing as First Lady. But I would never, ever, ever-ever-ever, argue that her being there is actually "doing" anything for a poor black girl on the South Side. That's not a knock on Miss Michelle - she is one of my role models in flyness - but I think it's important to separate what makes me feel good from what saves souls and feeds people. I feel like once upon a time that's what we were about. Now I don't know.