The saga of Shawty Lo

By Richard B. Muhammad -Editor- | Last updated: Jan 24, 2013 - 5:17:53 PM

Hip hop artist Shawty Lo

(FinalCall.com) - By now if you haven’t heard about the plight of Shawty Lo and the Oxygen Network’s plan for the “All My Babies Mamas” non-reality show, here’s a quick recap: Black man, Atlanta rapper, 11 children by 10 different women and a girlfriend the same age as his oldest daughters and plans to put the whole thang on TV and before the world.

Result? Outrage. Anger. Petition by Change.org and others calling for cancellation of the show, which Oxygen announced would fall under the ax. There has been talk, however, that others may want to green-light the show and reports of a pro-Babies Mamas show petition.

Victory? Maybe. Why maybe? Oxygen (and the media) doesn’t create Shawty Lo, it just helps to water the seeds to produce Shawty and all of his crew.

So while it is right to oppose the mockery and insult posed by the cable show, it is critical to combat conditions that make Shawty Lo possible.

First up is a society that devalues Black people and enjoys using us for cruel sport and entertainment. From the early days of this country in performances, in particular some say in 1832 with the advent of the Jumping Jim Crow racial caricature performed in blackface, mocking Black people and finding joy in our pain has gone on. Consider the gleeful pictures of audiences assembled for the lynching of Black folk.

The ignorant, depraved Negro was essential to the groundbreaking movie “Birth of A Nation,” which chronicled the rise of the KKK as saviours of the South from crazed ex-slaves intent on ravaging White women. When it aired with amazing techniques like quick cuts, night scenes and actually moving the camera, Whites went berserk and attacked Blacks. The 1915 movie was so powerful it was banned in some places—including Northern cities—because of race riots.

This country has relished the degradation of Black people on the streets and on TV screens. Academy Awards have gone to Blacks playing maids, a dirty cop and an emotional-sexual beast. If you see a pattern here, raise your hand.

With others controlling our images, the images of Black people have always been distorted to suit the needs of a system based on White Supremacy that must prove the lie of Black inferiority.

So, if we refuse to tell our own stories, we will forever be held hostage to the agenda and mindset of our enemies.

Secondly, Shawty Lo obviously had some kind of relationship with these women to produce children.

With a majority of Black children raised in homes with single mothers, and the number of our men locked behind bars, fathers are missing totally or not fully present with their children due to divorce or other relationship fallout with mothers.

So what drives Black men to make babies, leave them and often never look back—or do little on a consistent basis to accept their responsibility? It is a slave mentality engrained in a debased and oppressed people for centuries. It is our failure to recognize that as “free” people we must do something for ourselves and our children are our future.

But if you don’t know who you are, do you know the value of your children, your self-worth or the value of the women who bear you children?

If you are a woman unacquainted with the divinity and power of her being, or an unhealed victim of sexual or emotional abuse, can you make the best choice in relationships or best determine whether a man is good for you—and a child?

The obvious answer is no.

If you grow up without a man or among abusive men it’s highly likely that without some kind of intervention or inspiration, you will repeat the pattern. So if an eighth grade graduate is given a gun and a box of bullets to pop some off in celebration, what kind of male guidance is present and how much good can come out of ignorance perpetuating ignorance?

Couple that with the reality that Black males are targeted as the enemy of this society, both in practice, and in fulfillment of the biblical prophecy of a Modern Pharaoh out to kill all boy babies and our plight is harrowing.

To escape danger an understanding of the time and what must be done is needed. For over 80-years the Nation of Islam has offered guidance to dispel the darkness from Black minds that produces baby daddies and baby mamas. That teaching includes the knowledge of self, the knowledge of one’s divinity and power and knowledge of the enemy of self.

It reawakens the man and woman to their responsibility for themselves and responsibility before the divine Supreme Being. With a rejuvenated spirit, a new mind, a community and a mission to resurrect others, it is possible to overcome the constant efforts of this society and the ruling elite to keep us in a depraved and desperate position. It is also time for the American-made Negro to die.

(Final Call editor-in-chief Richard B. Muhammad can be reached at editor@ finalcall.com. You can also follow him on Facebook and @RMfinalcall on Twitter.)

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