Know What I Mean? by Michael Eric Dyson

“Words are important, as a means of upward mobility, or as a means to escape suffering, especially by exposing its horrible intrusion into one’s group or neighborhood, or to grapple with a white supremacist society that refuses to acknowledge our fundamental humanity. So in that sense, we give big ‘ups’ or ‘props’ to people who use their words to build a way out of the social neglect and hopelessness to which they’ve been consigned. But in contrast, we can’t pretend that the ‘bling bling,’ or the materialism, of hip hop culture grew out of nowhere. It springs in part from people being squeezed into economic deprivation and hungering for material emblems, trinkets, symbols, and rewards. The gross materialism of the surrounding culture fuels the desire to bathe in the ocean of opulence that drowns so many Americans.”

-Michael Eric Dyson, 2007