Who would have ever imagined that Jay-Z would do it to his own community? Nike and Jay-Z teaming up to sell shoes to a community that is in a recession at a time when young men are unemployed and disparaged about their futures. It’s a known fact that African Americans are experiencing inequities in employment and income at a rate that far exceeds that of their white counterparts. And at a time when these fathers and mothers are suffering and enduring these prolonged hardships, at a time when parents are struggling to buy back-to-school clothing and supplies for their children, they now have the added pressure to buy Jay-Z’s latest commercial enterprise — shoes. They scramble to bid on eBay for shoes they’ll have to scratch up the cash for. All for his charity, but that’s not the charity that will benefit the greater community. Why wouldn’t he make the shoe benefit a United Negro College Fund Project?
Why is it about Jay-Z and not the people he purports to benefit? This is the selfishness and profit seeking we see from so many iconic hip-hop people. To suggest that non-essentials like alcohol and designer gym shoes are the trappings of a lifestyle to aspire to and an image to emulate is an insult.
Why isn’t Jay-Z teaming up with Amazon.com, or school boards across the country to promote educational endeavors? Why isn’t he teaming up with those agencies and organizations that speak directly to the issues of teen violence, HIV/AIDS and financial aid for college students? If artists like Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Drake were to apply their enormous talents to making tunes to download for a cause like the UNCF, no African American child would be left behind … or isn’t there enough shine in that. The Jay-Z’s of the world have egos that preclude them from sharing the spotlight or much of anything else with the less than glamorous. Otherwise he’d say to Phil Knight and his marketing team that they are accountable and obligated to support Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or is it that Jay-Z himself doesn’t support HBCUs?
Jay-Zs commercialism is an extension of the type of consumerism that holds the African American community hostage and keeps us enslaved to designer gear that we can’t afford and striving for illusive images of lifestyles that evade us. But Jay-Z and his handlers would have us believe that this gym shoe is all for a noble and worthy cause — charity. He doesn’t understand charity doesn’t cost it’s benefactors and it doesn’t embrace the rambunctious behavior of a capitalistic renegade.
Is there a song in Jay-Z’s heart, which is not profit seeking or ego-driven? The self-absorbed and self-centered aren’t likely to get, let alone deliver a message that promotes anything other than themselves.
Their disregard for personal responsibility and their disdain for cultural and community advancement are devastating to us all. They should get themselves off of the corporate dole. –phil mi
