Jay-Z, Kanye and many a man have come to the precipice of a new awareness and an enhanced consciousness of the circumstances leading up to and surrounding their stations in life and what s involved in getting to the next level. Shooting for the stars and touring Paris is only the beginning of the race that starts today. How can we find a place and understand how we fit in an ever-changing digital day? Digital images and conversations flow through cellphones, computers, iPads and all manner of devices in the form of text messages, emails. Many of us see Kanye being a fashion designer and a magician, too. The puzzle is trying to figure out what our children will strive to do. Sagging pants and frowning faces, and still HIV races into the homes of women and children everyday, yet it is not part of the conversation we are having today.
We wonder if causes are being left behind and that we no longer show love for each other should reflect in our mind s eye. It is the songs that we hear and the celebrities – real or reality – that sing and make us make us question and compare how they measure up to those African American stars of earlier eras anyway. With the passing of Whitney Houston, was our discussion really true. Did we wonder about depression? Did we ever think about what made her resort, first to drugs and later prescription meds, to help her do what she did every day? Could we have saved Whitney if the black community had come together in a more collective way?
