In the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict, P. Diddy, Big Boi, Nicki Minaj, Busta Rhymes and countless other rappers are blasting America as racist or worse.
Rapper Lupe Fiasco is taking a very different tack. He suggests, first, that there is reasonable doubt about what happened between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin.
He notes that most perpetrators of violent crime against black people are themselves black.
The true enemy of black Americans is not the George Zimmermans of the world, he argues, but “complacency and cowardice” in the black community.
Rub your face in it! Swallow down that hard pill! Black blood spills in the streets of America nightly at the hands other blacks
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
Chickens have come home to roost!
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
Yeah gimme that anger…once again that rage…that misguided angst when you true enemy is your own complacency and cowardice.
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
Curse kick scream yell tweet unfollow. Don't matter to me if y'all don't start valuing yourselves NIGGERS will be in the same boat tomorrow
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
Nobody knows what really happened except trayvon and Zimmerman. The justice system relies on reasonable doubt not our emotions.
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
The case should have never been televised as the potential to antagonize US race relations was, in my dumb, opinion too risky & unnecessary
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
Your emotional reactions to a perceived injustice will get you nowhere. Organize (yeah right!) to fight total structural violence.
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
You asked for my opinion and there it is…anything beyond that is just RIP Trayvon and may God watch over his family especially his mother.
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
Zimmerman will be living in protective custody for the rest of his life. The rest is between him and God. @iBrettAdkins
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
“@wonklawless: @iBrettAdkins @LupeFiasco he's free. Trayvon is dead.”
Trayvon is free…WE are dying…
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
“@KiddSiri: @LupeFiasco just broke my heart a lil. But at the same time…I don't blame him for giving up on us.”
Y'all not ready. Sorry
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
“@BEENHAD_RLP: So your saying you gave up on blacks? @LupeFiasco”
Yup and started focusing more on mankind…
— DROGAS WAVE NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) July 14, 2013
Unsurprisingly, this didn’t go down well with some Twitter users:
https://twitter.com/BB919/status/356275344770207745
@LupeFiasco using trayvon's injustice cuz u cant sell a record
— VS (@vsoplyfe) July 14, 2013
I hate Lupe Fiasco
— Des ?❄️ (@IFeelLikeDes) July 14, 2013
https://twitter.com/kainitas/status/356275056571195394
https://twitter.com/cakecunt/status/356274788362227712
But a surprisingly large number of tweeters were receptive to Fiasco’s message of self-help:
@LupeFiasco for once I can agree with what you said. Why should other people value our peoples lives if we don't. We should be more
— jenjifer/ms.rager (@BlkAltGrl131) July 14, 2013
https://twitter.com/JediMaxx/status/356274017260412931
https://twitter.com/mennanaaaa/status/356275409479933953
https://twitter.com/marsunivercity/status/356274830271717378
https://twitter.com/srslyidc/status/356274875977052163
https://twitter.com/TheBased_Kelso/status/356275377028599810
@LupeFiasco outraged at ourselves for the shit we do to each other than what anybody else has done. But we resign to the devastation as
— jenjifer/ms.rager (@BlkAltGrl131) July 14, 2013
https://twitter.com/DFlacco28/status/356275161101639680
https://twitter.com/ControVersey21/status/356275133993848836
We do too.
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