Pharrell got where he is through talent and hard work. But there are 30 other Pharrell wanna be's that were more talented and probably worked harder and didn't have the same luck as he did; born to destitute drug addicted parents, unable to go to a school with a musical program, forced to give up on their musical dreams, etc.

The problem with the 'You gotta forget you're black and work hard!' is that it focuses on 'by your bootstraps' capitalism and gives a shrug towards systememic racism. Its like, getting mad and turning your nose down at a 16 year old(Chris Rocks n&&Ga vs N&&ger argument) who's effectively throwing away his life in gangs/drugs not realizing

1)The environment that put him there
2)Its not easy to just flick a switch and decide "Im gonna go to school and be a genius!" with all those societal factors against you.

Obviously for your own personal victories, YES, you have to fight against those issues, but there's a way of acknowledging the struggle as opposed to placing the onus completely on them. Which is why Cosby's 'Poundcake' speech resonated so hard with people...there was some truth but it wasn't from a good place.

>a name that made people cringe. That's it.
>
>And the part about Kanye was off.