3. "The Conscious Thug Consortium" In response to In response to 0 Wed Feb-04-04 08:54 PM
The Conscious Thug Consortium: mostly consists of younger members who have managed to intertwine two seemingly unrelated words, “conscious” and “thug,” into an actual national movement. Conscious thugs shun scholarly political work but instead embrace the philosophy of ‘street knowledge.’ Believing that no one truly understands the plight of the black masses but the thug, these individuals extol the virtues of the street team lifestyle but lace it with pro-black ideologies. Thus in one sentence they may quote Donald Goines and in the next Malcolm X. Conscious thugs can be found on numerous street corners, where they tend to blend in with the more common thug variety, but “kick knowledge” every now and again. They have proliferated in the modern Hip Hop community.
Pros: unlike regular thugs they can truly see that there is a struggle to be fought; in the current Thug Renaissance” sweeping the black community they are quite relatable---especially to the street crowd.
Cons: being pro-black doesn’t always equal being positive’; have hyper-patriarchal ideas of masculinity; they are proud in their sexism; their over-inflated ideas of manhood can’t really allow them to accept black women as equals, but rather in stereotyped categories of saints, gold-diggers or freaks; not above reverting to a common fratricidal thug over the slightest beef or insult; their dueling ideologies (thug vs conscious) makes them seem contradictory and garbles their messages often into incoherence; refuses to leave their limbo state but instead revels in the freedom it creates; the totality of their struggle seems to consist of greater access of every black man to more Cristal, bigger Jesus-pieces, phatter Escalades, even phatter prime choice booty (preferably in a thong) and the really good, good weed.
Suggestions: There’s a ready-made place for thugs. It’s called jail. Society does indeed help make thugs, who in turn contribute to their own oppression by playing the role and then filling the jails. It’s a nice little cycle, but only the ‘real’ thugs (who build and profit from the jail) make a profit. If you know about this pimp-o-logical system, break it. Trim the thug-fat from your waistline. It’s unneeded and unhealthy. That would really be revolutionary.