This Land Belongs to Sharon Jones

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.

It’s probably one of the most popular songs in American history, covered by many great singer-songwriters, but also sung by parents to children and choruses of kids at camp: “This Land is Your Land,” originally composed by the great American folk musician Woody Guthrie in 1944. The song is probably most appreciated today as an uncomplicatedly positive statement about the democracy of the United States, a land that belongs to all people, where anyone with enough hard work and determination can buy that house in the suburbs or that plot of land in the countryside. At the time it was composed, however, Guthrie was actually protesting the increasing privatization of the American landscape. As his guitar reads, “This Machine Kills Fascists”—and he wasn’t talking about the ones in Germany. In many ways, he was standing up for the George Wilson’s of America against the Tom Buchanans, the working class versus the elite. While Tom waltzes freely into George's shop and steals his wife, we cannot imagine George doing the reverse, can we?

Guthrie and his guitar

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
This land was made for you and me.

When the contemporary rhythm and blues singer Sharon Jones sings “This Land is Your Land” with the Dap-Kings, the meaning of the song takes on a whole new connotation. First there is the simple fact that a black woman is singing the lyrics. “This land is my land” just means something different for a white man and a black woman in America. Let’s remember that blacks have been in this country as slaves nearly as long as they have been here free. Even in 1944, could a black woman, or even a black man for that matter, travel freely and safely from "California to New York Island"? To say that such movement is possible, then, from the perspective of an African American woman, is a powerful statement of property ownership and civil rights made by the descendent of slaves. Moreover, the “Private Property” signs of one of Guthrie’s alternative verses included in the Dap-Kings version take on a whole new meaning, reminding the listened of similar signs during the Jim Crow South that specifically limited the movement of African Americans in ways more marked and dangerous than Guthrie’s and other white men ever experienced. 

Then there’s the music, which unlike the lyrics, are significantly altered from the original Guthrie tune. Rather than the simple and singular folk guitar of Guthrie, an individual statement, The Dap-Kings that back Jones are a multi-instrument ensemble, featuring not one but three guitars, drums, and a suite of horns. The song thus becomes a statement about the rights of the group, not just the individual, as if to say, everyone deserves this land, not just the few. Moreover, the musical aesthetic of this version of “This Land is Your Land”—as with most releases off the Daptone label, borrowed from directly for Amy Winehouse's Back to Black—is distinctly Motown, referencing a pivotal moment in black musical entrepreneurship in the 1960s that corresponded with the height of the Civil Rights Era. Motown played a crucial roll in integrating the American music scene and bringing black-owned, -produced and -performed music to white audiences. The sound of the track, then, is the soulful sound of black musical and economic power, emphatically stated in the crisp, clipped horn parts that seem to echo the lyrics of the song similarly laying claim to the “land” of America. Huh!

The original Motown

Ball so hard, this shit weird
We ain’t even s’pose to be here,
Ball so hard, since we here
It’s only right that we be fair. 

- Jay-Z, "Niggaz in Paris" 

When Nick and Gatsby are passed on the Long Island Expressway by a limousine full of African Americans being chauffeured by a white driver, the narrator thinks, "Anything can happen...even Gatsby could happen" (73). It’s a remarkable scene for Nick in part because these African Americans enjoying their freedom represent a major social change over the past few decades in American history. In the first half of the twentieth century, blacks left the South in record numbers and settled in Northern cities like New York, hoping for a better life. The Harlem Renaissance, that flourishing of black artistic culture in the 1920s, was happening at the same time that The Great Gatsby was written and represented a significant shift in American race relations. But given Tom's racist comments at the beginning of the book, though, this success was limited. There was still much poverty and suffering for African American migrants arriving in the North and it would take . Again, while we might imagine Gatsby and Nick going to a Harlem jazz club with Daisy and Jordan, it's hard to imagine the same racial diversity at one of Gatsby's parties. The movement of African Americans was still limited. 

(This scene is such a meaningful and powerful one, I was not surprised to see it featured in the trailers for the new Gatsby movie, along with a sample from Kanye West and Jay-Z’s “Church of the Wild”--it's one of the first shots as the camera zooms in on New York City at the opening of the clip. I'm also not surprised that a track from Watch the Throne was chosen for the 2013 The Great Gatsby. That album's obsession with fame, fortune, and the American dream is shared by many characters in the book. I doubt though that Gatsby would tolerate his Rolls being taken apart the way that Ye and Jay do to the Maybach in the video for "Otis"!)

The Art Gallery in "Six Degrees of Separation"

Play "Six Degrees of Separation"

Art is a part of human history. 

Unlike speaking and writing like poems, paintings are more designed to give expressions to other people

In stone age, people draw to carry their history, and many famous artists after civilization period draw pictures to show their ideas and beliefs to the public. 

However, this loyal faith of artists in drawing has been deteriorated and degraded through materialistic and money centered human history. 

Six Degrees of Separation does mention many famous artists and their paintings, but the actors in the play degrade them.

John Guare uses this decay of arts to argue that the arts are degraded along the distortion of pure human relationships through the materialistic society.

Russian Artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

             One of most significant artist in the play is Kandinsky who is both an influential Russian painter and art theorist whose art reflects his opinion or belief to the society. He is credited with painting the first purely abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He was in Moscow in 1914, after the outbreak of World War I. Kandinsky was returned to Germany in 1921.After Nazis emerged in 1933. He then moved to France where he lived the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939.

"Chaos"

"Control"

             In several scenes, a Kandinsky painting, which shows the balance between chaos and control, is used to illustrate the balance, or lack thereof in the different characters’ lives and relationships with one another.

When Paul enters Ouisa’s life, her main concern is maintaining her affluence and standing in the high class society to which she belongs. 

They both are very obviously upper class New Yorkers whose lives, though they depend on art, are ironically not enriched by it at all. 

Their out-of-balance lives have become obsessed with control, security, and money. 

Art has become for them a meal ticket, reduced to simple figures, and stripped of its imagination, significance, and function as art.

Moreover, the Kandinsky’s two sided painting symbolizes the double side that there are two aspects to every person. While Flan views Paul as an intruder to his control and security, Ouisa understands Paul’s desperate willingness to become the part of upper class, another side of Paul’s story; while on one side, Paul is just a con artist, whom people must stay away from, being a confidence man is tragically only path for Paul to enter the upper class community. Ouisa’s realization that her life has “color” but she is “not aware of any structure” suggests she finds the lack in her life, while Flan still believes his life is fully bright and there is not any problem (62). 

Paul whose story has two sides.

The flip of Kandinsky painting becomes a symbol of reflection that Ouisa becomes able to see the back side of her materialistic life by Paul. Along the decay of art in her career, Ouisa’s relationship with people before Paul is degraded as Flan calls two million more often than Geoffrey. At last retreating from the obsession of security, control, and materialism, Ouisa flips the Kandinsky painting into “wild and vivid” where human life actually should be. The Kandinsky painting revolving at the end has deeper significance by juxtaposing with geometry side. 

The "geometric side" of Kandinsky Painting

The geometry side, which the painting shows the audiences until the end of the play, carries Kandinsky’s artistic view on the immobile society in Six Degrees of Separation. Kandinsky in his autobiography mentions that a point is neither a geometric point nor a mathematical abstraction; it is extension, form and color. This form can be a square, a triangle, a circle, a star or something more complex. The point is the most concise form but, according to its placement on the basic plane, it will take a different tonality. 

The "wild side" of Kandinsky Painting

Point can be something while a geometric shape in the painting, is already established and cannot further create something. The geometric side of Kandinsky’s painting indicates the established order and pattern of the society where lower class people are immobile to move up. The painting, therefore, criticizes that the immobile society is not willing to disturb the order and structure by helping the lower class. Immobility of spirits ultimately claims the decay of the upper part of the society, that while Paul, who came from lower class, struggles but uses the dreams of the upper class life as energy to make or at least act to have social change, Flan and Ouisa’s life seemed to be stopped permanently where they not seek the imagination and dignity in arts but prefer unchanged materialistic status, security, and money.

          

Is America "Colorblind"? : The Trayvon Martin case, Six Degrees of Separation, and the significance of stereotypes in American society

In late 2008, America celebrated one of its most significant moments in its history as president Obama was sworn into presidency as the first African American president. People across the country joined hands and celebrated because they believed, for a moment, that the American people had finally overcome its racist past. Of course, the Civil-Rights movement and Martin Luther King had their moments but Obama’s rise to the white house was seen as a historic moment not only because he is the first African American president, but because his election was thought to mark the cultural acceptance of African Americans by the American people, not just another milestone of the enforced equality that was resentfully accepted by all racist Americans. It was the hope that “colorblindness,” the concept of a man being seen for his character rather than the color of his skin, had finally taken hold and would mark the beginning of a new era of American culture. However, despite the now decades of progress since the Civil-Rights movement, racism is still lingers in the dark corners of American society.

The recent murder case of Florida high-school student Trayvon Martin is a perfect example of the lack of colorblindness that many had hoped would have vanished in today’s advanced American culture. Late last February, Trayvon Martin, a Florida high-school student was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a Sanford neighborhood watchman, who followed Trayvon after calling 911 to report suspicious behavior. The case exploded in the American media when evidence began to pile up suggesting that Zimmerman killed Trayvon after racially profiling him. One of the strongest pieces of evidence supporting this claim is found in the 9-11 call that Zimmerman made before shooting Trayvon. Zimmerman can be heard in a recording of the call saying what is though to be “F**king coon” followed by “These assholes. They always get away,” While much of the evidence is still being collected and held for the trial, many believe that Zimmerman only saw Trayvon as a manifestation of his own racist views and never considered an alternative.

Similar to the Trayvon Martin case in some ways is the 1990 play Six Degrees of Separation, where, in a post Civil-Rights America many of the main characters' lack of colorblindness comes out in the form of stereotype informed opinions, despite a constant effort to display their acceptance of black culture. One example of the character’s proclivity to show off their cultural acceptance is found at the beginning of the play when three of the main characters, Flan, Ousia, and Geoffrey, talk jokingly about visiting South Africa to witness those victimized by apartheid. They joke about how they won’t settle for those who are “just mildly victimized by apartheid,” how they demand “shock,” and how they will find those who are the worst off and “build barricades and lean against them, singing,” (Guare 10). Their lighthearted attitude towards the subject shows the audience their true lack concern for such a serious topic as well as their disconnected and conceit idea of what it means to accept black culture. This acceptance really begins to show however when the audience is introduced to Paul, an black man who shows up at the residence or work place of all the different main characters after having been stabbed (by himself we later find out) and claiming to know the children of the main character from college and claiming to be the son of the notorious Sidney Poitier. The characters are so eager to demonstrate their ability of acceptance, that they all invite Paul into their homes and lives without a second thought. Flan, Ousia, Kitty, and Larkin are also abnormally eager to act as extras in the movie version of Cats when they themselves described it as, “an all time low in a lifetime of theater going,” (Guare 72).

Despite all this evidence suggesting that the main characters are simply helping out a man in need, regardless of his color, that idea begins to unravel when Paul’s plans begins to fall apart. When Paul is caught in Flan and Ousia’s home with a hustler, one of the first things Flan and Ousia begin to worry about are the possessions around their house. We as readers know that Paul, as a con man, may have had a motive to steal items from his marks but Flan and Ousia, at that point in time, have been given no reason to distrust Paul’s claim about his identity. While never explicitly stated, it becomes clear that Flan and Osuia believe that something was taken because Paul is black and their belief in the stereotype that black men are thieves. Later, something similar occurs when the audience is introduced to Dr. Fine. Paul meets Dr. Fine and works his way into the doctor’s life, as he does with many other characters, but is caught when Dr. Fine’s son claims to have never met Paul. When Dr. Fine returns home with a police officer, Paul is calm and collected and when asked to leave he says, “I have taken this much brandy but can pour the rest back into the bottle. And I’ve used electricity listening to the music, but I think you’ll find that nothing’s take from the house,” (66). Despite Paul’s composure, Dr. Fine is livid and shouts out “This fucking black kid crack addict came into my office lying…” (66). Once again another stereotype rises up in the heat of the moment, this time obviously relating to the stereotype of black people as both drug dealers and users. The characters in Six Degrees of Separation are not unlike Zimmerman in the fact that they both see their respective black counterparts for their color first and then for their character. While the characters in Six Degrees reserve their views for their own personal reasons, those views do come to light when pressured. On the other hand, the evidence and the hundreds of thousands of Americans who was Zimmerman convicted would have us believe that Zimmerman is not as conservative with his personal viewpoints.

The real tragedy of both the Trayvon Martin case and Paul from Six Degrees is that neither Zimmerman nor the other characters from Six Degrees were able to consider the potential of an alternate situation because of their inability to see past color until it was too late. What this means is that Zimmerman, for example, was not able to consider the possibility that Trayvon might have lived in the Sanford neighborhood and was not snooping around but was just returning home or that his hood was pulled up because it was raining was scared of Zimmerman, was was chasing him. going even further, characters such as Ousia in Six Degrees were not able to see that Paul was simply a mentally ill person who was trying to find acceptance in a world of discouragement, despite the claims from the character that Paul was “magical” and “fun”. What Paul gave to the characters of Six Degrees of Separation was an experience and they turned him away because of his color when they found out the truth of his identity, only to find out too late that it was the experience that was important. The same goes for George Zimmerman as (and I can’t say for sure because I wasn't there but,) I doubt that Zimmerman even considered the fact that Trayvon might have a family and friends who cared about him while chasing Trayvon down despite instructions from the police to walk away. This evidence therefore shows that colorblindness has taken a new meaning in American society. It is no longer the idea that one is blind to color and thus see a person for who they are, but rather it is the idea that if you still see color, you are blind.

Six Degrees of Separation and My Fair Lady

Both John Guare's critically acclaimed play Six Degrees of Separation and George Bernard Shaw's musical My Fair Lady tell the tale of a young person that is confined to the lower class because they possess traits that society deems as inferior. In the case of Six Degrees, because Paul is black, he is seen as substandard to the white upper class but, under the right circumstances, could fit in with the upper class. However, in My Fair Lady, Professor Henry Higgins argues that one's accent and way of speaking determine their place in society, and believes that by changing a person's accent they can change their place in society. These ideas reject the principles of Social Darwinism, the belief that a certain group with their indigenous traits are destined to stay rigidly in their social class. 







Paul and Eliza struggle with living in the lower class of society, and both find "teachers" familiar with the ways of the upper class that teach them these customs. Trent Conway is even compared to Henry Higgins because of the way he is able to make Paul learn how to fit in with the upper class as Higgins did with Eliza. The way that one speaks is shown to be extremely important if one wants to assimilate themselves with the wealthiest class of society; both Trent and Henry express how significant the way their "students" speak or the terminology they use to conform to rich culture is. Paul's ebonic accent and Eliza's cockney accent are considered to be certain characteristics that are associated with the poorer class. Trent and Henry's idea that they could teach Paul/Eliza to speak differently, and thereby appear aristocratic, opposes the theory of Social Darwinism because it suggests that the poor can rise from their "natural" position in society. 

Although Paul and Eliza are driven by their own desires to ascend the social ladder, and while they do eventually overcome the ideology of Social Darwinism, the fact remains that they are not able to achieve this themselves. They are only able to accomplish their goals with the help of the rich. This brings up the question of whether or not one is truly able to realize the dream of success without those who are already successful. Even then, the irony remains that the very teachers that were so eager to help Paul and Eliza did not do so out of their own kindness and compassion, but rather out of personal gain. Trent is so desperate for a lover in Paul that he swears to help Paul at any cost; "I don't want you to leave me, Paul. I'll go through my address book and tell you about family after family. You'll never not fit in again. We'll give you a new identity. I'll make you the most eagerly sought-after young man in the East" (79). Similarly, Higgins is only willing to teach Eliza after his colleague offers to pay for her, as initially she cannot afford speech lessons. The fact that Trent and Higgins need incentive to offer aid to Paul and Eliza suggests that the ideas of Social Darwinism are so deeply infused in social culture that they have almost become accepted truths in place of outrageous circumstances where one is unable to rise from the lower class by themselves. 

Lil' Kim: A Heroic Harlot

Lil' Kim: clearly promiscuous, completely open and comfortable with her sexuality...should the American society she lives in praise or condemn her for her lewd behavior?

"How Many Licks" by Lil' Kim (featuring Sisqo)

Like many other female R&B, Hip-Hop, and Rap artists, Lil' Kim has no problem showing her body and embracing sexuality. Why is the female celebration of sensuality so strongly frowned upon in American society? Openly sexual male Hip Hop artists, like Snoop Dogg, rap about women who please them sexually, receive historically receive less criticism, while when female artists, who say the same thing, essentially, receive more criticism because the message was voiced from a female, like Lil' Kim. There are people that would simply affirm his lyrics and make statements along the lines of "Snoop is such a baller," and wouldn't comment on his blatant disrespect towards women, or question his behavior. On the other hand, it seems that when female Hip-Hop artists, like Lil' Kim cannot seem to escape ridicule. It seems that many of the same people who render themselves avid fans of artists like Snoop Dogg cannot bring themselves to appreciate similar messages from female artists. If there are Americans that can accept men who explicitly express their enjoyment of sex, why does the double sexual standard exist? 

                             Versus              

Sigmund Freud's Madonna-Whore Dichotomy details the initiation of  the sexual double standard. Men with this complex habitually classify women as being either virtuous or whorish. However, this mindset disallows true happiness because these men cannot be sexually satisfied by the pure, virginal women they profess to love, yet at the time they cannot come to love the type of whorish women that they are sexually attracted to. In American society, women's expression of sexuality is a Catch 22. Men eminently transmit frustration towards the Madonna because of her prudence, but continue to seek these women. Though when a woman, like Lil' Kim, behaves conversely and expresses her sexuality freely, she is often subject to public scorn. This sexual oppression indubitably manipulates a large number of women into believing that this type of binary identification is realistic. Women that struggle to overcome the standard are under the impression that they must either obliterate their Madonna status, causing men to lose respect, or they must remain a Madonna who is criticized and also miserable since they must restrain natural inclinations to sustain that status.

Lil Kim' and Toni Morrison use their works to debunk societal perceptions based on the Madonna Whore Dichotomy. The motive driving these women being the challenge of guiding women to unlearn the self-prejudice they may have learned. In Morrison's The Bluest Eye, the women in the novel are strictly classified as either Madonna figures, like Geraldine, or whores, like Miss Marie, Miss China, and Miss Poland. Morrison attempts to redefine the construct of beauty, which directly correlates to the strict societal convention of women's sexuality. The author emphasizes the societal pressure to succumb to the sexual stereotypes through characters, like Gerladine. While Lil' Kim, over sexualizes herself, striving to enlighten women, and free them from definitive sexuality. Through their different mediums, these women present American culture's mechanical control over how women should define their sexuality.

In the the initial factory setting of the Hip-Hop artist's "How Many Licks?" video, Lil' Kim establishes that society controls the idea of what it means to be a woman. The screen shot of the liquid mannequin mold, as the word "original" flashes across the screen, symbolizes many women's vulnerability to society's pressure to a become a Madonna. Without the shell, the liquid is not required to take any specific shape. Similarly, without the double standard,  women would not feel that they are either a whore, or a Madonna, but a woman whose sexuality is only a function of her humanity. The second frame of the cooked mold, with the word "realistic," suggests that the influence of the shell, or societal pressure, prevents many women from taking on their own identity. However, these women are entrapped in the shell, believing they must take on the perfectly refined Madonna mold. The influence is so strong that women, like Geraldine of Morrison's The Bluest Eye, might as well be a one of the molds in Lil' Kim's video.

In the novel, the white iconic figures of the media cause these black women to reject their identity, preventing them from embracing their bodies and connecting intimately with others. Because these women cannot be the Shirley Temple valued by society, they consume their energy assimilating whiteness. The influence of societal perceptions is so extreme that when Geraldine-like women, have dreamed of being free of their identity insecurities, they "have looked long at the hollyhocks in the backyards"; they focus on the flowers typically native to Asia, in otherwise natural foliage (82). Instead of admiring the nature, Geraldine and the type of women she represents, solely stare at the beauty of the flower that should not be there; the identity they should not be rooted in.

Geraldines reject their black identity because they haven't learned to love the identity that fits them. Therefore they are ashamed of their body and do not know that they "got in goin' on" ("Big Momma Thang," Lil' Kim, ft. Jay-Z, Lil' Cease). In fact, their shame and inherent self-consciousness galvanizes an inability to connect emotionally and physically during sex because they do not consider themselves beautiful. When Geraldine and her husband have sexual intercourse, he must only lift "the hem of her nightgown to her navel" (84). Since the Geraldines do not have to reveal their bodies fully, they evade the humiliation of completely facing the "racial self-loathing" that is normally suppressed. Despite that they "wonder for the six hundredth time, what it would be like to have that feeling," the Geraldines are not proactive; they do not seek to engage themselves sexually with other people. Instead, their dream Their dream of unobtainable "beauty," induces them to compensate the lack of intimate, sensual connection. Attempting to fulfill the role of sexual interaction, Geraldine nonchalantly engages with her cat as a substitute. She often "will accept the strangely pleasant sensation that comes when he writhes beneath her hand and flattens his eyes with a surfeit of sensual delight" (85). She does not render the interactions strange because  of the extent of her sexual frustration, nor because a cat substitutes masturbation; she describes the feeling as strange because she is not accustomed to sensual gratification.

Because there are a plenitude of American women today affected by societal perceptions and struggle with sexuality, female artists like Lil' Kim over sexualize themselves in order to teach women that sexuality is simply a function of humanity. In the "How Many Licks?" video the singer communicates that she aims to diminish the vapid notion of sexuality as the mannequin transforms into Lil' Kim. This screen shot conveys the artist's message that women possess the power to take control of their sexuality. They do not have to be the mold society pressures them to be. From this video, one can easily observe that Lil' Kim has found the strength within herself to negate the double standard, ultimately giving her the ability to embrace her body. She can freely express her sexuality and even comfortably discuss times at which she was the "only one that could handle him" with pride (53). The manner in which she boldly struts down the runway, explicitly describing some of her sexual experiences suggests that Lil' Kim does not allow others to define and inhibit her.

Rather, she transforms a concept many women accept: the components female power. From a young age parents teach their daughters that the female body is precious, the value of virginal preservation, and the male responsibility to serve women through heroism and chivalry. Lil' Kim's personal philosophy seems to be that if men are to serve women, she would like them to serve her sexually. Thus, she refuses to implore the parent taught components of female power by refusing to provide a womb and follow specified gender roles. She also embraces the power all women have over men, but asserts it uniquely. Lil' Kim creates a personal sexual standard that is appropriate for the type of life style she desires to engage in. Most importantly, because Lil' Kim remains in control of her social interactions and actually enjoys them, she does not allow others to punish her by labeling her a whore.

Disclaimer: In the below paragraphs, I am not advocating prostitution. Thousands of women are forced into prostitution as a necessary means for survival. There is also an extreme amount of women abducted and exploited in sex trade every day. I believe prostitution is an injustice no woman should ever experience. I am, however, arguing against the double sexual standard.

The Bluest Eye prostitutes are similar to Lil' Kim in the sense that they embrace themselves fully and do not let others define them. Even though their clientele may perceive them as a service, they possess the confidence the Geraldines lack. When Miss Marie playfully teases Miss China about her skinny legs, China retorts, "Don't worry 'bout my bandy legs. That's the first thing they push aside," and "all three of the women laughed" (52). The prostitutes are clearly not ashamed of their sexuality and because they embrace it, they do not feel the pressure to be a Madonna or assimilate whiteness. They do not practice self-prejudice, but embrace their black identity, keeping their hair curly, unlike the Geraldines who straighten their hair (53). More simply, they tell "haters, I paid y'all no mind" ("No Matter What They Say," Lil' Kim). The prostitutes are also the happiest characters in the novel. Not only do they frequently joke and laugh, but they do not complain about money or the work they do. Miss Marie tells Pecola that when she found out somebody would pay her for sex that "you could have knocked me over with a feather" (55). Thus, not only does Miss Marie take delight in her occupation, but she chose to be a prostitute, she is in control, like Lil' Kim.

Though they possess the liberty the Geraldines envy, Morrison indicates they only possess it because of their whorish identity. The author does not create any other openly sexual female characters in the novel; indicative of some Americans misconception that all openly sexual women are whores, or "sluts," while other women are prudish and restrain themselves, like Geraldine. In Black Star's song "Thieves in the Night," Talib Kweli and Most Def extrapolate on the "law of The Bluest Eye" (ll. 3). America claims to be a "land of opportunity," where diverse peoples and beliefs are welcome, yet many people suffer from  various types of binary identification. Referring to American culture Most Def states,"We either niggaz or Kings/Bitches or Queens"; we are not complicated individuals, but unrealistic stereotypes, placed into categories based on theories and constructs like Biological Determinism, beauty, and the sexual double standard.

"Thieves in the Night"

Blackstar

Songwriters: TALIB KWELI GREENE, DANTE SMITH, CHARLES NJAPA