Hustler's Flu

Rick Ross’s Everyday I’m Hustlin is in heavy rotation on nearly every local radio station. Challenging normative employment paths, Ross’s use of the term hustlin’ denotes his preference for engaging in illegal activity to realize financial success. Ross provides no real explanation for his choices; rather he reiterates ad nauseam that his said path to success pays handsomely. Rappers such as Jay-Z offer a bit more explanation in their verse. To him and others, less than ideal childhood circumstances, give them reason to shirk the law to achieve financial success. “Welcome to hell, where you are welcome to sell”, to use Jay-Z’s exact terminology. That is, inequality justifies illegal action. Hustle and get paid, never mind the moral and/or political sacrifices it may take to become rich.

While I didn’t grow up dirt poor (or filthy rich), I can understand wanting things that you couldn’t afford during your formative years. After accepting my first job as a college graduate I ran out and bought a portable CD player- before I furnished my studio apartment. Beyond being a bad investment, it looked absolutely awful clipped to my belt. And I’ve made a number of questionable purchases since then, but I've never risked going to jail to do so. Consequently,  it’s puzzling how many promising black kids have embraced the “Get rich or Die Tryin’” mantra.

Don’t get me wrong, building wealth should be a priority of any black American that doesn’t plan to spend the rest of their lives in a East African bush community (believe it or not, there are some with such plans). And pursuing legal long-term employment is a good thing in of itself.  But, responding to the question, “What do you plan to do after you graduate from college?” with the blunt response- “get paid” or “hustle that dollar” insinuates that the details of one’s planned journey to wealth are unimportant.

Maybe I shouldn’t be critical of our community’s newfound interest in making money by any means necessary. However, something tells me that the emergence of a generation of “hustlers” may represent our collective accomodation of a troubling ideology that insinuates that America’s historical and present wrong-doings (against black folk) justify the pursuit of wealth without attention to integrity.

Read about what it really takes to “get paid” (and maintain your integrity) in the article entitled, The Death of Horatio Alger, by economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. And read Giving Americans a Raise, by Nation editor Katrina Vanden Huevel for an even more up to date analysis of the issue.

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