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. “We
lcome 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
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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