So...Marvel Made Ya'll Love Africa ?

So... Marvel Finally Made Ya’ll Love Africa ?


Min. Paul Scott



You could talk about Nigeria/people used to laugh at ya


Now I take a look/I see USA for Africa ?


Stop the Violence-Boogie Down Productions





Shanequa Jenkins never wanted nothin’ to do with Africa. When her roommates would demand that she turn off Love and Hip Hop so they could watch Hidden Colors, she would just storm out the room calling them “Hotep Hoes” under her breath. So, it shocked her roomies when two hours before the Black Panther premier she was waiting at the front door in a brand new dashiki with matching Red Bottoms and Coach Bag yellin’ “Ya’ll aint ready to go, yet !?”



Not long ago, if you wore a dashiki or African medallion you had to wade through a sea of hecklers sayin’ stuff like , “ Yo ! You tryin’ to join X-Clan or somethin’ ? VAN-GLORIOUS !” Or any time you dared speak about something Afrocentric, cats would roll their eyes and mumble “there he goes with that black stuff again…” But now with the coming of the new Marvel movie, The Black Panther, even the worst Africa haters have caught a severe case of Jungle Fever.



Historically, many African Americans have had a problem with the Motherland. During the days of slavery, many free black folk ,vehemently, opposed the repatriation movement. While some did see it for what it was, a way to rid America of the riff raff, most felt that they did not want to leave a country that they helped build.



During the early 20th Century, although up to 10 million people supported The Honorable Marcus Garvey’s Back to Africa Movement, many people opposed his efforts as they saw his movement as a threat to their vested interests in the American Dream.



Hollywood didn’t help matters much ,either, during this period as the image propagated of the continent was either taken straight outta a Tarzan movie or a Looney Tunes cartoon with a bunch of cannibals circling a big black pot chantin’ “yum, yum eat ‘em up.”



During the late 60’s , there was a beef between members of the Black Panther Party who embraced a Marxist ideology and Dr. Maulana Karenga's Us Organization who practiced cultural nationalism. This ideological disagreement was intensified by the efforts of J. Edgar Hoover and his COINTELPRO program, preventing any fusion of the two ideologies that could have hastened our journey towards Freedom.



Even though some Hip Hop headz praise the “conscious” era of the late 80’s for bringing African awareness to rap and championing the fight against South Africa’s Apartheid regime, truth is, the era barely lasted four years and by 1992 most Hip Hoppers had traded in their dashikis and sandals for West Coast Khakis and Chuck Taylors.



The best dynamic of that period is perhaps captured in Spike Lee’s classic film School Daze , during the scene when Julian aka “Big Brother Almighty” tells Dap, the Pro Black Brotha that he wasn’t from Africa. He was “from Detroit.”





Sadly, that was pretty much the attitude of many African Americans until the last couple of years. Before the commercialized Black Lives Matter Era, in order to find a decent dashiki you would have had to hit the road and head to a city with predominantly black neighborhoods and hunt down an African clothing store in the middle of the ‘hood. But now even white and Asian owned shops have dashikis and African necklaces hanging in their windows.



What is unfortunate is despite all the master teachers that have gone on to the ancestors; Dr. Chancellor Williams , Dr. John Henrik Clarke , Dr. Yosef ben Jochannan and a host of others who sacrificed their lives to try to teach us about our heritage, it took an old white dude who made his fortune courtesy of a white kid in a red and blue onesie swingin; through NYC to finally make us embrace who we are.


Or perhaps it has something to do with the changing times. Maybe Black Panther Mania is not just a fad and will awaken the African genius that lies dormant deep inside of us.




Malcolm X once said that we left “our minds in Africa.” Maybe the hype over the Black Panther movie is an indication that we are finally getting our minds back?





Min. Paul Scott is based in NC. Phone (919) 972-8305  His website is NoWarningShotsFired.com   Follow on Twitter  @NWSF

District 9 is Ghetto

District 9 is Ghetto:
South Africa or South Central?

Paul Scott


Picture this. A giant alien hooptie space ship with 24 inch rims and fuzzy dice on the mirror pumpin' Snoop Dog runs out of gas over a quiet Los Angeles neighborhood . With no where else to go, the alien gangsta's take up residence in the quiet manicured lawn community, quickly turning it into a 'hood. Eventually, the aliens are forced to go live in the projects surrounded by the usual black steel fence.

OK, that's what I got out of District 9, anyway.

The movie about unwanted aliens (from outer space, not across the border) landing over Johannesburg has already drawn comparisons to South African apartheid but I saw it more about the hoods in America.

Of course, initially, the apartheid connection was obvious, however, there were several things that made my mind drift from Africa to across the Atlantic to America.

First, the Africans under Apartheid were not the invaders, they were the invaded. (Check out Basil Davidson's chapters on South Africa in his book, "Africa in History") Also, with the bumpin' Hip Hop soundtrack, the movie was too modern to really be about Apartheid.

So, I saw more South Central LA instead of South Africa.

The movie had all the makings of a classic early 90's gangsta flick. You had the assault rifles , the pimps and prostitutes and gang graffiti. You even had crack in the form of cat food. One alien even wore a baseball cap cocked to the side. Not to mention you had the Po Po arresting brothers (I mean aliens) and given them Rodney King styled beat downs.

It must be noted that fellow ghetto residents, "the Nigerians," believed that by "eating" alien skin it would cure such ills as "high blood pressure" and diabetes; diseases which are prevalent in the African American community. This is kind of like the widespread belief held by many black folks that the biggest problem facing the "inner city" is gang warfare and if gangs were eliminated, then all black societal ills would automatically disappear.

The white hero of the story, Wikus Van der Merwe, who, by way of infection, was slowly transforming into an alien added an interesting dimension to the story serving as a reluctant abolitionist. I saw this a metaphor for white fascination with "gangsta chic" and the concern of white parents that Hip Hop music is the reason that Little Bobby got caught smoking "the chronic" in the school bathroom.

Although, the Van Der Merwe transformation was done by a genetic experiment courtesy of government or corporate entities, for propaganda purposes, the media (Fox News) reported that he contracted a disease by having sex with alien women.

Translation. He got exposed to "gangsta rap" and started acting "black." Kinda like one of the Jonas Brother suddenly becoming Eminem.

The final scene really divorced the movie from apartheid, as the alien liberator "Chris" jump started the "mother ship" for the purpose of securing help to take his people back home.

Those who are students of black nationalism are aware that this was the theme of several African American movements ranging from Marcus Garvey's UNIA to the Nation of Islam's theology of the "mother ship." (Not to mention a running theme of George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic, whose sound was heavily sampled by early West Coast rappers.)

This was quite different than apartheid, as the Africans were fighting for control of their own country as they were already, "home."

After viewing the movie I was left unsure if it e was about improving race relations or the white paranoia over the cultural amalgamation.

You tell me....

Paul Scott writes for No Warning Shots Fired.com. He can be reached at (919) 451-8283.

The Economics of Holly'hood

The Economics of Holly'hood:
Why Hollywood Ain't Talkin' to Me:
Min. Paul Scott


I ain't gonna front. I've been feinin' to see "Talk to Me" since I peeped the preview when I went to see the Fantastic 4 months ago. So when July 27th rolled around I was really hyped to see the film. I wiped down my sneakers and even brought a brand new fitted baseball cap, just for this auspicious occasion. So, I loaded up the fam and rolled around town preparing to stop at the first theater that I saw with a poster of Don Cheadle. But at every theater, instead of Petey Green, there was a poster of a Black man with a diamond earring and loud, tacky golf shorts...

I know those who are going to accuse me of hatin' on "Who's Your Caddy" are saying "well, at least it doesn't show a young black Brotha blastin' a store owner because his 40 oz bottle of malt liquor was too warm." But you have to admit that to have "Caddy" playing in every hood and hollow in America while you have to hop a commuter flight to see the critically acclaimed "Talk to Me" is outrageous.

According to that one cool white dude with the Barry White voice who talks over the trailers for all the hood flicks, the movie is about a rejected rapper who turns a lilly white golf course into a Hip Hop strip club. It's not like we haven't seen the "there goes the neighborhood" plot a million times before. So, it's kinda like a hip version of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" with fart and phallic jokes.

Hell hath no fury like a rapper scorned...

Hollywood has also had questionable standards in regards to what it chooses to show Black folks as entertainment. I remember back in the early 90's films such as "Daughters of the Dust" and "Sankofa" couldn't find a home in the same theaters that had no problems finding room for the Boyz in the Hoods and Menace to Socities. I can't remember last fall's "Color of the Cross" playing in too many places, either?

Black television shows haven't faired much better, as I can recall the protests over the cancellation of quality black shows such as "Frank's Place," "Roc" and "NY Undercover."
Pop Quiz.

Can anyone name one program that paints a realtistic portrait of Black America? (And no, wise apple, BET's reruns of "The Wire" don't count.)

Is this a case of racism? Does white America have a fear of showing a film about a member of the "lumpen proletariat" who rises from the ashes of prison to become an important media personality who challenged the system?

I remember how white folks thought that Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" was going to spark a mass uprising in an America where Black folks were still ticked off about Howard Beach and Virginia Beach?

Or is it more a case of stupid-ism, where the theater owners feel that the social relevance of "Talk to Me" may float high over the corn-rolled, bandana sportin' heads of the audience while the slap stick comedy of "Who's the Caddy" might strike home?

Also, I've heard that the real money in theaters is made from the concession stands.
Maybe they think that the people who watch dumb movies eat more popcorn and juju beans than intellectuals.

Well I, for one, am not going to take this laying down!

So call me the "Hip Hop Howard Beale."

Just like that old dude from the 70's movie "Network," I say that it's time to get mad.

So get up out of your chairs now and go to your windows....uh, I mean laptops, sidekicks and iphones and let the movie theaters owners know

We're mad as hell. and we're not going to take it anymore!

Min. Paul Scott is a writer and activist in Durham NC. His blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com. He can be reached at (919) 451-8283
info@nowarningshotsfired.com