Black People : 50 Cent's story further evidence of deliberate attempts to devalue black fatherhood!

[panafrica]

Curtis Jackson has made millions out of being 50 Cent. In acquiring this fortune, he has survived his mother's killing, his early life on the street and being shot nine times (in a murder attempt on May 24, 2000).
The former crack dealer has built a hot rap career and spawned several product lines. This month, he diversifies his portfolio with a movie, a video game, a soundtrack CD, a new sneaker and wristwatches.

Opening Wednesday, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," a semi-biographical movie about a dealer-turned-emcee, has already drawn criticism from community groups in Brooklyn and Los Angeles for its posters depicting guns and its brutal content. However, the film actually portrays Marcus, the character based on 50, as wary of violence and moved by love.

The film's portrayal of his early life in Jamaica, Queens, is "75% true," 50 said in a recent interview with the Daily News. But, he added, Marcus' quest to learn his dad's identity is not his own. He was content to live with his single mother, a hardened drug dealer who was murdered when he was 8. He was subsequently raised by grandparents.

"My mother would tell me that I was born through the Immaculate Conception, like Jesus, that I was special not having a father," said 50, who is 29. "That made me understand I didn't have to have one."....

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/362540p-308673c.html

 

[panafrica]

My contempt for 50 Cent's destructive messages has been addressed in other threads, so I'd like not to revisit them here. What I would like to concentrate on is the message passed down to him from his mother:

"My mother would tell me that I was born through the Immaculate Conception, like Jesus, that I was special not having a father," said 50, who is 29. "That made me understand I didn't have to have one."

This is the most damning...the most disgusting dismissal of the role black fathers play in their children's lives that I have ever heard! :flame: I have written numerous times that there have been systematic efforts in the black community to devalue the role that fathers play in the mental and spiritual upbring of their children. There has been a movement to portray black fathers as a non-entity. Statements and attitudes like this are further proof of this happening. A mother sending such messages to her children undoubtedly would effect how they interact with the opposite sex. Undeniably growing up internalizing these messages would affect how young women select their men, and how young men respond to their women. When are we going to admit the prevelance of such attitudes in our community, is the ultimate example of the self-fullfilling prophesy? These notions are doing untold damage to the perceptions of family and male-female relations to our youth!

 

[Sekhemu]

My contempt for 50 Cent's destructive messages has been addressed in other threads, so I'd like not to revisit them here. What I would like to concentrate on is the message passed down to him from his mother:



This is the most damning...the most disgusting dismissal of the role black fathers play in their children's lives that I have ever heard! :flame: I have written numerous times that there have been systematic efforts in the black community to devalue the role that fathers play in the mental and spiritual upbring of their children. There has been a movement to portray black fathers as a non-entity. Statements and attitudes like this are further proof of this happening. A mother sending such messages to her children undoubtedly would effect how they interact with the opposite sex. Undeniably growing up internalizing these messages would affect how young women select their men, and how young men respond to their women. When are we going to admit the prevelance of such attitudes in our community, is the ultimate example of the self-fullfilling prophesy? These notions are doing untold damage to the perceptions of family and male-female relations to our youth!

Not to make excuses for his mom, but come on Pan, his mom was a drug dealer. How much sense could she have had in the first place. But your points are well taken. Too many black people devalue the importance of the black father.

 

[jamesfrmphilly]

she was "a hardened drug dealer", not your best example of motherhood.

 

[Fine1952]

I reserve judgment

on "Get Rich or Die Tryin' until I see the movie...

If what you say is true, IMO--Fity is just another black man sifted thru the process of integration to further exploit black social ills.

If he is not using his influence to bring knowledge to the nation then his efforts only denigate that nation...

Fine