Thread by @nqabamnyameni, this whole thing about noname and j cole is a lot simpler [...]

this whole thing about noname and j cole is a lot simpler and non-confrontational than social media will make it seem.

it's two intelligent black people, with opposing ends of the same opinion, having a conversation. stop pitting us against each other.

thread.

this whole thing about noname and j cole is a lot simpler and non-confrontational than social media will make it seem. it's two intelligent black people, with opposing ends of the same opinion, having a conversation. stop pitting us against each other. thread.

a little background: noname tweeted and deleted this, calling out who i presume are fave top selling rappers: cole, kendrick and drake who all haven't tweeted anything ever since blm protests began. all three men have about 65 million combined followers on twitter.

drake's discography isn't as political as cole's and kendrick's so i'll leave him out of this. noname didn't miss in that tweet bc they could be doing so much more. did yall see that difference between selena gomez and kylie jenner using their platforms differently?

when you're lucky enough to have a platform that large, it's fair enough to say that your silence is complicity, especially when you're a Black artist who regularly creates art centered around the plight of Black people.

here are some lyrics from the song j cole dropped last night, "snow in the bluff".

many have been referring to it as a diss track but that's not what it is. it not only addresses noname's sentiment but it's also an elaborate metaphoric statement on black interaction.

in the first line, cole addresses people's assumptions of him and how someone can base their opinion of you from their perspective & knowledge, without asking you or researching adequately.

he then paints a picture of this black woman who he admits is superior to him...

simply by her femininity. he is also careful to note that she's mad about something. he's repetitive about it, showing us the "angry black women" theory.

my understanding (and solange's) of it is that every black women has a right to be mad, as a result of all the systematic...

oppression and microaggressions she has to live every single day through.

i think he gets to a point where he tries to warn that woman (out of a position of caring for your Black sister) to target or channel her anger at the real enemy because that's her superpower.

Black women are the true leaders of society and noname has been a leader in rallying the masses of black twitter around the revolutionary cause many are protesting for, around the world.

however, if you're dealing with supposedly 'ignorant' Black people who need to hear what...

you're saying, you can't attack them with the same anger you attack the enemy with.

most ignorance in the Black community doesn't come from a lack of caring or social awareness, it comes from a lack of education and then everything else comes as a consequence of that.

hence, cole says: instead of your wokeness giving you a "holy" superiority over those asleep and the false right to call them out or cancel them, use it to educate people and bring the slower ones up to speed about what's happening. we're running the same marathon.

he speaks on not growing a forest of awareness overnight, but planting seeds of education and critical thought in the ghetto. (something noname, btw, has beeen doing — read up about her book club and stream her music)

he doesn't say that because noname isn't doing it...

he's supporting her on the fact that she's beeen at it.

i think cole's chat is that by using his platform to 'empower' people, he'll be creating a bunch of radical, woke people instead of actual activists who've read up and studied on the history of the matter.

cole really doesnt like social media, hence he says wokeness is "on some fuck a retweet, most people is sheep" merely following someone and not finding out about injustices by their own will and self-motivation as a Black person.

hence cole is on the streets, speaking to people on the ground like he always has been. cole even visits prisons where people have been wrongfully convicted and he just chats with them and raps a few songs for them.

noname has beeen inspiring people to learn about their injustices from the beginning of #blacklivesmatter

and that's amazing for her.

but we're not ALL on this Earth to do the same thing. as Black people, we're here for the same fight — yes.

but there are many ways we can participate and no one should tell someone else what to do.

in war, there are soldiers, marines, the navy & the air force. there are independent peacekeeping organizations, there are war medics there are anti-war advocates back at home and so on.

cole chose to go out on the streets and walk amongst the masses.

noname chose to mobilize homebodies and get them to sign petitions and spread awareness.

no one is wrong. they're both fighting against the enemy.

people think j cole stopped in the middle of two pandemics to diss a woman for calling her out, but that's not the point of this message.

understand that not everyone is on your level or path and seek not to beat them down, but rather to build and empower other Black people.

it's like this line by anthony hopkins in the movie, thor. "you can use a hammer as a weapon to destroy or as a tool to build."

as Black people, our voices are our hammers and we need to know what to destroy and what to build.

most importantly is j cole's last line.

"change is inevitable but ain't none of us seen this before"

the fight goes on and it's our responsibility to fight. but the world's a very weird fucking place right now and we're all taking it differently.

these are my views and my understanding of the situation. i'm obviously open to criticism but please dont try to engage if you're just reacting.

be big enough to put your feelings into a concise argument and engage with me, countering my points with logic and reason.

need to promote black stuff bc this is going very far. please take some time to read the tweets below.

please read up about the endemic threat of rape that south african women live under daily in our country. south africa has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence, rape and femicide — our government fails to listen to them. https://twitter.com/AluChokoe/status/1168569845010579456?s=19

https://twitter.com/AluChokoe/status/1168569845010579456?s=19

take some time to read an excerpt of my review of queen & slim, a movie i think every black person needs to watch right now

i also curate some music and movie/tv content on @hoodbioscope

https://twitter.com/nqabamnyameni/status/1248851917826076673?s=19

https://twitter.com/nqabamnyameni/status/1248851917826076673?s=19

go check out @patfromtheslums ep he dropped recently titled "clean air". some really nice pop to get you out of quarantine blues. available everywhere.