Oprah, Gail King, Snoop, Kobe & the Petty-Bourgeoisie African Lie

The latest high visibility drama within the African community within the U.S. is the issue of news anchor Gail King interviewing and asking former basketball player Lisa Leslie about Kobe Bryant’s 2003 rape allegation in Denver, Colorado, U.S. Bryant, of course, was killed along with his daughter and seven other people in a January 26, 2020, helicopter crash.  

Hip/hop star Calvin Broadus aka Snoop Doggy Dogg, chimed in after King’s Leslie interview, allegedly calling King “a dog headed b -  -  - h.”  Hundreds of thousands of people have agreed with Snoop online and some have gone even farther in their criticism of King.  On the flip side, Oprah Winfrey, who is close personal friends with King, has spoken out defending her friend, claiming King is receiving death threats from people who disagreed with her bringing up Bryant’s rape conviction. 

First, we desire to point out that anytime we want to assess circumstances like this, its imperative that we do so utilizing a nation, class, and gender analysis in order to sort out the proper perspective on how to view any and all occurrences.  This type of critical analysis has to conclude that King, Oprah, Snoop, and Kobe, beyond people’s emotional attachments to them, unquestionably represent the petty bourgeoisie in this country.  In other words, none of those people represent the needs and aspirations of the masses of African people or any working class people anywhere.  Oprah has been a talking head for bourgeoisie ideology for decades, posing as the reasonable voice for “middle America” whatever that is when in actuality, her work has always been sustaining an audiance from petty bourgeoisie European women, first, and then petty bourgeoisie colonized women, second, in support of the capitalist, imperialist, patriarchal, white supremacist empire.  The thrust of her message has always been that the way we address social inequities is by further integrating ourselves into this system of oppression that continues to terrorize us.  Its like suggesting to sheep that their salvation is with marching into the wolf den.  King, by virtue of being a mouthpiece for the Rockafeller owned NBC bourgeoisie machine, is without question a token tool designed to fool us into thinking an African woman voice, through a bourgeoisie media outlet, is an example of diversity and justice in reporting.  This tactic continues to work because most of us don't know the difference between visibility and power. 

Snoop Dogg has earned millions exploiting the inner city suffering of African people.  He has done this by posing like he is simply reporting our suffering when the millions he has earned are the direct result of him, and others, capitalizing off of that suffering by making it appealing and marketable  to suburban European youth who represent 70% of the rap music buying audience. 

To be clear, when these conflicts between celebrities take place, its important that everyday people recognize that none of these people are representative of the challenges and struggles you endure each day.  None of them are concerned about your challenges and struggles.  In fact, none of them are doing anything except using their close cultural connection to our daily existences to slyly advance their personal careers.  Still, some of the issues raised in this “conflict” desire examination.  Yes, raising Kobe Bryant’s rape allegation is appropriate.  I for one am sick and tired of this foolish posturing on behalf of African people on line who are so utterly confused that they completely ignore the suffering of the families of people like Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, Sundiata Acoli, Mutulu Shakur, Ruchell Magee, etc..  People who have legitimately stood up and sacrificed mightily for African people and humanity, while these online Africans act like a legitimate question about Kobe Bryant’s own oppressive actions against women is some sort of blasphemous statement against God Almighty.  Yes, Kobe was a great basketball player.  No one can deny that.  Yes, he appeared to have developed into a good father and husband (based on available evidence at this point).  And, yes, he was accused, and did actually acknowledge being inappropriate against a woman.  Yes, the system of patriarchy is set up so that any woman who chooses to accuse a popular celebrity of rape can expect to have her name dragged through the mud.  Anyone who cannot become mature enough to discuss all of this in a rational manner is just not serious as a human being.  Along with that, the disgraceful public comments of Snoop Dogg, along with his public comments in support of someone like Bill Cosby, who has spent the last four decades denigrating African people for his handlers, is equally disgraceful.  By the same token, Gail King and Oprah Winfrey are not strong examples of African women resistance.  Each of them is in this position because they are not that.  King wasn’t asking Leslie questions about Kobe’s rape allegation because she is there to ensure the integrity of women is preserved.  She asked because doing so invokes controversy into the interview which increases viewership rating.  Understanding that this is the unscrupulous nature of capitalist media, we would suggest that asking those questions was probably not even King’s idea, but the idea of some network producer who wanted to enhance the ability of her interview to attract higher advertising dollars.  As for Oprah, she has been spent the last 30+ years operating out of Chicago, Ill, U.S., and yet she cannot be counted on to even provide a semblance of an analysis of the problems plaguing our people in that city, beyond the same tired blame the victim while ignoring the prominent role the enemies of African people play in destabilizing our communities.  As for Snoop, its criminal and cowardly that he chooses to attack this mouthpiece woman who clearly has no capacity to respond beyond the parameters provided to her by her corporate masters, or his worthless attacks against Trump that have no impact on empowering our people, when he could use his voice, loudly and consistently, to speak for real unity among African people, particularly the African and Indigenous/Latino “gang” youth who’s suffering he has made millions rapping about.  He could be speaking to real challenges we face as African men instead of allying himself with Bill Cosby who has demonstrated that he has absolutely no respect for the African masses (his raising money to petty bourgeoisie colleges and universities while denouncing the masses of Africans who will never step foot on those campuses when you cannot point to any large scale efforts from any of those schools to truly contribute to our liberation as a people, doesn’t count when you try and claim Cosby is helping strengthen the masses of our people).  And yes, even with not discussing the rape charge, Kobe Bryant, like the overwhelming majority of these athletes and entertainers, was no example of African self determination and dignity.  By all reports and available evidence, he was just another celebrity who chose the individualistic advances playing court jester for the capitalist system provides you while basically ignoring the mass suffering our people endure.  No one, no matter how talented they are, ascends to success on an individual level within the capitalist system without assistance from the mass struggle for justice our people have waged.  There were basketball players prior to the 1950s who had skills and talents at that time that would have dwarfed Kobe’s impact on the modern basketball game, yet systemic racism and segregation prohibited them from being able to exhibit their skills and capabilities.  The fact Bryant was able to do that, was as a result of our mass collective struggle for justice so whatever skills he had can never belong to him alone.  Just like any skills and capabilities we possess can never belong to any of us individually because it was only our mass struggle that opened the door for him to earn millions playing basketball. The fact that his life and work was relegated to upholding capitalism and not advancing our struggle towards liberation does not qualify him or anyone like him as a role model for our people (instead of people like Acoli, al-Amin, etc., who deserve that respect) and the fact we continue to elevate people like him to that status speaks to the class desires of so many of us to assimilate into the capitalist system on individual levels at the expense of the masses of our suffering people. 

In a nutshell, despite the fact they may look like you, sound like you, and speak, act, and perform on levels that you identify with, neither Oprah, King, Snoop, Cosby, or Kobe, exemplify the conditions of the masses of African people and for the most part, all of them do everything in their power to avoid any connection to the majority of us unless like Snoop, they use our existence simply to advance themselves individually.  And, please understand, we are not interested in charity cases or whatever that these people are involved in.  We are talking only about the collective mass struggle for justice and liberation that our people and all of humanity need and deserve.  None of these people have made a single contribution to that and they never will because they are not the same as you and you are not the same as them.  And, the moment we reach a level of political maturity when we can understand and recognize that is the day we can finally move past this charade where court jesters and entertainers are passed off and confused as legitimate representatives of our mass struggle for forward progress and dignity.