with how publicly hard society has been on black people in the last few years, the black youth in particular, i have become me more tolerant of otherwise problematic black folks who seem to be somewhat useful in a black nationalism sort of way. entrepreneurship and "codes of conduct" are certainly the missing component that civil rights victories cant really address and a lack of focus on these have left us in this uncomfortable position of having a black president and legal protection from obvious racism while still being vulnerable to the whims of the non-black majority in everyday kinds of ways due to us only building on soft power and no hard power.
in the past, i would have written all of these hotep people off immediately, but recent events have forced me to see they legitimately had a more radical angle on some issues that the legacy black empowerment movements are terrible at (the NAACP is a joke, obama is racially useless, black church is forgiving white people, sharpton and jackson are bought, etc.) so i try to be a little understanding of their flaws and cherry pick the good from the bad. umar is right that the education system is terrible for black kids and black boys in particular. he, however, is not really qualified to do much more beyond pointing that out. tariq is right that we need a code of conduct and black business, but macking and gold digging is toxic to the black family.
i wish people didnt need to go to people like this for guidance, but the truth is, most people are pretty ignorant about serious topics, and the "house of konsciousness", an umar lecture, or hidden colors might be the first time they ever really got into the kinds of topics that help build ethics and worldviews. i suppose their success in this space is a net positive. i just hope that once they get to a certain level they outgrow these dudes.