hat most intrigues me regarding the remarks of Alicia Keys is that if she is right that gangsta rap was an invention on the part of whites for the purpose of having black people kill one another, then black people are truly dumb.  Again, if black people started killing one another because whites set up some stupid competition, then what follows is not only that at least the white people in question are racists, but that blacks are incredibly stupid. 

After all, there can be no mistake whatsoever that killing a person with a gun constitutes harming that person.  It is thus impossible for any two black people to kill aim to kill one another  with a gun without realizing that they are aiming to harm one another.  It does not matter who set up the killing, be they racist whites or greedy blacks or whomever. 

So, even if we assume for the sake of argument that there were white folks sitting around who dreamed up the idea of using gangsta rap to have blacks kill one another.  What needs to be explained is how did it turn out that blacks fell for that idea!  And Ms. Keys has not uttered a single word that would explain how blacks might have fallen for this white racist idea. 

Let me see.  How many black people would have to kill one another before it occurred to black folks that “Gee, we are harming one another by killing one another”?  Does Ms. Keys suppose that black folks would need an insightful person like herself in order to grasp the profound consequences of blacks shooting one another? 

After all, her point is so subtle that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson both missed it, as did various black-nationalist groups. 

The point of course is that what Keys has claimed makes sense only if one holds that blacks are dumber than dumb.  For what she has implied is that all whites have to do is think of a way of having blacks complete against one another in a vicious way and guess what: Blacks will do just that!  And this entails that blacks are utterly bereft of any sort of meaningful reflection regarding the consequences of their behavior.  This is black pride that blacks can do without. 

Lest there be any misunderstanding, I am prepared to accept that there is still racism in the American society.  The point rather is that there are certain forms that racism cannot possiblly take unless black folks themselves are either (a) incredibly inferior intellectually or (b) profoundly indifferent to one another’s well-being. 

It is somehow supposed that since blacks have all been a victim of racism, then they cannot all be profoundly indifferent to the well-being of one another because they are united by having been victims of the same wrong.  This is an interesting point of view.  However, it is not borne out by reality. 

Racism against blacks to the contrary notwithstanding, blacks have been no more and no less opportunistic than people of any other ethnic group. 

If Keys is right about gangsta rap having been invited by whites in order to destroy black people, what follows rather poignantly is that the whites who gave rise to gangsta rap grasped a truth that Ms. Keys herself will not acknowledge, namely that blacks can be manipulated even to the point of harming one another.  And the question that obviously arises is: Whose fault is that?  Is it the faults of the whites who did the manipulation or the blacks who allowed themselves to be manipulated?

It has been said that a “A man cannot ride one’s back if one is walking upright”.  Certain modes of manipulation are utterly impossible unless I, myself, go along with the manipulation. 

We are not talking about an investment scheme where, through a wealth of deceitful practices, access to someone’s money is obtained.  No, we are talking about a very explicit harm: death by killing—killing with guns no less.  The manipulation of blacks by whites to this end is simply not possible unless blacks themselves allow themselves to be so manipulated owing to greed or whatever.  Either that, or it follows that blacks are horrendously stupid. 

In the end, what painfully follows is this.  With friends like Alicia Keys, black people do not need enemies.  The same holds for all the so-called brothers and sisters who claim that Keys is on to something.  No one can force a black person to pull the trigger on a gun. 

There is a painful truth that must be accepted by blacks if there is to be moral progress in the black community, namely that no one is to blame for the violence that blacks commit against one another but blacks themselves. 

Owing to racism, black people can be charged exorbitant rent or interest rates by white people.  Or, black people can be charged outrageous prices by white people for bad food.  But black people cannot be made to commit violence against one another unless they themselves are indifferent to the well-being of one another. 

The simple and unexpurgated truth is that there is a limit to what white people can control.  And that limit stops at the heart.  I do not rape women; and you can show me women in every conceivable lascivious pose and I will still not commit the act of rape.  That act is entirely within my control regardless of the images that are shown all around me. 

More to the point: I am black; and it has never crossed my mind to kill another black person.  And I have been around white people just about all of my life.  On the one hand, I know what it is like to be told that “You are different”.  Translation: "You are smarter than the other blacks that I know".  On the other, I know what it is like to be profoundly resented by blacks for my intellectual interests.  Still, it has never ever crossed my mind to kill another black person.  It is simply inconceivable that anyone of whatever race could trick me into killing a black person with a gun.  I mean the gun would have to look and feel like a teddy bear, or whatever. 

Now, on the assumption that I am not at all smarter than other black people, be they in the hood or elsewhere, then what follows is that the explanation for why black people are killing black people has nothing whatsoever to do with the ingenious manipulation of black people by white people.  Rather, it has to do with the brazen indifference of black people to the life of other black people—an indifference occasioned by greed.  The sin of racism is one thing; and the sin of indifference owing to greed is quite another.  Black people have shown themselves more than a little susceptible to the sin of indifference owing to greed.  And insofar as Ms. Keys is unable to acknowledge this, she is not a friend of black people, no matter what she wears around her neck.  Indeed, her AK-47 jewelry notwithstanding, what she has done by her remarks is tantamount to putting a noose around the necks of black folks. 

If I were a KKK person, I would be loving this Alicia Keys moment. `For precisely what KKK folks think is that blacks are too dumb to know what is good for black people.  Hence, the title of this blog-entry. 

The KKK person asks: How dumb are black people?  Alicia Keys answers: Black people are too dumb to know that they are harming one another by killing one another.