that he was not after them. Malcolm X and even Martin Luther King were too threatening. As much as 50 Cent and Obama represent prisms through which African-Americans can focus their own brand of masculinity, the more worrying aspect is that their respective success suggests that the only way to achieve that success is to assimilate into a system that still represents a racist culture that wishes to maintain its elite power. If you do not assimilate, you will remain at best marginalised, at worst brutalised. Agreed. He cannot rap for toffee. Nas, Dre, Jay Z, even Kanye are a lot better. LondonEye. Good points. I would add that by playing the system and using it for personal gain and the betterment (?) of others is actually a smart thing to be repscted on many levels. Jesse Jackson, Malcom, Sharpton, are all in some way being represented by Obama. He would not be where he is without the influence of those men. He knows it too. I can't help but think that this video is problematic because it is imposing race on these two men. As a method for criticising the behaviour of a person, I don't think it's particularly illuminating. Race brings with it all sorts of assumptions and impositions that just don't make sense. Surely Obama's ascent to the white house won't stop black boys being killed, or becoming drug addicts; nor does Fifty Cent's fame stop black boys going to Harvard or becoming lawyers. Race is fictional.