I find it's distressing, there's never no in-between
We either niggas or Kings, we either bitches or Queens

from Black Star – Thieves in the Night Lyrics on Rap Genius

Black people are always portrayed as the two extremes. They’re either big stars, or thugs. There doesn’t seem to be an in-between in peoples' minds.

This line also speaks to the absence of a black middle class in the American popular imagination — blacks are (or at least were as of 1998) portrayed almost exclusively as dangerous, violent thugs (Willie Horton), or (in the imagination of Afrocentrists) the descendants of ancient royalty. Kings/Queens may also conjure the images of super-wealthy and super-successful black Americans like Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, and Barack Obama — the modern face of black achievement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io9KMSSEZ0Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0AGiq9j_Ak

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