In the past I have called many of the Afrocentric pundits who wrote books and made TV appearances that analyzed Black poverty, poverty pimps. These men and women seemed to be in the "business" of Black poverty, profiteering off the rhetoric and fueling the hysteria attached to disenfranchised, hungry Black people. But I have come to realize that there is no effective way to talk about Black poverty as a Black person in the world today, for our powerlessness as individual Black people living in a dysfunctional, dependent community, relegates those of us who are concerned to an endless discussion about the problem. Rhetoric is talk unattached to power. We are unattached to power. Therefore the pundits have no choice but the chatter. It's like being an expert on saving Saturn. You'll never get to Saturn, and Saturn, seemingly, will never come to you, and Saturn may be barren, or simply doesn't care to be saved, despite it's obvious worth. So the choice for the Black pundits is clear; Take your expertise and move on, or continue to orbit our community screaming, hoping something on the ground changes. So I have greater understanding of the limits of our intellectual efforts, and the criticisms that bloom in the distance Black pundits need to see our people clearly. So as much as I cringe at the lifting of Tupac to MLK or Malcolm X status by an irresponsible few who seek to sell books to the 'Illuminati, Machaivelli' crowd, I don't begrudge them their fees and royalties if, perhaps, someone out there may be ready and listening in the ghetto patterns for the word. Etheridge Knight wrote in his poem "It Was A Funky Deal" about the killing of Malcolm X, "You rocked too many boats, man./Pulled too many coats, man./Saw through the jive./You reached the wild guys/Like me. You and Bird. (And that/Lil LeRoi cat.)." As I was a wild guy, as may have been you, others are as ready as we were for something different, and they will be starting from zero, zero and rising. (This is for Nae, and all the Brothas who have never seen the sea.)