Ask 50 people and you might get a different understanding of my question from every single one, and the volatility in the air right now might spark a heated, ignorant debate. That’s not what I am looking for. I am not inciting a black and white problem or competition.
What I am asking you is firstly to look back at the word FUBU, and think about how you and your people reflected on this word in the mid 90s, early 2000s.
The term “For us by us” always meant a white teacher poking fun at a white kid for wearing something he wasn’t “supposed to.” To the white boy looking up, confused and perplexed, this subtle example of systemic white superiority was evident even as a child.
In the blinded world we lived in pre-internet, pre freedom of information, this ideal was paramount. Whites ruled the country. Whites were the power. Whites were leaders. Whites were the majority.
FUBU was a brand “for us by us” meant for blacks, by blacks. The little white boy always thought…But then why wasn’t it FBBB? Probably then got in trouble for asking such a “distracting” question.
If you’ve ever seen Shark Tank, you might not know that the black dude on the show was the man who started FUBU. Daymond John started his first brand during the beginning of hip hop culture, when young kings began singing the truth about the world they were forced to live in.
“I started to want to become a part of this culture and we started wearing these clothes and we started hearing that these designers didn’t want us wearing their stuff.
One company called Timberland, they’re not owned by the same owners now, but they said “we don’t sell our boots to drug dealers.” I wasn’t a drug dealer. I was a hard working young man who was working at Red Lobster as a waiter. I didn’t have enough money to go to college so I had to get a job as a waiter and I was upset.”
When Donald Trump used MAGA, he didn’t mean FUBU.
He didn’t mean, we can be free. He didn’t mean make America ours. He didn’t mean Make America better. He meant, take it back to where it was before.
He dog whistled a culture of whites who felt as though their fall was coming from superiority. He felt a sense of a last dying breath of white america. He saw an opportunity to strike when the iron was hot. He took his army of rich white old men and swore to turn back the clocks to the “good ole days” when he could shit on black men and women the same way he does on…well, everyone around him who does not bow to him and kiss his hand.
This is the way of the MAGA. This is the way of “old money” this is the way of slavery. This is the way of “bow to your leader.”
I am not a black man. As a matter of fact, I was just provided my results that PROVE I am not a black man. (23 & me) This only solidifies my consistent rising tide of emotion I have personally dealt with my entire life that sees injustice in a corrupt system that does not benefit all of us.
The system does not benefit every man.
FUBU did not let that reality stop creation. Daymond John did not let working at corporate restaurant stop him from being a part of magic. He did not let being from a broken home stop him from being a part of the magic. He did not let being short on cash stop him from being a part of the magic.
FUBU may be a suburban joke to some. To me, it’s the same reason I idolized Allen Iverson. Its the same reason I idolized Michael Vick. To me, it means FOR US BY US. All the real ones who have always known the truth that we are all battling the same fight from different angles.
We can work together and build a prophetic perfect world in our future. We have no one in our way but ourselves. We can overcome white supremacy and racism in our society, because rebellion and revolution and honor are in our American DNA.
To me, it means, MAGA is dying. To me, it means… its our turn.
“So, I joined up with a couple of my friends and we [started our company]. We said we really want to be inclusive and really proud of the people who we’re selling these clothes to. So we came up with a name: FUBU “For Us By Us.” It was all about a culture, not about a color.”
