"...the scale of my ambition"

 

above: from King by Florence + the Machine

I'm increasingly/always thinking derision of ambition as a legacy of imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, here are a few quotes below--Pemberton and Smith are Black, Whyte is not.


Back then, being ambitious wasn't cool. Many of the bands were perfectly happy just trying to meet women and drink beer. You were expected to have that Canadian attitude of false humility. Even if you thought what you were doing was good or interesting, you could never verbalize it. It wasn't that far removed from the '90s slacker era where the preferred pose was aloofness.

- from Bedroom Rapper: Cadence Weapon on Hip-Hop, Resistance, and Surviving the Music Industry by Rollie Pemberton


Ambition ultimately withers all secrets in its glare before those secrets have had time to come to life from within and then thwarts the generosity and maturity that ripens the discourse of a lifetime's dedication to work.

- from Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment, and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words by David Whyte


[Diane] Cardwell encouraged Black writers like me to create with intention, to be bold with contrary ideas, and to not feel second best because we were from second cities and hadn't gone to Rutgers or Brown. She assigned me that Hammer piece because, like Stanley Burrell, I am from Oakland, and also because I had thoughts about how hard it was at that time to see a Black man smile unapologetically and publicly when so many were suffering. About how ambition was being derided and about how pop hip hop itself was and remains powered by the spirit of reparation. Low-key payback for slavery and high-key payback for the successful theft of rock and R&B from musical generations immediately preceding the pioneers of rap.

- from Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith

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