Black Privilege

Black Privilege: Opportunity Comes to Those Who Create It (2017) is a nonfiction book by hip-hop radio DJ and television personality, Charlamagne tha God. One-part autobiography, one-part self-improvement book, The New York Times called it “a street-smart self-help guide.”

Charlamagne, born Lenard Larry McKelvey, describes his early life growing up in a trailer on a dirt road in the rural community of Moncks Corner, South Carolina. He was inspired to write this book in part because of his own experience as a voracious reader in his youth who used books to escape from his less-than-glamorous reality and to learn about the world from his little corner of the country. Throughout his rise to the top, Charlamagne writes, things were rarely easy. In middle and high school, he was continually bullied and beat up for being “ugly” and having an “egg-shaped dome.” Like many poor young men in his community, he began dealing drugs as a teenager and was arrested three times, mostly for cocaine or marijuana possession with the intent to distribute. After his third and final arrest, his father refused to bail him out, and he spent forty-one days behind bars. Even after finding his calling as a radio DJ in Charleston, South Carolina, he was fired four times before eventually landing his current high-profile gig as the host of The Breakfast Club on New York City's Power 105.1 station. He was axed from his previous jobs, Charlamagne writes, for speaking his mind too freely.

The book is divided by eight principles which serve as chapter headings. In the first, “It’s Not the Size of the Pond but the Hustle in the Fish,” Charlamagne explains how it didn't matter that he was born in a small rural South Carolina community because one's state of mind is far more important than the state in which one is born. He writes, “Geographical location doesn't determine what kind of success you will have, but your psychological position always will.”



In “PYP (Pick Your Passion, Poison, or Procrastination),” he describes three different types of people: those who live their life according to what they are most passionate about; those who suffocate their passions in drugs, alcohol, or other hedonistic pursuits; and finally those who are still in touch with their passions but do not make choices or delay the choices that would make their dreams a reality.

Jumping off the idea of the previous chapter, the third principle is “Fuck Your Dreams.” What Charlamagne means is that dreams are nothing if you don't “make conscious decisions that will help you realize your destiny.”

Charlamagne's fourth principle is “There Are No Losses, Only Lessons.” In short, learn from your mistakes. He writes, “You should give zero fucks about any perceived losses in life as long as you learn something from them. Always look for the lesson in any situation you think didn't go your way. Understand that your plan isn’t necessarily also God’s plan for you.”



The following chapter is whimsically titled, “Put the Weed in the Bag!” “Putting the weed in the bag” is a metaphor for always making the proper preparations if you plan to be successful. You can’t be sloppy. You have to grind it out. In other words, you can’t just go out and sell handfuls of marijuana to people. You have to bag it up first.

The sixth principle is less esoteric—“Live Your Truth.” Charlamagne writes that not only is honesty healthy for us and our relationships, but it is also a valuable commodity. “People are thirsty for the truth,” the author writes. “Sate that thirst, and they should always appreciate you.”

Though it may sound like Charlamagne is advocating for calling others out on their stupidity, the main crux of “Give People the Credit They Deserve For Being Stupid” is his recommendation to always be asking questions and soaking up knowledge. If there is something you don’t know that’s just a golden opportunity to learn something new.



In “Access Your Black Privilege,” Charlamagne doesn't mean to downplay the collective societal challenges black men and women face. He says, it’s more important to focus on what you can change. He boils down his recipe for success to the following equation: “Faith plus hard work can change any circumstance. Do you understand what I just said? Faith plus hard work can change any circumstance.”

Full of humorous and compelling anecdotes, along with great common sense advice, Black Privilege is a self-help book driven by the author’s engaging personality.