Well, the earliest know 'grillz' were I believe the Mayans drilling their teeth and sticking in jewels. The Filipinos liked to clad their teeth in gold to look like what their deity was believed to have. As far as 'blacks'...During slavery, the strongest, best males were sometimes given some care so they could function well and not die of abscess infections. The cheap copper teeth showed their 'value' among the others to the slave owners.
So I guess youre right. It a status symbol among the blacks.
yes it is a status symbol, but it no longer is a symbol used with the same connotations as you have laid out; gold teeth and other assorted bling items among the black community signify a rise out of ghetto and slum life. a rise out of the neighborhoods created by segregation. a rise above the life of poverty.
got nothing to do with anything else today.
you see a black person with bling you know they came from a life of abject poverty and have made for themselves lives among the wealthy and elite. its why Obama never wore any, nor his children. they did not come from such humble beginnings. the gold is meant to remind both the wearer and the observer that their culture has been crafted through hard work on the strengths of their community - specifically the hiphop and rap community; niche music that originated in jazz but took on its own life and its own culture and is seen by the vast majority to be the culture of black people. icons of the hippie movement inspired black rappers in the 70's funk era to begin their own fashion and their own culture. the war on drugs fuelled their movement, as accused of coke trafficking several people began flashing wealth as a dogwhistle to provoke white people as if to say 'so what i sell coke i made bank' and deride the racism that pervaded that viewpoint.
this helped carve out the boundaries of what made you a successful black person through the 70's and 80's. you had black dance, black fashion, and black music. as rap grew out of funk, a certain amount of rebellious white added legitimacy to the 80's thug era, as skaters and punks adopted drug culture and formed the ska and grunge movements; blacks, and rebel white among the anti-corporate culture of the day. currently it is seen as fashionable for those with hyper wealth to display it in their dress in high labels, to buy large palatial homes, and drive expensive cars; this is common no matter the ethnicity of the individual. the elite dress not conservatively but with class instead of gaudily. grills and necklaces and platinum teeth arent so much a thing of the past, but just less prominent among the popular elite.
so yes, while it may be seen as thuggish and promoting 'dangerous' lifestyles, it is not entirely inappropriate. it is only inappropriate to dismiss working on these types of bling items on racist grounds. just be careful of ignoring the elapsed time from the civil rights movement, and all the progress and cultural changes since. it may label you a way you surely did not mean to be labelled. denying these kinds of appliances may legitimately be not an amount of investment you want to get into, but denying it because you do not support black people or their current culture may brand you unapologetically. the types of views carried by racists include associating heavy gold jewelery with heavy iron cuffs made to enslave, or associating heavy gold jewelery's purpose with holding a person underwater, or referring to jewelery in biblical 'pierce thy slave's ear' connotations.
i'm only making this post because of reports. please don't think i'm pointing or wagging fingers.
i could have copied the last two paragraphs from here, but i put it into my own words.
We take a look at the history of hip-hop jewelry, an accessory that has roots far deeper and varied than you might imagine. Read here!
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