Excellent article.

The crab mentality, as I understand it, also occurs in people from the inner city. The ones who want to improve their situation by education and hard work are called "sellouts," etc. The message given is "Never do better than I do."

Tying together both the country music of the rural South and the racial tension of the inner city: Charley Pride, my personal favorite country music singer of all time, says his success brought him more criticism from fellow blacks than from whites. Initially there were some white men who thought, "Hey, that black man is up on that stage singing love songs to OUR women," and didn't like it when the women responded positively. But they are the exception. Most whites in the country music industry and audience accept and even love him, but blacks have accused him of being a traitor to his race, because he was successful. Especially since he became successful by singing "white" music to white audiences in a voice that is his own but "sounds white."

President Obama has commented on the "slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white." I think it's the same principle as saying a person from the rural South is "gittin' all uppity" simply for not being poor and uneducated anymore.