DAN-GER-OUS NE-GRO(n.)1.an individual of African descent whose educational background and assertive disposition pose an imminent THREAT to the current state of affairs in a racist, patriarchal society.2. identified by an acute sense of SOCIAL AWARENESS, non-complacency and a trenchant and relentless commitment to the BLACK community. 3. classified as the “Talented Tenth” and charge with uplifting the “masses” of the Negro race. 4.ANTI-APATHETIC. 5. committed to the social, political, and economic EMPOWERMENT of the Black community. No this is not a new entry into Webster’s, but rather a message on a shirt designed by apparel company dangerousNegro. Black Empowerment Apparel Company, dangerousNegro seeks to promote and facilitate positive messages like this to ignite change in the black community. “Clothing has always been a means through which people make statements,” says CFO and Co-Founder Tre Millyanz. “This is especially true amongst young people like ourselves. Unfortunately when you look around at apparel that is marketed to our age group these days, you see an absence of anything with a positive message.” And it was this absence which inspired Tre and six of his former college schoolmates at Vanderbilt University to start dN in December of 2005. When you look at the resume of the seven founders of this company you can see that this is not your typical hip-hop venture started by a rap mogul. Almost all of this company’s executives have attended some type of graduate school (Tre is a graduate of Harvard Business School). And it was the education of the founders, which provided the inspiration for dangerousNegro. Tre got idea while sitting in my Black Masculinity class learning about the demonization of the Black male image throughout history. “Black people are about more than we see in the media and they need a fresh way to express themselves. People actually want to be vehicles for change in their communities. People want to express positive messages and stop glorifying thuggery and other forms of negativity.” We attribute our success to the overwhelming demand for something like this. And don’t expect dangerousNegro to be your ordinary online mom and pop shop. Plans for the future include opening unique stores, fashion shows and distribution by other establishments. In addition to that they plan to tackle other ventures such as entertainment, real estate, consulting, and developing a separate non-profit company to focus on education (early childhood development, scholarships, ex-con job placement, etc.) and economic empowerment. Says Millyanz. “We feel that the Black America is in sad state of complacency and selfishness. Like with the original Hip Hop artists, we want to take intellectualism and activism back to the streets.” |
