Black Dollar Series: The Boneless Hustler

For the Black Dollar Series, The Boneless Hustler is the busy body of the community. They want to know everyone’s business, yet act clandestine about their own. In the culture of Black money, The Hustler can orchestrate the best of community like a composer or weaponize that same community against their enemies. They are essentially the quiet CEOs and regulators that have more successful influence than law enforcement and potlicians.

Threat to the Community: Moderate

SCAM Meter: Moderate

The Mindset

This is someone in the community who either gossips on low and sits back to gather intel for details that can lead to leads. The faux pas is that they’re hella nosey despite the persona of being unbothered. They know what everyone can do but a lot of Hustlers aren’t really skilled themselves and that’s what makes them boneless. They rarely know how to get things done on their own but, can get the doors open and convince others to do the heavy lifting.

One tactic of the hustler is to trick people into doing all their work, and then find people to pay them to pay their own debt that they owe others (when they decide to payback). They have natural leadership abilities but once the money comes into the picture, they have a tendency to change up and betray arrangements.

The History

The Hustler’s history in the Black community was the anti-hero for many generations. When racism created injustice, The Hustler’s pettiness was used to blow up the scene and quietly retaliate for those they felt were done wrong. When the Hustling led to drug dealing and bootlegging, etc the revenue from those endeavors saved many families from financial ruin and sometimes,”balanced” situations that allowed Black people to recover in peace (with interest). Think of Bumpy Johnson’s role in protecting Harlem’s intercultural wars that occurred because of European Immigrants attempt to displace Black residents. He’d use the underworld to help the Black community to recover during The Red Summer and Economic Terrorism practiced for most of the 20th Century in America.

Fast Forward, the Hustler will see potential in how they can manage talent and get that opportunity to its fullest potential. In this case it’s more entertainment than underworld antics. They see everything as investment that also comes with reciprocity. While the racist pushback appears differently than 50 years ago, there is still gatekeeping that unjustly blocks deals for Black people that requires Hustler tactics. The hustler sees the potential in many things to become lucrative but they usually clash with third parties that see the access and influence of the Hustler as a threat.

From the out looking in, this person is a go getter and presents as “aspirational” to those who view their ability to make moves happen. The personal goal to win and conquer in the form of revenge truly drives the Hustler’s mindset.

Faux Pas

For many modern day Hustlers, they are excellent analyst. They pay attention to every detail they feel can lead to the next opportunity or use those deets to ruin their competition. They position themselves in spaces with people who can get them to the next step but their faux pas is that they’re not big self motivators. They usually need to be inspired to activate and without that personal confidence, they can become stagnant to the point of resentment. Many Hustlers are manic depressed because they know they lack the talent to get to the next level on their own. That drive, cloaks a deeper secret, that all of their rhetoric has less to do about success and more about filling a void that they lack internally or professionally. Hustlers are very insecure and need the world to know they’re valuable.

The Asset

When Hustler’s know who they are, knowing others good and bad attributes can determine the payout. They are woefully honest and in a perfect world could be the some of the best campaign managers or publicist. In the right mindset they can provide cheerleading, driving people to be better go getters. They’re excellent with providing the necessary information to make data driven decisions for that next step. The Hustler uses people as avatars to gain access for things they themselves lack to achieve.

There is a HIGH level of awareness and moderate compromised reality.

The Weakness

They’re notorious for squatting in others opportunities and dreams to the point of feeling they own the idea and the process. The control issues lead them to feel that even with no real knowledge, they feel entitled to absolute compensation of others plans. Many modern day Hustlers are highly selfish, petty, and even jealous of the very same people they help. Many of them can move like looters and the ratio of helping Black people succeed over the years narrowed after 2010s. The are allergic to paying people and will take out a loan to pay someone white but despise having to “owe” anyone Black.

The ability to open doors in itself is a talent that needs to be respected but, after that many start to feel the need to be “all up in the video” and hijack the talent’s momentum to the point of destruction.

Overall

If they understand their individual talent of getting the right people in room, and making it clear their cut comes with that glad handling, they can become a fixer that helps others get through red tape to success. On the negative, if they forget their role it can eventually turn into a jealous pocket watcher situation, or betry trust converting information into a chatty patty oppurtunity that can undermine the very same people they helped. They can morphing everything into a one sided competition so it’s good to know them but keep strong boundaries.