'What an ideology is, is a conceptual framework with the way people deal with reality," Alan Greenspan told the Congressional House oversight and government reform committee on 23 October. "Everyone has one. You have to - to exist, you need an ideology. The question is whether it is accurate or not." As the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, from 1987 to 2006, Greenspan stood at the helm of US monetary policy during the time conditions for the current meltdown were being created.

Since relatively few black men end up as gangsters, rappers or presidents, the notion that black western masculinity travels on a linear progression between Barack Obama and 50 Cent is deeply problematic. Between rap and the Oval office there is a world of popular black male figures inhabited by the likes of Chris Rock, Lewis Hamilton, Denzel Washington and Dave Chappelle – to name just a few.