Do they bring it on themselves?

http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_3_how_hip_hop.html

I've long believed this, but have never had the time nor the ability to articulate it like this.

This is not intended to be a racist post....but the line has become so thin nowadays, so who know?

edit: it is quite a long article but to summurise:

"What struck me most, though, was how fully the boys’ music—hard-edged rap, preaching bone-deep dislike of authority—provided them with a continuing soundtrack to their antisocial behavior. So completely was rap ingrained in their consciousness that every so often, one or another of them would break into cocky, expletive-laden rap lyrics, accompanied by the angular, bellicose gestures typical of rap performance. A couple of his buddies would then join him. Rap was a running decoration in their conversation.

Many writers and thinkers see a kind of informed political engagement, even a revolutionary potential, in rap and hip-hop. They couldn’t be more wrong. By reinforcing the stereotypes that long hindered blacks, and by teaching young blacks that a thuggish adversarial stance is the properly “authentic” response to a presumptively racist society, rap retards black success."

 

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It's a good thing, eventually the word will lose all offensive meaning.

 

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It's not the words, but the negative points which are put across. Already they are primarily associated with black people. If I say 'I'll pop a cap in ur ass', it is almost a racist comment. Why is that?

 

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no it isn't and don't believe it.

 

Like it or not to fit to a society and to do well in life we have to tow the line. And the artical is totally correct many young black males are choosing to do anything but tow the line and then they moan that society owes them something.

Lets take the image that this music and many black aspire too and see what roles in society they can for fill?

 

Well maybe they are right: SNFU.

 

I don't know how much of a bearing in reality the article has, since I'm not in that kind of culture.

The kids sound like 14 year old kids. My friends and I were quite unruly at that age. We'd sing inappropriate songs now and again in inappropriate situations. We'd throw stuff around cafes until we got thrown out. We'd break and enter empty buildings to smoke joints or get drunk. Usually we'd choose a bottle of Tesco's screwtop £2.76 wine over a KFC, but hey.

Most 14 year olds don't give much of a shit about what they do. They're stupid. That's just the way it is.

 

The article used 14 yr old kids as an example. Unfortunately they don't grow out of it...it becomes their identity...and it doesn't take long for them to be contributing to the vast majority of violent crimes committed by black people (per head)...which are unsurprisingly very similar to those preached about in black rap/hip-hop. Can you really pretend there is no link?

 

Do you think it's rap/hip-hop that's the main issue? Are there any other factors involved?

 

I agree that there are other factors involved, but I think the rap/hip-hop culture has a significant contribution

 

In fact I think it has the majority contribution...yes

 

Certainly there are many other factors. But, unfortunately, it provides them with a (wrong) direction and a (wrong) purpose. It's been long recognized that the music of a culture is inspiring and helps lead to certain actions. Just follow it all the way back through history and you can clearly see what I'm talking about - it's nothing new.

 

I'm not disagreeing, but could you point out the most obvious examples you were thinking of?

Just to help get a better idea of what you're saying.

 

If you want another good view of racism, check the speeches of Bill Cosby ...a black man who is fed up with black "culture" in the USA. Check it out, read some of his thoughts, think about, ....and you're likely to become a racist, too!

Baron Max

 

I agree, young people are naturally rebellious and will latch on to anything which consolidates their beliefs...music is particularly powerful and has always been the medium for expressing discontent...since the 60s at least.. Unfortunately now it is telling them to go around in gangs and shoot each other instead of smoking pot, taking acid and bitching about the government

 

Jesse Jackson suddenly decided some years ago that all of the problems faced by black people in America would be solved virtually overnight if we would start calling blacks "African-Americans." It didn't work. He so bastardized the word "racist" that we need a new one.

And I know, I know, I'm a racist for even bringing this up....

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Sure - are you talking about the power of music? Look how it was used to gather up strength by tribes in Africa and Native Americans just before a battle. It's also a very strong part of the motivating factor of voodoo in the Carribean islands and other countries. Religions have used it as a mood-setting motivator for untold centuries. The list goes on and on.

It helps shape and define directions of actions and that can be either good or bad. Hip/hop and rap in general glorifies lawlessness, hate, degradation of women - none of which can be considered good things by anyone except those caught up in it's culture.

 

What heppened to Prince James?

 

Music has been used by many cultures to inspire men in battle, but some people have to invent some thing to fight against (the man) and then sink
them selfs in mind numbing trash music.