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Al Sharpton and "gangsterism"
08.18.06, 15:24:27
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Post #1 (permalink) |
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I read an article today on foxnews.com, here, which was reporting on Al Sharpton who was saying that the black community needs to break away from the gangster mentality. Here are some quotes from Sharpton:
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Quoth Al Sharpton:
We have got to get out of this gangster mentality, acting as if gangsterism and blackness are synonymous.
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Quoth Al Sharpton:
I think we've allowed a whole generation of young people to feel that if they're focused, they're not black enough. If they speak well, and act well, they're acting white, and there's nothing more racist than that.
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I say this at the risk of sounding racist, but oh well. Here, Sharpton acknowledges something I and many others such as Bill Cosby, another prominent Black figure, have known for a long time: that the media, particularly the music industry and it's cash cow "Gangsta" rap, have brought the black community in the United States down.
Although it's not only black folks who are influenced by it, it is primarily black people, particularly children in urban areas, who are. This generation of black people have grown up listening to rap music which often casts a good light on a lifestyle which is degrading to women, advocates indulging in drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, and violence. The effect has been detrimental to the black community in this nation.
Now, this is not entirely the fault of the black community as generations of racism towards blacks made it very difficult for them to succeed in life; however, that era is long gone. Vague traces of that past remain but, in general, the problem is non-existent. Years of civil rights protests and the efforts of men like Martin Luther King Jr. helped to ensure that future generations would have the opportunity to succeed. But whether or not they would ceize upon that opportunity would be up to them; and from the look of things they have not.
Programs such as Medicaid, Welfare, and the Affirmative Action movement have taken away nearly all excuses for the black community to not be succeeding in life yet still the rates of highschool dropouts, teen pregnancies, among other things, are still astronomical. This is because many of them have embraced a self-destructive lifestyle egged on by muscial "artists" like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, and 50 Cent.
Now, while reading this you may just think this is my Christian Conservatism bubbling to the surface. But the poverty and crime problem in America's inner cities is very real and in order to help the black community regain it's dignity the problems must first be recognized and then people can work to fix the problem.
Now tell me, am I a complete moron? Do you agree with me, how can we work to fix this problem? |
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I don't believe that you can blame all the problems of black people on rap music, and gangster rap. They dont HAVE to be influenced by those things, it's their own choices. I listen to rap and all the same types of music that other black people listen to, and I do well in school, don't go around getting girls pregnant, and I don't abuse drugs.
I hate when someone tried to blame problems on something like rap music, its like saying fat people get to blame McDonalds for being fat. Let people take personal responsibility for their lives. Personally, I blame the parents. |
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Fix it? Either ban gangsta rap (won't work), boycot it (will work when enough people get the point), ban MTV (lole), get more rappers who don't follow the curreng gangsta rap trends (you know, pimps, hoes, bling-bling, you know what I mean), make rap less race-specific (white rappers ftw), etcetera.
The problem, the way I see it, is grouping together. Groups of people, grouped together by, for example, race, choice of music, etcetera, will remain in such a group. If the group is large enough, it'll influence other people in wanting to join that group, as has happened with the rap culture.
Because really, if we're thinking in black-and-white for the example, would you, as a white person, prefer to join a group of white or black people? And the other way around? I'm 99% sure that 99% would choose the white group. Unless they have been influenced by the black culture, primarily by the whole rap scene.
And it's not going to be easy to break that, if it's even remotely possible. Stuff like racism would happen a lot less if the black and white communities were intermingled more, so that in a neighbourhood, 50% would be white, and 50% would be black.
(white/black used as an example in this post, applies to every ethnicity, culture, religion, etc)
But a perfect world doesn't exist, alas. Anyways.
Gangsta rap and such is just a fad, it'll go away or be nicened down as the years go on. Remember your hippie parents? While they may still be a hippy somewhere deep down, they usually don't blow pot and sing songs on their guitar with flowers in their hair.
Same will probably happen with the whole gangsta rap business. The rappers and rap fans will, in time, become parents, raise their children properly (non-criminal, non-gangsta-rap-like, etc), and become more responsible and less group-oriented as they are today.
Even though some other current will take over in the future. Oh well, that's progress.
Anyways. Yes, gangsta rap has formed my opinion on black people, but I'd prefer to ignore that opinion. It's also aided by the fact that there are hardly any black people around where I live, and in the places they are there, I hardly meet them at all (as in, talk and such).
The world would be a less racist place if the various races would be involved with each other more, if high school kids would group with people of every race instead of sticking to their own, if musical taste was less developed by one's race, etcetera. |
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To Doubtless: The blame doesn't lie solely on the music, much of the point of my post was showing that it has been embraced by the black population. The entire lifestyle that is promoted in "gangsta" rap music. They look upon men like Snoop Dog as idols to be emulated.
The difference most definitely in your case was your upbringing. No doubt, your folks pushed you to be responsible whereas many black parents in the ghettos and even in somewhat decent areas such as where I live in the suburbs of St. Louis, don't advocate responsible behavior.
Please don't turn my arguement into some kind of strawman. I clearly laid out the scenario which places the blame in several areas: the music industry, the black communities themselves, as well as the racist actions of Americans in the past and even, to a degree, today. |
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Quoth Ex Deo:
To Doubtless: The blame doesn't lie solely on the music, much of the point of my post was showing that it has been embraced by the black population. The entire lifestyle that is promoted in "gangsta" rap music. They look upon men like Snoop Dog as idols to be emulated.
The difference most definitely in your case was your upbringing. No doubt, your folks pushed you to be responsible whereas many black parents in the ghettos and even in somewhat decent areas such as where I live in the suburbs of St. Louis, don't advocate responsible behavior.
Please don't turn my arguement into some kind of strawman. I clearly laid out the scenario which places the blame in several areas: the music industry, the black communities themselves, as well as the racist actions of Americans in the past and even, to a degree, today.
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No I wasn't saying that YOU said that it was all rap music's fault, I was just saying how I hate when people blame it on rap music, that's really the only thing I wanted to respond to.
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Same will probably happen with the whole gangsta rap business. The rappers and rap fans will, in time, become parents, raise their children properly (non-criminal, non-gangsta-rap-like, etc), and become more responsible and less group-oriented as they are today.
Even though some other current will take over in the future. Oh well, that's progress.
Anyways. Yes, gangsta rap has formed my opinion on black people, but I'd prefer to ignore that opinion. It's also aided by the fact that there are hardly any black people around where I live, and in the places they are there, I hardly meet them at all (as in, talk and such).
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Well since you dont live around black people you probably dont know, but many rap fans are parents right now. Most black adults in their 30's that have children listen to rap in the areas that I live, so their children listen to rap. There are 5 year old kids singing the songs and cursing with their parents encouraging them, so I don't think that the 'fad' will die as quickly as you believe.
I believe the way you raise your child really depends on how old you are when you have your child. All the young parents out there usually give their children free range wanting to be their friends(not saying all younger parents), but when you become older you see how life really is and you become more responsible and try to raise your children to be that way. |
Last edited by Doubtless : 08.18.06 at 16:07:55.
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Quoth Doubtless:
No I wasn't saying that YOU said that it was all rap music's fault, I was just saying how I hate when people blame it on rap music, that's really the only thing I wanted to respond to.
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Ok. Sorry then. =P |
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| actually, i'm just somewhat surprised to see Sharpton making these statements. it's not that it doesn't seem like him, just that it's good to see an influential person advocating positive changes like those. obviously it won't create any sort of movement or revolution, but it helps |
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Quoth Yopy:
Same will probably happen with the whole gangsta rap business. The rappers and rap fans will, in time, become parents, raise their children properly (non-criminal, non-gangsta-rap-like, etc), and become more responsible and less group-oriented as they are today.
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Therein lies the problem. Many of the people in urban areas, and in St. Louis where I live, are not growing up. They have kids at very young ages, don't attempt to succeed, and they pass this on to their children. Black men all over St. Louis are working jobs making less than $10 per hour, because the black community has such a high dropout right. Gangsta rap music says that if you're trying to succeed through legitimate means, then you must not love your brothers and sisters, because you want to be white.
It's just like the whole "Quit snitchin'" trend. When African-Americans break the law, they're trying to get other AA's to let it go unnoticed, which perpetuates a "them against us" mentality.
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Quoth Ex Deo:
Please don't turn my arguement into some kind of strawman.
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It's ironic you should say that...considering your avatar. |
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