According to Afro-Spear:
Gangsta rap regularly glorifies sexism, the n-word, profanities, violence, drug use and dealing, sexism, and the dehumanization of Black men and women. Gangsta rap videos and stereotype-filled shows are the programming staples of BET. “BET and hip hop have gone down hill. They were once inspirations. Now they purvey some of the most harmful anti-Black sentiments you will ever see or hear, and this has become a representation of mainstream Black culture,” says Bronze Trinity of the Afrosphere Bloggers Association (ABA). ABA is coordinating the Afrosphere Accurate Images campaign against BET and gangsta rap.
One of the students in my senior seminar last spring on African-American political thought emphasized his belief that African-Americans should take white conservative criticisms of black culture more seriously.
My thought, somewhat illustrated by the statement above, tends to be the opposite--that African-Americans writers are so brutally critical of every dimension of their own culture that white conservatives are superfluous.
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Curious.... Do you find the criticism, from either conservatives or the "afrosphere" to be valid?
From my perspective, it seems long overdue that there is an attempt to clean up some of the more self-destructive elements of the subculture. The NAACP's N-word funeral and the yanking of whoever that comedian was are encouraging signs of a growing movement to develop a more positive attitude.
Any comment on the snug dovetailing of the critique from both groups?
If the same criticism is coming from within as externally, it would seem to me to add credibility to the conservative criticism, rather than making it unnecessary.
Conservative critics have even less credibility on race than they have on other issues. There's lots of reasons why. Conservatism is the political home of American racism. There's a long history of conservative association with segregation, segregationist left-overs like Jesse Helms, and anti-black cheerleaders like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter (the two most popular conservative figures in America). And if that were not enough, Republicans have also done an enormous electoral race-baiting.
Why would anybody white or black listen to what a conservative has to say about black culture?
As for my own opinion about hip hop, I'm not sure. I love hip hop grooves, but don't really listen to enough of the music to have a strong opinion. My point was about the intensity of black self-criticism rather than hip hop per se.
Conservative critics have even less credibility on race than they have on other issues. There's lots of reasons why. Conservatism is the political home of American racism. There's a long history of conservative association with segregation, segregationist left-overs like Jesse Helms, and anti-black cheerleaders like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter (the two most popular conservative figures in America). And if that were not enough, Republicans have also done an enormous electoral race-baiting.
All which is unfounded assertion reliant entirely on your belief that any opposition to the approved political sentiment is done out of malice and dismisses, prior to any consideration, the possibility of reasoned arguments for such opposition.
All that avoids the fact that the internal criticism, viewed through the "afrosphere" and the NAACP position, are increasingly aligning with long standing conservative criticism. Regardless of any credibility you feel conservatives lacked, that the two positions converge demonstrates either the validity of that criticism or some internal turn, in the black subculture, towards something like self-loathing.
Race and class have defined the United States. The record is not a good one. African-Americans have suffered 400 years of being defined first as something other than human, then three-fifths when the south wanted more congressional districts but they did not want blacks to be looked upon as fully sentient.
A history of segregation, legalized apartheid, the absurd seperate but equal supreme court decisions, and Jim Crowe.
President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give former slaves 40 acres and a mule. They never got the 40 acres. They didn't get the mule. Broken promises. Feelings of inadequacy. Frustration at a society that deliberatley pushed them down and spit upon them.
My guess would be that the reason as you pointed out Ric,"that African-Americans writers are so brutally critical of every dimension of their own culture." So whether African-American writers are "are so brutally critical of every dimension of their own culture. Or why "Gangsta rap regularly glorifies sexism, the n-word, profanities, violence, drug use and dealing, sexism, and the dehumanization of Black men and women." All of this is a result of 400 years worth of being second class citizens,even now though things are better than they were. They have been taught that their culture is no good. By their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents who were taught and groomed and conditioned to assimilate white traits. So they beat up on themelves because of a pervasive inferiority complex coupled by a very much unearned arrogant racist superiority complex on the part of whites.
And that gets reinforced all the time. Take, for example, the "Jena 6 students."
Here's what happens and you'll see why this incident is indicative of the true state of racial tension and how it has resurged in government and among white citizens in general.
From what I have read,this all started last year when African-American students at Jena High School requested permission from their principal to sit under a tree regularly visited by white students which once was legally segregated. The principal told the students to sit where they wanted to sit. So they sat under the tree and the next day, three nooses were found hanging from the tree.
Three white students were determined to be responsible for the incident and the principal recommended expulsion. That didn't happen. The principal was overruled by the superintendent who gave the students a three-day suspension. SUSPENSION! FOR A HATE CRIME!! Unforgiveable.
After this incident, racial tensions remained high throughout the fall, several incidents occurred between black and white students.
The spark that ignited the extreme divisions between the races and unearthed the very alive and well racism. a white youth, apparently taunting an African American who had been beat up, was thrown to the ground and kicked. He went to the hospital, but was released that night and attended a school function.
On another ocaision, a white student who brought a loaded rifle onto the school grounds and was only charged with possession of a firearm on school grounds. Fearing for their safety, the Jena 6 took the gun and removed the bullets. They then were charged with theft of property for taking the gun.
The prosecutor had those six black students arrested and charged with attempted murder. One of them was tried as an adult for aggravated assault and conspiracy, both felonies. He was tried before a white judge with an all white jury. He had only a court appointed counsel who called no witnesses on his behalf. The prosecutor claimed that the gym shoes on his feet constituted a “deadly weapon.” White kid brings a loaded gun and walks free. The first of the "Jena Six" was convicted and jailed and faced 20 years in prison. This month, the appellate court ruled that he should not have been tried as an adult. The prosecutor says he will appeal that ruling. The remaining five defendants are in jail awaiting their trial.
Now look at the difference in reactions. White kids commit a hate crimes, bring loaded guns to school, they get a slap on the wrist. African-American kids get into what must not have been much of a brawl since their "victim" left the hospital that night and went to a ballgame or something.
Thus we see yet again that there are two justice systems; one for blacks and one for whites. Black young men (and Latino young men) are not more likely to commit crimes than whites. But they are more likely to be stopped, more likely to be arrested if stopped, more likely to be charged if arrested, more likely to be charged with felonies, more likely to be jailed if convicted, and more likely to be tried and imprisoned as adults.
Blacks are incarcerated at 10 times the rate of whites. (www.naacp.org)
Mass incarceration of African Americans, mostly for non-violent crimes, is destructive and discriminatory. According to the US Civil Rights Commission, bans on ex-felons voting is the “biggest impediment to voting since the poll tax,” with more than five million people of color losing their right to vote.
We can do better than this folks.
African-Americans have suffered 400 years
How long have we been a country? Who sold the slaves into slavery? Who currently has slaves in the world?
indicative of the true state of racial tension and how it has resurged in government and among white citizens in general.
Really. Where else are you seeing these kinds of activities. If you see them happening in your neighborhood, you should do something about it. Not happening here.
Black young men (and Latino young men) are not more likely to commit crimes than whites
Unfortunately, this is not true. The statistics show that crimes are committed at a rate far greater than their percentage of the population.
One's right to vote has been restricted to people over a certain age, living within the boundaries of the district, and in some places, to having not been convicted of a felony. If you do not commit felonies, you can vote to your hearts content.
Todd - Go look up the ratios of white on black crime as compared to black on black crime, or black on white crime. Now, who is the racist?
Having said all of that, what these students did was despicable, and they deserved a far greater punishment than they got. At the same time, answering with violence is not going to solve the problem, and will exacerbate it.
The Superintendent was a moron, and deserves all of the scorn he is getting. But let's not fool ourselves here, this is more about Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and the TV cameras than it is about the 6 students who attacked another.
Hate crime? Nope. The students clearly had racist intent, and are overt racist. But, a hate crime is premised on there being an underlying crime, that was driven and motivated by racism, sexism, etc ... What the white students did was horrible, something that could not even imagine doing, or tolerate if I saw it, but it was not a crime.
Hi :) I wrote the press release. It really doesn't have anything to do with politics in my opinion. Its about self-help and self-improvement for people of African descent. Some of us feel gangsta rap and BET is harming us and our children so we want it changed or pushed out of the mainstream. We don't like how gangsta rap and BET affects our behaviour and image. We want more of a balance in videos, programming, and promotion of hip hop. No I don't think that all Black culture is bad. I don't even think all hip hop is bad, thats why we advocated positive/conscious hip hop as an alternative to gangsta rap. To me, its nothing political even if people make it out to be. This wasn't spurred on by conservatives of any ethnicity. We decided on our own.
To Bronze Trinity: Thanks for the comment. My initial idea on post on the press release was to provide information and your reply is helpful in that regard. I wonder what you see as the most important factors in determining whether your efforts have an impact in relation to BET and gangsta rap.
The most important factors? Well, we are trying something new by appealing to bloggers and individuals to use their buying dollars to stop supporting gangsta rap because there are other forms of music (including hip hop) that does not portray harmful stereotypes in a way that can be construed as glorification. We want consumers to raise their voices by demanding more radio play for alternative music and less for gangsta rap. Gangsta rappers get a lot of media exposure and advertising because they have money. Positive artists do not have as much money or promotion. So to even the playing field we are asking bloggers to promote positive artists for free. Word-of mouth advertising could really help. Many people don't know that there are alternatives or that music executives give preference to gangsta rap (that is very racist and sexist) over music of the same style that is not racist and sexist.
We want them to call BET and request particular artists and types of programming. We want people to watch BET shows for the commercials and then contact the advertising companies telling them that they are sponsoring sexist and racist content. They may decide to advertise somewhere else. This was something that seems to have worked against the Hot Ghetto Mess TV show.
So we think that this will only be as big as people make it. It will be successful if people email the release, make blog entries, post Youtube commentaries on the issue, and actually take some of the recommended actions. We also think that getting sponsors to remove their advertisements from BET, BET websites, and gangsta rappers websites will pressure them to change. This is a new approach because instead of going to the channel or artists themselves (who tend to ignore our requests) we are threatening their source of income.
#1 album sales for Common and Kanye West outselling 50cent are signs that positive/conscious artists are bankable and that there could be a profitable shift in the music industry away from the stereotypes and sexism that is rampant in mainstream hip hop.
Mind if I top-post your reply?
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