ohsoordinary

I should preface said rant with a little about me. I'm secretly white. More specifically, I grew up in a white neighborhood and the only black people I associated with during my formative years were my immediate family. So as a child I assimilated white culture. It gives me a very different outlook regarding urban subculture.

Scared yet?

Here we go:

I think that it's not so much that urban subculture is bad as much as it is the fact that my generation is PROFOUNDLY gullible paired with the fact that rappers either don't realize or don't care that they are role models. They influence they way we as African Americans speak, dress, spend our money and plan our futures. The terrible thing is, instead of promoting good values like the importance of education, investing in one's future, or personal and financial responsibility, they promote and glamorize committing violent crimes to gain status, speaking broken English, intoxication and drug use, misogyny, waste, and materialism.

*deep breath*

This problem is compounded by the fact that many if not most African American children grow up in homes where their primary caretakers are not educated, financially stable, and/or actively involved. Since there is often no role model in the home to raise the child, the child finds role models in pop culture. This is how we end up with teenagers who sell drugs to buy gold teeth and Phat Farm. And that's just the plight of the males.

*deep breath*

Our youth are just as visually stimulated as they are auditorily. Music videos has done more to hurt women than the music itself. Although its nothing strange to hear words like "bitch", "ho", "slut" or "trick" sprinkled lovingly across a rap tune, I can't believe that any of these words are as damaging to a woman as the existence of the "video girl". Women all over are being paid to dance in these videos wearing next to nothing as some rappers spouts off lines like "I don't wanna hear 'bout ya muhfuggin' blues/ just wanna see ya ass clap clap in dem shoes". Our young women are being taught to be goldiggers and to let men exploit their bodies. It's no wonder that we as a demographic are the highest carriers of HIV. We are teaching ourselves to be promiscuous.

*deep breath*

But urban subculture is no more to blame for the plight of African Americans than Doom is for Columbine. We as individuals must be self-aware enough to realize the effect that the media has on us so that we as a whole can grow.

And that was My Rap Rant: episode 1.

Scared now?

Next week... Episode 2: Why Black men make bad boyfreinds.