Jackson Free Press

The year 2005 was a great one for hiphop. As a genre, it continues to dominate the music industry and pop culture in general. Here locally, hiphop has almost (and I stress almost) gone from a red-headed stepchild to a respected art form. Surely now Jackson's intelligentsia would think twice before blaming hip-hop for this city's ills, right?

Wrong!

I have yet another enemy to vanquish! Believe me, in 2006, you don't want to speak too soon and make my you know-what list! This time the culprit is one Dr. Pat Gregory of Jackson. In the Dec. 22 issue of JFP, Dr. Gregory, responding to the controversial bootcamp issue, opened mouth and inserted foot, blaming rappers for the disrespect that some teens have for authority. Here's another ignorant, uniformed, biased statement from an otherwise-intelligentseeming person, who has been blessed with the title of "Dr.," but obviously lacks the insight or the expertise not to make broad generalizations.

Dr. Gregory wrote: "The role models for these ('school dropout street') youth are the rappers that are leading them toward disrespect for their families, for authority (whether school or the police), for women and ultimately for themselves."

The sad thing, Dr. Gregory, is that I agreed with your letter until you took the predictable way out. Traditonally, hip-hop has been the scapegoat for all of society's problems. Increase in crime? It's hip-hop'sfault. School dropouts? It's hip-hop's fault. Disrespectful kids? It's because of those "rappers." It's easy to put the blame on something you don't understand.

It always baffles me how seemingly educated people can make such uneducated assumptions. Blaming rappers for disrespectful kids is akin to blaming Jerry Springer for rampant adultery or McDonald's for teenage obesity. It's a quick fix for a society that refuses to point the blame at itself. We'd much rather it be someone else's fault.

For one, Dr. Gregory, disrespect is fostered at home. It is up to parents first and foremost to instill values in their children. Whether a single parent or two-parent household, we as parents are responsible for raising a child up in the way he/she should go. It is not the job of either an actor, athlete or a rapper to raise kids. That's a cop-out!

Secondly, although kids do love us, to say rappers are role models for all youth is inaccurate. Many bright young students I encounter when I speak at schools name a parent, older sibling or community leader as their chief influence. I am a strong, positive male influence just as many other hip-hop artists are. We prove it by actions and deeds, not by our words.

You are like many who choose to accentuate the bad instead of highlighting the good. If you are really interested in solutions, start first by exploring the positive in the rap world and how it can be used to help our kids.

And that's the truth ... sho-nuff!

Previous Comments

ID

71214

Comment

While I agree with your "it is the parents responsibility" 100%, I also think we would be naive to say that the glorification of violence, drugs, sex and general rebellion against authority has no influence on teenagers. I work with teenagers on a daily basis as a counselor and one thing I realize now, that I didn't when I was a teen, was how easily influenced they are by everything (not just their music). I do not subscribe to the belief that violent video games and marilyn manson caused Columbine, neither do I think hip hop causes promiscuous sex and thuggery. What causes all of these ills first and formost is lack of accountable structure in the home, which opens the door for little Johnny to imitate what he sees and hears, with no one to tell him, "It is harmful for you to act this way."

Author

brandon

Date

2006-01-05T09:05:00-06:00

ID

71215

Comment

Brandon, what does rock 'n' roll glorify? And country music for that matter? No "violence, drugs sex and general rebellion of authority"? Are you certain? The truth is, nowhere in the near future are you going to do away with "lack of accountable structure in the home"—and to be honest with you, many white suburban homes don't have that either, and didn't back in the glorious '50s. Many have lyin', cheatin' families that pretend to be so perfect. And you're certainly not going to get all that "accountable structure" just yelling about people in a culture where black men have been brutalized, jailed and lambasted for years as lazy, worthless thugs. You're going to have to do something about the culture if you want to see the result on the other end (the homes). And you're not going to help that "accountable structure" happen by insisting that women who can't support themselves and don't have job skills (for whatever reason) have unwanted children -- or maybe not even use birth control! (Not sure where you stand on that.) I get tickled at all these zealots who yell at the absent daddies -- who are voting to send many of those absent daddies to jail for minor drug charges instead of helping to rehabilitate them and get them decent-paying jobs. In other words, I find the whole "blame the family" sound bite useless without a whole host of context that involves the entire community helping neighborhoods and cultures recover from very deep societal ills. It's just empty rhetoric if you're not willing to walk the talk. (Again, not saying you're not; these are general statements.) And, it bears saying, that many middle-class white fathers do the *very same things* that many of the black men that everyone disparages do. How many Republicans do I know who smoke pot on the weekends and cheat on their wives? Where's the "accountable structure" in that? The truth is, when/if some of them get caught, they don't get the same book thrown at them, and their chances taken away. And they often have enough historical wealth built up that if they do have to go to the country-club jail for a year or two, the missus can afford to take care of their young'uns. Not to mention that those men will always be able to afford abortions, in a private doctor's office, if/when their concubines get knocked up. Just sayin'.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-01-05T10:54:52-06:00

ID

71216

Comment

Actually, I forget we were up on a hip-hop thread. Substitute "concubine" in the last sentence with "ho's"; otherwise, no difference.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-01-05T10:55:39-06:00

ID

71217

Comment

[:0 Donna, where did all that come from? I wasn't talking about any of that. All I was saying is you can't blame the music for the behavior of the kids, but you also have to admit that music (movies, video games) does have an influence on kids. Someone had one too many cups of coffee this morning ;)

Author

brandon

Date

2006-01-05T11:26:03-06:00

ID

71218

Comment

Actually not enough, yet. Admittedly, I dumped on you. I apologize. I've just heard the sound bite about family "structure" one two many times from people who are doing nothing to actually help build stronger families. They are usually talking about women having their own careers outside the homes, or abortion, or homosexual couples -- instead of what they need to be talking about. I do think this is related to what you said if you stop and think about it, although not meant as a slap at you. The problem with any sound bite is what gets attached to it -- whether it's talk about "fighting crime" or "it's the family's responsibility." My frustration is when people use those sound bites to try to blame others while abdicating their own responsibility in fixing the societal and community issues that have caused the family "breakdown" in the first place. And looking at who are in Mississippi prisons and for what crime versus who isn't for the same crime is one of the first places you MUST look if you're going to start complaining about "accountable structure" in the family. If not, you're leaving out the context and passing the buck. Perhaps you want to explain what "accountable structure" means to you? Who is being accountable, and to whom? The government? (That seems to be Mr. Melton's way.) Accountable for what? I am *so* about accountability, but not as a meaningless sound bite. Let's dig deeper into meanings of words and the context of the problems that are so often referred to in a drive-by manner as a political nugget.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-01-05T11:36:25-06:00

ID

71219

Comment

Also, music can be an influence. Just as often, or more often, it's an expression of what's going on in people's lives. You want to change the music, you better change the lives. Good for you if that's what you're trying to do. But it goes back to our earlier discussion this week: It's one thing to try to help a few kids (and great!), but it's another to try to take on the causes of what got them there in the first place. The first is treating the symptoms, which is a good thing, and from a big picture, relatively useless without dealing with the contextual issues. That's what I'm trying to get you to.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-01-05T11:38:26-06:00

ID

71220

Comment

that's funny, I always looked at the Hip Hop community as the most forward thinking, engaging, brave and elighetned generation ever in the history of mankind. that "Dr." is a quack.

Author

JSU

Date

2006-01-06T10:27:09-06:00