Blame Hip Hop...

As many of us discussed during the whole Imus situation some of the deeper issues that face the black community when it comes to self image, Hip Hop, was mentioned. From the basic belief that it is hypocritical for black entertainers to be calling women the same if not worse names that Imus did that created such a huge cry out that he be fired to the deeper issues of what does this do to the youth of this age if we are basically allowing the message that disrespect is not only okay but promoted by the entertainment industry. There was an interesting piece written by Thomas Chatterton Williams in the Washington Post, entitled, Black Culture Beyond Hip-Hop that touches on some of the things we discussed. A few parts of the article I found especially noteworthy:

But in black America the folly is so commonplace it fails to attract serious attention. Like neurotics obsessed with amputating their own healthy limbs, middle-class blacks concerned with "keeping it real" are engaging in gratuitously self-destructive and violently masochistic behavior.

Sociologists have a term for this pathological facet of black life. It's called "cool-pose culture." Whatever the nomenclature, "cool pose" or keeping it real or something else entirely, this peculiar aspect of the contemporary black experience -- the inverted-pyramid hierarchy of values stemming from the glorification of lower-class reality in the hip-hop era -- has quietly taken the place of white racism as the most formidable obstacle to success and equality in the black middle classes.

It will be interesting to see what type of attention is given this article and what the response will be.