Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Junior]

So long as the culture advocates these values, the rappers will keep popping up like mushrooms after rain.

Its a symptom of a segment of society that does not feel included in the direction of the country and is dissilusioned with America- its leadership and inclusiveness.

[newton kabiddles]

It's pop music.

[Neil]

If suburban white kids didn't waste their allowance on crappy hip hop records the rappers would go out of business.

[mack4289]

An excellent take on the Imus situation by Jason Whitlock, a sportswriter. http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html. I agree with him. Who gives a sh*t about Don Imus, except the media who want to squeeze a story out of this and the people who either want to sign up for victimhood or stick up for Imus in the name of attacking "PC" culture (oh, and the people who talk about it in discussion forums. Well I guess a lot of people do give a sh*t then, but we probably shouldn't).

"Thank you, Don Imus. You�ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

You�ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it�s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we�re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I�m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent�s or Snoop Dogg�s or Young Jeezy�s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain�t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don�t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves."

[Adventurer]

As some posters stated, most consumers of rap music are white. Of course, disproportionately African males listen to it just as disproportionately whites listen to rock and country music. I think generally country music and rock music, as bad as they can be, don't generally have lyrics as bad as some of the rap songs. The music executives are glorifying the degradation of women, promoting machismo type bravado etc... In a way, we relate to that, because there are certain powerful feelings attached with focusing on our basic instincts. The executives know sex and violence sell, and many of these rap artists deliver that. More African American intellectuals are condemning that. I have more than a few come out against these lyrics, but this music is considered cool and accepted by today's generation, and if you argue against you seem like a fuddy duddy to many...

As far as Imus, his comments went way too far. Calling some girls bi*tches who are respectable and didn't do anything to merit that and his words were pretty racist, so why extend any sympathy to him....
I think I remember some African American player investigated in Canada claiming racism where people thought he went too far in playing a race card where they didn't think it should been used at all and they took offense to that. Going against prejudice shouldn't mean ignoring the culture from which Imus drew those words. The bad stereotypes of African Americans are what people mostly see, and it is not like the African American community is working hard to fight that.

[hogwonguy1979]

great piece by Whitlock. Its nice to see an african-american journalist calling a spade a spade (no pun intended)

[yawarakaijin]

First, and lets hope not last time, Steve can make sense. The things black artists spew against their own women is absolutely deplorable, and if, it takes one old white dude to put that in perspective than Imus may have done American society a great service.

[hogwonguy1979]

whats interesting if you read comments on other websites like cnn, the austin-american statesman etc you find a majority of the comments there agreeing with the when will Al, Jesse etc go after rappers etc

John Kelso wrote a great piece in the Austin paper about this:

[huffdaddy]

From Mary Mitchell, one of my favorite Chicago columnists...

http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/338189,CST-NWS-mitch12.article

[Adventurer]

Sharpton was saying he has been talking about this for years, and he wouldn't get much media coverage on the issue until now. He also said Cosby talked about this. There are people in the African American community talking about it, but definitely not enough, and Imus maybe did them a favour by his maladroitness. It is making people discuss the issue of the portrayal of African Americans in a negative way by African Americans and by whites. Anyway, the music actually involves all Americans. It is part of their culture, and they will look at white women that way, too, because they will see those images a lot, and I think they probably do in many cases.

[stevemcgarrett]

Good post, Mack and the fact, jack, is that there are other black commentators out there complaining but not getting enough coverage.

I was surprised that even CNN International ran a segment last night questioning the hip hop videos, which are like soft porn. Of course, when you have no musical talent, can't sing, can't play an instrument, can't do more than simple Simon rhymin', why I little booty shaking down the place always helps. At best, hip hop artists are no better than the worst of the heavy metal crowd (just so twg doesn't think I'm dumping only on blacks).

The day Al and Jesse go after hip hop in a big way is the day that OJ says he's narrowed his search for his wife's real killer.

[hogwonguy1979]

[newton kabiddles]

If you don't like what might be said on radio then don't listen to radio.

[crusher_of_heads]