Who Raises the Kids, Rappers or Parents?

Our children's successes and our children's failures belong to us.
We are the reason.

Every time I criticize hip hop, I am dumb founded by the responses I get back.

Its like, I am talking about peoples mommas or something.

Sportaphile's insistence that it starts with "the family" is misguided, at best.

No one makes it anywhere in life without the help of several people. Whether
you are selling crack or bound for Congress. Somebody has to put you
on and nurture you. And the help does not typically or necessarily begin
or end with your own family.

I know some pretty fabulous people, I also know some amazing fuck-ups.
Many cats fall right in between.

Investment bankers, 15 year veteran d-boys, music video editors.
brain surgeons, full time cigarette hustlers. You name them. Dot knows 'em.

So I am perplexed at the "it starts at home", but what about those
for whom home is NOT where it is? Where home is a war zone.

Sniff, sniff, is that a boot strap that we are suppose to be pulling ourselves
up with.

Hip hop or rather rap music and videos carry and incredible amount of weight
with young people.

Why is that so difficult to acknowledge?

That shit remind me of the the displacement denial that people in
Bedstuy-Harlem-Forte Greene have. They think they are going to be able
to remain in their neighborhoods. But I have this little friend called the Euro,
and he is the new game in town. But I digress.

Back to rap. Rappers shouldn't carry the weight that they do, but they do.
(For the record, listening to new Busta Rhymes, Don't Touch Me,
as I write this.me likes).

I knew in April that I had to openly criticize Hip Hop when Birkhold pointed out that
not doing so constitute being similar to whites who refuse to acknowledge
racism. While Birkhold writes about the need to talk about how patriarchy
has been internalized, the need to critique it can be extended to the discussion
about the scope and extent to which our children are affected by the lyrics and
images.

He gets into what is in store for us when we decide to be bold enough
to analyze ourselves and our music. He writes,

This unfortunately means that a critique of the way hip-hop has internalized patriarchy must lead to a painful examination of the ways we have internalized patriarchy. Despite the soreness this may cause, reflection and self-critique is necessary. In many ways, refusing to engage in this reflection mirrors the refusal of many whites to admit to collaborating with racism or acknowledging that America itself is a racist nation.

What is it going to be, empathy or darwinian "my momma raised me right"?
The latter implies, I don't know what the fuck yours was doing, but mine
was on her job.

The latter attitude is what got us where we are now in the first place.

For every 1 time you point the finger at what some rapper says, you should point 50 fingers at the broken and dysfunctional homes we come from and try to fix **THAT** instead.~Sportafile

I am capable of critiquing more than one thing at a time. Are you?

As for building a foundation, I am in the middle of writing a position
paper on addressing the preschool to prison pipeline. Its ambitious,
hard, frustrating and necessary.

My general premise is that that policy and spending has to shift to
prevention and that the economic incentives to having such how Black male drop
outs head to prison must be acknowledged, analyzed and addressed
in order to make any true head way.

Is that foundation enough for you?

It's like we're making skyscrapers with faulty material and no structural integrity. We can't stand up if we're ankle deep in quicksand.

Let's work on the foundation before we start blaming ANYTHING else in the elements thats bringing us down.~Sportaphile

Penni Brown respond

We can't stand up if we're ankle deep in quicksand.

If you're ankle deep in quicksand, the last thing you're going to be thinking about is building a structure to avoid quicksand traps. Your going to be screaming, 'THROW ME A DAYUM ROPE!

Thats the point. Many young bucks don't ever receive any rope. They receive a f-cking brick necklace and a substantial amount of rap music and videos serves as a link holding that necklace together.

(Reminds me that I need to do that piece on Grand Theft Auto.)

What is the problem with acknowledge that some Hip Hop feeds the darkside within us? Why is that sh-t so difficult? Are we saying that Parents are completly absolved from parenting?No Are we saying that rappers are completly absolved from their responsibility?No. Are we saying that WE are completly absolved from our duties as those who remember WATCHED Yo MTV Raps? Maybe. Just kidding. Just kidding.