newbie here btw...hi folks

Agreed. Poverty= Self hatred, violence, hopelessness, and despair.
When no education is offered to young artists who get involved with the music industry there is barely no way to avoid being sucked into an "image is everything" world. When 300,000 dollar checks are passed across a table and a young man or woman is being told to manage themselves and start a business with this (meaning their music careers) and, oh, by the way, you owe us this money back once you're album is selling and thereafter you'll make about .30 an album.... there is still poverty. America in general without regard to race, has an insatiable appetite for sex and violence. It's the new apple pie and baseball to our culture. It sells. If all you want to do is make your way out of poverty and here you are drowned in market media frenzy, demands from corporations that you are in debt to with no education or direction from no one byt the same people who are demanding you fullfill America's hunger.... guess what, you just got pimped. So yes, rap will continue to be violent music. Rap will continue to be driven by sex, and violence as with most entertainment. This isn't the only genre of the entertainment industry where we find over-sexualized -isms and violence. It is the most driven by the media to our attention. I'm angry about our music, and our leaders... I'm most angry with the corporations driving the continuity of slaughter to what Hip Hop music was.

Jessica, my sister. The problem with our people is not technology.
Bill Gates is putting massive amounts of money into "wiring" the inner city. What Cosby is talking about is values. We must change our mindset. What Cosby is talking about is Black men being responsible fathers. We can no longer blame white folx for our situation. Yes,
there's still racism, but that is no longer our primary obstacle to success. We must teach our kids that they can succeed, and nobody can stop them. The poverty pimps who teach our children that they are victims who need protection and assistance from the government must be stopped. Brothers are now CEOs of Time Warner, Merrill Lynch, American Express and Boeing - all big time American institutions. Is there a conspiracy to keep up down? I don't think so. Yes we have a ways to go, but as Thurgood Marshall once said, let's not focus on how far we have come, but on how close we are.

Actually here in Seattle, Bill Gates *does* put up the money!

There is a program Microsoft runs that teaches African-American teens about computers, computer programs, internet and other technology. It is totally free, and all you've got to do is get on the bus and get there (in the summer, early morning). When you go to a computer science class at local Universities here, you see many African-Americans in it. This is why.

Who goes to these? Only boys. I know several that now go to MIT, or are computer science majors / computer geniuses elsewhere. Did I mention they get free computers too? It has gotten to the point that if I meet a black male on campus and ask him what his major is, I already know the answer is "computer science." Now Microsoft has to put its successful program in places with less money, like East St. Louis, East Detroit, Chicago South Side, etc.

Another African-American woman teaches computer classes at a local YMCA --- she is a millionaire, early retired from Microsoft. She uses her dollars to teach underserved youth about computers.

Bill Cosby gives some money to black colleges. But let's face it, they are damn near private schools and my ass can't afford to go to any of them, with or without his money.

amen. to that. have been ambivalent to modern hiphop/rap for a while. The two major issues that create this ambivalence is a) the fine line between depiction of something and condoning it; b) the fact that much of black music has been considered vulgar by even the black middle class ( in a book entitled "The Black Anglo-Saxons" written the 60's it was stated that many middle and upper class blacks did not start listening to jazz until white folks did).

That fact remains however, that when I listen to a lot of rap with its "bitches" and "hoes", I hear echoes of the plantation.

that stuff isn't even me...

i can't be packaged because i'm waaaaay more developed and individuialzed than those kinds of fads... i think the mistake is that who we are only rests in what we make. look to the content of a mind not the "money on my mind" mongering of sell-out entertainers... to adapt and overcome isn't a logo it's a power...

thanks for sharing the insightful article, Crouton.

Two brief responses:
1) while cooptation of Black cultural forms sucks, and the reduction of any culture to consumer products sucks even more, it is a testament to the vitality and...ultimate unassimilability of Blackness that folk who feel culture-less in this confused world are looking to Blackness for some kind of guidance.

i get pissed off as fuck by whites who think they know me cuz they listen to a certain kind of music or cuz they talk a certain way. at the same time, i am pleased when i think that many whites are just trying to do *something* to overcome the 'self' that normal White society would have them inherit.

2) true culture is always evolving, and can never be owned or coopted: as long as people don't surrender their sense of self to others' definitions, their culture is a living one that can never be contained. we don't need to bemoan the demise of hip-hop--unless we are caught up in an economistic view of life. ("Damn, hip-hop was our ticket into "success", but now look at Whitey steal THAT from us!")

the living soul always has more creation to reveal: it will not be bound.

There is racism in Canada, but it is nowhere near the same vicinity as the same ballpark as in the US. I'm sorry. I've been called the great name here, and I've seen "KKK" written on walls, but when I ask if there has been any lynchings, beatings, draggings, burnings or nazi guys kicking black guys' teeth in on curbs, the answer is always "no". Also the police don't look at me when they drive by. Not once have I seen them look at me.

It bothers me that I see a lot of people (not just black people) following a lot of these hip-hop guys (black or otherwise) that are mass-producing violence and materialism. I work with at-risk youth, and I see the connection between the music and kids trying to be like these guys, and fucking un-doing their handiwork.

I don't think that black people should look for role models. It makes me wonder if role models are so often sought, because so many dads decided not to take part. I agree that the source of a lot of the music performed by black people doesn't start in the minds of black people, and it seems like the masses are being duped.

It also makes me wonder if promoting this idea of a black guy with a Bentley and diamonds and gold is a divide and conquer plan. Yeah, there are black people with great jobs, and lots of money, but what's the percentage? So many of our queens expect that from the men.

There isn't a plan to keep black people down? What about the Iraq war, and the increased racism that followed? Stopping and searching people because they have dark skin? Putting dark people in cages without a trial or "justice"? What about privatized prisons with more black people than in universities? C'mon.

I used to believe that as a black man, if I worked hard and followed the rules, that I could have a house, a wife and 2.5 children and a station wagon until I was shown otherwise, being fired from a job for not working on Martin Luther King Day in the US of A.

I've talked to other black men about this, and why would a woman in her 20s expect a black man in his 20s to have all of this material wealth? What ever happened to working together like my parents did to get those things? I think the most important thing is to stop buying into mass-marketed, mass media culture and follow the spirit within. YOU.

And calling our women hoes? How ignorant is that? I'm down with the kings and queens as well.

Education seems to be a paradox. Why does it cost so much money to get an education just to get a job? Bill Cosby or somebody should set up wi-fi schools. I have been thinking that for a while now. It would only take a handfull of teachers and so very little money to do, and would (theoretically) have such a positive impact.

I'm happy that Bill Gates is helping black people, but knowing what I know of Bill Gates, it's business. What kinds of computers are those people going to buy and support? Why is Bill Gates our savior? I guess I should be thankful. :-|

I believe that (aside from lessons) we do create our own existence, and even in the case of lessons, we are protected and guided. Who makes me get up in the morning? Who makes me put my shoes on and take a shower? I do. If I don't then who does? I also believe that there are oppressive systems in place. Capitalism is a needless game that keeps us occupied.

Why pay taxes to a government that does not give us anything in return (U.S.)? If they do, what is it? Is it healthcare? Education? Great infrastructure (we get taxed extra for that). Great representation? Humanitarian efforts around the globe? Or is it flat-out pedal to the metal WAR? I see that it does pay for police to police U.S.

The human spirit will prevail.

My deepest congradulations to each of you for having the heart to stand up and say what you have. The trouble is ... this shit ain't black culture. It's more like ... black brainwashing ... or ... black programing.

There is so much written in Cognative Science about the many ways that "Reality" can be changed. The sad truth is ... that it really isn't all that hard to change a person ...a people's reality.

Those who control the media ... television is the biggest daemon ...movies ... the MUSIC industry ... hell ... the CIA ... have all been VERY ruthless in giving black people a redefinition of ourselves.

Started in 1980 under the talking head Regan. Check out how we went from being a united people who won the Civil Rights Movenment based on morality ... to gutter thrash "gangstas" who have taken over the Klan's job and now destoy, terrorize, kill, rape, and demonically defame all the values and morals that ALL previous generations of black people worked so hard to create.

I keep saying that it's time to find new ways to love one another ... to relearn how to live and work and trust one another ... but far too many would rather point fingers and talk about everything else BUT that ... even Bill Gates. What in the hell is Bill Gates doing at our table. (Yeah .. we all know that everything ...... even this is being tracked...) But that ain't enough to stop us ... only we can agree to be stopped.

We could ... and will .... eventually ... do so much to better the condition of ourselves. We just have to get to a point where we finally give up on the idea of being black white men or white black women ... and turn to one another ... look each oter deeply in the eye ... and confess that we want to love each other deeply and commit to not letting ANY thing this side of God Almighty getting in the way of that.

There are volumes already written on the process.... Franz Fannon ... Pablo Feirrie ... etc...