Sharpton, Hip-Hop, and Decency

After the "Imus" controversy in which Al Sharpton campaigned for Imus to be fired for calling the Rutgers basketball team "nappy headed ho's,” Sharpton and others decided to refocus on the music industry, going on a "march for decency" in hip-hop music. According to Sharpton, "There's a standard that says Ice-T can't rap against police. There's a standard that says you can't rap about gays, and you shouldn't. They had standards against Michael Jackson saying things anti-Semitic. Where is the standard against 'nigger,' 'ho' and 'bitches?'"

But, there's a big difference here, one that is not being acknowledged. Did police rush to the store to buy Ice Tea's Cop Killer song? Are gays buying songs about killing gay people? Are Jewish consumers helping to send anti-Semitic songs to the top of the charts? No. Yet, the majority of black youth I talk to just see songs about killing "niggas" and "pimpin' bitches" as pure entertainment with very little regard for the social, philosophical or cultural ramifications of such songs.

Don't get me wrong, marches are great for when "they" are doing something to you, and you want them to stop, or when "they" are not giving you your "rights" and you want them to start. But while it is clear that most media companies are out to make a dollar, it is also clear that there is a cultural issue, a minds and hearts issue that needs to be addressed. And as long as we pretend it’s just about “them,” in the long run nothing will change.

When a march, protests, sit-ins, or boycott is needed to shine light upon a situation Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will definitely get the job done! However, as the saying goes, when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. And unfortunately civil-rights era tactics, and political solutions are all we seem to be getting from old-school civil rights leaders. Does any one really think that we are any closer to eliminating the words "nigger" "bitch" and "ho" from music than we were a month ago? If not then it is up to a new generation of black leaders to decide “what's next?”

Censorship is just a temporary quick-fix solution at best. Instead of focusing on getting rid of three words, we need a change of mindset that can only happen when positive messages begin to overtake negative ones in the minds of our youth.

If any leaders are listening, NAACP, Urban League, young black leaders, I'm talking to you, here's an idea that may work better than censorship. All media companies that are in the business of black music should be pushed lay out a plan of action to increase their promotion of positive, progressive black culture. This would have the effect of both making changes in the industry, and making changes in the mindset of young people. And if the media companies refuse, then they would have Sharpton to deal with. ;-)