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  Posted By:
  artthepoet at 04/29/2008 11:03:29 AM
  Comment:
  Well what do we expect from those that are in the hip oh drop or no sense of where to go but out following in the steps of wanting to be in like a rock star. We must remember where the thug life came from not the college life, but the street life. It was never intended to up lift the mass's only entain and bring instant riches. Other wise the lower part of the body not the upper. It seems to me that it comes with Having sex, Drugs and going to jail to be grown. where did they get this information? it wasn't from thier schooling it was from the streets, and thier parents who themselves where in jail. The only lesson to be learned from this whole experienc is if not political then who is to be serve? Peace out Be the change you want to see in others, so you can see the change in others. artthepoet
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  Posted By:
  Bed-Stuy White Boy at 04/28/2008 5:57:05 PM
  Comment:
  I have read so much this past weekend about the Sean Bell verdict and words simply cannont convey how much of a tragedy it was. While reading various articles and blog posts however, I coudn't help but notice a recurring theme centered around the phenomena of white fear/paranoia of black youths.
  
  Because of this, I found Mr. Peterson's article very interesting, if not timely.
  
  From my own narrow and limited perspective, I find it almost impossible these days to separate hip hop from crime and Mr. Peterson's article helps explain why. I have been a fan and avid listener/consumer of rap music since I bought a cassette copy of Run DMC's "Raising Hell" when I was 13 (and that was 21 years ago.)
  
  Since then, I have witnessed hip hop culture embrace, condone, idolize, and worship the criminal element. That same element that is now being made manifest in a culture rife with guns, drugs, imprisonment, and misoginy.
  
  At the risk of generalizing the "white" perspective, how can black people expect us to empathize with, let alone relate to, a culture like that? I look at it as a simple game of connecting the dots. What we have today is a lot of white folk using the current hip hop culture as a brush to paint their own portrait of Black America. And although that itself can have disastrous consequences, there are nuggets of truth to the aforementioned phenomena and I can't help but think that rap music plays a significant role in stoking the fires of said fear/paranoia.
  
  Look at the examples Mr. Peterson uses in his article about rap stars. Continue reading and you will notice how he provides further examples of black youths imitating the same behvior that got the rap stars into trouble with the law. Because these stars are role models to many black youths, there is a clear and direct association with criminal behavior to the music and fashion. In essence, black youths are not only dressing and speaking like rap stars, they are acting like them.
  
  As long as that criminal element is brazenly associated with hip hop culture, and as long as black youths continue to emulate the worst that culture has to offer humankind, whites will always have a sense of fear and paranoia towards black youths.
  
  The cold, hard truth to the matters is this: The phenomena is real and the fear is legitimate.
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  Posted By:
  spiker at 04/28/2008 1:11:11 AM
  Comment:
  You document well the tragedy but you mention no fix other than don't do it.
  
  Is there a fix?