The Triangle

Issue date: 7/23/04 Section: Ed-Op

Media Credit: The Triangle

Bill Cosby's harsh words on the condition of many of today's black youth have evoked many responses. I thought that I should get my two cents' worth on it as well. I wholeheartedly applaud Bill Cosby for saying what he did, and I completely agree with his views. I have felt for a long time the exact things that he expressed in words in front of a group of black leaders a few weeks back.

My roommate once remarked to me that "this rap culture is going to lead to the destruction of the black community." I think he was right on the mark in saying that. While some rap music may actually be music and something constructive, in my opinion, the vast majority of it, especially the "gangsta rap," plays no constructive role whatsoever in society. I've had the misfortune of hearing these "songs" in many places in Philadelphia, whether it be on the street, subway, or in retail stores. I've also had the misfortune of seeing their videos.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but almost all the rap or hip-hop videos on the market today have something in common. They tend to portray women as sexual objects and nothing more. They also usually have a few lines here and there about breaking the law and quite a few tend to be quite liberal with their usage of the n-word. There's other stuff too, but I can't understand most of it because it doesn't seem to be any sort of comprehensible English.

I've always wondered about this. The n-word was, and still is, a very hateful word. It was at the forefront of the civil rights movement. That word stripped black people of their humanity, and made them second class citizens.

But today's black youth seem to have absolutely no problem going around calling each other that word with such frequency that it would make a Ku Klux Klan member proud. Usage of that word in popular rap music today, and the mimicking of that by black youth is an insult to the civil rights movement, and it takes all the optimism that was once present for the community and flushes it down the toilet.

Bill Cosby was no doubt pained to see what's happening today. Rather than have a role model like him or the character he played on TV, a well-to-do physician, far more black youth today seem to emulate the thugs who pose as music artists. What would have pained him more than this is the apathy shown by black elders and the community as a whole. It doesn't take years of research into society to figure out that something's not right with the state of urban black youth today.

Continued...

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