Hip-Hop Impedes Black Progress

John H. McWhorter presents a well-reasoned and well-founded essay on the serious subject of the impact of hip-hop music on the young black generation. Appearing in the City Journal of New York, the essay examines how there is a direct correlation between the incorrigible behavior of young blacks and hip-hop music. An example is:

". . . I was having lunch in a KFC in Harlem, sitting near eight African-American boys, aged about 14 . . . extremely loud and unruly, tossing food at one another and leaving it on the floor."

"Black people ran the restaurant and made up the bulk of the customers, but it was hard to see much healthy "black community" here. After repeatedly warning the boys to stop throwing food and keep quiet, the manager finally told them to leave. The kids ignored her. Only after she called a male security guard did they start slowly making their way out, tauntingly circling the restaurant before ambling off. These teens clearly weren't monsters, but they seemed to consider themselves exempt from public norms of behavior--as if they had begun to check out of mainstream society."

"What struck me most, though, was how fully the boys' music--hard-edged rap, preaching bone-deep dislike of authority--provided them with a continuing soundtrack to their antisocial behavior. So completely was rap ingrained in their consciousness that every so often, one or another of them would break into cocky, expletive-laden rap lyrics, accompanied by the angular, bellicose gestures typical of rap performance. A couple of his buddies would then join him. Rap was a running decoration in their conversation."[Bolded by ed.]

Mr. McWhorter continues by examining the lyrics these kids are exposed to, from the malicious to the threatening. And he compares the attitudes and actions of the black community in the 1960s to those of current times.

The stipulations and conclusions of the piece seem apparent, yet there is no strong black leader voicing them. Black kids are growing up learning the wrong things and black leadership can be held partially responsible.

You can read it all here.

Thanks to Susanna over at Cut On A Bias for pointing me to this article. She also discusses a few of her first-hand experiences with the hip-hop attitudes of young blacks. You can find it here.