Mocking Parks's legacy

[rumbleph1$h]

Mocking Parks's legacy

By Derrick Z. Jackson | October 26, 2005

ROSA PARKS did not defy a white bus driver in 1955 so teenagers in 2005 could attend school-night concerts by black performers filled with self-hate. As yesterday's newspapers mourned the death of the 92-year-old civil rights icon, thousands of youths in the Boston area counted down the hours to last night's Monster Jam at the TD Banknorth Garden.

In a 1992 interview on National Public Radio, Parks said: ''I would like to encourage young people especially to be aware of what our situation is and to be concerned about our past history and to know what we have suffered and to be willing and ready to prepare themselves through a better education and dedication to making conditions better for our people."

The lineup for Monster Jam makes a tragic mockery of Parks. There was Ludacris. His idea of education is a ''song" in which he and guest performers say the F-word 24 times, the N-word 17 times, the B-word 11 times, and do a whole lot of bragging about being ''a full-fledged killa, part-time MC, full-time drug dealer." In another cut, called ''Hoes In My Room," the explicit sexual lyrics are almost completely unprintable in a family newspaper, with 29 utterances of either the slang for ###### or the B-word.

There was Tony Yayo, also toting guns on one cut that starts, ''Aww, N-, do you know what this is? One shot, one kill." In another cut, he brags, ''I got N-s in Queens that kill for Pamper money." There was Jermaine Dupri, whose respect for women can be summed up in one cut where the chorus shouts that rap stars have to ''keep these MF H-s on they knees," and, ''Hoes love me cause I keep it comin' strong and yo; I'm a pimp with mine every time, I don't give a F who she is. B- you can go. Get another cause they love us N-s in the fast life."

About the only artist who makes sense in the Monster Jam lineup does so in an ironic way. Damian Marley, one of the sons of the late reggae master Bob Marley, said in the piece ''Welcome to Jamrock":

''Come on let's face it, a ghetto education's basic, ''A most a the youths, them waste it; ''And when they waste it, that's when they take the guns and replace it, ''Then them don't stand a chance at all." It makes you wonder what chance black people stand when Parks and her supporters risked their lives, and 50 years later, the livelihoods of an ever-more vulgar generation of young entertainers is wrapped around blaxploitation, sexism, and homophobia. Just as appalling, these N-word and B-word entertainers are considered so normal in American culture that the Monster Jam was sponsored by Filene's department store, Dunkin' Donuts, X-Box video games, Nikon cameras, D'angelo's deli, Scion cars, and the National Guard and US Army.

Now, the National Guard and the US Army, we can understand. They are waiting for the young people in the audience who waste their education. They are waiting to give them the guns to replace it in places like Iraq.

Before age wore her down, Parks spent her latter years saying we need to ''motivate youth to reach their highest potential." With black children still suffering from horrible achievement gaps in school, with corresponding high dropout rates, we are nowhere near realizing that potential. A lot of it is due to the general disinvestment in urban public schools in the decades of white suburban flight. A lot of it is also due to too much television, too few parents in schools, and too much daydreaming about making it through sports and song.

In the rap and hip-hop world, many of the daydreams are a nightmare of stereotypes. Rosa Parks has died, and it is up to us how she will live on. She was the quiet woman who changed a nation. Her legacy is being undermined by voices much too empty and loud.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._parkss_legacy/

[n3wt]

Oh no, say it ain't so, some black people have poor values, save us. Nobody would ever say that I make a mockery of some famous white dude because I can cuss like a sailor, this is just silly.

[vincent]

It is the newer generations that are the most ignorant, i have to say, not all of them, but the ones that do act ignorant and think it is cool to be "ghetto" Are the ones that need to some serious re-evaluation of life. When i see them on the back of the bus i just shake my head, not that its wrong to sit there, but to sit there and say "well you know us black folks we sit in the back" i really just giggle inside.....

[n3wt]

It is the newer generations that are the most ignorant, i have to say, not all of them, but the ones that do act ignorant and think it is cool to be "ghetto" Are the ones that need to some serious re-evaluation of life. When i see them on the back of the bus i just shake my head, not that its wrong to sit there, but to sit there and say "well you know us black folks we sit in the back" i really just giggle inside.....

So much for racism being dead....I mean...dude...good lord.

[Dave Veteran]

So much for racism being dead....I mean...dude...good lord.

586730664[/snapback]

What ripgut is talk about, and what you missed is that it has somehow become part of black culture to be "ghetto" otherwise you are viewed as less than genuinely black. I'm not sure who is at fault for this, but it is a shame that a someone feels their cultural heritage is murder, sexism, racism, drug-dealing, etc. and that this is reflected in hip-hop nowadays.

I personally don't blame music, art is always a reaction to the world that surrounds the artist, but something is very wrong. When it is so glamorized that someone like 50 Cent, is popular because he was shot and was immoral before rapping, while being completely unable to rap his way out of a paperbag, is rather telling.

[vincent]

So much for racism being dead....I mean...dude...good lord.

586730664[/snapback]

What i was basically saying is that, for me, it is sad to see the young folks acting "ghetto" sorry but noone is born "ghetto" they may be born in it but that does not mean they have to be that way. Rosa Parks, i bet, did not approve of "ghetto" behavior, it went agains't everything her generation fought for. And no i'm not racist bro, don't confuse things like that with me. I grew up in the ghettos of south Sacramento, Ca. But as i grew up i had to change, it's only common sense to do so, so i can spot ignorant ghetto folks when i see them.... because i was once that way.

[mrchetsteadman]

Cent, is popular because he was shot and was immoral before rapping, while being completely unable to rap his way out of a paperbag, is rather telling.

586731758[/snapback]

LMAO!! Good one! (Y)

What i was basically saying is that, for me, it is sad to see the young folks acting "ghetto" sorry but noone is born "ghetto" they may be born in it but that does not mean they have to be that way. Rosa Parks, i bet, did not approve of "ghetto" behavior, it went agains't everything her generation fought for. And no i'm not racist bro, don't confuse things like that with me. I grew up in the ghettos of south Sacramento, Ca. But as i grew up i had to change, it's only common sense to do so, so i can spot ignorant ghetto folks when i see them.... because i was once that way.

586731857[/snapback]

Yeah, I don't know ripgut but from our past encounters, I doubt he is racist.

But anyways, back on topic. I blame the fat white guys at the record labels. Let me explain...

People say artists have "freedom of speech", that's bull****. Every song they put out is reviewed by a board of people that hardly know a thing about hiphop. Let's face it, what sells nowadays? Violence, sex, etc. Little Brother (another rapper I think) had a song that BET would NOT play because it was deemed "too smart" for the BET audience. I DO blame music and I blame the kids parents. I see ghetto kids all day and it makes me laugh like hell. It hurts though because I know these kids are gonna realize they have been misguided for years and its too late to repent. When they look around most will be dead, in jail, or working at Mc Donalds at 32 with 4 kids by 4 women. But as long as the label heads are gonna keep throwing money at the rappers with "stories to tell" things will never change, period.