Jason Whitlock column on Taylor

I'm a white guy so please accept the following question is intended without malice: What is it with that segment of the black community that idealizes the thug lifestyle? (I know that there are segments of all races that idolize it but you know what I mean) I just don't get it. What's the appeal? I've had friends/coworkers who just absolutely let every opportunity to improve themselves pass by because that would be "selling out." For the life of me I dont' get it. It's disgusting to me but I can only imagine it must be truly exhasperating to be black and to see this from your own people in such large quantities. How do you protect your kids from these view points? If these questions/views offend anyone, I apologize, they're honestly just questions, not indictments of anyone's background.

I'm black and live near DC. What you said doesn't offend me. Here is where that thug shit comes from. The people in Southeast DC are out of control. Murders every single day. Black on black crime. It makes me sick. Here is where it starts. Alot of young poor black women get knocked up at an early age and have a kid, two or three. They ( and the father) don't have a decent job or a good enough job to provide for themselves so they have to live in low income areas. The reality is these women should not be having babies. They can't give them a good life but they seem to think having kids is like having a cat or something. So they live in low income areas and the rest is history. That is a big reason why people live in the ghetto. Most of the women living in the ghetto have babies. That is the root of the problem. If these people would stop having babies at 18 then some of this shit would go away. So it just trickles down year after year after year.

Alot of professional athletes come from this type of backround. Michael Vick, Donald Driver, Gilbert Areanas, Byron Leftwich, Labron James, Carmelo Anthony, Pacman Jones, Allen Iverson. I could go on and on. Some make it and leave behind where they came from. Some don't like Vick and Jones and it has cost them. It almost cost Iverson. I have family near Newport News and from everything I've heard Iverson's mother is a hood rat herself. She had him at like 17? No one should be having babies at that age. But that is where it all starts.

I thought Cris Carter made a great point on Inside the NFL last night. He basically said that players can't bring the ghetto to the NFL and they have to cut ties to their prior lives or that's when tragedies like this happen.

I'm a white guy too, but I think the music is a reflection of the culture, not the other way around. There existed a culture of despair in many neighborhoods before hip-hop told of it. Any effect that music has on behavior is secondary to the root causes. Rich kids who embrace hip-hop largely aren't turning to violence - poor kids are. My fear is that, though glorifying death needs to stop, we are putting the cart before the horse if we think that getting rid of violent music will get rid of violence.

I completely agree with you on that. You'd think this would be as simple as education but it's clearly not. You've got this overwhelmingly negative quantity that truly counteract any positive steps individuals make. But what is the answer? You can't just go around arresting everyone that espouses a certain viewpoint. This isn't 1940's Germany. But at the same time, every citizen in this country has a constitutionally guaranteed right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. If there is a segment of the population that is actively preventing that "pursuit" then they deserve to be stopped with all necessary force and resources.

One more thing damnit.


IF music can talk to you and it glorifies so much murder (BTW I listen to rock not rap)

Why not blame it when and if they do catch the person that did this. Then you can go and dig up Tupac or Biggie, or whoever it is that is alive today saying shoot this die fucker die and charge them with murder?

Im sorry but when I hear crap like that I scream get real and Bullshit!.

Ok I'll admit I listen to alot of emo...so if some kid cut his wrists because Hawthorne Heights said cut my writs and black my eyes, can we blame them for his self destructive behavior? Think about it if you still don't get where Im getting at here Im saying we can't blame a musical artist or a genre of music for peoples Deaths. Humanity is simply that cruel and they seek to hurt one another!

The cultural phenomena that drives our kids to say "F... you" instead of "Ma'am" and "Sir" is also driving our children to death in the streets. It may be now that the effects are felt more in the black community than in the white community, but sociopathic meanness is infecting the communities of people in the U.S.A. of all races. There's a general lack of respect for human beings and human life.

It doesn't help that the country has descended again to the death penalty, which makes taking a life seem acceptable behavior, or that a moron has lead us into a murderous and elective war complete with cluster bombs and torture, previously thought unthinkable; or that the justice system is a sham; or that our politicians are utterly corrupt and/or shameless liars; or that religious leaders are sexual perverts.

Rolle says that Taylor was afraid in Miami on an on-going basis and that the murder was connected to jealousy of Taylor and anger against him because he was stepping away socially from former unsavory friends.

I don't know, of course, but that's the most likely senario to me. If I were a police investigator, that's the first possibility I would pursue.

As for the larger question, I don't know exactly what to do to turn back this avalanche of meanness coming at us. I do think that the current amoral and huckster character of our traditional institutions such as church and state and schools and the Bill of Rights (as well as equal rights) are a big part of our children's loss of respect for us and that's a big part of why they're no longer saying Ma'am and Sir.

They're blaming us for the mess we've made. And we have. We didn't kill Sean Taylor, but we created the monsters who did.

Not to be rude but this is getting hijacked. If we start in on the politics then we'll get WAY off topic.

Frankly, it's high time for self-examination and social commentary when a young man like Taylor is snuffed out just when he's getting his life together. If you don't believe that hip hop culture glorifies murder, and de-sensitives black youth to violence, then you're not paying attention. I think that Whitlock is saying that if young black men were killed with today's regularity by the original KKK, there would be moral outrage. You don't sense outrage to the carnage against black men today. Instead, there's a "don't snitch" mentality, again perpetuated by hip hop culture that rationalizes self-genocide. Whitlock and others like Bill Cosby who have the courage to speak up on this issue are spot on.

Jason Whitlock cannot speak out against an entire culture, which (for those that do not know) is what hip hop is - bad, good, and indifferent.

It's the same as a non-sports or non-football fan speaking out against the issues caused by the football culture... which among other things also glorifies and promotes violence.

... and i'm not making a case against football culture; my point is that all cultures have a good and bad side - and you have to take the good with the bad. And I also understand that you have to address the social issues, but who is providing solutions or options? You can't get rid of a whole culture, which I think everybody thinks is the answer. So what do you do? Who has the answers? I haven't seen any yet.

And if you question that hip hop is not a culture, just look around.

I'm a white guy so please accept the following question is intended without malice: What is it with that segment of the black community that idealizes the thug lifestyle? (I know that there are segments of all races that idolize it but you know what I mean) I just don't get it. What's the appeal? I've had friends/coworkers who just absolutely let every opportunity to improve themselves pass by because that would be "selling out." For the life of me I dont' get it. It's disgusting to me but I can only imagine it must be truly exhasperating to be black and to see this from your own people in such large quantities. How do you protect your kids from these view points? If these questions/views offend anyone, I apologize, they're honestly just questions, not indictments of anyone's background.

Bleed, you bring up some very, very good points. I've been struggling to come up with a response for you, but I just can't.

There is no real "one" answer, because the problem comes from so many different sources. It is exasperating, especially because it is so senseless and pointless.

Technically, i think Hip Hop would best be defined as a sub-culture, but I get what you're saying. But I look back to Brudlee's earlier comment in this thread. There wouldn't be today's version of Hip Hop if there were not a pre-existing hopelessness and lack of positive leadership in the urban community.

The Black KKK, I didn't take that to be hip hop, but rather a reference to the Black on Black crime that has become rampant in America, and without uproar there is acceptance.

I think he is mainly attacking hip hop in this article:
You're damn straight I blame hip hop for playing a role in the genocide of American black men. When your leading causes of death and dysfunction are murder, ignorance and incarceration, there's no reason to give a free pass to a culture that celebrates murder, ignorance and incarceration.

Of course there are other catalysts, but until we recapture the minds of black youth, convince them that it's not OK to "super man dat ho" and end any and every dispute by "cocking on your bitch," nothing will change. Does a Soulja Boy want an education?"