Jason Whitlock column on Taylor

warriorzpath,

I think we mostly disagree on these issues but I can respect what you have said because you have stated it well, with passion and intelligence. One thing you have said several times is that people shouldn't be identifying issues without coming up with solutions. I do think that to be slightly naive. It is disingenuous to ridicule someone for pointing out a problem without offering a solution. It is also lacking much thought because if finding the solutions to problems was as easy as identifying them then we'd probably have very few problems in this world. Inevitably though most problesm require much more thought and dilligence in solving them rather than simply seeing them. I have no problem with Whitlock pointing them out. It is the first step to solving the problem.

I think I found one good first option (trying to meet with a hip hop leader). I disagree with not being responsible enough to find solutions, when you point out problems. I do not respect his views because he provides the problems, but doesn't have anything to add or contribute to solve them.

If he already has this much visibility then he must have some kind of influence.

The first step to fixing a problem is identifying that there is a problem. I do believe we can all agree on that. The next step is convincing others that there is a problem... only then can you find a solution.

Man, thats deep.

Didn't mean to sound like confucious.

Selling positive messages does not work - it does not work in the TV, Film, Sports, and Internet media industries. How will it work for hip hop? And we cannot control hip hop artists or anyone else, only ourselves. We can have an influence, depending on relationships and our political and economic power, on someone else, but not we may not be able to convince them to do anything. Of course, everyone thinks about their own well-being first and then maybe social issues.
I think you have hit on a major part of the solution. Grassroots involvement. Everyone needs to be involved in the lives of these teenagers / young men who are at risk. Volunteer at the local schools, talk to kids in your neighboorhood, be involved with extended family. Try to help single parents if they need it.

You are absolutely right, we will never change the rap/hip-hop lyrics or message beause there is too much money to be made by the "artists" (used losely) and because there is no such thing as a socially responsible corporation. Corporations by nature are concerned with only one thing, profits. The only time they make the appearance of being socially responsible is when it helps generate (or protect) profits.

We need to re-inforce to the young men in our country that the rappers, TV & movie personalities aren't "real". They are selling an image and writing lyrics that "gets them paid". They don't live in the projects or in low-income housing. They aren't on the corner "hustlin'". They may have at one point in their lives, but once they got a break and became successful, 98% of them get out of the "hood" as fast as they can.

We need to try to keep the energy these young men have focused in a positive way on sports & academics or whatever other positive activity can keep them interested. Most of all we can't ever give up on these young men or wait for someone else to come up with a solution (gov't, corporations, leaders).

I think about the kids I coach and am always concerned between the end of the season and pre-season workouts because I don't see them and can't give them some corny message or cliche about "doing their homework" or "staying out of trouble". I just pray that I don't get a phone call, letting me know we lost a young man to arrest or worse.

I know we won't be able to save every young man, but we will save some and that's why we need to keep re-inforcing the positive messages on a on-on-one level, get an education, learn to win/lose respectably, learn to work within a team and be good teammate, learn to be a leader. If we can connect one-on-one and stay involved in their lives and let them know we care, they will have something to live for other than "gettin' mine", their "cred", or being a "soulja". We just have to keep trying to show them the path Sean had already found with the birth of his daughter and hope they take it.

:twocents:

Jason Whitlock is on XXX with John Riggins right now

That's wierd. They just cut away during the int to the Steven A. Smith show

Actually he does offer a broad solution - black people should resist blaming others & be proacitve to care for their own.

Exactly... but I would go even further and add that one should be proactive as an individual and stop blaming and speaking for groups of people, like they have become the self appointed representative or leader.

To me, Whitlock doesn't have much of an understanding of what hip hop truly is - only what he gets from the media (maybe because he is part of the media). And how do you speak on a subject that you do not have knowledge of ?

It would be much more insightful for me to read an article from someone who has knowledge of hip hop and linked it to these issue(s).

He talks about not perpetuating and re-enforcing these stereotypes, but then he does it when he speaks and in his article.

I actually think that violence is less promoted in hip hop. I think he still holds on to what he has seen in the old 90's gangster movies with the bloods and crips and all of that. Don't get me wrong those things still go on, but not as prevalent and not to the extent as those movies seem to show.

It may be a little insensitive to do this, but let me compare this to the media's perception of Sean Taylor and what Sean Taylor seemed to be to his friends, teammates, and family. That's the same thing you have with the perception of hip hop, or rather misconception and misundertanding of. Your gonna believe what you want to believe, but that doesn't mean it's true.

Jason Whitlock blames everything on hiphop. He is guilty of the same crime he is accusing everyone else of. When Pac Man was "making it rain" he blamed hiphop. That is a weak excuse. The Miami area has been dangerous ever since the Columbian Cartels turned it out in the 80's. We don't know if a blackman killed Sean. He does not know Sean. Just because he got a DUI "which got dropped", and got in a fight over ATV's makes him questionable? It's ludicrous to think the problems of the black community are caused by entertainers. When they catch the murderer who killed Sean and if he is not black, Whitlock should be called out. If anyone is to blame for "athletes gone wild" like PacMan and Chris Henry it is Nike and all these other corporations who coddle them. Sean is on a higher level than Pac Man or Chris Henry. Whitlock is trying to push his "blame everything on hip hop agenda " at the expense of Sean's memory. Big cities have been gangster since before Al Capone.