Friday, November 04, 2005

Thanks for making my job harder, Spike Lee. How come white folks who listen to more rap than us, and certainly don't value education(I'm sorry, but you'd think they could read a fucking book once in a while and learn to value facts. ) never get these sorts of things? It's always a special black problem, even though gangsta rap is just a corporate image of black folks. Negative public images of a people are no excuse not to fight against discrimination. I guess because I'm younger and have always been surrounded by whites I pick up on these things easier. White culture, well, it's lazy. If they can find an excuse to fuck over blacks, they will. To improve black life, it'd be better to work on public policy rather than complaining about how blacks aren't good enough.

Why do I think so? Basically, I have been around whites. They ain't superior. So there must be another reason. Also, all the "well, you ain't doing this" in the world isn't going to substitute for improving the structure of life. In the US, elderly poverty rates have fallen- and it's not because the old people of today are better people- it's called social security. Black people are working hard to catch up to whites who have generations of advantages, but we need time, and we need people doing real things to support us, rather than talking about imaginary blacks. I certainly preferred interning in a mental hospital(UT Medical was having a summer program) to hearing about how somehow we all have a gangsta mentality, especially since I couldn't tell you what the most popular rap song today IS. (Although my classmates who are better informed on rap are also working hard) Many of my white classmates enjoy rap too, and some are really lazy, but it's not like people think "Hey, this white guy is lazy- it must be his deviant culture of liking rap music"

I read a comment directed to Spike Lee on fark.com that makes sense to me. A guy said Hey, why don't you produce positive rap music? I agree- there are many people making good rap who are unknown. Lift them up. Let us hear positive rap messages. Spike's a media guy, so I don't expect him to create a school program to help kids or anything, but he could really help because he is so famous and well connected to produce more positive images. I still enjoy his movies, though.

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