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There are a couple of reasons for white flight. Usually it comes down folks (they are not just white folks but Asians and even other blacks) fearing a "changing neighborhood" and the negatives that come with "urban" black culture moving in and being the dominant culture of the neighborhood. My advice to those folks in such neighborhoods would be to remain in your neighborhoods and be the instrument of social change. If the neighborhood is decent, then the new black neighbors have undoubtedly moved in to find a better lifestyle. And there's certainly no reason to run from that. There's always time to go if the neighborhood does deteriorate, but the deterioration has to come first.
It's funny that people are discussing hip hop as if it leads to crime. The biggest fans of hip hop and rap I know are White suburban kids. Granted, most of friends are White, so there is that. However, just two weeks ago I went to an underground hip hop concert in Hongdae, here in Seoul.
Hip Hop, like any music genre, has its good and its bad. Hip hop does not encourage violence any more or less than rock. The fact of the matter is that hip hop is not a factor in the lowered standard of living for African Americans. Period.
BET is no better or worse than any other cable network.
[b]I find it odd that nobody goes on the offensive for punk rock or heavy metal. However, hip hop and rap get a bad "rap" since it is often only characterized with poverty (despite the fact that it's an international genre with many respectable artists and a lot of crossover with other musical styles).;/b]
calibro! Do you not remember Tipper Gore & the PMRC in the 1980's? Al Gore's wife when they were trying to ban certain heavy metal songs because of their lyrics and debauchery? I recall Dee Snyder(?) from Twisted Sister testifying in front of a Senate Committee!
Why is hip hop the scapegoat for every bad thing in America. Music is inspired. It isn't the chicken and the egg argument. Music comes after life. It comes after the social and economic windfalls which cause people to end up in the situations in which they are, the very situations which inspire their musics, just as a person in love sings about love, etc...
Hip hop is blamed because it is 1) very popular and 2) "dark" (take it however you want, it is intentionally ambiguous). Nevertheless, similar things were said of rock metal, and other genres for years, until they became the fringe. The difference is that hip hop and rap are still very much dominant and major music types. As such, they garner a lot of attention.
People love to focus on symptoms rather than the root cause. However in countries where Hip hop is not prominent, people still sing about the same topics, are just as vulgar and violent. Russian metal is out of this world with violence and crude subjects, etc...
Solve the cause and people will end up where they want. Oh by the way BET is owned by Viacom, but the day to day operation and management is in the hands of a Black women with a Harvard education who has removed many shows because she finds them to be denigrating.
calibro! Do you not remember Tipper Gore & the PMRC in the 1980's? Al Gore's wife when they were trying to ban certain heavy metal songs because of their lyrics and debauchery? I recall Dee Snyder(?) from Twisted Sister testifying in front of a Senate Committee!
I was VERY young at the time, but I remember my parents allowing my brother to listen to Twisted Sister. My parents were okay with any type of music, just as long as our grades were up and we were well adjusted.
There was little censorship in my house. Again, as long as our grades were up and we were well adjusted. My parents would explain to us the difference between proper words and improper words. They would explain fictional violence and how we don't act out like in the movies, or later, like the video games.
Obviously they would not let me watch sex scenes at age 10 or extremely violent movies at younger ages. There were still limits. However, by 14 or so they realized that I understood those concepts.
I actually thank them for that. That freedom of choice with proper guidance when I was younger led to be very inquisitive. That inquisitiveness served me well in high school and college. As it did my brother.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that yeah, it's exactly what happened in the 1980s. Yet, my brother and his friends turned out fine.
Why is hip hop the scapegoat for every bad thing in America. Music is inspired. It isn't the chicken and the egg argument. Music comes after life. It comes after the social and economic windfalls which cause people to end up in the situations in which they are, the very situations which inspire their musics, just as a person in love sings about love, etc...
This. A hundred times this. Hip hop is not at fault for the current issues within black culture anymore than rock lead to the downfall of society (which family values people claimed for a good number of years) anymore than Marilyn Manson is responsible for Columbine. On and on it goes, a never ending wheel where people try to blame music for its daring to talk about all things, both good and bad in society.
Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit was considered too controversial to be sung at best (because it might stir people up in every race for varying reasons) and at worst, it was left-wing propaganda the likes of which could not be allowed into American culture lest the pervasive nature of it erode the fabric of our society. Music doesn't drive society and culture. Society and culture drive music. Given the history of music being blamed in this country, any such idea that uses that argument becomes automatically fallacious, imo. It's been used too many times out of fear, hate and BS to be anything else.
White America has been running around half terrified of hip hop and its ilk since before it truly went mainstream. I'm old enough to remember numerous news pieces being done the day the NWA hit the map outside of African American culture. They said it was horrible, of the devil, corruptive and dozens of other things that tossed at it. It (hip hop) was banned in various music stores all together. Others let corporate suits or the little PTA mother who had never heard anything beyond big band or easy listening listen to an album so they could then judge its musical worth versus the feared impact on children. 20+ years later, the same hip hop fear is pulled up and trotted out regularly.
For the sake of music, all music, as well as hip hop's cultural roots, I hope the African American community doesn't listen to this Lil'Wayne drivel and most certainly not the BET drivel. Fortunately, I strongly doubt they will.
How many underground hip hop shows in Paris, Seoul, New York, Los Angeles, Geneva, and Santa Barbara have you been to? I think I know what I'm talking about...
If you were to average it out, it'd be the same.
We're not talking underground here. We're talking about BET, stuff like Wayne that was mentioned in the article.
As far as underground goes, the rock probably gets worse while the rap gets better. But mainstream stuff? No comparison.
There are a couple of reasons for white flight. Usually it comes down folks (they are not just white folks but Asians and even other blacks) fearing a "changing neighborhood" and the negatives that come with "urban" black culture moving in and being the dominant culture of the neighborhood. My advice to those folks in such neighborhoods would be to remain in your neighborhoods and be the instrument of social change. If the neighborhood is decent, then the new black neighbors have undoubtedly moved in to find a better lifestyle. And there's certainly no reason to run from that. There's always time to go if the neighborhood does deteriorate, but the deterioration has to come first.
That's easy to say, but most people once they hear about the first warning signs they're gone and you can't blame them. Integration into mainstream culture has to come first.
What is it the fault of white people? Did it ever occur to you that maybe a big part of white flight is caused by inner city ghetto culture?
Yes that occured to me, but I can name several communities in my state alone that went pass the 50% mark(one of them is getting to that point) and have not turned ghetto. Communities that were lower middle class or working class to begin with attract the bulk of the worst people from the inner city. The communities I'm talking about are solid middle and upper middle class. I read somewhere that many whites prefer to live in neighborhoods that are no more than 17% black or something to that affect. If I can find the article, I gladly post it on here.
Last edited by Chicagoland60426; 07-04-2011 at 01:51 PM..
Why is it that whites can embarrass themselves on television, but black folks can't?
I swear I can't stand those holier than thou black folks that always feel like they have something to prove to white people. Only fools would believe everything they see on television. BET has its audience, that's why it's still running. No one's forcing you to watch.
The BET Awards were ridiculous and corny, as always. But I like Toya's show, and I watch 106 and Park from time to time. I guess I'm just another dumb coon who will never be anything in life.
Maybe we should give them the Highfalutin Negro Network so they'll be happy.
I agree 100%, and I'm African-American. Black culture is choking us from within. We need to drop this destructiveness and assimilate.
Kill Hip-Hop NOW.
When all else fails, blame rap music. God forbid the parents and the schools should assume any responsibility.
I was listening to Lil Wayne the other day, and when I was done I was in the mood to go snatch a white woman's purse.
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