Friday, May 8, 2009

Won't You be My Neighbor?

Dear Bloggers,

There was a point in time that I believed the gap between the sexes was widened past my own understanding. Maybe men are the more sensible sex, and maybe women do tend to take more verbal low blows than their male counterparts? I began to believe the adage of “Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus.” It wasn’t until I looked at popular culture that I saw that not only do Black men and women live on the same planet, but we’re also next door neighbors. Living in a “neighborhood” that finds it acceptable to berate any and all people of opposition.

Now, is it just me, or does it seem like immature feuding and “beefs” are the norm in African American music right now? Particularly rap. I’m a person who listens to a plethora of music, and I have to say, I don’t really hear Bono taking swipes at Chris Martin. While U2 and Coldplay make great music and use their popularity towards the global good, you see rappers using their popularity and their music to bring the rapper next to him down to feed his own popularity.

The act of purposely trying to lower someone else to make yourself feel better is not only transparent, but illuminates your own insecurities. I personally feel sorry for some of these rappers. You can tell that all they want is attention, and just like the new kid on the playground, they feel like they have to prove themselves.

But amongst my pity comes a sense of indignation. Black people, do you NOT realize that we live in a society that already has a negative image of us, and every time one of these “diss tracks” come out, it just reinforces the negative stereotypes? Is it not bad enough that we are portrayed in popular culture as ignorant, lazy, and overly aggressive? Do we not see an issue of having some of the world’s ill’s thrust upon our shoulders (Affirmative Action, Welfare) when we’re not even the main recipients of it?!

Why do we continue to reward this immature behavior with album sales, or attention?

As these weeks’ topic comes to a close, it is evident that we all have insecurities, and that is fine. What is not acceptable is resulting to childish behavior to excel in life. I moved out of my old neighborhood, where are you living now?


STAY ENCOURAGED, HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!! SEE YOU MONDAY!!

No comments:

Post a Comment