This is one of the most critical books we will study in the class. Juan Williams' book Enough is a careful study of the present day Black experience. We will be examining the chapters on Hip Hop and Crime and Punishment and their impact on the Black community. I highly recommend this book for any of my students who wish to read it and have an extra copy specifically for those who want to. Watch "India.Arie - Chocolate High ft. Musiq Soulchild" on YouTube
Just a nice song with two Black people that didn't make me cringe when I watched it.
Rhymes and Punishment is a dynamic and engaging expose on the lives of successful Hip Hop artists whose decisions have landed them in prison with all of the trappings and consequences of the prison lifestyle. How do you feel about people who aren't really genuine about who they claim to be?
Is someone who's made it out of the traps and negative aspects of the Black community and become successful in today's world say, as a doctor, yet, has animosity towards those within the community who remain better than someone who has made their money as a rapper delivering stereotypical images of Black people to the world, yet doesn't live that life anymore?
Are they both phony?
Both exhibit the symptoms of a slave mentality, the self hatred that allows for the direct hurting of your people versus the dismissal and abandonment of that same group.
I personally believe that the acknowledgement of a slave mentality and the conquering of it wouldn't allow for either mindset. There would be an obligatory sense that you must uplift the community and support it. Success breeds a mindset of sacrifice and creates an atmosphere of education and even rescue. One would neither damage or leave the ones who need one's understanding.
When you create an environment of self awareness, self-definition will follow.
We read from Cosby's book 'Come on People', and discussed his 'concept of Cool'. How the detachment of emotions was and is necessary to avoid the negative consequences of conflict when dealing with a discriminatory world. But, when that detachment causes a suppression of all emotions the situation becomes dangerous to that person and those around them. When you cool becomes hot and all of those bottled emotions are unleashed, hot becomes unmanageable.
It questions what the Black community considers 'manhood'?
That being said, what happens when young people within our community realise that they've been fooled and manipulated for the sake of a dollar; when they figure out that many of their artists are unwilling, or worse, willing puppets for people, from outside the community, to slowly destroy and exploit it.
Are our youth willing to give up the comfort of ignorance to embrace the discomfort of truth?
Why is it ok for Black women in our community to be treated the way they are? Why does the community allow women to be treated as objects? We treat them as though women are lesser while at the same time we praise our mothers and act as though we protect our sisters.
Do we forget that every women is someone's daughter, maybe sister, cousin, possibly a mother, grandmother?
Shouldn't every woman be special and important? Why do we have to be related to a woman before we can respect them?
We can now start to examine the Hip Hop genre. Using the question sheet I drew up use the documentary as reference to answer some of the more difficult questions that come up when discussing Hip Hop.
Is there an excuse for some of what comes out of the music. What are the pros and cons of a music that defines so much of what the Black community represents?
