Hip-Hop Vs. America

Love it or hate it, Hip-Hop is the epitome of a young, urban progressive America endowed with talent, intelligence and influence, dipped in beautiful hues of chocolate with splashes of vanilla. Hip-Hop is also the mask behind the darkness of a culture that glorifies misogyny, pimping, prostitution, objectification of women, specifically black women, discrimination and crime.

Don Imus, the radio host fired by CBS for derogatory racial comments he made against the Rutgers Women's Basketball team earlier this year, was the catalyst needed for the light to shine on the irresponsibility of hip-hop. Imus' comments brought the proverbial "chickens home to roost". It's about time. It's time for African-Americans to stand up and address the carelessness and thoughtlessness we are putting inside the minds of our next leaders through hip-hop music.

Hip-Hop has been a blessing to many young men and women who would have otherwise self-destructed in the ghettos of the environments they were raised, but it now seems to be a curse as it has also stabbed and turned its back on the hands that fed it - its culture, its history, its strength - its mother. Many would beg to differ with me, but black women are the biggest victims in hip-hop culture. BET finally came to its senses and decided to play on the other side of the fence and bring awareness to the very thing that brings it prosperity - stereotyping of the Black Culture, specifically, the Black woman. A dichotomy at best, but it is progress.