Holding Someone Accountable

Last Wednesday, April 4th, the Rutgers women’s basketball team made school history by making it to the Women’s NCAA Championship game against power house Tennessee. Despite losing the game, it was a great accomplishment. In the last few days though, their accomplishments have unfortunately been overshadowed. By now many of you have heard the controversy surrounding Don Imus and the comments he made regarding the Rutgers women basketball team. I won’t repeat the words here, as you probably have already heard them and if you haven’t, you can read them on any news site. They were horrid comments, and the punishment fits the crime, as MSNBC has decide to get rid of Imus.
I’ve tried to avoid the racial discussions on Cell Phone Jabber, but I found that the more I read about this story and the more I thought about what is coming up this weekend, the more I wanted to say a few things, and well, CPJ is my avenue for that. Now, some of you who are sports fans may know, others may not. This weekend is the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut into Major League Baseball. He was the first African American player to play in a game that had had all whites in it. His courage embodied what the American spirit is and should be about. He played through death threats. He played through physical threats. He played with teammates who didn’t want him there. He played in front of fans and people who hated him. Yet, through it all…he played. And now, 60 years later, MLB is giving the honor to him as many teams and players are dedicating Sunday night to him through ceremony and through wearing his uniform number, which has been retired from baseball. But that is where this story picks up.
First, a lot has been analyzed about what Don Imus said. The discussion is important, but I wanted to dig into it a little bit more. I wanted to discuss a few things. You see, there is a major, underlying factor to all of this. While what Imus said was disgusting, are we really surprised? It personifies not only what is wrong with attitudes and stereotypes, but unfortunately, it is every day language. Any public school you go to, you can hear this kind of language. Now realize one thing about that last sentence…any public SCHOOL. Honestly, I have become de-sensitized to that kind of language, because I heard it every day from the 6th grade through the 12th grade. If you could go to some of the schools in America and hear just how the kids talk, it would probably floor most of you. Racial slurs and swearing are common, every day occurrences for many, many children. The N word is used as a term of endearment for whites, Asians, African Americans and Hispanics. The B word is a common dis for many kids who don’t like someone else. Dang, darn and crap are not the 4 letter words that 5th graders say when they are frustrated or mad. It is becoming more and more typical for swearing to be an okay form of expression for younger and younger kids. What’s next, spelling tests with swear words?
Second, a lot of people right now are blaming the rap industry. They are blaming the hip hop artists and music industry for promoting and producing the kind of filth that is rapped about. Now, I will 100% agree with this. The stuff they rap about and the horrid lyrics that come from many hip hop and rap artists is not only wrong and hurting our society, but its extremely hypocritical, and I have a strong sense that they don’t understand one bit of history, and if you think that’s not the case you are completely wrong. However, while I agree that the music industry is at the heart of the problem with the language and attitude about racial/ethnic differences and women, I don’t believe they are the only problem. You see, we have to look at how this is all happening? And, as I’ve harped on before, it starts with parenting. Why are parents allowing their children to listen to this music!? Because when a child or student is calling them from the school’s principle office because they are in trouble for swearing at a teacher, they really have no right to be mad. They enabled this. Just recently, there were 5th graders in Indiana who got in trouble for having sex in the classroom during a school assembly, and others were watching! What is happening to our youth? What is happening to the moral fibers of this nation? Again, I am not pinning all of this on the hip hop and rap industry, as I could make just as strong of a case against companies like Viacom who are the ones promoting this behavior, but when is a rapper or hip hop mogul going to step up and take some responsibility for this? They all talk about how they don’t live the life that they rap about and so on and so forth. But one thing is for sure, they are making a living off of people who do, and people who think that life style is a glorified way to live. Video games with the objective being kill the other gang and get as much money as you can, music videos with 20 women in nothing but G-strings near a swimming pool surrounding one man and lyrics that not only degrade women but tear down the African American race. And just as bad are the companies that sign these artists to multi-million dollar deals and promote the awful trash, and then put it under the disguise of “art”. Art is what Martin Luther King embodied. Art was Jackie Robinson playing a game so beautifully, all the while making a statement that the minority could no longer be overlooked. That was art. So Russel Simmons, I hope that you get a clue. 50 Cent, Eminem and Snoop Dog, I hope you get a clue. I hope you watch some major league baseball on Sunday night, and see the tributes to a man who personified what it meant to be a respectable, courageous, amazing human being, and while making a statement, didn’t tear down, but built up. He built up people, he lifted them to a higher place, one we are still seeing today. I don’t imagine Jackie Robinson would be rapping about B’s and H’s. -AJW