Whip-Cream Spring Breaks and Taking Back Morality In America

It’s been about 2 weeks since the Don Imus fallout, and the discussions, opinions and debates are still strong and going. First, let me say, this is a good thing. In order to find a solution to a problem, there has to be discussion and debate. Once that discussion and debate finds form, real solutions can be suggested, and it takes a whole community in many cases to abide by that solution. Community can be a term here used for more than just a group of houses or a city “community”. In this case, we are talking about the hip hop and rap community. In a bigger scheme, we are talking about the music community. In just a few minutes, I am going to once again talk about the a section of the Corporate America community. I hope to continue to open the discussion about what is happening in America with the youth-generations and what exactly is taking place in schools and in their minds. That is to say, what is happening in the youth community. But first, let’s look back at the Imus issue.
Don Imus has since been let go from both MSNBC and CBS due in large part (and I would venture to say 100%) because of his comments about the Rutgers Women’s basketball team. Whether he should have been fired or not is not where I want to go right now. That decision was made by the appropriate people at NBC and CBS, and Don Imus has to live with the decision they made. Because of his choice words, he is gone. So, where do we go from there? Do we just simply listen to and watch someone else from now on? No, of course not. The words Imus chose to say opened a dialogue between a few different communities, but the main community impacted is the hip hop and rap community. Why? Well, because the words Imus spoke are every day, common language in the hip hop and rap community. H’s and B’s and the N word are found on thousands of songs, many of which are played on mainstream radio. This of course, seems like a double standards, the epitome of hypocrisy. And to make matters worse, the same hip hop and rap artists who use this language and guise it under the context of “art”, are the same people who will speak out against white, well-known people such as Imus. Only after criticism from much of the public and a strict lashing from Bill O’Reilly are the prominent African American community leaders taking a stand against the hip hop and rap community for the lyrics they call “art”. However, this is a good thing, even if it takes a little prompting. The discussion has been started, and now those that continue to be part of the problem will only be exposed more and more. And now, finally, a major player in the hip hop and rap community is coming out and attempting to begin the stand against the offensive lyrics that tear down women, degrade races and promote promiscuity and drug use, (I’ll get to that more in just a few minutes). Russell Simmons is coming out with a stand against 3 specifics words that are used constantly by hip hop and rap artists. He is attempting to get mainstream radio stations and music television stations to ban the N word, H’s and B’s. While it may be a small step, it is a large message from someone with a major voice in the hip hop and rap community. I will be watching closely to see how that plays out and if any of his suggestions are heeded, and if the companies that sign these artists take a stand against it also.
Now, moving on from that, I want to inform you if you are unaware of another troubling trend that many parents, teachers, youth leaders and the adult community in our nation don’t see. If you have seen MTV, you will know exactly what I’m talking about, but maybe not to the extent of which I hope to enlighten you here. Viacom, parent company to MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and a host of other major television stations, is at the heart of this all, although it isn’t the only one. You see, there is a concentrated effort to literally warp the minds of the younger generations. Don’t believe me? Well, let me throw you some statistics that shocked me, and I hope shock you. This generation that is growing up now (pretty much anyone under 20) views an average of 16 to 17 hours of television a week. With that, they see more than 14,000 sexual scenes a year. That’s 38 a day. In music, more than 25 percent of teenage targeted radio segments contain sexual content. Almost 50% of top selling CD’s contain sexual content. During my post-blog commentary, I’ll talk about Acquire the Fire and exactly what that organization is doing in its efforts to fight back against corporate companies who are doing everything they can to earn a buck and the expense of the morals of our children. However, right now I’d like to point out just what Rebecca Hagelin has found. This is from a column she wrote for The Heritage Foundation.
The Parents Television Council did a study during the spring break week of 2007, and in 171 hours of MTV programming, here is what they found.
- 1,548 sexual scenes containing 3,056 depictions of sex or various forms of nudity and 2,881 verbal sexual references. For children/teenagers watching MTV, that equals an average of 9 sexual scenes per hour with around 18 sexual depictions and 17 instances of sexual dialogue.
This is just a taste of what Rebecca Hagelin wrote about in her article. Click here to read the article.

You can read more from Hagelin by going to The Heritage Foundation’s website. Hagelin is Vice President of that company.

So, you see, all this hip hop/rap/Viacom/Corporate America/MTV community stuff goes together. First, we see the issue at hand right now: lyrics in hip hop and rap music. If MTV plays it, children will listen to it, guaranteed. The music videos the hip hop and rap community produce and put out exploit women, promote sex, drugs and alcohol, and degrade not only women but their own race. The companies that sign these artists to records are putting out the CD’s that promote these things as well, and with even fewer restrictions on what they can say. It’s a promotion of a thug-life, one that will lead them no where. I’ve heard the stories and have heard the hopes and dreams. Kids that want to grow up and be like. P.Diddy, be like Suge Knight, be like Jay-Z with the beautiful girlfriend like Beyonce. It’s just like the little kid growing up wanting to play in the NBA. The odds are against them. 1 in over 1 million will get a record contract. But what about the other millions of kids that don’t? They get pulled into a lifestyle that is harmful to our country, to their friends and families and to themselves. All they will ever hear about is the glorified thug life, and that is in large part thanks to the MTV and Viacom execs who only see one thing out of all of it: their wallets and bank accounts growing.
But while we focus on the music industry here, there is another major issue at hand. It still involves these same communities, but on another level. While the promotion of sexual activities, promiscuity and alcohol consumption without consequences is apparent on MTV during their spring break episodes and nearly every night on their channel, there is an underlying theme. They are the props that go into these shows. What the women are wearing. What the guys are drinking. What they are driving. What they are doing, where they are going and who they want to get their haircuts like, look like and be like. Amazingly enough, this is not denied by big-shots and MTV. They knowingly try to brain-wash the younger generation. There are even created terms/phrases for the children they have and are trying to convert to their way of life. Don’t believe me? Industry executives have coined the terms “Mooks” and “Midriffs” A mook is the guy with the tight shirt on to make him look ripped, the guy dancing with the hot, model like girl in the dance club drinking a Rockstar or Monster energry drink, and the guy who would do anything to look cool in front of his friends. The midriff is the girl who has the bad-girl attitude, the “I’ll dress in anything I wanna dress in” mentality, and the girl who flirts with the guy to get back and her best friend for stealing him away in the first place. They are the girls who dress in short skirts, belly-bearing shirts and talk on their cell phone to look cool in the mall. To read another article from Hagelin explaining more in detail, click here.
You see, this is the battle for the younger “community”. This is an exact quote from former MTV president, Bob Pittman. “"The strongest appeal you can make is emotionally. If you can get their emotions going, make them forget their logic, you've got them. At MTV, we don't shoot for the 14-year olds, we own them!" This is a shocking, horrific statement, one that we all need to take notice of. It is a brain-washing technique, and for a prominent corporate company president to say something like this is not only irresponsible, but dangerous.
This all ties in. The Imus situation, the Russell Simons situation, the Al Sharpton situation, the hip hop and rap situation…all of it. It is all a huge controversy, one that we need to be in discussion about and we need to rapidly be looking for solutions. Those of you in the adult community are the ones that have to stand up against these kinds of things. You have to stop letting your children buy this music. You have to be the ones to say no MTV, period. You have to be the ones that don’t let them buy Abercrombie and Fitch clothes, a company that promotes sickening outfits for pre teens. You have to be the ones that aren’t their friends, they have plenty of friends at school. We have to take a stand against everything that is immoral. We can’t let the hip hop and rap artist get away with calling their filth lyrics “art”. Hurt them where it hurts the most…their wallets. Stop buying, stop promoting, stop watching and START LISTENING to what I am saying here….something HAS TO CHANGE NOW! Or else, the “moral” thing to do will be to will be what we see on spring-break MTV…and personally, I don’t want whip-cream covered teenagers that eat cherries of each other’s stomachs leading the way for “morality” in America, but maybe that’s just me. -AJW

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