What is this new urban media?
In the 60′s and 70′s, you had good looking black men and women with great voices, and dressed to impress kings and queens of the world, the president, and many others. There were Supreme, and tempting as well (The Temptations & Supremes). They dazzled, doo dahed, and paved the way for all Black Americans, and really Americans still to come, and showed America that black people are just as capable of achievement. Then, you had shows like the Cosby Show and Family Matters that had middle class black families with doctors, policemen, and other great professions. They spoke regular English, and were dressed as any other American would dress.
Now, fastforward a few decades to the year 2008. Now, turn on BET, you see young men dressed many times like a thug, and there are songs like “It’s hard to be a pimp”, and “Gangsta Lovin”, and theres a song that goes “If yo status ain’t hood, I aint checkin on ya…”. Suddenly our culture went from one emphasizing respectable values and morals, looking up to the stars, to one where in a music video, Nelly swipes a credit card down a girls behind. You see black people on television getting arrested or letting chains hang low. That is what is usually aired.
We need to change this media culture of making black people look like gang baners, thugs, or other horrible examples. This messed up media sends terrible examples to our own people, and to the world about hwat it means to be black. Seems like now, many people expect a black man to be gangster, a rapper, a basketball player, or a football player. Seems like a black woman, defined by many videos out there, is being a video girl, a singer, or a dancer.
We don’t have to start over, but we do need a fresh start. We need to stop making thug life, criminal activity, and degradation of anyone look good. Videos with that content should not be aired! Songs won’t be empty without cussing every 5 seconds, if cussing makes a song or a rap complete, its not legit to begin with (lets face it cursing all the time doesn’t make what your saying any more meaningful, we all do it but do we need that in our videos to make it look like we all need to?). However, glorification of foolishness, and ignorance have to stop. The Proud Family, That’s So Raven, Family Matters, The Cosby Show, House of Payne, Sister Sister – just some of the many positive black shows out there, and they are good shows that people love to watch. They are wholesome, and funny as heck! So we obviously don’t need “hood life” and thuggery to make great shows, music videos, and entertainment for people – Motown didn’t do that.
Me, and my fellow young people are ready to move on. We need to leave this bull behind and clean this mess up. No Nelly swiping cards down butts, no its hard to be a pimp, and why would any respectable person make love in a club? That’s the stupidest thing ever. We’re better than that. Look at the oldies, and the legends that reigned in the 60′s and 70′s. And look at all the other ignorant crap we’ve had in the past. Forgotten.
Lets make it right my fellow brothers and sisters, and even those from other cultures, we really have similar and the same media these days, we can all change this.
P.S. I don’t have a problem with these rappers and other celebrities and musicians personally, I just think they need to know the effect the material they put out has on so many young people.
