Chat bout...

I was on my way home from the base supermarket, cycling through my programmed radio channels because I didn't feel like listening to my Daft Punk CD anymore. I ended up listening to some rap song (sad, but I can't even remember the name right now - no, wait, it was We Fly High/Ballin'). That got me thinking about the whole Imus deal.

These days that's what we're all talking about. Don Imus and rap music that trashes women. One syndicated columnist thought the backlash from his "nappy headed-ho's" comment was just going to be a storm in a tea cup. Instead advertisers started pulling out from Imus's radio show and before you knew it his show was dropped and he was fired. Others are now using the shock jock's comment as a way to focus the spotlight on the way rap music denigrates young black women.

Back to me and Jim Jones and when it struck me that maybe I was part of the problem. Okay, I know I'm just one person and in the grand scheme of things I don't matter at all, but it's me and people like me who are the problem. The people who one hand don't like the denigration of women in these songs but on the other hand like the beat and dance/sing along to those very same songs without missing a beat. We're all complacent because most of us know what we're about and believe that: "Is not me dem talking 'bout".

Then something else struck me - amazing that I hadn't driven off the road into a ditch yet, huh? -I'm raising a daughter. What am I going to do if she goes beyond the catchy beat and identifies with the lyrics and starts seeing herself as one of those ho's from the hood trying to get a n----'s money, to paraphrase how Snoop put it. I know I'd feel like I'd have failed her. So what can I do? The music is all over the airwaves, and I still am a big hiphop/rap fan. Not necessarily of the stuff nowadays, but I love my Biggie with the best of them and I know I won't stop buying/listening to the music.

I've thought about it and I think all I can do is teach her by example. Show her that she doesn't have to be a gold digger to gain acceptance, and that being intelligent and educated isn't something to be ashamed of. That whole line always sounded so terribly cliché to me but now that I'm a parent it makes sense, perfect sense.