Before I go into my rant, let me just preface it with the statement that when it comes to weird, I'm not adverse. For example, there was a stage of my life (I was much younger) when I actually had dark purple hair, wore all black, and listened to incredibly loud punk rock music.
I still listen to the music but got rid of the purple hair. I do wear a lot of black, but that's because The Mother says it's slimming.
I have no problem with Goths. I don't mind the Skaters. The Country kids are fine. The Hard Rock kids are a joy.
It's the hip hop and rap kids that set my teeth on edge.
Case in point. We had our talent show this week and Mrs. Eagle and I worked the door (of course) and then snuck in and watched most of the show. There were your basic tumbling acts, we had baton twirlers, we had country singers, pop singers, a wonderful Latin dance group, and a lovely girl playing piano. We also had a dance troupe of 8 kids who did some sort of hip hop rap thing that was just hideous. It was, even in my laid back rock goddess opinion, rude and pretty vulgar (especially on the part of the girls). It celebrated the drug culture (and there was talk by at least one administrator about whether or not the sponsors of the show were aware of that). There was a huge section of the crowd that just loved this act and booed and hissed when they didn't win. It was absolutely repulsive.
And it occurred to me that not only does this hip hop culture celebrate the Cult of Thuginess (which I see in my kids all the time), but the followers of this type of music and culture have absolutely no concept of how to behave in public. They are rude. They talk during other acts. They act like they're at a sporting event and are stomping and carrying on. They curse and swear when they don't get their way and have their favorite act place second. We had to remove several of them due to their behavior during the show.
And these were the parents.
I think this culture celebrates bad behavior. It celebrates materialism (which many of these kids can get one way - through drugs). It celebrates criminal behavior. It treats all women as hoes and bitches and basically considers them to be tools for sex and nothing else.
And here we are, in February, Black History Month, and we're discussing such African-American heros such as Wilma Rudolph, George Washington Carver, Thurgood Marshall, and others, and my African-American kids don't care one bit about it. These people, who did so much to give them all they have today, aren't cool. Apparently cool is all its about with these kids.
How sad. I see an entire generation and culture beginning to implode.
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2 comments:
How very sad it is that these kids have "heroes" like 50 Cent, Kobe Bryant and Lil' John. What does that say about their potential as adults? They expect they will have the Bling Bling (and not the fake stuff they wear now) and be millionaires by being rappers or basketball players. School isn't important and being smart isn't cool. And how are we as teachers supposed to compete with that?
It saddens me how distasteful the popular version of hip-hop culture is. Everything that is glorified by the miserable corporate-manufactured rap "culture" the real, found-on-the-streets-of-the-slums-of-New-York hip-hop is apologetic for. They see drugs and violence around them and express in the ways they can how it is destroying them and their lives and livelyhoods and I can't stand it when some moneygrubbing big record label spits all over the real troubles these people have.
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