What are we REALLY teaching our children

[zhugeliang]

Think about this, the new wave of cool in America seems to be hip hop and gangsta rap and such. Wearing the fat chains and throwing up gang signs, white boys want to be black and so on. I can't help but to think that there has to be something to it. In the recent spotlight that has been heating up the ground where ever Bush is, you start to see how things are only happening to help a certain level of higher society move even higher into society. Think about this, the music industry over here lately has catapulted more gangster rappers and such into the limelight then country, rock, jazz or any other music genres. And its always the most gangster rapper or whoever is proclaimed to be more REAL that everyone wants to emulate. Rarely do you see a rapper who is talking about anything other then poppin a cap or smoking a blunt or smacking his hoes. Now Im not saying that there is anything wrong with that but dam something has got to give. Kids are eating this crap up, they cant sit in class and remember how to do fractions but they remember by heart how 50 cent got shot 5 times and would kill someone if they tried to take his chain.

These kids then try to emulate this crap and become the hardest mofo out there so we got like these toothpick nerds trying to fit in talking about how they bust someones cap or lost their virginity at 5 or something. It boggles the mind how America is brainwashing the youth. Im not saying that the image they portray in television and music and such are causing these kids to act a certain way but it certainly does not help. I can't help to think that there is some kind of group of people that are pulling all the strings and trying to segregate us from them. Its like they want to know who is a lower level citizen (in their eyes) and if that is the case then they are doing one hell of a job. With all the stuff they shove down our throats they all have us dressing a certain way or acting out and ignorantly. Most are even exploiting themselves is negative ways and teaching the children things to keep themselves down. Take that big black lady Monique off of that Parkers television show. She is one of the most ignorant people I have ever seen but yet shes on television and people are looking up to her. Look at 4.9 out of every 5 rappers and tell me if you dont hear them talking about whats gangsta and so on.

Doesnt it disturb you to see that the image that they press on to us is one of negativity. These rappers and actors can all afford to act ignorant or lash out at authority but us common folk cannot. We go to jail or die for things that they can walk away from or pay a fine for. But that doesnt stop them from telling us that we should shoot murder cuss and spit at police. I dont know where Im going with this, just something that sprang into my head. But it kind of makes sense.... or does it?

 

Is there someone out there trying to controll us through the media?

[Wizard]

Emo will pass then we'll be back to raging against the government and stuff like that..

 

Come on, wheres the good nu metal.

[Gryph]

Yeah, this is a sad state of affairs. But you must keep in mind that there have always been people like this. It all comes down to the parents to teach their children from right and wrong and guide them through their early years. A child who has been taught properly by their parents would realize that all those rappers and such are fake and don't mean anything. All this responsibility lies on the parent(s)' shoulders. But in today's society where many households are broken with only one parent and multiple children it's hard to do all that...it's all flocked up.

 

Since the entertainers (it's a stretch calling them that) are much more extreme than earlier times, the parents need to be more vigilant.

 

The companies promoting these artists (a stretch to call them that too ) should take an active part in making sure that kids get the message that this is just music and nothing more. Every generation has had this sort of problem and it's just a fad. It'll die out (hopefully) and be replaced by something else.

 

I mean, this kind of like the movie and video game violence affecting children debate. Kids watch and play the games but very few of them actually those things out.

[Diso]

I agree. Kids today are all acting about being gangster and hard punks that they don't care about anything else anymore. I find it annoying that every little kid (Freshman and below) has to act "black" unless they're a smart or laid back kind of person.

 

It's not really the parent's fault. Lets think about it this way. If a Parent isolates their child from violence and TV, they would still have a friend that would put some kind of influence on them so its not always safe. I'd say child blocks and ratings are the right way to go. If an adult is not smart enough to actually hide the M rated Video games somewhere else other than the closet, oh well for him

[Wizard]

The kids who act all black and emo need to stay out of Ralphy's fat man store. (To those who watch Last Comic Standing will understand what I mean).

[[S4]The Phantom]

However, having just entered my third semester in College, I am seeing drastic changes in what is "cool" to the people.

 

Maybe it depends on the area, but gangsta is not the top-of-the-line-cool as it was in High school anymore....

[Daeval]

Along the lines of what Phantom was saying.. Where I'm at, it's broken down like this:

 

High Schools - A TON of people are all homey'd out, wearing the same brands you see on MTV, etc, and the most popular or rich kids drive tweaked out cars.

 

Community College - About a third of the people are all homey'd out, and a TON of people drive tweaked out cars. (I'm at a CC, for now)

 

Universities - VERY FEW people are all homey'd out, the rich kids drive really nice (but stock spec) cars, and almost everyone else drives the cheapest thing they can afford (presumably so they can afford more alchohol ).

 

 

So I guess you could say that "gangsta" gets less cool the further away from high school you get, educationally speaking. I'm sure this has a lot to do with "fitting in" and whatnot.

[random guy]

The kids who act all black and emo need to stay out of Ralphy's fat man store. (To those who watch Last Comic Standing will understand what I mean).

Emo's got nothing to do with gangsta rap - at least not in Australia. Over here emo is like a toned-down version of goths.

 

And yes, I agree, it's the scourge of television...at first tv and markerters tried to find out what was cool and make shows/ads /products about it. But that wasn't getting them enough money so they had to start TELLING people what was cool. But that wasn't enough either, so they had to invent a counter-culture and make THOSE people think that they're the cool ones, not the mainstream people. But don't worry...this can't continue forever- pretty soon nobody will know what's cool anymore so maybe, just maybe, the "masses" might actually start developing some character of their own!

Edited September 23, 2004 by random guy

[Ghosty]

Ya I Know What You Mean, Both Of My School's Are Compiled Mostly Of Hip-Hoppers, And I Really Wish That I Can Go One Day With Out Seeing A Dude's Boxer's Because Of Thier Clothing Style, And Not Hear About What Kind Of Guns Kids Are PRETENDING To Have On Them Or Own.

 

In Addition, Thats Why I'm More Of A Computer Geek

And

Yes K' We Shall Always Rage Against The Gov!

[Jiggs]

You guys have to remember that these kids usually stop acting "hard, yo" the first few times they get their asses beaten or get in any real or perceived danger. The dumber ones end up dead, but that's not really a bad thing, since I'm all for natural selection.

[zhugeliang]

All good points, but I was thinking more along the lines of them making this crap what they want us to be in order to keep us from bettering ourselves. If a teen is on welfare living on section 8 and has a birthday. Does he spend his money on food for hhis family? Hell no. He spends the whole 100 plus some he borrows from his grandma to buy one pair of shoes that he probably gets jacked for down thel ine by some dude who likes 50 cent. They are picking these people in particular to be in the limelight so that they can guide the youth into oblivion.

 

Musicians and Entertainers play a collosal role in what our youth believe in. It used to be that our heroes were the likes of Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr and JFK ( who was quite possibly the coolest president ever, with clinton coming in a strong second with the monica thing ) who actually made you want to be a better person. Now all you got is people trying to tell you how cool they are but when you emulate them they tell you you cant, cuz you aint real enuff. Its some kind of evil paradox. Like Gryph said, these days you got single parent households, more then those with both parents and if you put a child who has only a mother or father next to someone to had both you would immediately be able to tell the difference in most cases. The poverty is so bad that even if you have both parents most are financially secure enuff to have a stay at home mom or dad. That means that this kid is basically growing up off of television and what his friends are telling him. Our youth are raising themselves. Its a vicious cycle that will eventually tear us all apart. Look at it like this.

 

The media takes full advantage of the fact that children are having less and less guidance in our modern times. No parents around to show them whats right or whats wrong. So they cram all this junk in there heads about how they should act and such. But none of this crap is the stuff thats gonna help this kid get into college. Kids are getting out of high school and not having a dam idea what they want to be in 5 years. They havent spent a single dime on anything other then drugs or clothes or some other materialistic bullshit that the media sells them so by that time they are basically flocked. And just who gives a crap? Noone, the media already juiced him or her for all they had so it doesnt mattter. Hopefully he get capped up while trying to gangsta. But hopefully by then they would have been trying to pimp and had gotten a girl pregnant and then the cycle starts again. Another poor child in poverty with no guiidance... but when it gets some money we gotta make sure it knows about the latest gunit sneakers. I

mean...... WTF???

 

EDIT by GryphonKlaw: I just added some paragraph spacing for easier reading.

Edited September 23, 2004 by GryphonKlaw