An interesting post at The Black Informant on prospective changes in hip hop:
Let me just ask the question since I have not seen anyone else ask it.
“IS THIS SO-CALLED CHANGE FOR THE BENEFIT OF BLACK FOLKS OR TO CONVINCE WHITES THAT WE ARE NOT ALL THAT BAD?”
I’m sorry, but I have been reading way too much commentary over the past week or so from my own people who have taken this “We got a Black man in the White house–time for us to straighten up” attitude. Hip hop has always prided itself on telling it like it is. Any person who has taken a firm stance against some of the language and imagery found in hip hop has largely been slapped down by those who apparently do not have a problem with it. Now that a Black man is on center stage in front of Whites, now-all-of-a-sudden its time to clean up without the fear of being seen as one who despises Black culture or one who belittles po’ Black folks who have no other way of expressing themselves.
I’d suggest that it’s Al Sharpton’s last, desperate grasp for relevance, more than anything else. Sharpton hasn’t had any effect on hip hop to date, and there’s no reason to think he will now.
Brian Williams seems to think that it’s about time we had a national conversation about race. I think we’ve been having that conversation for at least the last forty years. It looks to me like the conversation now is largely within the black community.
What’s black culture – Cosby or Ludacris? Both, and much more besides. It’s ridiculous to try to characterize a whole group that way, any more than suggesting that Ward Cleaver or David Duke represented all whites.
I do think some cultural housecleaning is in order, just like the white community has had to purge ourselves of the worst of racism, and that process continues apace. For example, if ’snitching’ were a virtue instead of a crime, I think folks would be better off. But I haven’t lived in a neighborhood where that sort of thing was an issue for twenty years, and my opinion plus a buck twenty five will get you a ride on the streetcar. L, my mother’s roommate after Katrina who we lost to cancer, seemed to be far more offended by the likes of Ludacris and the way hip hop glamorizes the thug life than even I am. She took it more personally; probably she feared for her grandchildren over it.
So is Obama’s presidency going to sweep in a new era of Huxtable middle-classness for black folks? No, not really. The black middle class has always existed, and has been growing for years. But people might start noticing it again, and calling that “black culture” instead of the likes of Ludacris. It’s just a label, and doesn’t change anything.
Cosby himself had an interesting take on it:
So with the Obama family set to take up residence in the White House, Cosby reflected on those statements last week with a chuckle. “For all those people who said they didn’t know any black people like the Huxtables,” quipped Cosby in a phone interview, “all I can say is, ‘Will you watch the show now?’ “
