Letters to the Editor

What’s going wrong?

I’m confused. I thought draggy pants and buck dancing were out of style. There was the election and a lot of our young artists and athletes were out in force, basking in the glow of ‘Obamanation.’

 The rappers and spokesmen for the stylists declared that a new day was coming and they were ready to take over from the ‘old guard.’

Admittedly, many of them had amassed young fortunes aided in part by dollars spent in the communities, where they once lived. That’s business. But, what about the social obligation to act and contribute to the greater good of our brethren? The Chinese, Jews, Haitians and Latinos practice it. What’s wrong with us? Why do our young disparage our elders? Why do we tolerate this behavior?

To have some of these ‘role models’ speak a simple sentence and be understood is often a task in itself resulting in the oft heard response: “What did he say?”

 No wonder so many of our black youth have little regard for an education. There is something vulgar and classless about a person who denigrates the people in the neighborhood where he grew up, disparages women and dares to open his lips and thank God for his success.

Yet, to have these ‘role models’ influence young minds to accept the idea that you can get success and make the big money by following the gangster lifestyle is a travesty of the worst kind.

If these ‘celebrities’ at the top of their game think that their worth is defined in the price of an automobile or a mansion they must be out of their minds. Like it or not, too many of our children are ready and willing to believe it.

Doesn’t it strike you as outrageous that these rappers are still giving the world a message that our neighborhoods are about guns and drugs? That our women are wild and morally loose? That there is something fashionable about dragging your pants behind you?   

Who owns the big record companies that tell the rappers what to rap about? Who holds the purse strings? Why do these big shot athletes with the million dollar contracts go bankrupt when they get into trouble?  Because they never get all the money at once.

Remember, you can be sitting in the front of the bus, but still have your mind asleep in the back. It’s up to us to get our children going in the right direction.

Marvin Clark
Via email