From a chapter entitled "Race Matters"

Ankhor Man · (#1 (**permalink**))

From a chapter entitled "Race Matters" from the book entitled "Disappearing Acts"

by

Michael G. McFadden

McFad3@aol.com

"One of America’s most prominent cultural identifiers is our diverse love for and taste in music. Here again, the reaction (most frequently negative and hostile) whites have regarding blacks is illogical because blacks created almost all forms of American popular music. Jazz, the Blues, R&B/Soul, Rock, Reggae and Hip Hop all emanated from the black community, and all are most frequently purchased and appreciated by white Americans. But music is much, much more then just something we listen to, music moves us! Music is what we romance each other to, it reflects our mood, it’s personal! Whether we are relaxing on the sofa or working out at the gym, the music that we listen to will generally be on the same page with our mental/emotional psyche! Coudos to those who create it would be, or at least should be, the logical response for this national gift. Somehow the white community seems to ignore the gift, and the value it ads to our daily activities, and instead focus’s their collective animus regarding who the gift givers are.

Hip-Hop music is the latest creation on this list of musical offerings, and it is among the most significant. While all of the other musical genres were created during or before America’s dark days of Jim Crow, Hip Hop was created during the early 1980s which just happened to coincide with the onset of our nations’ war on drugs. This war on drugs (or the war on black men) began a period of mass incarceration of black men (still ongoing), as drugs somehow became much more plentiful then jobs in the black community. Allow me to digress here for some personal reflection on this subject;

I am 45 years old, and I represent one of the last of that generation of black men who grew up in the black community before jobs were exported and drugs were imported. All of the guys I hung out with as a young man had their father living at home. This is in stark contrast to the single family house holds that permeate that same community today. All the fathers stayed home to raise their children largely because they all had (blue collar) jobs. I emphasize the blue collar nature of their employ because I never saw a black man going to work wearing a suit, but I saw every man in my community going to work every day. While this is important for many reasons, the impact it had on us as students can not be understated (but it always is). There was a connection between school and legitimately having material things that doesn’t exist in many poor black neighborhoods today. Our parents all worked, and we knew that we would have to graduate from high school in order to get the jobs that were available to black men. Thus, we studied and learned with the understanding that once we graduated we would be able to get one of those blue collar jobs. We didn’t strive too hard, largely because we understood that being competent in certain subjects wasn’t necessary because black men couldn’t get the kinds of jobs that required proficiency in certain subjects. We knew we had to graduate, but algebra and art history, come on! Thus, students who studied hard and got exceptional grades were often accused of acting white, because they were striving to learn things applicable to vocations (jobs) that black men were prohibited from getting! Today, where many black neighborhoods have male unemployment rates of 70% or more, the connection between school and work has been almost completely disappeared. Kids from those neighborhoods today understand that many of the men there who have nice things didn’t get them from working traditional jobs. In such an environment, what significance does English lit. have for these students? Why should I study or do homework when I know I will never be permitted to hold a job that would require knowledge of math, science or any other academic discipline they logically reason. Again, in my youth, we never (though) we could get a professional job, but we knew we had to graduate from high school to get the blue collar jobs that were available to black men. Now, those jobs have gone overseas, and the men have both left the community, and their responsibilities. This academic disinterest is often spoken of, but never examined beyond faint notions of inferiority."

Michael G. McFadden

Jim999 · (#2 (**permalink**))

What you say is true, but what are your conclusions?

Ankhor Man · (#3 (**permalink**))

An Ankhor Manis not obliged to an opinion lesthe gives sway to particular news over others.