Friday, December 12, 2008

Is Black America Raising Generations of Bi@#%$ and Hoes?

The short, obvious answer is "yes". Anytime Nelly can swipe a credit card through a woman's behind without so much as a flinch from 'Black leaders', and 48% of Black teenage girls have an STD, the answer is painfully obvious. (I had to alter the single's cover just to post it here on this blog) However, while most of us would agree that Black America is raising a generation of sexually promiscuous and irresponsible young women, the question was really about generations.

We have been spreading this sickness in the Black Community for a long, long time.

This post comes as I remember a local television show that came on after school when I was growing up called, "The New Dance Show". The show actually started out in the late 80's as "The Scene", then changed it's name to "The Dance Show", and eventually became "The New Dance Show". A local version of "Soul Train", The New Dance Show was the brainchild of R.J. Watkins, the owner of Detroit's only Black-owned television station. Kids is middle school like myself and older would come home to learn some of the latest dance moves and gain a sneak peek into what the young adults we were always emulating were doing.

Sounds decent, right?

Far from it. Anyone from Detroit reading this is already either laughing or shaking their head, because they know what's coming next. The New Dance Show was one of the most trifling, foul displays of lasciviousness that I have ever seen in my life. It somewhat pales in comparison to what young people are exposed to today on BET, but it's amazing to see what some of today's Black educators, professionals, and community leaders were exposed to when they were kids.



Now understand that I am quite far removed from the entertainment mainstream these days. So, someone who is still in the mix might not watch that clip with the same horror that I do as an adult, about 15 years after the fact. So, if you still don't get my point, the next video is a clip of actual commercials that ran during this show, during after-school hours, on broadcast television (not cable) WHEN CHILDREN WERE WATCHING:



THIS WAS HAPPENING IN DETROIT OVER 15 YEARS AGO!!!

Do you see where I'm coming from now? I saw this every weekday after school when I was eleven years old, and I wasn't the only one. By the time we were in high school, The New Dance Show was producing high school editions; but to the dismay of many, my high school did not appear on the show. Students at the college prep high school that I attended were actually angry that our principal had enough sense not to allow us to act like sex-crazed animals and tarnish the good names of our school and our respective families on television for the world to see.

We thought this stuff was normal...which brings me to my point.

Black entertainment has been hypersexual and demeaning to women for over 20 years now. It's not enough for us to shake our heads in disbelief when we learn that homosexual relationships are now popular in middle and junior high school, or when we see Shaquanda on The Maury Show testing potential father number 2,005 at only 15 years old.

(Okay, that last one was an exaggeration, but you get my point.)

Those of us who are religious often hear talk about generational curses being passed down. Is this not one of them, and possibly the most crippling of them all?

Young people are often accused of "trying to be grown", but what they are really trying to do is emulate young adults. No adolescent wants to jump to 35 or 40; they want to be 18, 21, or 25. Those are the ones who teach the children what adulthood is all about through their actions. While one might argue that The New Dance Show was perfectly acceptable adult entertainment, the problem is that the show aired while it was still light outside; that kind of programming should come on late, late, LATE at night. Now, raunchy music videos are a part of urban Black lifestyles; we expect our young people to watch much worse than what I was exposed to.

BUT ISN'T THAT MESSED UP?

When you listen to sexually explicit lyrics while driving with your pre-schooler in the car, aren't you teaching them that it's okay? When you allow BET and MTV in your home WHATSOEVER, aren't you telling your children it's okay to watch such filth when it airs?

In my parent's defense, they didn't know we were watching The New Dance Show. They surely had no idea what Watts Club Mozambique was. I want to unlearn the passiveness toward hypersexuality among young Black Americans by allowing myself to be disgusted by it and keeping such cultural influences out of my home.

People like to get mad at Bill Cosby for calling Black people out on their mess, but he only scratched the surface of the degeneration of the Black community. Furthermore, besides being offended at anything that doesn't celebrate and justify Black culture, do we not think that this hypersexual culture that we continue to perpetuate through our financial support of entertainment media is DIRECTLY related to the educational and economic problems we face? The young Black masses are more concerned with getting high, drunk, and laid than they are with getting a real LIFE and establishing themselves for the future. Don't we contribute to this cultural cesspool every time we listen to the songs on FM radio or patronize establishments that play those songs and videos?

Are we ready for another 20 to 30 years of this? How degenerate does our community have to become before we do something?

When does the madness stop?

12 comments:

  1. Jesse, Body Rock Cafe...I Forgot all about that. LOL

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  2. Good - that's a sign that we're moving in the right direction!

    However, many of our constituents did not forget; they actually transitioned quite naturally into that lifestyle, either patronizing such establishments of working there to support themselves.

    Our kids today are growing up thinking hypersexuality is normal, and the madness has to stop somewhere.

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  3. The problems you mention encompass not only Black America but White America too. This kind of moral degradation transcends race.

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  4. Michael, you're absolutely right.

    I took a moment to really think about your comment before I responded, because perspective is paramount when one wants to describe the difference between the effects of this moral degradation in Black and White communities.

    But here's my thought:

    I believe hypersexuality is a pressing issue in any culture. However, it is my strong suspicion that the ratio of exposure and response to such media is a lot higher in the Black community than it is with the White majority. It may be due to sheer numbers, or, more likely (IMHO) that it's due to a festering culture of violence, sex, and drugs in music that young Black Americans adopted about 20 years ago, but we seem to be suffering worse consequences than other races.

    This would be a great sociological study. Anyone feel like paying me thousands of dollars to do it? I'll throw in a documentary on it for free ;-)

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  5. I think it boils down to the fact to many of black society has become complacent to immorality. They are exposed to so much perverse sexuality that they become desensitized in the name of tolerance. The more you tolerate something, the more you start to excuse it, and then you start to participate in it.

    From a parental perspective, parents must take a stand not allow this indecency under their watch. It's time to listen to the words of the songs on the radio, instead of the beat. Don't listen to the stations that play indecent songs. Read about the movies before you allow you children to watch them. Some people will say, "they are going to hear and see it anyway." That may be so, but it least it won't be by your participation. Take a stand to do and live right, by example.

    All to often when kids end up in trouble (drugs, premarital sex, pregnancy, etc) parents say, "i didn't teach my kids to do such and such." That may be so, but did you tell them not to?

    Our job as parents is to instruct and prepare are kids for life, through the Word of God, and by example. If there are enough people to refuse to patronize and accept immoral sexuality, the videos won't be made anymore and explicit albums would not be produced because they would no longer be profitable.

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  6. Yes. Black America is raising generations of Bitches and Hoes.Its sad to say, but its true. Nowadays, music videos says it all. Half naked females....tons of make-up and short tight clothings, dancing as if they were in strip club. We all know kids watch videos, and even if they dont see the video, they hear negativity and sexuality in the lyrics. The way young african american girls present themselves today is what they get from tv or from who they look up to, and I hate to say it, but most look up to role model that portray a negative image. We are so much stronger and intellegent as African American women....or as women period! We have to do better. Mothers have to be that example and not give up because the going get tough. We all have to keep pushing for the change we want to see. We have to be the change we want to see.

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  7. Kaaryn, your comment was profound -

    But I'm going to need you to stop signing your name, "Blog"!

    LOL!!!

    (Technical error, guys)

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  8. NO IM SORRY BUT I DO NOT AGREE. I DO NOT THINK THAT BLACK AMERICA IS RAISING GENERATIONS OF BITCHES AND HOES. HOWEVER, IF PARENTS ALLOW IT TO, IT CAN RAISE OUR CHILDREN IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. IF OUR CHILDREN ARE BEING CORRUPTED BY TELEVISION IT IS BECAUSE THE PARENTS SIMPLY ALLOW IT. YES TELEVISON NOW IS MORE EXPLICT AND OUR CHILDREN ARE BEING EXPOSED TO MANY ADULT SITIUATIONS, BUT THATS TV/ ENTERTAINMENT.
    IM STILL YOUNG AND WHILE I WAS GROWING UP I WAS EXPOSED TO THE DANCE SHOWS, SEXUALY EXPLICT VIDEOS OR WHAT NOT, BUT IT DID NOT EFFECT ME BECAUSE MY PARENTS TAUGHT ME RIGHT FROM WRONG, AND DID NOT ALLOW IT TO RAISE ME. SO NO, I DONT BLAME BLACK AMERICA I BLAME THE PARENTS. ALOT OF PARENTS TO USE TELEVISION AS AN SUBSTITUTE FOR THEM NOT BEING AROUND, SO YOU CANT BLAME ENTERTAINMENT. IT STARTS AT HOME.

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    1. I agree with a great deal of what you are saying. Its too easy to parcel off bad conduct, low self worth are engrained from the external stimulus and faulty child rearing practices. While there is no standard for good or bad parenting, we can tell what they get in many ways from how they act.On the converse of that there is the social responsibility we possess in using correct language and being proper in our conduct as adults would serve as a vehicle to reinforcing good things instead of promoting neagtive things.

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  9. Thanks for chiming in Eye and Tie.

    Tie, I disagree with you, but I do understand how you feel.

    Glad to have you two on board!

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  10. "Ignorance is a disease of the mind, it is the most dangerous disease. It spreads the fastest, it is the easiest to catch and the hardest to get rid of" - Ben Hinson

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  11. we can successfully say that the degeneration of this nation is in full effect. I have always contended that demand drives the service. If men would get it together I'm sure that the dress styles and quality of entertainment would change.

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