Something that's never talked about in the black community is middle class kids that

[Ghost Utmost]

Truth dot com, and rap IS negatively influencing people. Granted, the people who follow Waka have to be fairly low IQ in the first place, so if it wasn't Waka it'd be some other influence.

We didn't put ourselves in this hole, but got dam if we're not staying put in the muffhugger.

Willie Lynch won

 

[No1]

theres nothing to figure out. its simple. every kid/teen wants to be down with the cool crowd in some way. and usually the tougher kids also exude coolness(altho there are plenty of exceptions but you get the point). its like that with every race. white people wanted to be the Fonz. are we gonna try and make a social issue out of that?

and yes, GENERALLY SPEAKING, the lower class kids are indeed cooler. they grew up quicker. the same way that the middle class kids are much cooler than the baldwin hills types. and its very apparent, even within the confines of this very website. its not just about being tough. its about being up on game, having your chit together, etc. and its like that with every race. be real, white folks didnt want to be corey matthews but they wouldve loved to be sean, as long as they didnt have to live in his trailer park.

That's not really true. Not nearly to the extent as it is with black Americans. Paris Hilton and people who live her glamorous lifestyle were seen as cool. Being successful and being up on the latest fashion was seen as cool. But it's nowhere near with Black Americans where being completely anti-intellectual is defined as cool. You're mistaking people wanting to the be the popular kid in high school with wanting to be a dropout. Those things differ depending on the high school. Real life high schools are not all like on TV.

What is consistent, is that certain characteristics (negative ones at that) are tied to an African-American's cultural identity. You're confusing the subjective definitions of "cool" within certain school dynamics to culturally-embedded socioeconomic and racial dynamics.

 

[kermit da hustla]

while i agree it all falls on our own accountability, i disagree with anyone that says hip-hop and its glorification of the "thug" life hasn't been significantly influential in the direction many of our young black men and women take during their formative years.

 

[Pazzy]

it all comes down to choices. it's no different where you go. it's hard to succeed and very easy to fail especially when you're black so let them do what they do. apparently, they done forgot.

you can't blame hip hop for the bad choices people make. in fact, the black kids in the suburbs should know better.

 

[Dog Based Gremlin]

I grew up in an upper middle class home, both parents were teachers my sister went to an ivy league school. I had all of the advantages in life, everything was just handed to me. I was spoiled and so used to everything going my way that I developed a sense of entitlement and an arrogance that was really self destructive. I went to college on an athletic scholarship and for the 1st time in my life I was forced to earn things. I didn't just have it handed to me, and it was a totally new concept for me to understand. I was so used to having things easily that at the first sign of adversity I caved in. I was weak willed and weak minded. I flunked out of school, sold weed for a bit and worked a shytty job for like 2 years and made no progress in life whatsoever. It took me a while to realize that the world didn't owe me a damn thing, I struggled with depression for a few years and was in a bad place. It took 3 solid years of struggle to realize that I wanted more out of my life and that I would have to work hard for it. I joined the air force 2 and a half years ago and now I'm about 2 years away from my degree.

I can't speak for all kids that grew up under similar circumstances but from my own experience I think the sense of entitlement and priviledge that comes from that middle class lifestyle doesn't really prepare those type of kids for the harsh realities of the world. A lot of kids get discouraged and give up, they take the easy way out.

 

[Crakface]

The poor shouldnt be the only people bagging my Target purchases. Nothing wrong with working low paying jobs. Someone has to do it.

 

[BrothaZay]

when you associate being black with being hood this is what you get. Most major drug dealers have been middle class dudes. A lot of hood dudes don't have the smarts to really do it.

 

[BrothaZay]

I know some white kids from the burbs that lived in a 2 story house that grew up worst than most people in the hood.

 

[Khalil's_Black_Excellence]

Same thing with white kids though. The biggest druggy at my HS was a white kid who had a professor for a mom and a corporate manager type for a father.

A Chinese guy at my school was one of those stereotypical rice car driving, fake wanna be hood clowns and his pops was a dentist.

Some kids just gonna act a fool regardless of where they grow up, that goes for all races.


And lets be real, there arent too many schools where middle class black kids go and the "hood" kids dont also go. In the vast majority of the cases they go to the same school its just that the "hood" kids all stay in a small section of town people try to stay away from. So its not like the middle class kids who are prone to fukking up wont be exposed to that life.

So racist.

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

That's not really true. Not nearly to the extent as it is with black Americans. Paris Hilton and people who live her glamorous lifestyle were seen as cool. Being successful and being up on the latest fashion was seen as cool. But it's nowhere near with Black Americans where being completely anti-intellectual is defined as cool. You're mistaking people wanting to the be the popular kid in high school with wanting to be a dropout. Those things differ depending on the high school. Real life high schools are not all like on TV.

What is consistent, is that certain characteristics (negative ones at that) are tied to an African-American's cultural identity. You're confusing the subjective definitions of "cool" within certain school dynamics to culturally-embedded socioeconomic and racial dynamics.

hold up. so youre trying to associate people from low-income neighborhoods with being anti-intellectual?

and i made it clear that its not all about being tough. i jotted down a brief list of reasons why i said what i said, which includes your paris hilton comment about being fashionable and all that.

youre following cliches.

 

[No1]

hold up. so youre trying to associate people from low-income neighborhoods with being anti-intellectual?

and i made it clear that its not all about being tough. i jotted down a brief list of reasons why i said what i said, which includes your paris hilton comment about being fashionable and all that.

youre following cliches.

Look, people in low-income areas respect power just like anyone. But in our community, authenticity is almost always defined those who are lower-income or at the bottom. It's our heritage. It's like you guys have never taken African-American studies courses or read books or just witnessed it first hand.

What you didn't get is I was saying that the definitions of cool may change according to the high school. But what does not change is that "blackness" is largely defined by the urban underclass. That is inescapable. Right or wrong. So you're confusing people just wanting to be "down" the way someone would want to be a jock with something that is part of the African-American psyche. You're confusing something that is not necessarily transferable across school districts to something that will be an issue for every African-American who looks to succeed or achieve success at some point in their life.

One is a constant, the other is an indeterminate variable. You cannot conflate the two.

 

[Guess Who]

I grew up with nothing but white people, all my friends were white, all my girlfriends too. Based on the people I was around I was exposed to a lot of different things that shaped the person I was. I was never really accepted by a lot of the black kids in school cause I "acted white" but I didn't think of it as acting white. I was just being me, and that made me not black enough to hang with the black kids but being alienated like that made me self concious about myself. I became the token black guy in the preppy white kid clique. Once I flunked out of college I didn't feel like I belonged to the preppy group and I was never accepted by the black group and that put me into an awkward place of not knowing where I belonged. The uncertainty of who I was and where I fit in contributed a lot to my failures and lack of confidence.

Between this and your other post in this thread, dead serious, you should write a book based on your experiences. People need to hear it.

 

[tjwettem]

Between this and your other post in this thread, dead serious, you should write a book based on your experiences. People need to hear it.

Its funny you say that because that it is something I've seriously considered doing.

 

[AquaCityBoy]

Yes it does.... its not everything... but who do you think stands a better shot... a kid w/2 middle class parents... or one uneducated welfare recipient

Obv kid A can throw his opportunity away... but kid B doesn't even have that opportunity... he has to work 10x as hard and seek out info on his own that kid A will prob just have fed to him

Wait, so are you agreeing with me or not?

 

[Guess Who]

Its funny you say that because that it is something I've seriously considered doing.

Do it!!

It's a very important issue not just for black people, but for everyone. I saw this because I've been around many non-black people who have such a stereotypical view on identity.