Blogroll
Not Ghetto Videos
Don’t Vote
This is the voting equivalent of that popular club mantra, "all the ugly people in the place be quiet!"
Read a MF Book
I happen to think that this is was one of the most creative, thoughtful pieces I had seen in a while. The song and animation were created by two talented African-American young men. Unfortunately, a bunch of idiots who didnt understand the concept of satire raised such a fuss, that the song, written and performed by Bomani Armah, was pulled from the airwaves at BET. These same fools who never protested negative imagery in real-life videos, suddenly decided that an animated parody of these videos with an overall positive message was worthy of their ire. This video is a great commentary on the conflicts and challeneges of speaking young people's language in a way that is positive. It makes you stop and think about our youth and the paradigm they live in. Is the only way to get messages across to young people by embedding it into the slop they already ingest on cable 24 hours a day? Do urban youth only respond to bling, bullets and bootshakin? Or are we underestimating them? Is there a limit to the "speaking their language" strategy? Everyone takes something different away from this piece. And those big dumb idiots wanted to protest THIS? Whatever you think about the video and its overall commentary on music, communication, and our culture, it does make you think---which is a lot more than i can say about 99% of everything else on the air waves. If you hate it, at least say you hate because you looked at it, thought about it and decided it wasnt effective at getting its message across, not because of some knee-jerk emotional reaction. Let's stop stifling thought and expression that makes us uncomfortable in the name of political correctness and self-conscious race-hysteria. If we stop and listen and think sometimes, instead of instantly reacting and over-emoting, we all may grow and learn. Lets broaden our perspective and keep our minds open to new thoughts, ideas and approaches. Check out more of Bomani's work at www.notarapper.com.
We’ve Got To Do Better.
Today, will YOU do better?
The Great Schlep
Yes We Can! Shalom.
