My sentiments exactly. I hear this question come from the mouth of blacks way too often and as long as it does then we are the ones guilty of perpetuating the stereotypes given to African Americans throughout our history.
Its one thing for non-blacks to believe these misconceptions but once we as Blacks buy into them then what you have is...well what you have is the present day African-American community.
Too many of us have accepted a culture or lifestyle that was deemed "Black" (a culture that in many ways was not created or designed by us personally), that is essentially a "culture of death".
Death in terms of moral death, spiritual death, mental (intellectual) death, socio/economic death, political death all which leads to the premature physical deaths of African-American.
Once we change our mentality and change our culture (by removing the worst aspects of our culture but retaining the best ones; the ones that are conducive to a health life) we will see a change for the better regarding our situation.
i think you and i talking to each other is just preaching to the choir, hehe.
i see all these talk shows and stuff these days with black activists trying to attack rap music, accusing it of making black people look bad, and all that stuff.
i just sit there and think to myself about how much bull**** that is.
if you don't want rap music, or any kind of music, to define you as a person, don't let it! it's not about making rap artists change their act, it's about you not letting somebody else define who you are.
as a white male, i don't see nelly as being a spokesperson for black people. i don't see nelly on bet and think "wow, black people are <insert stereotype here>". i see
NELLY as that. or whatever rapper is putting themselves out there like that. and if nelly wants to bring that attention upon himself, so be it.
if other people
are lumping an entire group of people into that category, why does it matter? why are those people so special?
you aren't like that, and neither is any black person who know, most likely. don't let that **** bring you down. other races want to look at white people a certain way - that we are rich, priveledged, and don't go through any financial struggle. that we always hold the power. that's not me. i wasn't born into wealth. my parents have worked just as hard as anybody to earn what they have. i don't like the stereotypes against white people either. but i'll be damned if i'm going to go out and try to stop dave chappelle, or chris rock, or any black comedian, or entertainer, from doing their acts just because i don't like it. i might not like it, but that's okay. i don't have to watch it. it's that simple.
don't let other people define who you are. if you don't want to be affiliated with rap music, then don't allow yourself to be.
it's a mentality that we as a people need to overcome. not white, not black, not mexican, not asian, not middle eastern, or indian, or jewish, or christian, but as a people, as americans, we need to come together and overcome this mentality, or else we will NEVER truly progress to a state of being truly equal.
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