Whitlock Hits Another Out of The Park

fenen we get it -- you disagree. Instead of putting up one of your haughty 2 line missives why not just debate the idea. Why the obbsesive need to always try and discredit the writer?

 

On other rendition of this topic Jemele Hill had a very thought provoking post that I did not want to get lost:


As a child of poverty (born to a welfare mother and drug-addicted parents, who are now clean), I really wish it were as simple as rejecting (some) of hip hop and its values.

To reject something, you have to know it's wrong. To know it's wrong, someone as to teach you that it is. If no one does, how can you reject it?

Two things have had a crippling effect on the black community: teen pregnancy and crack, which thankfully Jason addressed. I hate to sound callous, but in many ways, what we're seeing is a generation of crack babies grown up. And black people not cooperating with police isn't exactly new. NWA rapped about that in the late 80s. Considering the distrust between black people and police, I can't really say the "don't snitch" attitude was born out of prisons. If anything, the prison mentality fed off what was already there.

Anyway, I thought Jason wrote a thoughtful column, but I did have somewhat of an issue with the 60 minutes piece and thusly, Jason's column: When is the last time Cam'ron had a top-10 hit? Has he ever had one? Quite honestly, on the rap scene, he's not hot. Which is why I think he said some of the things he did. He was chomping at the bit to do that type of interview because he hasn't really sold any records lately.

Also don't know if you knew this, Jason (or Anderson Cooper), but part of the reason Jay-Z and Damon Dash ended their partnernship was that Dash wanted to promote Cam'ron to president of their record label and Jay-Z was not having it. Cam'ron, overall, is not well thought of among many people in hip hop. So while he does have an ignorant-ass attitude, I'm not sure how relevent or current Cam'ron really is.

 

Perhaps the best writing I have ever seen from her.

Well done.

 

i agree. ruined the whole column.

 

Given these staggering stats its hard to imagine how gun vilolence could be glorified in hip hop music.

Homicide Offenders by Race


White Black Other
1976 9,165 10,961 226
1977 9,527 10,620 241
1978 9,919 10,870 193
1979 11,083 11,838 265
1980 12,495 13,309 396
1981 11,692 12,421 362
1982 11,160 11,326 393
1983 10,505 10,102 400
1984 10,635 9,339 363
1985 10,242 9,705 425
1986 10,747 10,963 468
1987 10,569 10,724 411
1988 10,194 12,252 385
1989 10,611 12,669 428
1990 11,825 14,235 404
1991 11,759 15,966 543
1992 11,083 14,861 604
1993 11,208 15,814 615
1994 11,101 14,803 587
1995 10,582 12,990 640
1996 9,807 12,004 599
1997 9,106 10,920 578
1998 9,235 9,567 519
1999 8,012 8,850 541
2000 8,016 9,235 490
2001 8,282 9,423 461
2002 8,478 9,308 462
2003 8,280 9,574 560
2004 8,521 9,223 453

 

Exactly. Stringer isn't the opportunist here. It's Whitlock, who's waited for the perfect storm for years now.

 

I think we need to talk about the topics he writes about and not him.

 

Looking strictly at those numbers, homicides committed by blacks have gone down almost 16 percent since 1976. Interestingly, they continued to go down during the 1990s -- from a high of nearly 16K in 1991 -- when rap music was reaching its height of popularity. In fact, as rap music has become more popular, homicides committed by blacks have decreased.

ADDENDUM: The low for homicides committed by blacks came in 1999, 8,850. The most popular rap album that year? Slim Shady by Eminem.

Conclusion: We need more white rappers.

 

Blacks are not close to 50 percent of the population. So the number of black homicides should not approach that number either. I'm not sayingthe numbers are wrong, but it is wrong that blacks are dieing at that rate.


I would like to see the source of that data, too. Is that solved homicides? I think solved and unsolved homicides would be interesting as well.

 

andyouare,

you're right. if you count the people actually captured and convicted of these crimes, you could make that simple-minded argument. unfortunately, we have to deal with the dead bodies. those are the numbers that matter. count the bodies, not the convictions. i believe the guy just said on 60 Minutes this week that the clearance rate in some inner-city communities is less than 10 percent. the national average is 60 percent, i believe is what was reported.

i don't need any stats to tell me that we're shooting each other in the streets in record numbers. but you feel free to count the convictions.

 

I'm really disappointed nobody got the "Groundhog Day" reference.

 

is this board really frequented by journalists? the random people who email me have better thoughts and information than some of you.