Jason Whitlock: Taylor's death a grim reminder for us all

[Guest sith lord]

I will continue to say that any person who blames ANY music for what's going on in America has no clue. Music does not make me go out and kick someone's ass. Music does not make me go out and shoot up some kid. Music does not make me rob a store, use drugs, call a woman a "ho", or do anything else that might be considered negative in the eyes of God.

Parents are the reason why kids do what they do. Parents must become a bigger part of their child's lives, and if they start to see the signs, they must get their children help. Music doesn't send out messages to your brain making you commit crimes, so stop blaming the artists and start blaming yourselves.

You're absolutely right, the lack of parenting is the biggest problem, but hip hop has an enormous impact on teenage boys these days. I've seen it first hand.

[Guest sith lord]

thing with Whitlock is all he has done is put down poor black people... he offers no help... he is the black kkk... that mentality has done as much damage as black on black violence has... he only comments when something happens and says, "Those black people are worthless, why cant they be like me"... he disgusts me, and anyone who shares that mentality...

That's a very good point. Like someone already said, when will he offer a solution instead of putting down his own people?

[Guest sith lord]

Music only plays a part when the parents are not there to let the kids know that this is ENTERTAINMENT. I know i listen to Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and I have never wanted to shoot anyone or "superman that hoe!" Because I knew right from wrong and was afraid that my paretns would kick my butt. If you don't know right from wrong, and have no one to tell u what you should and should not do, this is what happens. But that doesn't mean it is Hip Hop fault.

It's like a fat perosn blaming McDs for giving them high cholesterol. I am sorry, but no one makes them put McDs in their mouth. We all have choices to make.

But the problem is that the parents aren't always going to be there to monitor what their kids are listening to. Who's gonna stop them from listening to hip hop in school or at a friends house or on the streets?

[turbrn2007]

I was just about to post this,......

I feel for all of you blaming Hip-Hop for this, Imus, Jena, Michael Richardson and EVERY other racial problem in the nation.

I remember Cooley High and Cornbread Earl and Me. I NEVER once heard those movies get blamed for violence on city streets...... (and there WAS black-on-black violence in both...well Cooley High anyway.. )

Folks are blaming Hip-Hop for gang violence in Chicago..... LA.... (Contrary to popular belief;DC does NOT have 'gangs' and hasn't since the late 80's. 8th & H would be the downfall of that.)

Bloods/ Crips (LA primarily) ; Folks/ Disciples in Chicago were BOTH around YEARS before Hip-Hop. Both gained their strength after the dismantling of the Black Panthers in the late 60's.

I guess Hip-Hop brought guns into the 'inner cities'. I guess Hip-Hop brought crack cocaine into the 'inner cities'. (Of course large amounts of blacks had passports and airplanes in the 60's and contacts with South American and Asain governments.) I guess Hip-Hop artist starred in Scarface. (Pacino 1983 AND the original with Cagney) I guess Hip-Hop built Las Vegas, (not the Mafia)... Hip-Hop segregated EVERY major city in the US. (not Brown vs. Board of Education.) I guess Hip-Hop created the noose... and lynchings as well.

I only hope that at some point, people start looking at the Man in the Mirror. and NOT a form of music that is BARELY 30 yrs old. Because drugs, foul language and crime did NOT start in 'urban' areas 30 years ago.......

I will agree with the statment:

There are NO leaders...... (on a national stage)

Oh and i'm black and was for the most part, raised IN DC.... (and i've lived ALL over the US)

I wish I could quote Jay-Z from his song 'Ignorant ****'... (please Google/read the lyrics and hopefully people will get the point of what he's saying.)

I love hip hop and Jay-Z, but you have to be honest with yourself and realize that Hip Hop has A LOT with the destruction of our culture. I won't stop listening b/c I understand the real from the fake, but A LOT of these young kids don't.

I heard Jay-Z's ignorant ****, and he's right on a lot of points. But there is 1 movie concerning the current state of violence to hundreds of mixtapes and mainstream rappers rapping and influencing this negativity. Hip Hop is what it is and I will always enjoy it. But you're kidding yourself if you don't think it is having a negative impact on our youth. And rappers like Jay-Z are not the problem because his lyrics are more mature and speak more about advancing as a culture.

[stevenaa]

Just read your response and i tried to stay out but you pulled me back in (LOL)

How can a man who always writeS to shock our communtiy, which he may percieve as a wake up, and ALWAYS has the remarks of a man blaming music? I've taught,and coached many young african american kids and gone into the projects and helped be a man to some. You don't hear about that though do you? As a matter of fact can we get some more help so men like whitlock can shut up and get involved? DON'T SPEAK ABOUT BE ABOUT IT!!!!

How do you know he is not involved? Typically, when someone is involved in an issue, there is something of particular interest that he/she will be passionate about. With JW, it seems to be the negative influence of the Pop music culture. It is really hard to argue agianst that point. I do understand your point about not focusing more on the positive things within the black community, and I think it is a very good point.

[stevenaa]

surely the problem is not just "active parenting", it's that these kids don't have proper families to start with. There can't be active parenting if there's no parents around to do it.

I thought that was the point I was making? It is a tough cycle to break. I don't know what the answer is, but it isn't going to be a quick fix. There needs to be a societal/cultural movement to provide for these kids what they are seeking outside of the home on the streets. Until we we can provide a sense of stability for these kids so they can get an education and break the patterns of failure that are so ingrained in some of the urban areas, the problems will worsen.

[playboy1972]

Everyone mimics their role models. I was a quiet dude in high school, so I wore #81 and played wide receiver just like Art Monk. Now if the Skins had Deion Sanders when I was young I probably would have broken out of my shell and tried to play a little defense and show some pazzazz. When I first heard my first rap record with profanity laced hard core rap, I was 15 and that **** was scary. Now you have kids who can recite the lyrics to 50 Cent or Jeezy word for word. It ain't nothing for a kid to call a girl a "trick ass *****". That is standard operating procedure. Music now is either about strip club music or gun play. That's it. You got cats like Common, Kanye, Kweli, JayZ, and a few others that don't focus on the violence but most just glorify the **** and say it is freedom of speech. The funny thing is half these dudes would put on a thong and do cart wheels if it meant they would go platinum. Now that is a ****ing sellout.

[unclejack8]

How do you know he is not involved? Typically, when someone is involved in an issue, there is something of particular interest that he/she will be passionate about. With JW, it seems to be the negative influence of the Pop music culture. It is really hard to argue agianst that point. I do understand your point about not focusing more on the positive things within the black community, and I think it is a very good point.

Stevenaa my issue w/ JW is that he is a national columnist and he has as much power to influence as does any rapper or hip-hopper and he should use this power and stop using this form of art like a crutch.

[unclejack8]

Here's an philly article I just accidently came across...

David Aldridge | Time to stop all the dying

By David Aldridge

Inquirer Columnist

If you want to debate which quarterback is best for the Eagles, please, go read somebody else. This morning, I don't give a damn. My concern today is not whether Donovan starts Sunday but whether Dontae down the block is going to be alive in a year. Black men, I need your attention.

This means you, Jimmy Rollins.

Mr. Cosby, give me a minute.

I'm talking both to Beasley Reece and the guy who drives the downtown bus. Will Smith and the electrician fixing the wiring at City Hall. The pastor at the Baptist church. The waiter at the Capital Grille.

The pilot behind the stick of the USAirways flight this morning.

The teacher in West Philly.

The barber in the first chair.

Mayor-elect Nutter.

The 14-year-old who thinks no one believes in him.

The painter.

The convict.

The gay guy.

The sergeant just back from Iraq. The lieutenant who is going next week.

All of you. Listen up.

I'm tired of seeing young black men go into the ground.

Tired of seeing lives ruined by guns, and by drugs, and by bad choices, and by people like me who sit idly by while it happens, because it isn't happening to us.

Rich men, poor men, athletes, beggars, journalists, L.A., D.C., Detroit, Chicago, it doesn't matter. We are dying.

I've just spent two days with the Redskins, who are trying to deal with the fact that one of their best players and team leaders, a young, complicated black man named Sean Taylor, is dead at 24, because someone broke into his home at 1:30 in the morning Monday and murdered him.

There are those, including colleagues I respect, who say they're not surprised, and infer that Taylor had it coming, because he had had a beef with some bad people two years ago that led to brandished guns and cars shot full of holes. And, thus, it was inevitable that he had to die, like life is a Shakespearean play or something. A Montague is dead; a Capulet must follow. It's in the script.

No, no, no. That is wrong.

As black men, we cannot allow ourselves to be defined by anyone - by the media or by ourselves - and accept the premise that one beginning means only one possible ending.

Sean Taylor, while no saint, was not a "thug." He didn't grow up in the 'hood. He went to private schools before college. And even if he was a thug - whatever that is - or embraced that culture during one part of his life, that doesn't mean he deserved to die in front of his child and fiancée, in his home, bothering no one.

I'm angry that people cry about Sean Taylor's death because he was an outstanding football player, as if his death has extra meaning because he had great closing speed. This is not about sports.

We have buried 200 Sean Taylors in this city this year. We don't know what would have come of their dreams and hopes. They deserve our tears, too, for they may have been anonymous to you, but they weren't to their mothers and fathers, their best friends and lovers, their teachers and mentors.

I'm angry that, as of 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control, homicide is the No. 1 cause of death among black men ages of 15 to 34. I'm angry that the Justice Policy Institute found more black men in prison than in college.

I'm angry that young brothers who like school and want to learn are accused of "acting white," and have to make the awful choice of sticking with their education or sticking with their boys. It happened to me when I was 5. I've never gotten over it. How does one mend a heart broken by those who look most like him?

I'm tired of nodding in agreement as I did yesterday when Brian Westbrook talked about how he has to be extra careful these days, because he knows that, all-pro or not, he's a target when he steps off the field, and his celebrity provides no shield.

"I feel as though everybody's vulnerable, to a certain extent," he said. "You have to watch the company that you keep. You have to watch the situations that you put yourself in. . . . You can't put yourself in a situation where your friends are doing dirt or bad things, and then you hang around those people. 'Cause at some point, karma catches up with you."

We can continue to throw our hands up and blame others or we can stop this genocide and deal with the recriminations later.

In an otherwise demagogic campaign advertisement in 1964, Lyndon Johnson said, "These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God's children can live or to go into the dark. We must either love each other or we must die."

What's it gonna be?

Contact staff writer David Aldridge at 215-854-5516 or daldridge@phillynews.com.

TotalRecall man I wish you would have hit this long run in the first quater, but I'll take this touchdown to win the game.....DA was in DC before wilbon and he probably read this and #### himself!!!:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :point2sky

[WhodatSkinsFan?]

I see this has really taken off...

good to see lots of different opinions.

I still will say teh same as I have said before...

I STRONGLY recommend everyone placing blame on Hip-Hop to do a few things:

1. Take care of 'home'.
   
2. even if you don't agree... please go and listen to some old Malcolm X speeches. (I can come back and leave titles to relevant ones.)
   
3. Hit YouTube and search for 'Busy-B'
   
4. Listen to "Fear of a Black Planet" Def Jam Records, 1990 (I think)
   
5. Listen to Boogie Down Productions (2 albums Blueplrint & Edutainment)
   
6. Watch Scarface. (Al Pacino)
   

The reason I said Busy B is that everyone that thinks Hip-Hop's sole purpose is to glorify negativity, will find that the rappers are/ will/ were VERY often attempting to emulate what that see and hear in the streets.... (meaning, to clean Hip-Hop, we 1st MUST clean the streets.....) 98% of them have NOT lived half of what is talked about. Until ringtones, most didn't make over 100,000 a yr... or anywhere close to that.

As I said and ccsl stated... banning words doesn't work. if folks stop saying the'n-word'... Coon will return. (not that it ever really left... again, I could go on like a Spike Lee movie with the terms..)

Remember when Len Bias died..... trying cocaine???? I had met him a few times. I knew his brother (who was killed a few yrs later selling drugs) Len Bias liked Run DMC and Whodini. I never heard either group (who were Hip-Hop of course), tell him or me to try coke. He still did it. Who did he get it from????? 'supposedly' an 'assumed' drug dealer... who was 'rumored' to be part of Rayful Edmunds 'crew'.

Parents need to stop letting TRL and 106 & Park; HBO, Showtime, Playstation 2&3, X-Box, 50 Cent, The Killers and Daddy Yankee raise their kids!!!!!!!

And we have ANOTHER potentially GREAT... possibly even Hall of Fame young father gone.

I am NOT a 'gun advocate', but the statement is 100% true. Guns don't kill people. People do.

I love Hip-Hop. I love Go-Go (But, I have never tried PCP.. which was sung and rapped about quite a bit in the 80's.) I like Jimmy Hendrix and I have NEVER tried herion. I liked Nirvana.... never killed myself. I actually liked Kiss... never tried to breathe fire out of my mouth. I LOVE/LOVED Richard Pryor. I have never tried coke, NOR have I poured Hennessy on my body and set myself on fire.

On another note, Stwasm.... have you put anymore ST pics up??? That pic with him and his daughter is beautiful... and heartbreaking.

[WhodatSkinsFan?]

Uncle/ Total,

great post.

I have always respected Aldridge.

[kobra860]

Didn't MC Hammer do something like that close to the end of his career? LOL.

But for Whitlock, there is only so much he can do. Like it's been said before, it starts with the parents. If a man and a woman both know that they are not responsible enough to have kids, they shouldn't. For the "parents" who do, they continue the cycle of kids who lack guidance and turn to violence and crime. Even when people try to reach out to the troubled youth, the help can only affect so many. The worst part about Sean was that he was trying to move on in life and trying to get away from the bad influences. However, the bad influences literally forced their way back into his life and ended it.

[WhodatSkinsFan?]

ha, ha, ha

Kobra... yep. Pumps n Bumps

ha, ha