keep up the good work man…….

I wonder sometimes if hip-hop’s emphasis on misogyny and thug life would be different (more so? less so?) if it had never gained favor with a such a large white middle-class audience. The knowledge of that demographic must have influenced the music to some degree.

1. Who knew you had a blog? HOORAY. I’m going to read that like crazy..
2. It’s true that it’s really hard for the Ds of the world to break through, and here are two more sad statistics I’d like to write on a little further: 1. Roughly a third (yes, I did the math) of the female population at the high school I work at are pregnant; and 2. 70 percent of all African American children in the United States today are born to single-mother households. It’s sad that this is a cycle that keeps going and perpetuates itself to limitless extremes. And we don’t expect anything to change so we just kind of let it happen.

You know, maybe it can’t change. But man… I’d just love it if even one of my students BELIEVED that it could.

Breaking through to the other side (i.e. becoming a nurse or chemical engineer or something) *can* be done, but I think a lot of people who aren’t in the usual demographic for those jobs think you have to sell out to get in the door.

I think that’s why a lot of hip-hop has been commandeered by the hustla/pimp/baller set: They are a lot more appealing to people who want instant gratification than the work-hard-and-overcome set. And these days (or anytime, I s’pose), who doesn’t want theirs, right now?