Graphic By: Jen Hight

Ninety percent of rappers are totally contributing to the degeneration and humiliation of black society. Why is rap humiliating black society? Rap is musical entertainment, but its image has become a way of life for some African-Americans. By wearing doo-rags (there is nothing wrong with doo-rags, but the first things people relate them to are thugs. Don't get me wrong: doo-rags are the shiznit!), sagging our pants and speaking unintelligently, do we not realize that when people see this on the streets, they want to cross to the other side because they think we are going to rob them? And then we sit there and wonder why we are called offensive names and are being classified as thugs. (This does not condone the horrible and unspeakable name-calling.) Yes, I'm also speaking of rappers too, because they try to portray the thug life.

I'm African-American, and what I see in the rap video is not what I personify in real life. Sure, I like rap and hip-hop, but I don't try to live the life. Some, not all, black people are influenced by rap, and I think we perpetuate a stereotype by acting out what we see in rap videos. But can rap really influence people? We have the power to do and not to do what we want. Why is it that if you don't act thuggishly and like a bad boy, you are then called “white”? Black people can't be intelligent?

We have lived through persecution for years from slavery to the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s. Do we really need to act ignorantly when throughout history we have been known as stupid, ignorant people?

Rap is a genre of music just like country, rock, pop and the oldies, but its influences go beyond the music and create a negative image for an entire race. As I said before, there is no middle ground between the truth and falsehood. In society there are external problems that are from a race, not an individual. Rap influences an increase in drug addiction, gangs, drive-by shootings and other heinous acts associated with the black community. Rap isn't the cause of the chaos in society; it's the people who are influenced by it who are the cause of the chaos. Influence is powerful and can spread like wildfire. If one person becomes influenced by something, chances are another will too.

When black people apply for jobs and do not get them, the first thing that comes out of our mouths is, "It's because of white people this . . . and white people that." We pull the race card. It's ludicrous--no pun intended. It's not because of white people that black people do not get jobs. It could be the way we present ourselves or the way we talk. If you come in for a job interview wearing baggy pants, chains and a doo-rag, you will definitely not get the job. If you speak incorrectly you will not get the job, especially if the job requires communication between people -- and all jobs require communication. So before we point and accuse a difference race of discrimination, we must look at ourselves and wonder, "What have I done to be in this position?" We should stop pulling the race card and analyze ourselves.

Society judges you on the way that you present yourself, and I'm not talking about jobs now. I'm talking about people we see on the streets each and every day. Let's conduct an experiment. Now, we have two young African-American men, and they both enter a store. The first man wears baggy pants and a doo-rag. The moment he enters the store, the white clerk watches him. The clerk has a suspicion he will steal something. The second black man does not wear baggy pants and a doo-rag. The clerk doesn't watch him.

Why is that? Because of the rap influence brings suspicion into the real world. What I mean by that is this: if you dress like a thug, you will be looked at as a thug.

Rap is an awesome genre of music, but it shouldn't influence a person. Influence is the key to the destruction of the world. Influence is all about the mind, and it's how you think that determines your actions in the world.

You can choose to deny and not believe what I say, but truth is reality, and the outcome is what happens in society. One outcome is that we are complaining and blaming whites because of our actions. Are we pulling the race card when there is no evidence of racism? Racism can not be justified.