Responsibility

Assignment # 13

Responsibility

I believe in the old adage, "it takes a village to raise a child".  I really believe that it is true and that many of us would rather be absolved from any responsibility to anyone else including matters that challenge our thoughts and/or our actions.  While viewing the documentary about women in hip hop it was alarming to me that a female felt distance was the best way to handle someone else’s children when it came to responsibility – “if you don’t like what you see and hear turn it off, monitor your children, it is not my responsibility!”  I suppose I was floored because of my traditional thinking, a female should care about children theirs and others; I have since learned that my thinking is obsolete, and women no longer care about a neighbors child as it was back in the 50s and 60s. 

      Because of their own unresolved disgruntlements and disintegrated lifestyles our children suffer the consequences.  Hip-hop music attached to distorted sex has become a heat seeking missile with its target being children.  Why seek children – they are the most vulnerable, most able to soak in a message, our children have Columbine minds – the entertainment industry values that.  There are those of us who care about the fall-out, but often times the ones who are creating the image of this music really do not care, at least not about children who are not theirs.

            There are many different situations where role models unselfishly identify with those it models to.  For instance, during the 1960s Black athletes raised fists at the Olympic Games, an intense surge of power, respect, and representation was witnessed by the world.  We were in turbulent times in this country, times when Blacks were struggling for equal rights and recognition, a place of cultural significance.  So, the athletes carried the burden and the responsibility of the message to white America:  “We are intelligent, we are athletic, we are capable, we are not here to burn your town down or to be offensive, but we are here to exercise our craft.  Furthermore, we’re bearing the responsibility for all of those millions of other black people who will never get a chance to come to your television or be seen on your large screen, or on your local gridiron” (Open Mike – Michael E. Dyson 208.)   Today the higher profile our stars foster, the more demands they face, the more they turn a head towards the sky and move towards the idealism of middle class living (crass materialism) without challenging their ethical mind zones which had moved away from the people they claim to represent.

            This “bling – bling” culture has fallen in love with its own reflection throwing out traditional values and opening doors for glorified violence –the consequences of which are fatal for our children.  However, in all of those who are detrimental in their genre, there are those who are truly gifted poets who are addressing more than sexual prowess, deep pockets and other crass materialism that is leaving our children bleeding to death on both urban and suburban streets.    

As Tupac’s lyrics say, “Somebody help me.  Tell me where to go from here.  Cause even thugs cry.  But do the Lord care?”