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Hey, everyone.. I am back /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

An Article I wrote for Rap Junkies. Something quick...

Written by William "Dizarae" Miller
3/3/05

America's Segregated Entertainment

What is hip hop? Well, it is often defined as being more than music, but as a lifestyle, culture, or society. Like every lifestyle or society, you have your majority and minorities. In the society of [mainstream] hip hop, Africans are the dominant race. In the society of America, white is the most abundant race. And like both societies, people say that everyone is treated fairly, but that's just a lie.

Each society, both America and hip hop, consist of racism. There are two forms of it; direct and indirect.

Direct racism is when someone is openly hating, assaulting, insulting, agressive, or bias in any manner becasue of someones race. An example of direct racism is the allowance of other races, more specifically white, to use the word 'nigger'. When blacks claim that it is their word and that whites are not allowed to say that because they are white, they are being bias. They are stereotyping the word 'nigger' and claiming that only blacks are allowed to use it. That is the form of direct racism.

Indirect racism is when someone is hating or bias against someone for their race but it is more 'covered-up' and has more spice. It is disguised and not so easily seen on the surface. It is harder to clearly tell if it's intentional or if it's accidental. For example, Eminem was more noted for his ability to rap and had a vast number of sales because he is white. He clearly knows this because in his song White America ("The Eminem Show") his lyrics state "Let's do the math; If I were black, I could've sold half; I ain't have to graduate from Lincoln High School to know that". It is racism that Eminem, because he's white, gets more media attention. That is indirect racism.

Hip hop consists of both forms of racism. As hip hop's 'society' becomes more interracial, indirect racism lessens because there are to many people from different races so the media can't focus all of its spotlight on one person. But as indirect racism lessens, direct racism is taking a climb. There are more people saying that the other races shouldn't be a part of hip hop because Africans were and are the heart and soul of hip hop and they do not want that to be ruined.

Hip hop is truly a segregated entertainment in america that is becoming more interracial and culterally diverse. With more exposure to hip hop and the lifestyle it achieves, more people are trying to 'pick the style up.' And as does any society, the more interracial it gets, the more racism will occur. Soon, though, racism will drop and everyone will be judged based on their ability to write, rap, and ride the beat of hip hop. Until then, we can only try to refrane from being racist in any manner, whether it be indirect or not.

-William Miller (Me)

Welcome back..! I was beginning to get worried about you...Not only do you come back, you come back with food for the VU lectures, and that's why you're one of my favorite posters...We have recently been exploring race issues here on the site, hahaha, but not about racism as a whole, just the use of the word nigger, and it's various forms...I'd like to touch on both...Excuse the length, but I want two things to be clear...1, is that I'm not tripping, and 2, I want it to be clear...So, Can I kick it..?

Yes you can...

Well I'm gonna...

QUOTE(logic)Direct racism is when someone is openly hating, assaulting, insulting, agressive, or bias in any manner becasue of someones race. An example of direct racism is the allowance of other races, more specifically white, to use the word 'nigger'. When blacks claim that it is their word and that whites are not allowed to say that because they are white, they are being bias. They are stereotyping the word 'nigger' and claiming that only blacks are allowed to use it. That is the form of direct racism.

Yeah Son, that is one of the worst examples of racism and direct racism and stereotyping that I've ever read...But, I don't blame you...There is a reason the word isn't well defined in schools...I'll help you out with that...

First, this is the textbook definition of racism...From that, you should be able to gather that when used to define the stance of someone Afro-American or otherwise, it is a misuse...Minorities in this country cannot be racist...We can and will be bias, and predjudice...But never racist...To be racist, means you have power...Power is something minorities do not have...What is the power in racism..? What is racism..? Here are a couple examples...



The power is Jesse Washington, a 17 year old farm hand convicted of murder in Waco Texas, taken from the courthouse, burned alive, and lynched by a white mob...Among the mob were local lawmen, women and children...His digits were cut from his hand, and sold as souvineirs...Oh yeah, and they drug the remains through town when they were finished...Called now, "The Waco Horror"...



The power is Emmett Till, a 14 year old boy from Chicago, Illinois...For whistling at a white woman, the teen was brutally beaten, taken him to the edge of the Tallahatchie River, shot in the head, had a large metal fan used for ginning cotton attached to his neck with barbed wire, and had his body pushed in the the river...

There were no convictions...There was no need to worry...And if you think that we are beyond those times, think again Ace...Whenever you are covering races issues, you best be sensitive to those things...Cause these images are present in the minds of many Afro Americans...These stories are fresh..Emmett Till was killed in a place called Money, Mississippi...I have been there...The store still stands...The woman that accused the boy of whistling at her, is still alive...

Which brings me to the word "nigger" and its many variants...The majority of black people that I know, and I myself, are not angered at hearing the word...I use it frequently...I full well know what it means...Inside and outside...You would be hard pressed, as a white youth, to know much more about that word...To be perfectly honest, it sounds dumb and or racist coming out of the mouth of a white person...If you have a hard time figuring out why, imagine what you think they called Jesse Washington as they were burning him alive...Imagine a pack of people saying, "That's what the nigger get..."

It is not out of a stereotype, though I can see what you may mean...Out of a psuedo respect for what that word has meant to people of color is why you shouldn't say it...That word has hundreds of years of ugly on it...We have had it beaten, whipped, slaved, yelled, and lynched into us...Afro Americans are the only race mistreated by the master race that has not had any type of reparation what so ever handed our way for the crimes committed against my grand and great grandparents...You and your family may not be directly responsible for such things, but what do you know of amending or stopping it either..?

So yes, it is "our" word...We shouldn't even be saying it, so why would anyone else want to..?

Here I am a black male 24 years old in DC. I work for the Army as a contractor, not to mention I was in the Army for four years. I was born in MA but moved to MS when I was 9. Whether people know it or not the south is on a fine racial string that is connected to one of the biggest racial riots ever to be seen. Black folk are waiting for some shit to happen, so they can get 400+ years off of our chests.

I have never been called out of my name by a white person in the south, not one time. But as a kid growing up in MA it was somewhat hard, because we did live in a all white neighborhood so I had to deal with the N-bomb just about every day that school year, not to mention getting spit on every once and a while because the good old white folk didn't want my black ass in that neighborhood, why well we all know that one Neegra bring the property value down. I even had a teacher pick me up by my clothes and slap me in the face, and if you didn't know I was in the 4th grade. After that school year my mom decided to move back down south.
So I have experienced racism before first hand and I know how it feels.

I experience racism on a daily basis I was called a criminal and I was also told that I look suspicious with a three piece suit and 150 dollar shoes on my feet. Don't forget I am in the nations capital and I do work directly for Uncle Sam and I was treated like that nigger across the cotton field that tried to come in-doors out of the sun. Racism has a new frontier and new faces, it hasn't gone away it has only been suppressed and it will explode because it is an open sore that will not go away unless properly healed. What will heal it? Who knows because money wont do it for me...

Hip Hop racism? Ya damn right. It our voice, it is our past, cause with hip hop if you don't know the past then you don't know your future and any great hip hop icon will tell you that.

Hip hop will not unite the races it won't to think that is crazy. Hip hop is our grand parents jazz and boogie woogy. Its a genre that has a very, very great and strong voice because it represents a people who have been and who are going through so much.

What is taught in school doesn't even begin to tell the whole story, hell that shit taught in school wouldn't scratch my balls if they itched.

So you can talk about it, hell you can even read about it, but you wont know unless you live through it.

A view on racism...from a white kid seems to me....to be......fucking stupid.

When was the last time you felt that you weren't welcome in an establishment, because of your color? How many of your
ancestors were taken from their home in the middle of the night and hung from the nearest tree? When was the last time
you were denied a job just because your "kind" wasn't accepted.


The fact that Eminem is shoved down the necks of people that watch TRL is NOT indirect racism....it's simply capitalism, they (the
record industry) want to put something out there that you, as a white kid, can relate to, so they can sell records and make money. After
the industry has hooked kids on Eminem, these same middle class white kids somehow think that they understand the hip/hop
society, they change the way they talk, change the way they dress and claim to be "down", when in all reality.....they don't know shit.
White kids nowdays over simplify the struggle that blacks have been through in order to make it ok with themselves and that's disgusting.

You said:

"When blacks claim that it is their word and that whites are not allowed to say that because they are white, they are being bias.
They are stereotyping the word 'nigger'and claiming that only blacks are allowed to use it."

While you were typing the above statement did you give any thought to what the words were saying? Of course it's "their" word....."they"
understand it, "we" don't and never will. Odd how that comes across huh?

Re-read your post and tell me if it comes across as anything more than blah, blah, blah, then read the posts by AYHJA and Seeker.....although
you won't fully understand it you can feel how much it means to them.

First off Jack... Rap and Hip-hop are two diffrent things. Two diffrent things. Rap is something some kid came up with in his basement with his friends or something or maybe they have Justin do to sell records. Hip-hop is and will always be a culture, a culture you nothing about nor will you. For you Hip-hop is another thing that is trying to be stole and duplicated, your people are very good at stealling shit, you guys did steal a whole country and then went to go steal from another country to work that bitch.

Logic? Huh, you need to change your name to dumb ass white boy who don't know shit. To make it shorter for you, dawbwdks-matter of fact jerk change his shit now.

If you were to say that last little statement to me it would probably take the strenght of the Lord times ten to keep me off your ass.

I would love to meet you. I just added 50lbs I could work off your ass...

Eh..

Not the way I wanted the conversation to go...But, it was doomed from the get go...

First things first, everybody calm down, take a deep breath...

Ahhhhhh...

I'm pretty sure that logic didn't intend to have to denfend himself, but I'm pretty sure by now that you know that is to be expected here...I'm also sure that no harm was intended...

But, what you just did...And not just in my eyes...Everyone's eyes...Is stood up on the lunch room table and said, "Hey, I'm out of chocolate milk..!" when there are people in the same room as you that have had family members that have starved to death...What you said was extremely callous, uninformed, and broad, but I don't feel it was malicious at all...If you don't know, you learn to know better...

Threads like these will take the breath of out a forum...Nobody wants to walk into a seemingly racially charged atmosphere...The next time you you feel the need to understand an entire race, don't...And if you still feel the need to, at least ask...

First of all, I know someone who has got problems with black Americans being called African-Americans. See, I got this friend who spends half her time in San Francisco named "Mim" (my nickname for her, short for "Madame"), and she is African American. Thirty generations of her family were born in Africa, and she was born while her parents were in America. She is pale hair skin and eyed as her original French ancestry, and will kick your ass if you don't give her props for knowing more about the streets of Johannesburg and the bushes of Zambezi than most of the people in the NAACP. She loves Africa, and will never forget where she is from (and she isn†™ ¢‚¬„¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¢†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¡¢‚¬Å¡‚¬†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¾¢‚¬Å¡‚¢t no rich woman or from some right family, her family was adopted by a tribe when on expedition.) but she herself was born in America, so she has dual citizenship.

And for the record, she is perfectly able and has every right to claim African American as her "race" on legal documents, and does so.

Likewise, I know people from Trinidad and Haiti, who take personal offense to being connected to any other country, and will whoop you if you call them "of African descent."

She also thinks rap is (and I quote, though I don't share the sentiment) "rude and silly."

Now, I gave mim props, I got to say.

Logic, I am "white", and never been accused for being a racist (except by a Mexican American I caught shoplifting from a bookstore),.. But man! You must be a masochist to write that and think it will fly.

You want to write about something like this, study it raw!

Start with "fascism",.. And learn about principles of inferiority as a societal judgment system. SLOWLY, work your way (preferably through zealotry, or religious fascism) to racism, which is fascism where the principle of inferiority is cultural identity or ancestry. NEVER LET YOUR TEACHERS BE ALL OF ONE CULTURAL STOCK or identity. And pleeease keep it abstract as you develop an understanding. Nothing is more annoying that a person who reads a book, and decided they are going to repair racial tension while they are ordering lunch or waiting for the bus.

And trust me, Resentment is not racism. Discrimination is not racism. Prejudice is not racism. All are evident in racism,.. but there is one element missing from these others; a delusional belief or conviction that you are improving the human condition every time you stifle the power and contribute to the destruction of the members of that race, which has no respectable place in your ultimate goal for global society. Racism is insanity, plain and simple.

and for the record, it has nothng to do with "using the n-word," which was primarily a "dehumanizing tactic", not nearly one of the cruelest weapons of fascism. that's just being an insensitive dick.

One of the greatest weapons of fascism is actually "commemoration"; for example - Rosa Parks. She sat on a bus, and didn't move to the back. This has been over exploited, to where it is supposed to pacify blacks that they have come a long way, being that they can now sit where they like on a bus. so what??? What did it cost anyone? how did this repair any humiliation, or show any good will, or raise the unven wage balance of whites and blacks - that were even deemed employable. it didn't. See, in reality other blacks (at least five women, the youngest 15, and several men,.. many with media coverage even in Mobile Alabama) have come forward and said they didn't move to the back long before Rosa Parks, and spoke as witnesses in her trial. You were probably never taught that, huh? The difference between these is Rosa Parks was the first "given permission".. thus she will be commemorated, and the others prolly can't be named by most American History Teachers in the country.

The reality is that others had already not moved to the back, and the more who found this out, the more that would stay in their seat; they can't arrest us all, right? So, what happened is the "permission was granted to sit in your own seat",.. and the whites look like they came around, and the blacks look like they got rights... when the only right they got was really to put they ass on the bus they paid to ride, which encouraged bus use... and all the bus companies were (suprise!!) white owned. As more blacks rode the bus to demonstrate their new "right", the whites made money off of it. And no one had to worry about as many blacks as pedestrians, which if you look had become more of an issue to white americans, most of whom now had a car and did not ride the bus.

Martin Luther King is another example,.. in "Deifying" (a particular form of commemoration) Martin Luther King, they have made it impossible for anyone else to make such a huge impact,.. and thus made him an "exceptional" black man, and thus any other man who makes such large professions will still only be conjuring images of the "greatest black visionary who ever lived" to where he has a street in almost every city named after him... Lemme ask you why is there not more youth outreach centers (or even centers for Dream research!!!) with his name on it? What did martin luther king do for the american roadway system that he prolly has more roads named after him than any other man in the History of America? I got to say, PEOPLE PLEASE!!! our HUMAN race is too young to have the Greatest ever already out the door and in the grave. Someone, please prove me right on this, or its all downhill from the 60's.

](*,)

This sophisticated weapon is very difficult to understand, for it seems like the racist agenda is acknowledging the racial enemy's achievement; when in fact you are limiting their power through flattery, in hopes they will lose sight of the true elements of "equality". You are basically dimming the collective soul of the masses, in exchange for allowing a few short lived luminaries to shine. In effect, there is no real way to determine a racist agenda until it chooses to reveal itself, as it is simply motive behind action. The action that there are less black males per ratio in high school graduation programs, college and in jobs, and more in jail and ON DEATH ROW reveals that agenda is a factor in American government. The fact that it is not true of their women is proof there is an underlying attempt to "gentrify" the black American. (In a majority of states, the largest numbers of women imprisoned for more than a year are White.)

My heart goes out to the black man as a cultural identity, for no matter my struggle, his is one of genocide. I do not like it, but there is not a chance in hell I would take his place, and not a book or chart I could read that would make me feel that I could understand his plight. For the minute you try to "understand them" you are doomed to fail. You must understand HIM and HIM and HIM and HER and (ad infinitum). In racism, without meeting and gaining a human understanding of all victims of the oppressed race, all you can understand is the tactics and the most common responses, which are really the least valuable. Even if you (or I) SOMEHOW managed to do this, all you could do is offer an observant perspective, not a participant perspective, which is the only effective weapon against racism. You have to be black to fight for the black right. If you are white, all you can do is understand the tactic used against them, and hopefully not contribute to it. Do you really understand that, Logic?

Anyone who knows me, though, knows my race is HUMAN (though I do have my suspicions otherwise, as I can barely understand humanity most of the time.)

vertical,
raum

Always one to bring sanity to threads to reserch and definition...I will learn that tactic one day...

Obrigado, amigo...

I think I speak for everyone here to confirm your NOT being human... /:D" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt=":D" />

Okay.. You corrected me I guess.. I read half that than started fading away.. I'll come back to it later.. Damn, all of you are really.. intelligent.