HIP HOP: The New Black Lifestyle?

Rap shouldn't define my entire race, even though some people think it does

Art by Nia Williams and Ricky Riley | VOX Stafff

By Nia Williams | VOX Staff

My dad had just picked up my brother and me from school after a long day. Leaning back in my chair, I turned on the radio and began switching through the stations, trying to find some worthwhile music. Passing a hip-hop station, I heard some vulgar lyrics, rolled my eyes and switched to another station.

Defying the stereotypes
“Change back,” my brother said from the backseat, “I like that song.”

“No,” I said, continuing to flip the dial, “I don’t want to listen to that rap crap. Did you even listen to those lyrics? It’s disgusting.”

“You just don’t like it because all you listen to is white music,” he snapped.

That struck a nerve. “Shut Up!” I said, “Stop saying I listen to white music. I hate that. I hate when people say black music or white music. You can’t generalize music like that. It’s either rap or R&B or country or punk rock or something like that. It’s not black, white, Hispanic or whatever—you idiot!”

My dad cut in and told me not to call my brother names and told my brother not to bother me. For the rest of the ride home there was an angry tension in the car, which was probably caused by me. I usually didn’t blow up like that, but this wasn’t the first time someone had called the things I like “white.”

I’m black and I don’t listen to much rap. And I don’t like what rap tells me to be.
I have never listened to rap about sex, drugs, violence or gangs. Unfortunately this sort of music is popular. It is also what people call “black” music. Being black, I used to feel like an outcast somehow. It felt like there was a gap between me and my race, or something was wrong with me, like a genetic quirk that made me different from other black people.

I don’t mimic the “n” word
Young black teens and children shouldn’t have to feel this way. If you are born black then you are black and that’s it. Or it should be. But nowadays a lot of rappers put out a negative image of black people that has turned into a stereotype. Black teens take their messages and make them part of their lifestyle.

When rappers started using the word n**ger a lot, a lot of teens started using the word to refer to their friends. As a result, people of other races get a wrong view of black people. A lot of black teens think it is cool to mimic what they see in the rap videos. I disagree. A young black teen could be the next president, but not if they mimic their favorite rap lyrics and get into drugs, drop out of school or join a gang.

Thanks to the stereotypes many people now associate black people with danger. When the news mentions a serial killer, the first image that pops into many peoples’ minds is a black male. When groups of young black boys walk down the street, other people avert their eyes, or they will cross the street entirely. At places like Stonecrest Mall, black teens can’t even huddle in a group and talk to each other because people automatically assume
that a group of black teens equals a dangerous gang.

Hip hop stereotypes feed this fear of black people, especially when some black teens try to meet that influence halfway. When a really popular rapper glorifies gangs and violence, some black boys feel that they should join a gang to be cool and accepted. By doing this we are stereotyping ourselves. We are giving society a reason to look down on us and disregard us. Because I do not want people to stereotype me based on the color of my skin, I am often stereotyped by my own people.

What does it mean to be black?
For example, one time I had called my friend on the phone and she didn’t know who I was. When I told her it was me she was surprised and said that I sounded like a white girl. Why, because I spoke proper English? I hated it that there were “rules” to being black, that it seemed I needed to speak a certain way in order to be a true black person.

Another time I was at summer camp on one of those hot, humid summer days in Georgia, and some of my black friends and I were hanging out in the sun. I was sweaty and felt disgusting. Over by the food stand was some shade. Some of my other friends, who happened to be white, were sitting over there. I told my black friends that I was going to go sit in the shade. They said that it was cool. But later, after lunch, on of the boys confronted me. “I never knew you were an oreo,” he said glaring at me. I had heard the word before and knew what he was implying: that I was black on the outside, but white on the inside. But I didn’t know what had made him so angry.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. I had one of those tight feelings in my stomach, like when you know something bad is about to start.

“You’re a traitor to your people. You wanna be like one of them white girls. You’re nothin but an oreo,” he said. “Go ahead and suck up to them white girls, but they don’t want you.”

For a few moments, I was beyond shocked. What was he talking about? Then, I remembered sitting with my white friends earlier. Was that what this was all about? At first I felt embarrassed. Did the other black kids say things like this behind my back? Then I got angry. I could be friends with whoever I wanted; he had no right to say anything about it. “Screw off! You have no say in who I hang out with!” I snapped. “You’re being stupid and racist and a complete jerk off if you think that hanging out with white people makes me a traitor! I hate you!” I marched off toward the tennis courts. I didn’t really know where I was going. I just wanted to punch something.

When the anger subsided, I felt sick. I was so tired of people telling me that the things I did and the way I was were considered “white.” I was mad not just at the boy, but at rappers, too. Not all rappers, just the ones with the negative lyrics and videos. I felt like it was their fault my people didn’t consider me black, because their portrayal of black people has become such a narrow stereotype. I felt trapped. I felt like being born black wasn’t enough, that you had to act certain ways to maintain that status. What had happened to free will and being myself? I couldn’t act however I wanted, because if I didn’t embrace or pretend to embrace violence, sex and drugs then I wasn’t black enough.

Black on the inside and the outside
Then I looked down at my arm and saw the brown skin, the skin that was black. That was what I was, black. Sitting on the bench by the tennis courts I realized that I was just as black as that boy who had called me an oreo. The only difference was that he, like a lot of black teens, was trapped by the negative stereotype perpetuated by some rap music. There was nothing wrong with me. There is no such thing as “acting black.” There is black culture, but the negative self-portrayal of black people should not be a part of our culture. I just act like myself and respect my culture, and that is really all a young black teen needs. I don’t have to do anything to be black because I already am black. I just wish the rest of the world could see that.

I think one thing that could help is if black teens had different role models. Instead of looking up to some rappers who exploit women and glorify negative things, we should be looking up to people like Oprah Winfrey, Queen Latifah, Denzel Washington, Alicia Keys, Tyler Perry and many, many others. They are black too, and they did not limit themselves to what negative hip hop tells them to be.

Our grandparents and parents worked too hard during the civil rights movement to make us equal for us to throw all that they worked for away just to be “cool.” I have come to understand that I can listen to the music I like, talk the way I naturally talk, and hang out with whomever I want and not have to be judged. Black is a race, not a lifestyle.

Nia is a sophmore at Paideia.