Blame Game
Today we watched the film Hip Hop: More then Beats and Rhymes, what I really noticed about our discussion as well as what we watched, was the fact that everyone involved wanted to point blame one someone else. Even in class, as, generally, white middle class college students, even we were pointing to who was thinking the wrong thing, when we have no idea. It's difficult for us to analyze Hip Hop and what was covered in this film, when we've never experienced that culture, or life style. While I do agree that the media has almost encouraged these behaviors, it seems that it's mostly the white men and women who help keep the stereotype alive; as well as the those who live those lives that choose not to address the deeper issues. When addressed, those living on both sides of the spectrum seem to always divert the issue to another issue. It's easy. This is the simplest way to avoid a problem...just hope it goes away. As I said, I've never lived a life like this, and maybe to some it's not worth the time or trouble to deal with the bad messages sent in mainstream media (because there is true hip hop out there...just not as visible). However, I think the finger pointing and blame game is what got us to the mainstream media that is today, and the reason we can't get out of it. What's hard is knowing that change won't happen in a day, it's paitience and taking responsibility that will create positive change. Even as I write this, I'm not different then anyone else in the film because all I'm doing is blaming things on those in the video. I recognize that I'm blaming, but I just hope that someone, not even necessarily in this class, will take the blame on themselves and change the mainstream.