Hypocrisy at its finest

I often hear political types - not just in public office, but those who like to talk about it, like radio chat hosts - ranting and raving about personal responsibility and how people need to own up to their behavior and their own shortcomings and take more active roles in forging their own path.

And to that theory I say bravo. I like it. I love it even. It's so much better to try hard to improve things for yourself, than to wait for someone else to hook you up. That's an ideal world. But let's not be naive. We don't live in an ideal world. So I also know that as much as we'd like to deny it there are institutional hurdles in place in that make it tougher for the poorest of the poor to simply work hard and do well without a little bit of help. So even if you are a person who suspects that most poverty stricken adults did it to themselves, don't forget that for every one of those adults there's a kid out there who can't be blamed for the situation he was born into and who really needs a helping hand to break the cycle.

Enough cryptic talk though.

I was driving home yesterday afternoon and I tuned into a radio talk show on which the host was preaching personal responsibility on the one hand, but on the other hand blaming hip-hop culture and rap music for bad behavior. Can't have it both ways. This is one of the same hosts I'll bet who spouts the theory that guns don't kill, people do. Fine. My mother owns a legal, registered handgun (this is true, not a made up example). And I'm not at all worried that she'll shoot me. Somewhere out there though is a schmuck who also has a handgun. And under the right circumstances, I'm sure I'd have reason to fear him shooting me. But if you're gonna blame the shooter and not the weapon, use the same standard when the weapon is supplanted by a form of entertainment. Hold the person responsible, not the music they listen to.

This talk show host ranted about how hip-hop culture and rap music has caused major damage to young people in general and black people in particular. He went on and on about how hip-hop - he later narrowed his target to "gangsta rap" - was essentially responsible for a large portion of children born out of wedlock, violent crime, and general immoral behavior.

It's pure hypocrisy.

I can guarantee you that most teenagers - black, white, Asian, Latino, or other - who have unprotected sex and get pregnant don't do it 'cause some rapper suggested it. Most kids who shoot other people over a pair of tennis shoes don't do it 'cause a rapper suggested it. Most kids who generally thumb their noses at convention don't do it 'cause a rapper suggests they should. If a kid's actin' up like that, he's doing it 'cause he either hasn't gotten any good home training, or (if he's old enough, say over 15) he has chosen to behave badly and doesn't care about the consequences...Or maybe he's one of the reallllllly impressionable kids who believes song lyrics are instructions. And I know those kids do exist.

When I was covering crime, I once met a mom and dad who busted their humps for their kids, and kept them clean and clothed and fed, and made sure they kept up on their studies. They had a young son - 5-years-old, if I remember right - who was hit by a car while playing in the street near his yard. When the ambulance crew arrived and began to tend to the boy, they were shocked to find little baggies in his socks with white powdery chunks inside. They immediately - and reasonably - thought the boy was being used as a coke mule for some neighborhood drug dealer.

Upon further testing the substance turned out to be baking soda. When the kid was well enough to talk, he sheepishly admitted to cops and family that he had put the stuff in a bag himself and tucked it into his socks 'cause he had seen older boys do it on a nearby playground, and assumed it was cool. It was a sad situation. This was an exception. His mother did her job. His father did his job. Kids see a lot of things parents don't realize. And no doubt there are impressionable kids. But this situation is wholly different from a talk show host suggesting that a type of music and the culture surrounding that music is a cause for bad behavior across an entire community.

If a nearly grown kid - someone in his mid to late teens - is a morally weak, violent person he's gonna be that way whether he's listening to Bach's Brandenburg Concertos or "Stranded on Death Row."

That's my word. You don't have to agree, but don't bother commenting unless you can articulate your opinion. Remember I'm not a social scientist. I just play one on this blog.