The Truth Hurts Because Sometimes Its Supposed To
This very ugly cartoon was drawn in response to Jacksonville police complaining that the local culture of not-snitching, reinforced by rap music is making it difficult for them to fight crime. It’s causing a big fuss. People are very upset with Jacksonville.com (FL Times-Union) for running it and the local NAACP got on the phones and forced the editorial editor to apologize for what they called “racist.” Jacksonville.com: Was ‘no-snitch’ cartoon racist? Editorial editor regrets term. IMO – That editor is a punk. He shouldn’t have apologized. He should have said that if the Jacksonville NAACP doesn’t like the cartoon, then they need to spend their time campaigning against this “non-snitching” trend instead of hurling the race card at anyone who refuses to ignore it anymore. This is probably what the black folks in Jacksonville who are trying to save their communities are thinking.
My theory? People won’t admit it, but they’re angry about the cartoon because they’re embarrassed by it. In Jacksonville, and all over, we have allowed this hip-hop/gangster/not-snitching nonsense hijack our culture. This is NOT who we are, but this picture encompasses everything we hear and see about ourselves and too many (but not all) black people are still more upset about it being brought to light than they are about it happening in the first place. What do you want to bet that more people in the black neighborhoods in Jacksonville are thinking up what can be done to punish the paper for this cartoon then ever got together to think up what can be done about stopping the trend of not-snitching?
And if one more person tells me, “yeah, but this is not something that should be put on public display. It should be handled in the community,” I will scream!! If something is contributing to the delinquency and killing of our children and poisoning of our community, we should be yelling it on the rooftops and telling anyone who will listen in hopes of advice from anywhere on action steps we can take to fight it. It was painful to see this ad and that’s what it was supposed to be. We need more of this shoved right back in our face every day. If we don’t like it, we need to make it a lie instead of just saying its a lie. Just because something is critical of an aspect of black culture doesn’t make it racist.
Hat Tip: Bossip.com Bossip » Archive » Blame This on Cam’Ron?
