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.
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Truly the “mob” mentality is taking over America- from a “don’t snitch” President, to the local thugs and gangsters.
WOW! A new record It only took one comment to maliciously connect and compare Bush to something totally unconnected to him, and surprise of surprises, in a negative light (on TMV, too. Who would have guessed).
My only real surprise is it wasn’t Shaun that made the comment.
Coming next – earthquakes and locust caused by Bush, details at 11.
I don’t think the cartoon is racist or offensive but it’s attempt to say “Rap Kills” is a clumsy and shows that the artist doesn’t have the first clue about the music. There’s more to hip-hop than guns and drugs believe it or not.
Part of the outrage in the black community comes from a feeling that the problems of blacks are being unfairly brought to light when it seems that the pathologies of white America go unexamined.
I don’t think that anyone in the community wants to hear any finger wagging lectures from whites about justice when so many corrupt businessmen and politicians get away with doing things that kill people by the thousands and are never held to account.
Especially when the people making the most money off of the music and concerts aren’t black at all.
The Jacsonville paper absolutely shouldn’t apologize for the cartoon and we blacks must work to stop the killing in our communities but I won’t hold my breath for many of the people outside the black community who are so outraged by what they see and hear from a portion of the hip-hop community to do anything more than huff and puff.
Why don’t those people put their money where their outrage is and divest themselves of the investments they’ve made in the companies that promote this stuff.
What’s in your portfolio?
And yet you can’t actually argue with the substance of what hanginjohnny said. Or perhaps you think our President is a paragon of honesty?
Our country is rotting from the head.
No finger wagging lecture here but I have to talk about an incident here in my mostly affluent semi-rural community this month where a street party in a mostly black neighborhood led to a teenager being beaten with a bat and then shot to death in front of a hundred witnesses – none of whom saw anything.
I’ll try not to be disgusted, if that pleases you and I will try to find some way that I’m to blame and the people who buy into the culture of rage and recreational violence aren’t to blame, but it isn’t going to be easy to understand why it’s somebody else’s fault when people hide people who kill their children simply because of a neighborhood rivalry and why being an accessory to the murder of a kid is a good thing for community solidarity.
If you want to make it about who “we” are or who “they” aren’t, go ahead, but the kid is still dead, his family is still devastated and the guy who killed him is still around, whether he’s hipping, hopping, rapping or whatever.
Hear, hear, Captain Fogg and Angela.
Scapegoating white collar criminals isn’t going to help the kids getting murdered in black communities. Forgive me if I find it beyond a stretch to think that the adults who covered up for the murderer of a black kid in CF’s story were doing so because they were influenced by the actions of Enron executives.
Of course there are problems with rich criminals just as poor ones, but why can’t one point out the issues that are preventing progress in fighting crime in poor neighborhoods without being accused of ignoring white collar crime?
C Stanley,
I think it’s important to note — as an avid listener of rap music — that the rap community takes big cues from big business.
Jay-Z and Kanye West, for example, constantly reference CEOs. It’s all about emulating success and following the money.
Capt Fogg, I’m not saying that whites who criticize people who intimidate witnesses of crime are racist or wrong.
The problem isn’t just that blacks won’t talk but also who are they supposed to be talking to? A dirty cop who’ll never be charged for roughing up a relative? A judge with questionable political ties which everyone knows about but looks the other way? The guys that run the city whose hands aren’t clean either but no one seems to give a damn?
Stop snitiching is many ways is a manifestation of the lack of faith blacks have the police , court system and the government in general.
If there was a similar sense of urgency in cleaning up the dirt in our goverment as there is in going after the people to glorify intimidating witnesses you would see more blacks coming forward to talk about what they’ve seen, gun-toting drug dealers be damned, because they would actually believe that the police and courts were interested in helping them.
It’s the double standards in this country that give ideas like “Stop Snitching” life.
Chris,
A valid point, but I still don’t buy that the majority of the culture of crime in poor neighborhoods comes from that. In fact, on that point I don’t really agree with pointing the finger of blame on rap music, either; I think art imitates life more than vice versa and the rap lyrics that glorify crime are a reflection of the cultural vibe rather than an instigator of it.
I think golden raises fair points too: police corruption is definitely a problem in many communities. Still, blacks who want to clean up their communities can’t use that as an excuse either; I don’t know what the solution is but scapegoats of any kind always do more harm than good. I suppose organizing against police corruption might be a good start, rather than siding with criminals against the police.
Chris – whether I agree or not, and whether true or not, it is completely irrelevant to both the initial post and my reply.
What the hell does Bush have to do with the culture of ‘don’t snitch’?
If I wanted to write in depth on the main topic, though, I would start from the position that it is neither a black/hip-hop issue, nor even a recent attitude.
Golden was starting to take us down the path of the real underlying problem – a lack of any confidence or faith in the ‘official’ arbitrators of justice. That is a recurring problem not just now, not just here, but throughout history.
Go back and watch some of the old 30′s and 40′s movies (and not just gangster movies) for a recent example in the US.
Those that were set in the city often were permeated with ‘don’t talk to the cops’ attitude. Only it was normally the Irish and Italians that were portrayed that way (and Latinos in the 60′s and 70′s).
But it is not a US problem; almost every culture has dealt with some form of it from their out-of-favor sub-cultures, or just simply the poor in most cases.
Alberto Gonzales is being rewarded for not snitching on the White House. Same goes for Rove.
I’m not saying they are directly responsible, but a lack of basic honesty from the top ring of our government certainly doesn’t help set a positive example.
If you don’t snitch, then maybe one day you too can be Attorney General of the United States.
Golden nailed it.
When “your bad guys”, horrible though they may be, help you more than “their good guys,” “stop snitching” makes sense.
A few thoughts.
The ‘I saw nothing’ attitude might well come from fear, at least partly. That’s the reason why witnesses at trials for mobsters were so difficult to find. When you live next door to the murderer and his friends, snitching can be a life threatening proposition.
I do find it relevant that hose who profit most from rap music are the white owners of record labels. Being an enabler is not a noble calling, particularly when the more provocative the lyrics, the more profit comes raining down.