The Good Old Days

In the aftermath of Sean Taylor's death I still find myself surprised at the consistency in the arguments of pundits who choose to use his murder as an indictment of Rap and Black pop-culture. A staple of their vitriol is the ever-present "Good Old Days" where the Black community was absent of all the ills that currently plague us.

In the mind of these critics every single aspect of American pathology conveniently finds its origins around Rap music and Black pop-culture. What is notable is that several of these individuals are in their 40's and 50's which place them in a very interesting time frame to be so self-righteous.

The imagery, language and sound that currently permeates through Rap/R&B are a reflection of both Blackploitation films and 70's soul music. Both genres are more than 3 decades old and yet when we see their manifestation currently it is supposedly the result of the decadence of todays youth.

When some of these individuals express visceral outrage about: D.L. Hughley, Lil Kim, Snoop etc.I can't help but to be cynical about their anger and disbelief when they were exposed to everything from Pryor, Foxx, The Mack, Pam Grier et al.

There is an inherent flaw in reducing the complexities involved in crime, miseducation and poverty in the Black community that seems to escape many who use it as a basis for self-aggrandizement; and that would be the depiction of Blacks in mainstream media in the first half of the 20th century.

In the first half of the 20th century when the vast majority of Black imagery in mainstream culture was that of Sambo, Mammy, minstrels etc; why didn't the Black community degenerate to that level of behavior? There was less economic prosperity, education and positive imagery in that setting than there is now. If the simplistic 1 to 1 correlation that is being drawn between media depictions and pathology truly existed it should've manifested itself much more prominently back then instead of now.

While we are all guilty of providing a rose colored directors cut of our trips down memory lane; what is going on now is a lot different. What is currently taking place is wilfull revisionism which results in the diminishing of personal responsibility.