Well, it's actually pretty accurate.

I don't see how.

:/

i guess you could stretch it so far as to say that the history of the U.S. is predominately white...ish. except for all the black, asian, and native americans...

but the point is, why is it appropriate to officially dedicate a month to any one racial group at the expense of any others? i dont think it is. now having said that i firmly believe that the history of black americans in this country is incredibly important and should be taught alongside the rest of U.S. history.

It doesn't have to do fully with race either. Gays would be in an uproar if we celebrated a Straight Pride day also.

I think the human race is just generally retarded.

No, it shouldn't, unless the "Black American" did something worth being mentioned. I shouldn't be bothered to learn something unimportant just because it was done by a black/white/Chinese guy. I should only have to learn something if it's important.

That's the whole problem with "_____ History Month/Week/Day". It forces unimportant things related to the Minority upon the Majority, even if they have no significance. I don't care about some black guy who was a lawyer in the 20s, nor do I care about some white guy who was a senator in 1845. Unless the lawyer or senator did something of some importance, they're just another dead guy.

sorry, i probably was not clear. i was not talking about any individual, i was talking about the history of black people as a whole in this country. including slavery, emancipation and the civil rights movement. ect. obviously there are many black figures of note throughout U.S. history that are worth paying special note to though.

In the sense that it isn't. At all. Not even a little.

omg an ethnic majority with major historical significance has its history celebrated more than an ethnic minority with the sole historical significance of the terrible things the ethnic majority did to them.

Precisely. Jonk apparently holds the same opinion I do, though he expresses it in a far more adolescent manner.

I never enslaved anyone, nor did my parents, nor my grandparents; and there are no blacks in the US today who were salves, or were children of slaves, or even grandchildren of slaves. It's irrelevant to me.

Wrong.

CHUCK BERRY!

The only solution is interracial breeding.



I lolled

i am currently working on that

I'm not.

Sorry but I find caucasion girls more attractive.

Caucasian girls are the superior race.

So, as far as you're concerned, "racism" and "the slavery instituted in the United States until the 1860's" refer to exactly the same set of problems?



How kind of you to inform us that jazz, blues, rock, and rap have no historical significance.

or the gas mask. or the traffic light. or all the cool things you can do with peanuts (but not peanut butter. thats just a myth)

Satire isn't that difficult, is it?

Rap is historical garbage and a sad example of the degradation of the human race.

Ah. I see. You were expressing an exaggerated version of an opinion you disagree with; putting on an act, as it were. Hilarious.

Pointless antagonism aside, many people do actually have thoughts like the sentence you wrote, and to them I still address my comment. Case in point:



First of all: thanks for dismissing the rest of my (non-exhaustive) list of musical genres to which African-American culture has contributed extensively. (Not even getting into the huge importance of musical genres developed by related Afro-Caribbean cultures.)

Second: I'm glad that you think your distaste for a musical genre counts as a legitimate argument against its widespread cultural influence. That (bizarre) logical leap notwithstanding, I'm perfectly happy to debate the relative merits of various forms of music... What genres do you not consider to be sad examples of the degradation of the human race? What's different about them?

(I'm not just flamebaiting. I'm a PhD student in musicology. We would be honored to have your contribution to the field.)

Much like your posting

Musicology? Is that even a... thing?

There are a lot of social pressures behind the production and consumption of rap music. Can you think of some of them?

Says the raphead.



Look at the garbage rap is throwing out into the masses. The same attitude I was talking about earlier in this thread, Misogynistic viewpoints, materialistic glorification, alcoholism, gambling, sex, drugs, glorification of the selling of narcotics, and flat out ignorance.

Or its just singing about a stupid dance some idiot made up in his bedroom mirror.


Pure. Garbage. Period.


I'll give some leeway to actual decent patrons of rap, the true artists (ie mos def, talib kweli, pharoah monch, nas, big daddy kane, etc) but the autotuned garbage they pump out of the radio now-a-days is just biproduct of the cesspool that is american society.




And don't give me that bull**** that rap is the african american way to express themselves in music, like Vornskr said, they have impacted/created several other genres.






Ask Prince.

Best rap song ever.

If I don't like it, it must be bad.

Do you think that documentaries that show the reality of life and certain situations are garbage as well?

Do documentaries mass market, influence and glorify all of the things listed above?

I think not.

You can't even begin to justify the subject content of rap and its negative influence on american society.


PS. None of that **** is reality, most rappers lie about everything they write.

what i find baffling is rappers rapping about how they rap. i have never understood the appeal of that kind of song, whether it be rap or rock or whatever.

So you believe that social ills are a byproduct of counter-culture, rather than vice-versa? Interesting.

Personally I think the sort of music you're describing is marketable to disadvantaged black people because a wealthy criminal musician is the best example of personal success our society can present without it being ham-handedly described in the context of a social group they don't have access to (i.e. Obama the Harvard Law graduate, or the millions of minorities who found success by eschewing their cultural identity and conforming to ours.)

Sure. It starts somewhere and is contained within that area. As soon as it is given national exposure it begins to spread and degrade other areas. Now we have rich idiots spreading bull**** through society, because what was cool in their "hood" is now "cool" throughout the average american household.

So yes, I do.


Case in point, 20 years ago it would be damn near impossible to find a white kid who thinks hes "hood". With the mass marketing and negative influence of the hiphop culture, you can find one at any local mall or school.

Well, like most of grad school, it's a thing you do because you like the subject matter, have no practical skills, and like being poor (==don't want a real job).



Forgive me if I fail to take a discussion of misogyny on an online gaming forum seriously.

But to address your actual point: it's possible to separate out the content of a song's lyrics from the characteristics of its style (i.e. its genre). It's absolutely true that many songs are filled with misogynistic/violent/etc lyrics. (That's true of plenty of genres, not just rap, though we can argue about their relative prevalence..) But is that a reason to say you dislike a musical style? No: you dislike the lyrics of songs in that style.

Shakespeare is filled with misogynistic ideas, and a little bit of Wagner's antisemitism leaks into his operas. Does that mean that I dislike Elizabethan drama or late Romantic opera? No. It doesn't even mean that I dislike Shakespeare's and Wagner's works.

Aha, "Onimusha," you object to white basement dwellers adopting the garb and mannerisms of other cultures, do you?

Oh because I got my name from a PS2 game created 8 years ago. Really good argument Jon. Excellent point!

You must have seen me running errands on my horse, in my brand new samurai armor and katana! I'm suprised! I must have stopped and said konnichiwa, not realizing it was you! Sheesh!



And I thought you were supposed to be someone around here who made decent arguments

It's always a decent argument until you're the one who has to write a rebuttal.

Or just made you look like a douchebag. Sorry bud.


Also --



Considering that the lyrics or *rapping* is the centerpoint OF the style and is what CREATES and NAMES the style and considering 90% of that style contains garbage "lyrics", then yeah, I've got good and plenty reason to say I hate the style. That IS the style, or better said, genre.

If you were talking about any other form of music where the lyrics add another dimension, but the genre is based around the instruments, then your argument would be valid.

For example, if I said Dream Theater's lyrics were garbage, you could say, yeah but thats just the lyrics, Portony and Petrucci are incredible -- and you would be absolutely right.

Oh well. At least you're a white basement dweller.

Still waiting for you to respond to my earlier remark about role models

Keep thinking that. :downs:

oh dear, mass marketing effects what people buy?? 20 years ago someone wouldnt be "hood" cause they were too busy being some 80s stereotype.

At least disrespecting girls, selling drugs, and putting absurdly large wheels/wastes of money on your car wasn't the "cool" thing to do back then. 80's stereotype was harmless unless you were a homophobe, this one isn't. You lived on Rochester, you should know the influence that crap has on this city. Just read the headlines.

Yea cause everyone was doing coke. Hip hop in the 80s definitely wasnt about "drugs n hos" or whatever you like to think. You honestly don't think that rappers are the only irresponsible people in the music industry, do you?