Two weeks ago, an audio racist rapping rant reappeared online. It resurfaced from its original recording two years ago, the rationale for its reemergence unknown.
The rappers, two local teenage girls, attacked just about every ethnic group you can think of except for white northern European cultures. It included references to lynching.
It was wrong, vile and evil. Their weak apology did nothing to demonstrate they understood or cared that their song was the type of action that incites violence, divides people and sows the seeds of suspicion, anger, and divisiveness for no solid reason against someone who may not look like you, whether that’s because they might have brown hair or non-pasty-white skin.
It’s almost hard to imagine someone would record the words they did, then post it online. You have to wonder where the parents were in all this.
Hatred does not occur in a vacuum. It is taught.
Two teenage girls don’t suddenly go and say, “Hey, wow, let’s come up with this rap song and put down anybody who doesn’t look like us.” That comes from someplace else and had to have developed over years.
Through repetition of put-downs and statements that diminish specific ethnic groups, these girls learned that everything they sang about was acceptable. They repeated the slurs that someone else offered up to them. They consumed the slant and the slam.
In their halfhearted attempt to apologize, they indicated that there is racism in society and they were reflecting that. It’s true, societies have inequities and we pass judgment on others. We shouldn’t, but most people do, at least from time to time. But that is not an excuse for horrific behavior that publicly denounces millions of people you don’t know, have never met, and will never experience.
Teaching good lessons starts at home – that all humans are different, but bound together by the desire to do what is best for our families and create opportunities that allow the next generation to improve and develop their abilities. We all want food, shelter and clothing. After that, we want to do productive things in our lives. What is so hard about people understanding those simple desires we all share? Why can’t we come together instead of splitting apart and looking for new ways to attack someone we don’t really know?
Why do we get this frothing anger, not just from these two girls, but from others who have indoctrinated them to think, speak and act this way? The people who taught these girls the language they used -- whether through abdication by not telling them something they said was wrong or by forcefully encouraging abhorrent statements – need to go back for remedial human training, too.
The cheap excuse is always, “Other people say it, so what does it matter if I do?”
The most important and easiest way to answer that is, “How would you like it if someone started slandering you the exact same way you just slandered someone else?” Feels horrible, doesn’t it? We can all slander another group or individual. That’s the easy way out.
The harder way is to work at understanding people raised on a different street, who went to a neighboring school, who attended a different place of worship, who have eyes that are never going to match our own. We should all get to know more people like that. It makes life interesting.
Getting to know people from a different flock brings us together. It builds shared experiences. It gives us hope. We need more of that, every day, on every street, in every school, between every nation.
The rappers, two local teenage girls, attacked just about every ethnic group you can think of except for white northern European cultures. It included references to lynching.
It was wrong, vile and evil. Their weak apology did nothing to demonstrate they understood or cared that their song was the type of action that incites violence, divides people and sows the seeds of suspicion, anger, and divisiveness for no solid reason against someone who may not look like you, whether that’s because they might have brown hair or non-pasty-white skin.
It’s almost hard to imagine someone would record the words they did, then post it online. You have to wonder where the parents were in all this.
Hatred does not occur in a vacuum. It is taught.
Two teenage girls don’t suddenly go and say, “Hey, wow, let’s come up with this rap song and put down anybody who doesn’t look like us.” That comes from someplace else and had to have developed over years.
Through repetition of put-downs and statements that diminish specific ethnic groups, these girls learned that everything they sang about was acceptable. They repeated the slurs that someone else offered up to them. They consumed the slant and the slam.
In their halfhearted attempt to apologize, they indicated that there is racism in society and they were reflecting that. It’s true, societies have inequities and we pass judgment on others. We shouldn’t, but most people do, at least from time to time. But that is not an excuse for horrific behavior that publicly denounces millions of people you don’t know, have never met, and will never experience.
Teaching good lessons starts at home – that all humans are different, but bound together by the desire to do what is best for our families and create opportunities that allow the next generation to improve and develop their abilities. We all want food, shelter and clothing. After that, we want to do productive things in our lives. What is so hard about people understanding those simple desires we all share? Why can’t we come together instead of splitting apart and looking for new ways to attack someone we don’t really know?
Why do we get this frothing anger, not just from these two girls, but from others who have indoctrinated them to think, speak and act this way? The people who taught these girls the language they used -- whether through abdication by not telling them something they said was wrong or by forcefully encouraging abhorrent statements – need to go back for remedial human training, too.
The cheap excuse is always, “Other people say it, so what does it matter if I do?”
The most important and easiest way to answer that is, “How would you like it if someone started slandering you the exact same way you just slandered someone else?” Feels horrible, doesn’t it? We can all slander another group or individual. That’s the easy way out.
The harder way is to work at understanding people raised on a different street, who went to a neighboring school, who attended a different place of worship, who have eyes that are never going to match our own. We should all get to know more people like that. It makes life interesting.
Getting to know people from a different flock brings us together. It builds shared experiences. It gives us hope. We need more of that, every day, on every street, in every school, between every nation.