Mean Street Theater

In “Mean Street Theater: An Awful Image for Black America” John McWhorter argues against the so called “hip-hop” revolution. He claims that rather then uplifting young African Americans hip-hop tends to make them more violent and more subsumable to crime. I completely disagree with McWhorter’s assumptions and claims. First off, hip-hop is not the only music directly correlated with violent lyrics, music, and music videos. In fact one could argue that heavy rock and “emo” music are both more violent than hip-hop. Yes, hip-hop gave direction to the Young African American generation but it was not all necessarily bad. In “Hip-Hop Activisim” Opio Lumumba Sokoni points out organizations such as Russell Simmon’s Hip-Hop Action Network help engage kids in their society and aid in the on-going war against drugs. As Sokoni points out many of these rappers are good influences on our community. Daily we hear about the Brittany Spears, the Paris Hiltons or the Lindsey Lohans of the world and in comparison many of these hip-hop artists have done a much better job as role models. As for Sokoni’s argument, Sokoni does a good job refuting the claims that McWhorter makes in his argument however Sokoni’s argument is more geared toward drug use and drug law. Sakoni points out some very important things like why law enforcement has left the murders of Tupac, Biggie, and other unsolved and has instead focused on arresting non-violent criminals. Regardless, Sokoni does a good job presenting his facts and convincing the audience of his views.