Don't Blow Smoke!

Fox News Blames Hip Hop For Ohio Shooting | Hip Hop News > HipHopDX.com

I’m shaking my head. I felt it was important to post the link to this story on my blog. It could be possible for readers of that article including fellow hip-hop heads to be misled. The issue that was introduced is the latest shooting spree at Success Tech in Cleveland, Ohio. If we are to look at the cause of this school shooting, and/or mass school shootings in general, I feel it’s important not to be caught up in arguing with an individual, in this case a radio personality, who is blowing smoke. He has the right to his opinion and racism is nothing new. I believe the issue behind the Cleveland school shooting deals with coping with adversity. His argument, no matter how racially insensitive, broadly over-generalized, and convoluted it was, has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand. If this were a debate and a moderator walked into the room and asked what caused this Cleveland school shooting, would his argument be valid? Hell nah! If we look at the demographic and identity of the most recent mass-school shootings, would his argument be valid? Not even close. It is far too easy for him to use bad rhetoric to blow smoke in our face and have us arguing whether or not Hip-Hop Culture invokes violent behavior.

Yes he was back peddling after jumping the gun and did a poor job at recovering, but his statement(s) does nothing to find answers for the problem, honor the victims, or bring people together. It attempts to compartmentalize and divide groups of people and races. I feel that if we focus on his statements about Hip-Hop Culture and African Americans, we’ll find ourselves arguing with a man who isn’t even talking about the issue at hand.