January 18th, 2008The great divide
The furor over the name of rapper Nas’s forthcoming CD perfectly illustrates the divide between the civil rights generation and the younger hip-hop generation, which has benefited from the social advances the elders fought for.
Nas announced in October that he would use a certain racial slur as the title of his 10th CD, which will be released in February - Black History Month. The news came a few months after the NAACP had shown its disapproval of the word by holding a mock funeral for it during its convention in Detroit.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and representatives of the NAACP quickly criticized Nas’s decision. In response, Nas told MTV News, “If Cornel West was making an album called [racial slur], they would know he’s got something intellectual to say. To think I’m gonna say something that’s not intellectual is calling me a [slur], and to be called a [slur] by Jesse Jackson and the NAACP is counterproductive, counterrevolutionary.”
Tension between the hip-hop and civil rights generations has been brewing since C. Delores Tucker began complaining about the content of rap lyrics in the 1990s. Lately these clashes have become more frequent. Some members of the younger generation criticize older leaders such as Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton for demonizing hip-hop and focusing on the use of the racial slur rather than addressing social ills, such as black-on-black crime or high dropout rates. The other side is represented by such people as actor and activist Bill Cosby, who in his 2007 book “Come On People” blamed the crisis in the poor black community on “the gangsta rap industry and their white enablers.”
Recently, six local representatives of these opposing generations sat down at the Globe’s request to discuss what’s driving a wedge between them. During a three-hour conversation, they moved beyond the surface issues of acceptable words and the influence of hip-hop music to explore the changes in society that have brought the black community to its current state. They discussed the impact of a materialistic society, the effect of the urban public-education system on youths, and the lack of a common sociopolitical goal within the community.
“There’s a real difference, and I don’t think it’s about the music,” says Mel King, a longtime community activist and former state representative who now heads the South End Technology Center. “We were involved in the ’60s, the ’50s. It was like a common direction. The common direction was the civil rights movement, desegregation - it was very clear.”
Now the goals are murkier. Although desegregation occurred, it failed to remove underlying problems.
“Racism has become so multifaceted,” says Chris Conroy, 25, a teaching fellow at South Boston’s Patrick F. Gavin Middle School. “It’s not easy for youth to access a way to fight those things.”
