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I think you misunderstood, what I was doing there. The Professor was a Dr. of Music who was a peer at an HBCU I taught for a few years back. I was not lumping you into the same category, I was looking at how people don't consider rap music and how they used an educational approach to qualify why people shouldn't respect rap as an artform. I can't claim to understand your feelings on rap, but for the sake of discussion I am placing values onto you. I don't think you hate the culture, you are the culture and your frustration is the same as mine. I am simply arguing the positive aspects. If this were a debate I would have offered a refutation and attacked Hip-Hop as a failed experiment that has not carried the banner of music in Black society. I would take it a step further in this refutation and also say that since the late 80s and early 90s Hip-Hop has systematically contributed to the Prison Industrial Complex and destroying the movement generated by the Civil Rights movement. That would have been the accurate way to approach this debate. However, if I did that I would not have been able to really pull the discussion in favor of the positive aspects of Hip-Hop. What is tragic is that all of the positives are far outweighed by the negative aspects of the music and that for all of my support of Hip-Hop, I am the first person to state that if Hip-Hop changed, it could be as influential as James Brown was to the Black Power/Pride movement, or as vital as Sam Cooke was to the Civil Rights movement. Hip Hop is the only artform created by Blacks that has failed to move the people forward. Something Cynique said somewhere in all of that writing is that music was a respite. When we analyze Black Literature music is integrated into the literature and it has never been just a respite. It has always been a tool in the Black community for empowering. Black music has always been a case of the chicken or the egg in every major movement. Field songs either enabled escape from slavery or was a tool in the escape of slaves Gospel and Blues either created the movement of slave during the Great Migration or was a tool in helping Blacks move forward. Blues and Jazz either started the Harlem Renaissance or was a tool during the Harlem Renaissance Rock and Roll either started the Civil Rights movement or was a very strong contributing factor to integration. Black Power was either inspired by Nina Simone and James Brown or was a tool in the creation of Black Power Hip-Hop was doing a fantastic job with songs like White Lines and The Message and then with the H.E.A.L project and Stop the Violence, but in the last 25 years the corporatization of the culture has contributed to the destruction of a new generation. I know this, but to state it overshadows any good that I discussed above...

What credentials does Dr. Carson have to qualify him to be a better president than OBama? What's he gonna do? Perform brain surgery on his foes? There are millions of intelligent black men out there and just because he wrote a book, doesn't make him presidental timber. He's a black conservative and the darling Fox News and is about as dynamic as a sack of potatoes. Who needs him?

Come on, Troy. That's a pretty tired argument, blaming the media for everything. Any communication organ that steps on the toes of everybody must be doing somethingn right. High-rated Fox news whines about the liberal media even as their reporting is as about as biased as it can get in favor of conservative views. Those of all persuasions put their spin on the news and the spins are all biased. "Allegedly" is a well used word in news reports and this alerts the reader to the accuracy of what's being reported. Editorial pages are opinions. TV is visual and the camera doesn't lie. Furthermore, because the public is constantly bombarded with attacks on the media it has no excuse for not maintaining a healthy skepticism. "Don't believe everything you read" is an admonition that's been around for over a 100 years. So the media isn't as influential as its cracked up to be especially since, in the final analysis, people believe what they want to believe based on their personal prejudices. The truth is very elusive so who can you depend on to deliver it? Who knows the whole story about anything? And how objective is anyone when stating their versions. The media has become a convenient scapegoat for disgruntled people. The media may be flawed but what is the alternative? And, of course libel and slander are still legal options for those who feel they've been besmirched or discredited. Politics do make strange bedfellows, but one last question while you're fellowshipping with the Klan, when's the last time the media threw a burning cross on a black person's lawn? BTW, what do you consider mainstream when it comes to the media??? And does it occur to you that the Klan wizard being interviewed was using the media to sanitize his organization?