Beating the Rap with Rap

I am getting just a bit sick of black people screaming and hollering over every little thing as if they are being slapped in leg irons and placed on slave ships. Every time something happens it is blown out of proportion and the NAACP along with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton go on the news and act as if some terrible thing has happened. It does not even matter if the black person was entirely in the wrong, there is always some racial spin to the story.

In Arizona there is a show called Tempe StreetBeat that is produced by police officers. The police have suspended the show because a police officer on one of the films tells two black guys they can beat a littering ticket by rapping. Now littering is not good and I am surprised Al Gore and Green Peace have not asked for these young men to be executed but in any event, they were caught throwing paper out of their car. A cop stopped them and told them they could avoid a ticket by singing a rap.

Both men made up some stupid little rap song, the men and the cop laughed and then they started talking about football. As far as I can tell from the story, no one threw them down and beat them or arrested them and certainly, no one shot them to death. But the NAACP is up in arms about this and they are upset because they say that black people do not speak hip-hop. Yes, the NAACP is upset because the men were asked to rap, a medium made popular by black men, in order to avoid a ticket.

“It’s important for police officers to realize that black people do not speak hip hop,” Maupin said. “We’re not all rappers and thugs and gangbangers. We speak the English language and we’re entitled to the same amount of respect.” Yahoo News

Now for this Reverend (who is not NAACP and is instead part of the National Action Network) to say categorically that black people do not speak hip hop is an incorrect and misleading statement. I will admit that the vast majority of blacks do not but an overwhelming number of young black men do indeed speak hip hop. One only needs to watch the music channels, or pull up next to a car with loud speakers blaring to understand. In addition, the cop did not make any assertion that they were rappers, thugs, or gangbangers (though the rap world is rife with gangbangers).

Just because the cop asked them to rap does not mean he disrespected them. All of the men laughed about it. It seemed like it was in good spirit and that they were having fun. The men were clearly free to say no thanks and just pay the fine. Regardless, none of this is any reason for the NAACP or any one else to make a stink. It seems that if anyone breaks wind now days some group is yelling racist. I imagine if the cop would have just given the ticket the NAACP would be upset that two black guys were being targeted by the cops.

What people ought to be upset with is the idea that someone could do something to get out of a ticket. This is no different than saying $50 would make it go away or asking a young woman for sex in order to beat a ticket. It is all the same in my book. The police are not the court system. They write the tickets or make arrests based on their perception that someone broke a law. The person then may go to court and have a judge determine if he did in fact break a law. This officer made decisions about how the men could avoid the ticket and that is wrong. This is where time and energy should be focused.

Of course, this could have all been set up in advance for the show. That would make it hilarious. Regardless, the focus needs to remain on the real issue, not some contrived issue by a bunch of race baiters.

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