I truly believe that
minority and diversity in the world is a wonderful gift but there are other
people in this world that also had different views. However, M.K. Asante, Jr.
is someone who also believes in the sight of diversity but he doesn’t just believe.
He uses this amazing book, “It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop,” to portray why Africans,
Latinos, Asians, etc. should always fight for the right of minorities and the
roots of our culture and traditions such as Hip Hop. To go in depth this book
covers the roots of Hip Hop but not just the music but the culture, community,
and people who are represented by it. Hip Hop has allowed others to be better,
be themselves, and has helped stop the violence in the world. However, with
these new generations and ways of using language, Hip Hop has somewhat lost its
true meaning and ones who were born into hip-hop generation feel misrepresented
by how it is now scene with dangers.
Hip-Hop has betrayed
itself and the very people it should be representing. What young people now see
on Mass Media influence how they react; “is thinking outside the box, but then
that’s hard because the box [TV, mass media] tells us what to think,” they
derive their ideas from mass media. (pg.1-12) The bombardment of bad
stereotypes further on make African Americans seem worse than what really is.
They are seen unchanged from the racial stereotypes that were promotes before
and during slavery. Not only were the self-centered people against Blacks
influencing younger generations but also they were being damaged by the images
of any type of media. “The colored people are good for action pictures: they
are natural born humorists and will often assume ridiculous attributes or say
side=splitting things with no apparent intentions of being funny…. The cartoonist
usually plays on the colored man’s love of loud clothes, watermelon, crap
shooting, fear of ghosts, etc.,” this quote has shown how people in the past
would make fun of African-Americans and whenever children saw these they would
probably also believe that it was alright to make fun of “colored people.”
These images whites have created to justify Blacks’ Oppression have also been
embraces by Blacks which lead to the result in Blacks hating Blacks.
Overall even though there
is more to elaborate on about this book, there were many quotes or parts of
this book that captured a positive or negative thought of how African Americans
were justified or treated;
-“I began to see just how
powerful hip hop was as my brother and other inmates erupted in awe…it was clear,
… using rap music almost exclusively, to
shape, develop, and define both public personas and personal identities”
(pg.24)
-“The post-hip-hop
generation realizes that because we do not control how “real” is constructed,
defined, and disseminated, this image is not real at all.”
-“I say survival is a
state of mind. That’s where soul comes from.”
-“Soul is graceful
survival against impossible circumstances.”
-“Black–on-Black violence
is a symptom of the violence of poverty and should not be looked at in a vacuum.”
To point out that not only were Africans not
treated right only by whites but worldwide, “Police partout, justice nulle
part!” meaning, “Police everywhere, justice no where!” they were not treated right
by police either.
----Let's just keep it short, but this book was a great opportunity for me to understand even more of the History I should have learned before. There is more to this book that could be said but covering everything would be like rewriting this book so I'll give my input and say what is needed along with what I can remember. If you really wanna understand and know what this book is about READ the book, because it will change what you thought or think you knew. (:----
