Have you ever met someone that tried to hold themselves completely different then from what they really are? Why is it that people feel that they need to pretend to be something they are not from Hustlers, to Pimps, and Thugs when in reality they could be far from that. Is it important to portray yourself as someone who has struggled in life when all along you were brought up with a silver spoon? It hard to believe that our society promotes wealth the way it does however so many people want to act as if they are running from it. Is this blamed on parents not reaching their kids and getting them to understand the differences in life between struggling and well off? Is it necessary for people to act like they are from one part of town when they were really raised in another?
When I was growing up nobody was proud of being from the hood, we looked at the people living in the hills as inspiration and motivation to achieve greater. Did that die with the emergence of all these social network sites that wants you to flaunt your lifestyle or from the all of the gangster rappers that tell our children that it’s ok to be hood? Our people will never break the perception of being ghetto until we begin to want to move on from it.
I feel this issue stems from a combination of things that have gone wrong.
ReplyDeleteOne...Parents need to get involved and stay involved with what their young children are doing. There are so many kids out there on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, YouTube, etc representing something they know nothing about. The more they keep up this facade, the more it becomes a way of life for them and before you know it; the damage has already been done.
Two...People struggle for years to find their true identity, especially teenage children and young adults. There is this unexplainable need to feel accepted by others so some may do things or act a way to impress their friends or even more absurd, people they have never met before and probably never will.
Three…Our Society today is so backwards and messed up. Our pop culture has become the example of how to live your life. Everything is about fast money and expensive stuff. For our African American youth and young adults as well as other Ethnic backgrounds, we get sucked into this for several other reasons which can be saved for another blog topic… There are these music artist that are talking about the struggles of their life (whether it be true or not) and our children are running around citing these lyrics better than they can add 2+2. There are these women who are “dancing” around in the music videos in next to nothing clothing who are in reality being objectified an exploited and our young girls feel like this is what they need to look like and act like to attract a man or be accepted in society. Young girls…I’m talking 12 and 13 with full make up and heels trying to copy what they see. What do we end up with? Hood niggas and fast tailed girls running around without a real clue. Young men seeing the inside of a jail cell and teenage mothers all before the age of 18. The glorification of the hood/fast life is becoming more appealing and snatching up our children from their true potential.
By no means am I putting all faults on music artist and video vixens for setting bad examples. The media and what they choose air on TV as “Entertainment” is an issue as well as magazines with all of these women airbrushed and digitally enhanced creating insecurities for young women, as well as sports athletes getting in trouble setting bad examples and etc, etc, etc. Our society is getting more twisted and backwards as the generations go on. To say the lease this is unacceptable and we as parents have to make it our duty to protect our children and help them grow into the man or woman they are meant to be. It’s a good investment to take an interest in what you children are interested in. You’d be surprised what you’ll find out they are doing behind your backs.