Saturday, April 23, 2011

The Miseducation of Hip-Hop - Discrimination in Education



In today's world, where the hip-hop's saturation into the culture of young populations worldwide has reached an all-time high and is steadily rising, Jamilah Evelyn's examinations in "The Miseducation of HipHop" are most relevant. Many student, like Jason Hinmon, are being stereotyped by their much older and out-of-touch professors at colleges all over America because of thier choice of dress. I must admit to a bit of ambivalence in this situation. While it is evident that the hiphop culture, due to the nature of its position at the forefront of influences on the younger generations, will make it presence known, just as the afros and dashikis made evident the spread of the civil rights struggle, these sam individuals must strive for a middle ground between their hiphop identities and the expectations of the generations that have come before them. The companies and organizations they are hoping to become a part of after completing college will not be run by rappers and records company executives that expound again and again on the idea of "keeping it real" and "keeping it hood". It will most likely be the staid and conservative old-timers that come from a distant past. However, professors are also charged with the responsibility of meeting the students halfway on this. How can they deign to say they are willing to teach when they are not willing to learn? How can they not be willing to seek understanding of the hiphop culture in order to be able to teach the many students that are emerging from it? With both the students and professors working towards an understanding, they all may be able to close that gap between both generations and come to a new understanding of each others' points of view.

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