The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks And The Crisis In African American Culture

248 Pages·2003·10.078 MB·English

by  Bakari Kitwana

The IliP HOP
Generation

The [lip Hop
Generation
YOUNG BLACKS AND
THE CRISIS IN AFRICAN
AMERICAN CULTURE
Eakari Kitwana
BASIC
B
BOOKS
Basic Civitas
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Copyright © 2002 by Bakari Kitwana
Published by Basic Civitas Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part
of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 10
East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022-5299.
Designed by
A cataloging-in-publication record for this book is available
from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 0-465-02978-7
First Edition
02 03 04/ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Contents
Preface 00
Introduction 00
PART ONE:
The New Crisis in African American Culture
1 The New Black Youth Culture 00
2 America's Outcasts 00
3 Race War 00
4 Where did our love go? 00
5 Young, Don't Give a Fuc* and Black 00
PART TWO:
Confronting the Crisis in
African American Culture
6 Activism in the Hip-Hop Generation 00
7 The Politics of the Hip-Hop Generation 00
8 The Challenge of Rap 00

Preface
Our youth can be our fate or our future. If
young people embrace Black culture, ground
themselves in it, and feel compelled to continue
the legacy, then they are our future. But if they
turn their backs on the Blackness, if they have
contempt for their fathers and mothers, if they
do nothing but engage in self-congratulatory
narratives and music about themselves and
imagine that they are actually any threat to this
society or that they have any future in it simply
by talking negative, then they are not our fu­
ture; they are our fate.
—Maulana Karenga, Interview in The Source, February 1996
Understanding the new crises in African American culture
that have come about in my generation's lifetime—high
rates of suicide and imprisonment, police brutality, the gen­
eration gap, the war of the sexes, Blacks selling Black self-ha­
tred as entertainment, among others—I often wonder what
life will be like for the generation of African Americans that
follows. This question has been a defining one for those of us
who grew up in post-civil rights Black America, especially
for our generation's intellectuals. What will be our genera-
vii
viii Preface
tion's contribution to the centuries-long African American
struggle for liberation, and how do we redefine this struggle
for our time? Our parents' achievements (the civil rights and
Black power movements) continue to overshadow our lives
as we stmggle to answer these questions and define our gen­
eration's own identity and distinctiveness.
Although old racial stereotypes, beliefs, and practices
die hard—largely in part because America is still trapped by
an unreconciled racial history—we've unquestionably inher­
ited a new America. This crazy, brave new world has spun
on its head old ideas of race and America. The struggle for
liberation in our generation is no longer just a Black thing.
America is a more multicultural society than ever, and al­
though Blacks have become a political force, they can no
longer go it alone. Even though Black-specific issues persist
and America remains polarized around Black-white race re­
lations, the old paradigms no longer apply. Coalition-build­
ing with America's other racial and ethnic groups is more
critical, and viable, for our generation than for any previous
generation of African Americans. At the same time, our gen­
eration of African Americans must come to grips with the
damage we do ourselves in popular culture (rap lyrics and
'hood films) and in everyday life (inadequate parenting, re­
sentment-filled interpersonal relationships, and inferior ed­
ucational performance), which stands counter to traditional
ideas of Blackness.
Although hip-hop, arguably the single most significant
achievement of our generation, is the most visible place
these issues are elucidated, it only hints at the answers we
seek to the great racial questions of our time. The essence of
today's Black youth culture lies much deeper than the basic
elements of hip-hop culture, and it is the area beyond the