I was in Tucson, my hometown, not too long ago to celebrate scoring a whole lot of points (46) in a basketball game 50 years ago.
And what you might need to know is that after putting on such a show I didn’t celebrate with my teammates later at a popular eatery because old Jim Crow couldn’t care less about the athletic exploits of a half-naked tall skinny Negro.
But such days are long gone back in the Old Pueblo. While in town I was shown around by a dear friend and former student of mine, Debbie Sisco Rich, the CEO of the girl scouts there. What she exposed me to warmed my heart. She took me out to Sabino Canyon, my favorite plot of land out there in the burning sand of the Sonoran Desert (I am a Sonoran to the bone), and introduced me to some of the brightest and cutest children imaginable who, paired with Peace Corps volunteers, had come to understand the lives and living conditions of people in countries around the world, Nicaragua, Senegal, China and the Honduras to name a few. They were celebrating “World Thinking Day.” What a wonderful thing to do.
These girls have been on my mind lately as I reflect on UCSD’s “Compton Cookout,” the off-campus party which ridiculed Black History Month in a “World Non-Thinking Day” kind of way, I’d have to say.
On the one hand, you’ve got young children discussing issues that affect struggling people throughout the planet, learning about their economies and their constant struggles to survive, learning how to use their voices to make themselves heard on issues that are important to humankind so they can better achieve their potential as global citizens and become loving and caring leaders.
And then, on the other hand, you’ve got a handful of the “brightest of the brightest” students in California abusing their responsibilities and privileges, making up asinine schemes to get their peers to act like “ghetto chicks” and wear gold chains and gold teeth and trousers below the behind, proving that a mind truly is a “terrible thing to waste.”
What it all confirms for me is if there is any hope of a better world it lies with our children. But here’s the rub: children are the masters of mimicry and eventually they’ll most likely duplicate what they see and segue into grownups like the confused young adults at UCSD and abandon good thinking for the mindless variety.
It’s the climate that has to change. Even in the racist environment that was prevalent in my old stomping grounds 50 years ago there was very little chance that somebody would have left a noose dangling in the library or draped a KKK like pillowcase over a statue. Other than Amos and Andy and a couple of black actors in movies going “Who dat say who dat when I say who dat?” or “Feets don”t fail me now” there wasn’t a climate of racial buffoonery like there is today. The “N” word and “bitches” and “ho’s” weren’t staples in our songs and weren’t terms up for just anybody to grab. Baby mamas and baby daddies weren’t glamorized. It was too freaking hot to wear 50 pounds of bling around one’s neck.
Today, in this Hip-Hop world, all of the above is legitimized. World wide. If that doesn’t change, today’s children, even with all the hope they represent, can’t help but continue the pattern – and believe me they are watching because I’ve rapped with a number of them about what has happened in their town.
I would suggest to UCSD students and staff and whoever else is concerned that they not only work towards increasing the campus’s diversity but also strive to alter the images that the Hip-Hop world creates practically unchecked. Watch what you buy. Watch what you wear and how you wear it. Watch how you express yourself, how you roll.
They would not only being doing a great service to themselves and to their school but they just might help pave a way to the making of a better world by showing children how problems are solved in communities when creative thinking is at the core of their efforts.
Well, anyway, that’s how one sees things when one has been among children on “World Thinking Day.”
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Ernie,
Nice article! It’s as if we’re going backward in order to go forward.
Thanks Ernie. It’s a constant task to not only educate the young but also push against the negative thoughts and actions by writing and speaking texts such as this.
Well said Ernie. The Children are our future. The UCSD incident was so un -necessary not to mention upsetting. We’ve come to far to step backwards.
Ernie;
Your article is very reflective of today,s youth. Since the Hip-Hop World, is legitimized by a portion of our society it is making a negative imprint on many of our children.
Willie Horton
http://www.dubois.fas.harvard.edu/hiphop-archive-harvard-university
Thanks, Nate, for displaying a positive aspect of the Hip Hop world. There’s much that’s great and artistic within its borders and that needs more play.
I haven’t stopped thinking about Hip Hop, Ernie. (World thinking day should last a month, hehe). I listened to some old hip-hop songs, and there were plenty of references to guns, drugs, treating women badly, etc… other songs were tamer… but the beats were good and you could dance to ’em. Maybe we can’t declare that a whole genre of music is wholly ‘good’ or ‘bad’ maybe its more like a spectrum. Don’t ask me how race and music relate, because I have no idea. I guess I’d like to see hip-hop continue evolving, to undergo new changes, shifts, styles. And yes, artistic rap needs more play!
Can you get this published in main stream news paper and spread the word?
ASE! AMEN! Ernie…….I have always told my kids that the Hip Hop scene is the worst advertisement for African Americans to come down the pipes.
Ernie- you are a great educator. Ignorance is a curable disease! Many thanks.
YoU definiteLy ‘haVe a WaY wiTh woRDs’…
“Watch what you buy. Watch what you wear and how you wear it. Watch how you express yourself, how you roll.”
Ernie, in 25 words you’ve summed up what I’ve been struggling to say for 25 years. From one Sonoran to another, thank you. I will be quoting you.
Sarah (Sahuaro Girl Scout Troop 377, Tucson, AZ 1966-1976)
To you, Sarah, I say what we Sonorans always say to push each other on: “Bear! Down!”
“Watch what you wear. Watch what you wear and how you wear it. Watch how you express yourself, how you roll.”
And don’t forget to watch your back – I’m not so sure how far behind we have left the “good ol’ days” you mention!
The Good Old Days’ll catch ya if you don’t watch out! It’s just amazing that we’ve reached the 21st Century as backwards as we are with all that’s been accomplished.
Of this article’s many gems, I think my favorite line is “It was too freaking hot to wear 50 pounds of bling around one’s neck.” Classic!
Thanks for another great piece, Ernie. I’ve been loving hip-hop since I got my hands on an LL Cool J cassette (“Bigger and Deffer”) back in the late 80s. And like you, I think the modern hip-hop scene could really benefit if it could just pull its collective pants up a little bit. :)