by Ben Shapiro
There is a big difference between multiculturalism and the old American concept of “the melting pot.” Multiculturalism is “a social or educational theory that encourages interest in many cultures within a society rather than in only a mainstream culture,” according to the American Heritage Dictionary.44 And it’s a dangerous theory. It promotes moral relativism by pretending that all different cultures are equally legitimate and therefore should remain completely distinct. It says that anyone who joins the mainstream has “sold out” his roots. Multiculturalism, combined with the sharp focus on the wrongs done by the white community to American blacks, encourages white kids to hate their heritage—and mainstream culture, by extension. Rap culture provides an attractive alternative for rebellion in its hatred of mainstream culture, its focus on sex and violence, and its preening arrogance.
There are plenty of people who are pleased that young white people have begun to imitate the sick inner city culture. Dan DeLuca of the Philadelphia Inquirer says, “With so many hip-hop heroes living large, rapping in the dream lives of white, black, Latino, Asian, and other kids, it stands to reason that the shared culture will have its impact. Slowly, surely, incrementally, a change is bound to come . . . What’s good for hip-hop is what’s good for America.”45 Chris Cuomo of FOX News stated on FOX Files, “It seems black has never been more beautiful to white suburban teenagers.”46
Many “intellectuals” love the rap culture. It is anti-establishment and “poetic,” and has the romance of revolution about it. Professor Cornel West of Harvard University, who has done little of note in the past few years except to record his own rap CD, sees rap as “the raw reflection of black life in America,” according to the Washington Post.47 Halifu Osumare, a dance professor who taught “Power Moves: Hip-Hop Culture” at Bowling Green State University, called rap “contemporary poetry... really poignant stories even if couched in misogyny and gangsterism.” 48 Full-fledged college courses on rap and hip-hop abound at highly-ranked universities around the country. “That it has reached the level of academic study is more proof of hip-hop’s mainstream arrival,” notes Andrew Guy Jr. of the Houston Chronicle.49
These people shouldn’t be too enthusiastic about white cross-over to rap. White kids are picking up the worst of rap culture, and coming away with the false impression that it actually represents mainstream black America. And as the “wigger” market grows, “wigger” hip-hoppers have risen to the forefront of American music. They’re no kinder or milder than their black counterparts.
Eminem, possibly the most despicable lyricist on the scene today, has parroted gangsta rappers to the tune of millions. His song “Kill You” speaks about murdering and raping various women, including his mother: “(AHHH!) Slut, you think I won’t choke no whore / ‘til the vocal cords don’t work in her throat no more?!. . . . (AHHH!) Put your hands down bitch, I ain’t gon’ shoot you / I’ma pull YOU to this bullet, and put it through you / (AHHH!) Shut up slut, you’re causin’ too much chaos / Just bend over and take it like a slut, okay Ma? / ‘Oh, now he’s raping his own mother, abusing a whore, / snorting coke, and we gave him the Rolling Stone cover?’ / You g—damn right BITCH, and now it’s too late / I’m triple platinum.”
In a way, Eminem is right—his status as a rap star means that he’s allowed to get away with anything. He scrolls down a list of women he’d be okay with slaughtering and ends with this comforting line: “Hahaha, I’m just playin’ ladies / You know I love you.” It’s all tongue in cheek, you see—just like Jack the Ripper loved prostitutes.
Another track on the same album, “Kim,” contains an explicit, play-by-play description of Eminem cutting his girlfriend’s jugular: “Ha! Go ahead yell! / Here I’ll scream with you! / AH SOMEBODY HELP! / Don’t you get it b—-, no one can hear you? / Now shut the f—up and get what’s comin’ to you / You were supposed to love me {Kim choking} / NOW BLEED! BITCH BLEED! / BLEED! BITCH BLEED! BLEED!”
This guy belongs in a nuthouse, not in a recording studio. Instead, his rhythmically psychopathic CD, “The Marshall Mathers LP,” sold 9.7 million copies.50 The album also won a Grammy Award for best rap album of 2000.51 In 2002, Eminem starred in the hit film 8 Mile, which grossed over $100 million.52 Eminem’s success is by and large considered “a barometer... for rap in general.”53
Even the wimps of the white community are buying into the rap rage. Justin Timberlake, the former Mickey Mouse Club kid—a guy about as white as Senator Robert Byrd—has found his inner gangsta as well, even aside from treating Janet Jackson like a ho at the Super Bowl. He’s turned from a boy-toy into a hard-edged “urban black culture” imitator, putting him more in the realm of rap than of pop. The Times of London labels Timberlake “a walking clotheshorse for black urban chic.”54 Baz Dreisinger of the LA Weekly calls Timberlake a “[wigger] du jour.”55 Timberlake was even tapped to host the ABC-TV special Motown 45, raising the hackles of some in the black community.56
The only question left is which one of these white artists will go black first: Clay Aiken, Wayne Newton, Elton John, or Michael Jackson?
Playa hatas
While cultural conservatives continue to speak out against rap, the battle seems all but lost. A spokesman for Sprite tells the Wall Street Journal that rap “is the leader in terms of influencing pop culture today.”57 Shoe companies and cell phone makers employ many of these same rappers as part of their marketing campaigns. The NFL and NBA both utilize the rap culture to sell product; even Major League Baseball has joined in. Oxford’s English Dictionary now includes an entry for “bling bling,” a hip-hop term for big jewelry.
With the growth of hip-hop, can cultural conservatives win the big battles of the future if they alienate rap consumers? After Senator Kerry’s silly statements about rap on MTV, he received a cacophony of catcalls from cultural conservatives. “Look, it’s one thing to say you like it, but to try to pass this off as something you’ve intellectually examined and assigned value to? Sorry, senator,” said an incredulous Rush Limbaugh.58 “[D]oesn’t Kerry recognize what so much of rap music is today—profane, sex-obsessed, selfish, greedy—in sum, the opposite of public-spirited?” asked media critic Brent Bozell.59
The cultural Left immediately responded by claiming that Republicans were old-fashioned, behind the times, and bound to lose votes because of it. “The animosity of culture warriors like Limbaugh ... could make it extremely difficult for the GOP to court young voters,” warned Salon.com columnist Eric Boehlert.60 “When it comes to politics, Republicans have to take hip-hop seriously,” nodded Bakari Kitwana, author of Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop.61 “Rush Limbaugh is like those guys who used to smash Elvis Presley records in the 1950s and said rock ‘n’ roll has no importance. They’re just throwback people . . . And when you attack rap, you’re not just attacking the performer but you’re attacking the audience, the majority of which is white,” sneered David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington.62
Even some Republicans were wary of turning off the young rap fans. “There’s no reason to perceive the Republican Party as being anti-rap or anti-hip-hop,” claimed Republican National Committee spokesperson Mary Ellen Grant. “We’re reaching out far and wide to youth voters regardless of their musical preference.”63
There’s no underestimating the popularity of hip-hop. Rap has functionally become the driving musical genre for the porn generation. Yet as attractive as it might seem to swim with the rap culture tide for demographic reasons alone, conservatives have no choice but to swim upstream. No, rap is not inherently rotten. It doesn’t have to contain vulgarity, misogyny, and brutal violence. You could easily put the words of President Bush’s State of the Union Address to a funky syncopated beat and call it rap. But there’s simply no way to co-opt the gangsta rap culture that now defines hip-hop into anything that functions as a positive element in society.
CHAPTER SIX
TEENYBOPPERS
“Benjamin Franklin said that the two things you c
an always count on are death and taxes. I am tempted to add: You can also count on lots of boy- related articles to appear in just about any teen magazine.”
KAREN BOKRAM, EDITOR, GIRLS’ LIFE MAGAZINE1
Time for a quiz! This quiz has two parts. First, see if you can name the ages of the girls who submitted the following questions to advice columnists. Then, see if you can guess the advice an adult gave to these troubled females. To make it fair, we’ll make this a multiple-choice test.
1. “My boyfriend isn’t affectionate. We’ve only kissed once in seven months—three months ago. I’m miserable with him but I know I’m going to be miserable without him. What do I do?” a. “Stop basing your relationship on physicality.”
b. “Maybe the guy has manners. Respect his beliefs.”
c. “Before ending it, try to kiss him.”
d. “Where the hell are your parents?”
2. “I’ve been developing feelings for one of my girl friends. Thing is, I’m a girl, too. I want to tell her, but I fear she doesn’t feel the same way and our friendship will be ruined. Plus, students at school will harass me. (I’ve already been teased for liking a girl.)” a. “Sexuality is amorphous at your age. Confusion is natural. Ask your parents what they think, and about seeing a psychologist.”
b. “Have respect for the feelings of the other girl. While you are confused about your sexuality, thrusting those confusions onto another girl is wrong.”
c. “I hate that I can’t flat out tell you to go for it . . . join your school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, or find a local gay community center. You need more nonjudgmental people in your life.”
d. “Where in the fiery flames of hell are your parents?”
3. “Is it wrong that every time I think a celebrity or a guy at school is hot, I imagine myself having sex with him? Am I perverted?” a. “Those kinds of feelings are natural, but perhaps you need to focus more on your studies and extra-curricular activities and less on boys.”
b. “Feelings are unpredictable, but as moral human beings, we can still try to control our thoughts and actions.”
c. “Of course you’re not perverted . . . think away.”
d. “Where in the roasting, toasting pit of hell are your parents?”
Okay, time’s up! Put down your pencils and get ready for the answers. The writer of question number one is Lauren, fourteen, from Columbiana, Ohio. The actual advice she received was (c). The columnist added: “Not to make light of this, but three months is a long time to go without a follow-up move.... Nothing says that guys are solely responsible for hooking up.”2
Question two was from Michelle, fifteen, of Mississauga, Ontario. And yes, you guessed it, (c) represents the given advice. Explained the columnist: “The possibility of ruining the friendship is high whether you’re gay or straight, but, sadly, the world is a homophobic place, and the stakes are higher in your situation. There’s a chance your friend will get weirded out and tell people, and they might make fun of you again. But if it’s worth the risk, there are options. Mention that you know a girl who’s interested in her female friend. If she doesn’t freak, it’s a good sign.”3
Question three was from Trena, fourteen, Brooklyn, New York. Again, she received (c) in response to her question.4
Each of these questions was submitted to the publication YM, aka Your Magazine. YM, according to the New York Times Almanac 2004, had over 2.2 million subscribers as of 2002, making it the thirty-second largest magazine in the country.5 Other teen magazines also have gargantuan subscriber lists. Seventeen had over 2.4 million subscribers as of 2002 (number twenty-seven overall); Teen People had 1.6 million subscribers (number forty-eight); Cosmo Girl! had over 1 million (number eighty-three).6 That’s over 7.2 million subscribers total, from those magazines alone. That doesn’t count smaller mags like Teen, Elle Girl, J-14, Girls’ Life or Teen Vogue.
The magazines’ subscribers are teenage girls, and their parents are buying them subscriptions. These magazines obsess about boys, looks, and celebrities. The teen magazines function as gateway products both for “porn lite” publications like Cosmopolitan and celeb-gossip magazines like People.
As Kathy Flanigan of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel puts it, “Sex has always been a marketing tool. But who knew it would be used to sell magazines to kids as young as twelve?”7
“Training manuals for sex”
“A bunch of us were hanging out watching a movie when we decided to play a game of truth or dare,” writes Stephanie from Alameda, California. “I whispered to my friend to dare me to kiss the boy I’m hot for. She said we had to pass candy back and forth to each other with our tongues. It worked out well and I was completely happy. That is, until I hiccupped and choked on the candy. I eventually coughed it up, but after that, the guy wasn’t into kissing me anymore.”8
The girl who wrote these inspired lines is fourteen years old. They appeared in the February 2004 edition of YM. Other submissions included one from a fourteen-year-old girl from California who got caught making out in the school gym with her boyfriend, his hand up her shirt,9 and one from a fourteen-year-old girl from Virginia, who got caught kissing her boyfriend during an in-class science video.10
Most of the teen magazines nowadays revolve around sexual activity. “They’re telling girls who read these things that everybody else out there is doing it. You could even argue that they’re training manuals for sex,” says Ana Garner, associate dean for graduate studies and research in the College of Communications at Marquette University.11
“Training manuals for sex” about pegs it. According to YM editors, they receive a constant barrage of letters from young girls asking about sex: “We’re always receiving depressing letters from fourteen-year-old girls who think withdrawal is an acceptable method of birth control.”12 So YM offers information about the latest birth control drugs—“58 percent of you think the pill should be available over the counter, while 17 percent think a patient should see a doctor to get it”—and directs kids to the Planned Parenthood website for more information.13
Likewise, the November 2001 issue of Seventeen promised on the cover to answer the question: “Does Sex Hurt the First Time?”14 The February 2004 YM cover offered its readers “Kissing do’s and dont’s.”15 YM’s July 2004 offered its readers advice on “How To Have The Perfect Summer Fling.”16 February 2005’s Cosmo Girl! cover tempted buyers with an oath to reveal “5 Flirting Secrets That’ll Make Him Want You BAD.”17 Cosmo Girl!’s “Ask College Girl” column tells readers that “No question’s too heavy—or too naughty—for College Girl!”18
Seventeen’s February 2005 issue answers questions from a seventeen-year-old Ohioan who “noticed some small, white bumps around the tip of my boyfriend’s penis,” and a seventeen-year-old Californian who had anal sex without a condom with her boyfriend in the back of his car. But the most interesting question came from one fifteen-year-old girl from Syracuse, Utah: “Me and my boyfriend had sex about three weeks ago, and he wasn’t wearing a condom. He didn’t come inside me, but I’m still worried—I’m having really bad mood swings, my breasts feel tender, and my stomach is, like, hard, and I can’t suck it in. Do you think I’m pregnant?” “If you’re pregnant, you need care and advice,” the advice columnist responds, “and if you’re not, you need to get birth control, so you’ll avoid another situation like this.”19 Or she could stop acting like a fifteen-year-old tramp. But that doesn’t seem like a viable option if she’s writing to Seventeen for advice.
Cosmo Girl!’s February 2005 issue teaches its readers about “vulva love”: “This Valentine’s Day, get to know the body part that makes you so fab!” “If you’re thinking about having sex,” the magazine advises, “visit a gyno first to talk about STD prevention and birth control. If you’re worried about your parents finding out, call first and ask if she can keep your visit confidential.”20 Cutting the parents out of the loop is certainly a good strategy if you attempt to replace their authority with teen magazines.
The column contains a large, graphic drawing of the genital area, complete with handy tips: “The clitoris has 8,000 nerve endings—that’s more than there are in the entire head of the penis!” For further research, Cosmo Girl! suggests visiting vday.com/campaigns, and urges high school girls to put on their own productions of The Vagina Monologues.21
There’s also a section about girls who name their vaginas. The purpose of naming genitalia remains unknown—if you lose them, will they return if you call them by name? Still, there are plenty of Cosmo Girl! readers willing to contribute. “Mz. Thang—because I’m a strong-minded, young, African American woman!” writes Sharmica, sixteen, Atlanta, Georgia. “Mrs. Sprinkles—it’s sort of like my code word. I’ll say stuff to my friends like ‘Yesterday me and Mrs. Sprinkles met the hottest guy.’ It cracks us up!” expounds Rachel, fifteen, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. “My cookie jar,” explains Jessica, seventeen, of Cherokee, Alabama. “When I was a little girl, my mom used to say, ‘Don’t let any boys get into your cookie jar and take your cookies!’ And now she calls my boyfriend of three years the Cookie Monster.”22 Boyfriend of three years—in other words, he’s been going after the cookies since Jessica was fourteen. How adorable!
