A Response to “Hip Hop a Roadblock or Pathway to Black...

William Norman Lancaster ENGL- 1301 18 September, 2012 A Response to â€Å"Hip Hop: A Roadblock or pathway to Black Empowerment† Geoffrey Bennett’s article Hip Hop: A Roadblock or Pathway to Black Empowerment illustrates the influence hip hop and rap music has had on not only the music industry but mainstream culture, African Americans to be specific. Geoffrey Bennett, a senior English Major from Voorhees, New Jersey goes over many aspects of how hip hop came to be â€Å"the forefront of American attention.† He starts from its early history in the 1980s as an African American exclusive music genre to what is now a worldwide phenomenon. He reviews the affect it has had on the lifestyle of many people and the ways it’s changed the way people†¦show more content†¦Segregation ended due to the civil rights movement, and allowed us to grow as a more unified nation. As prominent civil rights leader Martin Luther King said, â€Å"A man should not be judged by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. Last, but not least would have to be the woman’s rights movement . Some of the accomplishments achieved by this movement would include voting rights for women, equal pay for equal work, the right to serve on active duty in the armed forces, and many others. All three of these movements helped in some way to create the Hip-Hop movement, which clearly show that Hip-Hop was not the most powerful cultural movement America has ever had. A problem that Bennett makes clear is how impressionable the younger audiences are when they are exposed to rap and Hip-Hop. There’s many debate on the topic of children listening to the music, but before we can argue over whether children should be able to listen to the music we must go over the pros and cons to the music genre. The positive side is that rap is an accepted form of self-expression, and educators have shown that it has inspired kids to write. Many kids feel they can relate to the songs, and it persuades them to write their own in an attempt to make sense of the world around them. On the other hand Hip-Hop can have some negative effects as well. A large number of artists such as Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Eminem, and others involve the use of profanity, violence, references to sex andShow MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesMinus the Moolah) †¢ New fe ature: glOBalization! †¢ New Myth or Science? (â€Å"CEO Pay Can’t Be Measured†) †¢ Updated discussion of job characteristics †¢ New coverage of flextime, telecommuting, and related work practices †¢ Revised discussion of employee empowerment and its effects †¢ Discussion of innovations in gainsharing practices †¢ PREFACE xxv †¢ †¢ †¢ New Point–Counterpoint (â€Å"If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy, You Aren’t Spending It Right†) New Case Incident (Bonuses Can Backfire) Updated Case