(c)Rap and Hip Hop are hate speech

Something snapped. Actually, I know what snapped.

Somebody posted a lack of appreciation for Bruce Springsteen on Twitter.

Understand, I’ve been pretty restrained about criticizing (c)Rap and Hip Hop. I’ve tried to understand it as a generational thing, in the category of things that each generation does to distinguish itself from and thereby annoy their elders. But now the kids are coming after my music.

They won’t even let me play my music in my car while I’m driving several stressful hours per day finding my way through a bizarre road network in Pittsburgh traffic for Uber and Lyft, destroying my car on Pittsburgh roads,^[1] burning through expensive electronics,^[2] doing a job I really don’t want to be doing, because I can’t get a real one, and doing it all for less than minimum wage. And all this even with my Ph.D.^[3] They give me one-star ratings, which ultimately threaten this, the only job I can get. Yes, I’m losing my patience.

So I responded to that tweet by posting that they lacked an appreciation for music. And proceeded to castigate (c)Rap and Hip Hop for its incessant use of offensive terms—‘bitch’ or ‘ho,’ even when they’re being ‘nice’—for women. And I realized that the n-word was at least as bad. Even when used by the disparaged groups.

Remarkably, I got called ‘racist’ in response. Yes, when they’re the ones dropping the fucking n-word every other word. Somehow, I’m the racist.

I have updated my earlier blog post entitled, “On the ‘n-word,’” with a partial retraction. Because yeah, now I’m offended.^[4]

And my rules for passengers have changed (figure 1).

Fig. 1. Sign displayed to author’s Uber and Lyft passengers, March 18, 2021, created by author.

In addition to the exposure to an endemic racism and white supremacy on a level I had never seen before and that has horrified me,^[5] moving back to Pittsburgh has been a real trip down memory lane. I remember now more fully the abuse I suffered as a child not just at my father’s hands, but from my schoolmates. And on some level, I think I understand hate a little better.

It shows up in that endemic racism and white supremacism around Pittsburgh.^[6] It shows up in the casual littering that occurs everywhere and the other forms of trashing what would otherwise be a spectacularly beautiful area. It shows up in a level of road rage and aggressive driving I never saw in California. It shows up in the Donald Trump campaign signs and flags that are reappearing now that a little time has passed since an attempted coup by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol and a subsequent failed impeachment.^[7] It shows up in the “no trespassing” signs that seem not merely to threaten but to relish violence (example, figure 2). It shows up in the gun nuttery that the Pennsylvania state government abets. And I think it shows up in the language people use, the n-word, the derogatory terms for women. People hate each other here. They hate this place.

I think they even hate themselves.

Fig. 2. No Trespassing sign along Miller Road in Clairton, Pennsylvania. Photograph by author, August 8, 2020.

The reason I have had to put my sign (figure 1) up is that they’re taking all that hatred and resentment out not just on each other but on me. This is a grievously wounded place with grievously wounded people.

And the only path to making it better necessarily involves respect. Respect for each other. Respect for this place. Respect for our world.

Which leads me to revisit my erstwhile laissez-faire attitude toward (c)Rap and Hip Hop. If, indeed, we say that hate speech includes derogatory language, then I don’t know how we exclude entire genres of music seemingly devoted to that language. Which undermines utterly anything these genres’ devotees have to say about racism, sexism, or other forms of hate. And which undermines utterly anything they have to say about tolerance and diversity.

It’s time they reconsider. And if they don’t like my saying this, then maybe, just maybe, they should let me play my fucking music.

1. ^[1]David Benfell, “Pittsburgh driving for the uninitiated,” Not Housebroken, n.d., https://disunitedstates.com/pittsburgh/pittsburgh-driving-for-the-uninitiated/↩
2. ^[2]David Benfell, “On the alleged ‘efficiency’ of capitalism,” Not Housebroken, March 4, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/03/04/on-the-alleged-efficiency-of-capitalism/↩
3. ^[3]David Benfell, “About my job hunt,” Not Housebroken, n.d., https://disunitedstates.org/about-my-job-hunt/; David Benfell, “Tax time,” Not Housebroken, July 14, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/07/14/tax-time/↩
4. ^[4]David Benfell, “On the ‘n-word,’” Not Housebroken, March 18, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/02/09/on-the-n-word/↩
5. ^[5]David Benfell, “Keeping the poor, poor, even when they serve their country,” Not Housebroken, May 27, 2020; https://disunitedstates.org/2020/05/27/keeping-the-poor-poor-even-when-they-serve-their-country/; David Benfell, “Eviction and race war,” Not Housebroken, November 13, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/09/01/eviction-and-race-war/; David Benfell, “Pittsburgh, race, and a threat to appropriated identity,” Not Housebroken, November 13, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/05/17/pittsburgh-race-and-a-threat-to-appropriated-identity/; David Benfell, “The banners and the guns: Flagrant racism in Pittsburgh,” Not Housebroken, November 17, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/09/20/the-banners-and-the-guns-flagrant-racism-in-pittsburgh/↩
6. ^[6]David Benfell, “Keeping the poor, poor, even when they serve their country,” Not Housebroken, May 27, 2020; https://disunitedstates.org/2020/05/27/keeping-the-poor-poor-even-when-they-serve-their-country/; David Benfell, “Eviction and race war,” Not Housebroken, November 13, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/09/01/eviction-and-race-war/; David Benfell, “Pittsburgh, race, and a threat to appropriated identity,” Not Housebroken, November 13, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/05/17/pittsburgh-race-and-a-threat-to-appropriated-identity/; David Benfell, “The banners and the guns: Flagrant racism in Pittsburgh,” Not Housebroken, November 17, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/09/20/the-banners-and-the-guns-flagrant-racism-in-pittsburgh/↩
7. ^[7]David Benfell, “The second farce,” Not Housebroken, February 14, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/02/14/the-second-farce/↩