The African American Community
(From the back cover of The Architects of Rap)

There are some very serious problems in the African American Community. The family is being destroyed; nearly 70% of all African American infants are born to unwed mothers. Crime is rampant; it's projected that 28% of all African American males will be incarcerated in their lifetime. And then there's high unemployment, drug use, poverty, and deficiencies in education.

And as the African American community burns, hip-hop music is stoking the fires.

This according to, The Architects of Rap" a controversial and politically incorrect new book by African American cartoonist and author Leslie Taha.

He takes the position that the blatant glorification of promiscuity, immorality, and criminality that is imbedded in most rap and hip hop music is doing nothing but promoting the very behaviors that are the source of the African American community's biggest problems.

The Architects of Rap is one of the few (if any) books on the market that takes this stance. It dares to point the finger squarely at the hip-hop world, and charge it with being not a friend, but an enemy of African Americans.

Some of the topics it covers are hip-hop's degrading racial stereotypes, its corporate control, the influence it has on children, how it's contributing to the decline of the African American family, how ultra-liberalism supports it, and the issue of censorship.

Although the book's focus is on hip-hop culture, (which has also spread into Caucasian, Latino, and other communities) it's really about the American culture in general. It's about the poisonous elements that have entered into it, and the effect it's having on us all;rap and hip-hop being a prime example.

The book's format is quite unique. It's a poetic blend of humorous cartoons, insightful commentary, satire, statistics and quotes. The result is a powerful indictment of hip-hop culture and the entertainment industry that produced it.

 

Old Stereotypes for New
(Excerpts from The Architects of Rap)

We are all familiar with the old negative images and racial stereotypes of African Americans that once existed in this country.

I think everyone would agree that they were horrible, slanderous, misrepresentations of African American
people.

Here are a few examples of the old stereotypes that can be found at the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia:

“The brute caricature portrays Black men as innately
savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal -- deserving
punishment, maybe death. This brute is a fiend, a
sociopath, an anti-social menace.”

“…the ‘new issue (Blacks),’ for the most part, are lazy,
thriftless, intemperate, insolent, dishonest, and without the
most rudimentary elements of morality....Universally, they
report a general depravity and retrogression of the
Negroes at large..”

“The Brute caricature depicts black men as angry,
physically strong, animalistic, and prone to wanton
violence…”

“…the Black birthright was ‘sexual madness and excess’.”

“… intellectually childlike, physically unattractive, and neglectful of their biological families.”

“Blacks were, they argued, hedonistic children, irresponsible, and left to their own plans, destined for idleness – or worse…”

Those old stereotypes were pretty nasty, weren’t they? But guess what? All those ugly old stereotypes are still with us. They’re now embodied in the new, improved stereotypes that we find in rap / hip-hop.

The degrading stereotype depicting the Black man as the brute, the criminal, “prone to wanton violence”... isn’t that Gangsta Rap?

The degrading stereotypes depicting Blacks as being hedonistic, childlike, immature, lacking in morals, irresponsible, prone to “sexual madness and excess”... Isn’t that what we find in most rap / hip-hop music and videos?

Of course some African Americans do fit those stereotypical descriptions, then and now. But most African Americans do not fit those descriptions, then and now. That’s the nature of a stereotype. The worst among a group is portrayed as the norm, or as an inherit trait of the group.

Now here is the thing that makes this new, improved stereotyping effort so deadly. Many African Americans actually believe this new stereotype about themselves. As a result, a distorted, slanderous stereotype is becoming a reality!

Isn’t rap / hip-hop known as being “Black people’s music”? Whenever a White person gets involved in rap / hip-hop and takes on those degrading attitudes and behaviors, isn’t he referred to as “trying to be Black” or “acting Black”? Many people, Black and White, see the low behavior that we find in rap / hip-hop as being synonymous with “Black” behavior in general. How come decent and dignified behavior can’t be identified as “Black” behavior?

Unfortunately the stereotypes are becoming a reality. The constant bombing of our community with these degrading images is taking its toll. It’s having a very negative effect on us and our children.

It’s like brainwashing. Think about it. Practically from day one, kids grow up listening to degrading stereotypes about themselves; stereotypes that cleverly define who they are to themselves without them even realizing it.

Don’t you think that this can, and is, affecting them in their conscious and, especially, subconscious minds?

Do you know the devastating effects of growing up with a bad self-image lodged in your mind,
especially when that image of inferiority is lodged in your subconscious, where you can’t readily analyze it. It lodges in your mind like a virus and “mysteriously” manifests itself in degrading, irresponsible, low, self-destructive behavior.