Click this here. It seems we’ve seen the last of those cute Wal-Mart commercials with the greeters in wheel chairs.
And they said big business doesn’t have a heart.
But the real fun has been sent to my by Big Rell. I feel bad for him. First, he’s got to endure Tar Heel football season, and then he’s gotta read madness like this. Here’s a sampling
ROSA PARKS did not defy a white bus driver in 1955 so teenagers in 2005 could attend school-night concerts by black performers filled with self-hate.
Okay, here are where my problems start.

1. I tend not to trust people who throw their initials around for no good reason, particularly when one of those initials is “Z.” Just something about that turns me sour.
2. I’ve read this column about twenty-five times before. It would have made a lot more sense to write this after DeLores Tucker died as an indication of how her campaigns in the mid-’90s were unsuccessful. That would have led to an interesting critical analysis. This? Notsomuch.
3. Why did Rosa Parks sit down on that bus? So black folks could do whatever they wanted. That’s key. We can’t take any more from what she did than that.
To say these cats “mock” Rosa Parks is absurd, though. The main problem is that he is assuming that the level of profanity in black entertainment is waaaaay higher than it ever was, and that’s not true. The level of profanity in mainstream outlets is exponentially more than it once was, but the hike in the overall level isn’t that bad, I don’t think. Sorry, but I’ve heard too many comedy routines from those old heads that make me blush. You ever listen to a Redd Foxx album? Really, just one of ’em.
Cats were cussin way too much, callin’ women bitches, and the whole nine back then. Does it make it any better to do that now? No.
But does it mean that there must be something else at play in this criticism of today’s entertainers? Absolutely.
What was Redd Foxx doing for Mrs. Parks’ legacy? More or less than these dudes?
What we have here is more generational bullshit, the kind of stuff folks can’t wait to write.
I can respect his criticism in a lot of ways. But to call these dudes embarrassments to the ancestors is simply unfair. I’d let him slide for saying the folks are embarrassments to their mamas. Someone could easily say that for Tony Yayo (wow, his album is bad).
But what he’s saying is overkill of the cliche, a bad cliche at that.
Plus, let’s consider that this generation is not the first following the movement. That would be the generation that precedes it, one I believe Mr. Jackson belongs to. If children are reflections of their parents–which is definitely the case–then Jackson’s generation owns what might be a lion’s share of the blame. This generation was molded by his. If these rappers are that messed up and their messages are so readily identified with by the masses, then it stands to reason that his generation had a role in helping create these cats’ ideas, epistemologies, and preferences.
Because of that, he can’t wash his hands of us that easily.
We’ve got a lot of problems, and we’ve got a lot of work to do to fix them. This sort of finger-pointing, one that offers nothing constructive to build on, isn’t the way to go.