October 28, 2003
SAVE THE CHILDREN
Bill O'Reilly's got his
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/oreilly/">panties in a
bunch because kids are seeing violent movies and listening to
degenerate music.
It is time for Americans to realize that your homes have
been invaded by insidious forces beyond your control. The harmful
music, movies, computer images and television will affect your kids, no
matter what you do. And yet the American media are celebrating this
very troubling turn of events.
If I had children, I'd be more concerned if I caught them
watching a show like O'Reilly's than seeing The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre. Hysterical scare-mongering just isn't for kids. Tagged:
When the Lexiphane was just a wee lad himself, he remembers
listening to all sorts of music that would have gotten Bill O'Reilly in
a lathered outrage. N.W.A. was singing "Fuck the Police" loud
and clear in my bedroom and Public Enemy was making videos about
a black militant hit squad going west to assassinate the governor of
Arizona. Those were heady days alright. My first semester at college,
I went with a bunch of friends to Cole Field House at the University of
Maryland to see the rapper Ice T perform. At the time, there
was a lot of controversy over his single "Cop Killer," which was
obviously about killing police officers. On our way into the venue, we
were met by a local news camera crew who pointed a mic in our faces and
asked us what we thought about the controversy. What happened next was
one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life.
One of my friends [who will go unnamed, because after graduating
Harvard Law he went to work at the Justice Dept.] stepped forward,
grabbed the microphone, and went into a profanity laced tirade about
how cops were always gunning for the black man, so they'd better be
ready when they come back shooting. My friend was a very white Cuban-
American from suburban Virginia who stood about 5'5". And he was
joking, of course. As we all were as we played the thug Greek chorus
muttering, "hells yeah" and "goddamn right!" throughout his on-camera
performance. I can't imagine it ever made it onto the air, but it
would have been a classic piece of television if it had.
My point is that kids are a lot smarter than Bill O'Reilly
thinks. Sure, every once in a while a kid confuses himself for a real
gangster after smoking too much weed and listening to too much Snoop
and Dre, but that kid definitely had a pre-existing identity problem.
If it was 15 years earlier, he'd have been wearing his hair in a Mohawk
with 38 safety pins stuck in his ear. There's a reason why most of
this shocking music is consumed (and targeted) at young people. It's a
way to break free from a pre-established identity and form a new one
for himself or herself. Sometimes a kid will go a little overboard,
but given the latitude and tolerance to try different things out,
they'll eventually settle on something that works productively for
them. Blaming this process of young rebellion on the artists du jour
makes Bill O'Reilly sound like a broken record of the hundreds of
scolds that have come before him.
Posted by Lexiphane at October 28, 2003 3:47 PM
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