Fear of a Hip-Hop Planet: America's New Dilemma

by D. Marvin Jones

Overview

Is Gangsta Rap just black noise? Or does it play the same role for urban youth that CNN plays in mainstream America? This provocative set of essays tells us how Gangsta Rap is a creative "report" about an urban crisis, our new American dilemma, and why we need to listen.

Increasingly, police, politicians, and late-night talk show hosts portray today's inner cities as violent, crime-ridden war zones. The same moral panic that once focused on blacks in general has now been refocused on urban spaces and the black men who live there, especially those wearing saggy pants and hoodies. The media always spotlights the crime and violence, but rarely gives airtime to the conditions that produced these problems.



The dominant narrative holds that the cause of the violence is the pathology of ghetto culture. Hip-hop music is at the center of this conversation. When 16-year-old Chicago youth Derrion Albert was brutally killed by gang members, many blamed rap music. Thus hip-hop music has been demonized not merely as black noise but as a root cause of crime and violence.

Fear of a Hip-Hop Planet: America's New Dilemma explores—and demystifies—the politics in which the gulf between the inner city and suburbia have come to signify not only a socio-economic dividing line, but a new socio-cultural divide as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313395772
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/01/2013
Pages:	297
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

D. Marvin Jones, JD, is professor of law at the University of Miami, School of Law, Coral Gables, FL. His published works include Praeger's Race, Sex, and Suspicion: The Myth of the Black Male.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction 1

Part I Racing Culture/Erasing Race 33

Chapter 1 From Plantation to the Hood: A Play in Three Acts 47

Chapter 2 Thinking with the Nigga 89

Chapter 3 The Beauty Shop 117

Part II Family Affairs 141

Chapter 4 Souls on Ice 145

Chapter 5 Black Skin, New Masks: Hip-Hop and the New Politics of Blackness 169

Chapter 6 Lessons from the Second Civil War 211

Chapter 7 The Trial of Howard Colvin 235

Chapter 8 "We are Oscar Grant!," 245

Chapter 9 Race and Reconciliation 251

Epilogue: The Last Word 259

Bibliography 267

Index 287

What People are Saying About This

Charles J. Ogletree

"Professor D. Jones' new book, Fear of a Hip Hop Planet: America's New Dilemma, is informative, powerful, and enlightening. Professor Jones rebuts several criticisms of the hip hop generation and shows how hip hop impacts race, equality, and justice in America in the 21st century. This book is a must-read for those who need to better understand the hip hop generation and its role in informing America about the plight of people of African descent. I highly recommend it."

Cornel West

"D. Jones is a powerful and prophetic voice in the Age of Obama. He courageously and compassionately keeps our focus on social injustice and structural racism in America."

F. Michael Higginbotham

"Finally, a book that illuminates the positive role of hip hop. Fear of A Hip Hop Planet puts hip hop in its political and social context. We have erased the color line, officially but we have 'raced' culture. The book shows how this brash urban art form interprets and reflects this new socio-cultural divide. This book will change the conversation from 'Is it art ?' to 'How do we bridge the chasm between the suburbs and the post-industrial ghetto?'"

Editorial Reviews

Jones has written a provocative, extraordinary analysis of Gangsta Rap and contemporary social conditions. . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice

From the Publisher