Negative Effects Of Rap Music

Register to read the introduction… Morrison states, “Marketing messages of hate and violence to children sends the signal that violence is widespread and normal, that it is acceptable to abuse women, and that there is glamour in lawlessness” (Morrison). Teens are listening to music that sends the messages that it is okay for men to beat their wives and girlfriends because they are above the law. This has had an extremely negative effect in the black community. As stated by McWhorter, “Rap music is harmful to the black community because it links to racism, violence, and misogyny ” (McWhorter). In “Rap Music and Rap Audiences,” it states that “many scholars note that some rap lyrics attempt to objectify, devalue, or subjugate African American women through insults and name calling” (Dixon). African American women have become the targets of some of the worst kind of verbal abuse in many of today’s rap songs. Not everyone would agree that the underlying messages in many rap songs are causing negative reactions. Some people would say that rap has given a voice to a group of people who had been previously ignored. According to the Journal of Negro Education, “Rap has served as an emancipator tool allowing Black urban youth previously systematically silenced, to name the injustices of poverty and their subjugation” (Richardson). Although rap music has allowed this silenced group of people a chance to voice their injustices, it does not …show more content…
As stated by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, “Music affects our moods, our attitudes, our emotions, and our behavior; we wake to it, dance to it, and sometimes cry to it. From infancy it is an integral part of our lives” (Senate Committee). From the time of infancy, people are influenced by the culture around them. In Banks’ article, she wrote about a woman named Karen Stevenson and her young sons. In the article, it states, “[Karen’s] sons, like many boys their age, enjoy the antics of the rap music stars they watch on TV. But when Stevenson saw her son mimicking what he’d seen – ‘he was doing something with his hands, pretending to throw down [gang] signs’ – she felt a scolding was in order. She had to tell him, ‘You can’t do that. This is not a joke in many parts of town. Something like that can get him shot. . . That led to a difficult conversation. It’s hard for him to understand’” (Banks). Children grow up seeing this lifestyle and begin thinking that they are supposed to live that way. That is all they see and think they have to fit into that. This is very damaging to the development of their identity. Boys in particular “draw their identity not from their community, but from hip hop, rap or more impoverished neighborhoods. . . . That leads some through a confusing struggle to secure their place among their peers, where the sheer fact of skin color makes it difficult to blend in” (Banks). By the time