A high school in Mason, Ohio, is banning “Crank That” from being played at the homecoming dance because of offensive lyrics. Could it have been my fault? But the CEO of Soulja Boy’s label says that nothing in the song is offensive.
“When I found Soulja Boy, he had songs that had profanity, but it was his idea to clean them up, because his records are fun,” Mr. Collipark told AllHipHop.com. “You can’t please everyone, but this is crazy. Here you have the most clean cut guy in the game. For anyone to ban him for what has achieved is crazy.
Mr. Collipark, who has produced risqué hits like “Wait (The Whisper Song)” by the Ying Yang Twins, “Ms. New Booty” by Bubba Sparxxx featuring Ying Yang Twins and “Trap Star” by Young Jeezy, agreed with the students argument that numerous records contained much more offensive lyrics than “Crank That.”
C’mon. A song that repeats the word “ho” that many times is nobody’s clean. But it is true that these are high schoolers (not little kids who really shouldn’t be listening to this song, even if they have no clue what it means) that probably listen to a lot worse, and if the principal printed out the lyrics to every song on the top 40 he would probably faint. So let the kids “Crank That” in the high school gym — they’re going to do in at the hotel after party anyway.
[AHH]
Next year, when teachers across the country are putting together their back to school lists for incoming students, they might want to add Kevlar vests to the usual colored pencils, three-ring binders, and composition books.
A 14-year-old boy opened fire in his downtown Cleveland high school yesterday, injuring two students and two teachers before he killed himself. Hmm. Aren’t we always arguing for and against homeschooling on this blog?
[NYT]
Forget RateMyProfessor.com. When you’re in college and a teacher (who happens to be black, this is key) pisses you off, it’s totally more effective to hang a noose on her door. Then she’ll get really pissed. Don’t believe me? Look at what just happened at Columbia University!
The noose was discovered this morning and was reported to the New York City Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force, members of which are currently investigating the incident. Police and University officials declined to name the professor, who the police described as a 44 year-old black woman, but students identified the victim as Professor Madonna Constantine, who is in the Psychological Counseling department and is known for her work on racism.
“The TC community and I deplore this hateful act, which violates every Teachers College and societal norm,” Teachers College President Susan Fuhrman wrote in an e-mail to Teachers College’s faculty and students.
I mean, if the Ivy Leaguers are doing it now, that means everyone will be soon. Besides the fact that the supposedly smart student who probably did this is getting his or her racism lessons directly from some bigoted, not smart high schoolers in Jena, La., and indirectly from hateful, murderous, group-think mobs that used to torture and murder black people, I give the kid props for a great, original idea.
In other
[CS]
Thanks Michelle and Demetria!
• If there was any doubt that Zahara is the most amazing Jolie-Pitt. [MG]
• Calling all We Got To Do Better producers! [TAN]
• Janet Jackson describes her yo-yo dieting as something “like a fighter getting ready for a fight.” []
• This is just sick, but I’ve grown to expect little from college football fans. [DS]
• A blog post after my own heart. [FN]
An Open Letter To Primary School Teachers,
You have a hard job. I know a couple of current and former elementary school educators, and the stories you guys have! It takes a lot of energy, plus it’s a pretty big responsibility, trying to shape young minds even if the information you are paid to give them runs directly counter to whatever they’re being taught at home.
I’m not a teacher myself, so I hope you don’t think I’m out of line if I offer you a few words of advice. See, I’ve learned some things in this past week. And although I am not sure I am equipped to tell you what you should do with your class, I do have a few ideas about what you shouldn’t.
CONTINUED »
Lessons on racism are an important part of elementary education, particularly when many kids are being taught the opposite at home. But what is happening in the minds of some of these teachers when they are coming up with lesson plans? From placing nooses around little girls necks to assigning crossword puzzles with the word “nigger” in them, I think it’s time for elementary school teachers to go back to school.
A parent, Clifford Branan, said his son’s teacher assigned the homework Friday, as a supplement to “Sounder,” a book his class is reading. The book is commonly used in classrooms nationwide to illustrate racial bigotry and sharecropping hardships through the eyes of a young black boy.
Branan said he could not believe the puzzle with words like cabin, smokehouse and lantern also included the N-word along with its clue, “17 across: An insulting way to label a black person.”
He said the word crosses the line between history and hate. “It’s not something you want to teach,” Branan said.
If the goal is to do more harm than good, give this teacher a presidential medal!
[ via RR]
• Australia’s not a racist country. The government would just prefer that Africans not live there. [Reuters]
• When bored, reporters at the New York Times might fabricate a rap beef. [Idolator]
• More black male teachers are needed in South Carolina and, well, everywhere else in the country, I would bet. [WLTX]
• A task force is meeting in Atlanta today to discuss a proposed law banning sagging pants. Good luck making this one stick, guys. [AJC]
• Grambling State University Administrators are forcing the student paper to remove images of an elementary schooler with a noose around her neck as part of a really poorly planned racism lesson. [SPLC]
I didn’t go to a high school where security guards were required — we just kind of had matronly retired teachers working as narcs who posted up against the cafeteria doors and occasionally roamed the hallways.
They were more likely to cast an indulgent smile at the bad behavior of the (predominately white and wealthy) kids. For instance, if someone dropped a piece of cake on the cafeteria floor, they would shake their heads and smile, and kindly ask the person to pick it up. And the person in question would brattily call her a name she didn’t understand and grudgingly pick up the cake, no doubt leaving behind a smear of crumbs and icing. That’s how things work, or used to work, where I went to school as a teenager.
Let’s fast-forward a decade (yikes), and travel to Palmdale, Calif., where a young girl who dropped cake on the cafeteria floor was arrested and ended up with a broken wrist, courtesy of school security. Her friend, who videotaped the incident on his camera phone, was also arrested for his troubles, along with his sister, who was just a bystander. Oh, and the girl claims the security guard said, during the melee, “stay still nappy head.” The cake-dropper’s mom was also arrested. See it to believe it.
[FOX11 via Racialicious]
• Thanks for making sure we know who you are from the back when you’re shirtless, Vince Young. [Jossip]
• A University of Memphis football player was fatally shot on campus yesterday, and, even though police believe the shooter left campus after the incident, classes were canceled today. Happy first semester. [AP]
• Who doesn’t love a celebrity plastic surgery quiz? []
• It took a white kid getting tasered to shed some light on a pretty messed up police practice. [NAM]
• Another one that should always wear a hat. [C&D]
