One thing I will never do is tell someone how to raise their kid. The reason is simple, I wouldn’t want anyone tell me how I should raise mine.
But, if there is one thing I do believe, it is that you can’t pretend forever that everything is perfect in the world. Because sooner or later, your child will grow up and be faced with some decisions and if they aren’t prepared they are likely to make the wrong ones.
I know Jay Z was a drug dealer, uses the word N**** and have rapped about women as objects, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the positive things as a teaching tool. To quote Jay himself.
Hov is back, life stories told through rap
N**** actin’ like I sold you crack
Like I told you sell drugs…no…
Hove did that so hopefully you won’t have to go through that.
Very simple message, look at the bad things I did, but I turned it around and did good things, so don’t be like me, start with the good and eliminate the bad.
Some Conservative Christian parents in Mississippi though aren’t pleased.
Sixth graders at Desoto Central Middle School spent three days learning about one of the most successful hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs in the nation. They were also tested on their knowledge about Jay-Z’s “resilience.”
“One of the songs listed on the paper that was brought home was ‘Big Pimpin’,” she told me. “Another song talked about thug life. My child was getting an education about thug life.”
She could not believe that her child was learning about a man who sings songs that degrade women and glorify the thug life.
“When he pulled out the paper in his backpack in the car, I called my husband right then,” she told me. “I was furious. We talked about it until late that night. My husband was about to blow his top.”
She said one school official even chimed in that the rapper owns a professional sports team.
“I asked him what that had to do with anything,” the parent told me. “Let’s talk about somebody that is a success that has done good things – not thug life things.”
I would love to see what skeletons are in these parents closet. I wonder if they listen to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, because they have all done “thug life things”. No one is perfect, we have all done bad things and hopefully learned our lesson and lived a better life.
But, probably not much else to do in Mississippi than complain.
