Racist Rap Music
Public Enemy a Racist Rap Group?
Student, Chad Rutkowski, accuses rap group, Public Enemy, of exploiting racial tensions to gain popularity.
In response, two students vehemently disagree with Rutkowski's critiques in an article and a Letter to the Editor. Quotes from Gleaner staff member, Scott Warnock's and those from a member of the Rutgers-Camden Black Student Union, Charles Loftland, are presented.
Racism and ignorance take many forms, and not since the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan has another organization been as blatantly racist as that of the rap group Public Enemy.
Mr. Rutkowski calls Public Enemy the most racist organization to emerge since the Ku Klux Klan, and that in itself may be one of the most ridiculous statements upon which I have ever stumbled. -Scott Warnock
Rutkowski's criticisms center on Public Enemy's music video and lyrics for their song "A Brother's Gonna Work it Out."
In [the music video], the students shown as all black and all members of black fraternities, are peacefully sitting by the beach or dancing on street corners and generally minding their own business when they are suddenly harassed and beaten by the townspeople and police, who are conveniently portrayed as all white.
As a young African American male who is harassed regularly on the New Jersey Turnpike (and yes, the state troopers have all been white), I can see the realism in Public Enemy's video...You want to talk morals, Chad? Let's talk morals! Public Enemy's account of Virginia Beach's annual Greekfest is accurate. -Charles Loftland
Moral of the video: all whites have an inborn and violent hated of blacks...
And please avoid the very slippery slope that Mr. Rutkowski slides down with his interpretation of the "moral": that all whites have an inborn and violent hatred of blacks. The only goal or moral that Public Enemy professes to have is the education and training of black leaders. -Scott Warnock
Please beware of groups and organizations like this that exploit and sensationalize such serious and sensitive issues as racial tension for their own personal gain.
America has been the ones that have exploited and sensationalized racism. I know. I deal with it every day! -Charles Loftland
So those who can honestly support racial equality and harmony would do well to steer clear of hypocrites and racists like Public Enemy.
Admittedly, rap is not for everyone. But to discredit it before trying to understand It, especially because it is such a black phenomenon, makes the line of who is the racist alarmingly foggy. -Scott Warnock