ARE GANGSTA RAPPERS WORSE THAN RACIST TEACHERS?

I applaud the Los Angeles Unified School District for suspending three elementary school teachers who used their 2nd through 4th grade students to make a mockery of Black History Month. The teachers – all white men – had their students carry pictures of O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul in a school parade celebrating African-American role models. No teacher who respected black folks would urge young children to honor an imprisoned armed robber and accused double murderer (Simpson), a reckless and cocky troublemaker who disrupted multiple NBA teams with his antics (Rodman) or a clownish drag queen (RuPaul). (Okay, so RuPaul is harmless. But let’s be honest, drag performing is a kind of counterculture buffoonery to which few parents would want their children to aspire.)

L.A. school officials did the right thing by yanking those teachers out of the classroom for three days. Hopefully, they’ll be invited to seek employment outside of the public school system. Teachers are being laid off left and right and this trio should get bumped to the head of the line!

But they aren’t the only ones who ought to get pink slipped. We’ve got a lot of black entertainers out here whose actions are just as injurious – if not more so – than racially-insensitive white teachers.

One day after those L.A. elementary school teachers were suspended, MTV posted a video clip from rapper T-Pain’s upcoming Cartoon Network Adult Swim special, “Freaknik.” In the scene, a radio DJ repeatedly fires a gun into the ceiling while T-Pain’s character, The Party Ghost, announces a huge rap battle in which the first prize is “a lifetime supply of money, clothes and h---s” (the contraction of the synonym for “prostitute” which is street rap’s favorite word for “woman”).

When I saw that clip, I laughed at T-Pain’s comic delivery and the goofy, frenetic animation. But the gunplay and “money, clothes and…” reference made me angry and sad. I wish I could brush this off as harmless, broad comedy for grown folks, unfortunately the jokes in this video clip reflect a terrible reality that is taking a devastating toll on the African-American community.

Gangsta rappers have become media heroes and role models that are even more inappropriate for our kids as O.J. Simpson and Dennis Rodman. Gangsta culture has made crime and socially-destructive behavior cool. This has helped embolden white racists. Don Imus would never have had the courage to go on national radio and call black women “nappy headed h---s” if he hadn’t witnessed black rappers and comedians getting away with saying the same thing, and worse, about sisters. When those white UC San Diego students threw that offensive “Compton Picnic” a few weeks ago, they played off of ghetto stereotypes depicted in countless in rap tracks and videos.

Gangsta entertainment has mainstreamed the perception of black men as ignorant, sex-crazed and prone to violence. This perception clears the way for conservative politicians and Lonesome Rhodes-style media manipulators like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck to scare white folks into supporting an extreme right wing agenda that ranges from mandatory sentencing and three-strikes laws to slashing funds for schools, social programs and jobs.

Now, please don’t get it twisted; in no way am I suggesting that black people are responsible for white racism. History proves that bigots will scorn and revile us no matter how positive, professional and progressive we are. (Sgt. Waters’ dying words in “A Soldier’s Story” – “They still hate you!”– are as true today as ever.) Just look at how they’ve treated President Obama. No, we are not responsible for the actions of white racists. But we make it much easier for them to act on their racism when we glamorize people whose lifestyles represent the worst aspects of our culture.

Thanks for listening. I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents.

THINK! IT AIN’T ILLEGAL…YET!

Read more "Turner's Two Cents" on www.EURweb.com, and in the Pasadena Journal newspaper (www.PasadenaJournal.com). In Los Angeles, watch for Turner on the groundbreaking news show "The Filter with Fred Roggin" on KNBC Channel 4 and NBC+ Digital Cable.