Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts

Monday, May 5, 2014

Pushing Black Youths to the Drug Culture


"Move That Dope" is a rap song that presently has roughly 10,700,000 views at Youtube. Listening to such music negatively influences youths by glamorizing drug pushers and fast money, particularly in African American communities. See the opening lyrics below:

Real dope dealers for real!
Haha! Hahaha

Young nigga move that dope
Young nigga move that dope
Aye move that dope, aye move that dope
Young nigga move that dope
Young nigga, y'all nigga move that dope
Young nigga move that dope
Aye move that dope, Aye move that dope
Young nigga move that dope


"Move That Dope" was sung by Casino, Pharrell Williams and Pusha T. It was produced by Mike WiLL Made It. The video on Youtube opens with a police chase. Drug dealers fleeing to escape prosecution have zero chances of escaping and add years to their prison sentences. The song speaks to young people about owning a Maserati and being their on bosses by chopping up drugs "straight off the boat" and "moving that dope." Actually living that lifestyle leads to long prison sentences and decades of slavery, if not death during arrests or while incarcerated.

Felony drug charges and convictions prevent hundreds of thousands of people from voting, obtaining government subsistence assistance, grants and scholarships for college educations or trade schools, and create a barrier to employment even as minimum wage earners. Many "young niggas" who are ensnared in the very criminal justice system have never graduated from high school or held a job, in part because they spent much of their teen years behind bars. Juvenile detention is their "preparatory course" for serving hard time in federal prisons later, but not much later. Although it can be done, few drug pushers escape becoming drug users and eventually addicts, depending on the drugs being handled. Drug addiction shatters people's lives and can destroy one's physical and mental health. It also destroys families and communities. 

Young people have an unfortunate tendency to choose their heroes from among those who are accomplished singers, dancers and actors. It is not unusual for youths to imitate what they perceive to be their heroes' lifestyles to the degree that they are able. Impressionable children also copy their heroes' mode of dress and mannerisms. Despite their inclination to deny it, starstruck children want to look and act like people they admire in movies and on music videos, even if the images are frequently inaccurate portrayals of the stars' real lives.

Pharrell Williams, 41, is a singer and fashion designer from Virginia Beach. He is the oldest of three sons of Pharaoh Williams, a handyman, and Carolyn, a teacher. He is an accomplished man from a middle class background who looks years younger than his actual age. He and other rappers who glorify drug dealing, promiscuity, and daring escapes from the police contribute to drug addiction, mass incarceration, and early deaths of impressionable black youths. After listening to such lyrics repeatedly, young men dream of owning Maserati cars, wearing heavy gold chains, and attracting many pretty "hoes" to twerp for them. They seek to become successful entrepreneurs who risk their freedom and lives to "move that dope."

Pharrell's most successful recording is "Happy." In November, the DC ONE.org office was seriously obsessed with an interactive video for “Happy,” the first 24-hour music video ever made. This prisoner activist believes that no matter how catchy the lyrics and beat are to the song "Happy," Ferrell Williams and other such rappers forfeited the right to be honored by invitations to the White House, as such an honor can only advance their hero status in the minds of impressionable children and young adults.

Some people deny that children are negatively influenced by seeing and hearing people they admire selling drugs and fleeing to avoid arrest on videos, living elaborate, promiscuous lifestyles, and yet being honored by the highest levels of government. However, businesses spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually to advertise their products, goods and services precisely because advertising really does work. Whether or not it is intentional, songs like "Move That Dope" attract prison commodities, which the prison industrial complex uses to extract more than $80 billion per year from taxpayers for warehousing 2.3 million American inmates. Prison profiteers are further enriched when inmates are used as inexpensive or free laborers to work jobs that were removed from the public workforce because using prison slavery is substantially cheaper. Inmates may work for many years behind bars doing jobs that their felony convictions prevent their eligibility for upon gaining prison release.

White youths listen to the same music and are also negatively influenced by it, but there are safeguards in place to protect them from enduring criminal prosecution and lengthy prison sentences. Even though Caucasians use and sell drugs to the same or a greater degree than blacks, several U.S. Drug Enforcement Agents revealed that they were told not to enforce drug laws in white communities. Racist laws were also passed that favor whites by targeting drugs blacks prefer for seriously longer sentences, including the old cocaine sentencing law (100 to 1) as well as sentences under the so-called Fair Sentencing Act (18 to 1). Furthermore, police, prosecutors and judges tend not to arrest or fully prosecute and sentence white youths to the same degree as young black people. Unlucky whites who are sentenced to prison despite the safeguards are less likely to be denied jobs and relegated to lifelong poverty after prison release because of family members and friends who are in a position to hire them, even without a drug test or background check. In fact, a recent study showed that white felons are more likely to be gainfully employed than black people are who have no criminal backgrounds.

Considering all of these factors, this prisoner rights advocate objects to songs like "Move That Dope" and the celebrities who push unwholesome lifestyles onto African American youths with particularity. We object to such persons entertaining or being entertained at any government-sponsored events, even if they do also produce acceptable songs like "Happy" that have wide appeal. Such celebrity is potentially ruinous to scores of young, black observers. We hereby request an immediate cessation of public invitations to entertainers whose music advances lawlessness among black children and young adults, especially recordings that advise "young niggas" to "move that dope." See information and videos at the eight(8) links immediately below:

1.  The DC ONE.org office was seriously obsessed with video for “Happy,”
http://www.one.org/us/shareworthy/dc-one-staffers-dance-to-happy-by-pharrell-williams/

2.  All the lyrics to "Move That Dope" are available at this webpage:
http://rapgenius.com/Future-move-that-dope-lyrics

3.  A Youtube video for "Move That Dope" is at this link:
http://youtu.be/wHguy4xHGSg

4.  DEA agent told not to enforce drug laws in "white" areas, really
http://youtu.be/72Lf9ZQK8t0


5.  Is Hip Hop Destroying Black America?
http://raprehab.com/is-hip-hop-destroying-black-america/


6.  Study: Whites More Likely to Abuse Drugs Than Blacks
http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/07/study-whites-more-likely-to-abuse-drugs-than-blacks/


7.  Employers Prefer White Felons Over Blacks With No Criminal Record
http://rollingout.com/politics/employers-prefer-white-felons-over-blacks-with-no-criminal-record-so-how-will-blacks-feed-their-families/


8.  Teen Dead After Alabama Police Cut His Throat to Remove Drugs (none found) 
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2014/04/city_of_huntsville_denies_wron.html

First paragraphs repeated: "Move That Dope" is a rap song that presently has roughly 10,700,000 views at Youtube. Listening to such music negatively influences youths by glamorizing drug pushers and fast money, particularly in African American communities. See the opening lyrics below:
Real dope dealers for real!
Haha! Hahaha
Young nigga move that dope
Young nigga move that dope
Aye move that dope, aye move that dope
Young nigga move that dope
Young nigga, y'all nigga move that dope
Young nigga move that dope
Aye move that dope, Aye move that dope
Young nigga move that dope

*******
Thank you for participating in the "Human Rights for Prisoners March" across the Internet to demand respect for all people.
Human Rights for Prisoners March
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Mary Neal, director 
Angola Prison, 21st Century Slavery
My Facebook friends had interesting comments and differing viewpoints
about this photograph of prison slaves at
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2972705133320&set=a.1582554220416.46459.1732555634&type=1&theater&notif_t=photo_comment