It started off innocent, cool even. The first curse word to ever grace the big screen was "damn" in Gone With The Wind. You know the line: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." So cool and unaffected. It wasn't done in a profane way, but in an apathetic way...devoid of love and empathy. The silver screen was never the same after that. Soon the entire vocabulary changed from proper southern flare to "I want you to get on your knees and squeal like a pig" ~ Deliverance. The big screen was no longer satisfied with the waning power of suggestion, they wanted to show it and let you hear it. Norman Bates would no longer be cut during his gruesome off screen antics, he would be shown in all his demented glory. Butchering, rape, profanity, all the things that was beginning to plague our society more overtly would be shown in all its glory on the big screen. Soon a standards committee would have to be created to tell people what is fir to be seen by whom...but in all honesty, I'm twenty five years old and I'm not ready to see a man's rape depicted in an elaborate manner. Quite frankly, one could go the Shawshank Redemption route and let me pontificate whether or not Andy Dufraine was raped or whether or not he fought them off. I could do without the raw imagery of Deliverance, Pulp Fiction, and American Me rape scenes.
Am I saying that in Gone With The Wind was the beginning of the end (hey, that rhymed)? In a way, yes. Because it started with somebody who had balls enough to push the envelope…The word ‘damn’ isn’t extreme, so why can’t we say it? A lot worse can be said, right? Oh, the word bitch isn’t that bad, it’s commonly used in urban settings all across the country…after all, who are we marketing to? We have to make the people in the ghetto feel like they’re in the ghetto.
*Okay, before I get into a soapbox speech about lack of quality roles for black actors, please let me continue my current line of thought.
The big screen is one thing, initially one had to go to the movies to see the violence and sex and hear the bad language (stay with me, I’m going to make a really good point soon). Before your HBO’s and Movie Channels, and Pay Per Views. And for a while, depending upon how “bad” it was, the movie might not show until 10:00 or 12:00 at night (mainly on cable). Fast forward to the 80’s. You have a new reality being birthed on TV in the likes of Miami Vice and Hill Street Blues, which in their own way give birth to NYPD Blue and The Fast Lane. Father no longer knows best. Family shows like the Huxtables, and even the sadly syrupy Full House are replaced by back stabbing broads in the Joe Millionaire reality show and ER, the latter of which actually is a good show. But, even ER has pushed the envelope with a little word here, and a “shit” there. Now, the only word left is “fuck”, while every other profane word has been said. “Nuts, bitch, Pussy, faggot, hoes, Shit, Damn, cock, bite me, eat me, piss off,” etc. Ain’t it ironic that UPN will air Menace II Society at 5:00 on a Sunday afternoon with all the “nigger” and “bitch” words uncensored, but they’ll still bleep out the words “God Damnit”. Now, we have compound curse words on national television. Just last night on UPN’s television show Platinum, the fake wannabe Pac/Eminem/Fifty Cent was qouted as saying, “How many shots you hear? Go find those other bullets, I have to know how many times I was shot. Yeah, ya’ll better run you pussy ass bitches!”
Wow. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I watch all types of movies all the time, ever since I was young. But, I had parents who let me know in one way or another, “…long as you don’t try that shit”. Moms was extra conservative/overprotective and pops was like whatever. However I knew the boundaries, even at age five. I knew that those movies were just that…movies. I never tried to skateboard while holding on to the back of a pickup truck like this one unfortunate white boy did in my school after seeing Back II The Future. I never laid down in the middle of the road to test my nerves after seeing The Program like some of these other fools were. I knew that it wasn’t real, and if it was, you were an ass for doing it. The generation today is more detached from reality than any generation in the history of man. The line is constantly being blurred as many believe they are Neo in this translucent matrix. Why shouldn’t they be detached? We have video games that are more than anatomically correct that are intimate and can even disembowel each other. Every felon is a wannabe rapper and every rapper is a felon or a wannabe felon. These kids don’t have to have parents who buy cable to see the bullshit anymore. There's no need to figure out the remote code for playboy, or make out the sex acts through the scrambled sex channels. HBO is over 30 specials deep on the Real Sex series, Showtime has a Real World reality show about a family in the porn industry where they show everything, and Sharon Stone's leg crossing in Basic Instinct is child's play to the stuff they have in movies now. That little blackbox isn’t necessary if you want to see someone get their ass beat or killed. You can see it on Springer or on the evening news. Today, we get in gory accidents trying to see something gory in the accident across the highway divide.
In the Marvel Comics universe, there is a being called The Watcher who catalogues every event that transpires, yet never gets involved. No matter how important the event, and even though he often has the power to change things, all he does is watch. We have become a society of watchers. Used to be you'd beat that little boys ass for showin out at the supermarket, and then tell his mama. Now all you do is talk bad about him and his mama, never ever telling her that her child was showing out at the supermarket. Who's the problem, him, or you? There is no guidance. And no active role in setting boundaries is the same thing as condoning the dumb shit your children listen to and watch. I find it ironic that when my parents generation were telling us that hip hop was negative, we were socially and politically conscious as hell. We had BDP and Public Enemy, shit, even NWA had a Fuck the Police sentiment which reigns in any predominantly “minority” urban backdrop. Now, it actually is what they were calling it 15 years ago, and no one seems to notice/care. Folks like Rakim and KRS- 1 are legends to my generation, but “old” to the generation right after me…that’s if they knw who they are in the first place.
No guidance. No rapor with an older generation. Oh, believe me, I was the child of the radio like these kids today, but I also knew what was going on on my dad’s radio station. I was familiarized with Earth, Wind & Fire, I heard Sade, and could sing to the Commodores. Now all these adults do is talk shit about the youth like they don’t live with them or next door to them. How many records have you listened to with your child, and how many of their CD’s have you played just to be interested in what they hear? Do ya’ll understand that Hip Hop isn’t just an industry to them, to them it’s their way of life? The way they talk, dress, walk, think, breathe, dance, pray, repent, live and die? Do you understand that hip hop is the track they live and die to? The track they bleed to and through? And you tellin’ them hip hop won’t last, it ain’t shit, it’s a fad, a dying genre? Do you understand that that’s what you’re saying to them? How ‘bout, if you never listened to hip hop, or rock & roll, or goth, or punk…then you never listened to your child?
It’s not about pushing the envelope anymore…the envelope has been sealed and shipped off long ago. The letter inside said “fuck you and you morals!” and you accepted it. So you want to blame hip hop, or tv, or movies…nah, blame yourselves. I understand it’s hard to put the blame where it belongs if it belongs with you, but, it’s time to fess up.
The age old question: Does life imitate art, or does art imitate life?
The answer: Life imitates the life that’s projected in art.
It’s always the goal to be on the screen, than watching it…at any cost. Even if it’s the evening news and your name is Chandra Levy. So are you listening now, mufucka, or does the occasional profanity in my speech mar the message? Are you going to open your eyes, pay attention, and read between the lines? Everything that’s gone wrong in your white suburban black urban and vice versa existence is not my fault. AIDS didn’t get here on it’s own, but by the same government you martyred the Dixie Chicks for. Any political agenda is a bad one because it’s still an agenda. War does not generate more money, shady side deals and killing innocent people does. If the entire duration of the bible took place in Africa, then why is Charlton Heston playing Moses? How many white women have you seen with the name Basheeba? Are you going to ignore the truth again because it isn’t what you wanted to hear or packaged in a way that you find acceptable? Are you going to accept responsibility and not buy into it anymore? Or are you going to tell me, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn"?