Hip-hopping mad

Christian Century, Nov 15, 2003

The civil rights movement attempted to put forth the best face of the black community, according to Imani Perry, of Rutgers University, whereas today's hip-hop culture rejects standards of respectability. Nevertheless, hip-hop culture has itself become trendy, as evident in the marketing of such products as the Loaded Weapon shoe by Converse and an energy drink called Pimp Juice.

"Four hundred years ago, black women were being sold into slavery ... and now someone wants to come out with a drink selling women," says Paul Scott, a pastor in Durham, North Carolina. He has started a local campaign to keep Pimp Juice off the shelves. The marketing of a board game called Ghettopoly has raised the ire of some black loaders. Mimicking Monopoly, the object of Ghettopoly is to build crack houses while pimping "hos." Black columnist Leonard Pitts thinks that the game creator, David Chang, a Taiwanese-American, is more misguided than malicious. "I'm not losing sleep worrying about what David Chang thinks of black people," says Pitts. "I'm more concerned with what black people think of themselves" (Christian Science Monitor, October 27, and Tribune Media Services, October 28).