The Black teen explosion: powerful group shapes fashion, music, movies and love

Ebony, April, 2004

> The new generation is confronted, of course, with racism, inadequately funded schools and high unemployment, compounded by a pervasive national drug culture and the sytematic incarceration of tens of thousands of young African-American males. Some critics have also complained about gangsta rap and misogynist lyrics, but other commentators say these are individual excesses and are not representative of a generation which has, like all other Black youth generations, like the blues generation, like the jazz generation, like the soul generation, transformed itself and American culture.