Like the rest of us, Taylor was a victim

On the last night of his life, NFL star Sean Taylor settled in for a night of sleep in his suburban Miami home with his longtime girlfriend and his 18-month-old daughter.


Does that sound like someone who had it coming? Does that seem like a particularly wild night for a so-called thug? I would imagine not, because nearly all of us do the same thing, with some slight variations.


None of us are promised anything, even something as simple as taking another unaided breath in the morning.


It seems that some of us have forgotten that. I'll link to this column by FOXsports.com's Jason Whitlock as proof. I'm only picking on J-Dub this time because his piece generated the most conversation in our newsroom Thursday.


Now don't get me wrong: I have lots of respect for Whitlock, a second-wave pioneer in sports journalism and one of the most provocative media voices in the nation today. If, at the end of my career, I had a tenth of his juice in the news industry, I'd be certifiably big-headed (some folks may already believe this).


But to use Taylor's death as an example of some sort of epidemic, the so-called "black-on-black crime" problem, is another example of shallow analysis, anti-intellectualism and beating the same old drum.


The simple fact is that people usually commit crimes against the people closest to them and for a number of socioeconomic reasons too complicated to get into here, many neighborhoods wind up racially segregated. So, black people often kill black people in the way that white people often kill white people and brown people often kill brown people - but when has anyone ever heard the term "white-on-white crime"?


I would never minimize the problem of crime and its terrible effects on mostly poor and brown folks, but that's got little to nothing to do with why Taylor is dead today.


Another tired tactic is blaming hip-hop for many of the ills of society. Whitlock refers to this mythical "Black KKK," demonizing an entire, diverse and pioneering culture for yet another senseless death. It's a pretty large leap to connect those sort of dots - what does Talib Kweli or Wordsworth or Kanye have to do with a murder that Miami-Dade police have thus far considered to be a random tragedy? If Whitlock doesn't have rap music on his iPod, that's his prerogative. I get it, he doesn't like hip hop. But don't lie to folks by telling them Soulja Boy had something to do with Taylor's death when, as far as I know, Tony Soprano gets off the hook.

In the end, we're all vulnerable, weak, exposed human beings. Taylor indeed had a few rodeos with the legal system in the past but when he settled in for a night of sleep with his family Sunday night, he was like the rest of us. A potential victim.

And music has nothing to do with that.

A little common sense...

Ok y’all.
I tried to hold back from talking about this, but I can’t help it.
I just gotta tell you.
You GOTTA get your hands on the new Common CD released today, “Finding Forever.” In a word or two: It’s FIYAH!

OK, here’s a quick de-briefing for those who have no idea who in the world I’m talking about.
Common is only one of the best lyricists in hip hop. (Hip hop heads, correct me on this if I’m wrong.) Mainstream audiences may know him best for his last album “Be,” which was produced by Kanye West. However, this Chi-town rapper has been in the game for more than a decade and is one of the most respected out there in the hip hop world. "Finding Forever" is his seventh album to date.

I like him because he’s always speaking truth and talking about things that really matter. Real life issues. Not rims, chicks and other silliness. And he's able to brilliantly intertwine these conscious rhymes with a soulful blend of old school, jazz and hip hop music, thanks to innovative producers like the late J.Dilla and Kanye and the crooning vocals of folks like Bilal and John Legend.

And of course he’s sexy as all get out! But I digress…

Clearly, I’m a big Common fan and I’ve been practically counting down the days to this CD release ever since I saw him in concert at Essence Fest.
In fact, it’s taking everything for me to restrain myself from posting the gazillion pictures I took of him during that concert. (And the pics actually came out great ... A lot better than my Superdome pics!)

Instead, I’ll just tell all you Common fans to get your hands on this CD asap, so you can tell me what you think about it. Now just 42 days till Kanye's "Graduation"...

What's next on the list?

So in an unexpected twist - especially if you watched Oprah’s two-day town hall meeting episodes last week - hip hop mogul Russell Simmons called for the removal of the words “bitch,” “ho” and “nigger” from the recording industry Monday.

I’m curious about how this will transpire, but I definitely think it’s a step in the right direction for music.
However, I’m not exactly pleased with the timing. I hate that this comes on the heels of the controversy surrounding Don Imus because I feel that the two issues are completely unrelated.

I also hate it because my thing is this, I've said this before and I’ll scream this until I’m blue in the face – the ONLY reason CBS, NBC, ABC or any major media outlets, publications and talking heads even bothered to cover this issue is because members of the black community and womens’ group decided to take aim at Imus, a white man, for his racist, sexist, plain ol’ stupid comments.

And, as one friend pointed out, instead of getting mad with the action, in a crazy twist, it seems like most folks got mad with the reaction. Particularly the reaction of the black community. Said it was their fault for accepting hip hop lyrics that use similar words.

First of all, I didn’t know the black community was the keeper of all things hip hop. Last time I checked, it was way more than black folks buying hip hop music. Last time I checked, it was also way more than black folks running the music industry that OKs derogatory music lyrics.

Where were all those major media outlets and talking heads and self righteous, finger-pointing folks during the past seven annual State of the Black Union addresses in which thousands of blacks, and several panels of black philosophers, health professionals, religious leaders, financial analysts and pop cult figures gather annually to discuss many topics concerning issues in the black community, including ways to promote more positive images in music and society?

Where were all those major media outlets and talking heads and self-righteous, finger-pointing folks in 2004 when Spelman College students led a protest against the appearance of rapper Nelly for his controversially misogynistic “Tip Drill” music video?

Where were all of those major media outlets and talking heads and self-righteous, finger-pointing folks when Essence magazine held rappers and label heads to the fire in 2005 for their overload of degrading, negative messages and images toward black women?

Where were these folks when Al Sharpton called for a ban on violence in hip hop music in 2005?

And I honestly could go on and on and on with more examples.

Yet these same folks couldn’t move fast enough to take attention away from the stupidity of Imus’ racist, sexist comment and instead put the content of hip hop music in the national spotlight.

I’ve long been against derogatory rap lyrics, or any music lyrics for that matter, and from that perspective, in spite of the late notice, I’m glad that it at least appears that the music industry is FINALLY taking action.

But what are we going to do as an American society to ensure that everyday civil rights are upheld and not violated or taken away?

What are we going to do as an American society to ensure that more children have the right to proper health care and quality education?

What are we going to do as an American society to ensure that the inherent, but subtle attitudes of racism, sexism and class discrimination have no place in the workplace?

Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe that spouting racist, sexist comments, especially the kind that degrade women in any way - particularly from members of the media - is wrong, unacceptable and should be dealt with promptly and responsibly (see "Say What?!" from April 10.)

But now that we've gotten your attention, what about the other remaining issues that plague our communities?

After all, these aren’t just black issues. These are American issues.