277 Mixed messages from Page

Black teen age girls don’t get much respect, even from each other, says Clarence Page, syndicated columnist for a number of papers, including the Columbus Dispatch, where I read it March 26. In Hip-Hop culture, Page writes, everyone disses black females, including black females. He writes that the code words for males includes dog, homeboy, playa, lame, sugar daddy and payload, but for female they are skeezer, ‘hood rat, ho, trick break, bitch, gold digger, and hoochie mama.

Page cites an undated study by Motivational Educational Entertainment (MEE) Productions Inc. which says that urban youth are untouched by positive messages from schools, parents, media and health-care providers about responsible sexual behavior. I found the executive summary on-line, and it was dated January 2004.

Maybe I read it too fast, but I didn’t see anything in the MEE report about blaming Hip-Hop messages, unless Page is using the term very broadly. Also, later in his article he says, We, their elders need to provide someone to look up to, to believe in when he has just made the case that they are looking at the Hip-Hop performers and their marketers for their life style. The MEE executive summary, however, definitely stressed the importance of parents in forming the teen’s attitudes.