Comments on: Empathy and perspective

By: audiologo

audiologo — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:58:55 +0000

People often reach for what’s accessible, or seems accessible because some precedent has been set. And you don’t have to be working poor for that to be the case. The United States operates as a provincial-minded (and now greatly diminished) super-power, and encourages that perspective in various ways among us citizens. A hip hop-birthed antidote to this mentality is Jean Grae’s song “Block Party” from her Attack of the Attacking Things e.g.: “stop acting like your flesh is metal, and your hood is a magnet” It’s specifically directed at black folks whose lives are defined by their block. But it’s a meaningful reminder to anyone trying to live beyond stereotyped limitations (hopefully that’d be all of us) with its cycling refrain urging folks to get off their block and see the world:

(you need to) get out your house
/get off your block
/and see something
/or do something
/or (go) change something
/or else we all fall for nothing

you need to travel the world
/and when you come back
/tell your girl,
and your girl,
and your girl,
and your girl
/and your man,
and your man,
and your man
/you understand?
/So spread the word…

By: andre

andre — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:55:45 +0000

Good Job, man, I know its hard to understand people who do that to themselves and make their image worse. It’s understandable from a point of view, in which you dont have anything . YOu have little resources and man comes up to you and tells you to sell your soul. I dont like it, but its understandable. When you make it understandable, is when you can help others make that transition. Just listen and watch Lupe Fiasco’s song ‘Hiphop Saved My Life’. It really tells you a side of the story, you probably dont know.

By: Garrett

Garrett — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:25:17 +0000

…It’s always good to be reminded of the importance of empathy, and of complexities we may not be perceiving…It is hard to be understanding when you think that something someone is doing has an adverse effect on you: such as producting culture that offers a narrow view of black men; and yet, there are so many ways of courting controversy. (After all, feminism and gay rights are sometimes seen by some as progressive and by others as divisive; and, hip hop is seen by some as a dynamic, unifying culture by some and by others as a generator of misogynist, violent, and materialistic values and imagery. Is that like the blindfolded people touching an elephant, with their perceptions of what it is depends on which part they’re touching?)…Intelligence, compassion, patience, understanding: always necessary.