ABSTRACT
Black Americans and other nonwhites have always been, with good reason, nervous about how white Americans perceive them. Blacks had little control over the way whites perceived them, but they did influence the actions and activities of their own children and community. “While white society had geared itself to resist advances by blacks in employment, voting, housing, and union affiliation,” he wrote, “there were fewer obstacles to blacks in publishing and entertainment.” Yet, most of the financial benefits go to white record company owners, white marketing experts, white producers, etc., and more white kids buy and listen to rap music than do black youngsters. In the area of comedy, meanwhile, the depiction of blacks on many of the shows on television is a real throwback to an objectionable past era, but public pressure—and not assaults on the First Amendment—will most likely temper them. Gangsta rap may have run its course as an expression of black youth and culture.
