Black Girls Rock...

Or at least they need to learn that they do because after yesterday, I'm just not too sure any longer.

Would someone tell me what the heck has happened to so-called Rap music these days. Yes, I listen to my share of Jay-Z, Kayne, Common, Nas, and even some Luda but after hearing some current songs on the satellite this weekend, I think I'm switching back to straight jazz with just a hint of real-school rap and new wave.

Knowing that a majority of kids are growing up in single-parent homes and not being a product of that environment, I can not understand how any woman can let her daughter listen to the music on radio station today. It's bad enough we have body image issues do to the video vixens and super models, but now these girls are trying to live up to some of the song lyrics - it's just mind-blowing.

But what really nailed the coffin for me, listening to a middle school girl walking home with her buddies loud-talkin. So loud I could hear her over the bass from my bombing system. Holding court like a grown-ass woman...she said things that would make a sailor blush. Such rude/crude language coming out of her mouth.

Yes, you can say she learned it from TV - more than likely MTV, BET, and VH-1 when these girls are aspiring to be on the next Rock of Love, Charm School, or Flava of Love (why the heck would anyone stoop that low, I can't fathom). It took ever fiber of my being from walking back outside, following her home and kicking her momma in her butt for allowing this nature.

While roaming a bookstore yesterday, I ran across a title (I can't quite remember the correct one) that was something along the lines of A Tainted Southern Girl's Guide for Not Dressing Your Daughter Like a Slut (or maybe that was the chapter I flipped to). But it led me to think - why the heck don't people dress their tweens (gosh, I hate that term) like the little girls that they should be not the strippers they will soon become? Why? Oh yeah, because finding t-shirts that come to below the navel and jeans that come up above the butt-crack is so hard to find. Let alone sneakers that dont like up like stripper shoes - wth?

Yes, I cuss and speak loudly. Yes, I've worn clothing that accentuates assets. Yes, I turn up Biggie Smalls and Tupac and even some Kiss, Def Leppard and Poison super loud so my system is booming just to annoy my neighbors - but I'm adult and know when it is and isn't appropriate to act as if I was raised with no manners at all. But that's me and, frankly, I know better.

What do we do about these young black girls growing up who have no clue that their current behavior is abhorrent? Thank goodness for groups like Black Girls Rock and people like Michaela Angela Davis who will help young women change their self-perceptions and grow up to be ladies.